Category Archives: Travel

Alitalia is offering 20% off economy and business class tickets through Monday (at noon CET) using the code SPECIAL20IT. This week you reserve an offer not to be missed. Buy online between 12:00 on 18 May at 12:00 on May 21,...

Happy 15th Anniversary to Star Alliance! What began at a small office near Los Angeles International Airport in 1997 as a union between five airlines hoping to better cooperate has become a global force to be reckoned with; the...

Just a few days ago I said I would never complain about U.S. Customs and Border Patrol again. That was before I came back to America earlier this week and had to deal with another humiliating interrogation session and...

…for the shower. And boy oh boy, did I miss it. It’s been an interesting few days. Easter Island was great–pictures will be coming in due time–but I made a big mistake. For some reason, the sun and my...

Yesterday I lamented about the refusal of the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington, DC to take my visa application package when I showed up 20 minutes after scheduled closing. How about 30 second before scheduled closing? “The Amazing Race: Matthew Edition”...

The last two weeks have been great–I’ve caught up on a lot of work and spent quality time with friends and family. But I haven’t traveled outside of California, and I am getting restless. With 2012 upon us, though,...

What a wonderful year of travel this has been. 42 counties, hundreds of cities, and an amazing array of sights, sounds, and smells. One year ago, I stated: I plan to fully explore Europe and hopefully the Middle East...

When is a purse a threat to national security? Apparently when it is decorated with a tiny, flat, plastic, obviously-fake, western-style pistol. Thank goodness for the Transportation Security Administration. First, take a look at the video here (I cannot...

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers in the United States and pleasant greetings to everyone. I am spending the day with family and friends today and thought it would be fitting simply to express my gratitude to the airline industry...

Hello from Ercan, Northern Cyprus. I flew into Larnaca, Cyprus last night and after a brief walk around town travelled north to the disputed Northern Cyprus, a breakaway region whose independence is only recognized by Turkey. I will soon...

Yes, this blog is entitled Live and Let’s Fly, not Live and Let’s Drive, but in the spirit of discussing all things travel, I really enjoyed the video below of Brian DeFrees’ 12,225-mile journey across the United States and...

Another weekend, another trip. I really do need a weekend to sleep and catch up on my hotel reviews, but I continue to take full advantage of my time in Europe to see other cities and countries at a...

Poor Air India. When faced with a bloated staff and sagging financial numbers, rather than trim back operations and layoff non-essential personnel, they compensated for their abnormally high aircraft to staff ratio by ordering new airplanes–27 Boeing 787s. The...

This weekend I am checking out out two new European cities: Ljubljana, Slovenia and Zagreb, Croatia. The cities are only 140km apart, so I will be flying into Ljubljana then traveling to Zagreb by train, and finally returning to...

Sorry it has been a couple days…I´m sitting at a little internet cafe in Uyuni getting ready to travel to Argentina and the connection is worse than dial-up speed–I am going to keep it brief. The last few days...

After a delayed arrival into Washington Dulles Wednesday evening from Frankfurt, I just wanted to get through passport control and customs and out to the parking lot to meet my friends. It was after 2am Frankfurt time and despite...

As I blogged about on Tuesday, I flew up to Hamburg for the Aircraft Interiors Expo for a couple days. My intention was to take hundreds of pictures and make them available through a picture link on Live and...

  In a city with such a storied history, it came as no surprise that one of its grandest hotels has a rich history of its own. As Front Office Manager Wendy Stendel guided us on a tour of...

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) takes a lot of flak on this blog, and rightfully so. Despite my grave consitutional concerns with full body scanners, enhanced pat-downs, and America’s counterproductive airport security paradigm in general, the poor attitude displayed...

While the days of draconian age and weight restrictions for airline flights attendants are a relic of the past in much of the world, some carriers still manage to offer some very attractive FAs. I do not personally support specific age quotas, but...