Reviews... holidays and technology

Road Trip

2008-06-13T00:06:00.006+01:00

Feeling Spontaneous???
Recently we had itchy feet and felt like getting out of London. We booked tickets and a car. We only had 2 certainties. My wife was flying out from LA on Monday night, I was flying out of Dallas the following Saturday. We flew into Seattle on Friday afternoon. The total trip was 5500km, and we went through 9 States.
Hints and tips.
Be careful about the car rental. We found a great deal online, one of the websites like lastminute.com, but as soon as we had confirmed it, we were hit with another $500 one way charge. We were also given an 'upgrade car'. When we went to the car after paying we noticed the Florida licence plates- we drove the car over half the way back and paid extra to do so!
What to do or see?
In Seattle we were really keen to see the 1st Starbucks. It is at the Pike Place Market. The Pike Place Market does not allow chain stores at all anymore with the exception of Starbucks due to its history in the area.
When we drove through Oregon we drove along the coast most of the way. It adds hours on to the journey but is definitely worth it!! Something to be weary of, restaurants in certain areas close at 2pm (we nearly missed lunch). Another benefit to Oregon, is if you are doing any shopping, there is no VAT.
California is great as well. It would have been nicer to drive around a bit more. We did drive over the Golden Gate Bridge. An amazing site.
After dropping my wife off in LA, I drove into Arizona and slept in the car in a parking lot at 1am. I couldn't sleep to well, so got up at 4am and kept on going.
I drove to the Grand Canyon which is another site you should add to your top things to see. Grand Canyon South Rim has one of the best views.
From there I drove into Utah. I came across a town called Moab which seems to have appeared from nowhere, seems like a great place with loads of adventure activities available. From there I drove to Denver where the weather changed dramatically. I only spent one night in Denver then due to the weather decided to start driving for Dallas. I ended up just going and going and 17 hours later I was at my hotel. I was stopped by cops 2 times and both in Texas. On trips that long its easy to go over the speed limit so try make sure your car has cruise control. It makes a huge difference. My last night in Texas I managed to get to a Rangers baseball game.
Where to Stay
Try looking out for either Days Inn or Comfort Inn. The accommodation is decent and clean and has free wireless Internet access.
Just go for it. We decided to go on this trip and flew out 7 days later. Be spontaneous!!

Archos

2008-06-12T14:11:00.004+01:00

We were fed up of itunes and decided to look for something else that was more user friendly when syncing with the computer. After a ton of research we finally found the Archos. We had never heard of it before, but it did look like a brilliant option if you are not to keen on trying to get your ipod running with itunes.
We eventually decided to go for the Archos 605 160GB. The Archos 605 comes in several different sizes. There is a 30GB, 80GB, and a 160GB. 160GB is more space than we could ever use. If your keen on movies then I'd have to recommend at least the 80GB if not then the 160GB.
The quality is fantastic. Movies are extremely crisp and clear on the Archos. Music is easy to get to and even easier to categorise. An added bonus with the 605 is that it comes with wireless as well which is fairly easy to use as well.
BUT... when you get one the price doesn't stop with buying the Archos. You need to buy other little plug-ins online to get other parts of it running. When you buy it you can play music and check out pictures straight away, but then you need to buy plug-ins for the internet and the different kinds of video files. Plug-ins cost between 20-30 Euro. I felt if you're paying so much money for the Archos, why couldn't they include all the other bits and pieces so what your paying for includes everything and there are no hidden extras.
As whole I would have given my ipod a 4 out of 10, but the Archos I would have to give a 7.

Nokia E90 or PDA

2008-06-10T23:12:00.001+01:00

The past 5 years I have only had PDA phones until now. I found that speaking on these phones was quite difficult as there was a lot of background noise on the other end. The PDA's are really easy to use. The great thing about the PDA phones is that you can easily navigate from the phone pad, or from touching the screen. They generally run on Windows Mobile which is highly effective especially for office use. It is easy to move files around back and forth with a PC and Excel, Word, and Power Point documents are extremely easy to open on the phone.
I was a little unsure about going back to the Nokia range which I hadn't used for at least 6-7 years.
The Nokia E90 is one of the best phones I've ever used. It is quite a heavy phone but feels really solid. It feels like a high quality phone, and unlike other phones, you can notice the quality. Navigation is really easy around the phone as well. The key pad when you open the phone has the QWERTY lay out. The keys are small as can be expected but are easy enough to use. I have found that the connection ports jump around a bit. I also found that the push email wasn't 100% reliable, but that could be a provider issue. It is easy enough to sync both Work email and web based email to the phone. The Nokia also has its own set of office tools, they do the job, but its not as good as Windows Mobile.
Over all, I would highly recommend this phone, I would give it an 8 out of 10.

Where to shop???

2008-06-10T21:29:00.001+01:00

We live in the UK, but with the current life style in the UK it's really expensive to shop here. Depending on what you want to get and how many of them, for example if you want to get yourself and a family member a lap top, think about shopping further afield. Do you research, if it looks like you can save money by shopping in the states, spend the money you would have saved and go on a week long, or weekend long, holiday. Look into VAT rates as well. For example, Oregan has 0% tax, where as California has 8% tax and the UK had 17.5%. Alberta is 6% and British Columbia is 12%. Here is a link to check US tax rates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States and world wide tax rates http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax. In the past you have been able to take your receipts to an office at the aiport when flying out of the country and claiming tax back, unfortunately now, most airports are closing these offices.

About my blog

2008-06-10T21:26:00.001+01:00

I'm going to focus on reviews on technology and holidays, pretty much what life is based on these days. If you have any suggestions just let me know and I'll do my best to get a review in on the suggestions.