Hampton Inn and Suites Tifton, Georgia

While planning a trip to Florida, I decided to schedule a stop and reserve a room at the Hampton Inn and Suites Tifton, Georgia. This hotel if family friendly and located off I-70. The room was large enough to accommodate me, the wife and our three children. The full pull out couch provided the final sleeping arrangements. I reserved a two king be suite and it was pretty sweet. The room was almost a true suite in that it had a separate sleeping and living area. However, instead of a door dividing the room, a long and very nicely designed working table/desk split the areas. True to the suite description, there was a separate kitchen area with sink and refrigerator.

There are tons of places where weary travelers can eat and re energize. Applebees, Chili's, and the newly opened Olive Garden are within a short driving distance. The workout room has machines, exercise balls and some barbells.

We were able to conveniently fill up at a local gas station and top off at the Starbucks before getting back on the journey.

Going on a long trip? You can still exercise

A sure fire way to get a good workout, travel style... 

Walk/run between terminals 
Curl your bags 

For an extra challenge, try this: 
 Arrive at airport 1 hour before flight. Carry all bags, don’t roll them. 
Make sure connection flights are within 45 minutes of each other 

Once you get to the hotel:
100 push ups 

Find more great travel exercises

120 sit ups 
50 burpees 
150 air squats 
50 lunges each leg Swim.

Hiltonhopper-Identifying the travelers early.

Earlier this year my wife purchased plane tickets for the five of us. She bought the tickets through an online service eight months early to save money and ensure we had the proper arrangements. She verified the ages of the children and selected options to have the entire family sit together. We were pleased to have bought early and settled in for a great experience.

The expectations were due mostly to our naiveté. I’m an experienced business traveler and tend to travel alone. The more I fly alone the better I become at flying alone. I have no idea when it comes to traveling in a group…with children. I am pretty satisfied in most situations and can pretty much control what I can control (me).  

As the months rolled by, we began to receive changes in flights and itinerary and we saw our plan unravel. Soon, our entire family is scheduled in various parts of each leg of flights. I  called United Airlines to ensure we could all sit together. I discovered that the person on the other end could not change my seating.

“May I speak with someone with the authority to make the seat changes,” I asked.

 The person on the other end told me that the changes could be made at the gate.

“Are you aware that we’ll be traveling with three children under the ages of 10?”

Silence for a moment and then, “Sir, I’m making a note about the children’s ages.”

“So, you aren’t aware.”

“No, sir,” she responded.

After making the notes, I thanked her and hung up.

Here’s the lesson: If you buy tickets using a discount service, immediately contact the airline and follow up frequently, especially when flights are changed. Make your needs known.

To wrap up, age is important as schedules change. Though we identified our children’s age at the time of purchase, the flights didn’t reflect the consideration. We bought our ticket in February for a November trip. The schedule changed many times, but our request sit sit together did not. Follow up immediately and contact the airlines frequently to ensure you and your family are taken care of.

The the Hilton Honors Credit Card

Another way to rack up points is with a Hilton Credit Card. I have an American Express that I use while traveling. You can charge food, rooms, transportation and anything you desire at any time and watch your points rack up. This is part of the great Hilton deal in that points are always valuable. You never have to work too hard to earn points for a moving target. I use mine frequently to build up toward free stays.

What I’ve learned to do is use my AmEx card and turn in the receipt to my wife who writes a check. I don’t want to take in new debt to get these points. However, the rewards are worth using the card for daily expenses and paying them off immediately.

Five steps to increasing your points and stays

Get a Hilton Honors credit card and build points through purchases. You can get Visa or American Express or both. Hilton Honors gives generously giving up to 10 points for each dollar spend depending on product.

1. Check into a different Hilton Hotel each night. Moving up in status is quicker with stays. The Diamond status starts with 26 stays, not nights. For example, when I travel for a week, I stay in four different hotels. Sometimes they are quite close to each other. One night in a Hilton, the next in a Double Tree, next a Homewood Inn and Suites and etc. That comes out to four stays. If I just spend the week in one hotel, it only counts as one stay.
2. Look for values and specials. Sometimes Hilton offers double  points for stays at selected hotels. If your schedule is flexible, take up their offer.
3. Set your Hilton Honors profile to earn points. You can select to receive points instead of breakfast. Some hotels don’t offer free breakfast automatically, so they will offer points instead of the meal. Go through your profile and determine what you can exchange for points.
4. If you have a good chance of making Diamond status, don’t cash in your points. If you redeem points for a free stay, you don’t get credit for the stay. You can save a few hundred bucks, but wait until you reach diamond status. Then, you can redeem points and still get credit for the stay.
5. Use Airline miles and other awards programs to feed your Hilton points.

That's it, five ways to get the most out of Hilton Honors point opportunities. Join us for more information later.

Why Hiltonhop

Hilton Honors allow you to build up points while travelling. Earn enough points, you get free hotel stays. I’m currently working on hotel stays to move from Gold to Diamond status. It eluded me last year, but this year I will achieve it.

This requires a lot of work.  The quickest way to earn the Diamond status is to change hotels every night. This is tiring and for a five night working engagement, I change hotels four times. This also requires packing the luggage in such a way as to be able to pull out a new set of clothing for work and entertainment each day. This also requires packing in such a way as to prevent clothing from wrinkling.

I usually travel with a small duffel back or suitcase. My wife graciously taught me how to fold my cloths into crisp little bundles that maintained their shape through the duration of travel. My shirts, pants, ties, shorts, shoes, workout and exercise clothing, and etc all have a place.

Also, when I get a set of clothing, I carefully unpack and repack everything just to get the clothing out. It is a most inspiring ceremony the first few times, but soon, it becomes routing. The key is to make sure the suitcase is packed every night before the morning checkout. You never know when you might oversleep.

To prevent oversleeping, set all alarms as soon as you get into the hotel room. All Hilton hotels have alarm clocks, wakeup call service and you should also use watch or telephone wakeup alarms if available. Sometimes it’s hard enough to sleep on the road. If you do finally fall asleep, you want to be able to wake up and get moving in a timely manner.

During the week of 1-5 August I stayed in four great Hilton Hotels in the Crystal City, Arlington, Washington, DC area. 

The first night, I stayed at the Hilton Crystal City at National Airport, 2399 Jefferson Davis highway, Arlington, VA 22202, 703 418-6800. This hotel offered a small swimming pool, a fitness center and had an office space for public use. As a gold member, I received free internet and complimentary breakfast. The room had  a large bed, desk and couch. I was able to work for a few hours in relative peace and quiet.

That night I met friends to eat at the

The second night brought me to Double Tree Hotel 300 Army Drive, Arlington, VA 22202, 703 416 4126

The third night I stayed at Embassy Suites 1300 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202 703 979-9799

The last night I stayed at Hilton Arlington 590 North Stafford Street, Arlington, VA 22203 703 528-6000

We ate lunch at the Hamburger Hamlet in the Crystal City shopping complex. That’s the key here, where I live everyone drives to work. In this metropolis, everyone commutes and spends of good deal of time walking from public transportation areas to their places of work or pleasure. So, the choice is walk in the open air during good weather or navigate the underground walking routes packed with shopping and food vendors.

Hamburger Hamlet was a delicious restaurant complete with a professional staff and competitive menu. True to it’s name, Hamburger Hamlet did have gourmet and regular burgers. However, it offers other wonderful meals. I had the Stella; a three piece meal. It comes with a sandwich of choice, salad and soup of the day. I had the open face veggie sandwich with tomato, olive, onion, reduced vinaigrette on a sourdough bread face. The soup was a great chicken gumbo.

We ate at Union Jacks in the mall by the Bolston Exit in Arlington. My meal was a Grilled Salmon with rice and seasonal vegetables. This meal was tender, fresh and just a perfect way to end a long day. The bar featured about 15 European (mostly British) beers on tab and twice as many in bottles and many non-alcoholic choices. The DJ took requests and kept the dinner alive with alternative hits from the 80’s, 90’s and early 2,000s. Shortly before my bedtime, they moved tables and built a dance floor.