In case you haven’t seen the new US passport design, here’s a sample, called the US e-Passport (e for electronic, since it will have a chip embedded in it). Take a peek at the whole thing over at the US Passport Agency’s website and you’ll see images that conjure up pure patriotism.

We don’t know about you, but it seems a little - hmmm, how do we say - over the top? In a world where people, rightly or wrongly, already think Americans are boastful, bossy and arrogant, this kind of design seems to lend credence to that notion. Can you imagine waving this thing around in Kabul? Sort of like waving a red flag in front of a bull, we’d guess. Not that we have anything against patriotic images or patriotism or the good old US of A, but given the state of affairs, we just like to kind of keep a low profile when we’re traveling overseas. This design is anything but low-profile. (Then again, we guess we can’t hide from our accents so this might not make a darn bit of difference…)

Chime in and let us know what you think: is this too much for you or does this hit the right note? Will you feel fine walking around with this in your international travels? Because if you don’t have one now, you’ll be getting one the next time you renew your passport… (In case you’re wondering, our recently renewed passport - the drama of which we posted about here and here - does not have these pages, for which we admit we are immensely grateful.)

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has entered the world of reality TV, sort of. Their version of it - the Hyatt Resorts Ultimate Adventure Challenge - will be shown on the web, and if you’re up for that sort of thing, you and the fam can enter to be chosen as participants. All you need to do, apparently, is send in a video of your children showing, in Hyatt’s own words, “their passion for adventure and exploration.” (We live in fear of the “adventure and exploration” that happens in our house on a daily basis, but we have a feeling they’re looking for more outdoorsy material…)

From the entries received, 5 families will be chosen to compete against each other in a series of webisodes, doing God-only-knows-what, and the family with the most votes from the public wins. The grand prize? 50 free nights at any Hyatt hotel or resort worldwide.

While 50 free nights is a lovely prize - and Hyatt does have some wonderful properties - we’re not sure that we personally want to go this route to achieve it: the prize may be luxury but the means of achieving is decidedly not so. (Then again, neither are lottery tickets…) Anyhow, should the cheese factor be deterring you from entering a video of Junior swinging dangerously from the chandelier, know that 1 lucky voter will also be chosen to win the grand prize in addition to the winning family, so at the least you can go online and vote and have a chance at winning while maintaining some dignity.  But if you’re ready to put your game face on and enter, and you happen to get picked to vie for the prize, let us know - we’ll vote for you.

Chateau Le Val, copyright Book A Castle

Every week we bring you a new villa rental but there are times when you want to do like Madonna and live like the landed gentry in something more resembling a medieval castle. For that, Europe is ripe with options where your little girls can act out their Disney-enforced cult of princess obsession and boys can pretend to be Knights of the Round Table (or Merlin). (more…)