California hotels offer third night free

35 California hotels run by the Joie de Vivre boutique hotel company are offering a third night free when you book and pay for two nights. To book the deal, go to the Third Night Free page on their blog or just use the promo code JOIE. Prices at the Joie de Vivre hotels range from $79 to $459 per night.

The Joie de Vivre group operates 35 hotels in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Mill Valley, Tiburon, Sonoma, Big Sur, Santa Cruz, Sacramento, Silicon Valley, Huntington Beach, Brentwood, Long Beach and Venice Beach. I checked out the Gaige House, a 23-room boutique hotel set on three acres in wine country and was able to book the deal, saving nearly $200 off the regular rate.

The offer is good for stays from November 1 to June 15, 2010 and must be booked online by May 31st.

[via Los Angeles Times]

Tourism in Silicon Valley – Disneyland for Geeks?

Interesting article in the New York Times this morning – at least if you are a geek.

The article describes the draw Silicon Valley has on tourists, and the various things you can do when visiting “the valley”.

Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, and unfortunately for those (foreign) tourists heading there expecting a small valley with all the big industry players huddled together, the interesting companies are spread out over a massive area.

Worst yet, when you drive around expecting to drop in and visit these companies, most of them are not interested in fans, and very few offer tours or other ways for geeks to show their love.
That said, there are still several fun things to do in the area for visitors and the article lists most of the ways visitors can spend a day at the Computer History Museum, or the Tech Museum of Innovation.

One destination not mentioned in the article is Fry’s Electronics. Sunnyvale is where Fry’s opened their first store, and while that one is long gone, they still have a large store across the road from their original location.

Check out the entire region with this map:

Short and Sweet Travel Advice for the World’s Top Tech Cities

If you’re in the tech industry these days, your travel has become increasingly more widespread in the last five years as international competition has started challenging Silicon Valley as the sole place to do business.

With this in mind, Business 2.0 has published a handy little guide in this month’s issue: The Road Warrior’s Guide to Travel.

The guide, which is available online here, or as a pull-out in the print edition, breaks out the travel basics for the planet’s hottest tech cities: Bangalore, Barcelona, Helsinki, Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo.

Each city section addresses the same six questions; How to get around, where to find free Wi-Fi, where to get a trim, best place to get down to business, best place to celebrate closing the deal, and what you might not know.

Better get a print copy soon, however. I just learned that Business 2.0 (one of my favorite magazines) is going belly-up–perhaps yet another sign that the tech world is migrating out of America?