Pulling off a hitch-less family getaway can be a daunting task for any parent – let alone when that parent heads up a multi-million dollar global enterprise as well as a household. Just ask Forbes and Fortune cover-girl Katrina Garnett, mother of three and successful Silicon Valley CEO who’s been finagling family trips to sync with school vacations for 15 years (granted, she probably had the help of an assistant or two). The well-traveled, Aussie-born virtuoso is now sharing her trip planning savvy with the rest of the world with the coming launch of My Little Swans – a members-only, online social network for sophisticated family travel. Read the rest of this post »

France-based Sofitel hotels are generally known for their, naturally, French flair, but the luxurious brand’s Philadelphia property is adding a dash of English charm with its new London taxi service. For hire by hotel guests only, the iconic London taxi, imported directly from England, offers free rides around town and to/from the Philadelphia International Airport (a 20-minute drive) Mondays through Fridays between 7 and 9 A.M (reservations recommended). Booking the service any other time of day will cost you, depending on the duration of your ride, upwards of $25 for lifts within the city center and $45 to the airport. Not cheap for most chaps, but the five-seat, mini-bar laden cab makes for a bloody fun alternative to typical transportation, wouldn’t you say?

Gadget junkies on-the-go, rejoice. The world’s first lineup of wire-free charging solutions has arrived, and it’s set to change the way your technology travels. Earlier this month, the Powermat (pictured) debuted as one of the first commercially produced wireless charging systems available on the mass market, with a simple “drop and charge” design enabling up to three different gadgets to be charged simultaneously (and cord-free) on a thin magnetic pad outfitted with a universal receiver called a Powercube. Read the rest of this post »

Part two in a three-part series on “glamping” (glamorous camping).

After two unforgettable nights of “glamping” at Tent City, one of two glamorous campsites at Paws Up Resort in Montana, I was going back to civilization. Or that’s what I thought. My home turned out to be just as remote, in an isolated forest on the resort’s 37,000 acres. In fact, when I arrived to William Clark, one of the ten new Wilderness Estates at Paws Up, I felt as far removed from the rest of the world as in my glam tent at Tent City. But the differences were huge – inside my stately residence for the night, I had WiFi, a surround-sound entertainment system, and five 42″ flat-screen TVs. There was even Nintendo Wii in the loft game room upstairs! Granted, I was still so far and remote that my cell phone wasn’t getting any reception. Not that it mattered much . . . Read the rest of this post »

Planning to re-enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean after your big summer escape? The new enhanced driver’s license (EDL), which is being offered in four states (New York, Vermont, Washington and Michigan), promises to make the process easier (and hopefully faster!) with its Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip, which contains biographic and biometric data that proves both identity and U.S. citizenship. As of June 1, 2009, U.S. citizens are required to show a passport, passport card, or the newly implemented EDL when crossing the border by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean. Read the rest of this post »