News - Silicon Valley Talk

Always A Trip For The Ages ... Disneyworld

Story by Rich Borell, CEO & Founder Recently, my wife and I decided to take a trip to Orlando, Florida, over the summer. We planned to spend a few days at each attraction: The Walt Disney World, Epcot Center, Universal Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios and Downtown Disney. We also included a day tour to the Kennedy Space Center. We planned our stay at the Waldorf Astoria for the week. Both the Waldorf and the Hilton Orlando are connected with ..

A Memorable Weekend Trip to Jamestown and Yosemite

By Rich Borell Hello Everyone, I want to share with you a recent long weekend getaway my wife and I took. This road trip took us to the Gold Country, where we enjoyed fascinating historic Jamestown and the most breathtaking views of Yosemite National Park. Our trip started out Friday around noon to beat the Bay Area getaway crowd. We had accommodations for Friday evening, just outside of Jamestown, at the Jackson Rancheria Hotel & Casino. We really wan..

What Happens in Las Vegas

By Rich Borell: Hello Everyone, When we think about weekend getaways from the Bay Area, we may consider Monterey, Santa Cruz, Napa, Lake Tahoe … Ever think about parking the car and flying to Vegas? That’s exactly what my wife and I did recently. Our last trip there was very memorable since we spent New Year’s Eve celebrating with hundreds of thousands of people on the Las Vegas strip. This time we thought how fun to have a long weekend getaway there. O..

Las Vegas: Food, Fun, Music and ?

Hello Everyone, I wanted to share my most recent three-day weekend getaway with you … it was our third trip to sin city Las Vegas this year. I’m not a big fan of 8 hour drives for a long-weekend getaway however my wife loves them. She has every right to … I do the driving and the car has Wi-Fi so she’s happy Googling the entire trip. Our trip was planned several months back to see two of our favorite comedians performing together at the Mirage … David Spa..

Palm Springs – Fun In The Desert Sun!

By Rich Borell:Looking to relax? Perhaps a nice getaway and some sun, some fun, some R&R? How about a nice quiet desert resort? Sounded great to us. Just 100 miles east of Los Angeles was our recent long weekend getaway destination … Palm Springs. For this weekend destination we decided to do a road trip. Our journey started out early Friday morning with a quick cup for the road from Starbucks. Our first stop along the way was breakfast at the Harris Ranch..

From The Kremlin & KGB to Subtropical Beaches & Ballet

The World’s Largest Nation Hello Everyone, I wanted to share our recent trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg Russia. To sum it up … it was an incredible trip. The people are wonderful and the scenery breathtaking. This was the second time we’ve used European Destinations Travel Agency and they once again came through planning our entire trip. Since we were going to spend quite a bit of time flying we decided to go business class. Leaving from SFO our..

Europe’s Low Country Highlights

Story by Rich Borell, CEO & Founder Hello Everyone, I want to share with you my itinerary from my recent trip to Europe. It was a whirlwind trip traveling to Belgium, Luxembourg, Amsterdam along with Hamburg and Berlin Germany. We booked our trip 6 weeks in advance using European Destinations Travel Agency. They had a very good website to navigate hotel upgrades and get enough info to plan our trip. We also spoke with one of their senior travel agents ..

Scandinavian Splendor & Many Memorable Smiles

By Rich Borell: Greetings Everyone! I want to share with you our recent trip to Scandinavia that included stops in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. This trip actually came together just a few weeks before we left. We had tickets to fly into Copenhagen, then on to Finland. From that point, we were going to take the train and spend most of our time in Russia. We had our Russian Visa and were ready to go. Unfortunately, due to the most recent events, w..

Cuba: 5 Day Havana, Face to Face

Hello Everyone, I wanted to share my recent trip with you that included a weekend in Miami Beach before flying off to Havana Cuba.Day 1: Our flight was an early one leaving out of San Jose, with a brief stop in LA before going on to Miami. American Airlines was our choice of airline for this trip. Since we took the last two seats in first class to LA … this enabled us to have no cost luggage check in for the LA to Miami portion. Flight was good, as we l..

The Magnificent Wild Wild West

By Rich Borell:Hello Everyone, Well, with summer here, my wife and I were giving some thought to our bucket list. Yes, we do have a joint one. It’s to visit 50 countries and 50 states. Happy to say, we’re doing a good job so far, as we’re over half way on both. So, we thought to ourselves, let’s add a few more states to our list. We mapped out a pretty cool trip that I want to share with you in case you desire to see some of this beautiful countryside of o..

Christmas in London … and Paris, too!

Forever Delightful by Rich Borell: Hello Everyone, Ever think about having a jolly holiday in London, England - one of the most beautiful cites during Christmas time? We have … we just did it … and we loved it! Our trip starts Saturday, December 20th. It’s going to be a pretty quick turnaround trip; just a week, which will also include a night in Paris. We’ll be flying out of the Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport. We had already upgraded..

The Beauty & Splendor that is Old Europe

WHERE SIGHTSEEING IS A MAJESTIC WALTZ By Rich Borell: Hello Everyone, I wanted to share some of our recent adventures as my wife and I enjoyed what was a wonderful visit to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria. If you are planning a visit to Prague, Bratislava or Budapest you can definitely cover a lot by walking. Vienna is a larger city, so you will need other forms of transportation to get around.Prague Let’s start with Prague. As we w..

The Presidio: It’s What’s Going On!

By Rich Borell For many of us, the Presidio of San Francisco may only be 10-40 miles down the road. Perhaps you drive through it from Lombard to get over the GG Bridge. However, ever since the Inn at the Presidio opened a few years back, my wife and I have spent a few weekends each year staying at this historic hotel … right in the middle of the Presidio of San Francisco. This former military base has so much to offer - from its many hiking trails to enjoy..

A Lone Star Christmas!

By Rich Borell /CEO & Founder Bay Area Mags/: Hello Everyone, A few months back my wife suggested we kick the holiday season off by traveling to a festive place in the U.S. After checking our list twice (maybe more) we decided on the Christmas capital of Texas … Grapevine. Before I go on, as suggested in prior articles, when you have the opportunity to check in 24 hours in advance, I encourage you to look at the upgrades your airline may have available. Fo..

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Hello Everyone, Thought I would share with you our recent adventure in the Los Angeles area. For some time, it’s been on our to-do-list to visit the California Science Center’s Samuel Oschin Pavilion to view the Space Shuttle Endeavour. After seeing Astronaut Scott Kelly speak recently, we made plans to take the trip. I suggest if you’re planning a visit to SoCal, put the Endeavour on your itinerary. It’s located in the California Science Center the lar..

From Theatre To Zoos To Beaches

Hello Everyone, Recently my wife and I took a long weekend trip to San Diego, because a road trip sounded fun. Some of the city’s most popular attractions are the museums, gardens, and Spanish colonial style architecture found in Balboa Park, the world famous San Diego Zoo, and the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. For a little history and shopping, visitors can stroll the streets of Old Town San Diego State Historic Park or wander through the Gaslamp Quarte..