My second hotel in Riga, as part of my Baltic Explorer trip, was the Radisson Blu Daugava hotel. I had picked it based on value alone – at 15,000 points for two nights (a value of $30/night), and I didn’t expect a whole lot. It turned out to be a great bargain upscale hotel in […]
My Baltic Explorer trip covered 7 cities in the Baltics, Poland and Germany over a period of 4 weeks. Despite staying at mostly mid-scale and upscale hotels, it was an inexpensive trip, compared to other European capitals! The Baltics turned out to be a great value destination, especially for family vacations! Similar to my ASEAN
The Radisson Blu Ridzene was my first hotel in Riga, part of my Baltic Explorer trip. I wanted to stay in the best location in Riga and was looking for a comfortable hotel without paying a fortune. I had picked the Ridzene out of four Radisson Blu hotels in Riga it turned out to deliver:
As my second home in Tallinn as part of my Baltic Explorer trip, I chose the Park Inn Central Tallinn. It was just a few blocks from the Old Town and my first hotel, the Radisson Blu Sky, it looked great in the online photos, had good reviews and I booked it at a price
As part of my Baltic Explorer trip, I participated in a number of hotel and airline promotions to make the most out of my membership in reward programs (read Power of Promotions – Baltic Edition) – and all of them worked out great, showing again, how much value there is in those promotions!
As my first hotel in Tallinn on my Baltic Explorer trip, I selected the Radisson Blu Sky, using points of the Club Carlson program and the Bonus Award Night feature of my US Bank Visa card (no longer available). It is one of the top rated hotels in Tallinn on Tripadvisor and it proved to
The Radisson Bu Plaza Helsinki was the second hotel of my Baltic Explorer trip and I was looking forward to staying at an upscale hotel in the center of Helsinki with all the sights in easy reach! I booked the hotel with points, using the (now expired) Bonus Award feature of the Club Carlson affiliated Club
Radisson is the midscale, full-service brand of the Carlson Rezidor Group. After a miserable stay in the 90s, the chain went through a re-branding exercise in the 2000s and modernized significantly. I’ve stayed a few times with them and I’d consider them comparable to a Holiday Inn – reliable, if not very exciting…
We had planned a getaway to the island of Samal of the coast of Davao. Our flight from Manila arrived after the last boat and we chose the Park Inn as our home for the night in Davao! As the closest hotel to the boat pier and with a big SM Mall and plenty of
Park Inn is the midscale, full-service brand of the Carlson Rezidor group. While I had heard about them before, I stayed with them because of their participation in the Club Carlson rewards program – and I liked it! Read on why I did and why you you should check them out!
In a 1-2-Punch, Club Carlson has devalued their rewards program by more than 50% – the worst such devaluation I have seen in the industry, making even the Hilton HHonors devaluation a few years ago look minor in comparison! After removing the Bonus Award Night from the Club Carlson Visa card (reported here), effective June 1,
Club Carlson, the reward program for Radisson, Radisson Blu, Country Inn & Suites, Park Plaza, Park Inn and other hotels in the Carlson Group, (reviewed here) and their co-branded Visa credit card, issued by US Bank, (reviewed here), became my favorite hotel rewards combo due to their stellar benefits, like the bonus points on card