Macau overtakes Las Vegas as capital

Macau overtakes Las Vegas as gambling capital of the world. According to published number by the Macau's Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, gambling revenue totaled $6.95 billion in 2006. That number could exceed the estimated $6.5 billion in gambling revenue generated on the Las Vegas Strip in 2006. Many of the Las Vegas hotel casinos have already stated that they are earning more from their hotels, restaurant and entertainment streams than the casino floor. Whereas in Macau, the gambling floors are packed while entertainers play to some empty seats.

Las Vegas isn't really losing out. Some of the newest places in Macau that likely threw them into the top position, are owned by Las Vegas billionaires like Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage.

more on this news here

Rich Blood and Bed Bugs

The Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park is one of the most expensive hotels in London. But even high end hotels can have the same family of bed bugs that a run down motel has in the back end of a city. At one of the most prestigious addresses in London, you can pay £464 per night and up to £934 per night for a suite overlooking Knightsbridge.

Sidney Bluming, a New York celebrity lawyer, and his wife, Cynthia, are suing the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. They stayed at the hotel last May and received amenities they didn't want. They left with ugly red marks on their skin left by hundreds of bites.

The hotel confirmed there was an isolated infestation in one guest room. However, bed bugs travel with you. They nest in your clothes and luggage and go home with you. So it may have been one guest room, but it spreads from there. The Blumings had to fumigate their New York apartment and throw away clothes, bedding and other personal items.

On a related note, Alison Trainer, an American opera singer, sued Hilton Hotels with claims that she was bitten by bedbugs at an Arizona location.

Read more official news stories here on Google News

Unusual Winter Weather

This winter is shaping up as an odd one. Overall, the temps are the warmest ever. Yet in some places like the southwest, it is colder than normal. Recent days have had warmer temperatures in Boston than in Las Vegas or Phoenix.

How does this affect travel? Places where you normally go to ski or enjoy winter sports are hurting for business. And some warm destinations aren't so warm either. More people just stay home.

U.S. 40 Avalanche Highway Is Open

U.S. 40, hit by a massive Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, Jan 6 was re-opened late that night. It is the main highway between Denver and Winter Park, CO. Concerns for future avalanches is still there after three straight weeks of snow storms.

Colorado Avalanche Closes U.S. 40

A massive snow avalanche on Saturday, described as 200 feet wide and 15 feet deep swept and buried cars around Berthoud Pass on U.S. 40, the route between Denver and Winter Park. U.S. 40 is remaining closed as of Saturday afternoon. After three consecutive weeks of major snow storms, Colorado is primed for avalanches. More details can be found here.

We are not aware of any decisions from hotels if you can't make your reservation in Winter Park, Steamboat Springs or other cities that you may have trouble getting to this weekend.

RV and Truck Stop Guide

Our new guide to truck stops and travel centers is now online. We've taken it to a new level. First, we had individual guides to the brands. We have Flying J Truck Stop Locations, Loves Travel Stop Locations, Petro Truck Stop Locations, Pilot Travel Center Locations, TA Travel Center Locations.

Now we've put all the brands together, with their own icons, on individual state maps. Instead of looking at various websites or guide books under each name, you can now see them altogether. So for example, you can look at the entire state of Arizona and get a layout of where the major stops are.

As you may already know, some are more friendly to RV's than others. Flying J stands out as the most RV friendly with most of their locations having free RV Dump Stations, RV Islands and Propane We highlight which locations do NOT have one of these services. On the other side, Petro is more for truckers but their locations are usually big and have lots of food and services for the road. TA Travel Centers of America has many RV friendly locations but the majority of them are still not set up that way.

Click here for the map version highlighting all the major brands. Want more? Any ideas or suggestions? We build this site for the traveler. Get out there, let us know what you don't like about other travel websites and want you want out of one. Let us know

Happy New Year! It's 2007

It's 2007 already and we wish everyone a great new year full of travels and adventure. We are underway with our updates for 2007 rates and park information for camping and wandering the countryside. We have also freshly updated our guides to find certain store locations. We help travelers find locations of Wal-Mart (still updating this week) and others like Flying J, K-Mart, Sam's Club, Costco, Target, TA Travel Centers and Cracker Barrel.

We also like to find great food while away from home so we created guides to find
All Food Co-ops, Natural Food Stores, Health Food Stores, Whole Foods Stores, Wild Oats Stores, and Trader Joes Stores. We just created new icons that make it easier to spot each type of store on the maps. Thanks for all the great suggestions. Have more things you'd like to see? Let us know!