Las Vegas

I am going to Las Vegas!!! It is work related, but still, it's Vegas...

I've reserved air and hotel.

The airfare was pretty strange: direct flight both ways was about over $1600, but if I have layover, the price dropped down to under $700!!! So, layover in Phoenix :( I will be home late.

With hotel, I have to follow the company policy even if it costs more. I had to make reservation in a hotel that does not have a casino and it's not on the Strip. But it's 5 star with the cost of $250 per night!!! I probably could have gotten suite in PH for half the price. Oh, well. I did not make the policy, I just have to follow it.

Stay tune for when I come back.

Back from Israel, Part 3

This is the last part of our trip to Israel. One thing I should mention about our being in Golan Heights is our visit to Golan Heights winery. It seems that there was no physical labor at the place. Everything was computerized! We had a chance to try their wine as well. It was good! So, when we came back, we checked around and found out that the wine is available in US! We have tried YARDEN brand. The other brands are Golan and Gamla. Enjoy!

From Golan Heights, we drove to Tel Aviv with the half a day stop in Haifa. Haifa is a port city. We saw few interesting ships. Apparently, it's also a home to the Baha'i religion. For those of you from Chicago area, you might of heard of Baha'i religion because of the Baha'i temple in Wilmette.

The last few days we've spent in Tel Aviv/Jafa area. We stayed in a very nice hotel. It was the closest hotel to Jafa, so we ended up going there every evening. And this is where I got some desert! It wasn't pure chocolate, it was halva, but they had variety of different flavors, including chocolate, chocolate chips, coffee, etc, you name it! 

Market in Tel Aviv was interesting. We arrived in Tel Aviv on Friday and our tour guide suggested that we should visit the local market. So, we did. Unless you want free perishables (mostly fruits and vegetables), you don't want to go to the market on Friday before start of the Shabbat. The vendors were throwing fruits and vegetables and anything that can spoil over the weekend to the ground and washing it off, right in the middle of the walk way. So, we saw that and decided to come back on Monday. Smart decision! On Monday, it was clean and back to normal.

One day we spent on the beach. The beach was great! Water in the Mediterranean Sea was great! Not too cold, not too warm. Felt like we were in Miami!

The flight back was long. We had a 12 hours flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto. It's very strange system for customs and security checks there. We had to pick up our luggage and carry it to the US customs. They just took it and put it on the belt to who knows were. Why did we have to take it? They could have done that automatically.

This was the end. The trip was very emotional, informational, interesting, tiring and relaxing at the same time. We definitely enjoyed it! I would recommend it to everybody. I would also recommend starting the trip in Jerusalem, not in Tel Aviv, like most of the tours do. The reason is that you would start the trip from where it all began. You get a lot of information at the beginning of the trip, not at the end when you are already tired and overloaded with all the information from the trip. I would also recommend the travel company: Gate1. They were very well organized, everything was on time. They even had an ear piece for people so they can better hear the tour guide. So, mention my name or talk to me before making your reservations to the Israel. I am sure I have missed few details in my postings. But I am also sure I will be able to recall few things if you ask me.

I can't wait until our next trip!

Boris D.

   

Back from Israel, Part 2

Sorry for a long delay, but here it is...

First half of the trip:

It was great! We have achieved everything we wanted! We spent 3 days in Jerusalem (including on Shabat), walked around Old City for couple of days, visited Scroll museum and military cemetery. This was very emotional. We got to see and experience all the things that we've read and heard about! Since we had an afternoon for ourselves, we ended up walking around looking for knitting store. We found one so Lana was pretty happy. :)

There was some event in Jerusalem, so we had to go to Dead Sea night earlier. That actually worked for us because we arranged a taxi to drive us early next morning to Masada. He waited for us and got us back to the hotel before breakfast! We had to get up at around 4am, started walking up to Masada at around 4:50am. Took us an hour, but we made it with few minutes to spare. Sunrise was gorgeous! You can see pictures for yourself. The rest of the morning and early afternoon we were back on top of Masada, this time via gondola with our tour group.

When we got back to our hotel, we had to go for swim in the Dead Sea. The water was warm and they tell me it was over 30% salt. I don't know, I did not tasted it :) But when I went in no matter what I tried (I did not try diving) I could not get under the water, so it must be true :) The pool at the hotel was great too!

Next two nights we spent in Kibbutz Levi in Galilee. It's Orthodox kibbutz. It was interesting experience. The food was kosher and very good. We had a question/answer session with one of the residents of the kibbutz. It's interesting that the number of kibbutzes in Israel is shrinking. There are about only 20 left in the whole Israel. Since the idea of Kibbutz was based on the Socialism, it's obvious to me what is happening. Socialism does not work on global nor local scale.

During these 2 days we have visited Galilee and Golan Heights. It's amazing to see all the green gardens in the middle of the desert. The Jordan river that is used for irrigation is just a little river. In some places you can probably walk across, it's no more then 20-30 feet and yet that area feeds the Europe in the winter (I am sure it's done all year around). The harvest 3 times a year! Just amazing!

Part 3 to follow...

Back from Israel. Part 1

We are back from Israel. I am finally over the jetleg, so here is a post-mortem of the trip.

First of all it was a great trip. It was exausting, but it was worth it. We have achieved everything we wanted to achieve and more! The pictures are posted. If, for some reason, you can't access them, let me know. It's probably more fun to watch them with my commentaries. :)

Any way...

- Communication: the unclocked phone worked. There was a need to buy a SIM card AND minutes. SIM card came without any minutes. Also, for those of you who have microSim, I could not find one. I am glad I brought a phone that had a regular SIM card. Somehow, I burned all the credits that I bought pretty fast. At least I was able to communicate my number to US and then people were able to call me, since incoming calls are free on that SIM card. If someone is going to Israel during next 11 months, let me know and we can make a deal on the SIM card :)

- About flying. In Zurich, we had a layover of 3 hours. It is a safe bet, but 1.5 to 2 hours is enough. Passengers had to go thru security check, but did not have to take the bags. Since we lended pretty early (about 6am local time) there was no lines other then people from the same plane. On the way back, in Toronto, we had 2 hours. I would recommend to make sure you have at least that much. The problem is that first, you need to pick up your luggage and second, there are a lot of passengers going to US via Toronto. We had to wait for the luggage and security check.

Stand by for Part II.

Interesting traveling information

This is an interesting article I found: http://gizmodo.com/5928930/make-an-emergency-flash-drive-and-take-it-with-you-whenever-you-travel?utm_campaign=socialflow_gizmodo_facebook&utm_source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

This is a really good advice!

Communications

Another thing to consider: communication in Israel. My or my wife's phone usage is extremely expensive to use outside of US. Roaming charges in Israel for Verizon or AT&T are about the same: between $1.99 and $2.49 per minute based on the type of account. I can't believe there are customers that pay that much! Any way... I found out that there are at least 3 service providers in Israel. The best way is to purchase a pre-paid sim card. The call to US using the the pre-paid card is about $.25 or about 1NIS. The cost of the card needs to be considered as well, since it costs about $25 with no minutes. These sim cards have a Israel local number and all incoming calls and text messages are free. For short period, it's probably not worth it, but the card is good for at least 1 year if there is no activity.

It is possible to buy a sim card for Israel in US, but I am not sure what happens if the card is back or not working for any reason. So, since my daugter is going to Israel few weeks before us, her assignment is to buy a sim card there (she will have local friends that will help her, I am sure), use it and bring it back. The card is good for one year without any activity. We will re-fill it and use it when we get there. After that, if someone is going to Isreal, I am willing to part with the card.

Parents never have bad advice!

After my dad read my last post about ATMs, my dad told me I should look for a credit card that does not have international fees and use credit card as much as I can instead of cash. At least someone is reading my blog! :)

First thing I did was check with my current credit card. They told me that every international transaction will have an additional 3% fee!

Google to the rescue! Using Google, I found out that most of the credit cards do have international fees ranging from 1 to 3%!!! A little more searching revealed that there are few, not that many, that do not charge international fees. A little more digging and I found out that there are only 2 or 3 that in addition to not charging international fees, they do not charge monthly fees either! One was designed for the travelers. They were giving points that are good on travel related stuff (air fare, hotel stays, etc) and one was giving cash back. It could be that since our kids are old enough to stay home on their own, we may be doing more travel, but I think cash rules! So, the winner is Capital One Cash Credit Card. They have no fees (international, nor monthly) and they give 1% cash back with additional 50% of the bonus at the end of the year. I applied and should get the result at the most withing 15 days.

Foreign ATMs

As I keep thinking about what else I have to do before going to Israel or any foreign country, I realized that I do need to take some cash. And since we are going for more then couple of days, I don't want to carry too much cash. That brings up interesting point: where do I get cash. The good news: there is an answer: ATM. The bad news: I found out that my bank charges 3% fee on any foreign transaction. That sucks! Since I hate fees, I have to find a bank that would not charge me any fee in a foreign bank. Let's the search begin!

2012 USA Volleyball Boys’ Junior National Championships pictures

Here are some pictures from 2012 National Volleyball Junior Championship. Team: Pipeline Quicksilver. Libero:  Brian D.

Dallas, the conclusion

We are back home! Here is what happened since last post:

Boys did great on the second day as well as on the first: 3 wins and no losses. That has placed them into top 16! That means they are finished the tournament better then their placement. This was a goal!

The next day was not that good: 2 losses and 1 win. But the win came against number 1 seeded team!

The fourth and final day match was close, but not close enough: loss in 3 games and in the 3rd game, the final score was 13-15 :(

Over all, I think they had a good tournament and enjoyed themselves. The next year National Junior Volleyball Championship is in Reno, NV!

We did go to museum to learn about Kennedy assassination and all the conspiracy theories (no boys :). Interesting stuff! Of course boys had get on the street and stand on the big X (place where bullet hit JFK is marked by big X).

Travel home was not that exciting. Planes were on time and both (we were flying thru Houston) were connecting flights, so seating arrangements were not perfect, but we got home as expected (around 2am).

Stay tune for pictures.

Dallas: 2012 Junior National Volleyball tournament

Funny thing: We got A18,19, and 20 on the way from Chicago to St.Louis and A5,6,7 from St.Louis to Dallas. I was excited to get such a low numbers. Here is what happened:

On the way to St. Louis, it was great: we were 2nd in line and we could have gotten the first row. The problem with the first row is that all you carry-on must go to overheads. Since I have my laptop bag and was planning to get stuff out of it, we ended up in the second raw. Less leg room, but a lot quieter.

On the way to Dallas, we were first in line! That's the good news. The bad news is that the plane had passangers from previous flight and we ended up sitting at the end of the plane. At least it was a short flight.

It's hot in Dallas (the average high temperature for the days that we were in Dallas was about 96-97). I hear it's hotter in Chicago!

Boys did great first day: 3 matches, 3 wins. They cannot get worst then 36th place :)  The goal for the tournament is to finish better then the placement. The team rank before the tournament is 18. That's the goal!

Stay tuned!

Masada arrangements

The reply from the tour operator indicated that the group will arrive at Masada at 11:00am. This means we would have to spend about 5 hours there on our own. Luggage is not a problem since we can either ask a guide (I don't know if he would be up at around 4am) or drop it off at the hotel at Dead Sea where we will be staying overnight.

They also mentioned that the group would be leaving the Dead Sea hotel at about 9am. I think we will go with the going to Masada from the Dead Sea hotel. We should be back to the hotel way before 9am to cath the group. Another benefit is we can have about 1.5 hours of extra sleep since we will not have to drive from Jerusalem.

Back to Masada

My dad gave me another idea on how to better arrange Masada trip to include sunrise and minimize the inconvinience: instead of going there from the Dead Sea hotel day after the tour visit, do it before and meet the tour group there.  Searching the internet I found out the time for sunrize is around 6:30am. Google maps says we need to leave the hotel at 4:30am! That will be a tough day.

Pros: don't have to worry about meeting the tour group. The main point is how to catch up with the group.

Cons:
- Have to get up earlier on the day when we go to Masada. It starts in Jerusalem. So, it is further away.
- Luggage. Since we are going to a different hotel, I don't know what to do about it. Taking with us does not make sense, since we are planning hiking to the top. The only option is to see if we can leave it with the tour bus.

Just sent an email to travel guys. They should have an advice.

More Israel preparations

After  logging in into gate1travel.com (site where we booked our Israel tour) I found out that the options that we wanted were not included. Price did not look right. All these talks and still something we missed. The options we wanted were on day 4 Illuminated Jerusalem with the dinner and on day 8 Full day Golan Heights with lunch. We figured these is the free time, so sounds like fun thing to do. Golan Heights option includes visiting a winery and doing some wine tasting!

I've sent an email to the Gate1 and few minutes later these options got added!!! Speedy service. We are good to go!

Isreal preparations

Another thing that I thought I would have to investigate is communication. I know I can buy a pre-paid sim card there that would be cheaper to use then to use my current service provider. The issue at hand is that I can get a phone that uses regular sim or micro or small/newer sim. I don't know if they have micro pre-paid ones. I guess I still have time to do the research, but in worst case, I am going to have to bring 2 phones.

Dallas, getting to the airport

Since our flight to Dallas is from Midway and way too early to ask anybody to drive us, we will drive ourselves to the airport. That means I have to find a parking by Midway for 4 days. Midway garage is $29/day. Google "midway parking" shows big selection of parking garages with price ranging from about $10 to $25 per day. Nice compromise (distance from the airport vs price) is about $14 by Midway Park Ride & Fly. The total cost would be $56 which is a lot cheaper then a round trip by taxi from home. They will hold the car and will give us a ride to and from airport.

One more entry in tripit.com!

Israel, Part 2

Now, that the decision about the tour has been made, the rest of things begin to fall into places. The tour has a specific dates, so air travel needs to be booked appropriately.

There is no direct flight from Chicago to Tel Aviv. That means I had to figure out all the connections. The interesting point is that all the travel agents as well as airlines claim that one needs about 1.5 to 2 hours between flights. However, nobody mentions that the airline closes the doors 30 minutes prior the time of departure. Which means we only would have hour and an half. Also on the way there, if the first lag is not by El Al, getting on El Al will take longer since they have tighter security then any other airline in the world.

On the way back, we have to worry about going thru US customs and immigrations. If we go thru that in Chicago, there is no problem. But if we have to do it at the point of entry, we should have more then 2 hours. Since my daughter had unpleasant experience with it recently, I did not want to take any chances.

After prolong negotiations with the travel agent, we ended up with what I think is pretty decent arrangement:

Chicago->Zurich->Tel Aviv. 3 and a half hours layover in Zurich. Should be enough time.
Tel Aviv->Toronto->Chicago: 2 and a half hours layover in Toronto. I know for a fact that we will have to go thru US customs in Toronto, but 2.5 hours should be enough. I hope.

Travel time is perfect: leaving Chicago and Tel Aviv in the middle of the day! There was a possibility of leaving Tel Aviv at 2:00am local time. That would have been bad.

Last step is to update tripit.com and we are all set to go. Now, I can't wait.

One thing I should probably do is to contact a hotel at Dead Sea and see if they can help making arrangement for early morning trip to Masada (taxi is probably all we need, but I would feel better after talking to some local people)

Israel, Part 1

We finally decided to go to Israel. This trip has been on the back of our minds for a long time. Kids are old enough to be on their own for couple of weeks. Time to go!

Some decisions needed to be made:

Question: when?
Answer: not during the summer or winter. Summer is way too hot for sightseeing. Winter is too cold to go swimming outside. So, either fall or spring. We've decide in fall.

Question: for how long?
Answer:  depends on the answers to the following questions, but we've decided that it should not be more then around 2 weeks.

Question: do it as part of the tour or wing it when there?
Answer: I've decided to do some research. I found out that Israeli Ministry of tourism has certification program for tour guides. There are thousands of certified guides out there. I took the easy route: get a tour. Tours include itinerary that are very similar among tour operators. They all visit similar places and include hotels accomodations. We had 2 requirements: 1) we wanted the tour to finish in Tel Aviv 2) we wanted to hike up the Masada and see the sunrise.

Majority of the tours end in Jerusalem, but there were some that ended in Tel Aviv, so that was not a problem.

The second request was a little more challenging: The problem is that all tours to Masada/Dead Sea start in Jerusalem, which means they arrive at Masada late morning, and they all take gondola to the top, no hiking. We found one tour: 11 days tour from Gate1travel.com that has a stay over night at one of the hotels at Dead sea. The thought is that we will wake up early enough in the morning, hike up to Masada to meet sunrise and be back to hotel before the breakfast. I am sure we will need to figure out few details, but this is as close to the goal as I can get.

Also this tour starts in Jerusalem and ends in Tel Aviv. So, we can stay in the same hotel after the tour is over!

The final decision: 11 days tour of Israel from gate1trave.com

Dallas

I don't know if this qualifies, but this is my (including family) first trip since I've started this blog, meaning we will get on the plane and will stay in a hotel. This trip is for 4 days to Dallas for US Junior Volleyball Nationals. Officially, this trip started few months ago.

Step one was registering for the hotel via THS (some organization that we must go thru to book the hotel). Basically, every team member says that they are going and THS books the appropriate number of rooms. I did check the price via other means (Expedia.com and the hotel's web site) and THS did have the best deal.

Step two was to decide if we wanted to drive or fly. Time vs Money. Time won and we've decided to fly. Going thru various web sites (expedia.com, travelocity.com, aa.com, southwest.com, kayak.com, etc) I found that kayak.com has a cool feature that sends the email every day with price of the travel. After few days, and figuring out that everybody except Southwest charges for luggage, I've decided to book tickets with Southwest. Unfortunately, our flight leaves early in the morning from Midway, meaning very little sleep.

Then, I tried to figure out how we are going to get from airport to hotel. There is a discount for shuttle, but they charge for each person the same amount. I found a site that can price a taxi. Taxi ended up being almost  half the price! We will be taking a taxi.

The day of arrival will be the only day for site seeing. I don't know what we are going to do other then visit the place where Kennedy got shot.

Trip related sites

I thought I would share some travel related sites that I have been using:

tripit.com

This is the site that I use to keep all my travel arrangements. The good thing is that they know how to parse all the itineraries that I have sent there. Once I forward itinerary, they parse it and create or adjust a trip. I have not found an itinerary that they don't understand! Everything about the trip ends up in one place. They have an app for my phone, so I can always access my trip via the phone, so I have all reservation information available!

kayak.com

Just found out that if you put a search in there and register your email, it sends you an email with update prices of the trip.

expedia.com

I used this site for most of my trips before. They had pretty good prices.

southwest.com

That is the only site I found that sell tickets for southwest airline. The only airline that does not charge for the luggage.

aa.com

American Airline. I heard rumors that they are going to stop allowing on-line travel agencies to book the travel and people would have to go directly. So far, that's not true.
I'll posting more sites when I find something interesting.

Hello and welcome to the BD world travel.

This is my first try at blogging. I found a topic that I can blog about :) The frequency of entries will vary, since the blog is about my world travel or just general travel. I've been in small number of different countries and I finally decided to keep a blog about anything and everything that relates to my travel. Hopefully, I will start travel more then I did before. My plan for this is to describe what I went thru from the moment I decide to go somewhere (concept) to the arrival at my home after the trip. My goal is not to be an advice column, but to preserve and share my experience while traveling.