Oktoberfest… and Three Days in Munich

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So this past fall was the sixth year straight that I’ve attended the World’s largest festival — Oktoberfest in Munich.   I’ve been accompanied on these Oktoberfest by a varying number of friends over the years — this year was no exception, as there were six of us including my fiancé, who was making her first trip to the Wiesn.

See this post for ten tips to planning a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich.

In order to combat the ridiculous crowds that are prevalent on the weekends, we decided to arrive into Munich on a Wednesday, and focus our time at the Oktoberfest during the week — on Thursday and Friday.

We arrived from our overnight flight in Lufthansa Business Class from Washington on Wednesday around noon.  From there, we took the S-Bahn directly to the Hackerbrucke station, which is only two blocks from where we stayed — the Four Points Sheraton Munich Central.

The Four Points Sheraton - Munich Central

The Four Points Sheraton – Munich Central

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Posted in: Advice, Cities and Places, City Guides, Europe, Food, Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest, Special Events, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , ,

Two Nights in Singapore at the Grand Hyatt Singapore

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We arrived in Singapore from Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific flight at around 8pm.  We easily made our way through immigration and Singapore’s beautiful Changi International Airport, out to the curb to hail a cab for our hotel.  We booked a room at the Grand Hyatt Singapore for this short stay.

The cab ride couldn’t have been any more than twenty minutes and I think it ran around 20 Singapore dollars.  When I booked the room a few months earlier, I used one of my last remaining  Hyatt Diamond Suite  upgrades for our two night stay, and we were upgraded to a Grand Duplex Suite.

And it sure was Grand…

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Posted in: Asia, Cities and Places, City Guides, Hotel Reviews, Hotels, Hyatt, Mileage Runs, Singapore, Status, Travel, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Three Days in Dubai – Ten Highlights

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We arrived in Dubai at the interesting hour of around 8pm and quickly disembarked from my somewhat disappointing flight in United Business First from Washington-Dulles.  We were given express passes for immigration, but this didn’t seem to matter much.  The walk from the gate to immigration is pretty substantial, and by the time we reached the immigration hall, every line was massive — including the “express” line.  After about a twenty-minute wait time, our passports were stamped and we were admitted into the United Arab Emirates.  We breezed through customs and made our way outside to the curb where our friend picked us up for three amazing days in Dubai!

I’d been to Dubai before, but this time I was with two great friends from Grad School — and friends with whom I make my annual pilgrimage to Oktoberfest in Munich — so I knew this weekend might be somewhat aggressive.  We and a jam-packed weekend that featured some late nights, excessive meals, pricey cocktails, and sight-seeing.  Here are some highlights of my weekend in Dubai…

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Posted in: Advice, Asia, Bars, Cities and Places, City Guides, Dubai, Food, Layovers, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

A Twenty-Two Hour Layover in Tokyo and the Hyatt Regency Tokyo

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For my return flights home to Washington, DC, I intentionally booked a twenty-two hour layover in Tokyo between my inbound flight on Air China from Shanghai and my final leg in ANA First Class to Washington-Dulles.  Why, you ask?

Because I freakin’ love Tokyo.  And my buddy had never been.

That, my friends is an opportunity to maximize my routing on this award.

I’d been to Tokyo before on a previous globetrotting adventure, so I was pretty familiar with certain areas in the city — mainly Shinjuku since I stayed at the Park Hyatt Toyko last time.  Since I knew Shinjuku well, I figured that would be the best place to stay this time around — we could hit some highlights and be done with it.  I was looking for a Hyatt property, and the Hyatt Regency Tokyo fit the bill nicely, as it is a few blocks from the Shinjuku Station and was reasonably priced.

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Posted in: Advice, Asia, Award Travel, Bars, Cities and Places, City Guides, Food, Hotel Reviews, Hotels, Hyatt, Japan, Layovers, miles, Tokyo, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

A Weekend in Hong Kong – Ten Highlights

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Since my first time to Hong Kong during grad school back in 2009, I’ve referred to Hong Kong as my favorite city in the World.  After a third trip back, I still think it’s my favorite city anywhere.  There’s just so much that this metropolis has to offer.   From the markets to the vistas to the beaches to the food to the architecture, Hong Kong really has it all, and is a true urban metropolis.
Every time I go back to Hong Kong, I continue to be mesmerized by its iconic skyline that towers over Victoria Harbor.  I’m still  enthralled with the absurd variety and quality of foods.  Hong Kong is basically Manhattan — with a better skyline.  But on a beautiful harbor.  With mountainous terrain.  And great beaches on the other side of the mountains… basically, I think this city has it all.

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Two Days in Shanghai

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Things didn’t start well at the airport.  Immigration and customs were both fine, but then it went downhill.

Yes, we were exhausted after over 30 hours of travel from Munich at that point, but we fell into a trap at the airport – a trap that I should know better not to fall for:  we listened to an “airport guide” and got ripped off on our taxi ride to our hotel in Pudong.

Instead of waiting 30 minutes for the Maglev, and instead of braving the taxi queue on our own, we let ourselves get convinced by this official-looking “airport guide” dude that 600RMB was a fair price for a private driver (i.e. cab) from the airport to Pudong.

Yeah, we got ripped off.

As we found out later in the trip, a cab for this trip should cost no more than 160RMB, and the Maglev could be had for even less.  Oh, well.  You live and you learn, I guess.

We really did enjoy our two days in Shanghai, though we screwed up along the way and got ripped off a time or two.  Rather than dwell on that, I’ll hit some highlights of the two and a half days we spent in Shanghai.  To be honest, the absolute star of the show during our stay was our hotel – the Park Hyatt Shanghai. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Advice, Analysis, Asia, Cities and Places, City Guides, Food, Shanghai, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , ,

A Layover in Bangkok – Six Hours in the City

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As previously noted, we spent the first part of our layover at the THAI Royal First Lounge, but with twelve hours between flights, I wanted to get into the city a bit just to experience a little of the utter chaos that is Bangkok.  We left the lounge and headed for Thailand immigration, where our passports were stamped.  From there, we headed towards the taxi cab queue, but decided to play things “safe” and talk to one of the “official” airport transport / tour agents.  This is a surefire way to pay more for transportation, but we didn’t really feel like dealing with language barriers and preferred to pre-pay for a driver for the day.  We ultimately arranged for a driver for six hours for about 3,000 Thai Baht (~USD$100)– though that’s relatively expensive, we were happy to pay it, as it was pretty simple and easy for us. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Advice, Asia, Bangkok, Cities and Places, City Guides, Layovers, Thailand, Travel, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , ,

Oktoberfest… and Six Other Highlights of Munich

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I’ve been pretty open about my love for Oktoberfest in Munich.  As the largest festival in the World, Oktoberfest attracts over 6 million visitors each year during the 17 day event.  The past five years, I’ve spent at least a couple days at the Wiesn, and I’ve always had a blast.  This year was no different.

See this post for ten tips to planning a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich.

Instead of going four consecutive days at Oktoberfest, we decided to mix things up a bit in order to conserve some of our energy later in the trip.  As a result, we decided to spend two of our five days in Munich at the Oktoberfest and use the other days explore Munich.  Continue Reading →

Posted in: Advice, Cities and Places, City Guides, Europe, Food, Germany, Munich, Oktoberfest, Special Events, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , ,

Six Initial Thoughts on My Trip Around the World

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After two weeks and just under 22,000 miles of travel around the world, I’m finally getting acclimated to the real world after arriving back in Washington from Tokyo last week.

DCA-ORD-MUC // MUC-BKK-PVG // PVG-HKG-PVG // PVG-NRT-IAD

DCA-ORD-MUC // MUC-BKK-PVG // PVG-HKG-PVG // PVG-NRT-IAD

I’d initially planned to publish trip reports as I went on this trip, but after a pretty intense first few days of Oktoberfest in Munich, that whole idea went out the window.  On this trip, I used my time in airports and on flights to relax and sleep instead of writing.  As a result, my trip reports will be published, post by post in the coming weeks.  I’ve got all sorts of goodies in this set, in addition to my flights in United, THAI, Air China and ANA First Class, including:

  • Le Meridien, Munich
  • Park Hyatt Shanghai
  • Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui
  • Grand Hyatt Shanghai
  • Hyatt Regency Tokyo
  • Sights of Munich and Oktoberfest
  • A Day in Bangkok
  • THAI Royal First Class Lounge and Spa, BKK
  • Sights of Shanghai
  • Air China Forbidden First Class Lounge, PVG
  • Sights of Hong Kong
  • A Nights in Tokyo

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Posted in: Advice, Asia, Award Travel, Cities and Places, City Guides, Europe, Flight Reviews, Food, Germany, Hong Kong, Hotel Reviews, Hotels, Hyatt, Japan, Layovers, Munich, Oktoberfest, Shanghai, Tokyo, Travel, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

24 Hours in Anchorage

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I’m posting this after completing a short, weekend trip to Anchorage, Alaska as part of a mileage run to hit the American Airlines Executive Platinum Status Challenge. Anchorage is a great place to spend a day, and obviously a fantastic hopping off point to explore more of Alaska, including Denali, the Kenai Peninsula, or even an Alaskan cruise. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend you actually spend some time in Alaska – certainly more than 24 hours. I’ve been fortunate enough to take two cruises to Alaska, so I’ve been able to experience the majestic scenery of the Last Frontier. I also spent a couple days in Anchorage last summer for a quick, weekend trip.

With that said, there’s no shortage of things to do if you have a short time in Anchorage – whether it’s a free day after a cruise, a hopping off point before or after a fishing trip, or if you find it amusing to fly almost 10,000 miles in a weekend, like me. Continue Reading →

Posted in: Advice, Airlines, Alaska, American, Cities and Places, City Guides, Food, Hostels, How to Guide, Layovers, Mileage Runs, North America, Status, Travel, Travel Hacking, Trip Reports \ Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,