The Eclectic Rebel Blog and Travel Guide

Quick: which sounds like a better vacation to you:

* Plan out infinite details, take a tour bus, rush from site to site, have a tour guide tell you where to go, stay in an American-style hotel, eat in regular restaurants

* Rent a local house, hang out with locals, buy local groceries, have lazy unplanned days of randomness

If you liked the second option, you’ll fit right in with the “slow travel” movement. Read the rest of this entry »

When you travel, you may think that if you don’t know the language, you can just communicate using gestures. BUZZER! Knowing what gestures and body language mean in foreign countries can mean the difference between making friends and getting beaten up and it’s all too easy to make mistakes.

Take the quiz to find out how much you know about body language, gestures and foreign customs:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is part one in a three-part series on using Priceline and Hotwire to get killer travel deals. 

Who has a better price on hotels, Hotwire or Priceline? Is there a “secret” to bidding? What sort of travel booking is always a win-win situation?

These questions and more will be answered in today’s episode of BETTER BIDDING WITH SAMANTHA!

This is part one in a two part series of how to use Hotwire, Priceline and other sites in your arsenal of tools for finding the best travel deals online.

The big secret
Most articles make you read through the whole thing to get to the money shot, but I’m going to give it to you right up front. Are you ready? Read the rest of this entry »

Americans can sometimes be loud, boorish, and extroverted. We’re the class clowns of the world. But we’re also the biggest tippers. We know that clowns are laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside, right? According to Michael Lynn, associate professor of market and consumer behavior at the Center for Hospitality at Cornell University, countries with more “extroverted” and “neurotic” people gave tips to the greatest number of services and also tipped the largest amounts – with the U.S. topping both categories. Read the rest of this entry »

These days the rising cost of oil, steady erosion of natural resources and climate change are on everyone’s mind. The travel industry has taken notice. In response to growing flocks of truly eco-sensitive tourists, hotels, airplane manufacturers like Boeing, Mexican destination-villagers, and even the United States Government are getting into the show.

Make no mistake. These days “green” equates to cash-on-table for the travel industry, while at the same time tourism-operators do right by savvy customers. It’s pretty dang chic’ to treat Mother Earth with respect whilst out and about frolicking in the surf. Read the rest of this entry »

What do you do when you’re an intrepid traveler short on cash? Get creative. I recently had to travel to New York for a conference and since most of my money was tied up in paying for a cross-country move, I had to make it work on the cheap.

Tip #1: Keep Up On Airfare Deals
Luckily I knew this conference was coming up in advance, so I had time to book a cheap deal. I looked through all my point sources but was just shy of the amount needed to book a flight. Suddenly Northwest Airlines (the hub flying out of Minneapolis) started offering PerksChoice, a program that lets you use points for half a ticket! Bang! $110 off my flight! A great forum I discovered to keep up on things like this is flyertalk.com.
Airfare cost=$110 Read the rest of this entry »

The scene: It’s 10:30PM and your standing at the desk of a rental car desk at the San Francisco airport. Your plane landed 45 minutes ago luggage intact at SFO, a surprisingly stress-free experience. Now MUST be the time to hope in the rental car and check into the hotel to enjoy trendy drinks. For some reason you’re still standing at this flippin’ car rental desk! Secretly, you long for your SUV safely ensconced at Midway Airport parking back in Chicago.

Behind said desk, some 19 year old former babysitter is still the practicing the same art of mediocrity for the rental company’s 4 wheeled babies. Your San Francisco reservations were placed online weeks ago for modest vehicle at a great price. A well practiced sales pitch to up-charge your daily fee seems like a bit much tonight. But, do you actually need the insurance to safely traverse the great interstate beyond SFO? Is rental car insurance designed to protect, separate you from your hard earned cash, or both? Read the rest of this entry »