Wiki with all pay as you Go plans around the world

Going out on a trip? Would you like to have a web with all the prepaid phone plans around the word, which, by the way, you can contribute to?

It is there, in a wikimedia way: Pay as you Go

Time off

Just to tell you tht I am taking some time off. We are on holidays in Salou, in Spain, with limited Internet access.

Back in August ;-)

Great Travel guides for the iPhone

Condé Nast Digital Britain recently unveiled a series of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, dubbed Condé Nast Traveller City Guides. There are four separate apps for Barcelona, New York, Paris and Rome priced at around $9.99 each.

The apps [iTunes link] are divided into six sections containing more than 500 searchable listings, complete with venue information, photos and editors’ reviews:

• Neighbourhoods: Browse all listings in a single neighborhood
• See & Do: Major sites, museums, parks, farmers markets and other attractions
• Places to Stay: Organized according to location, price range, type (i.e. fashionable, family-friendly or classic), and a key feature (gym/spa, internet access, etc.)
• Eat & Drink: Mainly high-end sit-down restaurants with some exceptions, like a well-known knishery and an East Village dumpling house
• Shopping: Features an array of products, including apparel, home, records and electronics from high-end to outlets
• Nightlife: Bars, music, dancing and other venues for late-night entertainment
• Word of Mouth: Recommendations from celebrated New Yorkers like designers Oscar de la Renta and Paul Smith, nightclub owner Amy Sacco and architect Carlos Almadada

The list of venues is well-curated; there are enough to appeal to a relatively broad array of tastes without being overwhelming. Users can bookmark interesting listing by adding them to a to-do list and share them via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

What’s most impressive about the apps is their Augmented Reality functionality (pictured above). Simply point your phone in a direction and it will bring up images of nearby attractions, which you can narrow down by type. You can also use GPS to pull up venue locations on a map.

The apps contain a number of other neat little features as well, including a handful of guided audio tours and magazine articles, a travel journal, a Flickr-integrated personal photo log, a timeline of the city’s history and essential travel information about local customs, transportation and the location of tourist offices and so forth.

What’s more, Condé Nast Britain promises to update the apps’ content every four months free of charge.

The only major drawback are the prices, which are hard to justify when free apps like restaurant-finder Urbanspoon also come with many similar features (although Urbanspoon’s Augmented Reality functionality is admittedly more basic and many users would rather read a review from a food editor than from the guy next door). In all fairness, Zagat’s TO GO app [iTunes link] also costs $9.99, but then it has a key feature Condé Nast Traveller’s does not: the ability to make restaurant reservations. It also covers almost every major U.S. city in one app.

(via mashable)

Traveling? Create your own travel guide

Stay.com turns travel planning into a fun and social activity. Have fun discovering some of the best attractions, restaurants and hotels around the world, collect places you find interesting in your own guide and share it with family and friends.

Forget about your already outdated travel books. Stay.com has updated information on thousands of places to visit for your next vacation or business trip.

Simply collect everything you find interesting in your own personal guide. This way you can bring along all the details you need. You can print your guide in a nice compact format which is easy to fold and put in your pocket.

A very cool idea!

Barcelona for a while

From the 17 till Saturday we stayed in Barcelona. We met Quio and Anna, Sergio… we went to Salamanca for lunch with the family… relax.

Then to Geneva.

Key Biscayne

In our last day in Miami, we packed and checked out. Had breakfast and put everything in the trunk of the car. Then we headed to Key Biscayne where we spent most of the day.

We went to the lighthouse and to the beach, then we went to Boaters Grill, where we had some seafood before taking the car and drive to the airport.

End of trip. We took the plane, of course Iberia did not give us the right seats, but there was a very nice lady who gave us hers, so we could put Kai in his little bed.

Miami: downtown, little Haiti and design district

We spent the day exploring other parts of Miami. Distances are big there. We went first to have breakfast at bayfront, in downtown. We did not manage to get breakfast at the hotel because we went down too late… but breakfast at bayfront was nice.

We walked around and went to downtown. After that we took the car and drove to little Haiti and the design district where we had lunch in a very nice Italian restaurant (no pizza). After lunch we drove to coconut groove, visited a commercial centre and finally went back to Miami Beach. That day we had dinner at the hotel by the pool. Very nice.

Everglades

After having breakfast at the hotel, we took the car and headed towards Florida city and Everglades, in the south west of Florida. And incredible natural park that is like a the biggest delta of the world, coming from a lake and instead of ending in the sea like a traditional river it does so in this particular way, so a mix of salty waters from the sea and spring waters from the lake and rivers. The only place in earth where you can find together alligators and crocodiles.

There was a lot of people with incredible digital cameras just to photograph the birds. The wild life in the everglades was incredible, honestly. We took a boat the took us through the canal and to the lakes. Very nice experience, seeing all kinds of animals and birds.

End of the cruise: Fort Lauderdale

When we arrived we took the budget shuttle that took us to budget where we took our car for the next 4 days.

First we had breakfast at bagels Einstein or something like this. Then was to visit fort Lauderdale. They said it was the Venice of Florida, and it is quite a Venice (huge extensions though).

We went to the river side, to the beach, where we had lunch, and then at around 6pm to Miami beach to check in at our new hotel: Indian Creek, no so centric, but with swimming pool and bigger rooms.

Nassau, this time in Paradise Island

In our second time in Nassau we decided to go and spend the day at Paradise Island, 15 minutes by boat from Nassau. There you have the Atlantis hotel where we wanted to stay for the day and visit all the aquariums.

We realized that last time we did not see anything. Atlantis is huge! and you can spend a full day without managing to see it all. It is a sort of disneyland but in aquarium, with all sort of fish and sea life. To get it is 35 usd, but you can go around. We had a nice day there.

On the Sea

From Road Town to Nassau you have a full day of navigation. We spend the day in the MSC Poesia, in the pool area, having cocktails, having a swim, sun, … and in our nice balcony, reading… chilling out. There are plenty of activities to do, so you never get bored.

Road town, Virgin Islands

We arrived early to Road town. We took it easy though. Had breakfast and then left. The nice thing of cruising in the Caribbean and I guess is the same in the Greek islands and other small towns, is that with a day you have more than enough to visit them. I guess it is not the same in a Mediterranean cruise stopping in Rome, Barcelona and so, which deserve a dedicated trip.

Road town again was a nice colonial town. Small.

We did not take any of the excursions suggested in the MSC Poesia.Normally it works this way: they are expensive. When you go down to the harbor, you have a pile of tour operators offering you the same thing cheaper. If you go out of the port, there you find the good deals, so this is what we did. We took a tour around the island. It took us to several places and it was fun and nice.

We stopped at a rum distillery, very very crappy but I bought some old rum. See the photo, it looks like a dirty place anywhere in Africa… but the rum, that I tasted yesterday, was not bad. Not great either but a nice souvenir.

The tour took us also to a beach crowded by the cruise people. We were there only for 15 minutes, but we soon continued our tour. There we met a couple from texas. The guy had big land where a farmer was growing cotton and where had some oil excavations. They were nice people. We also went to a hill (not a lot in these islands) where we could see the tons of little islands that are part of the Virgin Islands (american, british…), and of course the harbor with our “little boat”.

All these little islands had to accommodate their ports to this big cruises. Now they are digging even more in order to be able to have the “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean.

Philipsburg, Netherlands Antilles

We did not get to Philipsburg until 1pm (ship time). During the trip some places had different time zones, but in order to avoid problems the cruise always referred to the ship time (Miami time). The night before they let you a print out of the activities for next day. The time you get to port, the local time and the time you should be back to the ship. Also a list of all the ton of activities organised through the day in the ship. Specially for those who decide to stay on board.

Philipsburg was a very cute place. A long and narrow town, small and with the ocean at both sides.

The weather was variable. When the sun went out it was terribly hot, but when cloudy it was OK. It rained for a while.

When a ship of the caliber of the MSC Poesia arrives to a city like this, the town feels crowded and I am guessing that during the rest of the week, when no ships are there (normally they all go on the same day) it is a dead city.

Nuria had a bath in the sea and we had lunch there.

San Juan de Puerto Rico

We are now at San Juan de Puerto Rico. The ship leaves at 10pm (ship time) and we head towards Philipsburg. I found free wifi here and I managed to upload all previous posts. From the ship it is impossible to upload photos…

I did not have the time and the occasion to take the photos of the big camera out, so no photos now, but I will update this same post later on.

San Juan is a beautiful place. I wouldn’t mind staying here a couple of days. Honestly.

I am now editing the post again, from home. I am adding a couple of photos from the iPhone.

Puerto Rico was very nice. The old town beautiful and full of life. So far and now with the perspective of being back home, I can say that Key West and San Juan (both US) are probably the destinations we liked the most.

In the way to Puerto Rico

Navigation day. Puerto Rico is far from Florida. The day started rainy and a bit cold but as the day was progressing the sun took over and the temperatures raised.

We spent most of the day in the pool area. I am reading “the Help”, from Kathryn Stockett which is about maids in Louisiana on the 60’s.

It was the gala day, with the captain and the nice dinner. Everybody (except me) with suits, ties….

Before I went to have a hair cut here at the ship’s hair dresser. Wow, beautiful with great views  over the sunset.

After the captain’s cocktail we went to listen jazz for a while and then to the theatre. It was Island, a story with dancers, magicians and more. Very nice.