January 13, 2012
Gold status? That’s all I am? Just because I’ve never forgotten my pants or lost my keys? 50 weeks on the road last year and only Gold? I’m dejected. J
I had to take the quiz a second time. Just gotta get to Platinum!
No go. I only reached Silver the second time – after I fibbed a bit and said I have forgotten my pants. Arghh!
Head over to CNBC’s Quiz: How Much of a Road Warrior Are You? and check your road warrior-ness.
And if you reach Platinum, share your answers!
To receive a free copy of our ebook, 70 Secrets to Safe Travel — Because Your Life Can Change in a Heartbeat, and for more travel savvy info to help you travel smarter, safer and with more enjoyment, visit SmartWomenTravelers.com and PearlsofTravelWisdom.com. Watch for my new book, Business Travel Success – How to Reduce Stress, Be More Productive and Travel with Confidence, being published by Morgan James in early 2012.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Pearls of Travel Fun |
April 20, 2011
I have a renewed perspective on my busy travel life after this encounter.
I was at my bank the other day opening an account. The financial services advisor I was working with was asking about my business. She asked about the t-shirt I was wearing. “Is that your business?” she asked, pointing to the logo on my shirt. “Yes,” I replied, “Smart Women Travelers is one of my businesses.”
Then came the barrage of questions: What do you do, where do you travel, and what’s your favorite place?
As I kept answering her questions: I help travelers travel smarter, safer and with more enjoyment; I travel all over the world; the Greek Islands are my favorite place, I could see that my new account was going to take longer than I hoped to get set up.
Then she said the words you may also have heard before: “Wow, you really have the dream job!”
My initial thought was “Are you kidding? – I traveled all or part of 50 weeks last year!”
But I didn’t react out loud. I thought about it while she was busy filling out the endless bank forms.
The downsides can be many. I miss:
Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Favorite Cities and Towns, New Travelers, Random Thoughts, Travel |
March 19, 2011
They’re not your typical type of ‘business travelers.’ They caravan from one city to another with trailers full of art and great hope for big sales. Many of them know each other as they go from one outdoor event to another throughout ‘the season.’
Just who are these business travelers? They are the artists and craftsmen who labor on their creations during the week, then get behind the wheel to bring their one-of-a-kind pieces to us — their buyers and art connoisseurs.
This weekend, all roads fed into the city of Winter Park, Florida for the 52nd Annual Winter Park Art Festival. They come from California, Oregon, North Caroline, Michigan, Wisconsin and numerous other states, all for the opportunity to show, and hopefully sell, their unique and beautiful art for three days.
They sleep in their campers or look for economy hotels. They’re up at Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Favorite Cities and Towns, Places to See; Things to Do, Travel |
October 23, 2010
My neighbors must really wonder about who lives in our house.
They rarely see me in the light of day. When I am at home, which lately has been only about one or two weekends a month, I walk the dog late in the evening. When I leave by car, it’s from inside our garage. The same goes for my husband … dog walks and car trips, though he is home more than I am. The neighbors see our dog more than they see either of us, as Toby loves to lie on the front lawn soaking up the Florida sunshine and watching the kids walk home from school.
Growing up, everyone’s house seemed to have a name. Schaeffer’s house, Freda’s house, the crabby lady’s house. Do they call our house the Dog-with-no-Parents House? I’ll see people look into our glass front doors as they’re walking by, probably thinking to themselves “Does anyone really live here?” Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Random Thoughts |
March 2, 2010
I loved the movie Up in the Air. George Clooney made business travel look so easy – maybe even glamorous – whisking through airports; arriving at his hotel with no check-in lines as the scene simply cuts to him relaxing in a hotel room.
Great movie but it was far from reality. Don’t get me wrong, I love traveling, but it is hardly easy. What are the downsides to traveling every week? Let me count the ways … Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Hotel Living, Relationships, Television & Movies, Travel |
January 26, 2010
When it comes to my hotel stays, which are virtually every week, I classify myself as a ‘home-body’. Outside of going to work, attending a conference, or eating a meal, chances are I will be in my room. The hotel that I frequent does have a nice concierge lounge which I have access to, and I really should enjoy their red leather sofas more often. There is also a big lobby, but it is noisy and not conducive to relaxing in a quiet spot to read or get work done. As far as going to the hotel’s bar at night … that’s just not for me unless I’m going with friends. It is generally full of guys (as most hotel bars are) and not a comfortable place for a solo female to hang out on a regular basis … unless, of course, I was to be looking for an evening career … which I’m not.
I recently attended a conference at the Hotel InterContinental in Atlanta’s Buckhead area. What I discovered was the perfect lobby area that I could see myself becoming a fixture in if this was a hotel I frequently stayed at. There were plenty of sofas and chairs in a very warm, comfortable area. It was away from the main hotel desk and bar area, so peacefulness reigned. And what got me excited the most was that every table next to a sofa or chair had power outlets – several of them! I never would have thought that power outlets would get me so excited, but when I spend the vast majority of my life on my laptop, power outlets become a necessity. Finally, this was an area where I could sink into the nice cozy sofa, have a cup of tea or glass of wine, and get some serious work or socializing done online.
Unfortunately I was only at the Hotel InterContinental for a six-hour conference, so the sinking into the sofa with a glass of wine was only a nice dream in my head. But that is what I would love to find in the hotels where I stay. I’ll keep dreaming …
Posted by Carol Margolis under Hotel Living |
January 16, 2010
I just wrapped up a 5-day cruise with CEOSpace. It’s the first time I have ever cruised with a business purpose and it was great! We had meetings planned in the mornings so we still had the majority of each day for getting off the ship and doing our own thing.
Dinners were spent together, rotating tables each night so that we could network and do business with as many people as possible (there were about 115 of us in our group). It was just the right mix of business, networking and fun!
I collected several funny travel stories for my upcoming book (see http://smartwomentravelers.com for the details), talked with travel industry experts; discussed travel products and met with CEOs and entreprenuers from all walks of life. All in all, I was very surprised that so much business got done on a cruise ship. But that’s also the power of the CEOSpace group.
I’ve only been off the ship a few hours and I’m already thinking about my next working cruise!
Posted by Carol Margolis under Travel |
November 9, 2009
What started out as a nice short flight from Atlanta to Houston turned into a comedy of issues this morning. All issues were unavoidable had I implemented my own tried-and-true travel tips.
When I checked into the kiosk to get my boarding pass and check my bag (yes, even I have to check a bag now and then for longer journeys), I grabbed the paper that the kiosk spit out and went up to the desk to check my bag. There was an earlier flight to Houston, but I declined it in order to have breakfast with my husband before he flew back to Orlando. He was in Terminal A, I was in Terminal C. The desk agent slapped on the luggage tag and gave me my boarding pass. I looked at it and now saw that I was in Terminal A also – yeah! But I looked again and saw that my boarding pass had me going to Minneapolis! Turns out that the paper I took from the kiosk was not my boarding pass, but the ticket receipt of the person who used the machine before me. Had I not noticed the terminal right away, my bag would have been on its way to MSP within minutes.
Lesson 1: Always, always, always look at your boarding pass and luggage tag to ensure that they are taking you and your bags to the desired location.
My husband and I had breakfast and I headed to my gate. I wanted one more cup of coffee for the plane, but the line at Starbuck’s was really long. Instead, I figured that I would wait until beverages were served on the plane and I’d get a coffee then. (No, I am definitely not comparing airplane coffee to Starbucks! It was easier not to have to carry a cup of coffee around the terminal with my already full hands). Here comes issue #2: both coffee pots on our plane were out of commission, so no hot drinks on the flight. Bummer…I really was looking forward to the warmth of a cup of coffee.
Lesson 2: Get your food and drink ahead of boarding the flight, as there may not be what you expect on the plane. This is also great advice for those long tarmac delays, as your patience will last longer when your stomach is happy.
Our flight arrived in Atlanta 30 minutes early. I was happy that I’d be getting to my client’s office earlier than I thought. I just needed to pick up my checked bag. I waited … and waited … and waited for my bag to come around the carousel. Everyone else’s bags were getting picked up. Where was mine? Then it dawned on me… remember the earlier flight that I was offered? I did not take it, but Delta probably sent my bag on ahead. I traipsed over to the baggage office and immediately spotted my green ‘Smart Women Travelers’ luggage handles. I could have been out of the airport half an hour earlier had I just thought to check the baggage office first.
Lesson 3: If there was any chance that your luggage came in on an earlier flight, or may not have made your flight due to tight connections, just check as the baggage office. They should be able to tell you what flight your luggage was on.
I finally got out of the airport with my luggage (without coffee), rented my car and was finally on my way. 
I usually make phone calls on my long drive, so I put my Bluetooth headset on my ear and pressed the ‘on’ button … no sound. Uh oh! It’s charge was gone and it was dead. My rule is to never talk on a cell phone when I am driving without a headset. One car ride with making any phone calls wasn’t that bad. It’s the ‘I told you so’ that I am going to get from my husband when he reads this that I’m not looking forward to. At breakfast I was questioning him on why he had to charge up his phone when we had just left our hotel an hour earlier with a full charge. He said that even though the battery was only down a little, you never knew when you would need the phone and having a full charge was important. I pooh-poohed this, saying that a nearly full charge was good enough. Since I had not used my Bluetooth all weekend, I figured it still had a good enough charge to it. The joke was on me. There was no charge at all – and I had an hour at the airport when I could have been charging it! And I laughed at him for being an excessive charger!
Lesson #4 is (compliments of my wise husband): Always have a full charge on all electronics before boarding a plane.
So even though I fly every week and am a trusted source of travel advice, I obviously did not heed my own advice nor listen to the advice of others. I relearned valuable lessons today …. I hope you learn them the first time and do not need the refresher course like I did!
And dear husband …. I do not want to hear the words “I told you so!”
Posted by Carol Margolis under Hotel Living, New Travelers, Travel |
November 7, 2009
For all the many years I have traveled (40+ weeks each year), I have relied on CNN to keep me up-to-date with the happenings of the world. No matter where I travel, CNN is like an old friend…always there for me and always reliable (sounds like my dog, also!). But seriously, most travelers I talk with say that they tune into CNN while on the road as their primary news source. While the city, state or country may change, the news show stays the same. For many of us, we like this reliability. Watching local news shows is great for traffic and weather reports, but it can be difficult to relate to the local news. Headline News (now HLN) is great for quick updates on the news that we can get before leaving our hotel rooms in the morning, and CNN International is there for us as we travel the globe.
Since I have been watching CNN for so many years, I was excited to take the tour of the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta today.
While I did not run into the real Larry King or Wolf Blitzer (just their cardboard look-alikes), 
it was great to see the studios where so many of their shows are broadcast from. And when CNN comes calling and has me, the Smart Woman Traveler, on their show, I am already familiar with their studios!
What was very interesting during the CNN tour was seeing several producers at their desks busy with Twitter and Facebook. Not once in our walk-through did we see any of them pick up their telephones. The system for discovering and reporting on the news has certainly changed with the influx of social media.
You can follow @CNN and @CNNBrk for breaking news on Twitter and the CNN Fan Page on Facebook.
And CNN, contact me at @smartwomentrav to schedule road warrior stories from the female perspective!
Posted by Carol Margolis under Television & Movies, Web/Tech |
September 28, 2009
With over 20,000 tweets per minute, Twitter can offer a wealth of information. From interesting industry stories to great deals offered by an airline, there is no shortage of tweets about travel. But if you are looking for information on a city you are traveling to, sorting through this constant stream of 140-character posts to find a relevant post can be daunting. This is where Twaller comes in.
Twaller does all of the searching and sorting for you. Pulling together applicable tweets based on keywords, hashtags, and user locations, Twaller then sorts them into categories and specific cities to make it easy to find what you are looking for. Say you want to find a good place to eat in Barcelona, some fine shopping in Chicago, or what the weather is like in Mumbai, this site makes it easy to find what you are looking for.
The site is still in Beta, meaning that they are actively working on improving it and adding more features, but we wanted to give you a head’s up on this promising service. We would like to see more corresponding tweets to the categories (right now you just see the three latest), the ability to click through to the actual twitter post, and a better flow to the site.
Twaller shows a lot of promise. We hope that you can find some useful information for your next trip through their service.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Web/Tech |
