Nov 30, 2007
In considering an inexpensive U.S. vacation in the dead of winter, keep in mind our national parks
A reader has written to ask whether it is possible to visit any of the great national parks in winter. The answer is definitely yes. Both Joshua Tree National Park and Death Valley National Park are in southern California, both of them desert parks whose temperatures are ideal in winter. You'll find miles of well-marked hiking trails, horseback riding, jeep tours of abandoned mining camps, and swimming in pools fed by hot springs.
In northern California, Yosemite National Park stays open in winter (despite frosty temperatures), offering both downhill and cross-country skiing and even a major outdoor skating rink. The views are just as enthralling in winter as in summer, and a great many nearby residents choose this time to visit.
Yellowstone? Though one or two winter lodges are open, the winter weather here is so very severe and forbidding that only the hardiest of adventurers chooses to go at that time, mainly for up-close views of the wildlife that remains in the park at those times. Still, it's possible to visit, and the toughest of outdoor types comes to visit and to stay next to great fireplaces all ablaze in the big "snow lodge" located next to Old Faithful.
Write and read comments about this post.
In northern California, Yosemite National Park stays open in winter (despite frosty temperatures), offering both downhill and cross-country skiing and even a major outdoor skating rink. The views are just as enthralling in winter as in summer, and a great many nearby residents choose this time to visit.
Yellowstone? Though one or two winter lodges are open, the winter weather here is so very severe and forbidding that only the hardiest of adventurers chooses to go at that time, mainly for up-close views of the wildlife that remains in the park at those times. Still, it's possible to visit, and the toughest of outdoor types comes to visit and to stay next to great fireplaces all ablaze in the big "snow lodge" located next to Old Faithful.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: parks
I've neglected to mention ResortQuest and Rentalo.com as sources for vacation apartments
In recent days, I've discussed a fairly small service for obtaining rental apartments in some of the cheaper areas of Europe. Using The Right Vacation Rentals (www.therightvacationrentals.com), you have the security of relying on the 30-year-old Untours organization, which has personally inspected the some 200-or-so European apartments it is making available for weeklong and longer rentals, in relatively unfamiliar places like Croatia, Crete, Cyprus, Corfu, the Dordogne, Emilia Romagna, Slovenia -- you get the picture.
But what about the more popular areas, and the places where the U.S. dollar isn't quite so weak? I should point out that as many as a dozen major worldwide services have emerged to offer rentals of apartments and vacation homes -- in fact, the business segment they occupy is one of the hottest in travel. One of the big players is ResortQuest (www.resortquest.com), with many thousands of properties to offer. Another is Endless Vacation Rentals.com (www.evrentals.com), owned by the mighty Wyndham Hotels, and claiming to represent some 60,000 properties, including many in Europe.
There is, of course, Vacation Rental by Owner (www.vrbo.com), which we've mentioned on many occasions on this blog -- and which also spans the world, offering apartments ranging from Europe to Japan.
And finally, there's one we've overlooked: Rentalo.com (www.rentalo.com), a Florida outfit, which maintains a "Special Offers" box on its main menu, highlighting savings of up to 65% on apartment rentals and vacation homes in the tropics, in particular (you use it for Florida, the Caribbean, California, and Hawaii, in which it lists thousands of properties). It's a major firm with a good record to date, although some of its offers are based on the requirement that you book for a minimum of 30 days -- always stay alert for that kind of fine-print condition.
Currently, Rentalo.com is offering a two-bedroom bungalow capable of housing a family of six on the west coast of Puerto Rico, close to popular beaches and every kind of commercial and entertainment attraction -- for only $99 a night (for the entire bungalow, not per person) from now until March 4, 2008. Here the minimum rental period is only seven nights. Rentalo.com is also offering a giant Florida villa in the Orlando area (four bedrooms, three baths, swimming pool and extended deck, sleeping eight) for only $90 a night in the month of January only, for a minimum rental of five nights. With great care, Rentalo points out that the rental is suitable for a family with pre-schoolers, since all doors to the pool are fitted with child alarms.
Have any of our readers actually experienced the services of any of these increasingly important firms? If you have, we'd love to hear about it in responses to this post.
Write and read comments about this post.
But what about the more popular areas, and the places where the U.S. dollar isn't quite so weak? I should point out that as many as a dozen major worldwide services have emerged to offer rentals of apartments and vacation homes -- in fact, the business segment they occupy is one of the hottest in travel. One of the big players is ResortQuest (www.resortquest.com), with many thousands of properties to offer. Another is Endless Vacation Rentals.com (www.evrentals.com), owned by the mighty Wyndham Hotels, and claiming to represent some 60,000 properties, including many in Europe.
There is, of course, Vacation Rental by Owner (www.vrbo.com), which we've mentioned on many occasions on this blog -- and which also spans the world, offering apartments ranging from Europe to Japan.
And finally, there's one we've overlooked: Rentalo.com (www.rentalo.com), a Florida outfit, which maintains a "Special Offers" box on its main menu, highlighting savings of up to 65% on apartment rentals and vacation homes in the tropics, in particular (you use it for Florida, the Caribbean, California, and Hawaii, in which it lists thousands of properties). It's a major firm with a good record to date, although some of its offers are based on the requirement that you book for a minimum of 30 days -- always stay alert for that kind of fine-print condition.
Currently, Rentalo.com is offering a two-bedroom bungalow capable of housing a family of six on the west coast of Puerto Rico, close to popular beaches and every kind of commercial and entertainment attraction -- for only $99 a night (for the entire bungalow, not per person) from now until March 4, 2008. Here the minimum rental period is only seven nights. Rentalo.com is also offering a giant Florida villa in the Orlando area (four bedrooms, three baths, swimming pool and extended deck, sleeping eight) for only $90 a night in the month of January only, for a minimum rental of five nights. With great care, Rentalo points out that the rental is suitable for a family with pre-schoolers, since all doors to the pool are fitted with child alarms.
Have any of our readers actually experienced the services of any of these increasingly important firms? If you have, we'd love to hear about it in responses to this post.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, tips
A 35-day cruise of the Pacific, spending almost all that time simply at sea, is a stunning opportunity for at $123 a day
Have you a need for a long stretch of time to simply ponder your life and reach fundamental decisions, free from outside distractions? Have you a novel to write, an autobiography requiring a month of sheer isolation, with nothing to do except take three meals a day and then retire to your cabin for 18 hours of simply writing? If the ability "to get away from it all," at a cost of only $4,300 ($123 a day) for 35 successive days, is what you crave, then do I have a cruise (on a passenger-carrying freighter) for you!
It's a round-trip, from Long Beach, California and back, on a giant container ship called the MSC Uganda sailing across the entire Pacific Ocean to Korea without making a stop en route (14 consecutive days at sea), then making three short stops on the coast of China, and one in Japan, and then returning non-stop from Yokohama to Long Beach (10 more consecutive days at sea), for a total cruise time of 35 days. There's no need for you ever to leave the ship.
The dates of departure are December 30, 1997; February 5, 2008; March 11, 2008; April 15, 2008; May 20, 2008; and June 24, 2008. The giant vessel will carry a maximum of only eight persons in four comfortable two-room suites; and the large living room in each suite has a good-sized writing desk and chair. The cost is $4,340 per person in a double cabin, and only $4,611 for a cabin occupied as a single. And if you'd care to book, or want to know more, you contact Freighter World Cruises, Inc., 180 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101-2655, or call tel. 800/531-7774 or 626/449-3106.
Write and read comments about this post.
It's a round-trip, from Long Beach, California and back, on a giant container ship called the MSC Uganda sailing across the entire Pacific Ocean to Korea without making a stop en route (14 consecutive days at sea), then making three short stops on the coast of China, and one in Japan, and then returning non-stop from Yokohama to Long Beach (10 more consecutive days at sea), for a total cruise time of 35 days. There's no need for you ever to leave the ship.
The dates of departure are December 30, 1997; February 5, 2008; March 11, 2008; April 15, 2008; May 20, 2008; and June 24, 2008. The giant vessel will carry a maximum of only eight persons in four comfortable two-room suites; and the large living room in each suite has a good-sized writing desk and chair. The cost is $4,340 per person in a double cabin, and only $4,611 for a cabin occupied as a single. And if you'd care to book, or want to know more, you contact Freighter World Cruises, Inc., 180 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101-2655, or call tel. 800/531-7774 or 626/449-3106.
Write and read comments about this post.
Nov 29, 2007
A follow-up to my recent suggestion that you stay in European towns within a half-hour of the major city you're wanting to visit
The savings achieved by staying in a suburb or satellite of London, Paris, Florence, etc., etc., are so very important that they deserve further discussion. In this time of a painfully weak U.S. dollar, choosing that sort of location for your next European trip can make the difference between an affordable stay and a bankrupting one.
The great capitals of Europe and the renowned cultural centers are often inundated by tourists, whose presence causes costs to skyrocket. The suburbs are obviously less crowded and often refreshingly cheap.
A decision to choose a suburban location is frequently made by the Europeans themselves, for a variety of reasons. In the last years of his life, when he was still appearing on the stage in London's West End, Sir Laurence Olivier would commute home late at night to Brighton, England, whose residential seaside areas he apparently preferred to the locations in London he could easily have chosen. Brighton is less than 40 miles from London.
When I suggested that tourists consider staying not in the badly overpriced hotels of Venice but in the far more reasonable lodgings in Padua, thirty minutes away; when I advised staying in Prato rather than Florence, in Avila rather than Madrid, in Haarlemrather than Amsterdam, I received enthusiastic endorsements from several readers of this blog.
One of them pointed out that on their own periodic trips to Paris, they stay in Vert Galant, a suburb near Charles de Gaulle Airport, where 60€ a night (about $100) bought a fine double room with full buffet breakfast each morning for two persons. Vert Galant is eight stops and less than half an hour on the speedy R.E.R. suburban train system from the Gare du Nord (North Station) in the heart of Paris. Buying a one-week "Carte Orange" transportation pass for 32.10€ (less than $50) brings you unlimited transportation not only on the R.E.R. suburban trains but on the Métro (subway) of Paris for seven days. Generally speaking, the couple choosing Vert Galant for their accommodations will save about $100 a day, or $700 over the entire week -- which ain't hay.
So give this some thought. The dramatic decline of the U.S. dollar should cause us all to consider alternative methods of visiting Europe, and the use of inexpensive suburban locations less than a half-hour from the center of the big city is one of those methods.
Write and read comments about this post.
The great capitals of Europe and the renowned cultural centers are often inundated by tourists, whose presence causes costs to skyrocket. The suburbs are obviously less crowded and often refreshingly cheap.
A decision to choose a suburban location is frequently made by the Europeans themselves, for a variety of reasons. In the last years of his life, when he was still appearing on the stage in London's West End, Sir Laurence Olivier would commute home late at night to Brighton, England, whose residential seaside areas he apparently preferred to the locations in London he could easily have chosen. Brighton is less than 40 miles from London.
When I suggested that tourists consider staying not in the badly overpriced hotels of Venice but in the far more reasonable lodgings in Padua, thirty minutes away; when I advised staying in Prato rather than Florence, in Avila rather than Madrid, in Haarlemrather than Amsterdam, I received enthusiastic endorsements from several readers of this blog.
One of them pointed out that on their own periodic trips to Paris, they stay in Vert Galant, a suburb near Charles de Gaulle Airport, where 60€ a night (about $100) bought a fine double room with full buffet breakfast each morning for two persons. Vert Galant is eight stops and less than half an hour on the speedy R.E.R. suburban train system from the Gare du Nord (North Station) in the heart of Paris. Buying a one-week "Carte Orange" transportation pass for 32.10€ (less than $50) brings you unlimited transportation not only on the R.E.R. suburban trains but on the Métro (subway) of Paris for seven days. Generally speaking, the couple choosing Vert Galant for their accommodations will save about $100 a day, or $700 over the entire week -- which ain't hay.
So give this some thought. The dramatic decline of the U.S. dollar should cause us all to consider alternative methods of visiting Europe, and the use of inexpensive suburban locations less than a half-hour from the center of the big city is one of those methods.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, budget
A postscript to yesterday's post about the formation of a new apartment rental website by the remarkable Untours organization
Over Thanksgiving, I received a mailing which contained a passing reference to a new internet service called The Right Vacation Rental (www.therightvacationrental.com). It was only when I accessed the website and learned it was operated by the 30-year-old Untours (www.untours.com), of Media, Pennsylvania, that I fully understood the importance of the new development. I posted my initial understanding of this new outfit in a post that appeared yesterday, and have now succeeded in reaching and speaking with the person in charge, who is Marilee Taussig, daughter of Untours founder Hal Taussig.
Untours, you should know, is a unique company that has successfully sent tens of thousands of Americans to enjoy two-week stays in European apartments, where they directly experience the daily life of European communities, shopping for groceries, meeting the postmaster, talking with townsfolk, scanning the newspaper. Untours' clients, who are called Untourists, receive round-trip airfare, the two-week apartment rental, a self-drive car for those two weeks (or a railpass), and the hand-holding services of an Untours representative living nearby. Some thirty to forty Europeans work for Untours in scattered locations and help to choose the apartments in which Untourists live.
But back to the new organization. The Right Vacation Rental, according to Marilee Taussig, is like a graduate school for the successful users of Untours' more comprehensive programs. It provides only the apartment rental -- and by the way, 80% of the accommodations offered are apartments in a two-family or multi-family buildings, not separate, individual vacation homes, as I initially reported -- and they are all in low-cost areas or cities of Europe to which the main Untours program does not presently operate: Croatia and Slovenia, Spain and such lesser-known regions of Italy as Le Marche and Emilia Romagna, Corfu, Corsica and Crete, Santorini, Normandy and the Dordogne in France, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Krakow in Poland. A user of the new service is more "on their own" than on Untours, according to Marilee Taussig, and is expected to obtain their own transportation both to and within Europe. They are hardened veterans, not neophytes.
Why is this an advance? Firstly, every apartment property offered has been physically seen and inspected either by an American staff member of Untours or by one of their European representatives. By contrast, the typical international real estate broker offers many hundreds of apartments and vacation homes for rent, which in most cases (and I say this based on experience) they have never seen. Some of them simply reprint, in their catalogues, photographs (occasionally misleading) supplied to them by the owner of the property.
Second, the mark-up of the rental price is a slight one meant only to cover handling costs. Again, some of the international real estate brokers either double or triple the price at which the same apartments or vacation homes are listed by local real estate brokers dealing with European vacationers. (I have personally uncovered instances in which a vacation home in Tuscany is tripled in rental price for international sales).
I think this is all a marvelous development. You can obtain an apartment for an average of $400 to $900 per apartment per week (though there are higher-priced ones) in exciting European locations, thus thumbing your nose at the high costs of a European vacation resulting from the recent decline of the U.S. dollar. And you can enjoy the unique experience of living in Europe like a native.
Write and read comments about this post.
Untours, you should know, is a unique company that has successfully sent tens of thousands of Americans to enjoy two-week stays in European apartments, where they directly experience the daily life of European communities, shopping for groceries, meeting the postmaster, talking with townsfolk, scanning the newspaper. Untours' clients, who are called Untourists, receive round-trip airfare, the two-week apartment rental, a self-drive car for those two weeks (or a railpass), and the hand-holding services of an Untours representative living nearby. Some thirty to forty Europeans work for Untours in scattered locations and help to choose the apartments in which Untourists live.
But back to the new organization. The Right Vacation Rental, according to Marilee Taussig, is like a graduate school for the successful users of Untours' more comprehensive programs. It provides only the apartment rental -- and by the way, 80% of the accommodations offered are apartments in a two-family or multi-family buildings, not separate, individual vacation homes, as I initially reported -- and they are all in low-cost areas or cities of Europe to which the main Untours program does not presently operate: Croatia and Slovenia, Spain and such lesser-known regions of Italy as Le Marche and Emilia Romagna, Corfu, Corsica and Crete, Santorini, Normandy and the Dordogne in France, Ljubljana in Slovenia, Krakow in Poland. A user of the new service is more "on their own" than on Untours, according to Marilee Taussig, and is expected to obtain their own transportation both to and within Europe. They are hardened veterans, not neophytes.
Why is this an advance? Firstly, every apartment property offered has been physically seen and inspected either by an American staff member of Untours or by one of their European representatives. By contrast, the typical international real estate broker offers many hundreds of apartments and vacation homes for rent, which in most cases (and I say this based on experience) they have never seen. Some of them simply reprint, in their catalogues, photographs (occasionally misleading) supplied to them by the owner of the property.
Second, the mark-up of the rental price is a slight one meant only to cover handling costs. Again, some of the international real estate brokers either double or triple the price at which the same apartments or vacation homes are listed by local real estate brokers dealing with European vacationers. (I have personally uncovered instances in which a vacation home in Tuscany is tripled in rental price for international sales).
I think this is all a marvelous development. You can obtain an apartment for an average of $400 to $900 per apartment per week (though there are higher-priced ones) in exciting European locations, thus thumbing your nose at the high costs of a European vacation resulting from the recent decline of the U.S. dollar. And you can enjoy the unique experience of living in Europe like a native.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, eastern europe, western europe
If you have any notion of enjoying a winter stay at Maho Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands, better do it soon
I think it necessary to point out that the continued operation of the remarkable Maho Bay camp of tented bungalows overlooking a breathtaking view of the Caribbean from the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, isn't without terminal limits. On my last stay in Maho Bay, I learned that the resort is on land leased from a commercial operation, and that the lease is approaching its final year. And apparently, the people from whom the land is leased have shown no willingness to date to extend the lease by a single day.When you visit Maho Bay and glimpse its extraordinary location, overlooking a sight -- small islets sticking up out into a vast blue horizon of the Caribbean, as well as a glorious beach -- you realize that luxury developers would pay enormous prices to regain that land. And yet this superb terrain is presently occupied by a hundred-or-so canvas-sided "bungalows" offering the most simple, the most natural, accommodations in all the tropics. And the guests of Maho Bay include low-income tourists ranging from school teachers to graduate students to social workers and other idealistic preservers of the environment (there are a few rich-niks, too).
I had always puzzled as to why the great Stanley Selengut, the founder of Maho Bay, had not tripled or quadrupled its accommodations. It was only when I learned that he is facing the terminal date of his lease, and would probably (I stress probably, there's no certainty a miracle won't occur) lose Maho Bay to the luxury real estate people in just a short while from now, that I realized why he was not continuing to build on Maho Bay but instead developing a new site -- "Estate Concordia" -- elsewhere on the island. I have visited "Estate Concordia," and although it is fascinating in its almost-complete refusal to us energy from fossil fuels (it is surrounded by solar panels, and employs every known device to properly, sensitively and sustainably produce air conditioning and toilet functions), it is no Maho Bay -- at least not yet.
Give some serious thought to scheduling a winter week at Maho Bay. Go to www.maho.org, e-mail mahobay AT maho DOT org, or phone tel. 800/392-9004 or 340/715-0501. You can also read a recent article on Maho Bay published in the Audubon Magazine, including a video interview with founder Stanley Selengut.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: environment, virgin islands
Some GPS devices can also be used for walking the complex streets of an unfamiliar city
In response to my recent post about GPS devices, enabling you to navigate the confusing highways of a new city, one reader wrote in to point out an extra feature of some -- not all -- GPS's.
Not only, he pointed out, is it "great on the road, but also wonderful for walking in cities. We brought it to NYC, changed the 'mode' from driving route to walking route, and had no trouble finding the sites we wanted to see easily and also fairly discreetly." Apparently, they simply whipped out the GPS on occasion to check their whereabouts and the direction of their walk.
In a number of chains offering discount opportunities, GPS devices are now selling for slightly under $200, and it was just such a low-cost device that I recently used so successfully in driving within the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area.
Write and read comments about this post.
Not only, he pointed out, is it "great on the road, but also wonderful for walking in cities. We brought it to NYC, changed the 'mode' from driving route to walking route, and had no trouble finding the sites we wanted to see easily and also fairly discreetly." Apparently, they simply whipped out the GPS on occasion to check their whereabouts and the direction of their walk.
In a number of chains offering discount opportunities, GPS devices are now selling for slightly under $200, and it was just such a low-cost device that I recently used so successfully in driving within the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, area.
Write and read comments about this post.
Nov 28, 2007
The largely non-profit Untours organization goes into the business of renting low-cost vacation homes in Europe
Vacation home rentals in all the cheap areas of Europe; not in Tuscany or Provence, obviously, but in Croatia, Corfu, Le Marche of Italy, Ischia, Crete, Corsica, the Dordogne, Emilia Romagna, Ljubljana in Slovenia. In the places I've just named, vacation homes housing four to six people rent for as little as $500 to $900 a week.And that's the big news from a new, largely non-profit organization called The Right Vacation Rental (www.therightvacationrental.com), operated by none other than the 30-year-old, Untours (www.untours.com) organization (it pays above-average salaries to its staff, who form a sort of collective, and gives most profits to charity) of Media, Pennsylvania. I know nothing about the new venture other than what I've discovered by chance in its literature and website, but it appears that the well-respected Untours has set up a subsidiary simply to make low-cost vacation homes available for short-term rental.
It seems a logical-enough move on their part. When the idealistic, Untours began, it specialized in sending Americans to live in apartments in small villages of the Alpine countries and regions (Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria) of Europe. The aim was to permit people to enjoy an authentic European experience in towns where life hadn't changed in 400 years. Untours provided you (and still does) with the airfare, the apartment rental, and a nearby English-speaking employee to help out with minor problems. And Untours filled such a need that it amassed a large following of loyal repeat clients who each year go on an "Untour" as "untourists."
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations
The Constitution Center is an important addition to the sights of Philadelphia, pointing up the rewards of a trip to that historic city
The comic W.C. Fields directed that his tombstone read: "Better here than in Philadelphia." A hoary joke tells of contestants winning one week in Philadelphia as the first prize and two weeks in Philadelphia as a second prize.
It isn't true. Apart from possessing extraordinary museums of art and science, top-quality restaurants, and superb shopping, Philadelphia's chief attractions -- those associated with the Declaration of Independence, including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell -- have now been embellished with a giant new (four years old) historic museum (also on the Independence Mall) called the Constitution Center, displaying the history and content of America's Constitution through the most modern new methods of presentation, including a seventeen-minute film that you watch immediately on beginning your tour. And since numerous provisions of the Constitution remain in dispute today, there is no better way to prepare yourself for contemporary controversies and issues.
Philadelphia's new Constitution Center is drawing raves from people who recently visited it, including my daughter Pauline, who taped an interview with one of its officials for a recent edition of one of our travel broadcasts. When added to such other compelling sights as Benjamin Franklin's home and museum (not to mention the Franklin Institute elsewhere in town), it alone justifies a trip, according to those many recent visitors.
Write and read comments about this post.
It isn't true. Apart from possessing extraordinary museums of art and science, top-quality restaurants, and superb shopping, Philadelphia's chief attractions -- those associated with the Declaration of Independence, including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell -- have now been embellished with a giant new (four years old) historic museum (also on the Independence Mall) called the Constitution Center, displaying the history and content of America's Constitution through the most modern new methods of presentation, including a seventeen-minute film that you watch immediately on beginning your tour. And since numerous provisions of the Constitution remain in dispute today, there is no better way to prepare yourself for contemporary controversies and issues.
Philadelphia's new Constitution Center is drawing raves from people who recently visited it, including my daughter Pauline, who taped an interview with one of its officials for a recent edition of one of our travel broadcasts. When added to such other compelling sights as Benjamin Franklin's home and museum (not to mention the Franklin Institute elsewhere in town), it alone justifies a trip, according to those many recent visitors.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: philly
January/February is the time for an ultra-cheap, extended-stay vacation on the Costa del Sol of Spain
A two-week vacation in a studio apartment with kitchenette and balcony, in an apartment hotel of Torremolinos, Spain, with big swimming pool, overlooking the Mediterranean, including three sightseeing tours, 26 meals (13 buffet breakfasts and 13 dinners), and round-trip air on Iberia Airlines between New York or Boston and the Costa del Sol of Spain, costs only $1,095 per person for the departure of January 11, 2008, and $50 more for January 18, 25, February 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29.
This is a program that's been operated for decades by Sun Holidays of Orlando, Florida (tel. 800/422-8000; www.sunholidaytours.com), and aimed at retired people able to spend two weeks abroad in January and February. It used to cost $999 (oh, well) valid throughout the winter, but with the rising value of the Euro, that $1,095 still looks awfully good. And departures from the West Coast cost only $200-some-odd more. Although it's certainly not swimming weather at that time on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, and can get chilly, in fact, the proximity to Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Malaga and Gibraltar makes the stay a rewarding change. And because so many meals are included in the price, the high costs of Europe don't come into play.
Write and read comments about this post.
This is a program that's been operated for decades by Sun Holidays of Orlando, Florida (tel. 800/422-8000; www.sunholidaytours.com), and aimed at retired people able to spend two weeks abroad in January and February. It used to cost $999 (oh, well) valid throughout the winter, but with the rising value of the Euro, that $1,095 still looks awfully good. And departures from the West Coast cost only $200-some-odd more. Although it's certainly not swimming weather at that time on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, and can get chilly, in fact, the proximity to Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Malaga and Gibraltar makes the stay a rewarding change. And because so many meals are included in the price, the high costs of Europe don't come into play.
Write and read comments about this post.
An ode to the touristic pleasures of the Upper West Side of Manhattan
In writing the script for a forthcoming video travel guide to New York City, I suggested the inclusion of a section on the Upper West Side. My proposal was promptly overruled on the grounds that there were far more important attractions to deal with: the U.N., the Statue of Liberty, Radio City Music Hall. Yet stubbornly, defiantly, I contend that a one-hour walk along Broadway between 62nd and 95th Streets (the heart of the Upper West Side) will expose the visitor to a unique and dynamic form of New York life. So what won't appear in my Video Guide will at least enjoy a fleeting moment here.
I live in the residential west side of New York and periodically take that one-hour walk, starting at the marquee of the Lincoln Plaza Cinema at Broadway and 63rd Street. On it are listed, every week of the year, six superb foreign movies for viewing that day, and three new ones scheduled for the coming week. Across Broadway are the operas, theaters and concert halls of the immense Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, but that cultural complex is the only one in the area that out-of-town visitors patronize. And yet, walking north from Lincoln Center, on a totally untouristed segment of the great Broadway avenue, I pass such a festival of local life and culture that I feel like shouting out my appreciation of it.
Past sidewalk vendors selling hardcover books from folding tables placed at curbside, past more tables stacked with petitions and leaflets for various political causes, I quickly encounter other live theaters patronized almost wholly by residents not tourists (the Beacon, the Promenade, Symphony Space) and additional cinemas (the Walter Reade, the Thalia, still others) showing festivals of international films and revivals of classics. I'm able to pause, if I wish, at not just one but two mega bookstores and several smaller specialists (Murder Ink, Westsider Rare Books, others) and famous markets (Zabar's, Fairway, Citarella) of exotic foods and gourmet delights. Zabar's alone is an immense thrill. In the most intense area of activity, from 72nd to 84th Streets, and just before I reach a celebration of literature ("Short Shorts," the American short story read from the stage) and ethnic music at the theater called Symphony Space, I step aside for a parade of young people protesting for animal rights.
It's an eruption of ideas and advocacy, artistry and food for the mind as would be found in few other cities. As a tourist to New York, you couldn't do better than to take this untouristed walk up Broadway from 63rd to 95th Streets.
Write and read comments about this post.
I live in the residential west side of New York and periodically take that one-hour walk, starting at the marquee of the Lincoln Plaza Cinema at Broadway and 63rd Street. On it are listed, every week of the year, six superb foreign movies for viewing that day, and three new ones scheduled for the coming week. Across Broadway are the operas, theaters and concert halls of the immense Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, but that cultural complex is the only one in the area that out-of-town visitors patronize. And yet, walking north from Lincoln Center, on a totally untouristed segment of the great Broadway avenue, I pass such a festival of local life and culture that I feel like shouting out my appreciation of it.
Past sidewalk vendors selling hardcover books from folding tables placed at curbside, past more tables stacked with petitions and leaflets for various political causes, I quickly encounter other live theaters patronized almost wholly by residents not tourists (the Beacon, the Promenade, Symphony Space) and additional cinemas (the Walter Reade, the Thalia, still others) showing festivals of international films and revivals of classics. I'm able to pause, if I wish, at not just one but two mega bookstores and several smaller specialists (Murder Ink, Westsider Rare Books, others) and famous markets (Zabar's, Fairway, Citarella) of exotic foods and gourmet delights. Zabar's alone is an immense thrill. In the most intense area of activity, from 72nd to 84th Streets, and just before I reach a celebration of literature ("Short Shorts," the American short story read from the stage) and ethnic music at the theater called Symphony Space, I step aside for a parade of young people protesting for animal rights.
It's an eruption of ideas and advocacy, artistry and food for the mind as would be found in few other cities. As a tourist to New York, you couldn't do better than to take this untouristed walk up Broadway from 63rd to 95th Streets.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: new york city
Nov 27, 2007
For what conceivable reason do we continue to permit corporate jets to fill up our dangerously overcrowded skies?
They account for 10% of all air traffic in the country as a whole. In certain limited areas of America, they account for nearly 30% of all air traffic. Their numbers are constantly growing, as "fractional jets," "charter jets," and "air taxis" join the fleets already owned and operated by the Fortune 500 corporations. They, the sleek private jets, are especially favored by hedge fund executives, those privileged gents paying tax rates of only 15% on their salaries and therefore awash with money.
They are flown by people on ego trips. Each one of their two or three passengers could easily have reached their destination on a commercial flight carrying hundreds of passengers. And on those flights, they nevertheless could have traveled in the comfort they demand, occupying first class seats and imbibing double martinis.
Even if their own company's jet could have gotten them to their destinations an hour or two earlier -- so what? How many of these flights are really necessary? How many of them simply satisfy a desire to get out of the office, and play a round of golf? How many of these meetings could have been achieved by conference call? And even for a necessary business purpose, couldn't these corporate plutocrats have swallowed their pride and flown commercial?
The impact of the corporate jet upon the crisis of our air transportation is a taboo topic of travel journalism. I have rarely seen it discussed in any media. Among the frantic steps recently taken to ease the pile-up of planes, no one ever seems to suggest that corporate flights carrying two or three passengers should give way to commercial flights carrying two hundred passengers.
In an article on Thanksgiving day, the New York Times painted a frightening picture of the perils faced in our daily air traffic. It sent a reporter to the Federal Aviation Administration Strategic Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, who witnessed the desperation of air traffic controllers as they delayed take-offs and diverted flights, stranding thousands of passengers at airports, to reduce the numbers of planes in the sky. Among the airports saturated by air traffic were those in Teterboro, New Jersey, and White Plains, New York, "used by hundreds of corporate time-share and charter jets."
"Corporate, charter and time-share planes are smaller on the runway," reported the Times, "but appear nearly the same size on a radar screen."
"A plane is a plane is a plane," said an air traffic official referring to the smaller corporate jets, "and you have to keep them separated by five miles."
When will the taboo topic be brought into the open? When will we face up to the probability that it is no longer possible to permit the CEOs to enjoy their ego trips at the expense of the rest of us? When will we demand that people, regardless of their riches, should fly on efficient, commercial, passenger jets?
Write and read comments about this post.
They are flown by people on ego trips. Each one of their two or three passengers could easily have reached their destination on a commercial flight carrying hundreds of passengers. And on those flights, they nevertheless could have traveled in the comfort they demand, occupying first class seats and imbibing double martinis.
Even if their own company's jet could have gotten them to their destinations an hour or two earlier -- so what? How many of these flights are really necessary? How many of them simply satisfy a desire to get out of the office, and play a round of golf? How many of these meetings could have been achieved by conference call? And even for a necessary business purpose, couldn't these corporate plutocrats have swallowed their pride and flown commercial?
The impact of the corporate jet upon the crisis of our air transportation is a taboo topic of travel journalism. I have rarely seen it discussed in any media. Among the frantic steps recently taken to ease the pile-up of planes, no one ever seems to suggest that corporate flights carrying two or three passengers should give way to commercial flights carrying two hundred passengers.
In an article on Thanksgiving day, the New York Times painted a frightening picture of the perils faced in our daily air traffic. It sent a reporter to the Federal Aviation Administration Strategic Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, who witnessed the desperation of air traffic controllers as they delayed take-offs and diverted flights, stranding thousands of passengers at airports, to reduce the numbers of planes in the sky. Among the airports saturated by air traffic were those in Teterboro, New Jersey, and White Plains, New York, "used by hundreds of corporate time-share and charter jets."
"Corporate, charter and time-share planes are smaller on the runway," reported the Times, "but appear nearly the same size on a radar screen."
"A plane is a plane is a plane," said an air traffic official referring to the smaller corporate jets, "and you have to keep them separated by five miles."
When will the taboo topic be brought into the open? When will we face up to the probability that it is no longer possible to permit the CEOs to enjoy their ego trips at the expense of the rest of us? When will we demand that people, regardless of their riches, should fly on efficient, commercial, passenger jets?
Write and read comments about this post.
A number of imminent appearances at various travel-related venues, give us all the chance to meet
Because I so very much enjoy speaking with our readers and getting their personal take on travel, I thought I would list some very imminent appearances at which we might meet (for which I now have far more specific information than before on place and time).
This coming Thursday, November 29, at 7pm, my daughter Pauline and I will be speaking on “Travel Beyond Tourism” at a lecture sponsored by the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program. The talk will be held at the Department of Agriculture's Jefferson Auditorium, on Independence Avenue SW between 12th Street and 14th Street across the street from the Smithsonian Buildings.
Tuesday, December 4, starting at 6:30pm, I will be speaking on "Vacations as a Learning Experience," the first in a Tuesday series of talks sponsored by the NYU Alumni Association, at Jurow Hall in the Silver Center for Arts and Science, 100 Washington Square East. Please E-mail your intention to attend to cas AT alumni AT nyu DOT edu or call 212/998-6880 by November 28.
Friday, February 8, 2008, I will be speaking at the Pasadena Public Library in Pasadena, California, exact time to be announced by the Library.
Saturday and Sunday, February 9 and 10, 2008, my daughter Pauline and I will be appearing for morning and early afternoon speeches at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show in Long Beach, California.
Saturday, February 23, 2008, from noon to 1 and from 2 to 3, my daughter Pauline and I will be delivering speeches at the Boston Globe Travel Show in Boston.
Saturday, March 1, from noon to 1 and 2 to 3, my daughter and I will be appearing at the New York Times Travel Show in the Javits Convention Center, New York City.
Hope to see you there!
Write and read comments about this post.
This coming Thursday, November 29, at 7pm, my daughter Pauline and I will be speaking on “Travel Beyond Tourism” at a lecture sponsored by the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program. The talk will be held at the Department of Agriculture's Jefferson Auditorium, on Independence Avenue SW between 12th Street and 14th Street across the street from the Smithsonian Buildings.
Tuesday, December 4, starting at 6:30pm, I will be speaking on "Vacations as a Learning Experience," the first in a Tuesday series of talks sponsored by the NYU Alumni Association, at Jurow Hall in the Silver Center for Arts and Science, 100 Washington Square East. Please E-mail your intention to attend to cas AT alumni AT nyu DOT edu or call 212/998-6880 by November 28.
Friday, February 8, 2008, I will be speaking at the Pasadena Public Library in Pasadena, California, exact time to be announced by the Library.
Saturday and Sunday, February 9 and 10, 2008, my daughter Pauline and I will be appearing for morning and early afternoon speeches at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show in Long Beach, California.
Saturday, February 23, 2008, from noon to 1 and from 2 to 3, my daughter Pauline and I will be delivering speeches at the Boston Globe Travel Show in Boston.
Saturday, March 1, from noon to 1 and 2 to 3, my daughter and I will be appearing at the New York Times Travel Show in the Javits Convention Center, New York City.
Hope to see you there!
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: arthur
Another modest proposal, this time for an Airline Passenger Bills of Rights tracking a code of conduct for some friends of ours
Our air travel system is so woefully over-extended, over-crowded, and technologically outdated that the President took the unusual step of opening up military air corridors to ease travel during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period, traditionally the most heavily-traveled time of the year.
This is, of course, a temporary Band-Aid on a system that needs surgery on several fronts, from antiquated air traffic control systems to over-capacity airports.
One of our readers has a suggestion that the airlines and Congress might want to take to heart. Responding to a post I wrote last month about the watered-down rights provisions written into a FAA funding bill being considered by the House of Representatives, a reader going by the username of GarryRF brought to my attention a list of measures that might well be adopted by the airlines. I present them in slightly altered form:
That's right: In America we guarantee better treatment of animals being sent to the slaughterhouse than we do human passengers on airplanes. As for me, I won't even insist on still another provision of the cattle code, that our herd health be provided with protection from disease and access to veterinary care.
Write and read comments about this post.
This is, of course, a temporary Band-Aid on a system that needs surgery on several fronts, from antiquated air traffic control systems to over-capacity airports.
One of our readers has a suggestion that the airlines and Congress might want to take to heart. Responding to a post I wrote last month about the watered-down rights provisions written into a FAA funding bill being considered by the House of Representatives, a reader going by the username of GarryRF brought to my attention a list of measures that might well be adopted by the airlines. I present them in slightly altered form:
- Provide transportation that avoids undue stress caused by overcrowding, excess time in transit, or improper handling during loading and unloading.
- Make timely observations of passengers to ensure basic needs are being met.
- Provide adequate food, water and care to protect the health and well-being of passengers.
- Keep updated on advancements and changes in the industry to make decisions based on sound production practices and consideration to passengers well-being.
- Persons who willfully mistreat passengers will not be tolerated.
That's right: In America we guarantee better treatment of animals being sent to the slaughterhouse than we do human passengers on airplanes. As for me, I won't even insist on still another provision of the cattle code, that our herd health be provided with protection from disease and access to veterinary care.
Write and read comments about this post.
Nov 26, 2007
For addicts of the sport looking for an immediate way to ski without charge, here's the nation's top freebie offer
It's a cheapskate's delight, and it's found in central Colorado early this ski season. Crested Butte Mountain Resort (tel. 800/810-7669; www.skicb.com) has revived an old tradition, allowing anyone and everyone to ski free for several weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. From November 25 to December 15, all a person has to do is show up at a Crested Butte ticket window and ask for a pass. There are no applications, vouchers, or advanced planning required. In the past, Crested Butte has also offered free skiing at the very end of the season, so look out for that as well, though no announcement has yet been made regarding spring of 2008.
Write and read comments about this post.
Write and read comments about this post.
Don't forget the savings you can achieve by simply phoning an airfare consolidator
Booking your plane ticket via an airfare consolidator can save you anywhere from 20 to 70 percent off the published fares (though it is usually much closer to the 20% end of that spectrum). How is this possible?
Consolidators -- not to be confused with their similar but shadier cousins known as bucket shops -- use their buying power to negotiate directly with various airlines to purchase seats in bulk at a wholesale price. Some of them then sell these seats exclusively to travel agents, but increasingly most consolidators are turning around and reselling their discounted plane tickets directly to consumers -- naturally, at a slightly smaller discount than they were purchased, pocketing the difference as their fee.
Chief among reputable consolidators specializing in Europe is 1-800 FlyEurope (its name is, conveniently, also its phone number and web site; www.1800flyeurope.com). Others (which go to destinations other than Europe) include AirfarePlanet.com (tel. 503/429-1811; www.airfareplanet.com), based in Salem, Oregon, the Chicago-based CheapTickets.com (www.cheaptickets.com), Dallas-based D-FW Tours (tel. 800/780-5733; www.dfwtours.com), Los Angeles-based Picasso Travel (tel. 800/742-2776; www.picassotravel.net), and Atlanta-based Economy Travel (tel. 888/222-210; www.economytravel.com).
All of these providers have good track records based on years of reputable service, but there are many others, as well as many smaller, regional consolidators and so-called "ethnic consolidators." These latter are travel agencies, usually located in ethnic neighborhoods, specializing in airfares between the city in which they're located and the country of origin of most of their customers (in other words, your local Chinatown is a good resource for cheap tickets to China).
Just make sure you check out any company first with the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org). Added layers of protection are afforded if the company is a member of any or all of the following trade guilds: the American Society of Travel Agents (www.travelsense.org), the International Air Transport Association (www.iata.org), and the Airlines Reporting Corporation (www.arccorp.com).
Some tips: Consolidator fares are usually locked in by about 6-8 weeks before departure; waiting until the last minute only makes it more likely the consolidator will have sold out its block of seats.
Most people think air tickets consist of three categories: First Class, Business Class, and Steerage (otherwise known as Coach or Economy Class), but in reality there are dozens of gradations. The arcana of how these degrees of tickets work varies from airline to airline, but one thing holds across the line in the airfare game: the less you pay for the fare, the more rules are imposed on the ticket.
Consolidator tickets tend to hang around the bottom rungs of this regulations hierarchy, boasting the more restrictions and stiffest penalties for any changes--if, indeed, changes are allowed at all. (Read my post of Oct. 11 for a warning about some of these restrictions.)
Still, when you consider an airfare to Europe can easily be $500 or more, the prospects of slicing 20% or more off of that expense can easily be worth the mild extra layer of restrictions.
Write and read comments about this post.
Consolidators -- not to be confused with their similar but shadier cousins known as bucket shops -- use their buying power to negotiate directly with various airlines to purchase seats in bulk at a wholesale price. Some of them then sell these seats exclusively to travel agents, but increasingly most consolidators are turning around and reselling their discounted plane tickets directly to consumers -- naturally, at a slightly smaller discount than they were purchased, pocketing the difference as their fee.
Chief among reputable consolidators specializing in Europe is 1-800 FlyEurope (its name is, conveniently, also its phone number and web site; www.1800flyeurope.com). Others (which go to destinations other than Europe) include AirfarePlanet.com (tel. 503/429-1811; www.airfareplanet.com), based in Salem, Oregon, the Chicago-based CheapTickets.com (www.cheaptickets.com), Dallas-based D-FW Tours (tel. 800/780-5733; www.dfwtours.com), Los Angeles-based Picasso Travel (tel. 800/742-2776; www.picassotravel.net), and Atlanta-based Economy Travel (tel. 888/222-210; www.economytravel.com).
All of these providers have good track records based on years of reputable service, but there are many others, as well as many smaller, regional consolidators and so-called "ethnic consolidators." These latter are travel agencies, usually located in ethnic neighborhoods, specializing in airfares between the city in which they're located and the country of origin of most of their customers (in other words, your local Chinatown is a good resource for cheap tickets to China).
Just make sure you check out any company first with the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org). Added layers of protection are afforded if the company is a member of any or all of the following trade guilds: the American Society of Travel Agents (www.travelsense.org), the International Air Transport Association (www.iata.org), and the Airlines Reporting Corporation (www.arccorp.com).
Some tips: Consolidator fares are usually locked in by about 6-8 weeks before departure; waiting until the last minute only makes it more likely the consolidator will have sold out its block of seats.
Most people think air tickets consist of three categories: First Class, Business Class, and Steerage (otherwise known as Coach or Economy Class), but in reality there are dozens of gradations. The arcana of how these degrees of tickets work varies from airline to airline, but one thing holds across the line in the airfare game: the less you pay for the fare, the more rules are imposed on the ticket.
Consolidator tickets tend to hang around the bottom rungs of this regulations hierarchy, boasting the more restrictions and stiffest penalties for any changes--if, indeed, changes are allowed at all. (Read my post of Oct. 11 for a warning about some of these restrictions.)
Still, when you consider an airfare to Europe can easily be $500 or more, the prospects of slicing 20% or more off of that expense can easily be worth the mild extra layer of restrictions.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: tour companies, websites
You'll never guess what country has recently taken steps to insure a minimum amount of vacation time for its citizens
In the United States, not a single law -- either federal or state -- guarantees a single day of vacation time to anyone. We are the most backward prosperous nation on earth in that regard, and our failings have now highlighted by a recent announcement by the Chinese government. The Legislative Affairs Office of China's State Council has announced draft legislation awarding a week's vacation each year to persons who have been employed for one to ten years. After that, they get a second week and even a third week for more lengthy employment. Although the proposed amount of leave is absurdly short, it is at least a start, and stands in contrast to our own total lack of any public law guaranteeing a single day of vacation to anyone.
In a recent response to one of my post about vacation time, a reader wrote that vacation time should only be a matter for private negotiation between employer and employee, and never mandated by our legislative representatives; that under our free enterprise system, an employee is entitled to quit if he or she is unsatisfied with the length of their vacations, and is therefore in a fair bargaining position to demand more. It's interesting how the opponents of legislative action argue with words in place of reality.
In terms of the minimum wage, in terms of the work-week and the abolition of child labor, in the prohibition of discrimination in employment, in terms of a dozen laws ensuring proper working conditions, it was only when Congress or state legislatures acted that minimum wages, decent hours of work, an end to child labor, reduced discrimination, and proper working conditions, were brought about in America. When and if a humane new Congress is elected in November of 2008, I hope you will join me in forcefully proposing a statute guaranteeing a decent minimum of vacation time to every American. The time has come.
Write and read comments about this post.
In a recent response to one of my post about vacation time, a reader wrote that vacation time should only be a matter for private negotiation between employer and employee, and never mandated by our legislative representatives; that under our free enterprise system, an employee is entitled to quit if he or she is unsatisfied with the length of their vacations, and is therefore in a fair bargaining position to demand more. It's interesting how the opponents of legislative action argue with words in place of reality.
In terms of the minimum wage, in terms of the work-week and the abolition of child labor, in the prohibition of discrimination in employment, in terms of a dozen laws ensuring proper working conditions, it was only when Congress or state legislatures acted that minimum wages, decent hours of work, an end to child labor, reduced discrimination, and proper working conditions, were brought about in America. When and if a humane new Congress is elected in November of 2008, I hope you will join me in forcefully proposing a statute guaranteeing a decent minimum of vacation time to every American. The time has come.
Write and read comments about this post.
Always inquire whether the low-bidder for your airport auto rental has a location at the airport
Stunned by a price of only $27 a day (including all taxes) for an auto rental commencing in high season at Fort Lauderdale Airport, my daughter recently committed to such a rental, and flew off to Florida in good spirits. When she arrived, she discovered that the company in question was nowhere to be found. It was only by maintaining a difficult-to-reach off-airport location that the $27 figure was possible.
Now if she had planned a stay of several days in Florida, she probably would have gone through the involved procedure of getting to the remote garage of that low-ball bidder. But time was important, and the rental was only for one day. After losing nearly two hours in a search for the unknown company's rental desk, she phoned the little-known firm and indignantly canceled the rental. It remains to be seen whether a charge for it will appear on her credit card bill.
I have nothing against off-airport car rental firms. All power to them. But it's important to learn, before you commit, whether the firm is in a location requiring a fair bit of time and effort to reach.
Write and read comments about this post.
Now if she had planned a stay of several days in Florida, she probably would have gone through the involved procedure of getting to the remote garage of that low-ball bidder. But time was important, and the rental was only for one day. After losing nearly two hours in a search for the unknown company's rental desk, she phoned the little-known firm and indignantly canceled the rental. It remains to be seen whether a charge for it will appear on her credit card bill.
I have nothing against off-airport car rental firms. All power to them. But it's important to learn, before you commit, whether the firm is in a location requiring a fair bit of time and effort to reach.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: car rental
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
