November 2012
1 post
“We’re not in business to build an airline that maybe any of us specifically...”
– Spirit’s CEO Ben Baldanza in The Wall Street Journal (via paulbrady)
October 2012
3 posts
September 2012
7 posts
2 tags
4 tags
6 tags
It's Labor Day!
Why on earth are you reading our Tumblr today? Granted, we’re inside working on our databases and other fun programming stuff this weekend (it’s our mission to help you explore the world better, and we’ve got to have sophisticated software to make that happen), but what are you doing inside and / or staring at this on your phone? Go out and play! This is your last real long...
7 tags
Our Favorite Ways to Enjoy Labor Day Parades
Tomorrow is Labor Day, which means that (if you live in the US), in pretty much every town, there’s a parade. Some of the parades are good, although we have to admit it — watching people march or sing or dance down the street doesn’t do all that much for us. Maybe it’s because we’re snobs who live in New York and we get spoiled by the Village Halloween Parade or...
8 tags
Working in vacation country: Become a Skydiving...
Ah, yes. You’ve decided that you want to teach people to jump out of airplanes for a living. We’re not going to question your sanity (we know that there are a lot of reasons to jump, and we love the feeling of floating through the air), but we’ll start off with the very, very obvious point that is apparent to you if you’ve ever been up in one of these planes: they all...
August 2012
35 posts
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Wilmington, Delaware
If you live in or around Wilmington, you know that you live there because it’s got a crazy good quality of life with a very short commute to a major metropolis in Philadelphia and an equally short drive to get onto a boat and wander around Delaware Bay. Unfortunately, because Wilmington has all this cool stuff around it, it’s not really set up to be exciting inside the city —...
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Allentown, Pennsylvania
For our third (and final) installment of our great desk escape series in Pennsylvania, we’re heading over to Allentown. Why? Well, it is the third largest city in the state (narrowly beating out Erie). Plus, Billy Joel sang about it (really, watch that video. It’ll take you back… pretty much back to since before anyone here at hopara got their adult teeth, but it’s a...
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
Today, we’re back into our great desk escape series, and we’re heading due west from Philly to Pittsburgh (don’t worry, middle PA cities — we’re coming back around to you!). Pittsburgh is a pretty fun city, and we think it gets a bad rap as being a city built around a struggling steel industry. Yes, it’s got some economic problems (really, give us a place that...
7 tags
A quick ode to sailing
We got back from our long weekend to Charlevoix, Michigan late Sunday night (on a plane that really did look like the fashion set from the Hamptons had discovered northern Michigan, which disappointed us a bit - we like our favorite places to remain as undiscovered for as long as possible!). We thought about a few different ways that we could talk about how much fun we had up there; to be honest,...
10 tags
Casino Escape: Atlantic City, NJ
Before we started moving through the rest of Pennsylvania and then further south on our desk escape series, we thought that we’d stop in one of the east coast’s favorite playgrounds and ask a simple question — what the heck do you do here if you’re not a gambler, are tired of shopping, the show starts later and you already ate? Thankfully, there is more to Atlantic City...
8 tags
Hopara Shorts: Two Activities in Petoskey,...
Given that it’s our last day of vacation up in Northern Michigan, we thought that we’d take a little time and give you a couple of fun things to do up in the northern reaches of Michigan’s northern peninsula. So, here goes today’s hopara short:
Petoskey, Michigan Activity #1: Bike the Little Traverse Wheelway
Ok, so this is a really cool trip - you start at Charlevoix...
9 tags
Working in vacation country: Become a cheesemaker!
We write a lot of posts about things that you can do in vacation country, and a few of your have pointed out (correctly) that we tend to focus on athletic pursuits. Well, even though that’s our leaning, we understand it’s not necessarily yours, and so we’re continuing our series on working in vacation country with a few careers that are focused more on brains than brawn. Today,...
12 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
Ah, Philly. Those of you who are regular readers of our blog know that we have a lot of love for Philly (although not as much love for Philly sports teams). And so it should come as no surprise that we’ve got a number of things for you to do here in about an hour when you just need to get away from your office for a bit. Here goes!
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Great Desk Escape Activity...
4 tags
We're on vacation today!
Well, it’s time for us to take our own great desk escape for a few days! Today, a few of us are heading off to Charlevoix, Michigan for some much needed R&R. Don’t worry, we’ll still be posting the entire time we’re away (we are workaholics, after all). Interested in what we’re going to be doing while we’re there? Well, we’re partial to playing on...
1 tag
9 tags
Hopara Shorts: Two Activities in San Antonio
Today’s we’re taking a break from our desk escapes (after all, we’ve just covered all of New York and New England — we need a break!) to go back to some of our other normal posts. Today, we’re covering San Antonio, Texas, and trying to take you away from the traditional activities you’re normally sent to, like visiting the Alamo or one of the many missions...
12 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Downtown Brooklyn, New York...
We’re finishing our tour of great desk escapes in the New York Metro area with one of our favorites, in Downtown Brooklyn. We love our Brooklynite friends, who seem to believe with all of their being that living and being from Brooklyn means that you’ve passed both an intelligence and coolness test that the rest of us (including all of us at hopara, which is based near the East...
11 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Newark, New Jersey
While there are a lot of places around New York City that people work in, we’ve always been a bit fascinated by those among us who commute into Newark. To be fair, there are offices up and down the Hudson shoreline, from Fort Lee down to Secaucus, but Newark just captures our imagination a bit more (by the way, our pick for those of you in Fort Lee is a hike along the Palisades). So here...
11 tags
Six Hours In... Sao Paulo
Ah, Sao Paulo. Some of us here at hopara love you, with your vibrant culture, your clean city, and your churrascaria (that’s steakhouses for you non-Portuguese readers out there). And then there are those of us who remember driving around in seemingly endless traffic in bulletproof cars, where we were told not to walk around on the streets on our own. Let’s face it — Sao Paulo...
5 tags
We miss the Olympics!
Well, it’s been almost a week since the Olympics ended, and we have to say — we miss it! It’s had us thinking — if we could be Olympians, what would we want to be? Swimmers besting Michael Phelps’ records? Nah. That’s fun, but it’s not necessarily hopara fun. Being a professional beach volleyball player has some appeal, as does being the world’s...
12 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Stamford, Connecticut...
Ah, Stamford. The place that they moved so many offices so that the CEOs didn’t have to commute, but the rest of us did. And so it’s no wonder that many of us who trek into Stamford each day have a pretty limited knowledge of the area, and rarely go farther than the train station or the cafeteria. That’s too bad, because there’s definitely some good stuff up here! ...
13 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Garden City / Mineola /...
Don’t worry, Brooklynites — we’re coming back to you. But first, we thought we’d go to a few of the suburbs around the city where there are large office complexes. We’re going to start in Long Island because it’s partially responsible for us starting hopara - one of our founders couldn’t deal with the idea of being tethered to his desk for another day,...
1 tag
1 tag
14 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Midtown West Manhattan...
Today, we’re moving a bit west to give you three activities to help you get away from your desk if you work in Midtown West. If your curious as to how we define that, it’s everything west of Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and Central Park. For those of you who work closer to Fifth, you might also want to check out our post of Midtown East escapes, which we wrote yesterday. So,...
14 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Midtown East Manhattan...
We’ve decided to split Midtown into two separate posts for our great desk escape series, where we give you a few activities to take you away from your desk for about an hour, because, well, it’s a long way from the corridor on Park / Lex to the one on Sixth and Seventh. So here we go, starting out on the east side (tomorrow, we’ll hit the west side).
Midtown East Manhattan...
15 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Downtown Manhattan Edition
We’ve covered New England and Upstate New York on our Great Desk Escape Series so far, and now we’re moving to the big kahuna — Metro New York. Because the city is so large and so difficult to move around, we’re going to break these posts up into activities that can be done in a few select areas where people are concentrated for work. We’re also going to hit a few...
8 tags
The Hopara Challenge: Munich, North Dakota
Well, it’s that time again (and it’s been a little while since we last did this) - time to pick a very small place very far from anywhere, and see if we can find you a few things to do in town. Today’s pick is Munich, North Dakota, and it’s kind of hard to even describe how you get there - it’s 2.5 hours northwest of Grand Forks, about three and a half hours...
11 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Buffalo, New York
In the last installment in our great desk escape series in upstate New York before we head to New York City, we’re heading to Buffalo to give you a few ways to escape the office for about an hour and come back refreshed. Buffalo has a special place in our hearts — some of our closest friends have come from here, and there’s a lot to love about the city. It’s too bad that...
11 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Rochester, New York
Yesterday, we gave you a few options for great desk escapes in Syracuse, and today, we’re going an hour and a half west to Rochester, New York. At hopara, we try to avoid platitudes like, “Rochester is a world away from Syracuse,” even though, from an activity perspective, it’s kinda true, even if the cities are similar sizes. For starters, Syracuse is right near the...
11 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Syracuse, New York
Before we head south to the nation’s biggest city, we thought that it made sense to cover a few desk escapes in upstate New York, starting with Syracuse (sorry, ‘Cuse) and then moving west to Rochester and Buffalo before we head down to New York City. So, without further ado, here are a few activities that can get you away from your office for an hour or so and that might just stop...
7 tags
More Vacation Business Talk: Being a Golf Pro
Ah, it’s that time of year again, when our friends start saying that they’d rather be out on the golf course than at work, and it’s actually possible to get a tee time. Now, we know that most golfers out there aren’t good enough to be their local club’s pro. But there’s definitely something alluring about getting paid $60,000 per year (that’s the average...
12 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Albany, New York
Hooray, Albany! Ok, ok. You’re probably not saying that. If you’re one of our readers in Albany, chances are that you work for or with or are somehow otherwise related to the government (except the nice folks at CommerceHub), and if you’re looking for one of our great desk escapes, you’d really like to not see that many other people or be reminded about why government is...
1 tag
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Burlington, Vermont
To be honest, we’re a bit confused about why we even got requests (complaints, really) about this. While this series has covered the other major cities in New England so far, we didn’t think that there was much of a need to describe ways to leave your desk for an hour or so in Burlington. After all, we thought that you live in Burlington in the first place primarily because...
10 tags
Six Hours In... Vancouver
Here’s something that’s happened to us as international travelers a few times — we’ve gotten a great fare to Asia through Vancouver, only to find that we’ve got a lot of time on the ground and we’re not entirely sure what to do. And that’s why there’s hopara to the rescue!
We’ve got two different itineraries today — one for the big-time...
8 tags
Hopara Shorts: Two Activities in Detroit, Michigan
Ah, Detroit. We know that you’re unfairly maligned in the media, with all their talk about how your city has become a dumping ground for dead bodies. And yes, some of the negativity is well-earned. But here at hopara, we’re pretty certain that there’s always something awesome to do pretty much anywhere, and Detroit is no exception. So here we go with today’s Hopara...
5 tags
The Fiery Cucumber!
We thought we’d take a quick break from our urban escapes (don’t worry, we’ll get back to them next week) to ask some of our fans out there — are you a fiery cucumber? Ok, so there’s a short back-story here:
At hopara central, we care quite a bit about semi-healthy living. That means that we care a lot about what we do and what we put into our bodies, but none of...
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Hartford, Connecticut
We’ve lived and worked in Hartford, Connecticut (yes, in the insurance industry), and we know that you still miss the Whalers some days. We also know that a lot of you drive in and drive back home, never seeing more of the city than a few side streets and your parking garage, and you’re doing that because you don’t feel that Hartford is the safest place to be. This has always...
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Providence, Rhode Island...
Yes, it’s time for our third day in a row of the great desk escape, our series where we help you blow off some steam or just get some new perspective by giving you an hour’s worth of activities to get you out of the office. Today’s edition is in Providence, Rhode Island, which we’ve always thought is a pretty cool, funky place. So here goes — a few activities to...
July 2012
37 posts
10 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Boston, Massachusetts...
We figured that we’d follow yesterday’s post, which kicked off our Great Desk Escape series, with another one. Today, we’ll head down the coast from Portland to Boston and give you a few ideas on how to reclaim your sanity by taking a quick break from your desk for an hour or so. As always, we try to make this something that you can do on a lunch break from the middle of...
8 tags
The Great Desk Escape: Portland, Maine Edition
Sigh. It’s another Monday morning here at Hopara central, and while we love what we do (look at how much we get to travel and explore the world!), we know that a lot of our readers visit us as a bit of escapist fantasy during the day. We totally understand that. Heck, that’s why we started Hopara in the first place! But we know that it’s not enough sometimes, and that every...
9 tags
Hopara Shorts: The Newsroom Guide to New York
It’s Sunday, which means that it’s time for one of our favorite TV shows (well, ok, to be honest, today we’re probably watching the Olympics, but we’ll record The Newsroom), but we figured a lot of you are looking for places where you can feel like you’re on this show. So today, in the spirit of Hopara Shorts, we’re giving you two activities to help you explore...
8 tags
The Best Little Surf City on the Planet: Auckland,...
Wait, what? Auckland? How the heck did Auckland beat out cities that are surf meccas, like San Diego (with Trestles so nearby), or Honolulu (it has the North Shore, people!), or Sydney (where surfing is pretty much the national pastime), or some tropical paradise in Indo or Tahiti or Nicaragua or Costa Rica or… well, you get the idea. We know that this is probably contentious for most of...
