Hotel Contessa - A Good Hotel Option for Extended Stays in San Antonio

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Originally uploaded by sindlinger

I recently spent 5 nights at The Hotel Contessa in San Antonio for a work related function. The Contessa's suites are spacious, which is key during a long stay. And it is conveniently located with quick access to all the activity along the Riverwalk.

You can check out my full review over on Yelp.

BBQ & Mexican: 2 More Quick Restaurant Reviews from San Antonio

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Originally uploaded by sindlinger

Had a couple of decent meals along the Riverwalk with co-workers during my time in San Antonio.

I have to say I was underwhelmed by the Riverwalk itself and wouldn't target San Antonio for a personal vacation. But if you find yourself there, here are a couple of reviews on Yelp:

* Casa Rio

* County Line BBQ

The Mi Tierra Experience in San Antonio

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Originally uploaded by sindlinger

Any place where you are first greeted by a man and his rooster is good with me.

We wound up at Mi Tierra by accident, only because Rosario's closes at 8pm on Sundays [wtf?]. What we stepped into was equal parts restaurant and carnival. Slightly more expanded review and some photos here.

Evaluating Hotel & Apartment Options in Quito, Ecuador

Image Source: ColonialEcuador.com

Update: For the review of our stay at this apartment, check out this post.

When trying to decide where in Quito we should stay during our upcoming vacation, the first choice we had to make was between New Town, or Northern Quito, which is more modern and commercial, or Old Town, a section of the city that retains the Colonial Spanish architecture and vibe.

New Town by far seems to have the most options. Based upon guide book reviews [the Moon Handbooks guide seems pretty good, as does this one from Insight Guides, but note that Amazon right now doesn't seem to have the 2006 edition that I was able to get in person at Borders] as well as reviews on sites like Trip Advisor, I narrowed down the consideration set to these:

* Hotel Cafe Cultura - In particular, rooms 9, 10 and 17 looked pretty good. These folks were quick in bouncing back to my inquiry about availability and if other plans didn't come together, I think we would have been happy to stay here.

* Antinea Apart Hotel - This place looked like a real candidate, but unfortunately they never answered my emails asking about availability. Looks like they have both hotel rooms and apartments for rent. Their site has a lot of information, but it isn't organized as well as it could be to clearly match pictures with rooms/apartment options, etc. Maybe you will have better luck than I did and they will answer your emails to better explain their options.

* Hostal de la Rabida - Seemed like a nice place, but some reviews noted that the rooms might be a little small, and without many pictures to actually see the rooms, I couldn't commit to this place.

The Old Town options appear to mainly be hostels or other really low key places at the $10 per person per night kind of rate, like Secret Garden, which, according to the Moon guide, has a policy of "3 in a bed - that's fine with us" ... alrighty then. Perhaps an option for a different vacation during a long-gone phase of life for me, but not this time around.

But I didn't want to give up on Old Town, as one of my big regrets from our trip to Barcelona was that we didn't stay in the Barrio Gotico. We stayed in a perfectly decent hotel that was conveniently located, but that still haunts me as a missed opportunity.

A little bit of searching for apartment rentals in Quito led me to the ColonialEcuador.com site, which is where I found this place [also pictured above], which is in Old Town. It looks phenomenal, and at ~$40/night, it's tough to beat. The hotels above have rooms anywhere from $75 - $125/night. And few if any of those include your own kitchen, patio, DirecTV, etc. We'll see once we're on the ground if it's everything it appears to be, but for now we're pretty fired up about it.

4 Useful Resources on Colombia

Image Source: David Rochkind/Polaris, for The New York Times

My trip to Columbia Colombia is on hold, since the reading I have done suggests that winter or spring break would be better times to visit than summer break. However, I did find a few useful resources that I'll refer to again if/when we ultimately look to book something.

* The Coffee Trail
This is the article that planted the idea in my head in the first place. It covers some options for a trip to Columbia's Zona Cafetera. Includes some excellent pictures as well as suggestions for specific coffee haciendas you might visit.

* Frommer's: Columbia - an Emerging Travel Destination
This is also available as a podcast via iTunes, but the link above has the whole transcript if you prefer to read.

* El Ruso, of Virtual Tourist
El Ruso is a Virtual Tourist member with some wide ranging travel experiences. His entries do a good job of including key facts of interest spliced with his own take on things, and it's all illustrated with some nice photos, too.
- Things to do in Medellin
- Things to do in Bogota

* Real Travel
I also found a couple of helpful entries from two different members of Real Travel.
- Lost Tribe's entry about Bogota
- And Luisa's entry about Medellin

Burgers With Sass in Chicago's Andersonville Neighborhood - Hamburger Mary's

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Originally uploaded by sindlinger

Judy and I had dinner at Hamburger Mary's. [Didn't realize it was a mini chain until just now when I found it's web site. Anyway ...]. My full review over on Yelp

New [kind of] Italian place in Chicago's Andersonville Neighborhood - Anteprima

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Originally uploaded by sindlinger

Judy and I saw this place last week when we walked off the burgers from Hamburger Mary's, and we decided to try it this week. It has been open just about 2 months and is still getting into a rhythm. It's a little pricey, but not bad. Check out my full review on Yelp.