taxi - Lili on the Loose

31 07, 2017

Travel Missteps: Creepy Taxi Ride

By Lili|July 31st, 2017|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2015, Africa, airport, Cairo, creepy, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, Giza, Middle East, taxi|0 Comments

I was glad when one of my other group members said they had scheduled a taxi to the airport for 150 EGP, because I too only had 150 EGP left! And I didn't want to have to pull out more EGP on my last afternoon. But to my dismay no one at the hotel would schedule me a taxi for that price. They wanted around 350-400 EGP. I tried to plead my case, that my "friend" just got a taxi for 150 EGP! They just pointed outside and said, "Try your luck outside then if you don't have the money!"

12 05, 2016

Las Vegas 2016 Cost Analysis

By Lili|May 12th, 2016|Categories: Travel, Travel Budget|Tags: 2016, Bellagio, breakdown, Canyon Ranch Spa, cost analysis, Ethel M chocolate, fossil, gambling, horeseback riding, Las Vegas, Le Rêve, Magic, Mandalay Bay, Neon Museum, Nevada, North America, Penn and Teller, shark reef, shopping, Spa, spending, taxi, The Dream, The Venetian, Travel Thursday, Treasure Island, trilobite, Uber, USA, Vegas Checklist, Zoltar|0 Comments

Wynn Carousel made of flowers. Opulence in Vegas is expected. The last time I was in Las Vegas for a vacation was in 2011. I tracked my budget back then and shared it in this post. I wanted to do the same with my most recent trip to Las Vegas as a comparison. This trip is a little different though. The bulk of my time was for a client event, and so I won't share those numbers here. So while I was in Vegas for 6 days I'll just focus on my free-time activities which accounts for a

19 11, 2015

Egypt Trip Cost & Budget Analysis

By Lili|November 19th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Budget|Tags: 2015, Accommodation, activities, Africa, airfare, analysis, baksheesh, breakdown, budget, Cairo, cost, Denver, Dream of Egypt, Egypt, Egypt Explorer, Egyptian Sidekick, Europe, food, Frankfurt, G Adventures, Gadventures, GAP, Germany, hotel, Lufthansa, meals, Middle East, Munich, North America, optional activities, shopping, spending, Super Shuttle, taxi, tour, travel insurance, Travel Insured International, USA, Visa|0 Comments

This is my budget breakdown of my trip to Egypt (with a layover in Frankfurt, Germany). I knew going into this trip that it was going to be on the expensive side. I had budgeted $6262.41 in expenses for this trip. Here is how I actually spent that budget: Airfare: $972.26 I had watched airfare obsessively for about 2 months before I saw the airfare drop significantly through Lufthansa. I was able to get a 1 stop through Frankfurt on the way to Egypt, including a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt. And then on the way home I'd have 2 quick stops in

20 07, 2015

Travel Missteps: Ripped Off

By Lili|July 20th, 2015|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2012, cabbie, cash, Central America, Costa Rica, Costa Rica Adventure 2012, delayed, Denver, DIA, exchange rate, flight, hotel, late night, money, robbed, San Jose, scam, taxi|0 Comments

Budget travel means that you are trying to stretch your money as far as you can. Which means in my case, I often choose the cheapest flights, even if they aren’t ideal. Which is why I found myself at DIA late at night getting ready to catch a late night flight. But what I hadn’t counted on was my flight to Costa Rica to be delayed. Which meant I arrived in San Jose after 1AM, and found that that my hotel was completely full for the night. They kept speaking Spanish, and it sounded like they wanted me just to

18 02, 2013

Travel Missteps: Lost in Italy

By Lili|February 18th, 2013|Categories: Travel, Travel Missteps|Tags: 2005, All in the family Italy 2005/2006, Assisi, bus, Christmas, church, churches, Europe, Italy, lost, New Years Eve, police, smart car, taxi, tour, Trafalger, UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Site, view point|0 Comments

This is the view I should never have seen, but because I got lost I had a chance to see it. When you are on a strict timeline, getting lost can be a disaster. In late December of 2005 I was on a bus tour of Italy with my family. We were adamant that we were not "Bus Tour" people. We were use to doing things on our own. But we didn't speak any Italian so we decided to utilize a bus tour "but only for the transportation logistics". So we set out to plan down our moves in each "stop" of the tour,