Speaking specifically on how long its been since my last photo upload to this blog! 😳 It has been too long and way overdue!!
Ok, so the best way to do this is to work backwards from my last trip, which was a return trip to the Beautiful Island of Jamaica, July 22-26, 2016. This was a work trip with the primary focus on becoming familiar with the Boutique-style Hotels and smaller Resorts in Negril. I took over 500 pics so I will try to just hit the highlights! 😉
Jamaica!!
The beautiful Mountains of Jamaica!Welcome to The Cliff Negril Hotel!
My room for 2-nights at The Cliff Hotel NegrilMy Guest Room at The Cliff Negril
The view from my balcony room at the Cliff Hotel Negril.Pre-meeting Breakfast!Authentic Jamaican Cuisine! #DELISH!! at The CliffLOVE LOVE LOVE the Peace & Tranquility at The Cliff Negril Hotel
Site Inspection at Rockhouse Resort
Rockhouse ResortView from my room at Round Hill
My very comfortable guest room for 2-nights at Round Hill
Welcome to Round Hill!Beautiful Guest Rooms at Round HillOpen Air Windows!
Site Inspection at Tryall Club
Ready for Site Inspection of this absolutely beautiful property!!Such beautiful views from the Villas at The Tryall Resort
Tryall VillaRick’s Cafe in Negril
Cliff Dive Watching at Rick’s Cafe in Negril.
Villa Balcony view at Tensing Pen Resort
Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton Resort for Site Inspection
Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton in Montego Bay
Our last night in Jamaica! #Salud!!
Hope you enjoyed a few of my tidbits from #Jamaica ! 😍 #TLCTravels ✈️
My part of North Carolina doesn’t see this much snow very often so when it happens we take lots of pics!! These are just a few photos I snapped yesterday from home!
My 1st view upon waking at daylight around 6:30am & what a beautiful sight in my backyard!
My 1st view upon waking at daylight around 6:30am & what a beautiful sight in my backyard!
After a long grey day, the Sun finally return to begin the thaw out process around 4:30pm!!
I woke up on a mission this morning to finish what I started,….in 2014! 😦 Admittedly, procrastination has been an issue for me of late but I’m determined to spend the 1st few days of this New Year finalizing projects and other “to-do’s” that were left in the incomplete files from 2014. 1st up is posting a few pics from my #3IslandsIn3Days trip last month with Sandals Resorts:
Great Exuma, Bahamas
Turks and Caicos
St. John, Antigua
In that daily order starting out on Saturday, December 6, 2014 on an early morning Charter Flight from Charlotte-Douglas Airport with Sandals Resorts as our training hosts! My 3 Day Itinerary with Sandals #CloserYouLook #MegaFAM begins Saturday: 12/6/14 thru Monday: 12/8/2014 : First stop- Sandals Emerald Bay :
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2nd stop on Day 1 was to Beaches Turks and Caicos for a 2 night stay.
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Final stop on Day 3: Sandals Grande Antigua:
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An exhausting 3 Caribbean Islands in 3 Days familiarization trip -aka- “The Closer You Look, The Better We Look” training with tour hosts Sandals Resorts that I can say, with almost 100% certainty, “I WILL NOT be doing this again” but I also must add, I wouldn’t have missed this opportunity to “Go See for myself” for anything! Thanks Sandals and Beaches Resorts for your generous hospitality! I indeed learned a lot more information about Sandals and Beaches Resorts, especially those 3 properties, than I knew prior to this adventure trip!
SN: Resort reviews will be posted later on TLC Knows Blog.
Just returned from New Orleans on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and am now finally having an opportunity to post this review with photos! When visiting New Orleans, and depending on your agility level, your Hotel location can make or break your experience. For me, even with some of my physical challenges, The Hilton New Orleans Riverside gets multiple plus check marks as the Hotel to stay at when considering location, location, location and convenience!!!
Our Riverfront room #4112 facing the Mississippi River.
Our Riverview King room #4112 was clean, spacious and comfortable. We slept well so it served its main purpose for our 4 night stay in NOLA. The shower only bathing (no bathtub) in the bathroom was not a big issue for us. I didn’t feel the need to take any pics of the room since there weren’t any unique bells and whistles to speak of other than the great views of the Cruise ships, barges and steam boats sailing up and down the Mississippi River from early in the morning to late at night. If you’ve seen one standard guest room, you can get a mental picture of the one we stayed in. It’s exactly as pictured on their website. Wireless access is a huge issue for me and just about every other Traveler in this day and age and properties like Hilton Riverside that still charge for in-room wireless access are being under-valued for continuing this big “no-no” of charging extra for in-room internet access in this year of 2014. Now, after saying all of that, I must add that the Hilton Riverside has provided very comfortable lounge areas throughout the main lobby where one can get caught up on their online work while people watching at the same time. We actually enjoyed spending time in the main building (best reception location) checking emails, news, Social Media & other internet updating activities before heading up to our room for the evening after a long day out and about around New Orleans. I don’t know if included in their master plan is to get guests mingling and socializing outside of their rooms while staying within the confines of the Hotel complex as being the trade-off for not paying the additional charge for in-room wireless access at almost $15 per night or not but, it worked.
In the evenings we checked our emails sitting in the Lounge area up one level above w/full sight down into the Spirits Bar at Hilton NOLA Riverside.
Overall, we definitely enjoyed our stay at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleansand I will, without hesitation, refer our clients for a stay here while visiting New Orleans. With its onsite Restaurants and Sports Bar, Convention and Meeting room facilities making it especially great for groups, location with easy access to shopping and other NOLA area must see and do’s including in and around the French Quarter (WHEW!) AND,… the huge convenience of the RTA’s-(Regional Transit Authority) Riverfront Trolley line stop right out front,….(I loved that convenience 😉 ,… we had a fantastic stay at the Hilton Riverside and a great experience of New Orleans!
Royal Caribbean and Norwegian share a Cruise port. Carnival uses a separate but closeby terminal.
One more important side note for Cruisers; The New Orleans Cruise Port is conveniently connected to The Riverwalk Outlets which has a convenient indoor access for guests of the Hilton Riverside. If you are schlepping luggage and are not in the best of shape, this option may not be suited for you to undertake as it is a long work-out walk to get from point A: Hilton Riverside to point B: Julia Street Cruise Terminal.
Julia Street Cruise Port for RCCI and NCL Passengers. Riverfront Trolley stops directly across the street tracks.
Hilton Riverside guests who need to get to/from the Cruise Port can easily do so on the Riverfront Trolley line ($1.25 pp) as they are only one stop away from each other. Again, location, location, location of the Hilton Riverside New Orleans is FANTASTIC!!
Convenient RTA Riverfront Trolley line stop at Hilton Riverside.
Street entry to escalators up to Main Lobby Check-in
Main 2nd floor Lobby escalators
Main Lobby Check-In
River Blends Cafe Main Lobby location
River Blends Cafe
Escalators to walkway for Riverfront Building #3
Building 3 Lobby
Crescent City Marketplace located in Building #3 Lobby
Building #3 Lobby Escalators down to the Riverwalk Outlets entry.
Walkway back to the main lobby from the Riverfront Building #3
Our 1st stop after Hilton Riverside Hotel check in: Drago’s famous Charbroiled Oysters
Convenient RTA Riverfront Trolley line stop at Hilton Riverside.
Front Entrance at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside
View from the Front Entrance
View from my Riverfront Room #4112
Views from my Riverfront room window
Views from my Riverfront room window
Views from my Riverfront room window
Views from my Riverfront room window
Views from my Riverfront room window
NOLA “You Belong Here” floats up and down the Mississippi River all afternoon and evening!
Caught NCL Dawn sailing past my window as she’s returning to NOLA’s Cruise port on 11/23/14
Carnival Elation sailing past my room window on it’s return to New Orleans Port.
Balcony area outside of the Food Court at RO is the nicest Cruise Port Terminal watching lounge/dining area complete with Free Wi-Fi
Royal Caribbean and Norwegian share a Cruise port. Carnival uses a seperate but closeby terminal.
With one of RTA’s finest! The Riverfront Trolley line driver who took us on our 1st ride down to the French Quarter/Market.
So easy to get to/from the French Quarter area from the Hilton Riverside. The Riverfront Trolley has all of 8 stops, starting from the Cruise Port and ending at the French Market.
An easy walk to/from the Hilton Riverside for attractions in the Riverfront Area.
Sightseeing is a must in New Orleans! Get out and explore what makes NOLA the “Big Easy”.
Interested in Cruising from New Orleans for next Thanksgiving? Now is the time to start planning. Find out about Norwegian Dawn’s Thanksgiving 2015 Cruise here. TLC Travels also has Pre and Post Cruise packages available as well as Non-Cruise Air/Hotel Vacation Packages to visit New Orleans. Contact us for more information about experiencing New Orleans!Tina Little-Coltrane: Travel Promoter and Group Travel Coordinator at TLC Travels’ Tours and Cruises! ~ We want to inspire you to “Get Your Travel on” NOW before “too late” happens! 🙂 #TLCTravels ~ #Plan2Travel ~ #NewOrleans ~ #NOLA
In honor of today being #TBT Throw-Back Thursday or,… yesterday being #WBW Wayback Wednesday or,… tomorrow being #FBF Flashback Friday or,… heck, any day I might be feeling a little nostalgia coming on from Travel days gone by, here are a few of my favs from my early days working in the Travel industry.
These pics are ranging from the 1985 through 1989 era. During this period of my life, I worked as a Frontline Travel Agent in a “Brick & Morter” Travel Agency in the Bronx and had the opportunity to travel for onsite destination training. This block of time is when my interest and love of Travel first emerged.
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I didn’t realize back then, the importance of taking as many pictures as possible and documenting everywhere I went and everyone I met during those years! Clearly, as I try to remember it all, I missed the opportunity to record lots of memorable moments during this period of my life in the mid to late 1980s. From the 1990s through the early 2000s and with the exception of family trips, I took a long hiatus from working in the Travel Industry to explore several other business ventures. In early 2010 I decided to return to working in the Travel industry that I missed so much with operating my own online Travel Agency, TLC Travels’ Tours and Cruises. These days, I never travel without multiple cameras, nor do I miss any opportunities to document everything! There really is no excuse not to record it all in these great technology times we live in now! ~ #TLC -aka- #NCTina
TLC Travels Photo Blog 
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