Feb 29, 2008
Next time a cruiseline tries to sell you a $110 sightseeing excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska, tell them about the public bus
The most startling example of mendacious cruiseline marketing is the effort by cruiseships visiting the port of Juneau, Alaska, to sell you a $110 excursion to the Mendenhall Glacier. As anyone who has spent even 10 minutes in Juneau will tell you, there is a public bus from downtown Juneau that takes you the 12 miles to the Mendenhall Glacier for a charge of $1.50. Once there, you can walk about viewing the Glacier, or pay $3 to enter the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center for a number of exhibits and films.
On a recent Sunday, in its cruise issue, the New York Times travel section gravely discussed the sightseeing options available to cruise passengers stopping in Juneau (as almost every cruiseship to Alaska does), portentously telling how a private tour operator charges only $105 for the Mendenhall Glacier "float tour" as opposed to the $110 asked by the cruiselines themselves. The New York Times writer made no mention of the do-it-yourself tour available for $1.50, and probably was not even aware that a public bus from downtown Juneau takes you in a few minutes to the Glacier.
Never buy one of those cruiseship port excursions in advance of taking the cruise. Wait to make your decision until the ship docks at a particular port. Then ask yourself: do I really want to stick myself into a tour bus with 45 of my fellow cruise passengers? Haven't I spent enough time with them already? Would I rather simply wander about the town on my own two feet, stopping to speak with Alaskans? Or would I perhaps like to split the cost of a taxi with a few of my fellow passengers, and tour the area in that manner? Cruiseship port excursions are among the worst and most unnecessary rip-offs in travel.
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On a recent Sunday, in its cruise issue, the New York Times travel section gravely discussed the sightseeing options available to cruise passengers stopping in Juneau (as almost every cruiseship to Alaska does), portentously telling how a private tour operator charges only $105 for the Mendenhall Glacier "float tour" as opposed to the $110 asked by the cruiselines themselves. The New York Times writer made no mention of the do-it-yourself tour available for $1.50, and probably was not even aware that a public bus from downtown Juneau takes you in a few minutes to the Glacier.
Never buy one of those cruiseship port excursions in advance of taking the cruise. Wait to make your decision until the ship docks at a particular port. Then ask yourself: do I really want to stick myself into a tour bus with 45 of my fellow cruise passengers? Haven't I spent enough time with them already? Would I rather simply wander about the town on my own two feet, stopping to speak with Alaskans? Or would I perhaps like to split the cost of a taxi with a few of my fellow passengers, and tour the area in that manner? Cruiseship port excursions are among the worst and most unnecessary rip-offs in travel.
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Winter brings substantial hotel discounts in cold-weather cities like Chicago and Boston -- a good time to visit their restaurants and museums
As soon as the temperature drops, so do hotel prices in chilly U.S. cities like Boston and Chicago. Urged on by their convention and visitors bureaus, hotels in and around these cities offer really impressive discounts, as well as packages padded with extras at no additional charge.
For winter hotel deals in Boston, and all over Massachusetts for that matter, go to www.massvacation.com and click on "Warm Winter Specials." Rates start as low as $79 per night for brand-name lodgings like Holiday Inn and Best Western. And several hotels in the Greater Boston area are available for $79 or $99 nightly -- about half what travelers pay in the peak of summer. The Best Western Terrace Inn, for example, is on Commonwealth Avenue, within walking distance of a T stop, and costs $99 per night. These, and other winter hotel specials, are available through the end of March and always include complimentary breakfast.
For Chicago, go to www.choosechicago.com and click on the icon that reads "Spring Break for Everyone." There you'll find more than 30 participating hotels offering special rates through April 15. Rates start for as low as $89 nightly, and several hotels offer further discounts for stays lasting more than one night, as well as perks like free gift cards to use at Starbucks and iTunes.
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For winter hotel deals in Boston, and all over Massachusetts for that matter, go to www.massvacation.com and click on "Warm Winter Specials." Rates start as low as $79 per night for brand-name lodgings like Holiday Inn and Best Western. And several hotels in the Greater Boston area are available for $79 or $99 nightly -- about half what travelers pay in the peak of summer. The Best Western Terrace Inn, for example, is on Commonwealth Avenue, within walking distance of a T stop, and costs $99 per night. These, and other winter hotel specials, are available through the end of March and always include complimentary breakfast.
For Chicago, go to www.choosechicago.com and click on the icon that reads "Spring Break for Everyone." There you'll find more than 30 participating hotels offering special rates through April 15. Rates start for as low as $89 nightly, and several hotels offer further discounts for stays lasting more than one night, as well as perks like free gift cards to use at Starbucks and iTunes.
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Labels: boston, chicago, deals
Feb 28, 2008
The cheap bus movement -- formerly, the "Chinatown bus" movement -- is spreading rapidly across the U.S.A.
They started up about seven years ago as "Chinatown buses" operated by various Chinese-American entrepreneurs from addresses in New York's Chinatown to various other street addresses (never an actual terminal) in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Boston. For about $15 each way, you booked passage on a shabby but workable bus, and saved a ton of money.
Then, in a little-noticed trend, other non-Chinese entrepreneurs bought their own buses and began operating along the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington, D.C. circuit, at comparable bargain rates of $20 one-way to Washington, D.C., $35 round-trip. (See my recent post about the DC2NY bus line).
Then the British entered the act, starting Megabus (again discussed in a recent post) to service cities in the mid-west, especially Chicago, for as little as $1 per ticket (a loss-leader applicable to several seats per bus), for an average of $15-or-so per trip. Recently, Megabus has been traveling routes back and forth from Los Angeles and up and down the California coast -- at a big price advantage over Greyhound.
And now, in the latest development (which began in January of 2007), a website called GotoBus.com (www.gotobus.com) has started to publicize a whole host of non-Chinese, but Chinatown-like, buses that take you everywhere up and down the entire east coast of the United States (especially to and within Florida), and also from the northeast to Chicago, along the entire west coast other than in Oregon, and to still other miscellaneous destinations. You'll learn all about their schedules and rock-bottom rates by going to GotoBus.com, but you won't always learn the name of the busline. Though occasionally one is actually listed (like AllStates Buses), often they remain anonymous until you actually book.
Sample prices? They're breathtaking. New York to Chicago,$70 one-way, $120 roundtrip. Orlando to Miami, $20 one-way, $40 round-trip. Seattle to Vancouver, $33 one-way, $59 round-trip. Los Angeles to Phoenix, $40 one-way, $75 round-trip. New York to Albany, $25 one-way, $45 round-trip. Cry your heart out, Greyhound!
GotoBus.com takes reservations for over 100 bus lines, and though I'm not commenting on the quality of their vehicles or drivers, I am saying that a competitive marketplace has now created a new, money-saving travel facility for Americans.
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Then, in a little-noticed trend, other non-Chinese entrepreneurs bought their own buses and began operating along the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington, D.C. circuit, at comparable bargain rates of $20 one-way to Washington, D.C., $35 round-trip. (See my recent post about the DC2NY bus line).
Then the British entered the act, starting Megabus (again discussed in a recent post) to service cities in the mid-west, especially Chicago, for as little as $1 per ticket (a loss-leader applicable to several seats per bus), for an average of $15-or-so per trip. Recently, Megabus has been traveling routes back and forth from Los Angeles and up and down the California coast -- at a big price advantage over Greyhound.
And now, in the latest development (which began in January of 2007), a website called GotoBus.com (www.gotobus.com) has started to publicize a whole host of non-Chinese, but Chinatown-like, buses that take you everywhere up and down the entire east coast of the United States (especially to and within Florida), and also from the northeast to Chicago, along the entire west coast other than in Oregon, and to still other miscellaneous destinations. You'll learn all about their schedules and rock-bottom rates by going to GotoBus.com, but you won't always learn the name of the busline. Though occasionally one is actually listed (like AllStates Buses), often they remain anonymous until you actually book.
Sample prices? They're breathtaking. New York to Chicago,$70 one-way, $120 roundtrip. Orlando to Miami, $20 one-way, $40 round-trip. Seattle to Vancouver, $33 one-way, $59 round-trip. Los Angeles to Phoenix, $40 one-way, $75 round-trip. New York to Albany, $25 one-way, $45 round-trip. Cry your heart out, Greyhound!
GotoBus.com takes reservations for over 100 bus lines, and though I'm not commenting on the quality of their vehicles or drivers, I am saying that a competitive marketplace has now created a new, money-saving travel facility for Americans.
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Labels: bus
Sacre bleu! The Dollar has fallen even farther than before! What can we do about it?
On the currency markets yesterday, the Euro hit a high of $1.51. The British Pound rose to $1.99. But that's only the start of our misery. Since all money-changers (banks, currency kiosks, ATM machines) charge at least -- at least -- 5% for changing your dollars into Euros or Pounds, you actually pay nearly $1.60 for a Euro and $2.10 for a Pound. And at those rates, Europe becomes very expensive indeed.
So what's to be done?
First, and for the time being, you may want to consider traveling to alternative destinations where the Dollar remains strong: Central and South America, Mexico, most islands of the Caribbean, most areas of Asia (and especially China).
But if you're hell-bent on Western Europe, you must necessarily opt for alternatives to standard hotel accommodations: apartment rentals, rooms in private homes, hostels, convents and monasteries, student residences. All throughout Britain and Europe, that form of alternative accommodation remains reasonable in price, and brings you not only money savings on your lodgings but considerable convenience: more spacious lodgings and a kitchen or kitchenette in which to prepare meals.
The apartment rental is your best alternative, although renting an apartment usually requires that you stay in one city for at least a week (probably a good thing to do, in any event). By eliminating a faster-moving European itinerary, by making a trip out of one-week stays in successive cities, you can obtain a quite decent apartment almost everywhere for as little as $100 a day (and that's for two-to-four persons).
The apartment-renting agencies to use are: Vacation Rentals by Owner (www.vrbo.com), HomeAway (www.homeaway.com), Zonder (www.zonder.com), Endless Vacation Rentals (www.evrentals.com), Rentalo.com (www.rentalo.com). And as a further alternative, consider the many local agencies that have emerged to rent you a bed in someone's private home or apartment ("hosted" stays while the owners are still in residence). Go to the "Search this blog" box in our upper-right-hand corner, insert the words "rooms in private homes" or "private home accommodations", and you'll find discussion of such lodgings in London, Paris, Rome and other leading European cities.
The use of apartment rentals, or rooms in private homes, is probably the single most effective way to continue visiting Europe affordably. It's the course that a great many Americans will need to follow as long as the dollar remains as weak as it presently is.
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So what's to be done?
First, and for the time being, you may want to consider traveling to alternative destinations where the Dollar remains strong: Central and South America, Mexico, most islands of the Caribbean, most areas of Asia (and especially China).
But if you're hell-bent on Western Europe, you must necessarily opt for alternatives to standard hotel accommodations: apartment rentals, rooms in private homes, hostels, convents and monasteries, student residences. All throughout Britain and Europe, that form of alternative accommodation remains reasonable in price, and brings you not only money savings on your lodgings but considerable convenience: more spacious lodgings and a kitchen or kitchenette in which to prepare meals.
The apartment rental is your best alternative, although renting an apartment usually requires that you stay in one city for at least a week (probably a good thing to do, in any event). By eliminating a faster-moving European itinerary, by making a trip out of one-week stays in successive cities, you can obtain a quite decent apartment almost everywhere for as little as $100 a day (and that's for two-to-four persons).
The apartment-renting agencies to use are: Vacation Rentals by Owner (www.vrbo.com), HomeAway (www.homeaway.com), Zonder (www.zonder.com), Endless Vacation Rentals (www.evrentals.com), Rentalo.com (www.rentalo.com). And as a further alternative, consider the many local agencies that have emerged to rent you a bed in someone's private home or apartment ("hosted" stays while the owners are still in residence). Go to the "Search this blog" box in our upper-right-hand corner, insert the words "rooms in private homes" or "private home accommodations", and you'll find discussion of such lodgings in London, Paris, Rome and other leading European cities.
The use of apartment rentals, or rooms in private homes, is probably the single most effective way to continue visiting Europe affordably. It's the course that a great many Americans will need to follow as long as the dollar remains as weak as it presently is.
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Labels: accommodations, money
The New York Times has done it again, breathlessly announcing the opening of a $1,000-a-room-per-night hotel
"Nightly rates start at $1,000". Those were the words that ended a leading, page two announcement in the February 24 travel section of the Sunday New York Times, about the re-opening of New York's Plaza Hotel. That nightly room rate makes the Times' article totally irrelevant to 99.8% of the Times' readers. Is a monstrously expensive, unaffordable hotel newsworthy? In what way? For what purpose?
It grieves me to take issue with a newspaper that I so greatly admire in other respects. But its Sunday travel section has lost its way. It is an endless, boring paean to great wealth. It is written to service a readership that exists only in the dreams of the adolescents who apparently choose and write its travel stories. It is less realistic than Condé Nast Traveler, than Travel + Leisure -- and that's saying a lot.
If a Comfort Inn were to open in Manhattan with rooms priced at an affordable level, and with many more such rooms than the under-300 units of the Plaza, the Times would never cover that story. And yet the true newsworthiness of such a property is infinitely greater than that of a $1,000-a-night-per-room hotel. When will grown-ups return to edit the travel section of The New York Times?
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It grieves me to take issue with a newspaper that I so greatly admire in other respects. But its Sunday travel section has lost its way. It is an endless, boring paean to great wealth. It is written to service a readership that exists only in the dreams of the adolescents who apparently choose and write its travel stories. It is less realistic than Condé Nast Traveler, than Travel + Leisure -- and that's saying a lot.
If a Comfort Inn were to open in Manhattan with rooms priced at an affordable level, and with many more such rooms than the under-300 units of the Plaza, the Times would never cover that story. And yet the true newsworthiness of such a property is infinitely greater than that of a $1,000-a-night-per-room hotel. When will grown-ups return to edit the travel section of The New York Times?
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Labels: fat cats
Feb 27, 2008
Looking for a one-week cruise for $399 and less? Book a departure in 2009
Nobody but nobody is offering seven-night cruises of the Caribbean for $399 and less for departures during the current winter. But White Travel Service of West Hartford, Connecticut -- a prominent cruise discounter for more than 30 years -- has found a way to break the $400 floor: sell departures a year from now in 2009. If you'll sign up that far in advance, they'll put you aboard a fine ship for a Caribbean cruise of a full week's duration on the most desirable dates of the winter -- even overlapping Valentine's Day and School Break -- in February, 2009 (with other departures at the same price in January and March, 2009).
Their biggest bargain is aboard the MSC Orchestra (a giant new vessel whose launch party I attended last year in the port of Rome) leaving Fort Lauderdale on February 14, 2009: $399 per person in an inside stateroom. You'll spend a day at sea, visit the Dominican Republic, St. Maarten, Antigua, then spend another day at sea, visit Nassau (Bahamas), and finally return to Fort Lauderdale.
Even better: inside cabins for $379 per person aboard the Costa Fortuna of Costa Cruises leaving Fort Lauderdale on January 11, January 25, and March 8, 2009, on a somewhat similar itinerary for 7 days, but substituting San Juan and Grand Turk for St. Maarten and Antigua.
You find these sailings at www.whitetravel.com/offers.html, or by calling tel. 800/547-4790. They bring you cruises you can actually call cheaper than living at home ($399 divided by 7 = $57 a day).
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Their biggest bargain is aboard the MSC Orchestra (a giant new vessel whose launch party I attended last year in the port of Rome) leaving Fort Lauderdale on February 14, 2009: $399 per person in an inside stateroom. You'll spend a day at sea, visit the Dominican Republic, St. Maarten, Antigua, then spend another day at sea, visit Nassau (Bahamas), and finally return to Fort Lauderdale.
Even better: inside cabins for $379 per person aboard the Costa Fortuna of Costa Cruises leaving Fort Lauderdale on January 11, January 25, and March 8, 2009, on a somewhat similar itinerary for 7 days, but substituting San Juan and Grand Turk for St. Maarten and Antigua.
You find these sailings at www.whitetravel.com/offers.html, or by calling tel. 800/547-4790. They bring you cruises you can actually call cheaper than living at home ($399 divided by 7 = $57 a day).
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Labels: caribbean, cruise, deals
Fly anywhere in the United States on Southwest Airlines, Tuesday or Wednesday, for $49 to $99 each way
It's again that time of year when America's low-cost champion, Southwest (www. southwest.com) Airlines, rolls out its best bargains of the year. The key to paying as little as $49 and never more than $99 traveling anywhere in America, is to fly on a Tuesday or Wednesday, buying your tickets 14 days in advance, and no later than March 20, 2008.
There are conditions, of course. Those prices are available only if you book on the internet and travel between April 1 and June 28; there's a six-day blackout relating to cities in Florida (April 1 through April 7); and sales fares are not applicable to Orange County in California or Hawaii, nor are they had on ATA Airlines (which Southwest now owns). Got that (gulp)? If you meet the conditions listed above, you'll fly all across the country between Islip, Long Island, New York and Oakland, California (to use one example) for only $99, on two early-morning flights or one late-evening flight. That's quite a bargain, and typical of the feats available under the current sale.
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There are conditions, of course. Those prices are available only if you book on the internet and travel between April 1 and June 28; there's a six-day blackout relating to cities in Florida (April 1 through April 7); and sales fares are not applicable to Orange County in California or Hawaii, nor are they had on ATA Airlines (which Southwest now owns). Got that (gulp)? If you meet the conditions listed above, you'll fly all across the country between Islip, Long Island, New York and Oakland, California (to use one example) for only $99, on two early-morning flights or one late-evening flight. That's quite a bargain, and typical of the feats available under the current sale.
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Labels: airlines
Looking for a tropical vacation in a culturally-rich area? Try one of the three Canario Hotels of Puerto Rico
All three are in the Condado Beach area of Puerto Rico, about half-way between the airport and Old San Juan, just steps from the beach. One is the 40-room Canario by the Lagoon (tel. 787/722-5058), the second the 25-room Canario by the Sea (tel. 787/722-8640), and the third the 25-room Canario Inn (tel. 787/722-3961), all so small and intimate as to deserve the term "bed-and-breakfast hotels" (continental breakfast is always included in the room rate). During off-season (May 1 to December 15) and for a three-night minimum stay, all three of these charming, well-maintained properties charge $75 per single room per night, $80 per double or twin, $85 triple, $90 quad, plus various municipal taxes of about 9% and a $3 energy surcharge, which makes them a top value of Puerto Rico. High season (December 16 to April 30), the same rooms go for $109 single, $120 double or twin, $135 triple, and $150 quad -- and there is free Wi-Fi Internet access in all rooms.
It can't be overly emphasized that although you're in a quiet setting and able to go swimming in the sea (I've personally visited all three small hotels during multiple trips to Puerto Rico), you are also near shops and restaurants, and within walking distance (a long but interesting stroll) of the museums, fortresses, shops and urban life of San Juan. Go to www.canariohotels.com for photographs or further information; and phone tel. 800/533-2649 for toll-free reservations at all three.
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It can't be overly emphasized that although you're in a quiet setting and able to go swimming in the sea (I've personally visited all three small hotels during multiple trips to Puerto Rico), you are also near shops and restaurants, and within walking distance (a long but interesting stroll) of the museums, fortresses, shops and urban life of San Juan. Go to www.canariohotels.com for photographs or further information; and phone tel. 800/533-2649 for toll-free reservations at all three.
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Labels: accommodations, puerto rico
Feb 26, 2008
Not one but three British companies are now operating brainy cruises on small cruiseships -- and yet charging a fairly modest sum for them
Over the past several months, I have posted discussions of three exciting British cruiselines operating small, 300-passenger, 500-passenger and 600-passenger ships, and yet charging moderate rates for what is normally an expensive way to sail. The three companies are also alike in the intellectual focus of their cruises; none of them operates a casino or offers popular evening entertainment, and each instead sponsors weighty lectures by experts in the destinations about to be visited. They attract a thoughtful clientele, and their charges are low enough to enable people of virtually all income groups to participate. It seems appropriate, at this time, to discuss all three in a single post.
1) Swan Hellenic Cruises (tel. 011-44-1-444-462-180; www.swanhellenic.com), newly revived by the former chairman of Britain's P&O Cruises, Lord Jeffrey Sterling, operates a single ship, the 350-passenger Minerva II (furnished in country club style), on cruises that normally last for two weeks and sail in summer through all interesting parts of the Baltic, Adriatic and Mediterranean, always accompanied by a top-category group of academic lecturers -- professors, authors and scholars of major repute. Like all the small-ship British lines, its cruise prices includes round-trip air from London to the embarkation port, all daily shore excursions, all tipping to staff -- and are thus as fully all-inclusive as a cruise can get. And yet prices (now that early-booking discounts have expired) start (for minimum rate cabins) at about $300 a day per person. You couldn't pick a more memorable vacation, enjoyed in the company of the best sort of intellectually-curious British traveler.
2) Martin Randall Cruises (tel. 011-44-20-8742-3355; www.martinrandall.com) is a new venture for a highly-esteemed, long-established British tour company that operates the world's most serious tours of history, archaeology, art and music. It makes no concession to popular tastes, and calls for real involvement and commitment by its passengers.
Martin Randall's cruise program to classic sights of the Mediterranean, on the chartered, 236-passenger MV Columbus, will sail on only three occasions in 2008 (in late September and October), but will undoubtedly be greatly expanded in 2009 if this initial maritime venture seems successful. Prices include round-trip air from London to the embarkation port, and run as low as $300 a day, for a classical adventure led by famous scholars and lecturers, a very impressive bunch. Martin Randall has set himself a high standard, and issued a cocky challenge, saying that his cruises, "Are designed for people with intellectual curiosity and an interest in history, archaeology and the arts. We make no apology for the academic emphasis of these cruises. They return unashamedly to the century-old tradition of high-brow cruises: this is a dumbing-down-free zone."
3) And for the third, moderately-priced, British cruise program aboard small ships, go back to yesterday's post, where I wrote about the program of Gerry Harrod's "Voyages of Discovery," operating two ships -- the MV Discovery and the MV Ocean Majesty -- carrying about 500 and 600 passengers respectively, in slightly older vessels a tiny bit less comfortable than the quite-lovely Minerva II of Swan Hellenic and the German vessel chartered by Martin Randall. Although Voyages of Discovery has reduced the price to as little as $200 a day for cruises in the early spring, it's likely that its summer rates will go up to $250 and $300 a day. And from the claims of its brochure, it's probable that lecturers aboard the Voyages of Discover will be an impressive lot, but without the academic cachet of the noted professors and others that sail with Swan Hellenic and Martin Randall.
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1) Swan Hellenic Cruises (tel. 011-44-1-444-462-180; www.swanhellenic.com), newly revived by the former chairman of Britain's P&O Cruises, Lord Jeffrey Sterling, operates a single ship, the 350-passenger Minerva II (furnished in country club style), on cruises that normally last for two weeks and sail in summer through all interesting parts of the Baltic, Adriatic and Mediterranean, always accompanied by a top-category group of academic lecturers -- professors, authors and scholars of major repute. Like all the small-ship British lines, its cruise prices includes round-trip air from London to the embarkation port, all daily shore excursions, all tipping to staff -- and are thus as fully all-inclusive as a cruise can get. And yet prices (now that early-booking discounts have expired) start (for minimum rate cabins) at about $300 a day per person. You couldn't pick a more memorable vacation, enjoyed in the company of the best sort of intellectually-curious British traveler.
2) Martin Randall Cruises (tel. 011-44-20-8742-3355; www.martinrandall.com) is a new venture for a highly-esteemed, long-established British tour company that operates the world's most serious tours of history, archaeology, art and music. It makes no concession to popular tastes, and calls for real involvement and commitment by its passengers.
Martin Randall's cruise program to classic sights of the Mediterranean, on the chartered, 236-passenger MV Columbus, will sail on only three occasions in 2008 (in late September and October), but will undoubtedly be greatly expanded in 2009 if this initial maritime venture seems successful. Prices include round-trip air from London to the embarkation port, and run as low as $300 a day, for a classical adventure led by famous scholars and lecturers, a very impressive bunch. Martin Randall has set himself a high standard, and issued a cocky challenge, saying that his cruises, "Are designed for people with intellectual curiosity and an interest in history, archaeology and the arts. We make no apology for the academic emphasis of these cruises. They return unashamedly to the century-old tradition of high-brow cruises: this is a dumbing-down-free zone."
3) And for the third, moderately-priced, British cruise program aboard small ships, go back to yesterday's post, where I wrote about the program of Gerry Harrod's "Voyages of Discovery," operating two ships -- the MV Discovery and the MV Ocean Majesty -- carrying about 500 and 600 passengers respectively, in slightly older vessels a tiny bit less comfortable than the quite-lovely Minerva II of Swan Hellenic and the German vessel chartered by Martin Randall. Although Voyages of Discovery has reduced the price to as little as $200 a day for cruises in the early spring, it's likely that its summer rates will go up to $250 and $300 a day. And from the claims of its brochure, it's probable that lecturers aboard the Voyages of Discover will be an impressive lot, but without the academic cachet of the noted professors and others that sail with Swan Hellenic and Martin Randall.
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Labels: cruise, smart tours
An eminent U.S. newspaper has taken up the cudgels for Amtrak, echoing countless appeals in this blog
I often feel that some readers of this blog look on my defense of adequate funding for Amtrak as simply an eccentricity or the kind of radical viewpoint they'd expect from someone like me. I'd therefore like to quote an impassioned editorial of the venerable, distinguished Baltimore Sun, appearing on February 25, 2008:
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The White House wants to reduce Amtrak spending by $525 million next year, or about 40 percent from the current $1.325 billion.
You read that correctly. Despite all the talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, about energy efficiency and less dependence on foreign oil, about concerns over traffic and safety, Amtrak is facing cuts that would literally derail passenger service to much of the country.
This is familiar territory, of course. The…administration has been no friend to Amtrak, and only the timely intervention of Congress has spared it from similar devastation in recent years.
But this year there was reason to believe a more enlightened approach was at hand. The Senate had already made its position clear by approving legislation last year calling for an expanded passenger train network and stable, long-term funding for it. The House may soon follow suit.
What does it take to demonstrate to the executive branch the wisdom of passenger rail in the era of global warming and high oil prices? Can the need for an alternative means of interstate travel be any more clear?
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I hope to meet with a great many of our readers at the New York Times Travel Show this coming Saturday
What may well be the nation's largest travel show will take place this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, March 1 and 2, at the Javits Convention Center in midtown Manhattan. And my daughter Pauline and I will be speaking at that New York Times-sponsored show, in a large auditorium, at noon on Saturday and again at 2pm the same day. Immediately following both hour-long speeches, we'll be signing books but also talking with those of our readers who come by.
If you're in town at that time, you might want to attend the show, which features over 500 booths of travel suppliers, and several full-scale pavilions dedicated to important themes of travel. One pavilion will be supervised by The Knot, the website and magazine that deal with weddings and honeymoons involving travel. Another will be supervised by Doug Duda of A&E's "Well-Seasoned Traveler," and will present exhibits dealing with the role that food plays in travel (samples prepared by eminent chefs will be served to pavilion visitors for no further charge). Still another pavilion will focus on spa vacations, which have now become more numerous in America than golf vacations.
Of course, the main focus will remain on 500 individual booths of travel suppliers and destinations. No matter how much you may already know about the travel industry, you will always pick up valuable new facts and ideas at a show of such size.
Pauline and I look forward to meeting and speaking with you.
Write and read comments about this post.
If you're in town at that time, you might want to attend the show, which features over 500 booths of travel suppliers, and several full-scale pavilions dedicated to important themes of travel. One pavilion will be supervised by The Knot, the website and magazine that deal with weddings and honeymoons involving travel. Another will be supervised by Doug Duda of A&E's "Well-Seasoned Traveler," and will present exhibits dealing with the role that food plays in travel (samples prepared by eminent chefs will be served to pavilion visitors for no further charge). Still another pavilion will focus on spa vacations, which have now become more numerous in America than golf vacations.
Of course, the main focus will remain on 500 individual booths of travel suppliers and destinations. No matter how much you may already know about the travel industry, you will always pick up valuable new facts and ideas at a show of such size.
Pauline and I look forward to meeting and speaking with you.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: speaking
Feb 25, 2008
Big news! A small-ship cruiseline offering low prices and high intellectual pretensions is marketing its product in America
In the American cruise market, the small ships (Regent, Seabourn, Silversea) charge whopping prices, and only the giant behemoths (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC, Norwegian, etc.) have cheap rates. But that was before Voyages of Discovery came onto the scene.
Voyages of Discovery was created in 2003 by the well-known British cruise entrepreneur, Gerry Harrod (founder of the well-known Orient Lines), but it has only recently reached out into the U.S. for American business (its American office is at 1800 S.E. 10th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale 33316; tel. 866/623-2689; www.voyagesofdiscovery.com). V.O.D.'s two ships are, first, the 600-passenger, 20,000-ton MV Discovery (a baby by today's cruiseship standards) built in 1972 but totally refitted in 2003; and second, the 10,400-ton, 500-passenger Ocean Majesty, first built in 1966 but completely refitted (with small but functional cabins) in 1994. Unlike the unwieldy, massive, 3,000 and 4,000-passenger boxes that Carnival and Royal Caribbean are foisting on us, the Discovery and Ocean Majesty are small enough to enter remote harbors. And therein lies a tale.
Mr. Harrod has apparently decided to concentrate on little-visited ports, and to carry distinguished scholars of the destinations to which his ships go. His cruises may not be as intellectually lofty as Swan Hellenic's or those operated by Martin Randall (see our earlier posts), but they come close (and charge a great deal less). And Voyages of Discovery has decided to price early-spring cruises aboard the 500-passenger Ocean Majesty at from $150 to $200-a-day per person in inside cabins -- a real breakthrough -- including round-trip airfare between London and the Mediterranean port at which the ship leaves and to which it returns.
"You will be accompanied during your voyage," the cruiseline says, "by a highly-acclaimed group of lecturers and guest speakers, including a team from BBC History Magazine on the Red Sea Discovery cruise." (Most of your fellow passengers will be British).
Four departures on the Ocean Majesty from March until May, 2008, are especial values:
March 20, 2008: The "Black Sea Explorer." From £599 ($1,200) per person sharing a double cabin, for 9 days, including airfare from London to Athens, where you will board the ship in Piraeus, the port of Athens, and then sail to Canakkale, Nesebur, Odessa, Sevastopol, Yalta, Istanbul (overnight stay) and Lavrion, from which you will be flown back to London.
April 11, 2008: The "Red Sea Discovery." From £599 ($1200) per person sharing a double cabin, for 9 days, including airfare from London to Sharm el-Sheikh, from which you will sail to Aqaba (two night stay), then Safaga, the Suez Canal (daytime transit), and Alexandria (overnight stay), flying back to London from Cairo Airport.
April 19, 2008: "North African Odyssey." From £999 ($2,000) per person sharing a double cabin, for 14 days, including airfare from London to Alexandria (overnight stay), Benghazi, Al Khums, Tripoli, Valletta, Taormina (Sicily), Civitavecchia (Rome), Livorno, Ajaccio, Barcelona, and Mahon, from which you will be flown back to London.
April 11, 2008: "Grand Voyage to the Red Sea and North Africa." From £1,399 ($2,800) per person sharing a double cabin, for 22 days, including airfare from London to the Mediterranean to commence a three-week adventure that combines the Red Sea Discovery (see above) with the "North African Odyssey" (again, see above).
While you don't have a lot of time to book these March and early April departures, the value is so great that I hope you'll consider them. I'm excited to be bringing this news to you, and suggest that you'll want to follow the offers made for future months (from May on) by this moderately priced British line.
Write and read comments about this post.
Voyages of Discovery was created in 2003 by the well-known British cruise entrepreneur, Gerry Harrod (founder of the well-known Orient Lines), but it has only recently reached out into the U.S. for American business (its American office is at 1800 S.E. 10th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale 33316; tel. 866/623-2689; www.voyagesofdiscovery.com). V.O.D.'s two ships are, first, the 600-passenger, 20,000-ton MV Discovery (a baby by today's cruiseship standards) built in 1972 but totally refitted in 2003; and second, the 10,400-ton, 500-passenger Ocean Majesty, first built in 1966 but completely refitted (with small but functional cabins) in 1994. Unlike the unwieldy, massive, 3,000 and 4,000-passenger boxes that Carnival and Royal Caribbean are foisting on us, the Discovery and Ocean Majesty are small enough to enter remote harbors. And therein lies a tale.
Mr. Harrod has apparently decided to concentrate on little-visited ports, and to carry distinguished scholars of the destinations to which his ships go. His cruises may not be as intellectually lofty as Swan Hellenic's or those operated by Martin Randall (see our earlier posts), but they come close (and charge a great deal less). And Voyages of Discovery has decided to price early-spring cruises aboard the 500-passenger Ocean Majesty at from $150 to $200-a-day per person in inside cabins -- a real breakthrough -- including round-trip airfare between London and the Mediterranean port at which the ship leaves and to which it returns.
"You will be accompanied during your voyage," the cruiseline says, "by a highly-acclaimed group of lecturers and guest speakers, including a team from BBC History Magazine on the Red Sea Discovery cruise." (Most of your fellow passengers will be British).
Four departures on the Ocean Majesty from March until May, 2008, are especial values:
March 20, 2008: The "Black Sea Explorer." From £599 ($1,200) per person sharing a double cabin, for 9 days, including airfare from London to Athens, where you will board the ship in Piraeus, the port of Athens, and then sail to Canakkale, Nesebur, Odessa, Sevastopol, Yalta, Istanbul (overnight stay) and Lavrion, from which you will be flown back to London.
April 11, 2008: The "Red Sea Discovery." From £599 ($1200) per person sharing a double cabin, for 9 days, including airfare from London to Sharm el-Sheikh, from which you will sail to Aqaba (two night stay), then Safaga, the Suez Canal (daytime transit), and Alexandria (overnight stay), flying back to London from Cairo Airport.
April 19, 2008: "North African Odyssey." From £999 ($2,000) per person sharing a double cabin, for 14 days, including airfare from London to Alexandria (overnight stay), Benghazi, Al Khums, Tripoli, Valletta, Taormina (Sicily), Civitavecchia (Rome), Livorno, Ajaccio, Barcelona, and Mahon, from which you will be flown back to London.
April 11, 2008: "Grand Voyage to the Red Sea and North Africa." From £1,399 ($2,800) per person sharing a double cabin, for 22 days, including airfare from London to the Mediterranean to commence a three-week adventure that combines the Red Sea Discovery (see above) with the "North African Odyssey" (again, see above).
While you don't have a lot of time to book these March and early April departures, the value is so great that I hope you'll consider them. I'm excited to be bringing this news to you, and suggest that you'll want to follow the offers made for future months (from May on) by this moderately priced British line.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: cruise, smart tours
All you Dennis Kucinich fans, have I got a tour operator for you!
The San Francisco tour operator Global Exchange (2017 Mission Street, San Francisco 94110; tel. 800/497-1994, www.realitytours.org or www.globalexchange.org) wears its heart on its sleeve. It is a self-professed political tour operator, openly radical and left-wing, a fierce advocate of viewpoints that, over the years, have been wildly at odds with majority viewpoints in the United States. It operates 60 departures a year of 8-to 17-day tours taking you to politically controversial nations, there to support the dissident forces, poverty communities, anti-American movements, and revolutionary policies found therein.
Though you may not agree with many of its viewpoints -- and I, for one, disagree with several, but not all -- you will have to admit that a Global Exchange tour shakes you up, makes you think, compels you to re-examine your most cherished assumptions. A Global Exchange tour produces the kind of mental convulsion that the First Amendment was enacted to cause.
The tours of Global Exchange are quite different from the somewhat shy and tentative political excursions of the Wisconsin nuns who operate the program known as GATE (Global Awareness Through Experience). The good sisters of Wisconsin simply take you to converse with political activists and dissidents in various Latin American nations -- and then allow you to reach your own conclusions. Global Exchange knows what it believes, and shapes its tours to reach a desired lesson, as clearly seen in the sub-titles it appends to its tours going to Ecuador ("Environmental and Social Justice," 10 and 13 days for $1,300 to $1,350), Mexico ("Chiapas: Tierra & Libertad, 8 days for $950), Palestine and Israel ("Prospects for Peace & Justice," 10 days for $1,900), Vietnam ("Legacies of War & The New Vietnam," 13 days for $1,950), Nicaragua ("Fair Trade and Alternatives," 9 days for $1,300), Iran ("Citizen Diplomacy," 13 days for $2,450), India ("Kerala -- A Third World Model," 14 days for $2,450), Afghanistan ("Women Making Change," 9 days for $1,750), and many more. Air fare is not included in those otherwise-all-inclusive prices.
Write and read comments about this post.
Though you may not agree with many of its viewpoints -- and I, for one, disagree with several, but not all -- you will have to admit that a Global Exchange tour shakes you up, makes you think, compels you to re-examine your most cherished assumptions. A Global Exchange tour produces the kind of mental convulsion that the First Amendment was enacted to cause.
The tours of Global Exchange are quite different from the somewhat shy and tentative political excursions of the Wisconsin nuns who operate the program known as GATE (Global Awareness Through Experience). The good sisters of Wisconsin simply take you to converse with political activists and dissidents in various Latin American nations -- and then allow you to reach your own conclusions. Global Exchange knows what it believes, and shapes its tours to reach a desired lesson, as clearly seen in the sub-titles it appends to its tours going to Ecuador ("Environmental and Social Justice," 10 and 13 days for $1,300 to $1,350), Mexico ("Chiapas: Tierra & Libertad, 8 days for $950), Palestine and Israel ("Prospects for Peace & Justice," 10 days for $1,900), Vietnam ("Legacies of War & The New Vietnam," 13 days for $1,950), Nicaragua ("Fair Trade and Alternatives," 9 days for $1,300), Iran ("Citizen Diplomacy," 13 days for $2,450), India ("Kerala -- A Third World Model," 14 days for $2,450), Afghanistan ("Women Making Change," 9 days for $1,750), and many more. Air fare is not included in those otherwise-all-inclusive prices.
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Labels: tour companies
Women Welcome Women has been operating successfully and effectively for twenty-five years
At the Boston Globe Travel Show, which I attended last weekend, I met Kim Giovacco, a prominent U.S. member of Women Welcome Women (www.womenwelcomewomen.org.uk), who reminded me that this gender-specific hospitality club will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. Second only in longevity to the free-housing services of U.S. Servas, it was founded in Great Britain (where many of its members live) and is especially active as well in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
Women Welcome Women doesn't always guarantee that its members will provide a free room to other members passing through; some members specify that they will (at least initially) simply meet female travelers for a drink or take them on a tour of their home city. Others, who have already made worldwide friends by accommodating them in a spare room, are far more willing almost always to provide a spare room or cot to any member. The recommended length of stay is three nights, but members often accommodate visitors for much longer than that.
Kim, a resident of Quincy, Massachusetts (minutes south of Boston), was enthusiastic about the friendships she had made, both by hosting female travelers and by enjoying reciprocal free lodgings abroad. She stressed the desire of WWW's female membership to provide hospitality and courtesies to other females from foreign countries. The yearly membership fee is £35, which screens out persons unwilling to make a sincere offer of hospitality, and successful visits are almost always enjoyed.
Incidentally, Kim also told me she would be more than happy to take phone calls (tel. 774/269-6558) from persons interested in further information about Women Welcome Women.
Write and read comments about this post.
Women Welcome Women doesn't always guarantee that its members will provide a free room to other members passing through; some members specify that they will (at least initially) simply meet female travelers for a drink or take them on a tour of their home city. Others, who have already made worldwide friends by accommodating them in a spare room, are far more willing almost always to provide a spare room or cot to any member. The recommended length of stay is three nights, but members often accommodate visitors for much longer than that.
Kim, a resident of Quincy, Massachusetts (minutes south of Boston), was enthusiastic about the friendships she had made, both by hosting female travelers and by enjoying reciprocal free lodgings abroad. She stressed the desire of WWW's female membership to provide hospitality and courtesies to other females from foreign countries. The yearly membership fee is £35, which screens out persons unwilling to make a sincere offer of hospitality, and successful visits are almost always enjoyed.
Incidentally, Kim also told me she would be more than happy to take phone calls (tel. 774/269-6558) from persons interested in further information about Women Welcome Women.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, women
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
