Friday, April 24, 2009

SPRING 2009
(C) Tanenbaum 2009

WHO ARE WE?
We are Steve & Pat, the Travelin' Tanenbaums.
We are the authors of The Cheapskate's Guide to Vacations and The Cheptskate's Guide to Cruises (Citadel-Kensington Press)
Our CTN newsletter
has published continuously since 1999. Steve is currently a 'Budget & FREE Travel' expert with AllExperts.com. In addition to our books we have written national magazine articles and have made numerous radio & TV appearances. We early retired from our day jobs in 1999 and embarked on a seven year bold travel odyssey, globe-trotting six months per year. Currently, we average about 3-4 months of exotic travel yearly.


Pure and simple, we enjoy a love of travel and do our best to share travel related comfort, convenience and money saving TIPS with our loyal readership. We always encourage and appreciate reader input. Our travel 'motto' these many years remains: NOTHING BEATS FREE TRAVEL!

ONLINE CTN IS A HUGE SUCCESS
MAKE IT FREE AND THEY WILL COME....
OK, so no surprise that CTN's subscriptions TRIPLED with the advent of our new FREE online CTN. Still, this is the very best way to share our savvy TIPS n' TALES with the traveling public. As we have always said.....nothing beats FREE!

HOW TO GET YOUR FUTURE FREE CTN EDITIONS:
The best way: It is always best to receive the newsletter on the day it is published. To do this send us your email address and we shall add you to our subscription list. Rest assured, e-mail addresses are kept strictly private and are used ONLY to send you our newsletters. Send your free subscription request to: stevepatctn@yahoo.com
Or you may simply Google our CTN periodically for new issues.
THANKS To ALL

THE NEW BLOG 'LOOK' - The column on the right now sports a vertical slide show. All these favorite global photos were taken by us and we hope you enjoy them. There is MORE: Below the last photo in the column is a NEW Video Bar. The Video Bar offers an imbedded random sample of four of our 165+ YouTube videos. Simply click on one of the video thumbnails to view our YouTube video. Want to view more or all of our YouTube videos? Go to YouTube.com and in the search box type our screen name: worldromer You will have instant access to all of our 165+ YouTube videos.
FONT SIZES: Due to technical glitches there are some mismatched text sizes and fonts. We apologize and expect to correct this in future issues.

THIS ISSUE'S HIGHLIGHTS
*THE FREE MILES 'SNOWBALL' EFFECT
*UP TO 67% OFF: NEXT TO LAST CALL FOR ALL ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS
*STEVE’S GIZMO COLUMN: BEST TRAVEL NETBOOK, PC TO VIDEO & MORE
*FINAL CITIBANK OFFER UPDATE

*BARCELONA: OFF THE BEATEN PATH TIPS
*AMERICAN AIRLINES BAD NEWS AWARD CHANGES


BARCELONA OFF THE BEATEN PATH

As most readers already know we shall be spending this Spring/Summer returning to two of our favorite European cities, Barcelona and Paris. There is no better time than here and now to share some of our pre-trip 'finds' for off the beaten path explorations of Barcelona. To be sure we are skipping the popular sights and day trips, such day trips to Montserrat Monstery and the Dali Museum for less known and less visited options. Here are just a few:

*Barceloneta neighborhood in Barcelona: How about an old fishing village close to Barcelona harbor. Seafood restaurants, winding streets. Metro Bareloneta Yellow Line, L4
*Poble Sec: A charming neighborhood between El Raval and Montjuic. known for excellent restaurants and great nightlife and a very central location. Metro stop Poble Sec, line 3 (green)
*Sarria: A beautiful 1,000 year old village in Barcelona? Known as a haven for writers, artists and merchants and home to famous Bar Tomas famous for its
patatas bravas. Metro Sarria line 6
*Great shopping street in the Raval: Carrer de Riera Baixa. Stay away from the still seedy/dangerous southern reaches of the neighborhood and explore the middle, like the best shopping street Carrer de Riera Baixa. Less than ten minutes walk from Liceu metro on the Ramblas.
*Day trip to Girona: We have already book a hotel for our one day/night visit. at Pension Margarit (double room just 40 Euros including taxes). This ancient walled city is only one hour twenty minutes from Barcelona. We are expecting a beautiful medieval city with its Onyar River setting including such as Arab baths, best preserved Jewish calle and delightful ancient winding streets.
*Mercat de la Concepcio: Can not wait to check out this one which combines a huge covered food market with the city's largest 24 hour flower market. Add to that its historical background. It was built in 1888 and is one of the oldest markets in the city. (Metro passage de Gracia Green Line, L3)
*Yelmo Cineplex: Hey, on our last visit we found zero original version cinema and yes, we love visiting foreign movie theaters. Yelmo is the answer with its 15 screens, good location (Metro Ciudatella Vila Olimpic) and spectator Mondays meaning bargain $7.25 price all shows all day on Mondays. Did we mention most of the 15 screens show V.O.S. meaning original version with subtitles meaning most of their films are American/English with Spanish subtitles.
*La Maquinista Mall: A MALL??? If you, like we, are visiting for many weeks you may enjoy checking out the locals at one of the country's largest open air malls (Metro San Andreu or Torrasi i Bages (closest).

THE FREE MILES 'SNOWBALL' EFFECT

Every so often we feel compelled to comment on our FREE global travel philosophy. New friends and acquaintances are quick to ask us 'how' have we been able to fly FREE as we traveled the globe six months per year from 1999-2007 and on all our flights up to and including our upcoming flights to Barcelona, Paris and New York City? Sure, such as the Citibank free travel give-a-way is a perfect way to enter the world of free global (and domestic) travel. On the other hand there are many, many other factors that help us achieve our free travel goals.

We have just updated our FREE travel article. Free travel 'newbies' and others should review the article for its good overview of our best free travel strategies.

LINK to FREE travel article: http://ctnsummer2007ed.blogspot.com/

NOTE: How often do free miles fall into our laps? Here is the most current example that has come our way. First Patty (last week) and then Steve (this week) received a bit of 'Junk Mail We Love' (title of a favorite chapter in our Cheapskate's Vacation Guide). The letters were from Citibank. Patty's letter offered her 2,500 free American Airlines miles if she made 20 purchases using her Citibank AAdvantage card over the next eight weeks. Steve's letter, for reasons we shall never fully understand, offered 3,000 free bonus miles when he makes 20 purchases using his Citibank AAdvantage card over the next ten weeks.

Despite slight differences we are talking about 5,500 free American Airline miles for simply opening up and reading what otherwise appeared to be typical junk mail. This is 20% of a free domestic airline award and equals what we would normally have to spend $5,500 very real credit card purchase dollars to receive. The larger point being.... once one gets the free travel ball rolling, by opening free airline accounts and participating in free travel give-a-ways the airlines will OFTEN toss these extra bonus freebies our way.

Putting all this together, free promotion miles, using the Citibank AAdvantage card for ALL purchases and unexpected freebies, and we have the basic formula that has permitted us to travel the globe FREE for well over the past decade. With this said here is the FINAL update on our all time favorite Citibank free travel give-a-way.


FINAL UPDATE: BEST FREE TRAVEL
PROMOTION OF ALL TIME,
GOING, GOING BUT NOT GONE!



As we reported in our recent Winter '09 CTN our all time favorite Citibank offer lives on. As we now head toward Summer we must remind readers that the Citibank promotion, in its current incarnation, expires on August 31, 2009. ANY AND ALL who have not participated in this free global travel give-a-way should 'run' not walk to take advantage of the offer BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Once again, we distinguish the current program from its predecessor. Previously, the offer set forth a smorgasbord of at least six cards to pick and choose from. This made all the difference to many of us since participants must initialy be first time card applicants. The offer has now dwindled to three cards which are the:

Citi Platinum Select/AAdvantage World Mastercard
Citi Select/ AAdvantage American Express Card
CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Mastercard
The basics remain unchanged. The credit cards are Free of Annual charges the first year, one must spend measly $750 on a card to qualify for the bonus miles and each card will then deliver a whopping 25,000 Bonus American Airline miles. Obtain any two cards and in no time you have 50,000 Free Bonus miles good for a RT ticket, off season, to Paris, Rome, London, Athens or most any other European city or year around RT tickets to any Hawaiian island or Mexico or Central America. If you already had one of these cards BUT expired 2-3 years ago you may well quality ‘again’ for the Bonus miles. Unfortunately in such cases it is near impossible to determine in advance what new bonus miles you may qualify for. We suggest you go for it, apply for new card(s) and sit back and await the outcome. To Bonus Miles or Not to Bonus Miles...that will be the question.



Here is a long LINK to the all important Citibank promotion. If for any reason it does not work simply Google the words Citibank 25,000 bonus miles

http://creditcards.citicards.com/usc/travel/AA/multi/july/08/triple/default.htm?BTData=C021178796161735C544F4AB7A4A7ACA69E9D9883FEFFF3E3FACBC4BEF
EF33&promoCode=CAG&m=8MBWZCPW7WW&app=UNSOL&sc=4XNIWC27&langId
=en&siteId=CB&B=A&screenID=3001&ProspectID=9D94D66EA6E64DB88B2CC47A
F7878892

Note: On the plus side Citibank has run this type of awesome free travel give-a-away for at least the past two years. We remain hopeful that come August 31st Citibank will issue yet another similar type program.

AMERICAN AIRLINE'S BAD NEWS AWARD CHANGES
We still find ourselves referring to Hawaii's 35,000 mile free travel American Airline's award. This time around we shall make clear mention of the recent American Airline's award changes. The major change is the creation of peak and off peak seasons so that American now charges more miles for peak season travel. Without further adieu here is the LINK to these changes:
The changes went into effect on October 1, 2008 so truth be told we should all be aware of them. First, some good news. The Domestic U.S. 25,000 mile award is unchanged and hence is valid all year long. Hawaii takes a major hit. The 35,000 miles Hawaii free travel award is no longer valid all year and is now valid only in low season. On the plus side the 'low' season, so far as we are concerned, includes some of the best times to visit. Low season is: 1/12 to 3/08 and 8/22 to 12/15 which includes September and October two great months for visiting Hawaii. Remaining dates are high season which now cost 45,000 miles.
One of American's best free travel bargains remains unchanged. Off season Europe was and remains Oct. 15th to May 15th. American still charges ONLY 40,000 miles for off season RT free travel awards to Europe. Other dates are high season, as they were before and high season awards remain the same at 60,000. Other airlines, like United, were charging 50,000 miles year round for Europe. On the other hand, our upcoming trip finds American providing our free flights to Barcelona, Paris and New York and then home. So all told four free flights, not bad for 60,000 miles.

UP TO 67% OFF: NEXT TO LAST CALL FOR ALL ENTERTAINMENT BOOKSEntertainment Publications is once again following its money saving MO to wit: periodically, as the year moves along, they keep lowering the price of their two-for-one books. By mid to late Summer their remaining stock of Entertainment books will likely be offered at $10 with either free or low cost shipping. We are now seeing the 'next to last' book sale. Currently, ALL Entertainment books are being sold for the very cheapskate price of $15 including free shipping. Since over 30 of their editions sell for $35-$45 (ie. San Diego book is $45) this translates to whopping savings of 57% to 67% on all these books. http://www.entertainment.com/discount/home.shtml

STEVE’S GIZMO COLUMN

OUR LENOVO TRAVEL REVOLUTION
Yes, I have a grand affinity for my home desktop VAIO computer and my iMac editing computer. The latter has been used to edit and place all my home videos on DVD and to edit 80% of my 165+ YouTube videos. And NO, we have never taken a laptop with us on our travels. Why? Two major reasons. Until recently laptops and their assorted plugs, batteries etc. weighed at least six pounds and then, when some ultra light weight units hit the scene a couple of years ago their price tags were sky high, usually running well over $1,000. So, for us, internet cafes did the trick all these years.
Enter a new word....NETBOOK. During the past year ultra light weight netbooks have appeared. These 'magic' machines are amazing in their specs, small size, light weight and LOW PRICES.
TIP: What is a netbook? Netbooks are laptops with no CD or DVD drives. This is why they are ultra light weight. Like many others I easily loaded programs and all my 30 or so full length movies onto a flash drive from my PC, then plugged the flash drive into Lenovo and downloaded the date to Lenovo.
TIP: For $3 including postage (Ebay from China) I purchased a teenie gizmo called a dongle. It plugs into a USB slot and Blue Tooth enables the Lenovo so I could instantly use the wireless Blue Tooth mouse I purchased.
Without further adieu here is our 'baby' the Lenovo S10.
Here are the basics that convinced us to snap us this fun, powerful min-sized computer.
* Weight with battery unbelievable 2.6lbs * 1GB ram memory * 160GB Hard Drive * Built-in web cam and WiFi * 10.3" screen (competitor WIND has an 8" screen) which shows full size pages so no horizontal scrolling required * Great style/color combinations ... check out this interior view!
Oh, yes, one more thing PRICE! Total delivered price from Beach Camera with free shipping and no sales tax was $379.
TIP: I purchased from Beach Camera through Amazon.com. Currently Amazon.com is offering an all white S10 for $349 from Tiger Direct. years ago I had a bad experience with this vendor. I suggest you shop for the color of your choice as well as the best price between $350 and $399. Also, be SURE the S10 you find has the above specs. I easily found $330 priced S10s BUT these are low end spec models meaning they have an 80GB Hard Drive and 512K ram memory.
Here is the current LINK to Amazon.com and its low $349 price for a full spec (white color) model.
A MEETING OF GIZMOS! 2007 GIZMO MEETS 2009 GIZMO
There I was comfy as could enjoying my video glasses movie at Barcelona's airport. Little did I know that this amazing technology would take a flying leap forward with our upcoming Summer '09 trip returning to both Barcelona and Paris.
First, a bit of recap regarding the above video glasses. On the plus side these iTheater HR video glasses, with 922,000 pixel high resolution, delivered stunning movies that equaled viewing a 50" TV from eight feet away. Another plus is the total comfort one has using video glasses. The glasses themselves are super light weight. The above pair weighing in at 3oz. Then, tip your head in any direction, lie down on an airplane pillow, put your seat back.....you get the picture.....wherever your head goes so goes your movie. Yet, despite these virtues I am not recommending these glasses for three major reasons. Their built-in ear buds are not up to the task delivery way too low volume. It took the use of an external mini-amplifier to overcome that problem.
Also, the glasses failed to work properly with my video source, my Archos 500 mobile video player. Third, the rubber nose piece while very comfortable was attached in a flimsy, loose manner so that it fell off the glasses during my return flight never to be seen again. Even worse, i-O Display systems, the company that sells this and oodles of other high tech models is unable or unwilling to provide or even sell me a replacement nose piece.
This problem was solved soon after I emailed a few video glass companies and one sent me a similar nose piece. After a few modifications I confirmed that it fit quite well and then GLUED it in place. I also hooked up a bypass that permits me to use my own headset which solves the low volume problem.
TIP: I still recommend i-O Display since they offer a great selections of video glasses plus they tout their absolute 30 day money back guarantee. I suggest a high resolution model, at least 922,000 pixels with detachable headset input. Call i-O Display and ask for Marcy and ask for her recommendation for a model that fits your needs and confirm their 30 no questions asked return policy.
Here is the LINK to i-O Displays array of current offerings:
MY 2009 PC to TV CONVERTER: A TECH TRAVEL GIZMO SUPREME
I bought the PC to Video EZ on a bit of a whim and now call it one of my favorite low cost, multi-purpose GIZMO. Here is what this very small device will do for me and FOR YOU.
*Only 4.5"x2"x1". No batteries and no electric cord. Just run a USB cable from the unit to your laptop or netbook. *It weighs several ounces and measures only 4.5" x 2" x 1" *You plug in the USB and run a video RCA cable from the unit to any TV and voila you are able to view your laptop on the TV. The unit does NOT work well for small letter BUT does work super well for movies, Netflix videos, YouTube videos etc. Do as we are doing and take 10, 20, 30 or more....a library of videos, TV shows and the like on your netbook and then play them on any large screen TV that has an RCA input. Use on any TV in any room of the house, deck, hotel or cruise cabin TV etc.
*Have a set of video glasses? I shall be using my PC to Video to play my Lenovo's movies on my video glasses. PC to Video works great to video glasses! Here is a sketch the very easy hook-up.


HAPPY and SAFE TRAVELS TO ALL CTN READERS!
STEVE and PATTY
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