Hotel Value for Frequent Guests
Hampton Inn Oswiecim, Poland is a newly opened hotel in June 2018 in the city where Auschwitz-Birkenau is located. I booked two nights so we would could hang out in town and leisurely make our way to Auschwitz without traveling to Krakow on the same day as our tour. The rate for our stay was 220.15pln/$59.86usd…
This article focuses on visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau from my tourist perspective in terms of entry tickets, getting to Oswiecim, Poland and getting around the camps. Keep in mind that my criticism of how our tour went in no way diminishes my solemn respect for this sacred place. Our tour experience was miserable. The daytime late July…
Krakow was the capital city of the Kingdom of Poland from 1069 to 1596, when King Sigismund III Vasa moved the royal court to Warsaw and that city became the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Unlike Warsaw, devastated by World War II, Krakow came through World War II minimally damaged. The Nazi government established Krakow as its…
I visited Prague, Czech Republic four times in 2017, spending about 3 weeks hanging out and walking around the city. One of the most frequent questions I was asked by people I met is “Have you been to Český Krumlov?” It seemed like an odd question to me since I looked on the map to find…
Clarion Congress Hotel České Budějovice is an example of a hotel deal that took me to a city I probably would never have planned to visit otherwise. A hotel suite bookable through Choice Privileges for 8,000 points on Friday-Saturday and 10,000 points Sunday-Thursday was 38,000 points for our Sat-Tue 4 night stay. I purchased 38,000…
Architectural color is one of the most appealing aspects of travel in the Czech Republic. On a summer Sunday late afternoon I walked streets of the historic city center of České Budějovice photographing brilliant colors seen all around. Old town České Budějovice is located at the confluence of the Vltava and Malše rivers surrounded by a somewhat circular green belt…
Waited until the morning of our departure from Wien-Vienna, Austria to U-bahn across the city and buy a cheap train ticket to České Budějovice, Czech Republic. Being a Saturday, the only bus tickets available were 8 hour trips going to Prague and then backtracking to České Budějovice 2.5 hours south of Prague. Train tickets were priced…
28,000 Choice Privileges points for three nights in Vienna was the best hotel deal I saw for the city. There are two Star Inn hotels in Vienna. Both were priced the same for reward nights at 10,000 points Sun-Thu and 8,000 points Fri-Sat. Better hotel reviews and the location near Schönbrunn Palace were my reasons for…
Dining in Vienna surprised me when we ate in five different restaurants and none accepted credit cards. My plan was to get through three days in Austria on the 20eur in bills and coins I had brought from California. I figured I would credit card my way through Austria, since the remainder of my trip…
IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks Hotels July 23-Sep 30, 2018 list is now live. This is a shortened time period than usual with only two months instead of three months. This likely means the next list will cover Oct 1-Dec 31 dates, unless the new normal is two month periods. I was kind of excited to…
