Archive for May, 2007

Every time I meet someone new in Sydney I am asked - where do you live? And every time I give my answer I get a variation of the same reply - oh my god, you live where? That’s soooo far away!

I don’t really live in the bush!

It’s not really, only an hour by train (longer by car but that is more to do with Sydney traffic than actual distance), south west of Sydney’s CBD. It is not what I consider an “oh my god that’s so far away” kind of distance. I work with people who have never been to the place I live, and in fact one colleague claims to have never been to Sydney’s west at all. Not that I regularly travel to the North of the city, but I do from time to time.

The reason I live so far from the “city” (technically it is still part of the Sydney Metropolitan area, just right on the fringe) is because I like it out there. Way out west, the burbs - call it what you want, to me its just home. I like leaving work on a Friday afternoon, knowing I will not see my work place again until Monday. There is as much chance of randomly running into Madonna or Tiger Woods (we do have 2 golf courses, so not a completely ridiculous thought) as one of my work colleagues or city friends. Smog, unending traffic jams, noisy airplanes flying overhead, confusing one way streets, big crowds, parking on the street - not in Campbelltown. By no means is it a sleepy little outback town, but thankfully it is not a city either, it falls somewhere between the two. Two shopping centers, a couple of hospitals, a university and college, and of course the aforementioned golf courses - we’re living the dream out in Campbelltown!

Some people are real city people, they love being in the city, they love living a busy lifestyle and they can’t cope with the idea of not having the 24 hour facilities of a city. As you may have figured out, I’m not a city person. I work in the city out of necessity and can’t wait for the day I can afford to retire and not have to do it any longer…

Having said that, I love visiting other cities around the world. High on my wish list of places to travel to is New York, the loudest, most in your face city of them all, how will I cope with that! Well, the beauty of travel is the huge choice and variety on offer when visiting new places. When I eventually go to New York, I don’t have to stay in Manhattan every minute of every day, there are plenty of places to escape to. Niagara Falls leaps to mind for a start.

Escape the Barcelona crowds in Monserrat

Last year I experienced Barcelona for the first time, and let me tell you, it is a pretty chaotic place. Very busy - lots of people, traffic, noise - just general mayhem. It was great fun but for me very energy sapping, so what was the solution? Head out of town and do some hiking in Montserrat Natural Park. It was just what I needed to recharge and prepare for another two days of fast paced sightseeing!

I go to Dublin almost every year and I find it getting busier and busier each time. There seems to be more people in Dublin than the whole of Australia sometimes, and the traffic is horrendous (I am not joking, it usually takes over an hour on a bus to get from the city center to a friend’s house 9 miles away!). There is only so much I can take, so what’s the answer? Grab a bike and head into the Wicklow Mountains for a day of fresh air and nature.

On my most recent trip overseas I firstly visited Las Vegas. Now that was a sensory overload and walking down “the Strip” made by head want to explode. Don’t get me wrong, it was great fun, but there is only so much of that kind of place I can handle, so of course when you want to escape Vegas there is only one real option - The Grand Canyon. A day in the canyon was more than enough to restore my inner calm and prepare me for my next city experience.

Giant Redwoods of Muir Woods

San Francisco is probably one of the easier to deal with cities of the world - not overcrowded and plenty of friendly people. However it is part of America and with that comes one of the big attractions for visitors - great shopping. There is a huge choice of shops, all of which seem to have a minimum of 3 levels and stock everything you could ever want to own in your life. It is all just so over the top, I didn’t know where to begin looking and it hurt to shop after a while. Again what’s the solution? Head out to Muir Woods for a dash of Mother Nature, where the Giant Redwoods are as tall as the department stores of Union Square.

In Australia it’s a little easier because its just so big! Sydney is easy to escape, just pick a direction. Head North and explore the Hunter Valley wine region, South for the beautiful beaches of the Royal National Park and beyond, West to get back to nature in the Blue Mountains, or East to do the popular Bondi to Bronte Coast Walk. I am not a fan of Melbourne so anytime I go there I am looking for a reason to escape! Check out the Great Ocean Road to get you started, or head for the hills in Grampians National Park for wildlife spotting. If Perth gets a little too much for (unlikely as it is just like a big village), it only takes around 30 minutes to get out of the city, then its up to you. Drive for an hour or 5 hours in any direction except West, and you will come across some amazing natural attractions like the Pinnacles and Wave Rock.

Probably the craziest city I have been to is Bangkok. You haven’t really experienced crowds, noise and pollution until you have been somewhere like Bangkok. It’s a crazy, crazy city! As a foreigner you stand out like a fox in a flock of sheep (though admittedly, there are plenty of foreigners to stand out, it’s just a matter of by how much!) and as soon as you leave your the hotel are like a magnet for every tuk-tuk driver in town. At the end of each day of sightseeing in Bangkok, I would return to my bed exhausted and drained. How do you rejuvenate the soul when a city is depleting it from within? Get out! A trip into Thailand’s farming areas or to the River Kwai is a great way to replenish the mind and body.

And just for the record, Viator even sells a tour in my home town - Weird Campbelltown History and Ghost Tour … it can’t be that far from civilization!

-Kerrie O’Mahony

Toula on holiday near Bridgeport, California

I have a very large dog.

How large?

Well, when I walk down the streets of San Francisco I hear people say things like, “wow, that’s a big dog.”

I also hear a lot of “does she come with a saddle?” and “que caballo!” and “Scooby Doooooo!”.

Some people are afraid of dogs. And these people, when they see me and my dog coming, they literally cross the street to avoid us. Sometimes they actually run away down the street! (I wish I were kidding.)

This makes me laugh, because if you knew my dog, you would know that she is the world’s largest lap dog. Unless you’re a pigeon or a squirrel, you have nothing to worry about from my 115-pound Great Dane, named Toula. This is short for ‘Tchoupitoulas’, which is a street in New Orleans. No I am not from there. Neither is my wife. We just liked the name. And we were married in New Orleans, so it seemed fitting. Why am I telling you this? Because it always comes up when strangers — complete strangers — encounter me and my dog on the street.

(Other topics that always come up… She eats 6 cups of food a day. Cleaning up her, um, #2s, isn’t as bad as you think. No, she cannot be ridden like a horse. No, she does not have a saddle. Yes, she sleeps all day. Yes, this makes her a great city dog. Yes, she is great with kids. Yes, Scooby Doo was a Great Dane. And Marmaduke, too.)

Toula is not that impressed by Yosemite

Strangely enough, the same thing happens when I’m trying to book a weekend getaway. I’ll ask, “do you accept dogs” and the person at the other end of the phone will say, “um, what kind of dog?”

I say, “Great Dane.”

They say, “wow, that’s a big dog…”

This has not prevented us from taking Toula on holidays within California: Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, San Diego, that sort of thing. Yet it’s not always easy. I am continually surprised at how many hotels and resorts have ‘no dogs allowed’ policies. I can understand saying ‘no’ to incessant barkers and chewers and aggressive breeds. Yet to exclude all dogs, even the gentle giants like Toula who never bark or chew, well, that seems unfair. Not Rosa Parks-style unfair. But unfair nonetheless.

Searching online is not much help, either. There are some awful — and I mean truly and terrifically terrible — pet websites out there. Unusable navigation, awful graphics, ridiculous background music, spam advertising, you name it. Why do 99.99% of all dog websites look like they were last updated in 1999? By my reckoning that’s 56 dog years and 150 Internet years ago. Somebody, please go launch a good pet-travel website. I will visit, I promise!

In the meantime, I am trying to build a comprehensive list of pet-friendly hotels, campgrounds and other resources. I’ve started with a handful of links below, and this list is not complete, not by a long shot. Leave a comment with additional links or resources for traveling with pets. I’ll make sure it gets posted.

Resources for Traveling with Dogs

• Dogfriendly.com is clunky to navigate, but there are good tips on dog-friendly hotels across the USA, plus ‘beach guides’ and other pet-friendly recommendations. Get similar listings and services at petsonthego.com and resortpets.com.
• A list of dog-friendly B&Bs in the USA that accepts dogs.
• A list and map of dog parks across the USA
• A PDF listing dog parks in Edmonton and Alberta, Canada
• Doglinks.co.nz has a small list of dog-friendly hotels (and kennels) in New Zealand
• Overview of regulations for taking your dog or cat on an airplane, both in the USA and internationally
• A blog dedicated to dog parks and dog park news around the USA - love the focus!

On a totally separate note: check out this article about a luxury dog resort in Mexico. I wonder if they would accept me and my caballo?

–Scott McNeely

Update: I can also highly recommend a rental property in the Russian River area (Duncans Mills, to be precise) of northern California; we just spent a great weekend there. The property is totally fenced in and there’s a huge yard — perfect for dogs.  The property is pet-friendly, the rates are affordable, the location is simply stunning. It’s called River Gardens, tell them you read about it on the Viator blog.

I like to think I’m a pretty open-minded person and that it takes a lot to faze me, but my resolve was tested this week as I added our newest thing to do in London: Amora - The Academy of Sex and Relationships.

Amora is a hands-on experience

You may have heard of it, as it has received plenty of press attention since opening on April 18, mainly due to its location. I love our British friends, but let’s be honest, they aren’t exactly known for their wild and inventive sex lives. In fact the image that most often springs to mind when I hear the two words “England” and “sex” put in the same sentence, tends to revolve around drunk English backpackers in Ibiza and the Greek Islands on their yearly summer holiday looking for a bit of fun. Not to mention that phrase - “Close your eyes and think of England…”

With this in mind, I was quite surprised (and a little pleased for the female population of England!) to hear that London was to be the home of such an attraction, a world first in fact. Focusing on educating the public on all things to do with sex and relationships, Amora leaves no stone unturned in the quest for satisfaction. As I read through the information describing the exhibits and interactive zones, I began to wonder exactly how descriptive our listing on the attraction should be.

Amora offers everything from advice on how to improve your flirting, to how to find the elusive G-spot, not to mention the Amora Boutique which stocks an extensive range of sex toys and enhancements. There are also sex advisors on hand to answer your questions and numerous exhibits dealing with improving sexual technique.

Oh my…I can see Viator suddenly popping up on a whole new range of Google searches!

Assess your technique on the Spankometer!

As I typed the descriptions for each “zone” of Amora, I found myself giggling like a school girl at the very mention of the G-spot and the “Spankometer”. This made be question whether this attraction would offend visitors to the Viator site. With this in mind I guess we come to the very point of Amora - to crash through the barriers and take sex off the “taboo” list. Amora deals with issues that most people are too embarrassed to openly discuss or ask advice about, and most importantly it does so in a safe non -judgemental environment.

So if you are browsing the Viator site, looking for something a bit different to do in London, why not check out Amora and see what all the fuss is about. Come back from your visit and tell us all about it, we are keen to hear what you think!

Let’s hope Amora is a huge success and we see a whole new generation of British men seducing the ladies of the world with more imaginative pick up lines than “Fancy a shag luv?”…

-Kerrie O’Mahony

You don’t move to San Francisco if you like warm weather. I’ll grant you it doesn’t snow, but we don’t actually have a summer. Mark Twain’s words for it were, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” I would bet that the number one selling souvenir at Fisherman’s Wharf is a sweatshirt. Silly optimistic travelers (or should I say tourists? a traveler would be better prepared, maybe say, having checked the weather on Viator). Anyway, my point is you move to Los Angeles or San Diego if you like the heat, we’ll take our foggy and windy July evenings thank you very much.

So this week is tough on the natives as the weather has taken a turn for the warm and sunny. We’re breaking 80, 85 degrees here, and you’d think we were all living in Phoenix the way San Franciscans act. I was at a movie Sunday and I overheard the person behind me say they were so glad to get out of the heat. To be fair, air conditioning is pretty non-existent in San Francisco, but still, you live here long enough and you become a melty mess around 80 degrees.

On the flip side, suddenly San Francisco gets an outdoor culture. People are lounging in the parks, eating outside, and heading to the beach to try to tan. It’s like living in a whole new city.

I’ve noticed from my 11 years of Bay Area living that there’s only one really warm week a year, and people, I am pretty sure this is it. So if you’re thinking of visiting San Francisco soon, see if you can get a last minute airfare or hop in your car and come as soon as you can, you’re probably going to get the best weather of the year and have a lot more fun on your Segway ride, bay cruise, or trip to Alcatraz.

How am I enjoying the warm weather bounty? I’m indulging in driving my convertible with the top down, not wearing a jacket or sweater, having drinks with ice and heading to Yosemite this weekend. Live it up San Franciscans!

– Kelly G

Airport layovers: They don’t have to be like this

Let’s face it, most of us have spent far too many hours waiting in airports. Many of us will log weeks, months — gasp! maybe even a full year’s worth — of airport layovers over a lifetime of travel.

So when faced with an extended layover, make the most of your time and experience a nibble of the transit city.

Of course you’ll need to do your own time calculations to avoid missing your connections. Yet you may find a few hours is enough to forgo the airport bar or duty-free shop and, instead, to explore a local neighborhood or attraction. Fortunately, many of the world’s air hubs now also have transit systems that make an airport escape easy.

I took advantage of a recent seven-hour layover in Sydney, where the airport train takes just 15-25 minutes to reach the city center. On an international layover, Australia still requires a tourist visa for entry (about US$25) but it was worth the opportunity to stretch our legs outside. (Check out visa requirements before you travel, select a link for more info: US passport holders, UK passport holders, Australian passport holders, New Zealand passport holders, Canadian passport holders.)

A walk along the Sydney waterfront and The Rocks gave me a chance to enjoy a lunch that was not previously frozen and served in plastic trays. With just more than four hours around Circular Quay, I had more than enough time to enjoy a guided Sydney Opera House tour (1 hour) and a Sydney Harbour boat cruise (35 minutes). I was back at the airport with more than 90 minutes before departure.

So if your upcoming travel has you facing undesirable connections, do some research on your own and see if an airport escape can enhance your en route experience. Here are some of Viator’s picks for airport escapes:

San Francisco (SFO). Suggested layover duration: 4 hrs or more. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) serves SFO and travel time to San Francisco’s downtown financial district (Powell or Montgomery BART stations) is about 40 minutes each way. From there you’re within easy walking distance to shopping and restaurants. Hop on the cable car at 4th and Powell (just steps from Union Square) for some quick and easy sightseeing. Also browse Viator’s list of San Francisco tours and click the sort link for ‘duration’. This will display all SF tours that are an hour or two, or less.

San Diego (SAN). Suggested layover duration: 3 hrs or more. You can see downtown San Diego on your approach, but with an extended layover you have the chance to experience some of it. From the airport you are just 10-20 minutes from downtown and the heart of the Gas Lamp district, Old Town and Seaport Village. Explore on your own or take a Harbor Cruise and Sea Lion Adventure (1 hr) or hop on the Old Town Trolley Tour at any one of the eight stops – all within a short distance from the airport. Browse Viator’s complete list of San Diego tours.

Washington, DC (DCA). Suggested layover duration: 4 hrs or more. The U.S. capital has one of the most efficient transit systems in the world. From Ronald Reagan National airport (DCA) you can hop on the Metro and be on Washington’s historic Mall in just about 20 minutes. From here you can walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the US Capitol Building, past numerous museums and monuments. Or try an MP3 guided tour of Washington DC (80 minutes). Or stay in Virginia and head to Old Town Alexandria for a stroll down King Street to the Potomac River. Keep in mind that the airport at Dulles (IAD) is not well positioned for a quick tour of Washington DC.

New York City (Newark - EWR). Suggested layover duration: 4 hrs or more. With a train station in the Newark airport, you’re just 30 minutes from Penn Station in Manhattan (at 7th Ave and 32nd St.). From here you can catch a subway to any section of town or emerge into the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple in the heart of midtown. Just a short walk is the Empire State Building (5th and 33rd St), which is a good option if it’s midweek. (Be advised weekends can have long waits.) If you’re short on time, you can take the train up to Times Square (42nd Street) and get re-energized from the vibe on the street. If there’s time, try the Liberty Cruise (75 min), which leaves from 42nd and 12th Street, to get a unique view of Manhattan from the Hudson river. Note that transport to / from the La Guardia (LGA) and John F Kennedy (JFK) airports is not as convenient for New York City tours. That said, if you have tips for making it work let us know!

One more thing to keep in mind: for international transfers and extended layovers, airlines may require you to pick up your luggage in transit. Be sure to ask. I learned (the hard way) in Sydney that I did not need to pick up my bags; had I not said anything, my bags would have been transferred automatically. But again, be sure to check ahead of time.

Have any other recommendations on airports that provide easy access to the local experience within the window of a layover? Let us know.

–Dawn Lyon

NYC Personal Photography Tour

Here’s something you may not have noticed yet over on Viator.com. We are now highlighting some of the great prices that our wonderful, passionate, intelligent, travel-loving staff (um, we must be nice to these people, they’re the ones who actually track down all these cool tours and things to do!) have discovered. Every day we’re spotlighting a few top travel deals and discounts on the Viator.com homepage (look for it in the right-hand column, just below our list of destinations).

Today deals? Tours in New York City. I was in New York a few weeks ago and now I wish I had booked a NYC tour with a personal photographer. Or the NYC SkyRide. I’ve also read Rod’s post about the Hip Hop Look at New York, which at 20% off sounds even better.

Keep an eye on those specials, as many of them don’t last for long (and many sell out). And no — I’m not doing a hard sell here. I’m just telling it like it is. We don’t want you to be disappointed.

Here’s sample of the specials we’re running today in New York City. Happy travels.

• Save 10%: NYC Harbor Lights Cruise
• Save 20%: Private New York Tour with a Personal Photographer
• Save 20%: A Hip Hop Look At New York
• Save 30%: NY SKYRIDE

–Scott McNeely

Stumped on What to Get Mom? Spice it up this year by Going beyond the Traditional

SAN FRANCISCO (May 3, 2007) – Someone who’s already bestowed the gift of life shouldn’t be honored with a token that will be quickly forgotten – or worse, returned. Viator.com, the leading online resource for researching and purchasing destination activities in 75 countries worldwide has the perfect solution – the gift of experience.

From new ways to experience something familiar, to cooking classes, to special dining and travel getaways, Viator has a selection of more than 5,000 activities in every corner of the world, or for Moms staying close to home - right around the corner. Not sure what will suit her? Viator Gift Certificates, found at www.viator.com/gift-certificates, are the perfect gift solution that lets Mom choose what she would like to do, with whom, and when.

The memories Mom will make with the gift of a Viator experience will last a lifetime, never go out of style… and will never be returned!

Below is just a sampling of the experiences available to tickle Mom’s fancy selected by Viator’s team of experts. Viator offers experiences in more than 450 markets around the world, so visit www.viator.com to find what’s available in your backyard.

What’s old is new again
Viator.com is thinking outside the flower box with a sampling of ideas to help Mom see something familiar in a whole new light, or, to try something new - whether she’s a world traveler or likes to stay close to home:

• The Private Tour of New York City with a Personal Photographer will allow Mom to see the city that never sleeps through a fresh lens, with expert photographs capturing the memories along the way.
• The “millionaire mile” shopping Mecca may be familiar to Chicago Moms and visiting matriarchs, but the Downtown Chicago Deco walking tour highlights the area’s intricate and unique architectural backdrop.
• Cajun cooking becomes the “Big Easy” for Mom after she takes the New Orleans Cooking Class featuring specialties like gumbo and jambalaya, taught in an old converted molasses warehouse in the French Quarter.
• If Mom’s favorite actor is Jimmy Stewart, Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford, she will gain a new affinity for City by the Bay landmarks during the San Francisco Movie Tour, exploring sites featured in films like Vertigo, Dirty Harry and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• The fruits of her new labor will be enjoyed as Mom masters the art of Tuscan cooking and wine pairing during the Tuscan Cooking Course and Dinner in Florence taught in the kitchen of a classic Florentine home by a skilled chef in this special Italian city.

Make the ordinary, extraordinary
A small twist on an every day activity (like eating or shopping) can turn a regular activity into an extraordinary adventure for Mom to enjoy – Mother’s Day or any day.

• Mom can make any day Mother’s Day and take to the seas for a brunch or dinner cruise in cities like Boston, Chicago, London, Maui, and Washington DC. Special annual Mother’s Day Brunch or Dinner Cruises are also being hosted by the World Yacht in New York City, and the Magistic II or Sydney Showboat in Australia’s Sydney Harbour, but space is limited so book quickly.
• Exchange the car ride to the restaurant around the corner for an executive helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon West Ranch at sunset where Mom will enjoy a candlelit dinner, campfire, and traditional cowboy entertainment.
• The red carpet is rolled out for Mom in Los Angeles during the Warner Bros. Studio Tour and Santa Monica – Private Tour which includes a VIP tour of the working studio back-lot, lunch in Beverly Hills and shopping at the Third Street Promenade.
• If Mom has a taste for Chardonnay and a passion for adventure, the American River Rafting and San Francisco Wine Tour will be the perfect experience to provide both thrills in the rapids and relaxing tasting time on shore.
• Saturday Antique Shopping in Paris Markets with a local expert explores a selection of flea markets and auction houses and includes a tutorial on auction bidding and how to spot an amazing find.

A Gift with Confidence
Booking an experience with Viator.com gives local consumers and travelers the comfort of knowing they will be able to do what they want when they get there with the security of a low-price guarantee. Perhaps more importantly when it comes to a gift for Mom, Viator customers also have the confidence of knowing the Viator in-house team of travel experts routinely review and validate the quality, value and service of its local operators and attractions to ensure the best possible experience. And, every booking through Viator - including gift certificates - is eligible for airline miles through participating airline programs, including United Mileage Plus, Delta Sky Miles, American AAdvantage.

A former ski chalet in the Swiss Alps?

As part of Viator’s Earth Day celebrations, we kicked off a contest here on the Viator Travel Blog. We wanted to know what our blog readers thought about Earth Day, about global warming, and about how they could help minimize their impact on the planet.

The contest posed a simple question: “Global warming: Imminent disaster or ‘my mountainside property will soon be ocean front… sweet!’?

We asked people to give us their opinions in 50 words or less. So what did we learn from the contest? Well, we learned there are lots of creative people reading our blog (we had quite a few people submit poems — though nobody discovered a good rhyme for ‘carbon dioxide’ or ‘imminent threat’). We also had some people (you know who you are) who submitted more than the required 50 words. Way more. Like, hundreds and hundreds of words more. Maybe next year we’ll host an Earth Day novel-writing contest.

In the end, we chose three entries that made us think, made us smile, and made us more aware of our impact on the planet. After much deliberation we are pleased to announce our winners! So congratulations, and thanks to everybody who participated. If you want to read more of the notable entries we received, click over to the original contest blog post. Now without further ado…

1sd Place: Leah Finity

Our first prize — 100,000 miles worth of free carbon offsets — goes to Leah Finity, largely for coining a new word, ‘homewrecks’. Leah’s entry:

Oh, oceanfront property will quickly be swept out to sea. But, rather than scrounging for dinky shipwrecks to visit, tourism will boom with people rushing to visit deep sea homewrecks. What’s living in your underwater home now? Probably nothing, as most aquatic life will be dead by then.

2nd Place: Terry Roberts

Terry earns second-place honors for his poem. It’s a little confrontational, a little worried, a little hopeful, which means Terry pretty much summed up our own feelings on the matter.

Disaster or lose carbon feet;
disaster means ocean roar
but we can’t accept defeat
and live on the ocean floor
A vision, a scare? do we care
Yes?
So we’ll have to do a whole lot more
to keep the sea from our door
and see CO2 no more.

3rd Place: Janette van der Vyver

Third place goes to another poetic entry from Janette van der Vyer. She really nailed the topic from the perspective of a fish.

I don’t like being wet
I’m not ready to live by the ocean yet

So can I be on the next shuttle
To Mars or the moon I will scuttle

Because this planet is seeming rather gloomy
Unless you’re a fish then it will be very roomy!

You can learn more about offsetting your carbon impact over on Viator.com. Happy travels, and let’s all be kind to Planet Earth this year.

–The Viator Travel Team

You might know exactly the flowers she likes, the candy she prefers, or where she buys her clothes, but none of that is really going to score you big points on Mother’s Day. That’s JV stuff. Anyone can buy a gift certificate or stop by a florist. Ho hum, boring! I think by the time I was 18 my mother lost count of the DVDs, flowers and the like my brother and I had bought her every May. And frankly, she didn’t need any of it. She, like a lot of people’s mums, just buys something when she wants it, giving nary a thought for her poor children who desperately need to find a gift for her birthday, Christmas or, worse, Mother’s Day (’cause that one always sneaks up on me). Worse yet, ask what your mother wants and she’ll say something like, “Oh, nothing really, I just like to see you.” Or, “I just like having you both here for dinner.” Which is fine, we’re more than happy to oblige, but really you can’t come to that dinner empty handed. C’mon, this woman gave birth to you, changed your nappies, fed you soup when you were sick, fretted about you coming home late, and pretended to like the person you were dating when she knew they were a loser and it wasn’t going to last. A present is in order, preferably something that shows how much you appreciate and understand your mommy.

Mom wants to spend some nice, quality time with her kids. And this you can supply without feeling like a cheapskate. I haven’t bought my mom a tangible present in almost a year, and I’ve cleared a Christmas and a birthday in that time, where I think it’s safe to say my presents were the favorite. It was really easy and I didn’t have to visit any stores. I simply bought her something to do together.

The most recent present was last February. We drove an hour North to California’s wine country and had spa treatments and a fantastic dinner, all on me. Quality time with the kids? Check. Superb present I also enjoyed? Check.

Don’t feel bad if it’s tough to see mom in person. You might recall my mum was in San Antonio last December, I called the hotel and arranged for her to have a massage during her stay. Still a good present? Absolutely. Easy? You betcha.

Your mom might not be into spas, but maybe she’d be tickled by horseback riding, helicopter flights, ghost tours, cooking classes, wine tasting, or one of 5,000+ other things to do on Viator. Luke’s mom and mine have both had great experiences with their kids courtesy of Viator.

Want to score the big, big points? Take your mom on one of the luxurious Mother’s Day cruises either in Sydney or New York. You’re a hands down winner for best kid of the year.

Not sure of mom’s travel plans? Ok, then give in and buy her a gift certificate from Viator, but only on the condition that you do something together, which is after all, what every mother really wants.

– Kelly G

Here at Viator we are always looking for the next big trend in toravel. After all, as your “tour and activity experts” it is our job to find the must-do activities in each destination we cover, as well as the ‘weird and wonderful’ things to do. Maybe you want to do something more than a hop on hop off tour. Or maybe you are headed back to somewhere you’ve already been and you want to try something new.

Sometimes I am amazed with the cool and exciting products our product managers have found for our customers. It was just last week that I learned what zorbing is, and that we actually sell it. Who doesn’t want to hop in a ball full of water and roll down a hill! Sign me up! That’s an adventure!

Although rare, sometimes we do overlook products that we should be selling. When I came across this Darth Vader Hot Air Balloon my heart skipped a beat. Viator sells many hot air balloon rides - over the Yarra Valley, in Phoenix, Cairns and Buenos Aires. But all of our photos don’t look like these hot air balloons!

Perhaps those photos are from hot air balloon festivals, at least I hope so. But it got me to thinking, are we missing something big here? Would you book a ride in a hot air balloon shaped like Darth Vader?

-Christine Cramer