A Vacation You'll Remember Forever (Part 3 of 4)

In the third installment of four I explain planning your wardrobe, and preparing yourself the days leading-up to your vacation.

1. Plan ahead: Don't wait until the night before you leave to figure-out what you need to pack, do it at least 4-7 days before you leave. You can start by making a checklist of everything you need. Type your checklist and print two copies, one for when you’re packing to leave and one for when you’re packing to go home.

2. Vacation Wardrobe: It's always tough to figure-out what clothes you're going to pack, especially if you have a walk-in closet. Look through your wardrobe and choose three outfits for a formal event, five outfits for lounging, and another five for dependability. Shoes are tough to pack, try to pack a pair of black oxfords or wing-tips, two pairs of topsiders, flip-flops or sandals, and two pairs of sneakers- a pair for the gym, and a pair that can go with any outfit (Barney's NY offers some great pairs of sneakers).

3. Packing Your Closet: Divide your luggage so that you have one bag for essentials (i.e. plain white tee-shirts, underwear, and socks), one bag for shoes (a weekender can work, as long as the shoes are packed accordingly), one for all formal-wear (button-downs, oxfords, and sweaters), and one for carry-on (this should hold your laptop, camera, phone, etcetera).

Travel Tip: Buy a new toothbrush before leaving and don't open it until you get to your destination, not only will your teeth be more clean, but they’ll feel more clean as well.

4. Freshen-Up: One week before leaving, go to your local barber or salon (whichever one you go to) and get your usual cut or style. Usually it takes about a week for your hair to start looking good from a cut or style, that’s why it’s advised you get it done at least a week before leaving, even if you had recently gotten something done, get it done again, you’ll look fresh when you get to your destination the following week.

5. No Tanning: It doesn’t matter where you’re going-on vacation, don’t go to your local tanning salon and get sprayed or sit in a bed, it’s not worth it, and not only that, but what’s the point in going somewhere warm if you’re going to get tan beforehand? Isn’t tanning all part of the fun of vacationing somewhere warm?

6. Flight Plan: Decide whether you’re going to sleep or whether you’re going to relax during your plane ride, feel free to do both. If you’re going on an extremely long plane ride I highly recommend sleeping, it will rejuvenate you, and once you arrive at your destination you will feel ready to embrace the first day of the vacation to come. If you choose to relax then you may want to order a drink or two, that is of course if you’re flight is a long one and if it’s not an early morning flight, no cocktails, wait until you get to your actual destination before having any drinks before noon.

Travel Tip: Join the mile-high club. We’ll have another article regarding this topic at a later date.

7. “TAXI!”: Call for a car service to pick you up at your terminals exit, so when the plane lands the driver can go after you to luggage claim and assist with the mass amounts of luggage you have.

Travel Tip: You should tip the driver depending on the length of the car ride from the airport to the hotel. For more information on tipping a chauffeur click here.

Next week I will go over checking in and checking out of the hotel, tipping of hotel staff, and recreational activities that can be performed while on your little holiday.

6126

Checkout the line 6126 by Lindsay Lohan! It's a little pricey, but also pretty classy for someone who gets down and dirty every-day.

The 6126 Collection

A Vacation You'll Remember Forever (Part 2 of 4)

Let’s start simple: where do you want to vacation? That’s what everything from this point onward will depend upon. If you’re going away during a holiday it’s suggested to go somewhere slightly warmer than your current location, in that way it will be enjoyable in innumerable ways. Here is a list of things you should do to get started:

1. Location: Choose where you would like to vacation, you can go to Park City, Utah to enjoy the slopes or Oahu, Hawaii if you wish to catch some waves. Choose a place that relaxes you though, because in the end, for vacationing, all that matters is you, because you will end-up investing a good amount of money for your self-enjoyment.

2. Flights: After deciding on a place to travel you must find a flight there, unless you plan on driving to your destination (that is of course if your destination is in the US and not overseas). Regardless of location, there are a couple sites you can purchase airfare from, two of my personal favorites are JetBlue and Virgin Airlines. Virgin actually just started flights in America from and to major cities throughout the US, you always have the option of going to Europe as well. I personally like Virgin Airlines, especially if you’re going on a flight that will be lasting longer than 6 hours, they have a good amount of leg room, great service from the stewardesses, and the plane’s atmosphere isn’t that of your typical plane, it’s more relaxing. JetBlue is good as well and they offer special deals if you subscribe to their emails on their website, I once received an email for a $10 plane ticket to Florida!

Travel Tip: Try to avoid Expedia or any other site that offers to plan the trip for you, it makes for a more invigorating and enjoyable time if you take the time to plan your own trip.

3. Hotels: There are always many great hotels available where-ever you decide to travel to. When selecting a hotel there are a couple things you should take into consideration. Does the hotel have a good reputation? Do some research, see what you can find-out about the hotel you want to stay at, there are many websites, such as yelp, where other people go and rate hotels, restaurants, etcetera. Find a hotel with a convenient location based on the activities you plan-on taking part in, a nice pool, lovely restaurant, and anything else you may want it to have. When looking at hotels I compare them to The Portofino and The Hard Rock in Orlando, Florida, and The Plaza in NYC. It all depends on what you want to do though and the experience you’re looking for. If you want to relax and enjoy yourself, go to The Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu, Hawaii, but if you’re looking for more of a thrill you might want to stay at The Extreme 19th at Legend Golf & Safari Resort in Lompopo, South Africa. It all depends upon you and the experience you want.

Travel Tip: Arrange for a chauffeur to pick you up from the airport to take you to your hotel, and whenever you wish to leave the hotel have the concierge call you a cab, or if the hotel offers a car service (like The Hard Rock does), then request the car service, it’s not usually too expensive, and this way you don’t have to worry about getting lost.

4. Luggage: Do you already have suitcases? If not go out and get some new ones. I enjoy packing most of my closet for vacation to be ready for any situation, so if you’re anything like me I advise getting two medium-sized suitcases and one weekender. You can buy a weekender from Urbanoutfitters at a pretty affordable price, suitcases you can find available at almost any mall, but if you’re willing to spend a little extra money checkout the suitcases J. Crew and Burberry have to offer, if your budget for a suitcase isn't an extremely vigorous one then search around on Etsy, they tend to have some great stuff at affordable prices, you may even be able to find a vintage suitcase via-1920.

That’s about it for Part 2, next week we’ll be posting Part 3, which will be all about how to pack and prepare yourself both mentally and physically for your vacation!

Laser Cats

I absolutely love the Laser Cats series Andy Samberg has put together over the years on SNL. Recently, they included James Cameron in the short film, and it's genius. Below I posted the first Laser Cats episode and links to the following four episodes. ENJOY!

LASER CATS

LASER CATS 2

LASER CATS 3(D)

LASER CATS 4

LASER CATS 5

The Making of a Mockumentary

For the past three months I have been writing a mockumentary, and both the story-line and marketing plan have been under-wraps since I’ve begun. The film itself is set to release in Fall of 2010, and that’s all that can be said of it, it will coincide with a marketing plan comparable to that of the films “Cloverfield”, “Blair Witch”, and “Paranormal Activity”. Myself and a secret list of producers will begin phase one of the plan next month. Keep a lookout on the internet, it’s due to pop-up anywhere at anytime.

Post-note: We will be doing an extensive behind the scenes from the moment we begin pre-production (in two weeks) until the moment we release at film festivals, stay tuned, this is something you will not want to miss that will definitely be available on the DVD!

New Vintage Clothing Store (Women)

If you love Lady Gaga then you'll love Lady Starlight. Lady Starlight has been a DJ and music scholar for nearly a decade. Working out of NYC, she is infamous in the downtown club scene, she is definitely an influence on Lady Gaga, you can tell by the clothes for sale as well as her name.

Lady Gaga attended college in NYC where she experienced this club scene, it's my best bet that she was "schooled" in modern music by Lady Starlight, and even got her overall inspiration for her look, name, etcetera all from Lady Starlight.

Checkout the store here.

A Vacation You'll Remember Forever (Part 1 of 4)

We always hope that when we go on vacation that we will be able to do two things: relax and make memories that will last a lifetime. Unfortunately, most of us are unable to enjoy vacation because of the stress that comes with packing and paying for the ensuing trip, but there are many things you can do to make any trip you take from this time forward both enjoyable and memorable. Over the next four weeks we will be putting-out posts about how to travel for pleasure and during the holidays without having to deal with the usual vacuous complications that ordinarily take place when planning a trip.

Post-note: If you enjoy learning about traveling, nightlife, style, food, and leisure, be sure to subscribe to URBANDADDY, you can change the edition to a number of different cities throughout the US, and a generalized area for National inquiries. After receiving emails from them for about a year, I can say that I have personally benefitted greatly from the subscription.

Datebook: 01.09.2010

Happy 2010 everyone! This decade looks to be a very exciting and prosperous one thus far, as I am currently working on many things. Besides the five films I have in pre-production, I also have a fashion line on-hold, and a book I am preparing that will hopefully be published within the next two years. Let's get down to business though!

-Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour has been going-on for about two months now and has become highly successful and anticipated all throughout the United States as well as many other countries, but recently infamous preacher Rev. Fred Phelps has declared an assail on Lady Gaga, stating "God hates Lady Gaga," and he even declared there be a protest at her St. Louis show, luckily due to lack of ready money and coordination Phelps and his followers failed to protest Gaga's concert in St. Louis. Read both articles here and here. Let's take this time to reconcile and show the world about acceptance, after-all, isn't religion about repention and acceptance?

-January 22 will mark the two year anniversary of Academy Award Winning actor Heath Ledger's death. When he died he was on holiday from filming the newest film he was working-on: "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus". You can see some pretty cool footage and behind the scenes here and the trailer for the film here.

-Dressing well won't only impress those that you know, but also those that you don't, and it doesn't take much to create a simple and elegant look, all this month we will be posting about how to create effortless looks that not only make you look good, but cost you almost nothing. Subscribe today and benefit tomorrow!

-February 2, 2010 the final season of the hit television show LOST will be returning on ABC. ABC and Apple have decided to give back to the fans, and those who want to get into the show, by posting the pilot episodes of the show and some recaps all in HD, and all for free on iTunes. Click here to go to the page on iTunes to download the pilot plus additional content.

-It's been a little longer than two weeks since Marc Webb's film (500) Days of Summer released onto DVD, I highly suggest buying it, especially if you're having a rough time with getting over an ex or failed to initiate a relationship with the person you liked.

-I leave you with a video shown to me by a friend last summer, it's obscure, yet refined. I started listening to Fever Ray because of this music video, give it a watch and buy her album today!