Also know as the “carnival” of the northern hemisphere, New Orleans Mardi Gras is one of the largest free events of the year. What can you expect to find at this event? Food, parades with creative floats and about 700,000 people in the streets of the French Quarter wearing colorful beads, costumes and having a really good time 
Here are some tips for getting the most out of your Mardi Gras experience:
RTravel.com is a travel social network that allows users to share travel videos and travel photos. Currently the website is running a contest with a $300 prize for the best travel photo album and a $300 prize for the best travel video upload. Here are some features that I found to be pretty useful:
Overall this social network is very organized, provides easy navigation and offers some cool features.
ZoomAndGo.com is a Travel Social Network that allows it’s users to share videos and pictures from destinations all over the world. The main page has a map of the world where you can click on a small icon for that region and watch a video or view pictures that a user uploaded to share. A gallery of these videos can also be found on the bottom of the map that you can scroll through with larger thumbnails. You can choose from the tabs what kind of videos or pictures you would like to choose from with the following categories: Spotlight (features a video of the day), Most Recent, Most Popular and Editor’s Picks. Other features include Zoom, Map View, Satellite View and Hybrid View.
Here is a screen shot of the home page:
Located at 246 N Canon Dr in Beverly Hills, the ambiance of this place is an experience all in itself. With a dining room downstairs and a piano bar upstairs, expect good food and entertainment from this place. For the food, the portions are HUGE and the prices justify the size with a la carte items above the $30 mark.
The Dresden Room is a lounge that serves Italian food, has a night club with live music and has been featured in many movies. Motion pictures Swingers and That Thing You Do were filmed in the Dresden Room along with many others. The bar’s blue glasses hold the house classic, Blood and Sand which is a space age Margarita, a must try. All of the Martinis and Manhattans are also good. The most recommended wine can be found on Dresden’s 33-bin wine list. Owners and founders Marty and Elayne perform Monday through Saturday from 9:00 pm to 1:00 am.
Tips
Current and new Last Minute Travel Club members enjoy 5,000 complementary TripleDip points as of a few days ago. If you are not a member of the Last Minute Travel Club yet, head over to www.LMTClub.com and sign up for an account. The membership fee is $49.95 per year and you will enjoy savings up to 65% on over 13,000 hotels worldwide.
TripleDip points are part of our Web Loyalty program that allows Last Minute Travel Club members earn free trips on top of big savings by booking through the club. For every dollar you spend on the website you get one point.
Redeeming points is easy and there is no fine print, what you see is what you get. TripleDip points are deposited into the member’s account one month after the checkout date of their purchased trip. No additional fees, taxes or black out dates will apply, what you see is what you get. So head over to the Last Minute Travel Club and sign up for your account to start saving big today.
Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles was founded by Herb Hudson in 1976. Roscoe’s is a soul food restaurant chain famous for serving chicken and waffles. Aside from the chicken and waffles you can also find a large assortment of other soul foods such as chicken sausage, giblets, livers, biscuits and gravy, potato salad, smothered potatoes with gravy, french fires, corn bread, red beans, mac and cheese, grits, greens corn bread, red beans and sweet potato pie.
Today you can find a Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in 5 different California locations:
Tips:
Customers say aside from the Chicken and Waffles or Chicken Omlette that you have to try the Sunrise drink (Lemonade and OJ).
Pink’s Hot DogsFounded in 1939, Pink’s Hot Dogs is one of the most famous hot dog stands in the country. Located on the corner of Melrose and La Bera Ave in Los Angeles, local hot dog lovers and celebrities gather a Pink’s regularly for their famous chili dogs.
To see pictures of celebrities who have visited Pink’s Hot Dogs before click here to go to the Official Pink’s Hot Dogs website.
Cruising around the Caribbean Island is the easier, fun and cheaper getaway. My family and I love cruising in Paradise. We call it Paradise because at the moment we step down onto the Caribbean we enter a state of true bliss; over and above we can listen to the tropical breeze swinging the tall and skinny palms as if they were dancing along with.
We do recommend bringing with you sunscreen lotion because the bright sun gets really intense in anticipation of the stunning sunset.
Easier, Fun and Cheaper
It’s easier because a Cruise Ship provides:
It’s fun because:
It’s Cheaper because:
Tips
I recommend Carnival Cruise line for young crowd.
For honeymooners or in a romantic trip I recommend The Royal Caribbean Int’l.
Upon shipping make sure you wear a bathing suit and have the essential items, since the luggage wouldn’t be available for hours.
Be aware that “Hurricane Season” is defined as June 10th through November 10th.
And one last tip: At Departure time take your luggage with you instead of waiting for the bellman to bringing down and prevent waiting time waiting for your luggage.
Across 118 Capital of the Veneto region, stretches islands, is one of the most charming places I have ever visited. It took 2.5 hours on the Eurostar train from Milan to Venice - Santa Lucia.
I split my stay between two hotels, the Best Western Cavalletto and San Marco Palace. Both of them are located on San Dei Dogi in Marco Square 40 minutes by water boat from Santa Marco (6.5 Euros each way). Both hotels were absolutely great. San Marco Palace is a suite hotel with a small reception hotel team while Best Western very friendly Cavalletto Dei Dogi (which is located 1 minute away from San Marco Palace) has a larger welcoming lobby and the team is as well.
My favorite place in Venice Mainland is Bistrot De Venise. You will never forget watching the gondolas go by on the canals at this very charming restaurant. If you are looking for a romantic restaurant, you will like Al Chianti in the evening when the square is less crowded this restaurant is splendid. For good Italian food I recommend Mercanti.
For the shopping lovers, don’t expect to find bookstores and a lot of places to buy glassware, here in these small shops. There is a market located right by the Rialto bridge. A store I really liked there was the Rialto Handcraft store.
( San Marco Square )
Also check out Green Pub near campo Santa Marherita or for some ice cream you can visit Torino@notte which is minutes from San Marco Square.
Ciao!
