Enter to win free accomodation at any Delta Hotel and Resort in Canada

by Jessica Festa on

Delta Hotels and Resorts, Canada’s premier hotel management company, have partnered with Traveling Canucks bloggers Nicole and Cameron Wears to offer travelers the chance to win one free night stay at any of their 46 properties across Canada, such as the popular Whistler, Victoria, Sun Peaks, and Banff locations.

There are two steps to entering the contest:

The last day to enter is November 9, 2011, and the rules of the contest include:

  • Only one entry per day (multiple entries are encouraged)
  • Must be a Canadian citizen
  • Must be a Facebook Fan of the Traveling Canucks
  • Must have reached the age of majority

Is the iPad a threat to hotel Wi-Fi?

by Jessica Festa on

While many hotels are now offering free Wi-Fi for guests, there now seems to be a glitch in the system, and that glitch is the iPad. Along with other tablet computers, these devices are most often used for video streaming.

David W. Garrison, the chief executive of iBAHN, a provider of information systems for the hospitality industry, explains why this is a problem. “The bits used for video streaming and downloading increased thirtyfold on our network in one year.”

Because of this, Garrison points out that hotels now must decide “either to not increase the amount of bandwidth so everyone will get much slower service to the point where you’ll think you’re on a dial up connection” or upgrade to a system that will force hotel guests to have to pay extra for the Wi-Fi.

It is a difficult decision for hotels to have to make, mainly because many business travelers choose hotels that offer the free Wi-Fi service. However, the abundant amount of video streaming on the iPad is really putting a strain on hotel networks.

The Whistler Sabbatical Project – sign us up

by McLean Robbins on

We’re a sucker for these amazing free trip contests. Year-long diving contracts in Australia? We’ll get SCUBA certified. Photographing wedding locations across Ireland? We’ll find a husband. For this new incentive from Tourism Whistler, we’ll learn to ski on more than just the bunny slopes.

Dubbed the “Whistler Sabbatical Project,” this one-month, all expenses paid trip will include airfare, accommodations, lift passes, ski or snowboard equipment and “extraordinary experiences.”

Sign us up. How do you win? Each Tuesday for the next 15 weeks, the Whistler Sabbatical Project will showcase Whistler experiences online – and ask the question: Would you do it? How contestants respond will set the stage for building an itinerary of adventure.

Potential “experiences” include slicing the tops off magnums of champagne with a sabre (in a 20,000 bottle wine cellar), access to a world-class spa facility to on-mountain adventures, and of course, all the skiing or snowboarding you can handle.

“We’re encouraging people to go to the site every week, think about the question and answer whether or not they’d do that particular activity,” said Kirsten Homeniuk, Tourism Whistler’s senior manager of marketing services.
enter the contest,” she said.

Of course, the contest is also aimed at drawing visitors to Whistler through 45-second videos that highlight not only the planned Whistler Sabbatical but the many activities that make the area a desirable tourist destination.

A sample question? “Would you dance in your ski boots until midnight?” Response options include:
□ I’ll do it
□ Been there, done that
□ I’ll need a little more time with that (and likely some good tequila)

In addition to the Whistler Sabbatical Project, contestants can enter to win each of the highlighted experiences as a weekly prize via Facebook.

The Whistler Sabbatical Project and the weekly prize contests are open to residents in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia only.

Enter to win a $3,000 grant toward responsible, off-the-beaten path travel in China

by Jessica Festa on

WildChina is offering the chance for travelers to win a grant of $3,000 towards pushing the limits of responsible, off-the-beaten path travel in China. The aim of the WildChina Explorer grant is to help people find authentic, life-changing experiences in their travels while also working to protect and sustain local cultures and environments.

The previous winner of the WildChina Explorer grant was Canadian traveler and writer Jeff Fuchs along with British entrepreneur and endurance athlete Micael Kleinwort. Together they traveled to the most isolated section of the Tsalam in Qinghai, completing the expedition in May, 2011 entirely on foot and leaving as small a carbon footprint as possible. The mission was part of Fuch’s desire to bring to light long lost routes in Asia.

Criteria for grant winner includes:

  • Focus on bringing to light a long lost route, cultural issue, promoting aid in a remote community, or a journey of discovery or rediscovery
  • An enthusiasm for exploration
  • Risk management plan
  • Incorporation of Leave No Trace principles
  • Low carbon travel
  • Skill levels that are equal to the proposed itinerary

Applications are due by November 15, 2011. For more information, e-mail expedition@wildchina.com or download the form.

Hipmunk makes travel planning easier with integrated calendar technology

by McLean Robbins on

In recent months and years, flight search technology has greatly improved (hello, Google Flights!), but it still isn’t a mind reader.

Launching today, travel site Hipmunk’s new Google Calendar integration aims to make travel planning even easier. The site has launched an upgrade that integrates your Google calendar directly into the travel-planning process, meaning that you’ll automatically be looking for flights that automatically leave after your night grad school class and get you back in town in time for that important business meeting on Monday.

It’s a great idea – the idea of personalizing and customizing the search experience has greatly changed both the search landscape and traveler behavior in recent years – and the idea of being able to “sync” or share multiple calendars makes planning group trips much easier.

We can easily see the application – it would make it much easier to plan that girlfriend getaway, coordinate with a significant other’s work schedule, or even plan a last-minute meeting out of town that doesn’t interfere with other work events.

The program can even plot multiple destinations on a map and help you select a hotel that’s convenient to your needs – something we’ve seen on sites like Trippy and loved.

You can get live help via a chat feature, search by price, duration, departure, arrival and airline and also see the amount of layover time and which airport you’ll be connecting through, all in one easy spreadsheet-like feature. There’s also a funny “agony” button that allows you to see similar flights that are “worse than this one.” It’s also easy to use “flex” features that allow you to search within a one- to three-day window. You can’t book through the site, but you can easily click to book directly through the airline, with your search parameters already inputted into the query – you’re deposited directly into the payment screen.
On the hotel front, the site is fairly easy to negotiate, allowing you to search on a map, narrow according to attractions nearby, features and even hotel chain. You can also access the service via iPhone or iPad, which makes booking travel on-the-go even easier.

Limitations? The Hipmunk program only works with Google Calendar – meaning that someone like us, who uses Outlook, won’t be helped. If you haven’t tagged an event correctly – like a friend’s birthday that you’ve accidentally scheduled as a full day event, for example – the site won’t show your time as available. It also requires that you “share” your calendar with friends / colleagues to use it, meaning we’ll have to change “bikini wax” to “important medical appointment” on our schedules…

Still, the app and new integration are on the way to helping us plan our travel. And we’ll take anything that makes our lives easier.