In my many years of travel I have been to a number topless and nude beaches. My first visit to a nude beach was in the late 70s in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. I was staying at a private resort and we had our own villa. Back then sun bathing in the nude seemed fun, exciting and well natural. The problem is I am very light skinned and first exposure of the Jamaican sun can cause a nasty burn. Fortunately I only sun bathed in the nude for less than 30 minutes the first day and realized I better be careful or I would ruin my vacation with sunburn in all the worst places.

My next visit to a nude beach was a few years later with my husband and another couple. I was newly married and still in my twenties. We went to Cape Cod and visited Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard. The Gay Head beach has clay pools. At that time people on the beach covered their nude bodies with the liquid clay from the clay pools and walked around the beach in the nude. The clay was considered to be good for the skin. A spa treatment for FREE that sounded great to me. All of us took our clothes off while hiding behind large rocks, covered our bodies in clay and then took a walk on the beach. Our bodies were protected from the sun since we were covered with clay, but as the clay dried it pulled at our skin and after about 20 minutes it was time to take a swim and get all of the clay off. My skin felt sooo soft for days after this natural clay treatment. The Gay Head Cliffs are now a National Landmark and are endangered. Removal of clay is prohibited by law. We had no idea back in the early 80s that this would become an endangered area.

In 1998 my family and I visited Israel. My dad was the only one of us reluctant to take this trip to Israel. We all had such a wonderful time together. The last city of our two week trip was to the beaches in Eilat. The beaches in Eilat are topless optional and my father, the videographer, enjoyed filming our entire trip including the topless women sun bathers.

Barcelona is a young and exciting city. The beaches are filled with beautiful young topless women. By the time I got to Barcelona in 2006 I was married for many years with children in both high school and college and certainly not the time in my life to be topless on a beach. My sons enjoyed the sites as they walked along the beach in Barcelona far away from their mother.

South Beach in July will be another time in my life for me to see some beautiful bodies on the beach. It is great to reflect back to a time before the Internet existed with no worries that if you decided to go topless or nude on a beach while traveling your naked picture would appear online the next day.

Looking forward to wonderful, fun filled July 4th in South Beach, Florida.

This week we spent one night in NYC at the InterContinental New York Times Square. Paid rates at this hotel for a weeknight were over $600 per night plus tax. I used my free night from my Priority Club Visa credit card link. This card has a $49 annual fee after the first year free. By paying the annual fee you receive one free night at any of their properties worldwide.

The InterContinental New York Times Square hotel link is a new modern green hotel. The staff is friendly and the location is great if you want to see a Broadway show and spend some time in Central Park. This hotel is located on 44th Street just off of 8th Avenue. It is only a couple of blocks from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and around the corner from Shake Shack.

When we checked into the InterContinental Times Square, Brett asked us if we needed anything to make our stay more enjoyable. We told him would like a quiet corner room on a high floor. We were given room 3002. This corner room was small, but the views opened the room up for us with two walls of huge windows with beautiful views of the city. The bathroom was clean, bright and the shower was big with beautiful tile and a great rainfall shower head.

Tom Hanks was playing in Lucky Guy only a one block walk from our hotel. What a great treat to see Tom Hanks live on Broadway with a fabulous supporting cast.

We got tickets the day of the show to this sold out performance by purchasing standing room tickets for $27 each. The show is almost two hours in length and it was a long time for us to stand for a play. We prefer standing tickets for musicals. When we see musicals, we enjoy dancing in the dark together rather than just standing during the performance.

Standing room tickets are usually located directly behind the last row of the orchestra seats. You actually receive a number so you know where to stand. For Lucky Guy were in the center at the aisle and we had a direct clear view of stage throughout the entire show. For more information about standing room tickets and other discounts show tickets in NYC checkout this recent article from Playbill.com link. Additional information about discounts may be obtain from the box office for the show you want to see. Also I suggest you check Broadwaybox.com and Theatermania.com for discount offers.

The next day we met clients’ of my husband in the lobby restaurant area at our hotel and enjoyed a couple hours together. I requested and was given a 2 pm checkout time. At checkout we were told our bill had a zero balance. Great stay at a wonderful hotel with an amazing price. Looking forward to returning again to the InterContinental New York Times Square.

On May 20, 2013, at Così receive a free tall 12 oz. hazelnut coffee. No purchase necessary. Limited to one hazelnut coffee per person. May substitute for Così drip coffee or drip iced coffee. Valid at participating locations only. Applicable taxes paid by customer. Participating Locations

The $20 tip is a great way to get an upgrade. In my post last week I wrote about our one bedroom upgrade in Santa Fe with a $20 tip.

If you book on a discount site, expect a discount stay. I have always avoided booking hotels on Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, etc. and prefer to book directly on the hotels’ own websites. Yes, I may be spending more for my room, but I want to have a good idea of the type of room I will have and avoid the worse room at the hotel. As a front desk clerk for many years Mr. Tomsky gave the worse rooms to those guest booking though Internet discount sites.

Don’t use the glassware in your room. Many times they are cleaned with furniture polish.

There were a few things I did learn from Mr. Tomsky’s article:

The most disputed and the easiest charges to have removed from your bill are for items in the minibar. Personally I have always avoided the minibar. Occasionally I have disputed minibar charges on my bill and they were removed. What is your experience with having minibar charges taken off of your hotel bill?

Tomsky explains that most complaints while staying at a hotel should be directed to the front desk either in person or by phone. He suggests to:
1. Briefly explain the problem in nice casual manner
2. Offer a solution
3. Ask whom to speak to to have the problem solved – He suggests asking, “Should I speak to the manager about this issue? Or housekeeping?”
4. Get the name of the employee before finishing your conversation
5. Thank the person for their help and tell them you will be following up later about the issue

What do you do when you have a problem while staying at a hotel? When do you find alerting a hotel through social media like Twitter or Facebook more effective than the 5 steps above?

Haagen Daz Ice Cream Shops are having a Free Cone Day tomorrow Tuesday, May 14th between 4pm-8pm. Enjoy your favorite flavor. One free scoop per customer. Offer valid at participating locations.

Back to the front desk I went with a twenty dollar bill folded in fourths and I handed it with the key pack back to the front desk clerk. I again requested a one bedroom suite with a balcony. Since we were staying at this hotel for three nights and we had already been away for three nights at other hotels, it was time for us to stretch out in more space. The key pack and the $20 were put down next to keyboard and checking began for a new room for us. After about a minute I was told that our request would be accommodated, but it would be about a 15-20 minute wait for our new room to be ready.

The Hilton Buffalo Thunder has a very large attractive lobby with a southwest theme. Off the lobby are several shops and restaurants including a buffet, a Starbucks and a bar with a happy hour menu. This hotel has a large gym and both indoor and outdoor pools with hot tubs. The outdoor pool had not yet opened for the season. The lower level of this hotel is a casino. While walking around the hotel we received a call that our room was ready. We picked up our keys and were told that our breakfast coupons would be delivered later to our room. The breakfast coupons were good at the buffet or a $10 credit each per day at Starbucks. We chose the buffet and had a great breakfast before leaving the hotel every morning.

While in Santa Fe and Taos we planned on being out all day and then relaxing in our room after enjoying long days in the beautiful sunny weather. Our one bedroom suite had a separate living room with a sliding glass door to huge balcony with a table and two chairs overlooking the front of the hotel. The living area and the balcony were great places for us to have a cold drink and snack after touring around all day. Our suite had two flat screen TVs, a large bedroom with a king size bed and a bathroom we called the bowling alley. The bathroom had a very long hallway. In the first section of the bathroom was the sink, next to it was a make up area with a chair and two magnifying mirrors, then the tub and at the end of the this hallway was the separate area with the toilet.

We had a wonderful stay at the Hilton Buffalo Thunder for the rate of $89 per night plus $20 for our upgrade to a one bedroom suite.

Emily from Million Mile Secrets with me at FTU wearing Vanilla Reload jewelry. Both of the pieces were donated at Frequent Traveler University for the charity auction.

The weather in New Mexico looked great with plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 70s.  We wanted to go back to Santa Fe and Taos was on our list of cities we looked forward to exploring. First I checked hotel availability in New Mexico and found rooms at reasonable prices.

Then I quickly checked on Southwest.com and saw non-stop flights available from Baltimore into Albuquerque. Since I was using an old award ticket on Southwest and had no additional old Southwest awards available to book, I had to call Southwest Airlines to check award availability to change our flights.  Seats were available and the agent changed our flights and applied the $2.50 we each paid out of pocket for taxes and fees to our new flights, gave us our new confirmation numbers and we were now booked to fly  to New Mexico instead of Florida.

While other airlines including United, Delta and US Airways have recently increased their domestic change fees to $200 per passenger per change, Southwest still permits free changes even on the same day of your flight. This no change fee policy from Southwest Airlines provides great travel flexibility.  We paid no fees, avoided a rainy beach vacation and had a great time in New Mexico.