It all comes down to seven simple rules. 1) Timing is everything. The least expensive times for a visit are from just after Labor Day until just before Christmas, then the first three weeks of January (starting just shortly after New Year's Day), and from late April up to the Memorial Day weekend. Avoid school vacation times and you'll experience smaller crowds and lower hotel prices. 2) Buy air in advance from a cut-rate carrier. Though driving is the most economical way to get there, it's not always practical if you don't live in the northeast. 3) Book the area's modern, low-cost motels. At properties throughout the theme park area and in neighboring Kissimmee, Florida, a family of four can stay for as little as $35 a night, often including free shuttles to theme parks. Check the rates at Wilson World in Kissimmee, Holiday Inn Sun Spree Resort Lake Buena Vista, Days Inn on US Highway 192, Comfort Inn at Lake Buena Vista, and Best Western Plaza International on International Drive.

4) Jot down the addresses of all-you-can-eat buffets like the Ponderosa chain on International Drive and Highway 192, or Shoney's. 5) Stock up on passes and cards. Whether before you arrive or once you're here, get the Orlando Magicard from the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors Bureau for discounts on lodgings, meals, car rental, and other sundries. 6) Carefully juggle theme park admissions. Spend no more than three days at the Disney properties and assign your remaining time to Universal Studios, Sea World, and Wet 'n Wild. 7) And finally, plan in advance for your meals within the theme parks. Consider bringing sandwiches in a backpack or paper bag (for lunch) and take dinner outside the theme park grounds.

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Labels: accommodations, orlando

Call me naive, but I'm impressed by the features relating to travel in the Capital One credit cards marketed all over the country by Capital One of Salt Lake City. At a time when nearly every issuer of Visas and Mastercards is taking a 2% chunk of every transaction for which you use the card overseas to make a foreign currency purchase (Visa and Mastercard take 1%, to which the bank issuer adds 2%, even though those banks perform no service at all), Capital One makes a point of revealing that it charges no "foreign transaction fee." In other words, it doesn't charge the 2%!

Beyond that, Capital One awards you a mile of frequent flyer privileges for every dollar you spend using the card -- and those miles are yours for the life of the account; they never expire as long you use the card. And finally, all the interest and other terms of the card seem highly competitive, indeed advantageous, and you have no membership fee to pay. You obtain a Capital One card by writing to: Capital One Card Center, P.O. Box 30284, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-9842.

Have I overlooked something? Is there a "small print" exception I've missed? If any of the users of this blog have experience with a Capital One card, I'd very much appreciate hearing from them (by simply posting a response to this post).

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Labels: money

Earlier this year, the new trans-Atlantic carrier called Eurofly announced a short-duration, springtime fare of $299 round-trip between New York's JFK and either Rome, Naples, Palermo, or Bologna. The seats at that price literally sold out overnight -- the most explosive reaction to an airfare sale that I, for one, have ever witnessed.

I learned this morning about a new Eurofly promotion just announced, costing $100 more than that earlier blockbuster, for flights from November 1 to December 16 and from January 6, 2008 to March 15, 2008. While a fall/winter trip to Italy isn't quite as appealing as one in late April and early May (the time of the earlier sale), it's still a remarkable travel opportunity. Go fast to www.euroflyusa.com, and you'll see the $399 price offered for round-trip flights between New York and Rome. You'll also see an offer of $399 and $459 to Bologna, Naples and Palermo, but available only from November 1 to November 18.

The fact that Eurofly will now operate year around to Rome is quite a development. Keep in mind that Eurofly is no upstart but more than ten years old, which once flew charters for Alitalia and then branched out on its own as an independent trans-Atlantic carrier between New York and Italy. Two months ago, I flew Eurofly from Palermo to New York, and everything about the flight was pleasant and calm.

By the way: $399 INCLUDES a $160 fuel surcharge, but not U.S./foreign taxes/fees of up to $81 per person; and apparently needs to be booked on Eurofly's website.

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Labels: deals, italy

One of my most recent trips was to Sweden, where I spent an enthralling week in the awesomely beautiful city of Stockholm. You may recall that in the early 1990s, Sweden experienced an economic crisis, and numerous American newspapers leaped to proclaim that it was all over with the Swedes, that their social policies were overly generous and, indeed, ruinous. Well that economic crisis lasted, at most, for less than two years. Sweden recovered without altering its policies to any great extent, and nowadays you don't hear much about Sweden in the U.S. press -- that's because it's doing well. I saw a nation of well-dressed people enjoying a very high standard of living, with total political freedom and cultural diversity. We can learn from Sweden, and you might want to schedule a visit.

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Labels: sweden

A lot of Americans have learned that the large, central European city of Budapest offers many of the pleasures of the more heavily visited European capitals but at a fraction of the cost. Several four-star Budapest hotels charge less than a hundred dollars in winter for a double room. Restaurants in downtown Budapest will serve you pork cutlets with a paprika cream sauce, together with the excellent beer of the country, for less than $30 for two persons. And the Király Baths in Buda bring you an hour-long soak in a 97-degree communal pool for only $4. For a one-week package to Budapest costing as little as $899 from November 1 to December 10 and from January 2 to March 31, call Paul Laifer Tours at tel. 800/346-6314, or log on to www.laifertours.com.

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Labels: budapest, budget

Michael Moore's latest film, Sicko, ends with a trip to Cuba. After discovering that three of the "early responders" to Ground Zero have apparently suffered lung ailments that their insurance plans refuse to cover, Michael accompanies these heroes of 9/11 to a hospital in Havana.

I have myself traveled to Cuba twice in the last five years. I went there, I am ashamed to say, legally, as a journalist, under license from the Treasury Department. I express that regret because I believe our government does not have the constitutional right to choose the countries that we, as freeborn Americans, are entitled to visit or not visit in peacetime. Travel is a learning activity, a means by which we expand our knowledge of the world; we travel, among other reasons, to reach our own judgments about the foreign policy of our nation. It follows that our government has no more right to prevent us from traveling to a particular country than it has to stop us from attending a lecture or reading a book.

I am aware of the difficulty of making a trip to Cuba into a learning experience, of ascertaining facts in a totalitarian state. And I know full well that Cubans are less than free to express their own opinions to tourists passing through. But while those factors make information-gathering difficult, they do not make it impossible, and there is much that can be learned about such a state in visits to it, just as there is in visits to Vietnam and China, to which our country not only permits but encourages travel.

It is now several years since agreement was reached between aviation officials of the U.S. and communist Vietnam permitting direct flights between major American cities and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. We readily permit Americans to travel to all sorts of antagonistic countries without legal hindrance, provided only that such tourists recognize that they do so at their own risk. What distinguishes the regime of Cuba from the regimes of Vietnam, North Korea, China and others, other than the political influence of a community of émigrés in Florida?

It is time to stand up for our right to travel, in peacetime, to wherever we wish.

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Labels: cuba, rights

Visiting the wineries of America has become a major tourist activity, but one that used to be focused almost exclusively on the Napa Valley of northern California. Today, a number of almost-equally compelling and far less expensive alternatives have emerged.

In upstate New York, the 19 original wineries of the Finger Lakes region have now become 239 wineries. (Here, along with wine tasting, many tourists also choose to visit the Corning Museum of Glass). In Virginia, the area of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello has developed a "trail" of 21 top wineries. In southern Oregon, the area around Ashland has become popular not simply for its Shakespeare Festival but for the pinot noir of its many wineries. And in central California, the area around Santa Barbara has become famous as a result of the wine movie Sideways, but remains cheaper to visit than the Napa Valley.

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Labels: gourmet, wine

By now, most smart travelers are aware that on a trip to the theme parks of Orlando, Florida, by a family or group of four and more, the vacation home is a far better value than most hotels. But from whom do you rent those vacation homes, and who has a reliable inventory of pleasant homes? Here's a list you might want to print out and save:

All Star Vacation Homes (tel. 800/592-5568, www.allstarvacationhomes.com). This
highly professional company rents three-bedroom condo units sleeping eight
starting at an astonishing $119 a night, which is the same price as the
lowest-priced room in motel-style digs, sleeping just four, during the spring on the Walt Disney premises. Lavish private homes with screened-in pools, a barbecue, a game room, free Internet, and other perks go from $189 for a three-bedroom, two-bath house or $219 for a mammoth five-bedroom. All of its properties are located within four miles of Disney. On stays of a week or longer, All Star will throw in a free rental car.

Oak Plantation (tel. 407/847-8200; www.oakplantationresort.com). Its one-bedrooms in condo-style buildings, shaded by trees and collected around a small pond, are located about six miles east of Disney property, in an area of Kissimmee that's crammed with cheap restaurants, and cost as little as $79 a night on its website.

Alexander Holiday Homes (tel. 800/621-7888; www.floridasunshine.com). This family-run company has been managing and renting homes since 1989 and
although most of its 200 properties technically start around $95 a night for a
two-bedroom, its website spotlights deals as low as $65 for a two-bedroom
condo.

Bahama Bay Resort (tel. 866/830-1617; www.bahamabayresortorlando.com). This gated development, found a few miles west of Disney World's southern entrance, is a complex of pastel-colored two-and three-story condo buildings. Two-bedrooms sleep six and cost about $99. As with any of these units, smaller groups can rent for the same price, too, and enjoy the elbow room.

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Labels: accommodations, florida, orlando

6) Eat picnic-style once a day: Instead of going to restaurants three times a day, and devouring one after another of those overly-rich, overly-sauced hot meals, alternate the routine; make one of those meals a cold, light snack, like a sandwich lunch at home. Go to the local equivalent of a delicatessen or to the food section of a department store. Order a slab of paté, some cheese, two rolls, two tomatoes, a pickle and wine, and then take the lot to a park bench or a river bank, and eat healthily, cheerfully -- and for pennies. Oh, happy days!

7) Look before leaping: Never order any dish without first knowing its cost. Never patronize a restaurant that does not openly display its menu outside. Order nothing listed at "today's market price" or "s.g." (selon grosseur, according to weight). Give that latitude to a restaurant, and you'll pay a hideous price.

8) Beware of waiters bearing gifts: Eat nothing that's been placed on the table in advance of your arrival (like a jar of paté); it's priced at princely levels. Refuse anything (other than bread, butter, radishes, and the like) brought to your table unbidden in the midst of the meal unless it's explicitly described as free.

9) Avoid the "household words:" If the name of a restaurant immediately springs to mind in an unfamiliar city, it's because you've subliminally heard of it for decades. And that means: you're twenty years too late. The "household words" are too often riding on their reputations, careless and blasé, and hideously overpriced. They can afford to be.

10) Never eat at airports: Stick sandwiches in your suitcase, pastries in your purse. Conceal a banana in the magazine you're carrying. Do anything, but don't place yourself in the position of ever having to eat at an airport. Need I explain why?

11) Patronize the marketplaces: And finally, when in doubt over where to eat in a strange foreign city, head for the big marketplace, the stalls under canvas or in a warehouse-like building where all the ingredients of meals are sold. Wherever there's a marketplace, there's a nearby restaurant with especially good prices for fresh food; that's because those marketplace eateries buy the makings for their meals from people they deal with throughout the day, at the very best rates.

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Labels: dining, tips

On cruiseships, a "gentleman host" is a man between the ages of 45 and 72, who is both a good conversationalist and an excellent ballroom dancer, a kindly human being, and a person of strict moral character. Numbering as many as six per cruiseship, they are dressed in blue blazers or white dinner jackets bearing a decal identifying them as employees of the line. They are carried free of charge aboard the cruise, and given a daily allowance for a reasonable number of drinks and substantial laundry privileges.

The gentleman host dances with unaccompanied women of senior age, and is expected to go immediately from dinner to the ship's ballroom and to stay there, asking women to dance, during the several evening hours. Earlier, they have dinner at tables with four or five unaccompanied women, engaged in pleasant conversation on non-controversial topics.

What ships and lines continue to offer gentleman hosts? Although no guarantees can be given, and policies appear to fluctuate from season to season (and even from sailing to sailing), it appears probable that the two biggest of the lower-cost lines -- Carnival Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruises -- no longer do so. The other low-cost line, Norwegian Cruise Line, appears to offer gentlemen hosts only on their cruises of longer than one week in duration; a number of women have told me of encountering gentlemen hosts on 10-day-and-longer cruises of the Norwegian Dawn.

All three major ships of the Cunard Line -- the Queen Mary 2, the Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Caronia -- appear to offer gentlemen hosts on all their sailings, even those of only a week's duration. Some female callers to my Sunday radio program have mentioned how eagerly they were looking forward to a six-day crossing of the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, where they fully expected to be able to dance with gentlemen hosts.

Celebrity and Holland America, both of them upscale lines charging slightly more than Carnival or Royal Caribbean, appears to offer gentlemen hosts on their longer-duration sailings and occasionally even on a one-week sailing. Two of the costly, premium lines -- Silversea Cruises and Seabourne Cruises -- appear to offer gentlemen hosts on all their sailings. Both of them obviously attract a large number of older women. I thought that some of the readers of this blog might appreciate the information.

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Labels: cruise, retired

Though everyone claims that "volunteer vacations" are currently the hot travel item, the majority of them are scarcely distinguishable from the commercial variety. (There's lots of blue-sky bombast in the travel world -- and people who take advantage of the idealism of young Americans). But on Monday, I wrote about two opportunities for volunteers that actually produce substantial improvements for low-income communities or vital repairs in the national and state parks -- and also involve partially-free lodgings and meals in exchange for your services. Here, today, are three more:

Sierra Club Outings (tel. 415/977-5522; www.sierraclub.org/outings) in both the U.S. and Canada are short stints at clearing trails in Nevada, maintaining beaches in Puerto Rico, preserving historic sites in Utah, tracking dolphin patterns on Midway Island, removing invasive plants in California, a hundred other useful tasks in the out-of-doors. Groups of 10 to 18 people (including a leader and cook) stay in accommodations ranging from tents to lodges. Many participants are in their mid-40s to early 50s, and include retired folk. Some trips can be strenuous, but most are accessible to everyone. Time commitment: most trips are on week, some are ten days. Cost: Almost all are $495 for a full week, some $595. Requirements: age 18 and up. In studying the website, be sure to winnow out the "service trips" from a larger number of sightseeing trips that Sierra now offers. And thus be sure to click on "service" wherever that term appears on the site.

La Sabranenque (tel. 716/836-8698; www.sabranenque.com) works to preserve and restore the unique ancient architecture of the Provence region of France and in far northern regions of Italy. Work includes construction and restoration of medieval stone buildings, castles and ramparts. From March to October, volunteers labor at sites with experienced technicians, acquiring traditional Mediterranean techniques of stone cutting, roof-tiling, flooring, arch and vault construction, and masonry. Costs cover double occupancy in restored stone houses and home-cooked, family-style meals with your co-volunteers (groups are limited to 35 people). Volunteers are of all ages, not just the young. Time commitment: two to three weeks. Cost: $595 for one week, but only $745 for two weeks, not including airfare. Requirement: ages 18 and up, and physically fit. (No construction skills or knowledge of French or Italian is necessary).

El Porvenir (tel. 608/544-2086; www.elporvenir.org) builds village water projects in now-peaceful Nicaragua. Volunteers in 6-to-10 person "brigades" join with local residents and bi-lingual guides to construct wells, latrines and community washing facilities. Apart from work, there's time to visit and converse with Nicaraguan organizations and groups. Lodgings are private homes, village schools, or modest hotels, and there's a recreational weekend at a beach thrown in as well. Participants' ages vary; church and family groups are common. Time commitment: two weeks. Cost: $800, including food, lodging and land transportation (but not airfare). Requirements: physically fit. But no Spanish language or construction experience is needed.

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Labels: france, nicaragua, volunteer

It's the opposite of chic, somewhat rustic and rough. Yet the fastest-growing means for vacationing in America is the recreational vehicle. And though I'll be drummed from high society for saying so, the people using them are the finest travelers our country has.

How do you get started on the RV life? Buying a recreational vehicle is a major investment that can exceed $40,000 and $50,000. Is it worth the outlay? Will you enjoy the lifestyle of the semi-nomad? Will you get restless and claustrophobic, or will you have the travel experience of a lifetime?

Many first-time RV-ers begin by renting a motorhome -- and thus determine whether the use of one is compatible with their own temperament and needs.

The first step is to look in your local telephone directory under the category "Recreation Vehicles -- Renting and Leasing." Or you can call one of the three major national companies: Cruise America (tel. 800/327-7799; www.cruiseamerica.com); Bates International Motor Home Rental Network (tel. 800/732-2283; www.batesintl.com); and El Monte RV Center (tel. 888/337-2214; www.elmonterv.com) For renting in California, Altman's Winnebago, (tel. 877/258-6267; www.altmans.com) may be worth a call. It's also useful to visit the Web site of the Recreational Vehicles Rental Association at www.rvra.org, which contains a list of companies that rent RV's, including prices and addresses, in almost all the 50 states.

Rental costs vary considerably, depending on type of vehicle, when and for how long you want it, season, and other variables. One way of getting a good price is by regularly checking the Web sites of the major rental outfits, which periodically post specials. A rather large motor home -- either a 26-foot Alumalite by Holiday Rambler or a 27-foot Southwester by Fleetwood -- will average $800 a week, plus low-cost mileage (32 cents per mile after an initial number of free miles). But that's for a vehicle that can sleep five people and is fully self-contained, with such added features as a microwave oven, roof air conditioning, its own generator and propane tank (so that a hookup is not necessary), power steering, and almost everything else you can name.

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Labels: accommodations, roadtrip

Napoleon told us that "an army marches on its stomach;" so do tourists. People enjoy their trips if the food at their destination is tasty and cheap; they feel vaguely dissatisfied if the meals there are dull and expensive. It's often as simple as that. And the country that can't provide decent dining at a reasonable price, is doomed to lose its vitality in tourism. Russia is a current example.

Often, however, visitors themselves can both lower the cost and increase the enjoyment of eating by wise decisions. From pondering different approaches to meals in a foreign land, I've developed just short of a dozen rules for my own conduct, of which I'm blogging five for today, and the remainder tomorrow:

1) Eat what they're eating. Concentrate on the local specialties: pasta in Italy, steak-and-kidney pie in Britain, herring in Scandinavia, moo goo gai pan in Taiwan. Local favorites are any nation's best dishes, well prepared and also cheap. Try ordering your own familiar favorites instead -- a U.S. hamburger, a martini, apple pie -- and you'll pay far too much for items poorly prepared.

2) Drink what they're drinking. In a wine-drinking country (France, Italy), order wine, not beer. The wine is marvelous and cheap; the beer execrable and no bargain. Contrary-wise, in a beer-drinking country (Germany, Scandinavia), drink beer not wine -- the former is cheap and top-notch.

3) Eat what they're eating at the time when they're eating it: Follow the "food patterns" of the country in question. If their habit is to have a tiny breakfast and a giant lunch (Spain, France, Italy, Greece), you have the same. If, instead, you order a big breakfast in those countries, you'll pay through the nose for an inadequate meal. By contrast, if the tradition in a particular nation is to have a giant breakfast and a tiny lunch (Britain, Israel, Australia), do the same: you'll find that the mammoth breakfast is the best-prepared meal of the day, and relatively cheap.

4) Eat less than you think you want: We all eat far more while traveling than we are normally accustomed to at home. We feel intimidated, among other things, by foreign waiters. Will they think us an "ugly American" if we don't order a soup-to-nuts meal? At home, none of us would dream of having four courses for lunch; yet overseas, we think it obligatory to order the table d'hote meal, and stuff ourselves into a state of torpor, at considerable expense, while the local resident at the next table has a refreshing, inexpensive, single plate.

5) Split, share and divide: Order one plate for the two of you, or an appetizer for her and a main course for you, and then split what arrives. You'll still send uneaten food back to the kitchen, and save money at the same time. The servings in most touristic restaurants are enough for a family (I exclude of course the haughty, haute cuisine places with their tiny portions). How many times, in a touristic setting, have you ordered a meat course for yourself, only to find it overflowing the plate, gargantuan, and impossible to finish? By ordering, say, one prime rib for the two of you, you end up with still more than enough, and save $17-or-so at the same time.

Tomorrow: six more suggested rules for smart eating while traveling.

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Labels: dining, tips

Though other sources of free hospitality may currently enjoy a vogue (see our earlier write-up on this blog), the organization known as U.S. Servas (tel. 707/825-1714; www.usservas.org) remains a leader in the field.

Its origins date back to 1948, when an American pacifist living in Denmark created a network to enable world travelers to stay for free in the homes of idealistic people around the world. Using volunteers to gather the names of respectable persons who enjoyed having foreign visitors as guests, he quickly accumulated the names of as many as 10,000 persons living in hundreds of cities who would offer such free hospitality. When members embark on a trip, they receive the names of dozens of other Servas members residing in the cities they plan to visit -- and they then request a free stay of two nights or so with those generous souls.

Members of Servas sign up as either "hosts" or "travelers" or both. They agree to be interviewed by screeners delving into their bona fides; Servas is not a budget travel service, and seeks to exclude persons who are simply looking for a free crash pad. The goal is for people to meet and exchange ideas. The application process, including the interview, takes about three weeks. As a non-governmental organization affiliated with the U.N., Servas believes that the cause of world peace is furthered by such interchanges among people.

Currently headquartered in Arcata, CA , and no longer maintaining a New York City office, Servas is a cause as much as a hospitality service, and stresses that "hosts and travelers share their lives, interests and concerns about social issues." It charges a membership fee of $85 a year for international travelers, $50 for domestic travelers. A major effort is underway to attract younger persons to an organization whose average member, because of the long history of Servas, is obviously of mature age. Why not look them up?

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Labels: accommodations

The big seagoing deal, a top buy, is the Thanksgiving cruise of the new Noordam of Holland America Line: a full 10 days for as little as $599 per person plus port charges and tax. First, it's a Holland America ship, which means high quality and a dignified, relaxing atmosphere on board. Second, the cruise is round-trip from New York City, within easy reach of many millions of people. And because it's 10 days long -- departing on November 21, and returning on December 1 -- it provides a real chance to unwind, relax, and avoid Thanksgiving tensions. "If we go to so-an-so's, we'll offend so-and-so."

The ship leaves Manhattan, spends two days at sea sailing first to Grand Turk and then to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, then makes three, one-day stops in St. Maarten, St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), and San Juan, before spending two more days at sea returning to New York.

You can buy an inside, double-occupancy cabin on that departure for $599 per person from White Travel Service (tel. 800/547-4790; www.cruisewizard.com) or for $849 per person from VacationsToGo.com (tel. 800/419-5104; www.vacationstogo.com) or CruisesOnly (tel. 800/278-4737; www.cruisesonly.com). And why am I frequently naming White Travel Service on this blog, despite my strong reluctance to avoid plugging a person whom I've know for years? It's simply that as I recently call around for cruise quotes, they have most recently come up with the lowest rates.

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Labels: cruise, deals, holidays

Our friends at Wikipedia have recently compiled a list of the minimum vacation time guaranteed by law in various countries around the world. As you scan it, keep in mind that in the United States, not a single statute on either the federal or state level guarantees so much as a single day of vacation time to any American. (In actual practice, the average U.S. worker enjoys a paltry average of two to two-and-a-half weeks per year of vacation time).

Here's a truncated copy of the list. Read it and weep.

Austria: Seven weeks (and eight weeks for elderly employees)
Belgium: Four weeks
Brazil: One month
Bulgaria: Four weeks
Croatia: Three and two-third weeks
Czech Republic: Four weeks
Denmark: Six weeks
European Union: Four weeks (and obviously more in some countries)
Finland: Seven weeks
France: Five weeks
Germany: Four weeks
Greece: Four weeks
Hungary: Four weeks
Ireland: Four weeks
Italy: Four to six weeks
Latvia: Four weeks
Netherlands: Four weeks
New Zealand: Four weeks
Norway: Five weeks
Poland: Four weeks (but five weeks after 10 years of employment)
Portugal: Four and a half weeks
Romania: Four weeks
Spain: One month
Sweden: Five to six weeks, depending on age
Tunisia: Six weeks
Ukraine: Up to five weeks

China? It provides no guaranteed vacation time to its citizens, just like the United States.

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Labels: quality of life

Throughout the 1990s. a well-regarded company known as Sceptre Ireland (or Sceptre Tours) was the source of amazing fall/winter air-and-land packages to the Emerald Isle. For as little as $499 per person, they flew you roundtrip to Shannon, placed you in a car with unlimited mileage for a week, and gave you a booklet of vouchers for six nights of bed-and-breakfast accommodations at your choice of several hundred homey guesthouses throughout Ireland.

Then, mysteriously, Sceptre Ireland went upscale. They remained active as ever, but no longer advertised their air-and-car packages to the public, but seemed to focus instead (or so it seemed to me) on expensive, upscale hotels booked through travel agents.

Well, they've now returned to us common folk! In a startling statement, they've announced they will again be providing air-and-land packages to Ireland for $499 (in December, January and February) and for $599 in October and November. And ingredients will be better than ever. Instead of providing B&Bs at that price, they'll be putting you up in three- and four-star hotels serving full Irish breakfast every morning. And the $499 and $599 price will be available not simply to Aer Lingus passengers from New York, but for Ireland-loving types flying there from Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C. (Aer Lingus will soon begin flying to Ireland from Washington, D.C.).

A couple of conditions: you'll pay $499 and $599 only if you book on the internet (www.sceptretours.com). You'll pay an extra $25 per person if you phone in to one of their live reservationists (tel. 800/221-0924) -- so be sure to use the internet only. Blackout dates: December 17-31. And your car will have manual transmission; an automatic will cost $79 more.

An off-season car trip through Ireland is one of the great delights of travel. And I have the word of the president of Sceptre Tours that if you yell loudly enough, he'll substitute quaintly-Irish B&Bs for those three-star and four-star hotels. At one such farmhouse B&B, the proprietor permitted my then-four-year-old granddaughter to gather the eggs that had been laid overnight and deliver them to his wife for transformation into a full Irish breakfast. It was a magical moment of travel.

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Labels: ireland, packages

The "volunteer vacation" is a widely-misunderstood travel concept. It's a programs that involves travel to another community either at home or abroad for the purpose of performing socially-beneficial labor for others. You assist various groups in the building of low-cost housing, or teach English, or dig wells, or maintain hiking trails, or perform any number of other useful tasks.

But though you work hard at these arduous services, you don't usually receive free room and board in return, especially if the program in question is a short term effort of only one, two or three weeks. The considerable planning, preparation and administration of such programs costs money, for which the sponsoring organization requires payment of a fee from the volunteer. And though such charges are usually much smaller that those of a commercial tour, they can be substantial, nonetheless, and almost never include transportation to the site, which you -- the volunteer -- must cover.

That having been said, some "volunteer" programs charge only reasonable and sometimes nominal sums, and a small handful do pick up your basic room and board. Here are two affordable, and soul-satisfying, examples of the volunteer vacation for adults of all ages -- and I'll be describing three more tomorrow.

Willing Workers on Organic Farms ("WWOOF") (www.wwoof.org) assigns its volunteer participants from all over the world (all ages, although most are young and earthy types) to learn farming techniques while helping to run a network of mostly family-run organic farms in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Europe and Korea. You join a small team on each farm, pitch in with daily chores, and acquire first-hand organic horticulture techniques like pesticide-free planting and compost fertilizing. You can almost always count on some sheep herding, sowing, harvesting, milking of cows, and making of cheese and yogurt. Time commitment: usually a few days, but can last up to a few months depending on your host farm. Cost: a $30 membership fee, and then your half-day's work pays for a full-day's room and meals. Airfare and other costs are the participants' responsibility. Requirements: A willing heart and a strong back, without a minimum or maximum age limit.

Wilderness Volunteers (tel. 928/556-0038; www.wildernessvolunteers.org) works with public land agencies to promote outdoor volunteering in America's wild lands. Each trip is a week long, has twelve or fewer participants who camp in tents or in a dorm, and includes tasks like restoring streams, planting trees, repairing trails, or taking inventory of species on National Park, Forest Service, and other public lands. Guides do the cooking with the help of participants, and there's ample time to explore the wilderness you are helping to preserve. Groups vary in age, but tend to attract people from 20-40 who are active. Locations include Hawaii, California, Utah, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Puerto Rico. Time commitment: one week. Cost: $239 per week (not including transportation to and from a park, and your own camping gear). Requirements: 16 years old and up, and physically fit.

Tomorrow: three more lightly-priced "volunteer vacations."

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Labels: volunteer

On Friday I wrote about the effectiveness of bargaining for a cut-rate hotel room. Note that these tactics work only during off-season periods, or during slow cycles of the week. Most business hotels tend to empty out on weekends, when bargaining can be extremely effective; the same hotels tend to be fully booked from Monday through Thursday nights, when bargaining often doesn't work. And the tactic works only if you are speaking with someone authorized to discount (someone working directly for the hotel), and not with a telephone reservation agent staffing a nationwide "800" number.

Note, too, that in the U.S., where hotels tend to be widely scattered, not clustered (as in our example on Venice, in the previous post), bargaining is best conducted from a nearby phone booth, by a phone call from the airport on arrival, or by a long distance call from your home before you leave on the trip. The hotel then knows that you are easily able to make a call to another hotel, if they don't accede to your request. Usually, bargaining doesn't work if you are already in the hotel lobby; then the desk clerk knows it's unlikely that you will walk out and travel the long distance to another hotel, if they refuse the discount.

Does bargaining work for travel products other than hotel rooms? You bet it does. Although charter flights are no longer as frequently operated as they once were, they still provide a good example of how effective bargaining can be. In my years as a charter tour operator (remember Arthur Frommer Charters, Inc.?), I sent young staff members to see off our flights at the airport; they were not simply authorized, but directed, to sell off, on the spot, up to minutes before departure, any remaining, unsold seats, for any price that did not injure our dignity. If a bargainer, making a sudden appearance, offered $59 for the one-way crossing to London leaving in twenty minutes, we'd stamp off in righteous indignation; if they offered $99, that was another matter.

Some more prudent travelers would phone our office on the day before a charter's departure to determine whether there were still empty seats to be had for a song. While we could not also provide them with hotel space at that late date, we'd welcome the calls as a means of squeezing out a few last dollars of profit from the flight. To my knowledge, a great many hard-bargainers continue to make such calls to tour operators or consolidators who have committed themselves to blocs of air tickets, and would rather cut the price on unsold seats than suffer empty seats.

The travel industry consists of perishable products (seats, rooms, cabins, cars) that must be sold for a particular departure or on a particular date, or else their value is lost forever. It is clearly better to receive some income for such a product, rather than no income. And that is why most travel suppliers will react positively to your requests for a discount, if they sense you are "shopping" for value, and will turn to an alternative supplier if they fail to grant the requested discount.

Ask and it shall be given? More often than you'd suspect.

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Labels: tips

The round-the-world cruise on some of the world's most elegant ships would not normally be a subject for this blog, which deals with sensibly-priced, low-cost travel.

But because the nation's wealthiest people would not be caught dead in a small, inside cabin without portholes, those budget-priced facilities on round-the-world cruises are difficult to sell to the affluent types who book these 100-day and 90-day sailings. Result: the inside cabins on many round-the-world cruises are still unsold -- and thus heavily discounted -- for sailings this coming January, February and March.

Various cruise brokers are currently selling such small inside cabins for as little as $176 or $171 a day -- the problem being that $176 times 100 days comes to $17,600, and few are the Americans willing to pay that much money for a winter vacation. I've also found one ship (the QE2) whose especially-exciting, 90-day around-the world trip is available for $116 a day, but $116 time 90 days comes to $10,440.

I still regard the opportunity as a bargain. If you were to spend three months at a good condo in Miami Beach, and buy your meals three times a day, and pay what most people spend for sports, entertainment and sightseeing, you'd surely pay a total of $116 to $176 a day, and $10,00 to $17,000 per person for three full months in the sun.

From the cruise broker I'll name below, a 90-day voyage on the QE2 departing New York on January 13, 2008, and going almost around the world, is available for $10,499 ($116 per person per day in inside cabins occupied by two people). You sail from New York to South America, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Acapulco, Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Fort Lauderdale, and return to New York.

From the same source, a 102-day fully-around-the-world cruise on the new Pacific Princess (carrying only 700 passengers), and departing from Fort Lauderdale on January 10, 2008, is available (per person, inside cabins) for $17,999 ($176 a day per person), going to Grand Cayman, Panama Canal, Ecuador, Lima (overnight), Easter Island, Tahiti, Auckland, Sydney, Cairns, Papua New Guinea. Micronesia, Guam, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Cambodia, Bangkok, Ko Samui (Thailand), Singapore, Phuket, Sri Lanka, Mumbai, Dubai, Safage (for Luxor/Karnak), Suez Canal, Port Said, Athens, Sorrento/Capri, Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, Cork, Le Havre, and ending in Southampton.

And the 105-day around-the-world cruise of the Amsterdam of Holland America Cruises, leaving from Fort Lauderdale on January 4, 2008, will be available for $17,999 ($171 per person in inside cabins).

You can get the above prices from our old friends at White Travel Service (tel. 800/547-4790; www.cruisewizard.com) or at slightly higher rates from Vacations to Go (tel. 800/998-4962; www.vacationstogo.com).

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Labels: cruise

All the recognized names in tour operation to China -- ChinaFocus, Champion Holidays, Pacific Delight Tours, Ritz Tours, and a couple of others -- are currently doing tons of business, and it sometimes happens that you encounter harassed telephone reservationists or endless busy signals when you call them to book. I don't mean this as a negative criticism; no one anticipated the skyrocketing rise in the number of Americans seeking to visit China.

But because the standard names are so busy, you may want to know about Chinaspree.com, of Blaine, Washington (tel. 866/652-5656 or 360/332-7970; www.chinaspree.com). It matches the $999 promotional lures offered by ChinaFocus and Champion Holidays, at least for one or two departures, and matches their higher fares during many months of the year. Its tour program is just as comprehensive, just as varied, with numerous options, as the others; and it is a licensed tour operator in both Washington and California, which means that payments to it are deposited in a trust account monitored by a bank and not released to the tour operator until the tour is successfully concluded.

I've had favorable comments about Chinaspree from readers of Frommers.com, and I'm impressed with its well-designed website. If you're considering a trip to China, you might give them a call.

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Labels: china, tour companies