Wow, we are all thinking about gas prices now, aren’t we?

I hear more and more folks talking about consolidating our errands, carpooling, riding their bikes — and more than ever, I grit my teeth when I smugly park my Prius next to a Hummer (or just yesterday — two Hummers next to each other! What are these people thinking?)

So it looks like I was ahead of my time here at Lipstick Getaways!

As many of you know, I am all the public transportation on our Big City getaways.
Of course I was mostly coming at it from a stress-reduction point of view. Who needs the stress and buzzkill of trying to drive, and navigate around an unfamiliar city, while dealing with traffic and parking? I don’t know about you, but I do enough of that in my everyday suburban life!

That’s why you’ll see that pretty much every destination covered in Lipstick Getaways will be a city with decent mass transit.
And for each city, I’ll do my best to give you the info you need to use the subways, trains, and buses.

A confession: I am now pretty confident with subways, but still a little reluctant to ride the buses. For some reason, bus route maps seem a little more confusing; plus the bus goes so slow. But I’m getting over it — a bus ride came in real handy in Chicago and in Atlanta — and determined to do better. Just last night at dinner, my college daughter told me she rides the bus all the time in Boston – so I will check that out when I’m there next week.

Do you use public transportation when you visit a big city?

If not, tell me why not — do you feel subways and buses are unsafe? Is it just too confusing? Do you drive, or mostly take cabs?

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback — and any helpful tips and info you have on mass transit in your favorite city! Just use the Leave A Reply box below, or email me, carol@lipstickgetaways.com.

Thanks, and go have fun!
Carol

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Ready for The Reveal!

Things might have looked quiet here at Lipstick Getaways — but behind the scenes, we were busy busy busy with our makeover. We’ve vastly improved the navigation, simplified the home page, added a column here and a link there.

In the midst of all this, my PC crashed and I lost tons of data (yes, I did backup, but not quite enough — tough lesson learned) … now I’m a proud and happy Mac user, and looks like Lipstick Getaways is ready to roll again!

Thanks and kudos to Kristy Amy of OnMark Solutions, who helped guide me through this process,listened to my concerns (and they were many!), fielded all those back-and-forth phone calls and emails, stuck with me through a few test (and testy!) versions … and made it happen. Kristy, you rock!

Next up:
– I’m adding content for Atlanta and Boston, and planning to visit both cities in the next 6 weeks.
– Starting to re-tool the newsletter. (To be honest, it was too complicated for me to manage the first time around, which is why there is only one issue so far!)

Keep checking back for more content. And please — feel free to share your Big City Fun tips and resources.

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Had to put the brakes on — temporarily — here at Lipstick Getaways, while I step back, review, and work out how to make it better.

Here’s what happened:

• A couple weeks ago my web designer told me she was giving up her freelance work. (She was offered a full-time, in-house position.) She’s been a terrific resource … best of luck, April!
• Which means I need to find another web person to help with the technical stuff.
• Then I realized, as long as I’m looking for help — what I really need is marketing help. Someone to help me reach as many of you as possible!
• Which means I’m gonna need to spend more money … before I’ve figured out how to make any money.
• So I freaked out for a few days …
• Then met with some wonderful local resources (more on those savvy women soon!) … have another promising meeting scheduled for next week.
• So should be back on track soon!

Stay tuned!Thanks,

Carol

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You may have noticed that Lipstick Getaways has several sections.

• Free Quickguide! (Up there in the top left corner)
  • If you sign up here, you’ll be able to download my freebie, How To Start Finding The Fun. You’ll also receive my newsletter, Big City Fun Times.
  • However, you do not have to sign up for anything. You can still help yourself to all the content here on Lipstick Getaways.
• Travel Planning Info
  • This is the “meat” of Lipstick Getaways. Think of it as a mini travel guide, specifically focused on helping women find the fun when traveling to a big city. I am spending most of my time on adding content here.
  • The organization for Travel Planning Info is pretty easy and straightforward – find the city, find the category (accommodations, dining, etc.) and see what I’ve put together so far.
  • If you don’t see the info you want, keep checking back. I’m adding as fast as I can!
  • And feel free to contact me to let me know what you need, and I’ll see what I can do.
• Notes from Carol (this is where you are now)
  • For those of you familiar with blogs, I guess this is the ‘bloggy’ part of Lipstick Getaways.
  • The content is organized into categories, and entries are displayed in reverse chronological order (most recent on top). The same entry (post) might be filed under several different categories. For example, a post on Best Boutiques in Chicago and Boston would appear under Shopping, Boston, and Chicago.
  • It’s a more informal way to communicate with you, and may include news on what’s going on here at Lipstick Getaways; interesting articles I want to share from other sources; links to cool sites; contributions and comments from my readers; and sometimes, random stuff that is completely unrelated to travel!
• Recently Posted
  The most recent several articles from any section are listed here. Handy way for frequent visitors to see what’s new.
• Management
  I’m not sure what this is yet. Guess I’d better ask the web guru. I don’t touch it.
• Search
  Doesn’t work right yet. Sorry. We’ll get to it.

Hope this helps you find your way around Lipstick Getaways! Go ahead, poke around, see what’s interesting … it’s all free, I don’t even have anything to sell yet!

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“You should check out this group “Ladies Who Launch.”

When two separate women told me this, a couple days apart, about a month ago, I decided to listen! I think I had heard of the group awhile back, filed it under “something I should look into sometime,” and promptly forgot all about it.

As I understand it, Ladies Who Launch is focused on helping women launch or expand their business or creative endeavors, through their events, website, newsletters, and especially in-person Incubator programs.

Anyway, next Saturday I’m going to check them out by attending Ladies Who Launch, LIVE!, an all-day event with workshops, speakers, networking, etc.

So I am working feverishly to add as much content as possible here first, so I have something to show. I just added some terrific NYC Basic Visitor Info, and am currently working on the NYC Restaurants section.

Back to work …

Carol

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