We’re going to be busy with other commitments for the next two weeks, so we probably won’t be posting here. While we are gone, please enjoy these entries from our past:
Read one of these every other day and that should last you until we return.
See you in May!
WiFi, or Wireless Internet, is a service that hotels are using to make themselves look more appealing. Just like in hotel gyms and swimming pools, having Wireless Internet can make or break a hotel. Mike and I do so much work while we are out of town, that we won’t stay in a hotel that doesn’t have WiFi.
Unfortunately, if a hotel has Wireless Internet, that doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere. It might mean that I have to pay ten bucks a day to access it. It might mean it’s free for both me and Mike. It might mean (such as the case at the Hilton in Austin) that it will cost us ten bucks a day and only one of our computers can access it at once.
HotelChatter has taken the time to rate hotels based on WiFi access. First the good news:
Here is the list of the best hotels that have WiFi:
Now, the bad news. If you’re planning on travelling and need to have access to the Internet, you might want to avoid these places, according to HotelChatter.
The worst hotels for WiFi are listed here:
These articles are a little pretentious and assume that they are only talking to jet setters:
“So if you don’t mind staying at the Holiday Inn instead of some place more glamorous your money is well spent here.”
I’ve found that the small Mom and Pop hotels all across the nation are jumping on the WiFi bandwagon, but they are going to be unable to explain the terms unless they are free. The good news is that many of these little motels and hotels ARE offering free Wireless Internet in order to attract you away from the bigger companies.
I like the Mom and Pop motels better anyway. They seem to care whether we enjoyed our stay more than the automatons that the big companies hire.
If you haven’t stayed at a Hilton Hotel for a while, you may not have heard about the new clock radios that all the rooms have. Mike and I stayed at the Austin Hilton during SXSW, so I was able to give their cute little clock radio a test drive. How did it sound and did it work with my Treo 650? Find out here:
Little conveniences like this make travelling seem less bothersome. Like a hair dryer or coffee maker in the room, they aren’t essential, but they make the stay a tiny bit more enjoyable. It’s not enough to choose the Hilton over another hotel, but it can make the difference between a boring night in front of the TV and a enjoyable night listening to music from home.
Since we just got back from Austin, Texas, I have been researching the area for interesting things to do. Here is a great article about San Antonio.
She has great advice for people who are visiting the city:
What advice do you have for someone going to San Antonio? If you can, avoid the Alamo and the River Walk on weekends, when crowds of tourists converge on places like Ripley’s Believe it or Not and the Hard Rock Cafe. On Saturday and Sunday, do the art museums and the Mission Trail, or take a drive out to Hill Country, and save the more popular sights for Friday or Monday. Better still, come during the week. You also might want to check with your hotel to see when the big conventions will be in town, and consider scheduling your visit for a time when room rates are lower and restaurants are quieter.
That advice holds true of wherever you travel. Avoid the most popular tourist sites during the weekend and visit them during the week. Choose the less popular sites on the weekend and find out when the big conventions are in town so you can avoid travelling at that time.
Since we are going to Austin for a convention, we don’t have that luxury, but that won’t stop us from enjoying what that city has to offer and hopefully we’ll be able to make a quick stop in San Antonio while we’re down there.
South By Southwest (SXSW) is a festival for interactive computing, film and music. The Interactive conference has workshops and panels for people like me, who write or design websites. They have a group of web awards and it’s a chance for me to geek out with people who do what I do.
We’ll be at SXSW and quite busy during the conference, so we thought we would take this time to focus on all the cool touristy things to do in the hosting city, Austin, Texas.
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