The lovely Cambria Suites accomodations

Thank you to everyone who entered the Cambria Suites giveaway! This was a giveaway for a two-night stay at the Cambria Suites of your choice and a $100 dining voucher. We were happily overwhelmed by your kind responses. We are excited to announce the winner! Unfortunately there was only one winner this time, but we promise there will be many more giveaways in our future, we want to help everyone have the opportunity to travel!

To pick our winner we set out to do it in the fairest way possible. Because there were multiple channels to enter and get additional entries, we collected all the entries from the blogs and additional entries from Facebook and Twitter and literally wrote them on paper and pulled them from a bowl. Yes it took a lot of work, but I was determined to make it as fair as possible!

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Cambria Suites Lobby

The main reason I started this blog, almost three years ago, was because I love to travel. I love to travel so much that I wanted to inspire others to fall in love with traveling. It’s not just that I love traveling (because I really don’t enjoy the point a to point b part unless it’s on a cruise) it’s the experiences you get to have once you are there. I absolutely love it when my friends and families travel because then I get to hear what they saw, ate and experienced as they recount their tale. It makes me feel like I was there with them.

Which is why I am really excited to be announcing a really fun weekend giveaway for my readers! It’s your turn to have the experiences to share! Cambria Suites (I stayed there once in San Antonio and loved it- read about it here), one of Choice Hotels new and modern brands, is graciously giving away a two-night stay AND a $100 dining voucher to one of Dotting The Map’s and DTM Baby’s readers (just to be clear only one prize is being given away but pooling entries from both sites).

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Details can be found here, but basically due to the increase of violent crime in Columbia the US Department of State is warning against travel to the area. The warning also states that it encorages anyone who is traveling to the country to be sure to register with the US Embassy through the State Department’s website (which is always a good idea).

Happy and safe travels everyone!

So by now you have probably heard about United’s much publicized new policy on larger passengers. This new policy stems from 700 complaints United Airlines received last year about overweight passengers taking up a portion of their neighbor’s seat.

Basically the policy states that (and this is taken directly from United’s website):

“For the comfort and well-being of all customers aboard United flights, we have aligned with other major airlines’ seating policies relating to passengers who:

• are unable to fit into a single seat in the ticketed cabin;
• are unable to properly buckle the seatbelt using a single seatbelt extender; and/or
• are unable to put the seat’s armrests down when seated.

If unused seats are available on the ticketed United or United Express flight, then a customer meeting any of the above criteria will be reaccommodated next to an empty seat.

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It’s always important to be informed when you travel- especially if you are planning on travelling internationally. Below is an important message from the US State Department. Please take a minute to read. This is especially relevant as we approach Spring Break season and many college students flock to Mexico every year to wind down before finals.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.S. State Department has renewed a travel advisory warning Americans about an increase in violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The alert does not recommend staying away from the country or any particular part of it, but advises American to stay away from prostitution and drug-dealing areas.

It recommends visiting only legitimate business and tourist areas.

The alert issued Friday says violent crime is particularly worrisome along the U.S.-Mexico border, where automatic weapons and grenades have been used in clashes between police and drug traffickers.

More than 6,000 people were killed in drug violence in Mexico last year.