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!

Bowl of entries, sorry this is a horrible picture- I took with my phone

And the winner is:

Woo-hoo!

Congratulations Amanda! We have your email (it was required to leave a comment) and we will be contacting you to let you know how to claim your prize. We are excited for you and excited to read your guest post!

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).

You will love Cambria Suites and here is why: They are stylish and fun and are fantastic for romantic get-aways or a family friendly vacation. There are twenty-three properties to choose from and they are all-suites hotels (is there any better kind?). Here is a listing of the properties:

There are a few things I should mention right away though. Transportation to and from the location of choice is NOT part of the deal- so make sure you are able to get to one of their awesome hotels. Maybe if I get more sponsors in the next couple of months I can help chip in for gas. Also, one huge contingent is that the winner MUST do a guest post on either of my blogs so we can all be so jealous of their stay. Like I said I love to hear about my friend’s trips and I consider you all to be my friends.

Ok, now that the nitty gritty is out of the way, here is how to enter: Leave a comment on this blog or dtmbaby letting me know you want to be entered and which property you really want to visit. Additional entries will be added for those who comment on my blog who also like my Facebook page or tweet about the contest adding a link to this post and using hashtag #CambriaSuitesRock Winners will be chosen on January 27^th!

Good luck! And please enter! I want to know which location you would choose! I’m so excited!

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!

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.

If no unused seats are available on the ticketed flight, then the customer must either purchase an upgrade to a cabin with available seats that address the above-listed scenarios, or change his or her ticket to the next available flight and purchase a second seat in addition to the one already purchased. If a customer meeting any of the above-listed criteria cannot be accommodated next to an empty seat and chooses not to upgrade or change flights and purchase a ticket for an additional seat, he or she will not be permitted to board the flight.

This policy applies to tickets purchased on or after March 4, 2009, for travel on or after April 15, 2009.

Please understand that we care a great deal about all of our customers’ well-being, and we have implemented this policy to help ensure that everyone’s travel experiences with United are comfortable and pleasant.”

United is not the only airline with this policy, Southwest Airlines has received a lot of publicity for the enforcing of their overweight passenger policy and Delta Airlines also has a similar policy. So what are your thoughts? Do you think this is fair? In some ways weight can be seen as a disability- are the airlines going to charge people in a wheelchair extra baggage fees for checking their wheelchair? What about people who have to carry on oxygen?

But on the other hand have you ever sat in the middle seat on a five hour red-eye flight next to two bigger individuals? I have- and it was the most uncomfortable flight I have ever been on. I paid the same amount for my seat- as the two other individuals yet I had the least amount of room. Is that fair? Does fair really even exist anymore?

I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are!

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.