In order to book an upgradable fare on United you have to buy a ticket in fare class W or higher.  Here are the fare classes above W.

V
Q
H
U
E
M
B
Y

Only airlines could convolute something so simple as the ordering of the alphabet.

Introduction
SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
Cooks County

The Wednesday event was in the beautiful new digs of the United Talent Agency in Beverly Hills. My favorite hotel in Beverly Hills remains the Beverly Wilshire Hotel – though I’ve only stayed there once. I love the location of the Beverly Wilshire as you spill-out  onto Rodeo Drive.  It is an easily walk to restaurants, (window) shopping, and great “people watching.”  I was unfamiliar with the SLS Hotel and felt like the location isn’t perfect when it comes to walking to nearby restaurants. But it was clear the moment I arrived at SLS Hotel that the hotel itself IS the destination.

The property opened in the Fall of 2008. Here is the New York Times review of the property from 2009. While the property has been open for four years, it has done a good job of maintaining a hip (near contemptuous) feel.  There is a great outdoor waiting/lounging area outside the front door and I can imagine it is a good place for people watching on any given day.

Introduction
SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
Cooks County

As I previously wrote about, last week I traveled to Los Angeles to support an event promoting Entertainment Matters at CES.  As I wrote about in my last post, I’m attempting to get better at (or rather start completely) writing about some of the places I stay at and places I eat at while traveling.  According to my United account, I’ve flow 59.5 year-to-date premier segments and since not all flight segments count as premier segments it is safe to presume that I’ve flown over 60 flight segments in 2012 with a few more to go before the year closes.  I’m on track to fly roughly 150,000 miles this year. I’d say almost all of these flight segments and nearly every single mile is indistinguishable from each other so I won’t spend a lot of time reviewing flights.  I fly coach and almost always on United so I’ll focus on where I say and where (and what) I eat.

I travel to LAX a few times a year so this route mapping is not atypical. I typically either leave on a very late flight or a very early flight when I’m traveling to the West Coast and with this short trip, I left on a relatively early flight. The flight was uneventful.  With that, I’ll continue to talk about the hotel and the restaurant where I had dinner.

 

Travel 0

I have always traveled.  I grew-up an Army Brat (Horrah!) and it just felt “natural” to move every few years.  We often moved from place-to-place with a classic American road trip to our future assignment. My parents (and especially my mother) always wanted (and encouraged) me to take advantage of opportunities. Regardless of where we lived, we did things, we saw things, and we generally got out. As I’m sure it is with most, many of the trips I took as a kid have stayed with me as some of my fondest memories and now I seek to do the same thing for my kids.

I’ve always embraced the philosophy that the joy (and the adventure) is in the journey and not necessarily in the destination.  After graduating from college this nomadic sense stayed with me.  I completed my freshman year of college in Hawaii.  I then deferred two years of college to served as a volunteer representative for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I lived in six cities in the Netherlands and traveled throughout the Netherlands and Belgium.  Upon returning to the U.S. I attended Brigham Young University for a semester before jet-setting to the Middle East where I studied in East Jerusalem and traveled throughout Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Following my semester in the Middle East I spend 2+ months traveling through Eastern Europe. The traveling continued, but I’ll cut the log short here.

Fast forward to today and I’m fortunate to work for a great organization and frequently represent them by speaking at a myriad of conferences around the globe. This year I’m on-track to log about 150,000 miles. Through these adventures I often find myself eating interesting things and staying in interesting places. At the same time, I follow a few travel blogs and it occurred to me that I too could participate in this conversation by writing reviews on hotels or restaurants.  In all of this, I’ll attempt to hold true to my mantra that the adventure is the journey.

With all of this said, I’ve been taking photos at places I’ve eaten or stayed over the last six months, but just haven’t found the time to write much in this domain.  I’m 24 hours out from a trip to Stockholm and I’m flipping through the photos of random hotel rooms I’ve stayed at over the last 6 months. Hopefully I can catch-up (or at least start).

Two great posts on the 50 (and 50 m0re) most famous landmarks on earth.

Here are the first 50.  I’ve bolded the 22 I’ve visited:

  1.  Blue-domed Church in Santorini
  2. St Basil Cathedral in Moscow
  3. The Statue of Liberty in New York
  4. Machu Picchu in Peru
  5. The Taj Mahal in Agra ( India )
  6. The Eiffel Tower in Paris
  7. The Great Sphynx at Giza
  8. The Chinese Wall in China
  9. Uluru in the Northern Territory
  10. The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen
  11. Windmills at Kinderdijk ( Holland )
  12. Agia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey
  13. Acropolis of Athens
  14. Mount Fuji in Japan
  15. Stonehenge in the English county of Wiltshire
  16. Big Ben in London
  17. Neuschwanstein in Bavaria
  18. Mount Eden crater in New Zealand
  19. Loch Ness in Scotland
  20. Easter Island in the Polynesian Triangle
  21. Christo Redemptor in Rio de Janeiro
  22. Capitol Hill in Washington DC
  23. Tower of Pisa
  24. Al Aqsa in Jerusalem
  25. Niagara Falls at the border of Ontario ( Canada ) and New York ( USA )
  26. Angkor Wat at Cambodia
  27. The Burj in Dubai
  28. Bran Castle in Romania
  29. Manneke Pis in Brussels
  30. Mount Everest on the border of Tibet and Nepal
  31. Mecca in Saudi Arabia
  32. Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
  33. St Peters at Vatican City
  34. Mont St Michel in France
  35. Mount Rushmore in South Dakota
  36. Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe
  37. The Grand Canyon in Arizona
  38. Nevado Mismi in Peru ( source of the Amazon River )
  39. Auschwitz in Poland
  40. The Great Buddha of Kamakura in Tokyo
  41. Neptune and the Palace of Versailles in France
  42. Cape of Good Hope in South Africa
  43. Trevi Fountain in Rome
  44. Petra in Jordan
  45. Sagrada Familia in Barcelona
  46. North Cape in Norway
  47. Chichen Itza in Mexico
  48. Inukshuk in Canada
  49. Lascaux in France
  50. Table Mountain in South Africa
and here are the second 50, with the 17 I’ve visited bolded.
  1. The Colosseum in Rome
  2. The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt
  3. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul
  4. Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
  5. Sydney Opera House in Australia
  6. Iguazu Falls on the border of Brazil and Argentina
  7. Kremlin in Moscow
  8. Parc Guell in Barcelona
  9. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
  10. Waterloo in Belgium
  11. The Empire State Building in New York
  12. Newgrange in Ireland
  13. Forbidden City in Beijing
  14. Millau Bridge in France
  15. The Sphinx in Romania
  16. Faisal Mosque in Islamabad
  17. Hermitage in Saint Petersburg
  18. Konark Sun Temple in India
  19. Dom in Berlin
  20. Luxor Temple in Egypt
  21. Pompeii in Italy
  22. The Louvre in Paris
  23. Angel Falls in Venezuela
  24. Twyfelfontein in Namibia
  25. The Prophets Mosque in Medina
  26. Tower Bridge in London
  27. American Cemetery in Normandy
  28. Sacré Coeur in Paris
  29. Abu Simbel in Egypt
  30. Potala Palace in Llasa
  31. Jin Mao and SWFC in Shanghai
  32. Middle of the Earth in Ecuador
  33. Carnac in France
  34. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
  35. Tilicho Lake in Nepal
  36. Sceilig Mhichil near the coast of Ireland
  37. Temple of Besakih in Bali
  38. Golden Temple in India
  39. Atomium in Brussels
  40. Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan
  41. White Cliffs of Dover in Great Britain
  42. Ephesus in Turkey
  43. Vinson Massif in Antarctic
  44. Lotus Temple in India
  45. CN Tower in Canada
  46. Piazza San Marco in Venice
  47. Half Dome at Yosemite Valley in California
  48. Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles
  49. Twelve Apostles in Australia
  50. Rock of Gibraltar

 

Earlier this month I was in Hong Kong for a few days.  Hong Kong is one of those classically fabulous international cities. Here are a few of my favorite things from past trips:

Taxi ride from the airport: The second I arrive at HKG I look forward to descending the ramp to the taxi stands. The red cabs signaling Hong Kong Island, the green for Kawloon and the new territories and the blue for Lantau are the first signs that you are in Hong Kong.

Custom tailors: I had my first custom suit made in Hong Kong on my first trip to the city.  Everyone should have a Hong Kong tailor and you really can’t come to Hong Kong without leaving with custom clothing.