5 U.S. Beaches You Can Get to Without a Car

by Meg Nesterov on

Summer may be winding down, but there are still a few weekends left to spend at the beach. Rather than sit in traffic or rent an expensive car, you can ride public transportation to many beaches in the U.S. Seasonal routes are especially likely to be popular, so go early and pack light.

Boston – CapeFLYER train to Cape Cod
Reintroduced this summer, the CapeFLYER train goes every weekend from Boston out to Hyannis, connecting to ferries for Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard and buses up and down Cape Cod. Fares are from $18 from South Station, with a few bucks’ savings if you buy round trip. You can bring a bike, get concessions onboard and get free Wi-Fi. The train will run through Columbus Day, October 14.

Chicago – El train to Oak Street Beach
Not everyone thinks of this city smack in the midwest as a beach town, but thanks to Lake Michigan, there are more beaches around Chicago than Bermuda. There are many to choose from, but Oak Street Beach is the most central with the most spectacular skyline view. It’s a few blocks from the El train at Clark and Division, though a bus up Lake Shore Drive will get you there closer. Beaches are free and open until Labor Day, but you can enjoy the water views year round. CTA fares are $2.25, with deductions for transit cards.Los Angeles – Big Blue Bus to Santa Monica
While it’s a major car city, there are ways to get to Santa Monica and Venice Beach from downtown Los Angeles without wheels. The Big Blue Bus serves all of Santa Monica and connects to Venice Beach as well. Fares are just $1, with day passes available. LA Metro has rapid buses to Venice Beach, with fares from $1.50. A new light rail line will connect Santa Monica to downtown LA, getting you on the beach even faster.

New York – A train to Far Rockaway
New Yorkers are lucky to have lots of options for sand and swimming, from Brooklyn‘s Brighton Beach to Long Island‘s Jones Beach, and Rockaway Beach in Queens has long been an urban favorite. While it suffered a lot from last year’s superstorm Sandy, it’s back in a big way, with many boardwalk concessions reopened and a new boutique hotel. A $2.50 subway fare gets you there on the A train, and there’s also a weekend-only ferry from downtown Manhattan if you’d like a more scenic (and spendy, at $20 one way) ride.

Washington, D.C. – DC2NY bus to Delaware beaches
While a bit much for a day trip, budget bus company DC2NY offers seasonal shuttles to Delaware‘s Rehoboth (one of Dr. Beach‘s favorites in the country) and Dewey beaches from Washington, as well as Wilmington and New York. The trip takes about 2½ hours, leaving Friday night and weekend mornings through Labor Day. Fares are $39 each way, but you do get Wi-Fi, a power outlet and a bottle of water.

What are your favorite beaches to visit without a car?

Does Anyone Still Talk On Airplanes?

by Elizabeth Seward on

When I get on an airplane, I hope that my over-the-ear headphones will send the same message to strangers beside me that I hope they send to strangers on the subways or streets of New York City: I don’t want to chitchat. This isn’t meant to be taken personally — it’s a decision I make before I ever lay eyes on the passengers seated beside me. Plane rides have always been meditative for me. I prefer to zone out with the help of a good album or, if the screen before me is working (which it wasn’t on one of my most recent flights), pass the time with a movie. While I’ve never had a bad conversation with strangers that manage to strike up conversation with me during the no-electronics portions of a ride, I would have always chosen to not have any conversation at all, had I been given a choice. And I’m not the only one who feels this way.

A recent Velvet Escape piece discussed the declining social nature of planes. Perhaps the in-flight media available is satiating enough for us. Perhaps the internet has us feeling so intertwined with the rest of the globe that we aren’t as interested in strangers. Perhaps our lives are becoming so saturated with talk and work and we relish time alone more than ever before. The Velvet Escape piece asks this question and I ask it, too: when was the last time you had a memorable conversation (good or bad) with someone beside you on a plane?

Millennial Business Travelers Are Rejecting Corporate Travel Policies

by Elizabeth Seward on

Millennial business travelers don’t care much for corporate travel policies, according to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek published today. Company-designed travel booking methods don’t seem to be clicking with the young professionals, who happen to make up the largest chunk of traveling employees for most companies. Since these workers are already spending so much time away from home and typically working in positions that are highly lucrative for companies, like sales, many companies seem hesitant to simply stop reimbursing employees for self-booked travel.

Part of the problem appears to be that internal booking systems aren’t “fun.” They don’t offer rewards or social interaction like many public booking sites or apps do. To address this growing problem while hopefully appeasing the millennial traveler, some companies are working toward developing more engaging and rewarding internal platforms for booking corporate reservations.

Map: The Most Popular Chain Restaurants By State

by Elizabeth Seward on


Americans are notorious for our love of fast food, and now, thanks to Thrillist, we can identify the home (founded or headquartered) of individual chain restaurants by state. The clever-map-creating folks over at Thrillist HQ impressed us all with their Booze Map of the USA, but their latest map, “Red, White, & Food” (full-size here), leads me to believe that they might just be getting started with these diagrams. Some of the findings illustrated in this map won’t come as much of a surprise — like that fact that Washington is linked to Starbucks, New York to Sbarro, California to In-N-Out, Vermont to Ben & Jerry’s or Ohio to Wendy’s — but other chain restaurant homes seem less intuitive.Other maps we love:

World Health Map
Fascinating Map Of London
Cold War-Era Map Of No-Go Zones For Soviets
French Wine Metro Map
Hipster Heat Map
Map Of World Currency
Zombie Survival Map
US Stereotypes Map
US Highways As Subway Map

Top 10 Most Outrageous Hotel Fees

by Elizabeth Seward on

Airlines receive substantial criticism for their ever-increasing fees. While complaints about surprise fees associated with air travel are warranted and deserving of productive conversation, similarly unsuspected hotel fees are often overlooked. A recent New York Times piece highlighted the problem and stated that hotels in the United States are on track to earn $2.1 billion this year in fees and surcharges alone.

Some of the most outrageous hotel fees that are being reported:

  1. Charges for donations to local charities (without receiving consent) are being added to bills. This actually happened to me while in Grenada.
  2. Bellhop service charges, even when bellhop services aren’t used.
  3. Housekeeping charges.
  4. Charges for using the business center, fitness center or other areas of the hotel.
  5. Some hotels now charge extra for a new set of clean towels or sheets.
  6. Some hotels add fees for using the in-room coffeemaker.
  7. Sometimes guests are charged for the in-room safe, even if they don’t use it.
  8. Package delivery fees are applied for receiving mail and other items to your room in some hotels.
  9. Bills at some hotels now include an “energy surcharge.”
  10. Paying to use the internet often comes with a fee, and sometimes it’s ridiculously steep.