Where to eat in San Diego- The Neighborhood

Meet the friendliest hamburger on the block

Spring in San Diego only means one thing: Padres Games. But let's be real the reason you should be heading to the East Village is for a trip to The Neighborhood.

Around the corner from the Gaslamp, the Neighborhood, started by the same guys who opened Craft & Commerce, welcomes you with 20+ beers on tap. For those who are looking for a warmer hello choose whiskey or bourbon.

To pair that nicely, include a burger and an order of chorizo corn dogs. Still have room? Try the Milk & Cookies or the Bourbon Cookie Dough Shake.

Sitting at the bar prepare to be rubbing elbows with strangers who will soon become friends. On any given evening you will chat a girl who can lick her elbow or learn how painful it is to get a sleeve tattoo. This is your modern day Cheers.

Don't ask for ketchup, you won't make friends.

Love Airline Points? Earn Miles With Rocketmiles

I have a serious addiction. Collecting miles and points.

While planning a trip to Chicago, I discovered a great way to earn airline points with hotel bookings using Rocketmilles.

Just select your destination, check-in date, and what airline you want to earn points for and VOILA.

Rocketmiles finds available rooms in major hotels organized by neighborhood.

Travelers can earn points on United, US Airways, American, Delta, and Hawaiian Airlines. Hopefully Virgin America will be next.

How do you earn points/miles?

Going to JazzFest? Where to Eat in New Orleans

Shrimp n Gator Cheesecake

With  JazzFest 2013 being just around corner,  we are preparing to launch the New Orleans Smart Travel Guide. It's time to start thinking about where to eat and where to drink.

Let me introduce you to some "real Nawlin's food" at Jacque-Imos.  Leave your calorie counting at the door and grab a watermelon mojito as you walk in.

The food menu has a wide variety of cajun fried goodness that makes any Northern's heart thaw.
You will probably want to have two orders of the Shrimp and Alligator Cheesecake and for an entree try one of the more unique options like the Carpet Bagger Steak. 

So in short: Call ahead, bring a group of a friends, get ready to laugh with a great wait staff, and plan to take a taxi home with a mojito souvenir cup.

San Francisco: Beyond the Tourist Trap

As we mentioned earlier, we have teamed up with locals to help provide that human touch to the Citybot brand.
I would like to introduce Lauren, our City Curator for San Francisco. Check out her first post below and keep an eye out for more suggestions for a San Francisco visit:

Lauren, SF Curator

When most people visit San Francisco for the first time, they usually come ill-prepared for the weather and limit their "adventures" to the Embarcadero/Fisherman's Wharf area, resulting in a incomplete view of the city. It's not until you brave the hills to venture out a bit that you can truly begin to see the charm and variety the city has to offer. When asking yourself "What to do in San Francisco", start with what you appreciate about any place you visit.

For the Art Lover
For the art lover inside us all there are several galleries and events, which are mostly captured in the Fecal Face Bay Area calendar (don't worry about the name, the sites legit!). There are also many parks to hang out in for the day, but if you really want to have an outdoor adventure, however, lack a means of transport, then head over to Glen Canyon Park. This park is accessible via BART and is one of the very few, but oft forgotten about hikes within city limits. Alternatively, if you have multiple friends in town then challenge them to a friendly game of bowling over at Mission Bowling Club - a 21+ "boutique" setting with 6 lanes and great food to boot.

Music Venues
When it comes to the music scene, everyone can find something to enjoy in San Francisco and the best resource to see what's going on is Thrillcall (which also has a handy app!). Some notable venues include The Independent, Rickshaw Stop, Mezzanine, SF Jazz, and The Fillmore.

Great Food & Coffee
Of course, no weekend in San Francisco would be fulfilled without indulging in all of the amazing food and libations we have to offer. To get that morning boost of caffeine, the best coffee experiences [sans Hipsters] can be found at Sightglass in SOMA or The Mill in NOPA, which serves Four Barrel Coffee and house-baked bread from Josey Baker. The great thing about San Francisco restaurants is that they too serve great coffee, so if you want a full brunch then make the justified journey over to Outerlands - hands down best brunch in town! Provided it's a sunny day, bring a towel or blanket along with you so you can digest beachside at Ocean Beach afterwards, which is only a short walk away at that point. For lunch and dinner there is no one best place because competition in this city is high, which is great for diners! If you're looking for something unlike anything you'll get in other cities, then definitely zero-in on the budget friendly Mission Chinese Food (psst, they do take out if you want to skip the line!), the infinite amount of beer, meat and potatoes at Suppenkuche, mouth-watering ramen at Izakaya Sozai, and the quintessential NorCal cuisine paired with incredibly friendly service at nopa. For those looking for a more hands-on food experience, check out the calendar at epicuring for upcoming events.

A great resource for finding out about all types of unique events happening around the city is the The Bold Italic calendar. And if all of these adventures takes a toll on your body, then drop into Anjalee for a Thai Massage. At $30 for 30 min., it's an incredible bargain and these women know what they're doing. Trust me, your body will be thanking you afterwards!"

Smart Data + Human Touch

When Citybot came to life, we wanted to give travelers to ability to create their perfect day without having to spend hours online planning looking at travel sites, blogs, and restaurant reviews.

When traveling to a new place, one thing I always love to hear is the advice from a local. With this in mind, we are teaming up with locals in Citybot Supported Cities to provide that human touch. Our City Curators will be providing recommendations and inspirations via our blog as well as contributing to each city’s app.

This delicious bacon pancake was recommended recently by our SF Curator Lauren. If your mouth is watering, check out Stacks in Hayes Valley

Citybot Smart Travel Guide is here, San Diego starts our journey

I knew moving from Tucson, Arizona to San Diego would be exciting but I never realized how much I would love this city. Every year 30 million travelers come to visit San Diego and I can understand why. From Balboa Park, to the San Diego Zoo, and the great breweries throughout the area, I am thankful to call this place my home.

With this in mind, it makes sense to first launch Citybot Smart Travel Guides for iPhone and Android smartphones in our home San Diego.

What is Citybot?

EvoNexus or MassChallenge

In May we got accepted to EvoNexus, a high tech startup incubator in downtown San Diego. Just couple weeks after we sent out our newsletter, we also became a finalist in MassChallenge, a high tech accelerator in downtown Boston. We had to make a decision - Boston or San Diego? On one hand, MassChallenge is the largest startup accelerator and competition in the world. Being a finalist in MassChallenge gives us credibility, puts us in front of many eager investors, connects us with a wealth of resources, not to mention a chance to win a piece of $1M in cash awards and $10M in-kind support in the final competition. On the other hand, this means either ripping the whole team out of sunny California and moving to Boston for the Summer or wasting tons of $$ and time of flying from one coast to another 4+ times/month. The decision was hard, but after hanging out at EvoNexus for a couple of weeks and realizing how great it is, it became much easier to make the choice to stay in California.