Boston’s Galleria Umberto: America’s Best Cheap Slice Place?

by Dave Seminara on

The Galleria Umberto Rosticceria pizzeria in Boston’s North End is named after a stunning, ornate 19th century shopping arcade in Naples. But the interior of one of the country’s best cheap slice places is as Spartan as they come. In fact, the place resembles a cafeteria or, if you’re there at lunchtime, when the lines stretch out the door and around the block, a soup kitchen.

Boston’s North End is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the world. Despite the fact that it’s right smack in the middle of an expensive city that’s overflowing with wealthy, highly educated young people, somehow the neighborhood has preserved its distinct Italian-American character. Walk the streets of the North End on a nice day, and you’ll still see plenty of old timers sitting out on their stoops, speaking Italian.

There are dozens of good places to get pizza and other Italian specialties in the North End, but Galleria Umberto is the only place I’ve seen that consistently attracts long lines. Why? They serve damn good Sicilian-style slices of cheese pizza – no toppings! – for just $1.55.

I’ve been to Galleria Umberto (GU) three times for slices over the last few years and I’ve never waited less than about 25 minutes. But I love GU because their volume-driven business model is very 19th century. They have a razor thin profit margin, but sell thousands of slices of every day. Who opens a business these days charging ridiculously low prices, hoping to make it up with volume? Almost no one.

We have more high quality pizza places in the U.S. right now than ever before, but the prices keep going up to the point where pizza isn’t the cheap option it once was. In April, I had a chance to eat at Da Michele, one of the best pizzerias in Naples, and discovered that even the world’s best pizza doesn’t have to be expensive. That’s what I love about GU- they view pizza as a cheap staple, not a luxury.

My sons and I had five slices of pizza and two drinks and the bill came to $9.75. I can’t take them to McDonald’s for that price. Domestic beers are $3. And wines range from $2 -$2.50. Now that’s my kind of place. If you’re looking for a budget lunch in one of Boston’s most interesting neighborhoods, and don’t mind the wait, check out Galleria Umberto. What’s your favorite cheap place to get a slice of pizza?

Camping With Kids On Cape Cod

by Dave Seminara on

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who can put up a tent and those who cannot. I’m not proud to admit that I’m part of the later group. I’m the youngest of six children and by the time I was born, my parents had given up camping for good. I wasn’t exposed to Boy Scouts and never learned a thing about camping, fishing, survival skills or the Great Outdoors.

So when my wife and I found ourselves shopping for camping gear at REI in preparation for a camping trip to Cape Cod, I was ready to pay $70 more for a tent that had only 11 setup steps, compared to 15 on a cheaper model. But my wife, who was a science major in college, is good at putting things together, so we bought the cheaper, Big Agnes Big House 4 tent, and I quietly hoped not to be exposed for the pathetic tent-setup guy that I am.

In a year when my family has been traveling nonstop since April 1, we’ve stayed in almost every type of accommodation, save a tent. We used to enjoy camping, years ago, but haven’t ventured out into the great outdoors for an overnight stay since our first child was born in 2007.We’ve always wanted to visit Cape Cod, but when I looked into room rates a few weeks ago and saw that even mediocre quality hotels on the Cape were charging two, three and even four hundred dollars per night, I figured it was time for our kids to get their first taste of the camping lifestyle.

So we bought some new sleeping bags, the Big Agnes tent, and some REI self-inflating camping pads, and piled our two little boys and all our gear into the family trickster for the drive to the Sweetwater Forest Campground in Brewster, a graceful little town on the north (bay) side of Cape Cod. We wanted to camp at nearby Nickerson State Park, but since they charge just $12 per tent site, they tend to fill up fast and we couldn’t get in. Sweetwater charges $35 per tent site, which is pricey for camping, but it sure beats paying $300 per night for a hotel room.

We were given a choice of two sites, and spent more time debating which one to take than Union and Confederate generals spent preparing for the Battle of Gettysburg. One site had far more privacy but also had lots of protruding tree branches on the only level ground suitable for a tent and both of us were reluctant to make a call for fear of being scapegoated for a bad night’s sleep, either from noisy neighbors or the protruding branches.

Eventually we settled on the more private site and my wife methodically went to work putting the Big House up. I stood around and did what I was told but contributed essentially nothing to the endeavor, though my wife was kind enough to pretend as though I wasn’t completely useless.

“Here, use your strength to pull that through,” she’d say. Or, “Why don’t you hammer these down?”

But we all knew that if I had to put the thing up, it would have taken hours, with several failed attempts, plenty of cursing and a bit of soul searching. If I can’t figure out how to put something together upon first glance, without consulting instructions, it probably won’t get done. My wife had the tent up in about 25 minutes flat, and before we knew it the boys were wrestling in the tent.

We made some S’mores at our campfire, but James, my 3-year-old, insisted on eating the chocolate bars a la carte.

At bedtime, he seemed comfortable enough in his kid’s sleeping bag, but was still a bit confused by the whole endeavor.

“Is this our house?” he asked, perhaps wondering if we were planning to live in the tent permanently. “Where is our hotel?”

As we tried to get the boys to settle down and go to sleep, my wife noticed a bunch of unused tabs on the ceiling of the tent and we wondered what on earth they were for. No matter how good you are at tent assembly, there will invariably be some unused parts that cause you needless panic.

Prior to the trip, I had nightmare visions of the boys keeping us up all night with requests for water, bathroom breaks, and God knows what else – but amazingly, I was the only bonehead that didn’t get a good night’s sleep. I’d left the cap on my sleeping pad open and all the air had seeped out of the bloody thing, so I woke up 18 times in the night with a sore back and a cranky neck.

The kids were sprawled all around the tent, half over my wife and me, and not remotely inside their sleeping bags, but they did fine. On our second night, I was battling a bad stomach – and you don’t really want to be a fourth mile away from the nearest bathroom in that circumstance, but with a little Pepto, I got by. That night, I made sure my pad was inflated properly and I slept like a log.

In the morning, we were awakened by a chorus of birds, frogs and crickets, and the day’s first light that crept in through our tent. Ordinarily, I consider noise and light unwanted intrusions in the morning, but greeting the day from my tent, both seemed pleasing. Even better, I enjoyed rolling over and seeing the three people who mean the most to me sprawled in and out of a jumble of sleeping bags in our Big House.

Is it possible to get a decent night sleep in a tent with two toddlers? Believe it or not, yes it is. My 5-year-old son, Leo, told us he was hooked on the camping lifestyle.

“I want to sleep in a tent every night,” he said, right before asking us if we could download a kids movie on my wife’s Kindle.

How Many Days Can You Stay In Cities Around The World For $100?

by Jessica Festa on

Have you ever wanted to know where to go to really stretch your $100 as far as possible? To help you choose the most budget-friendly destination for your next trip, Tripomatic has put together a useful infographic.

The informational photo covers 42 of the world’s most-visited cities. You’ll see average prices of accommodation, food, transportation and attractions, and how many days your $100 can get you at each destination. Some interesting findings include:

  • For the price of one night in New York City, you can stay seven nights in Kuala Lumpur.
  • A soda in Rome costs the same as a nice dinner in Bangkok.
  • The cheapest popular destination is Goa, with beds for $2.69, food and transport coming to $7.64 per day and free museums.

If you’re having trouble viewing the infographic, click here.




[Image above via 401(K)2012; Infographic via Tripomatic]

Guide To Saving Money On Flight Bookings

by Jessica Festa on

Deciding when to book your flight to get the best price can be frustrating. Do you wait to try to get a last minute deal? Should you book in advance? How do you navigate expensive tickets around the holidays? With the help of Jeff Klee, CEO of CheapAir.com, Warren Chang, Vice President and General Manager of Fly.com and Anisha Sekar, Vice President of Credit and Debit Products for NerdWallet, we’ve created a guide to help travelers make the right choices when booking flights.

When is the best time to book?

While booking as early as possible is the general rule of thumb to getting great flight deals, this also depends on how far away your travel dates are. In general, if your trip is more than three months away, wait.

Explains Chang, “Airline sales tend to target travel dates that are two to three months out, most of the time, so flights beyond that window generally are priced at a higher level until the sales target those dates.”

Klee adds there are a few myths related to booking flights. One is that the further in advance you book, the better. The other is if you wait until the last minute, there will be unsold seats that the airlines will practically give away. Both of these are untrue in almost all cases.

The truth is, there is no hard and fast rule; however, there are some general trends to be aware of. Most airlines will open their flights for booking about 11 months in advance. Usually when a flight first opens for sale, fares are on the high side. The airline will keep them that way for a while to get a sense of the overall demand. As it gets closer to the flight date, you’ll begin to see sporadic sales. Then, depending on how heavily booked a flight is, you might start to see more frequent and aggressive discounting.“On average, six weeks in advance is the least expensive time to buy a domestic flight – but that does fluctuate quite a bit,” says Klee. “With popular markets on popular travel dates, it’s best to book even earlier. And always try to book at least 21 days in advance.”

This dynamic changes a bit during holidays, making it much more important to book early. The basic factor affecting a flight’s price is how full it is. In fact, airlines typically offer five to 15 different prices for the same flight, just at different times. Usually, airlines will sell the first 20 seats at their lowest fare and the next 20 at the next lowest fare, with the pattern continuing until the flight is sold out. In short, the fuller a plane is getting, the more expensive the seats will be.

What days of the week are cheapest/most expensive to fly?

Although there are always exceptions, Tuesdays and Wednesdays rank as the least popular days and are usually the least expensive to fly. Additionally, because it’s common for travelers to fly on Fridays and Sundays, they are the most expensive. According to Chang, Wednesday afternoons specifically are the best time to book.

“Tuesday and Wednesday are the days of the week when airlines release their sales,” he explains. “Once all the sales are released, other airlines may match some of the discounted fares, so waiting until Wednesday afternoon allows for these matching airlines to file their fares as well.”

Keep in mind, around the holidays the rules change. For example, during Thanksgiving week, Wednesday and Sunday are two of the busiest and most expensive travel days of the year. Additionally, the Tuesday before and the Monday after are also more expensive than usual.

“You can save a lot if you avoid those days,” explains Klee. “The best days to travel out are generally the Saturday or Monday before Thanksgiving and the best days to travel back are the Friday, Saturday or Tuesday after. Of course, if you can fly on Thanksgiving Day itself you can usually get a great deal, too.”

For Christmas and New Years, the day after is usually very expensive, as are the Fridays and Saturdays before and the Sundays after.

Tricks And Tactics

The main tactic to saving money on flights is to be as flexible with your dates as possible. If you are locked into exact travel dates, it will be more of a challenge to get a great deal. However, if you are willing to fly on multiple sets of dates, the odds of finding a good deal
get better. Moreover, being flexible with the times you travel is a big help.

Says Chang, “Flying late morning through afternoon is often a lot more expensive than catching a red eye or hopping on the first flight of the day.”

Alternate airports can help, too. “If there is more than one airport near your origin or destination city, check them both,” advises Klee. “The more options you have in terms of airports and travel dates, the more likely you will find what may be one of the last discount seats to where you are going.”

Knowing what you’re paying for before you book is also important. While a recent law set by the U.S. Transportation Department states airfares shown in advertisements must be “the entire price to be paid by the customer,” there are still other charges like baggage, entertainment and meal and beverage fees.

As long as you’re not wedded to a specific hotel, looking for a package deal can also help you save a bundle on flights. When doing this, you can sometimes get an almost-free hotel or car rental.

“Over the years we have seen some spectacular deals where, for as little as $2 more, you can also stay at a top-notch hotel,” says Chang.

Furthermore, it’s a good idea to start checking fares as soon as you know your potential travel dates and airports. If you don’t like what you find, and you have two months of more, make a point to check back every few days. As soon as you see a good deal, book it. Availability changes quickly around the holidays and what you see today will very possibly not still be available tomorrow.

Online Tools

When trying to find a deal, make use of the online tools available to you. CheapAir.com offers a “Price Drop Payback,” where they refund passengers the difference if a ticket they purchased drops in price. Furthermore, Bing Travel features a price predictor to help you decide if you should wait or buy now by showing if fares are rising or dropping. Kayak is also helpful, as it shows fare history charts to give you some foresight. If you have Twitter, Fly.com has an award-winning feed for flight deals, being nominated as one of the best by Time Magazine. Additionally, using aggregator sites like the ones mentioned above, as well as Skyscanner, Orbitz, cheapOair and Hotwire can help you compare airline prices.

Use Your Miles And Points

According to Sekar, the key to effectively using credit card miles and points to book flights is flexibility. Being willing to tweak your dates to get the best value is important. Additionally, timing your flights to coincide with higher ticket prices for the same rewards amount is beneficial.

Sekar also generally recommends using regular credit cards over airline-specific cards, unless there is one carrier you use all the time. Furthermore, using your miles to book holiday flights usually offers the worst redemption value.

So, what cards give you the best value? In terms of deals, the Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink Bold offer a 25% points boost when you use your Ultimate Rewards Points to book travel through Chase. Also, the Starwood American Express nominally pays out in Starpoints, but you can trade 20,000 Starpoints for 25,000 miles on many major airlines for a value of 1.25 cents per Starpoint earned.

In terms of general flight booking, the Capital One Venture Rewards and BankAmericard Privileges with Travel Rewards offer some of the highest earning rates, and most flexible rewards, in the business.

“Both give two miles per $1 spent on all purchases, and allow you to redeem your miles against any travel expense, be it airfare, baggage fees, gas or meals in the hotel’s dining room,” explains Sekar. “Because you redeem your miles as a statement credit, you can be sure you’re getting the full one cent per point value.”

The Truth About Holiday Travel

If you’re traveling around the holidays, you’re going to need to be realistic. This is the time when flights are almost always going to be more expensive than other times of the year. Airlines understand on peak travel days, demand exceeds supply. In response, they increase prices, add surcharges and limit low fare options.

“If you went to Chicago last spring for $238 and now the fare is $320 over the holidays, don’t
assume that this is an aberration and it will come back down,” explains Klee. “Paying up to $100 more for a domestic flight during holiday time is, unfortunately, not uncommon. In fact, prices can go up even more than that if you don’t book far in advance.”

[Images via Shutterstock]

Damnation Creek: Hiking Old-Growth To Ocean In Redwood National Park

by Laurel Miller on

There are few places on earth I love more than Redwoods National Park, located 325 miles north of San Francisco. Growing up, we used to drive up the coast every summer, and a few nights camping in the redwoods was always on the itinerary.

The Redwoods are actually several parks within the national and state system, all of which are managed cooperatively by the National Park Service and California Department of Parks and Recreation. Together, they comprise nearly half of the remaining old-growth redwood forest in the state.

Last month, while driving down the coast from Seattle to San Francisco, I decided I was long overdue to sleep amongst the world’s tallest trees. I booked a site at Mill Creek Campground in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, just south of the dreary fishing port of Crescent City.

When I camp, I want to stay in a place that smells of wood smoke, and has sites covered in moss and ferns. I desire a forest canopy overhead, ranger talks, trailheads and wildlife lurking in the undergrowth. I do not want to see functioning cellphones, tour bus-sized RVs or swimming pools. I may be in a campground instead of the backcountry, but I have my standards.

Mill Creek, as well as Jedidiah Smith Campground (located 10 miles east of Crescent City, in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park), both meet my criteria. I’ve stayed at the Smith campground in the past, and at either place, I’d be perfectly content to sit on a stump all day, inhaling the scent of burning wood and watching the banana slugs go by.

That said, I camp so I can hike, which is why I was thrilled to discover one of the Redwood’s best trails – one of only a few with old-growth forest-to-beach access – just down the road from Mill Creek. Damnation Creek was originally used by the region’s Yurok Indians, who went to the beach to collect shellfish and seaweed.

The trail drops 1,100 feet in two miles, switchbacking through Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, ferns, and huckleberries. It’s a steep drop, but utterly breathtaking due to the cathedral-like shroud of ancient redwoods that tower over everything. Damnation Creek runs near the bottom of the trail, just before you emerge onto a bluff overlooking the sea stacks of the Pacific. If the tide is out, you can walk down to a patch of rocky beach overlooking Damnation Cove. Take a deep breath. Realize cellphones and civilization are overrated. Linger. It’s a steep hike back.

Getting there
Located eight miles south on Highway 101 from Crescent City; the Damnation Creek Trailhead and pullout is at mile marker 16, on your right. Don’t leave any valuables in your car.

[Photo credit: redwoods, Flickr user goingslo]