Ever gone on a Canadian-led tour? Indications are growing that three Canadian tour operators -- Eldertreks, Gap Adventures, and Lion World Travel -- are attracting heavy business from U.S. residents, so much so that a clear majority of their clients are now Americans who like the Canadians' cheaper prices, more serious tone, more authentic lodgings.

GAP Adventures (tel. 800/708-7761; www.gapadventures.com) is the largest of the three, servicing some 40,000 travelers each year with small group "adventures," so-called not because they engage in daring physical feats but because they go to the more exotic areas and countries of the world. It began 17 years ago by operating small group tours to Central America, and still specializes in that area, but presently operates trips for persons of all ages to every continent, including Antarctica (where it owns its own expedition ship). Stressing the authenticity of its tours, it actually boasts of using small locally-owned hotels, and requires that participants give a small cash deposit to the tour leader so that these small lodgings (or even private homes) that do not normally deal with the organized travel industry can be paid on the spot. Most tours are limited to 12 persons, some to 16 or 22, and only the Antarctic cruises get more.

Eldertreks (tel. 800/741-7956; www.eldertreks.com), in business for more than 20 years, operates small group tours for persons over the age of 50 to more than 40 destinations primarily in Latin America, Europe and Asia, at prices averaging (except for higher-priced tours within North America) $300 per person per day, not including air fare, for totally all-inclusive arrangements: everything down to the last dessert is included. Guides with impressive experience lead each tour and are specifically named and described for each tour. And destinations are, for the most part, the unusual ones, "from Easter Island to the South Pacific to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Baja California to the Galapagos, from the Amazon to Alaska", on flexible arrangements of the spontaneous sort, including specifically-designated hiking tours, for which the company's mature and elderly participants must be capable of walking for as many as three or four hours.

Lion World Travel (tel. 800/387-2706; www.lionworldtravel.com), forty years in business, has pioneered in the creation of affordable African safaris. Its popular "Best of Kenya" flies you there on British Airways, via London, puts you up on arrival at a Nairobi hotel, and then speeds you to the remarkable, wildlife-filled games parks of Kenya (Lake Nakuru, Shaba, the Maasai Mara) for five full days of a classic safari (twice-daily games drives in seven-seat minibuses, lodging and all meals) for as little as $2,199 several times a year. Recently, Lion World Travel was named official operator of a major South African Airways program ("Highlights of South Africa") priced for short periods of the year at $1,999 per person.

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Labels: tour companies

We Americans are so used to appearing at airports without a paper ticket, simply relying on electronic confirmation numbers, that we frequently overlook the fact that a number of international airlines -- especially those flying to Africa, the Middle East and Asia -- still require a paper ticket. I receive an increasing number of sad letters from travelers who were turned away from their flight at U.S. departure points, because they assumed that the entire world has followed America's lead in no longer requiring a paper ticket. Though a great many international carriers have made that advance, others haven't; and you're advised to check carefully with the international airline for which you've made a reservation.

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Labels: airports, tips

Where: Mayan Riviera
When: May and June

In May and June, the Mayan Riviera can be visited for as little as $396 including air and four nights' lodging. Fleeing the mobs of over-popular Cancun, you can head to the real Mexico 40 miles down the Yucatan coast at Playa del Carmen, where you'll receive four nights' lodging at the two-star Kinbe Hotel in downtown, 55 yards from the beach, as well as your round-trip air. Mayan ruins in Tulum and Coba are close by. The total price is $396 from Miami, $451 from New York, $496 from Chicago, $368 from Dallas or L.A., but prices don't include airport transfers (another $38).

Contact: tel. 877/7GO-MAYA; www.rivieramaya.com.


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Labels: deals, mexico

We sat chatting over coffee in a café no more than 40 yards from the gate at which our plane would depart. At 15 minutes before the flight's scheduled departure time, we casually strolled to the gate only to find that the plane had already closed its doors, pulled away from the gate, and was now taxiing to the runway. Having fully checked in, and holding valid boarding cards, my wife and I had missed our flight despite having appeared where the plane was to leave, a full fifteen minutes ahead! Hell-bent to achieve a record of on-time performance by departing in advance of schedule, some airlines are apparently forcing even prudent passengers to appear in the boarding area -- not the check-in counters -- as many as twenty minutes ahead of time.

I have now placed four phone calls to the public relations departments of major airlines in a fruitless attempt to determine whether these jump-the-gun departures are sanctioned by airline policies. Each time I encountered a runaround ("we'll call you back", "the person who knows is on vacation", "give us a few minutes to ask around") worthy of a C.I.A. press conference. And meantime, it behooves all of us to pass up the temptations of airport cafes or newsstands in favor of rushing to the gate. Have any users of Frommers.com experienced similar conduct on the part of the airlines? Love to hear about it.

On a happier note, it's good to report the return to relevance of Priceline.com (www.priceline.com). Though many smart travelers are reluctant to use the services of this "opaque" search engine for booking airfares (you make a bid and learn that you've committed to take a flight leaving at 6am or making several stops en route to your destination), a great many more are scoring coups in using Priceline for hotel reservations. That's because you're entitled to require hotels of a certain quality before you commit to accept a booking. Recently, using Priceline for a stay in Boston, I specified that I would only accept an elegant four-star hotel, and then bid an ultra-low $139 for the room (despite Priceline's ominous warning that the "median" price of four-star hotels in Boston was $259 for a room). Would you believe that my bid was accepted? Feeling pleased as punch, I proceeded to lodge myself at the upscale Wyndham Hotel Boston for only $139, by making a can't-lose bet.

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Labels: airlines, priceline

We've created a photo pool over at Flickr.com that's open to the public to share your travel pix with fellow Frommer's readers. All you need is your own Flickr account (they're free, but you can upgrade to a "Pro" membership for $24.99 for two years, or $14.95 for one).

Once you've become part of the Flickr community, join the Frommer's Travel Guide pool and add your favorites to the group. We're already cooking up ideas on how to feature the best ones here.

It is, of course, a bit of a trip. You approach it from Bozeman or Billings, Montana, or from Jackson, Wyoming, and few of us live anywhere near those towns. But after a long drive through the American West, your exertions are repaid by what is, arguably, the top attraction of America.

Yellowstone! Its wildlife -- including majestic buffalo and elk -- are more diverse and numerous than in any other park. It is, according to experts, the last remaining fully-intact eco-system in the lower 48 states -- all in an area larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Its geysers, steam emissions, hot springs and mudpots are sobering evidence that our thin crust of earth lies on top of molten rock ("magma"). Yellowstone itself is the largest volcano on earth, a vast "caldera" fifty miles in each direction that was pushed upward to an average elevation of 8,000 feet by an epic eruption occurring as recently as 640,000 years ago. When you walk through the park on boardwalks that protect you from the steam and boiling waters emerging from cracks in the land's surface, you are made to consider the transitory nature of humankind and of our civilization. At some point in the future, Yellowstone -- with perhaps the thinnest earth crust anywhere in the world, and more geysers than in Iceland or New Zealand -- will erupt again.

Generally, if you are to enjoy the magic of Yellowstone, you must schedule your visit for between May and the end of September. My own recent visit took place in September, and although one particular road -- the mountainous Bear's Tooth Highway -- was already closed by snow, almost everything else within Yellowstone was functioning normally, nearly all the lodges were open and thriving, and thousands of lightly-clad visitors (wearing "layers" and removing outside jackets and sweaters as the day warmed up) were reveling in the Park's extraordinary sights and phenomena.

Obviously, you will need a car. Though numerous national motorcoach tours go whizzing through in a day or two (what sacrilege!) and travel agents in the entrance town of Gardiner will even escort you on visits of five hours and less, it is ludicrous to schedule less than three days for a thorough experience. Each of a number of widely-separated areas -- Mammoth Hot Springs, the Canyon area, the Lake Area, Old Faithful and its surroundings, can each consume a full day of intensive and rewarding sightseeing. I'm still recalling the sight of giant herds of bison crossing the road in front of my car, the thrill of Old Faithful casting its plume of water and steam high in the air, the awesome vision of "the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone," a respectable runner-up to Arizona's.

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Labels: parks, yellowstone

One of the unexpected dividends of a trip to Las Vegas is the chance to meet the city's Mayor, a flamboyant individual named Oscar Goodman. At least once a month, His Honor holds a meet-and-greet at a local restaurant or diner to which there's no admission charge, at which he answers questions that are put to him by constituents or by tourists. He sips from a martini while he responds. He's everything you'd think a mayor of this over-the-top city would be: a brash, controversial, humorous character who makes a point of going to most public ceremonies flanked by a showgirl on one side and an Elvis impersonator on the other. If you'd like to meet the Mayor, go to a website called www.lasvegasnevada.gov which lists the dates and place of his next meet-and-greet. And for more on the subject, look for the new Pauline Frommer's Las Vegas, which began appearing in bookstores this April.

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Labels: las vegas, photo ops

Over the past week, I've been reciting what I regard as the Great Myths of travel. In two earlier blogs, I listed six of them. Here are four more, the last of which is a bit of a poor joke. Got any Myths you'd like to add?

7) That you save by booking at the last minute. Though this might once have been the case, it no longer is. Generally speaking, the best travel prices are found long in advance, and fewer travel suppliers discount their rates at the last moment.

8) That shore excursions should be purchased in advance of boarding the ship. Why? The same overpriced excursions are available in the course of the cruise, when you are better able to determine whether you want to go touring with 40 fellow passengers. Or whether you'd prefer to relax, wander about on your own, or tour only with someone you've met on the cruise, sharing the cost of a taxi.

9) That you should carry all sorts of devices and gadgets. The average travel product sold in drugstores and hardware shops simply clutters up your suitcase, and is rarely used on the trip.

10) That the Bahamas and Florida are reliably warm in winter. For guaranteed weather, you need to go much further south. There is nothing more boring than a so-called tropical destination when it's raining or chilly.

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Labels: myths, tips

The New York Review of Books, which appears 20 times a year, is one of the most erudite publications in America, devoting itself to the most serious questions of literature and politics. But it is also a superb source of short-term apartment rentals in London, Paris, Rome, Provence, Tuscany, the Hamptons and the Berkshires. Its classified ads are full of listings of vacation properties offered by various academics for short-term rentals, and since its readership are mainly professors without much money, the properties it offers are quite sensibly-priced and furnished with large supplies of books, comfortable reading chairs, and lamps. Next time you're in the market for a vacation apartment or villa, go to a newsstand and pick up the New York Review of Books.

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Labels: accommodations, berkshires, england, france, hamptons, italy

Where: Buenos Aires, Argentina
When: May 1 to June 13, $889 for round-trip air with no fuel surcharge and six nights with breakfast at the tourist class Waldorf Hotel.

The elegant, sophisticated capital of Argentina has become one of the least expensive of all leading cities, because of the sharp drop in the value of the nation's currency. You enjoy tangos, steaks, shopping and sightseeing at refreshingly modest rates. The price is $889 from Miami; and there are reasonable add-on fares from most other U.S. cities.

Contact: tel. 800/682-3333; www.gate1travel.com.

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Labels: buenos aires, deals

To the surprise of everyone in travel, the nation of Turkey will have enjoyed a near record number of 500,000 American tourists in 2006, more than went there in the heady travel days prior to September 11. And that's as it should be: Turkey is a colorful and friendly destination that receives a grand total of over 20 million tourists a year.

Among that group, the American tourist is especially valued. Unlike the bulk of European visitors, who buy inexpensive air-and-land packages to Mediterranean and Aegean beach resorts of Turkey, the American seeks out the culture and history of Turkey, and spends far more than the average European. And while the general decline of the American dollar (now exchanged at a rate of 1.4 Turkish lire to one dollar) has made Turkey more expensive than before, it remains a moderately-priced tourist experience in which family-run boutique hotels are available for $100 to $140 a night per double room, and private "hostels" for unpretentious tourists can often be had for $20 per person per night.

But is it safe? For the answer to that perennial question, I phoned Tom Brosnahan, whom I hired some 30 years ago to write Turkey on $5 a Day for the Frommer's series, probably the first American guidebook to Turkey. Tom is today the author of a superb Turkey blog called www.turkeytravelplanner.com, and a travel authority of unquestioned integrity. From visits there as recently as last month, he emphasized that our own preoccupation with travel dangers, with animosity towards American policies, with events in Iraq, is simply not an item of discussion within Turkey -- or else it is relegated to page 24 of the newspapers.

Though Turkey has not been free from occasional acts of violence like a small bomb placed in front of a police station, it is no more roiled by those events than any other nation in western or eastern Europe, Brosnahan firmly asserts. The government maintains friendly relations not simply with Syria and Iran, but with Israel as well. A great many Israeli tourists are found in Turkey, which is probably the best indication of Turkey's safety for foreign visitors.

Turkeytravelplanner.com now consists of more than 2,000 pages of informative, up-to-day commentary on every aspect of a trip to Turkey. It is a model of what a travel website should be, and I recommend it enthusiastically.

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Labels: emerging destinations, turkey

For a talk that I was recently asked to give at a newspaper-sponsored travel show, I was asked to compile a list of the 10 Great Myths of Travel. Yesterday, I listed the first three of those maxims; here are three more:

4) That travel prices are fixed in stone. They are, in fact, broadly negotiable, provided you're speaking to a person with authority. The manager or assistant manager of a hotel, the supervisor of a cruiseline reservations staff, will quite often respond favorably to a request for discounts if they have vacant cabins or rooms that have to be sold.

5) That you should stock up on foreign currency in advance of departing. You don't get a better exchange rate here at home, and you simply make yourself a prey for pickpockets or thieves. You should take only a small amount of foreign currency for immediate needs, and thereafter change -- at a foreign bank -- only those amounts you will need for a day or two at a time. Just as you would not walk around at home with hundreds of dollars in cash, or leave that amount lying around your residence, you should not do so while traveling.

6) That a guided tour is the best device for visiting a foreign destination. Touring in a group made up of your fellow citizens instantly creates a barrier between yourself and the destination, especially when that touring is in an enclosed motor coach. An authentic experience can only be had on your own, walking about on two feet, and interacting with the people and places you encounter.

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Labels: myths, tips

Where: Dominican Republic
When: May and June, an all-inclusive 5 nights in the Dominican Republic, with air, from $489)

You'll receive all-inclusive arrangements (all three meals and unlimited drinks) in addition to your air and five nights' lodgings at the LTI Beach Golf & Spa Resort in the popular Punta Cana area. Weekday departures only, costing $489 from Fort Lauderdale, $619 from New York, Chicago or Detroit, slightly more from other cities.

Contact: tel. 800/288-1435; www.vacmart.com.

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Labels: caribbean, deals, dominican republic

Would you pay $100 for the right not to take off your shoes when passing through a security check at airports? Essentially, that seems the advantage offered by the various "registered traveler" recently approved by the Transportation Security Agency. For a fee of $100 (which includes $28 paid to the T.S.A.), affluent travelers who undergo a security check will receive an I.D. card carrying a computer chip that incorporates their fingerprints and their eyes' iris patterns into the card. And these I.D.-equipped passengers will then breeze through a special "clear lane" at designated airports without having to take off their shoes or pull out their laptops from the briefcases they carry aboard (the second great advantage of the registered traveler plan), thus saving a few seconds of time and a bit of indignity. It all seems to me like the kind of empty privilege and social status on which affluent people waste money, as well as a procedure which terrorists will easily be able to tap into. Am I missing something?

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Labels: airlines, airports, tsa

If you're a collector of frequent flyer privileges, and enjoy the periodic pleasure of using your "miles" to fly for free to some attractive place, then steel yourself, have a drink, beware of darkening clouds. All within the past three months, both United Airlines and U.S. Airways have cut in half the amount of time for miles in "inactive" accounts to expire, from 3 years to just 18 months. In doing so, they have adopted a similar policy announced by Delta Airlines (miles are cancelled in accounts remaining "inactive" -- i.e., without additions or redemptions--for two years) earlier last year.

Obviously, the airlines are out to reduce the "free" travel privileges you thought you safely possessed. And persons who are infrequent flyers needing more than 18 months to accumulate the necessary numbers, are out of luck. What you can do about it?

First, you can transfer your allegiance to the more generous airlines. On Continental Airlines and Aloha Airlines, miles never expire -- and you might keep that in mind when you book your next flight. On American Airlines, miles expire only after three years. What's more, American is known as the airline that gives away the most frequent flyer seats each year, and gets the highest marks in consumer surveys for its frequent flyer program.

Second, if frequent flyer privileges are that important to you, you might cease using the airlines whose mileage policies are even less generous than those of United, U.S. Airways and Delta. When you earn frequent flyer mileage from JetBlue and Air Tran, they disappear a year after they're earned, even if your account is active and you continue earning additional miles. You must use them or lose them -- quick! -- and for some of us, earning miles from those airlines can seem a waste of time.

Now there are ways to keep your account active, and hold on to your miles even though you're not redeeming them for a flight. The new rules require that an account remain active through accrual of miles or expenditure of them within a consecutive eighteen-month period. One tactic is to make use of a mileage credit card issued by your favorite airline for purchases other than a flight. Downside of that tactic: these are usually expensive cards with high interest and fierce late payment penalties. Another is to periodically "spend" your miles for purchases other than a flight, like a hotel room or rental car -- this, too, extends the life of your mileage. Downside of that tactic: you're depleting your miles and making it more difficult to amass the number needed for a flight.

All in all, the average U.S. flyer has taken a big hit. It will now be necessary to pay careful attention to the status of your frequent flyer account, and to redeem your miles earlier than you may have wanted.

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Labels: airlines