Taking off Travel blog

Joobili is a travel planning site with a difference. Its motto is ‘you say when, we say where’ and that sums up what Joobili is all about.

Using Joobili

To use it, all you have to do is pick a range of travel dates using the home page slider and it will tell you what is going on during that time. That takes you to another page with a list of events that you can filter using:

• categories such as family, arts, food and drink, celebrations, music and (my personal favorite) unusual
• country - the site currently contains only European destinations, but it would be good to see it broadened to include more places
• tags

You can also see others who have liked the events. Read more »

On my recent trip to Cancun, I had two layovers in Miami International Airport - one on each leg. To give a bit of history, I’ve been flying in and out of that airport for a number of years and for a long time I found it a complete nightmare. For a non US citizen, if MIA is your first landfall in the States you have to clear customs and immigration - that can take a while. There have been times when I have barely made my connecting flight - and that was even before the security got beefed up. So I was dreading the hassle of connecting in Miami, and even warned my UK travel agent that I would need at least three and a half hours between connections to be sure of making the onward flight.

Not Just Any Line

So imagine my surprise on my last trip when I managed to get through all the formalities and get to the departure gate for my onward flight in about an hour. Read more »

There’s a great thing on Twitter called FollowFriday, where people give props to those they have enjoyed following on Twitter. I thought I’d do that here.  Here are the people I really rate on Twitter.

Coqui2008

@coqui2008 is probably the person I talk to most on Twitter. He shares some great links about travel and runs two interesting travel blogs, one about travel gadgets and the other about Puerto Rico. Here’s a recent tweet I enjoyed.

TravelRants

Despite the intriguing name, @travelrants doesn’t always rant, at least not on Twitter, but doesn’t mince his words, which I like. Favorite recent tweet.

Soultravelers3

@soultravelers3 is tweeting this family travels around the world (they are currently in Spain). I especially like the quotes that this Twitter user shares, which are a diverse collection. Here’s an example. Follow their travels on the blog. Read more »

This is the second and final part of my account of a recent trip to Cancun, Mexico.

The hotel also had a well equipped gym (priced at $11 per day, though according to the hotel’s own literature it was supposed to be free). I made it in there for a workout one day, opting to swim instead on the other days. Other facilities included a spa, a few shops and an excellent restaurant. Food was included in the conference package, so I was able to breakfast on smoked salmon, scrambled egg and mini croissants every morning, with a selection of delicacies for lunch and dinner.

Mexican Special

The first night, before the conference started, we went to a place called La Destileria, where we sampled a range of Mexican dishes (the jalapenos are really hot) and drank some wine while listening to a mariachi band. Very touristy but still enjoyable. Then it was back to the hotel bar to sample tequila and sangrita - served in two shot glasses and drunk together - before heading to bed. Read more »