24Apr / 2013

This Mother’s Day, Give the Gift of Travel

Finding the perfect gift for someone can be exciting, annoying, frustrating, or downright difficult – especially when that person happens to be your mother. Countless times we’ve given our mothers a day at the spa, flowers or a framed photo. While the gifts are always appreciated, they just don’t seem to convey exactly how much we love our moms. What is the perfect gift that can show mom just how much we love and appreciate her? We say travel.

Giving the gift of travel is actually gifting someone with a unique and memorable experience. Whether a trip to Paris, New York or Hawaii, each holds the possibility for memories to be made that are guaranteed to be cherished. Seeing a gorgeous sunset in Bora Bora or eating the best gelato in Rome are some of the types of memories that we fondly remember when we speak about our travels. Giving someone the opportunity to experience a new city or country is a gift that quite doesn’t compare to a dozen roses. But what may even be better than sending your mom on a relaxing beach vacation, is actually going on a trip with her.

We think that giving the gift of travel is overlooked. We can all get caught up in our day to day, and when the moment comes, it’s easier to send a bouquet of flowers than it is to plan a memorable trip for that special woman in your life. But we challenge you to think about giving travel. To help inspire you, some of our Facebook fans shared with us how they have given the gift of travel to their mothers.

So this Mother’s Day, we encourage you to think about giving the gift of travel – whether a weekend getaway or a two week safari – we’re certain this gift won’t compare with others.

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15Feb / 2013

Lost in Rio? A QR code to the rescue…

This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi of Legal Nomads.

A fun new project in Brazil: Rio De Janeiro has embedded QR codes into their sidewalks, for tourists to both learn about the city and map out where they are headed next. Instead of painting them onto the sidewalks or walls, they’ve been built in using tiling, to better fit in with the beachwalks and existing infrastructure.

The first of the QR codes was build at Arpoador, a boulder at the end of Ipanema beach.When the tiles are scanned with a smartphone, a local map and information is provided to the user in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Per Today Online, the information for Arpoador included ”that Arpoador gets big waves, making it a hot spot for surfing and giving the 500-metre beach nearby the name of Praia do Diabo, or Devil’s Beach. They could also find out that the rock is called Arpoador because fishermen once harpooned whales off the shore.”

The country plans to embed roughly 30 QR codes at beaches, vistas and various historic sites around the city. Fun project!

QR codes in Rio

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08Feb / 2013

Nemo Cancelled Your Flight? 7 Helpful Travel Tips

Thousands of flights have been cancelled due to blizzard Nemo. If you’re, unfortunately, in that mix, here are some tips to help relieve the stress and hopefully get you home sooner:

Use the Hipmunk Hotel App. Our App is built for last-minute location-based searches. Once you open the app, you’ll see your current location and all of the available hotels near your location. Also, big hotels are the first to get booked, but we have Airbnb, apartment and home rentals, in our search results for additional options.
Use the Hipmunk Flight App: If you’re at an airport and trying to rebook a new flight, our app allows you to find available flights in the palm of your hand. If you’re in line at customer service, run searches and once you’re at the counter, show them the flight you want. Oftentimes, agents will say that there are no flights available, but with people moving onto other flights, there may be some open seats.
If they offer to rebook you on a flight that leaves days later, take it. You’re guaranteed that ticket. If you want to try to leave earlier, just standby on all flights that leave before yours.
Don’t leave the airport, or get there early every morning. Standby on every flight and hope people don’t show up (it happens!) Or, go to the airport early every morning, because people won’t make it to the airport on time, or have also been moved onto new flights. Getting to the airport early also lets you get on that standby list earlier in the day, increasing your chances of getting home quickly.
Try other airports. If you’re in a metropolitan area with multiple airports nearby, check out flights at those airports.
Ask the airline to put you on another airline. This one’s a bit trickier (especially when flights are cancelled due to weather) but it never hurts to ask!
Put the customer service numbers of your airline and other airlines in your phone before you go to airport. This comes in handy when lines are long. Make calls while in line, and you may be on a new flight before you even get to the counter.