Tag / city

by Kelly Mattei

Best Segway Electric Scooter Holiday Deals

Best Segway Electric Scooter Holiday Deals

If you have a college student or someone who just enjoys electric scooters on your list, here are some great Black Friday Deals on Segway Scooters from Amazon:

  • Segway Ninebot Kick Scooter E2/E2 Plus/E2 Pro/ES1L. Specs: Powerful Motor, 12.4-15.5 mph, Cruise Control, Front Suspension (ES1L Only), Portable Electric Scooter for Adults up to 198 lbs, UL-2272 2271 Certified. This is a great scooter for use around a college campus or neighborhood, and it has a solid name brand behind it in Segway. It has a 15.5 mile range and goes up to 15.5 miles per hour, so it’s great for a student to get to and from class. Plus, the price is right. This portable scooter weight between 31 and 41 pounds, depending on the model you pick. Pricing is 30% off (at time of publication) on Amazon, with prices starting at $279. Take advantage of the great deal on a great product here.

  • Segway Ninebot MAX Electric Kick Scooter Max G30LP-25miles w/Powerful Motor, Long Miles Range, 18.6 Top Speed, Scooter for Adults UL-2271 2272 Certified. This Segway Scooter carries riders up to 220 pounds and goes up to 18.6 miles per hour. This is AMAZON’S CHOICE, and it’s priced at 43% off at $399.99 as a Black Friday Deal. Again, a great name in Segway, this scooter is efficient and portable. Weighing merely 38.6 lbs, it’s easily foldable with just one click, enabling seamless transportation and storage. These scooter sell like crazy, because of their range, portability, and weight capacity. Get it now here.

  • Segway ZT3 Pro Electric Scooter, 24.9 Mph Top Speed, 43.5 Miles Max. Range, w/Dual Suspension, Flash Charge, 1600W Peak Motor, Folding Off Road Scooter for Adults UL2272 2271 Certified. Another AMAZON’S CHOICE, this is a great electric scooter for the enthusiast. My husband loves this for the fun of it, but I know people who use it to get to and from work in urban settings…or even just running errands! It offer off-road power for the enthusiast. Conquer any terrain with 11″ tubeless tires and a 650W motor (1600W peak) reaching speeds up to 24.9 mph. It also has extended range: travel up to 43.5 miles (in ECO mode) per charge with the 596Wh battery and RideyLONG tech. Easily tackle steep inclines with a 25% climbing ability for smooth ascents.Dual front telescopic and rear spring suspension provide a cushioned ride on all terrains. It also charges fast and is safety certified. At publication time, it is offered on Amazon for $949.90 (14% off) and free shipping with your Amazon Prime membership! Get it here.

Let’s go SEGWAY SHOPPING!

by Kelly Mattei

See Mexico City

See Mexico City

I know what you’re thinking, because I have heard it a million times. “It’s so dangerous!” “You’ll get kidnapped!” “Won’t the cartel get you?” No, no, and no. Most people in the United States don’t know about Mexico City, the governmental center of the country directly to our south; they don’t know it’s a beautiful, vibrant, cosmopolitan city with some of the best food in the world!

I just got back from Mexico City. I’m not a “sit at a resort” kind of vacationer. I like to move around. I like to learn. I like to have experiences. If you’re like me in that regard, you will likely appreciate this magnificent city. I visited several times in the 1980s and 90s, but I had not been since my daughter was born in 2003. Many times, I have tried to get friends or family members to go with me, and finally, my friend, Jennifer, from Ohio, agreed to go. Not only did she agree to go, but after she looked up information online, she was downright excited! You know why? Because she had taken a little time to learn something about the city, and she found, quickly, that it’s an amazing, massive city that is safer than many cities we don’t hesitate to visit in the United States…like Baltimore, Dallas, Portland, St Louis, and even San Antonio. In my opinion, the US media makes the entire country of Mexico look scary, but really, it’s only certain areas that are particularly dangerous. Even the US government has the same level of travel advisory for Mexico City as it has for France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Sure, other parts of Mexico are considerably more dangerous, but we never felt threatened in Mexico City.

Allow me to share some fun things to do there (we did some, but not all of these):

  • Walking food tour of Polanco, the “Beverly Hills of Mexico.” Tacos! Enchiladas! Chilaquiles! Mexican Hot Chocolate! Let me tell you…Mexico does food way better than we do food in the US.
  • Museum of Anthropology. If you’re like me, and the word “museum” just sounds boring, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this massive museum.
  • Ride bikes on Paseo de La Reforma. On Sundays, from 8am to 2pm, the city shuts down one of the main arteries, a street called Paseo de la Reforma, allowing people to ride bikes, run, skateboard through the city safely. Some of the crossroads are open, so they have people there directing traffic for safety. Rent a Citybike! We used it as a “first look” at the city.
  • Helicopter tour of city. Yep. It’s a thing. Most of them are about a half hour, and they’re not cheap, but wow!
  • Eat street food. We had street tacos and street churros…both delicious! Our general rule of thumb for eating street food was to only use crowded vendors.
  • Chapultepec Park. This park is the largest park in the city and is about three times the size of New York’s Central Park! Inside this park? Lots of sidewalks for strolling through various vendors; the aforementioned Museum of Anthropology; Chapultepec Castle, a real castle; Pole Climbers, also known as Danzas de la Voladores (see info here); three lakes, and you can rent paddle boats on at least one of them; a zoo with a panda! There is so much to see in this park. And the zoo was the first to successfully breed pandas in captivity outside of China. The panda they have now is the only panda in Latin America, and she is very old…so hurry.
  • El Palacio de Bellas Artes. This gorgeous neoclassical building is in the historic district and houses several Diego Rivera murals and other beautiful pieces, plus an auditorium, where you can see scheduled performances of the Ballet Folklorico.
  • Gran Hotel. You don’t have to stay at the Gran Hotel, built in the Art Nouveau style, to go inside and admire the Tiffany-style ceiling and birdcage elevators. It’s free! Make a lunch reservation at La Terraza, the hotel’s rooftop restaurant overlooking El Zocalo, and enjoy an al fresco meal with a view!
  • Stroll through a market. There are lots of markets throughout the city. San Juan Market offers lots of different foods…vegetables, meats, seafood, even insects! There are small restaurants inside where you can dine, if you want to feel like a local. Mercado Jamaica is a flower market that operates 24 hours a day! And there are lots of other markets…
  • Metropolitan Cathedral. This magnificent cathedral, located in the historic center and bordering El Zocalo, is a must-see. Constructed in the 1500s, it’s free to visit and is well worth your time.
  • MORE! There’s no way I could possibly list every single thing there is to see and do in and around the city. There are pyramids outside town. You can take a hot air balloon ride to the pyramids. There’s Xochimilco, the floating gardens. How about the Frida Kahlo Museum and Diego Rivera Museum? The Soumaya Museum in Polanco? Go to the top of the Monumento de la Revolución. Like I said, there’s no way for me to list everything. There are tons of ideas on TripAdvisor. Here’s a video that shows the flavor of the city:

All of that information doesn’t even begin to touch on the restaurants! When I say it’s a world-class foodie city, I mean it’s world class! The only problem with the restaurants? There’s not enough time to try all of them!

If you’ve ever considered it, or even if you haven’t, you might want to think about visiting Mexico City now! It’s gorgeous! The food is incredible. You’ll never run out of things to do. And the people are awesome too!

Viva Mexico!

by Kelly Mattei

What Makes A Good Hotel Stay?

What makes a good hotel stay? Lots of things. Summer is almost here, and since we are hoping places are opening up more, travel is on lots of people’s minds…including mine. I’m always researching hotels.

Over the course of my 53 years of life, I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels. When I was a kid, a couple of things were important for me at hotels: a swimming pool and good vending machines. But times change. My wish list is different now. If you ever visit a city I’ve visited in recent years, I’m happy to give you my own review of hotels where I’ve stayed, and here are some of the things I will mention:

  • Friendly Staff. I love outstanding customer service. Our favorite hotel in the Los Angeles area knows how to do it, and I love it. A hotel can have beautiful facilities, but if the staff isn’t friendly and helpful, I don’t want to return. There’s a reason I listed this first…because it is important to me. When I visit a hotel, I like for the staff to smile and look like they enjoy being there. I like to feel like they are my friends. If I get that vibe in a hotel, I’m likely to remember it, and I’m going to return. I write dozens of complimentary letters a year, because I appreciate great service, and I love when someone gives me a reason to write one.
  • Large rooms. I simply like to feel comfortable. I don’t want to feel like I’m living in a closet for days. When I’m booking hotel rooms, I always look at the square footage. Unless the hotel has something special to offer, the size of the rooms is very important to me. For example, if I’m looking at two hotels in New York, and they have similar pricing and quality, the size of the rooms can be the tie-breaker. One is 350 square feet and the other is 550 square feet? You know which one I pick.
  • Air Conditioning. In the United States, most hotels are air conditioned, but they don’t all have good air conditioning. For me, it means the difference in a fabulous stay and a terrible stay. I need air conditioning to sleep at night, and that’s a fact…and it needs to be good air conditioning that actually keeps me cool. Preferably, it needs to be a relatively quiet air conditioner, but I can always cover that noise with white noise from my smartphone. So if a hotel room can’t reach a nighttime temperature of 67 degrees, I don’t want to stay there…and I won’t return. I also carry a small, folding fan in my luggage. I put it directly on my face. You can purchase one here.
  • Room Service (preferably 24 hours). Nobody loves room service more than I do. If I’m traveling for my daughter’s sports, I can suffer through a night or two with no room service, but traveling for pleasure? I want room service. It makes a big difference. I love to wake up to delivery of a pot of hot coffee and sometimes, a light breakfast. And if I’m going to have late nights, I like to know I can order a late night snack delivered to my room. When we are at hotels for my daughter’s sports teams, though, the hotels are rarely luxurious. But all the Marriott properties (Fairfield Inn and Suites, Towne Place Suites, Springhill Suites, etc.) have had market shops near the front desk, so we can get snacks or necessities 24/7. That helps. See the Marriott website here.
  • Location, location, location. In bigger cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, the location of the hotel is crucial. I like to be where I feel safe. I like to be close to the places I want to visit…or centrally located between them. In New York, I prefer to be near Central Park. In the LA area, I prefer Beverly Hills, and in Chicago, I prefer the Magnificent Mile. In addition to location, if the hotel offers a courtesy car for nearby restaurants/shops/attractions, that’s a big plus. On islands or in beachy resort areas, unless a hotel is in a remote area for a reason, I prefer to book hotels/resorts that are relatively easy to get to. I don’t want to waste two or three hours on the front end or back end of the trip getting to and from the resort and airport. It ruins it for me. 
  • Good restaurant(s). Ideally, a hotel has a restaurant where I want to eat, and ideally, the people who work there are friendly. I love knowing I can walk right down the hall to enjoy a great meal or snack. And I love knowing I will feel comfortable there.
  • Good bar. This mostly refers to vacation hotels for me. I don’t really care about a bar when I’m traveling with my daughter’s sports teams, but when I’m on vacation, I want my hotel to have a good bar. I want some people-watching. I want good drinks and friendly servers. I want a bar menu. I want a place to relax with friends over a cocktail…or two. I want to want to spend an afternoon there, and I want to have a nightcap after dinner.
  • Private Outdoor Space. No one loves private outdoor space at a hotel more than I do, and it’s likely no one uses it more than I do. Of course, in some cities, it’s not as feasible, but in places where the climate is mild, it’s a fabulous addition to a hotel room. I love ordering room service and having breakfast on a patio or balcony first thing in the morning. Coffee tastes better outdoors. Am I right? For me, a private patio or balcony is just an extension of the room. And cocktails on the patio in late afternoon are pretty great too! When we went to Cancun for spring break last year, I loved sitting on our gigantic patio overlooking the water, watching the people on the beach and the clouds in the distance.
  • Comfortable beds. We’ve all stayed in hotels with uncomfortable mattresses. We suffer through it and pay for it the next day. If a hotel has comfortable beds, I remember. I love to wake up thinking, “I slept better than I sleep at home!”

These are just a few things I look for in a hotel. Like I said, some hotels we stay in for sports tournaments are purely functional, but if they have the extras, well, that’s a bonus. But when I’m on vacation, I look for the extras. And a friendly staff might mean I’ll overlook imperfections in a hotel. A few years ago, in Chicago, we stayed in a hotel (in a great location) that was in need of a facelift. The rooms were comfortable, but they looked tired…as did the public areas. But you know what? From the moment we arrived, we were greeted warmly. The bellman rushed out in the rain to help us with our bags…and he was smiling! The front desk staff chatted us up at check in, and when we had some questions for them later that evening, they acted like old friends! Everyone there was so friendly, and though I haven’t had the opportunity to stay there again, I wrote a complimentary letter to the manager. I also gave a glowing review on TripAdvisor, and I’ve told friends to stay there when they were traveling.

My favorite resource for researching hotels is TripAdvisor. I can weed through the reviews that are “outliers”..like the ones someone wrote when they were angry about something. I also look at the profiles of the people who write the reviews and try to get a feel for the person who wrote them.  I look at where they have stayed before to see if we have similar taste. My own profile on TripAdvisor tells my story…I’m a 50+ mom who often travels with my teenage daughter…sometimes we take luxury vacations, and sometimes we have to travel with sports teams. I give a lot of outstanding reviews, because I do my homework before I travel, so I know what to expect. I recommend TripAdvisor to everyone I know. See it here.

Happy travels!

 

by Kelly Mattei

Accentuate The Positive

No matter where you live, people complain about where they live. Maybe they’ve spent their whole lives there, so they’re bored. Maybe they just moved there and think the place they lived before was better.

Here’s the funny thing, though: complaining doesn’t help. No matter the situation or place, pointing out the negative in life makes everything worse. Constructive criticism = yes. Complaining = no.

Recently, I was talking with a friend who moved to Charlotte from a large city in another state last summer, and I asked her how she liked it. Rarely do I hear someone say they don’t like Charlotte. In fact, a pilot on a recent flight out of Miami, before takeoff, said, “We are going to Charlotte. If you don’t want to go there, well, you’ve probably never been there.” It’s a lovely city…not too big, not too small.

When I asked my friend how she liked our fair city, she responded, “It’s fine, but I can’t believe schools close when there’s hardly any snow! What is wrong with you people?” Really? Frankly, complaining about snow days in Charlotte is not very original, so you get zero points for creativity. As always, I explained that, because we don’t get much snow, cities in the south don’t spend money on a lot of snow-clearing road equipment, so some roads can be icy for days. Plus, some people in the south have never driven in snow or ice, adding another level of danger. Blah…blah…blah…I’ve said it all before.

Different regions have different strengths. Southerners might not drive in snow, but we can drive in torrential rains! Before living in Charlotte, I lived in Mobile, Alabama, a city on the Gulf Coast where we had afternoon thunderstorms almost every day during summer. Guess who had trouble driving in it? People from other parts of the country. You won’t see someone from Mobile turning on their hazard lights and slowing to a dangerous crawl on the interstate in a rainstorm..but that’s another discussion for another day.

Sooooo…instead of pointing out the obvious to that friend who was complaining about snow days in Charlotte, I asked, “What do you LIKE about Charlotte?” After all, she chose to live here. Folks can get defensive about their cities.

action blur car daylight

Photo by nika kakalashvili on Pexels.com

I could sit around thinking of bad things to say about Charlotte, but I can immediately  give people a laundry list of great things about this city: great climate, friendly people,  an awesome amusement park, an airline hub, miles of scenic greenways for biking/walking, green spaces everywhere, plays/musicals/shows, museums, sporting events, good shopping, churches on “every corner,” a fantastic Jewish Community Center, great employment opportunities, colleges and universities in the area…the list goes on and on.

Every place has strong points. In a small town, it might be the sense of community or safety. In a bigger city, it might be great restaurants, cultural events, or sporting events…or maybe the city, like Mobile, is near the beach.

When my daughter was younger, I would pick her up from school and say, “Tell me two great things that happened today.” It forced her to find two positives. It’s easy to complain, but it’s more fun to find something good. It started the ride home on a good note.

So, if you’ve moved to a new city or town and can’t find something nice to say, well, don’t say anything at all. You probably haven’t been looking for good things. Search for good things about it. But if you’ve searched and still can’t find anything nice to say, it’s likely not the place that’s the problem.

Next time it snows in Charlotte, I’m going to pray schools are closed, so we can drink hot chocolate and eat grilled cheese sandwiches after we go sledding in two inches of snow till it melts. And next time there’s a rainstorm (with no lightning), I’m going outside and splash through some puddles.

Accentuate the positive, folks!

***This made me think of my Mother telling me one time, “If you think everybody else is crazy, chances are you’re the crazy one.” But that’s for another day…***

For information on events and things to do in Charlotte, click here. Charlotte’s got a lot!