I define “sight” typically as the natural wonder or manmade structure that I could stare at for hours. This may include buildings, art, mountains, lakes, or other like elements that are typically somewhat permanent (e.g. not just around for a moment in time) and truly captivating. It’s the first thing I post each day and so also typically is associated with being the, or a, landmark of the area that we’re in for the day.

I’m a foodie at heart and, luckily, I also think it’s one of the best ways to understand a culture. From macro cuisine types like Italian to micro nuances such as tuscan vs. roman dishes, the expanse of culinary offerings the world has to offer is incredible. I define a bite as either one element, one dish, or a restaurant that we visit and would absolutely go back to again or have again. I prefer that it tells the story of the region and, when possible, I like to have a mix of high-end and street-level foods throughout a trip.

The more ambiguous term of the sight, bite, highlight trio. This is meant to be a moment in time, tour, unique experience, something we learned, or other activity that we participated in that really made the whole day special. Sometimes there is overlap, for example some restaurants are more of an experience than they are a bite or some mountains are beautiful to look at but adventuring up them was the experience that made the day. However, generally, these are things that require active engagement and are “must-do” itinerary items.

I always post a sight, bite, highlight from each day. However, some days have delights. These, although very similar to the highlights, are different in that they weren’t planned, may not be able to be done again, or were totally unexpected highlights of the day. I am a planner at heart and want to make sure that my itineraries are anchored in at least one good sight, bite, and highlight per day. However, unstructured time in an area yields some of the best delights and they deserve to be memorialized.

I like to balance this one as much as possible. It’s important to realize that not everything goes according to plan, you must be flexible when things aren’t what you expect them to be, and sometimes things just don’t hit the mark. THAT SAID. I do NOT appreciate it when people tell me that a significant, major landmark is “not worth it” or “very touristy.” Yeah, it’s probably touristy for a reason. I get that. Expect a crowd, probably go once in my life, but I still need to go. For example, I don’t think I would personally need to go back to Stonehenge, but I would never tell someone not to go because it wasn’t “that cool.” Travel is too subjective for that. So, when warranted, I post a fright for something that could be improved on for next time (e.g., planning a longer layover in CDG) or a restaurant that wasn’t very good, etc. However, I won’t rate landmarks or things “at the bottom” as a fright.

For this blog, I developed an in-depth hotel rating rubric that takes a twist on traditional ratings to help quantify my opinion of one of the most important parts of my stays: the accommodations. I use various categories (defined below) to outline a final 0-5 star rating. This includes decimal points, and I will keep an all-time list of accommodations page for easy reference. My 0-5 star rating for each category is generally outlined here:

Below are all the categories (for which each an get a score of 0-5) with the explanation of what goes into that category rating.

When you see the compass Icon, feel free to click into it (if you dare) for what is likely to be an over-detailed example of how I used points, miles, or other travel “hacks” on the trip. I really love getting into the credit card, points, loyalty rewards program, etc., schemes and trying to maximize them. This, for me, is more of a hobby and game than anything, and I love talking about it with people. For a point of reference, I utilize Delta as my primary carrier (have D. Reserve card) and Hilton as my primary accommodations provider (have H. Aspire card). For neutral points currency, I leverage Capital One via Venture X and SavorOne and generally get a good amount of points, status, and miles via work travel that help me to stay on top of things.

For this blog, I developed an in-depth “Bite Restaurant” rating rubric that takes a twist on traditional ratings to help quantify my opinion on restaurants. I use various categories (defined below) to outline a final 0-5 star rating. This includes decimal points, and I will keep an all-time list of restaurants for easy reference.

WHAT GETS RATED: I will only be rating full or semi-full service restaurants (no fast food and limited fast-casual, although exceptions will exist) AND the restaurant must ALSO be the “Bite” of the day to be rated on this rubric. So, these are meant to be the ratings of restaurants that were a dedicated item on the itinerary and generally require and advance reservation rather than random spots that we go to. I will call those out in my blog, but won’t rate them.

My 0-5 star rating for each category is generally outlined here:

Below are all the categories (for which each an get a score of 0-5) with the explanation of what goes into that category rating.