Christmas in Qatar!

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(This is a trip report about flying business class, using 135,000 AA miles and paying $43, on Qatar Airlines. We stayed at the St. Regis, using the Citi fourth night free benefit)!

I flew to see my youngest son, who is working in Doha on a contract. Between my husband and myself, we had quite a few American Airlines miles and I knew they were soon to be devalued (they have been since) AND I wanted to try the Citi Prestige card fourth night free benefit.

When I arrived, I went to a dedicated arrivals area, with an arrivals lounge, a lovely restroom, and I was the ONLY person there! Here are some photos of the flight and arrivals lounge.

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The St. Regis upgraded us to a one bedroom, 1/2 bath John Jacob Astor suite, 1,000 sq ft, which was selling for $547 (of course I didn’t pay anywhere near that, AND I got one night free). Here are some photos of our suite and the nightly delivery of chocolate (roses one night and a fancy ink pen another night)! They really treated us well!DSC04861DSC04862DSC04864DSC04860DSC04867DSC04868DSC05043

 

That night we ate at the hotel, a Gordan Ramsey restaurant…Doha has the BEST restaurants in all the fancy hotels, but more on that later! I got up to see the sunrise almost every day and here are some pictures around the property early in the morning, the last one being our view.

DSC04888DSC04899DSC04896DSC04892DSC04924DSC04925DSC04927DSC04933DSC04913We went to the souk for some quick shopping and breakfast, which was about $7 each, with fresh squeezed juice and more than we could eat!

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Next we ventured out of town to see Sheikh Faisal Al Thani’s museum, about 45 minutes out of Doha. These are items that Sheikh Faisal has collected over the years and we were amazed at how HUGE it was. The displays are rather basic, but the collection of stuff is simply unbelievable!

The last of these photos are the Kempinski Hotel, where we ate that night at Tora Tora.

Next post, more on Doha…

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Salzburg+Hallstatt = LOVE! Blog prizes…

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DSC02671(This is part of a summer trip report using miles and points to fly first class on Emirates from JFK to Dubai/Paris, costing $41 and 100K Alaska miles; the cost of these flights would have been $23,914! I pinch myself to think I got such an unbelievable value for my miles!)

My blog is two years old now and it’s time to celebrate! I have two United Airlines lounge passes and a gift card for $25. Just comment about the most scenic place you’ve ever visited or want to visit. If you can’t use the United passes by 9-30-16, just note “no UA.” I will make a random drawing on Friday, December 18 and get two prizes mailed out! Thanks for being awesome readers and I just love writing my blog!

Austria was absolutely stunning, of course, it helped that we had picture perfect weather! We took an early train, using our Eurail pass, from Prague to Salzburg, and used IHG points to book two free nights at the Crowne Plaza (sorry, no photos). IHG is one of my favorite hotel credit cards – the $49 annual fee more than pays for all the perks with the card. It’s easy to get points AND you get one annual free night at ANY hotel in the world!

That morning we strolled through the park, and slowly made our way to Hohensalzburg Fortress, which is perched high on the hill, with a wonderful view of the city. The castle is the largest, fully preserved medieval castle in Europe and was used as a prison in WWI. We took the cable car, which was built in 1892!DSC02431

DSC02432DSC02434DSC02437DSC02438DSC02443DSC02445DSC02451DSC02461DSC02472DSC02474DSC02480DSC02479DSC02488DSC02492DSC02499DSC02511DSC02512DSC02513Salzburg is a city of music and we loved listening to the musicians outside performing.DSC02525

The next day, we took a day trip to Hallstatt via train (again using our Eurail pass) which took about two hours, but what an amazing ride! The picture at the top of the post was taken out the train window! I LOVED Hallstatt; Rick Steves rates it highly and I agree. To me, it’s a hidden gem of Europe, and one of the most scenic places I’ve ever been! We rode the ferry over, then just walked around and enjoyed another beautiful, sunny day! Hallstatt is known for its’ salt production, and I bought some locally mined salt for one euro, which I’m still enjoying. You can do a tour of the salt mines, but we weren’t interested in that. We enjoyed a lovely lunch, caught in the lake that morning, and then took the train back “home.” DSC02548

DSC02558DSC02560DSC02571DSC02577DSC02580DSC02581DSC02583DSC02584DSC02586DSC02587DSC02589DSC02591DSC02594DSC02599DSC02600DSC02603DSC02605DSC02608DSC02610DSC02617DSC02618DSC02623DSC02638DSC02644DSC02646Next up, a break from my summer trip, with a post about my Christmas trips (yes that’s plural)!

Hello Prague!

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(This is part of a summer trip report using miles and points to fly first class on Emirates from JFK to Dubai/Paris, costing $41 and 100K Alaska miles; the cost of these flights would have been $23,914! I pinch myself to think I got such an unbelievable value for my miles!)

When we planned this trip, we knew flying between cities would make better use of our time. (We did use a Eurail pass, but more on that later.) We bought all four of our intra Europe flights for $707 total, one of which was Paris to Prague. We booked the Park Inn Hotel with points, costing zero dollars, and using the wonderful Club Carlson benefit of “stay three, pay two,” no longer available, sorry to say.  ): But we got upgraded to a one bedroom executive suite, which included a balcony overlooking the city! Here’s some photos.DSC02170

DSC02169DSC02166DSC02165DSC02174Prague was fantastic…my new favorite European city! We spent our first day going up Petrin Hill to get some spectacular views of the city. Petrin Tower was inspired by the Eiffel Tower and built in 1891. It’s actually taller than the Eiffel Tower because of the hill it’s on, although the structure itself is only 63.5 meters tall, not as tall as Eiffel Tower.DSC02242

DSC02243DSC02249DSC02251DSC02241DSC02240DSC02260Walks along the river were very relaxing and worked off all those calories of the wonderful food we ate! I love the architecture along the river, including the “Dancing House” ~ guess which one?!DSC02188DSC02185

DSC02182DSC02190DSC02196DSC02229We also spent some time in Old Town, which was crowded with tourists, but has a friendly, small-town feel. The famous Charles Bridge connects Old Town with Prague Castle across the Vltava River. This pedestrian bridge has 30 statues and a tower on one end.DSC02223

DSC02219DSC02281DSC02280DSC02286DSC02295DSC02300DSC02301DSC02313DSC02334DSC02343DSC02388One evening we went to hear Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” at the Klementinum, and it was excellent!DSC02417

DSC02412DSC02411And our last day we visited Vysehrad Park, with different views of the city. Our days in Prague were packed with LOTS of walking, delicious and inexpensive food, with our lovely suite waiting for us when we got “home.”DSC02374

DSC02367DSC02406DSC02407Next up is Salzburg…

Emirates to Paris…

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(This is part of a summer trip report using miles and points to fly first class on Emirates from JFK to Dubai/Paris, costing $41 and 100K Alaska miles; the cost of these flights would have been $23,914! I pinch myself to think I got such an unbelievable value for my miles!)

This blog post is about my visit to Paris last summer, and I want to express my grief at the events in that most wonderful of cities. It saddens and sickens me to think about what took place there, but I firmly believe Parisians are resilient and will persevere, even in the face of such depravity. And as for traveling, I like what Wendy Perrin said in her blog, “According to the U.S. State Department, the number of U.S. citizens killed overseas by incidents of terrorism from 2001 to 2013 was 350. If you’re thinking home is safer, compare that number with the 3,030 killed in the U.S. by terrorism during the same period. In terms of street crime and gun violence, most of the U.S. cities we live in are statistically more dangerous than the places we visit abroad. Your risk of being killed in a car crash (one in 19,000), drowning in your bathtub (one in 800,000), or being struck by lightning (one in 5.5 million) far exceed your risk of dying from terrorism (one in 20 million).” Always be cautious, do what’s best for you, but don’t let fear control your travel plans.

We flew Emirates business class as part of our one way ticket, with a two day stopover in Dubai. Our first class flight crew put it in our records that this was a birthday celebration trip and we were presented with a cake! Here’s some photos of the business class lounge in Emirates and the flight…DSC02003

 

 

DSC02019DSC02016DSC02014DSC02009We were able to use our two free nights (two free nights anywhere in the world with the Hyatt credit card) and stay at the Hyatt Paris Vendome, with its fantastic breakfast buffet. What a treat when we found out we had been upgraded. It was a quiet room, even in the midst of the city and had my favorite shower of all time and the very BEST amenities of the trip! DSC02038DSC02029DSC02027DSC02025DSC02033DSC02030DSC02088DSC02090DSC02091DSC02094DSC02095

 

Since we had been to Paris before, we decided we wanted to eat and shop, not see the sights. Of course, you can’t miss seeing one of the most iconic sights in the world ~ the Eiffel Tower!DSC02111

 

DSC02107One of our must eat places was Angelina’s – with hot chocolate like you’ve never had before, with real whipped cream! There is usually a line, but we got in fairly quickly. And our next stop (remember this is about food) was the best place in Paris for macarons, Laduree. To me, they were just OK…DSC02043DSC02047DSC02050DSC02052DSC02066DSC02067DSC02068DSC02072DSC02080DSC02077

 

My friend had told me about a great little shop, so we set out to find it. It was wonderful, everything in the store was hand-designed and hand-made by a local Parisian artist. We bought handbags made from leftover Hermes leather and a very Parisian looking red and white striped dress! And these walls are in the metro…DSC02059DSC02058DSC02061

 

And the food – we ate at a Parisian restaurant and my food was delicious, here are some photos.DSC02154DSC02155DSC02157DSC02162

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some scenes on our many walks…check out the line to enter Louis Vuitton store! DSC02065

DSC02056DSC02064DSC02096DSC02114DSC02115DSC02122DSC02127DSC02148DSC02150Enjoy the holidays with your family and friends! Next up, Prague…