Travel Cheap #1 - How To Book A Cheap Hotel Online
Since more than 10 years now I am booking all my accommodations and flights online.
Not everybody is doing it this way, some are scared to get scammed.
There are some websites out there which are not trustworthy. But I actually never had any trouble with booking online. To book online is the best way to get a cheap hotel!
My Experience In Cheap Hotel Bookings
I booked my first trip online with my friend Corinna to the Spanish party island Mallorca 12 years ago. We had such a beautiful hotel and a good time. So this was a really great experience for my first online booking. And since then I never did it any other way!
So I want to share with you today how to do it and which website I use!
How To Book A Cheap Hotel
My absolute favorite website to check for good hotels and actually book them is booking.com.
I go there and fill in my destination and with the filters I set what I want.
No matter if you want a beach front, family friendly, all inclusive hotel, you can check all your wishes and let the website find the perfect accommodation for you.
Booking.com started in the year Xxx and i Know that they are really good. I never had a bad experience, so I truely trust this Website.
The important thing is to trust other people's reviews on the hotels. I never book anything which has a lower recommendation rate than 80%. These people who are writing Hotel reviews have been there! They have an opinion about it and want to share their experience to make it better for us, for all of you.
I read what these travelers like me write about the hotel I am interested in, what they like about it or did not like.
For me this is a much better way than to just trust one single person, who works in a travel agency and has actually never been to the Hotel in person.
What do you think? Do you book online or are you still going to the travel agencies?
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From Germany To Los Angeles - Winter Destination
Hey open mind travelers,
last friday we escaped the cold german weather and arrived safely in Los Angeles. We are happy to spend a few more sunny weeks in Los Angeles - Winter Destination
Los Angeles - Winter Destination
October and November are really the worst month for us in Germany because we can’t stand the rainy days.
Jeremy found super cheap flights from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, so we are extending our summer for 6 more weeks in the sunny state of California. Los Angeles is a perfect Winter Destination, the Californian weather is always great!
We will head back in December to visit the famous German Christmas Markets and spend Christmas with my family in Germany!
So be ready for more great content on openmindtravelers.com!
Upcoming blog posts
In the next blog posts I am going to tell you all the secrets of how to travel cheap to different countries and which apps and websites to use to find the best deals!
We really love to see all of you guys traveling around the world and inspiring us and others to explore new countries!
Traveling is about opening your mind and heart to new people and different cultures! Try new things you never heard of before and you will grow every day! Step out of your comfort zone!
Have you ever heard of jellyfish salad? We tried it in Vietnam and it tasts amazing!
Jeremy's Vlogs
Jeremy is going to make a video every day in the next weeks to let you be part of our adventures here in California!
Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and watch the first episodes
Find A Great Hotel in the Top Winter Destination - Los Angeles
Booking.com
Andel's By Vienna House Prague - What A Great Weekend
The beautiful city Prague is only a 4 hour drive away from our german hometown Würzburg. Jeremy's best friend David from San Diego came to visit us in Germany and so we decided to spend the last weekend together in Prague, where we stayed at the amazing andel's by Vienna House Prague!
Jeremy and David at the famous Charles Bridge in Prague
As we really love the angelo by Vienna House Munich Westpark we stayed at their andel’s by Vienna House Prague and had another really great and special experience with that hotel chain!
The andel’s by Vienna House Prague was the first design hotel in Prague, which opened in 2002. And it is such a beautiful and modern hotel with so many things to do around that area. 1 minute walking distance is a great shopping mall with a big variety of all kind of stores. To see some of the best landmarks of Prague, you can either walk about 20 minutes or take the train, which is less than 1 minute walking distance from the hotel.
We stayed for 2 nights in one of the beautiful apartments and we truely loved it. I was so sad to leave this amazing hotel! The whole hotel concept is so modern and cozy and the red furniture inspire me!
this was our living room
our huge bed room
The apartment has a huge living room with a kitchen, a really big bedroom with the super comfortable bed and a desk, as well as a nice and perfectly clean bathroom with an awesome rainshower! As I am writing this, I want to go back so bad haha!
On the day we arrived, we found delicious welcome drinks with fresh fruits in our apartment. This was a really lovely and great surprise for us! I also love lavender flowers because they smell amazing!
welcome drinks and fresh fruits - what a great surprise
The whole atmosphere in the andel's by Vienna House Prague was great. On every floor are cozy relax areas with couches and the lobby is a great spot to rest as well. In front of the breakfast room was a table football game, which we really enjoyed as well.
Jeremy & David playing table football
The breakfast buffet had a huge variety of delicious food and what we really liked is that they offer food from all over the world as well as traditional local snacks. There was an asian corner with misu soup and we could also try traditional deli meat from Czech Republik.
local food from Czech Republic at the breakfast buffet
I truely love the little things like you can see in the next photo, which shows the love for details.
The andel's by Vienna House Prague is really a great place to stay when you are visiting Prague! We love everything about the Hotel and can't wait to come back soon!
Find more information about the andel's by Vienna House Prag
isn't that cute? I love it!
On our last Day in Prague we joined Vladimirs PragueFoodies Tour and loved it! Read our next Blog Post here:
Prague Foodies - City Tour With Amazing Food
Prague Foodies - City Tour With Amazing Food
On our last day in Prague, Vladimir the owner of Prague Foodies showed us around the beautiful city of Prague and introduced us to very traditional and delicious food from the Czech Republic. We really loved the FoodTour with Vladimir, we had so much fun, enjoyed amazing food and we also learned a lot!
PragueFoodies Tour with Vladimir
Prague Foodies - Our City & Food Tour With Vladimir
Vladimir is a really nice guy, very fun and entertaining! He picked us up at our Hotel (read more about the andel's by Vienna House Prague) and showed us great things in Prague. He started his own business - Prague Foodies - about 2 years ago and loves it to show tourists his hometown!
1 Stop of Prague Foodies Tour: Restaurant
Our first stop was a traditional restaurant, where Vladimir ordered Svickova for Jeremy and me and Duck for David and himself! I have had Svickova on the day we arrived, and I could eat that every single day! This is for sure one of my favourite dishes in the world now! It is beef with dumplings in an amazing sauce! So yummy.
And the duck was excellent as well, really really great and tasty food!
new favourite dish: Svickova
Duck with Dumplings and red cabbage
2 Stop of Prague Foodies Tour: Deli
Our next stop was a really good deli. We tried 4 different things there. The first was pastrami with homemade mayonaise and bread. This was so yummy that we decided to bring 600 grams home! We like it so much, it has a very special taste and goes perfect with bread or sandwich buns.
The secound meat we tried was a warm sausage called Italian and aspic with vinegar and onions. The last meat we tried was a deer sausage, which we were thinking about bringing back home for my dad!
But the pastrami was our favourite so we got a lot of it to enjoy it at home as well!
Talian and Tlacenka from Czech Republic
3 Stop of PragueFoodies Tour: Pastry Shop
Our last stop was a pastry shop, because I love desserts. Vladimir showed us the traditional czech cakes and let us pick what we liked to try.
So Jeremy got a traditional blueberry cake, David picked an apple pie, which looked kind of a strudel and was served warm and I got the Sacher with marchpane. I think the best one was Davids choice, but all the cakes were very tasty!
And the coffee was really really great!
Jeremy's & David's delicious cakes
delicious coffee with Sacher cake in the background
PragueFoodies - A Great Way To See The City And Eat Traditional Dishes
The best way to see the city and eat traditional dishes is to do a tour with a local! We recommend you to meet Vladimir and we promise he will make your Prague trip special!
He also helped me to find a good store to buy some beads for my handmade jewelry!
Check out Vladimirs website and plan a tour with him: Prague Foodies
THANK YOU VLADIMIR FOR THE GREAT TIME AND THE DELICIOUS FOOD!
Angelo By Vienna House Munich Westpark - Our Favorite Hotel in Munich
Last week we spent 3 awesome days in the bavarian capital Munich. We stayed at the Angelo by Vienna House Munich Westpark and we can highly recommend this beautiful 4 star hotel to everybody! It is the perfect hotel for business and city travelers, located in the heart of the city, super close to the most amazing landmarks.
You can reach every landmark by train within a couple of minutes. The closest train station called "Harras" is about 3 minutes walking distance from the hotel, which was perfect.
The Angelo by Vienna House Munich Westpark was opened in 2013 and combines bavarian hospitality with a modern design. We had such a good time and we can't wait to come back soon.
On our arrival day a really nice welcome package was waiting for us in our hotel room. Thanks again for these awesome gifts! We were spoiled with german prezels with homemade Obazda cheese and beers. We also got the sweet Lebkuchenherzen (gingerbread hearts) as well as two little books "Oktoberfest Know How" in englisch and german.
The hotel rooms are very cozy and designed very nice. We loved the colorful yellow furniture of the room, whichs makes a warm and good atmosphere! The bathroom was perfectly clean and everything seems to be pretty new and modern!
The breakfast buffet is for sure one of the best we have ever had! We really love the german cuisine and the huge variety of food, which the Angelo by Vienna House Munich Westpark offered was incredible.
We started the day with a traditional "Weißwurst-Früstück" (Bavarian veal sausage), which is very common in Munich. You eat this delicious sausages with sweet mustard and german prezels and it was so delicious. These sausages tast even better when you eat them in Munich!
They offered a lot of other german specialties like Obazda (a traditional homemade cheese) or liverwurst.
But besides the german style food, they had everything else you could wish for too: cereals, fruits, joghurt, cheese, meat, eggs in different stlyes, croissants, different bread, etc.
Everything we tried was fresh and really delicious! I wish we could have breakfasts like this every day!
The Angelo by Vienna House Munich Westend provides access to their own gym and a sauna as well, which is great if you want to relax after a long sightseeing day. Unfortunately we did not use these facilities, but we will next time for sure!
On our second day in Munich we went to the famous Oktoberfest for the first time in our life. We borrowed traditional Bavarian outfits, the Dirndl and Lederhosen to wear for that special event and had an amazing day! Read more about our Day at the Oktoberfest here: Our First Time At The Oktoberfest
So we can highly recommend this great hotel to everybody, who wants to explore Munich! We love the angelo by Vienna House Munich Westend ♥
Get more information about the Hotel: Angelo by Vienna House Munich Westend
Our First Time At The Oktoberfest In Munich
As a german girl from bavaria, it is almost a shame to tell you, that I have never been to the Oktoberfest in Munich! So this year we thought we need to change that fact!
Jeremy and I borrowed the typical bavarian style clothes from our friends - a dirndl for me and leatherpants for Jeremy and took of to Munich!
We traveled to Munich by train. Because we live in Würzburg in Bavaria, it is really cheap to travel by train within Bavaria. The Bavaria ticket was 28 Euro for us 2 and we could travel from 9 am to 3am the next morning everywhere in our state, even with the local buses.
Jeremy and me stayed at the beautiful Angelo by Vienna House Munich (blog post coming up soon), which is in the perfect location in the heart of the city.
Our First Time At The Oktoberfest In Munich
On Thursday at 11 am, after our great bavarian veal sausage breakfast in our Hotel, we went to the Oktoberfest and were really impressed. Normally I really don't like the loud and crazy beertent atmosphere, but it was not as much packed as we expected.
Thanks again to Frank and Silke for letting us borrow your nice outfits ♥
This is us in traditional german costumes in front of the famous statue called Bavaria. As you can see, it was a perfect and sunny day with not too many people! We were really lucky!
After walking around for a while, we jumped in the ferries wheel, where we could overlook the whole square. This was an amazing ride, but with 7,50 Euro a little pricy compared to other german fairs.
After a couple hours at the Oktoberfest we walked into the first tent and it was quite funny. The atmosphere was really good, everybody was happy and the music was awesome!
We picked the Löwenbräu tent to sit down, drink a Maß Bier (1 liter Beer) and ate a roast chicken.
The prices are really high, but the people pay it. One liter of beer is 10,60 Euro and our roast chicken with a bun was 12,20 Euro, but super delicious!
We met really good people from all around the world and clinked glasses together and had nice conversations!
So next year we will be there again for sure! It was an awesome and unforgettable day and a really great first time on the Oktoberfest in Munich ♥
Things to eat at the Oktoberfest in Munich
When you visit the Oktoberfest in Germany the roast chicken, roast pork, the obazda (traditional german homemade cheese) and in the mornings (before noon) the bavarian veal sausages are the best things to eat! All of these are very traditional and super delicious! You can not go wrong with that.
Where to sleep in Munich
We can highly recommend the angelo by Vienna House Munich Westpark, which is in the perfect spot and a great hotel for city traveler. We love the modern design combined with the german hospitalty.
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11 Incredible Things To Do In New York City
New York is such an amazing city to spend a few great sightseeing days! We want you to see the best and so we made a list with 11 incredible things to do in New York City.
11 Incredible Things To Do In New York
Staten Island Ferry
Go on a 22 minute ferry ride, which is for free and enjoy the nice scenery! The ferry leaves weekdays every 15-20 minutes and every 30-60 minutes on the weekends. The Staten Island Ferry travels from Manhattan (Whitehall Terminal) to Staten Island (St. George Terminal ) and back.
Skybar
We love rooftop bars in big cities. The views are just incredible! This photo of me was taken on the rooftop bar “230 FIFTH Rooftop Garden Bar and Restaurant”. You will have the best view of the Empire State building, but for europeans the cocktails are pretty expensive, starting at 15$.
Rockefeller Center
The Top of the Rocks is a Must-Do in New York. We went there on our first day in New York and you get a good impression of the city. As you can see already I love good views haha
Times Square
The Time Square is another typical thing to do in New York. Walking around can drive you crazy, because it is so busy and crowded, but it is also super exciting. Don’t miss out this guy on the photo!
911 Memorial
The 911 monument is very meaningful and incredibly moving. It’s a must visit if you are in New York.
Central Park
After spending a few hours or days in the busy city of New York, you feel like in a different world when you enter the Central Park. This is an unbelievable quiet place with fresh air and we love to walk around and relax.
Magnolia Bakery
When I think about New York, I always think about the most delicious pudding in the world: Banana Pudding. Before I even tried it, I was almost sure I would not like it. But my best friend Kira told me I need to trust her and get it. And this is for sure the best pudding ever and you can only get it in the Magnolia Bakery New York.
Grand Central Station
After seeing all these american movies, you need to see the Grand Central Station with the famous clock in real life! Enjoy!
Shopping
I think shopping in New York is pretty awesome! Get good clothes for a good price! Let’s go Girls
City Hall New York
Our last recommendation is the City Hall of New York, which is a really nice building. Walking around in that area, eating a hot dog in the street and exploring New York, this is how we like it!
One Year After Quitting My Job
A Little more than one year ago, I Quit my Job to Travel the world! Wow it has been a long time and so many good things happened since then! But we had also struggles and worries!
I have never regretted that I quit my well paid job and I would always do the same if I could go back! Sometimes you are so used to your job, to your routine and you are living life like you are in a hamster weel. This is when year after year goes by, and life gets kind of boring! Do your really want that for the rest of your life? How much free time do you really have on a regular day, after work, eat, sleep? Maybe 2-4 hours? Is that enough to be satisfied and to actually live your dreams and passions?
More and more people (especially older people with kids) are telling us that we are living our life the right way and the wish they would have had the guts to do the same before they had kids.
When you are settled in life, you have a mortgage, it only gets harder to quit your job and just go!
So in the last 12 month after I quit my job, we went to Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Denmark, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, USA, Germany and are going again to Czech Republic and France next week.
We had hard times, especially after my scooter accident last September, but we made amazing memories!
Sometimes we get a little tired of traveling, and miss your own bed and a routine, but when we are back in our German home base, we are always looking for new adventures and thinking back to the beautiful places we have been to! Now it is getting a little colder every day here in Germany, so we miss the hot weather in paradise!
All in all Jeremy and me can recommend it to everybody to step out of your comfort zone and jump into a new world full of adventures! Go out to places you have never been before and see the beauty of the world! Meet locals and try food you have never heard of! We guarantee: jellyfish salad is delicious!
Open your mind!
My First Time Golfing
I love to play mini golf and I always wanted to try real golf. So when we were in America for 3 month, we decided it was time for my first time golfing! America has a huge variety of awesome golf course.
My first time golfing
To be honest, the first time golfing was so much harder than I expected. But it was so much fun and I learned a lot!
Jeremy knows how to golf and has golf clubs at home, so we decided to go golfing today!
We drove to the Riverside Golf Course, where they have a 9 hole course! At first we started with a little training and bought a bucket of 50 balls for that. Jeremy taught me how to use the different golf clubs and explained everything to me. It was pretty hard for me to make the ball fly far enough.
After half an hour of training, we took the golf card to the first hole. Riding the golf card was really fun :) I was not so good at the first 2 holes, but I pared at the 3rd hole and I was so proud of my self!
Jeremy is such a good trainer and helped me so much to get better.
It took me a lot of concentration and I didn't have so much energy anymore for the last 3 holes, so I got worse at the end. But it is for sure a fun game and I will for sure try it again soon!
Have you ever golfed before? Do you have a good advise for me?
Read more about our USA Road Trip here: California Coast Road Trip
Cacnipa Island - Insiders' Tip Philippines
When you plan a trip to the Philippines, you have a lot of options to pick from. The Philippines have so many islands and places to go to, but our favorite by far is Cacnipa Island, which is an insider's tip!
Cacnipa Island - A magical paradise
The beautiful small Island called Cacnipa is located on the east coast of Palawan in the Philippines. You can reach the Island in about 30-45 minutes by boat from Port Barton. And there is only one single Resort on the Island, the Coconut Garden Resort, which is really amazing. We actually planed to stay there only for 3 days before heading north to El Nido, but we ended up staying a whole week, because we didn’t want to leave this magical island.
Coconut Garden Resort on Cacnipa Island
The Coconut Garden Resort is a great hotel to relax and get new energy. We went there with friends from Austria and had an amazing time together. The Hotel is owned by a guy from Switzerland and offers a lot to do on and around the Island! You can play volleyball, basketball, badminton or other games at the beach and in the Coconut Garden Resort. But the Resort provides electricity only for a couple of hours every day, which is an awesome experience too! Nobody needs to be on the phone often, while being on vacation.
We loved the lonely beach with the crystal clear water. It is one of the most relaxing places I have ever been to. Almost every morning Jeremy and I went snorkeling around the reef of the beach and it was truly the best: there are so many different species of fishes and we found 3 turtles around Cacnipa Island. The underwater world is so incredible there.
Almost every day we played volleyball on the beach with our friends or poker at night after the good dinners in the restaurant!
Jeremy and his new friend went spear fishing and caught one!
I will never forget how relaxed I was when I was chilling in the hammock in this beautiful scenery on Cacnipa Island, also called Coconut Island!
