SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2010
KLMNO
Her motto: Have scissors, will travel
kansas city from F1
years ago, coupon-lovers like me rejoiced.No longer were coupons limited to a dozen eggs or a tube of toothpaste. Now, I could use one for a meal or a massage or a yoga class. Coupon-clipping had suddenly become chic. As a frequent traveler, I won-
dered whether I could take it to another level. Could I finance an entire trip with coupons? In the wake of Groupon’s suc-
cess, similar Web sites such as Living Social, Home Run and Social Buy have sprung up. Julie Mossler, a spokeswoman for Groupon, said that many sub- scribers have signed up for deals in multiple cities, making travel the second biggest reason they buy Groupons. So it’s no wonder that sites are
specifically targeting travelers. Last week, Living Social launched Living Social Escapes, a site offer- ing savings on day trips and weekend excursions.
“I want to go in there,” Rebecca said when she spotted the American Jazz Museum. “We can’t,” I snapped. “We don’t have a coupon.”
tax, we couldn’t complain. I complained plenty that night
Tri-
pAlertz.com, meanwhile, aims to be the Groupon for hotels. The more people who book rooms at a featured hotel, the lower the price goes. When you join Snique-
Away.com and
Jetsetter.com, you get access to limited-time-only sales on hotel rooms. And Saving- sonArrival. com, launched in September, of- fers coupons in a number of destinations, including Miami, Chicago and New York. Formyowndestination, I went
off the beaten path and chose Kansas City, where a number of coupon sites offer deals. A month before my scheduled visit, I joined several sites, for free, and clicked on Kansas City as my location. Each morning, I’d eagerly
check my BlackBerry for an e- mail with my daily deals. Some made no sense for a visitor: half off a $129 teeth-whitening ses- sion, $100 off one month of un- limited yoga classes, $99 for eight laser hair-removal sessionsworth almost $700 (tempting!). The restaurant deals were
more practical. But I wasn’t fa- miliar with the neighborhoods they were in, nor was I sure of the restaurants’ quality. Groupon and similar sites work like this: You buy the coupon online, and once a certain number of people have bought the same one, your credit card is charged. You then usually have one year to use it.No refunds. No exchanges. In other words, you have to commit. Be- fore committing tomy coupons, I read reviews and looked up menus. But would that guarantee me a worthwhile meal? It was risky. But perhaps a risk worth tak-
ing, says NicoleHockin, author of
TravelSmartBlog.com. “The flip side of that is you probably expe- rienced a great restaurant the locals really like,” she reasons. “Sometimes those off-the-beaten- path places aremy favorite.” To diversifymy coupons, I also
turned to the Kansas City Con- ventionandVisitorsAssociation’s Web site. There I found discounts on meals, symphony tickets, trol- ley rides, amusement parks and more. The upside to these cou- pons was that you didn’t have to buy in advance. For big-ticket items, such as
airfare, hotel and rental cars, I scoured the Internet for coupon codes.Web sites such as Current-
Codes.com,
CouponCraze.com, and
Cheapoair.com list several. (On CouponCraze, I found a cou- pon code for 10 percent off my room at the Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza if I booked on
Travelocity.com with my Ameri- can Express card, for a whopping $37.15 in savings.) The search for coupons didn’t
end when Rebecca and I landed in Kansas City. I grabbed the tourism brochures at our hotel and found even more coupons or ads for deals at various destina- tions. That’s how I learned that the National World War I Muse- um had two-for-one admission on Wednesdays. I also found a pamphlet with instructions for signing up for text message alerts on discounts. (One text: Free admission @the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art!) With a manila envelope full of coupons, I was ready to have fun. For our first meal,wepulled up to the drive-through of the Filling Station coffeehouse and handed the cashier our $10 Groupon (actual price: $5) for bagels and coffee. Not the best bagels, but at $5.70 for the two of us, including
after my blunder at Anthony’s. It made me even more determined to take full advantage of our coupons the next day. But to do that, we’d have to do some driv- ing. (I didn’t want to think about how much that would cost in gas, for which we had no coupons.) Our first stop was the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a few blocks from 12th Street and Vine, a historic jazz district. “I want to go in there,” Rebecca
said when she spotted the Ameri- can Jazz Museum in the same building. “We can’t,” I snapped. “We
don’t have a coupon.” Coupon mania had taken hold. My Living Social coupon
meant that one of us got in free at the baseball museum, where ad-
DETAILS
GETTING THERE Frontier Airlines offers nonstop flights from Reagan National to Kansas City International Airport from $293. Delta offers one-stop flights from BWI Marshall from $232.
WHERE TO STAY Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza 770W. 47th St. 816-931-4400
www.starwoodhotels.com A short walk to the Country Club Plaza shopping and dining district. Offers an indoor and outdoor pool, fitness center and on-site restaurant. Rates from $179.
Hotel Phillips 106W. 12th St. 816-221-7000
www.hotelphillips.com Historic downtown hotel in an art deco building. Rates from $159.
WHERE TO EAT Anthony’s Restaurant and Lounge 701 Grand Blvd. 816-221-4088
www.kcanthonysongrand.com Old-school Italian restaurant downtown. The large menu includes pasta, seafood and meat dishes. Entrees start at $10.50.
Westport Cafe and Bar 419Westport Rd. 816-931-4740
www.westportcafeandbar.com Casual Paris-style bistro in the Westport dining district. Entrees from $12.
Aixois French Restaurant 251 E. 55th St. 816-333-3305
www.aixois.com Family-friendly French restaurant with a coffee bar. Entrees from $14.50.
WHAT TO DO Negro Leagues Baseball Museum 1616 E. 18th St. 816-221-1920
GET A CULINARY MAKEOVER WITH RECIPES IN THE WEDNESDAY FOOD SECTION.
EVERY DAY THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF WAYS THE POST HELPS YOU.
Printed using recycled fiber. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. SF612Tipe 1x3
mission was $8 a person. The museum told the story of how the Negro National League was formed in 1920 to give thousands of young black men the chance to play baseball on organized teams nationwide. (Jackie Robinson started his career playing for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945 and broke the major league color barrier two years later.) For lunch, we drove to the family-friendly Brookside neigh- borhood. The dining room of the Aixois French Bistro was large and rustic, with a timbered ceil- ing. We had $30 to work with (price paid: $15). My salad was $11, and Rebecca’s crepe was $8. Once again, we’d come up short. The waitress suggested the cheese plate. It was $9.50. We figured that was within our bud- get. But with tax and tip and
beverages, we once again went over our Groupon. I was so deter- mined to use the coupon fully that I’d forgotten to factor in tax and tip, not covered by the cou- pon. Nor was I thinking that beverages, even soft drinks, add up. Bottom line: I wasn’t thinking straight. There was no time to dwell on
this second blunder.We had only a few hours before the museums closed. Our next stop was the Jesse
James Bank Museum, the site of the first successful daylight bank robbery, about 30 minutes away in the town of Liberty. I handed the cashier the two-for-one cou- pon I had printed off the visitors association Web site. “We like coupons,” the cashier told us. So did we. Rebecca and I got in for just $5.50 and were treated to an interesting exhibit on the life of Jesse James, who had grown up in the area. With another two-for-one cou-
www.nlbm.com Honoring the Negro leagues, which began in Kansas City in 1920. Tuesday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. Adults $8, age 12 and younger $3, age 5 and younger free.
NationalWorldWar I Museum at Liberty Memorial 100W. 26th St. 816-784-1918
www.theworldwar.org The only nationalWorldWar I museum in the country. Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Liberty Memorial Tower, Memory Hall and Exhibit Hall close at 4:30 p.m. Adults $12, children 6-17 free. Students with ID $10.
Jesse James Bank Museum 103 NWater St., Liberty, Mo. 816-736-8510
www.jessejamesmuseum.org The original one-room bank that the James gang robbed on Feb. 13, 1866. Monday- Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; $5.50.
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum 500W. U.S. Hwy. 24, Independence, Mo. 816-268-8200
www.trumanlibrary.org Exhibits and videos chronicling Truman’s life and career. Monday-Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Adults $8, children 6 to 15 $3.
INFORMATION
www.visitkc.com
—N.T. Travel Experts Guide to the
DISCOUNT TRAVEL Last Minute
Travel Bargain Hotline Automated 24/7! 1-800-548-8546 • 410-547-0828
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pon from the visitors association, we both got into the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in nearby Independence for $8. But I would gladly have paid full price for the riveting 45-minute docu- mentary by Charles Guggenheim and the exhibit that told the story of Truman’s humble beginnings in Independence and detailed his most important decisions as president, including the drop- ping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. That night, we ventured out to
Westport, the city’s oldest estab- lished community. I was glad that our $20 Groupon (price: $10) had led us to the lively spot. Unfortu- nately, I wasn’t terribly hungry— but I couldn’t letmy coupon go to waste. With food, wine, tax and tip, we went $27 over our Grou- pon, our worst miscalculation of all. But then, $20 really isn’t that much money. Onour final day, we had break-
fast at a place called the Coffee Girls ($5 for a $10 Groupon, and I went over by only $2), toured the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (it’s always free) and theNational World War I Museum (two-for- one admission, which was a good thing, since it’s $12 per adult). But we were officially muse-
umed out. I had fallen into the trap that many bargain hunters fall into: Doing or buying things we normally wouldn’t, just be- cause we have coupons. “I don’t think you should feel willed or compelled to do something just because you have a coupon,” Hockin said. “You just have to use your best judgment.” For our final meal, we took a
friend’s advice and tried Extra Virgin, a Mediterranean tapas place by award-winning chef Mi- chael Smith. We were coupon- less. But we had inadvertently arrived during happy hour, and many of the dishes and glasses of wine were half-price. The final bill for my share of three tapas, wine, tax and tip: $14. I hadn’t even tried, and the price was still right.
trejosn@washpost.com
For couponers, K.C. means ka-ching! Venue
Filling Station Coffee
Anthony’s Restaurant and Lounge Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Aixois French Bistro
Jesse James Bank Museum
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Westport Cafe and Bar The Coffee Girls
NationalWorldWar I Museum
Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza
TOTALS
$30.29 $8
$41 $5.50 $8
$47.06 $7.01 $12
$334.37
$10.70 $50.29 $16 $56 $11
$16
$57.06 $12.01 $24
$371.52
Price paid Full price Savings $5.70
EZ EE
F5
$5
$20 $8
$15 $5.50 $8
$10 $5
$12 $37.15 $498.93 $624.58 $125.65
NF407 1x1
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