New travel tools, or old ones that haven't received much public attention in the past, are constantly emerging in travel -- and can often be of great value. For instance:

1) Wikitravel: Just as Wikipedia tries to create a universal encyclopedia written by its readers, www.wikitravel.com tries to create a universal travel guide written by its readers, a storehouse of information on every travel destination however minor. So far, this free-of-charge electronic travel guide doesn't come close to competing with the infinitely-better Frommer's guidebooks or website ("wiki" suffers from skimpy hotel selections, deadly writing style, and major pricing errors), but it occasionally contains historical or geographical information that might assist the planning of your trip. It's something to watch.

2) The Duke Diet & Fitness Center: Among all the weight-reducing spas of the United States, this university-associated weight-loss facility in Durham, North Carolina, is surely the most serious and effective of all. Unlike health spas that promote trendy and exotic diets of the sort that you can't possibly maintain once you've returned home, Duke serves a tasty and familiar assortment of traditional American foods, but in extremely small portions, and participants learn how to conduct life on 1100 calories a day, losing weight and later keeping it off. Don't confuse Duke's Diet and Fitness Center ("DFC") with the more extreme (and totally separate) "Rice House" meant for seriously obese people who need to lose a hundred and more pounds quickly for various medical purposes and therefore go on a diet consisting almost entirely of rice. DFC serves tasty (if miniscule) meals, as I can personally attest (I lost 15 pounds in 10 days there). Go to: www.dukedietcenter.org.

3) Required Visas for St. Petersburg: Because a growing number of cruiseships sail the waters of northern Europe in summer and stop at St. Petersburg, Russia, it's important to reveal that Russia doesn't automatically permit passengers on such ships to disembark in the famous capital of Peter the Great. Rather, they will need a Russian visa (a document requiring at least a month to obtain) unless they have signed on for a group sightseeing excursion organized by the cruiseship -- the only example I know of a mandatory purchase of that sort. For the American who would rather wander around the city on their own (visiting the Hermitage and the Nevsky Prospekt at their leisure, and not as part of a group), it's necessary to take the steps to obtain a Russian visa or else simply pass up that superior method of seeing a great city.

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Labels: diet, tips, visas