Good morning. We’re taking a break from regularly scheduled programming today for a deep-dive newsletter on all things travel: the latest trends, trip recommendations from Brew readers, and of course some weird stuff in between. It’s a fun one.
Have a great weekend, and safe travels if you are headed out of town.
—Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt, Jamie Wilde
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Cheezburger via Giphy
When we first announced we were publishing a travel newsletter, requests flooded in around one topic specifically: traveling with pets.
It’s not exactly a surprise. Pet-friendly travel is one of the hottest trends in the industry. A new survey from Hilton showed that 55% of respondents who were pet owners planned to take their furry friends along for a trip. And the company’s No. 3 booking filter in 2021 was “pet friendly.”
The surge in pet-related travel amenities appears to be yet another one of those simmering trends that the pandemic sent boiling. Nearly one in five households (~23 million Americans) acquired a cat or dog since the beginning of the Covid outbreak, the ASPCA reported last year. And now that lockdowns are over, humans want to show their pets all the iconic sites around the world they can go to the bathroom on.
This presents a new group of customers to be won, and many hotels are racing to offer the friendliest pet accommodations around. At a basic level, that could look like offering pets treats, beds, bowls, and toys.
But this is pet owners we’re talking about here—so a bustling luxury pet travel market has also sprung up.
- A Santa Barbara hotel, El Encanto, offers a gourmet dog menu with seasonal fish for $15/plate, followed by an herbal tea blend at $5/bowl.
- Metropolitan at the 9 in Cleveland has an indoor dog park.
- You can get a facial and nail care done alongside your dog at the Lygon Arms in England’s Cotswolds for about $218.
Big picture: The best pet-friendly vacation might be one that’s not too far away. While road tripping with your pet has likely never been easier, flying with one has gotten a lot more complicated and restrictive during Covid.
And finally, here are some resources to help you plan the perfect vacation with your pet.
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Francis Scialabba
We wanted to start some drama for the long weekend, so we asked Brew readers to offer their takes on the most controversial travel debates. 13,000 responses later…
When choosing your seat on the plane, do you prefer…
- Window seat: 50.9%
- Aisle: 48.9%
- Middle: Less than 1%, but not zero. Who are you people???
You’re planning a short weekend getaway. Where are you staying?
You and the crew are leaving the Drive Thru off I-80 with a bag of McChickens for lunch. Do you…
- Eat while driving, which sometimes requires your copilot to feed you fries: 75%
- Park and eat: 25%
You get handed the aux during a long road trip. What kind of audio are you putting on?
- Curated playlist: 54%
- Podcast: 20%
- Audiobook: 12%
- No aux needed—road trips are for the local radio stations: 10%
- Nothing, I prefer silence: 4%
Do you use cruise control on the highway?
- Sometimes: 47%
- Always: 34%
- Never: 19%
What’s your in-flight drink order?
- Water: 28%
- Ginger ale: 19%
- Cocktail/beer/wine: 17%
- Any other kind of soda: 15%
- Coffee/tea: 10%
- Juice: 8%
- Other: 3%
We also asked readers what their go-to gas station snack + drink combos were. We didn’t anticipate crowning a “winning” answer to this question, but then someone responded with “a skewer of 7-Eleven meatballs and a huge Dr Pepper.” So they are the winner.
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Three words: sustainable summer sneakers. That’s just one way to describe Cariuma’s best-selling canvas sneakers. (They also go by cool, cozy, and classic.)
These kicks don’t just show you’ve got style—they show love to the planet, too. From the materials they’re made from to the factories they’re made in, Cariuma sneakers are eco-conscious every step of the way.
With a vast range of bright colors, neutrals, and bold prints, these best-sellers also feature collaborative colorways with brands like PANTONE, Atari, and even legendary surfer Gerry Lopez.
These kicks are known to sell out and rack up a huge (read: 61K) waiting list. They never go on sale (ever for MDW), but Brew readers can get 15% off with code MBMAY. Get your summer ’fits ready here.
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Giphy
The Great Outdoors became a top travel destination in 2020 for obvious reasons: endless social distance, campgrounds within driving distance, dramatic settings for an existential crisis, etc. Zoom ahead to summer 2022 and the world has reopened—so has camping fallen out of favor?
Turns out, instead of returning their REI equipment, many tenderfoots are still adding camping reservations to their travel plans.
- Campspot, a platform for reserving campsites, told the Brew it has 49% more advance bookings for this summer compared to last year, and has seen a 6x jump in new campers.
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33% more people are shopping on Amazon for camping tents this year compared to 2019, and demand for other outdoor gear (lanterns, backpacks, camp stoves) has also risen by double digits, per data analytics company Pattern.
- Glamping’s also holding onto its pandemic popularity: Getaway, which rents tiny, posh cabins you’ve definitely seen on Instagram, had its most guests ever in Q1 2022.
Zoom out: Getaway’s Chief Experience Officer Carlos Becil told the Brew via a spokesperson, “Between inflation, the stock market, and recession fears, people have a strong desire to find ways to disconnect from the stress and spend time in nature to help them reconnect with themselves, and their loved ones.”—JW
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles/Paramount via Getty Images
Another holiday travel weekend is upon us, and, whether you’re reading this in the Sbarro line at a highway rest stop or during the water landing speech on your Spirit flight, you’ve likely already experienced soaring inflation firsthand.
Travelers have been hit hard by price hikes this spring: Airfares were up 18.6% in April compared to a year earlier, while midrange hotels are charging 42% more for their lowest rate, per AAA. And maybe you haven’t heard, but gas is expensive, too.
As a fun exercise and an excuse to watch some movies during work, we decided to break down how much trips from iconic holiday travel films would cost in today’s inflationary environment.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles: $1,730
This Steve Martin and John Candy Thanksgiving classic contains the most extensively documented trip that we could find. Here’s our pricing breakdown, in case you’re thinking of reliving the worst weekend of all time:
- A 6:00pm first-class flight from LGA to O’Hare before a holiday weekend: ~$400
- Midtown Manhattan car (let’s say Uber) to LGA: ~$85 (x2 since Del steals the first)
- Uber to a hotel after being diverted to Wichita: ~$25
- Last-minute hotel in Wichita: ~$100 a night
- Amtrak from Kansas City (closest available location) to Chicago: ~$200 (x2)
- Bus from Jefferson City to St. Louis (once the train breaks down): ~$30 (x2)
- Rental car in St. Louis: likely unavailable, but ~$210 (x2 since movie Neal’s car is missing)
- Illinois hotel: ~$150
- Chicago L train: $2.50 (x2)
Not included: gas, a speeding ticket, a robbery, or the cost of their destroyed rental car.
Home Alone: $34,192
- Four first-class, round-trip, Christmastime tickets on an American Airlines flight from O’Hare to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris: ~$22,400
- 11 coach tickets for the kids: ~$11,792.
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TL;DR: The McCallisters would’ve been fine if they were robbed.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall: $23,000
Peter’s stay is free (in exchange for cleaning his own room) but his approximately ~10 night vacation at Oahu’s Turtle Bay resort in a seaside bungalow (The Oprah Suite) would cost about $23,000 with taxes and fees.—MK
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Francis Scialabba
1. On a typical day, more people ride New York’s subway than fly in planes in the US.
2. Japan has such a punctual culture that if a train is delayed five minutes or longer, you are handed a delay certificate at the arriving station to verify for your teacher or boss why you were late.
3. Despite spanning five geographical time zones, China follows a single standard time across the country. So if you were to cross into Afghanistan from Western China through the Wakhjir Pass, you’d be going 3.5 hours back in time in a matter of seconds. It’s the sharpest time change of any international frontier.
4. Global SUV sales have surged from ~10 million in 2010 to 30 million last year. If they were a country, they’d be the sixth-largest carbon emitter in the world.
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TOGETHER WITH CARDCRITICS
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The credit critics have spoken. And they say you don’t wanna miss out on this credit card. It’s got one of the highest cash-back rewards we’ve ever seen: a whopping 2% on eligible purchases with no spending caps, meaning you can earn unlimited 2% cash back. It also comes with a sweet, sweet welcome bonus + a low intro APR. Apply today.
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Photo Illustration: Dianna “Mick” McDougall, Photos: Getty Images, Unsplash
Door County, Wisconsin.
Fredericksburg, Texas.
New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee.
What do they all have in common? They’re some of Brew readers’ favorite weekend getaways. We sifted through hundreds of responses from our audience to bring you a curated list of get-in, get-out trip ideas this summer, sorted by region.
Check it out.
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Get the unexpected business story behind everything. Journalist Nora Ali and comedian Scott Rogowsky bring you conversations with creators, thinkers, and innovators who can tell you what it all means and why you should care. Check out some recent popular episodes:
This editorial content is supported by Grayscale.
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Of course we had to make today’s crossword travel-themed. Play it here.
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