A video interview with journalist Karen Schaler who has written a book, Travel Therapy, on the different was we can use travel to cure what ails us from dealing with stress to recovering from breakups or divorce. Karen also has a website focusing on travel therapy trips.

If you enjoyed the Southwest Flight Attendant Rap Video then you will enjoy this video from the recently held Southwest Airlines annual meeting. Public companies have to read some frankly boring text at annual meetings about “GAP accounting” and “forward looking statements”. Southwest decided to do this in a fun way consistent with their style. Well done!

If you have never stayed in an American hotel room then this video is for you. I intended this video to be a tour of a fairly typical business class hotel (this hotel was the Intercontinental in Boston, MA) for people who have yet to visit the U.S. As I show you around the room I talk about how this hotel room is like most other rooms and how it is different.

Surprisingly what you would find in a budget hotel room (Motel 6 or Travelodge) is not as different as you might think from what you would find in a business class hotel (Marriott, Hyatt, or Hilton). The difference will often be the quality not the specific items. For instance, a low priced hotel / motel will have thin towels. An expensive hotel will have plush towels (and often a bathrobe). The hangers in a motel are more likely to be attached to the closet than those of an expensive hotel. The ice bucket might be plastic or stainless steal. The glasses might be glass or plastic.

The kinds of things you would expect to find in a typical American hotel room more often than not:

• two double beds (or one larger queen or king size bed)
• color TV with cable channels
• remote control
• free shampoo and soap
• 4 bath towels, 4 hand towels, 4 wash cloths (half that for a room with a king size bed)
• the list prices on the back of the door (and if you paid this much you are doing it wrong)
• emergency instructions also on the back of the door
• shower / bathtub combination
• telephone
• guide to the hotel services
• iron and ironing board
• internet connection
• desk
• do not disturb sign
• deadbolt or some other extra lock on the door
• hangers
• glasses or plastic drinking cups
• ice bucket
• clock radio
• a bible placed there by the Gideons (not the hotel)

Things that you may or may not find in the hotel room:

• room service menu
• small refrigerator
• stocked mini-bar for those really desperate for food (it’s expensive)
• wi-fi internet connection
• free internet (the more expensive the hotel the less likely the internet will be free… go figure)
• bathrobe
• coffeemaker
• hairdryer
• bag for laundry service
• shower cap
• hotel stationery

What did I miss?

Southwest airlines has their own way of doing things. Some Southwest attendants tell jokes during the safety video but this attendant does a safety rap. This is the kind of safety video that gets people to pay a bit more attention than usual.

This video is the introduction of Rick Steves‘ talk at the Bay Area Travel Show. He was giving a talk about visiting Europe “through the backdoor” (connecting to the culture and not traveling to all the same tourist destinations in tour buses). Before his talk he spoke for a few minutes about his personal story of how he went from a piano teacher to a popular travel personality on TV and radio, a travel guidebook author and a tour operator.