Bob’s Travel Tips – Fashion

I will give you all a moment to stop laughing at the fact that I am giving fashion advice.

Ready yet? No? Still Laughing?

 

Ok, should be done by now.

I feel I can speak on this because there is only one way to dress when you travel. For the purpose of this post, I am going to assume that travel is always someplace warm. Hell, it doesn’t matter. Wherever you go, the only way to dress is Hawaiian shirt. It is the all purpose party/formal/casual/lounge wear. We as a society idolize celebrities. And we should, at least these celebrities that know how to rock the look.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, maybe Nick Nolte isn’t the best role model but … CHUNK!

Anyhoo, if you want to get the best shirts around, go to Bad Shirt Good Times. They have some awesome shirts, and no, I am not paid by them and do not receive free shirts. I like them because they have cool designs, and the guys over at BSGT like to abbreviate their name as much as we do here at VIMB.

 

They also have palm trees in their logo. With a hammock. From the hammock district.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all I got for now. Go buy a shirt and go somewhere.

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Bob’s Travel Tips – Vegas

Told you this would be a series. Welcome back to the riveting and scintillating advice offered by the travel experts here at VIMB. If you missed out on the last Travel Tip, you missed me explaining what this is. So just go look back.

I have been to Vegas a few times. By NO means whatsoever am I an expert. I do however think that I can offer some advice to someone who has never been there before, from one amateur to another.

I have been to Vegas 3 times, all in about the last 2 years. Been there the first week of December, the last week of January and Easter weekend. The pools weren’t open the first 2 times and when I was there over Easter, it was for a wedding and only a few days so I never got out to the pools. So, I can’t give any tips on that. I also have pretty much been relegated to the strip and Freemont St. other than a couple of other excursions. I can give some simple advice on simple things. Those of you that go to Vegas a lot will probably laugh at me and call me a hack. That’s ok. I can live with that. With that in mind, and a Rhode Island sized grain of salt, here are my tips for Vegas.

 

Travel – Fly if you can. Flights are not as cheap as they used to be because of the resurgence in popularity of Vegas, but McCarran airport is KICK ASS! Be sure to see my tips on flying.

Rooms – There are all kinds of rooms. You can stay on strip, off strip and off off strip. Where you stay depends on how much you want to spend and if you want to be on an episode of C.S.I. or not. I have stayed at MGM Grand, Excalibur and Mandalay Bay. So far, Mandalay is my favorite. Both for room and amenities. There is a tv in the bathroom for cryin’ out loud. Mrs. Voices has been a number of times for conferences and has had work pay for rooms at Paris, Ballys, MGM Grand and Mandalay. Her fav was Mandalay as well. (oddly enough we stayed at Mandalay separately and not together). The ONLY drawback to Mandalay, is it is at the south end of the strip. That means that it is a long way to anything. Which brings me to the next tip …

Walking – Bring a good pair of walking shoes. When you fly in, or look up and down the strip from the 20^th floor of your hotel … you will say “well that doesn’t look that far”. It is. On average, the few times I have been out there, I have walked about 10 miles a day. That is just casual walking, not even walking on a mission. You easily can double that amount. Walking is bar far the cheapest and easiest way to get around the strip. If you really don’t want to walk …

Bus – The bus is the next best thing to move up and down the strip and back and forth to Freemont Street. You get unlimited rides for a pretty cheap price for like 24 hours. I think they have other passes too for longer times. Cabs … don’t, it can cost like $70 up to Freemont. There are a few free trams and monorails that are ok. There is also a monorail that costs money. While it is fun and a good novelty, the problem is that it goes along the back sides of the resorts so … it really isn’t a time saver. It actually makes you walk more. And when you end up walking that much, you are always hungry.

Food – There is great food in Vegas. Be prepared to pay. You can’t get away from the cost of food, especially on the strip. On the strip, there is no such thing as a $5 all you can eat buffet that I have found, and I have looked. Love me a good buffet. Don’t think that going to McDonald’s or Denny’s will save you some money. It won’t. Besides, why the hell would you go to one of those places when you can experience fine dining from just about every famous chef out there. The only drawback to that is, it gets a little harder to find quick eats later at night.

Casinos – Not much help here as I am not a big gambler. There is an I Dream Of Jeanie slot by the poker area of Excalibur that I like. I play penny slots. That way I can get a lot of free drinks.

Drinking – Did you know that technically it is illegal to have open alcohol on the strip? Who knew? Drink. A lot. You probably aren’t driving. You can drink early. It is good. It is fun.

People – The 2 times I was there when it was not spring break and the pools weren’t open were my personal favorite times. Not a lot of people comparatively and not a lot of kids. Although there were some. When I went over Easter … holy crap there were a lot of families. More than I thought were going to be there. It was more kids than anything. And going back to the whole walking thing … FAMILIES WALK TOO SLOW! I do have to say though that people watching is pretty freaking awesome! Put a large emphasis on the FREAK part. There are a lot of them.

There is one more thing I want to point out that I forgot under walking. I have walked around a lot by myself out there 2 times. Once because Mrs. Voices was in conferences all day and the other because I was out there by myself for a wedding. When you walk around by yourself, you don’t get sold anything. You don’t get approached in the hotels by salesmen. You don’t get approached by the guys on the strip selling you tours. You will still however get the strip club flyers shoved at you.

There are so many things I would love to talk about and so many things I have already talked about that are probably worthless. It’s a start though. I may re-visit this topic with some other things, or, after reading backlash of how much my Vegas info sucks, I may not.

Be sure to tune in next time when Bob’s Travel Tips will talk about the family road trip.

 

Voicesinmybrain and it’s affiliates were not paid for and did not receive any compensation, monetarily or otherwise for any referenced entities. VIMB does not itself endorse any mentioned Hotels/Casinos/Restaurants. We would however, mention that IF any hotels/casinos/restaurants wanted to give us any freebies … we would not be opposed.

Bob’s Travel Tips – Flying

Welcome to the first in a series of informative posts on travel. By series, I mean a few posts until I get too busy, lazy or just forget. By travel, I mean going places. By tips … I probably mean ranting about people I have dealt with while traveling. Some may be helpful, some may not.

“But Bob, there are hundreds of professional travel sites out there. Why should we listen to you?”

Quite honestly, you should probably never listen to me. The thing is, the sites you mentioned are put together by, as you said, professionals. Rick Steves and Anthony Bourdain do a fine job however, they are paid to travel. They have people. They have money. They are not you and me.

Now, as I said, I am by no means any type of expert on travel, I am just an average guy who is fortunate to go places once in a while. I don’t travel first class and even though I tried to get the crack staff here at VIMB to do some of my planning for me … I realized that I AM the crack staff here at VIMB. So, I would like to use these little times we have together to give you some things that I have figured out or noticed along the way. Like the title says, the first out of the box is Flying.

I don’t fly often mainly because I don’t get to go many places far enough to fly. Plus I am cheap. These days the space in airplanes is far less than it ever has been and it is getting smaller every day. Even the “extra legroom” seats aka emergency exit rows, do not have as much room as they used to. To me that is scary because larger people won’t be able to escape.

Flying is also getting really expensive. They nickel and dime you on EVERYTHING. Depending on the airline, some don’t even give you a free can of Coke for cryin’ out loud. With all that said, here are a few things, in no particular order, to keep in mind when flying as most people do … economy/coach.

Carry on luggage – If you decide that whatever you have is too important and valuable to put in the cargo hold, or you are too cheap to check you bag, then at the end of the flight, keep your ass in your seat until the people who can walk off the plane, walk off the plane. Standing in the aisle and dropping your suitcase on people as you drag it out of the overhead holds up the entire process. Wait until everyone is gone. It will make it easier for you as well so you don’t have to push people out of the way.

Perfume/Cologne – You are in a closed tube for hours. Just don’t do it.

Sleeping – If you drool, or snore, you WILL get videoed and it WILL be on YouTube. Just sayin’.

Security – Be ready when you get there. You are in line for 10 min at least. There is no reason you should still be wearing your belt when you get to the buckets.

Baggage claim – don’t be that jack hole that pushes through everyone to be the first one in line where the bags come out. The thing snakes around. If you are in that much of a hurry, book an earlier flight.

Talking – Introducing yourself to your seat mate is a hit or miss proposition. A few tips on this … if I am wearing headphones … don’t talk to me. If you are trashed … don’t talk to me. If you are not a hot female … don’t talk to me. Pretty much … don’t talk to me.

Talking pt. 2 – If you MUST talk … on the phone, to the person you are flying with or to yourself … do it quietly. No one cares. If you can’t hear yourself … chew some gum.

Lavatory – FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T FLY IF YOU HAVE TO DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN PEE!

Couples – Please don’t feel each other up, sloppily make out with each other or try to join the mile high club when you are 2 people sitting in a row with 3 or 4 seats and all seats are filled.

So basically, drive if you can.

 

Tune in next time when I give my tips on Vegas.