Mar 28, 2008
Free or nominally-priced hospitality services are finally getting the recognition they deserve
This week's issue of Time magazine (March 31, the one with the Dalai Lama on the cover) carries a short article on the emergence of hospitality services around the world, but specifically mentions only two of them: Servas (www.usservas.org) and Couchsurfing.com (www.couchsurfing.com). Which reminds me to draw your attention to a constant increase in the several hospitality websites that we've been careful to describe in this blog. Most recently, I wrote about www.educatorstravel.com, which enables teachers and their families to stay for a total of $40 a night in some 6,000 homes in 50 countries; the charge to join is $46 a year.
Educatorstravel.com has just been joined by a newer organization called teacherstravelweb.com (www.teacherstravelweb.com), whose members live in America, Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and host each other free-of-charge, without a nightly fee. Membership fee to join: €45.
A broader group supports the hospitality offers of the Evergreen Club (www.evergreenclub.com) for people over the age of 50 who mainly live in the United States (only a few members presently reside overseas). Evergreen has always believed that if a nominal charge is assessed for an overnight stay ($15 for two people per night), the transaction will be conducted in a more professional and reliable manner. You pay $75 a year to join Evergreen, but thereafter, your only cost is $15 a night for hospitality.
At a time when hotel rates are going through the roof both domestically and around the world, free hospitality clubs -- "you stay in my home and I'll later stay in yours' or in the home of another member" -- are enabling many Americans to continue traveling. Though you may not have considered this option in the days when the dollar was king, you might now want to shed your inhibitions and accept these offers of home hospitality. They make sense.
Write and read comments about this post.
Educatorstravel.com has just been joined by a newer organization called teacherstravelweb.com (www.teacherstravelweb.com), whose members live in America, Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and host each other free-of-charge, without a nightly fee. Membership fee to join: €45.
A broader group supports the hospitality offers of the Evergreen Club (www.evergreenclub.com) for people over the age of 50 who mainly live in the United States (only a few members presently reside overseas). Evergreen has always believed that if a nominal charge is assessed for an overnight stay ($15 for two people per night), the transaction will be conducted in a more professional and reliable manner. You pay $75 a year to join Evergreen, but thereafter, your only cost is $15 a night for hospitality.
At a time when hotel rates are going through the roof both domestically and around the world, free hospitality clubs -- "you stay in my home and I'll later stay in yours' or in the home of another member" -- are enabling many Americans to continue traveling. Though you may not have considered this option in the days when the dollar was king, you might now want to shed your inhibitions and accept these offers of home hospitality. They make sense.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, websites
A recent trip to Minneapolis/St.Paul served to remind me of the touristic pleasures of this under-appreciated U.S. city
Together with my guidebook-writing daughter, Pauline, I delivered a speech on travel this week at the bi-annual convention of the Public Libraries Association inMinneapolis/St. Paul, attended by some 10,000 well-read, intellectually curious, open-minded librarians. There is no better audience in all the world for preaching the delights of intelligent, sensibly priced travel.
The city added to the pleasures of the occasion. Unappreciated by most Americans, Minneapolis/St. Paul is one of the most culturally-alive locations in America; it probably enjoys more presentations of theater each week than any U.S. city other than New York and Chicago -- and some would argue that the intellectual content of those presentations is matched only by New York's off-Broadway scene. The city's Ordway Center is probably America's best opera house (presenting experimental and avant garde productions of the sort one rarely sees at New York's Met); its Guthrie Repertory Theater is the best in America; its children's theater is another stand out; and its many smaller playhouses are always a delight to attend. Add a number of outstanding art museums; throw in Mall of America for shopping fun; and you have the ingredients for a different type of urban weekend that more of us should enjoy.
I'm not sure I would recommend Minneapolis/St. Paul for a winter stay; the weather then is appalling. But April and onward are excellent months, and if you'd like to explore a different kind of American city, you couldn't choose better -- as I again had the chance to discover this week.
Write and read comments about this post.
The city added to the pleasures of the occasion. Unappreciated by most Americans, Minneapolis/St. Paul is one of the most culturally-alive locations in America; it probably enjoys more presentations of theater each week than any U.S. city other than New York and Chicago -- and some would argue that the intellectual content of those presentations is matched only by New York's off-Broadway scene. The city's Ordway Center is probably America's best opera house (presenting experimental and avant garde productions of the sort one rarely sees at New York's Met); its Guthrie Repertory Theater is the best in America; its children's theater is another stand out; and its many smaller playhouses are always a delight to attend. Add a number of outstanding art museums; throw in Mall of America for shopping fun; and you have the ingredients for a different type of urban weekend that more of us should enjoy.
I'm not sure I would recommend Minneapolis/St. Paul for a winter stay; the weather then is appalling. But April and onward are excellent months, and if you'd like to explore a different kind of American city, you couldn't choose better -- as I again had the chance to discover this week.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: midwest, minneapolis
Those website addresses ending in “dot-travel” are becoming less significant or meaningful with every passing month
Have you ever been curious about the new dot-travel domain appearing at the end of some website addresses? Ever been intrigued by its significance? You needn’t be. It seems that a promising experiment has been made meaningless by greed.
The purpose of the new dot-travel domain was to designate
those websites operated by highly respectable entities, and thus to give you -- the user -- confidence that these were sites operated impartially and reliably. The new travel domain name was created by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") to remedy the cheesy actions by fly-by-night entities to grab website names which promised more than they should have.
Up until the creation of dot-travel, a great many official-sounding travel addresses were created by small and insignificant operators. A tiny little travel agency in Kansas City (this is a hypothetical example) would seize the name "KansasCityTourism.com," giving you the impression that you were accessing the public authorities in travel to Kansas City. Or a wholly insignificant bucket shop operator in London would be the first to use the name "VisitLondon.net."
To more carefully assign names to companies worthy of possessing them, to ride herd on the process, to verify and authenticate the new names, ICANN permitted a public corporation, Tralliance, to control and assign the new domain. Henceforth, when you clicked on "HongKongTourism.travel," you knew you were interacting with someone special -- namely, the Hong Kong Tourist Board funded by the city.
Guess what happened? Through maneuvers too complex to describe or understand, a group of shareholders won control of Tralliance from its original founder, and took the corporation private. They then proceeded to sell to themselves 200,000 dot-travel names and to create websites around some of them. In the words of Travel Weekly, the major journal of the travel industry, the new executives of Tralliance began treating dot-travel "as a for-profit business" rather than as a service to the travel industry.
And consequently, it is probable that the dot-travel domain will henceforth mean nothing at all. It may be that all of us are overly pessimistic, and that the folks who have taken over and privatized Tralliance have only noble goals in mind. But I doubt it. Until further notice, you should not regard dot-travel as meaning anything more than dot-com or dot-org or dot-net. A promising reform has apparently been torpedoed.
Write and read comments about this post.
The purpose of the new dot-travel domain was to designate
those websites operated by highly respectable entities, and thus to give you -- the user -- confidence that these were sites operated impartially and reliably. The new travel domain name was created by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN") to remedy the cheesy actions by fly-by-night entities to grab website names which promised more than they should have.
Up until the creation of dot-travel, a great many official-sounding travel addresses were created by small and insignificant operators. A tiny little travel agency in Kansas City (this is a hypothetical example) would seize the name "KansasCityTourism.com," giving you the impression that you were accessing the public authorities in travel to Kansas City. Or a wholly insignificant bucket shop operator in London would be the first to use the name "VisitLondon.net."
To more carefully assign names to companies worthy of possessing them, to ride herd on the process, to verify and authenticate the new names, ICANN permitted a public corporation, Tralliance, to control and assign the new domain. Henceforth, when you clicked on "HongKongTourism.travel," you knew you were interacting with someone special -- namely, the Hong Kong Tourist Board funded by the city.
Guess what happened? Through maneuvers too complex to describe or understand, a group of shareholders won control of Tralliance from its original founder, and took the corporation private. They then proceeded to sell to themselves 200,000 dot-travel names and to create websites around some of them. In the words of Travel Weekly, the major journal of the travel industry, the new executives of Tralliance began treating dot-travel "as a for-profit business" rather than as a service to the travel industry.
And consequently, it is probable that the dot-travel domain will henceforth mean nothing at all. It may be that all of us are overly pessimistic, and that the folks who have taken over and privatized Tralliance have only noble goals in mind. But I doubt it. Until further notice, you should not regard dot-travel as meaning anything more than dot-com or dot-org or dot-net. A promising reform has apparently been torpedoed.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: websites
Mar 27, 2008
It pays to use a travel agent if that agent is talented and knowledgeable
Retail travel agents have launched a major campaign to promote their services. It's claimed that travel agents provide valuable assistance, especially in emergencies. They have contacts with the airlines, cruise lines, hotel chains, etc., and can get you out of all sort of scrapes.
I have this to say about the benefits of using a travel agent: If the person whose services you are considering has been to the destination you are considering, or is well-traveled, or has a substantial record of successful contacts with travel suppliers; if the travel agent strikes you as being knowledgeable about all the tactics for obtaining advantageous rates; if, in short, the agent shows the same aptitude you look for in a dentist, accountant, or other professional, then by all means make use of their services.
But always be aware that your travel agent, in many instances today, will need to charge you a fee over and above the amount charged by the supplier of the flight, hotel, or tour. And that's because more and more suppliers are now charging your agent the same as they would charge directly to you.
These thoughts were occasioned by the decision of British Airways Holidays (the tour operator for British Airways' packages to Britain and beyond) last month to eliminate commissions for travel agents selling tour packages created by British Airways Holidays. If British Airways charges $799 for a weeklong air-and-land package to London, the travel agent selling that package will now receive no commission from British Airways. He or she will have to be paid by you. He or she will have to add -- repeat, add -- a fee to that basic $799 paid to British Airways Holidays.
Once upon a time, this was not the case. A dozen-or-so years ago, almost every supplier paid a commission to travel agents. And thus, it cost you no more to use a travel agent. In such cases, it wasn't really necessary to seek out a really exceptional agent. You had nothing to lose by using one. If the cost of a ticket from New York to Los Angeles was $400, you paid $400 whether or not you used a travel agent. Today, now that commissions have been eliminated by most airlines, and by a great many other suppliers, it will cost you $400-plus-a-fee (sometimes as much as $60) to buy that ticket from a travel agent.
I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the use of talented, knowledgeable travel agents who earn their fees. I am not an enthusiast about using some of the newly-coined, totally inexperienced, home-based "travel agents" who pay $500-or-so for a mass-produced identification card which falsely states they are travel professionals. The smart consumer adopts the same precautions in choosing a travel agent that they would use in choosing any professional: They seek references.
Write and read comments about this post.
I have this to say about the benefits of using a travel agent: If the person whose services you are considering has been to the destination you are considering, or is well-traveled, or has a substantial record of successful contacts with travel suppliers; if the travel agent strikes you as being knowledgeable about all the tactics for obtaining advantageous rates; if, in short, the agent shows the same aptitude you look for in a dentist, accountant, or other professional, then by all means make use of their services.
But always be aware that your travel agent, in many instances today, will need to charge you a fee over and above the amount charged by the supplier of the flight, hotel, or tour. And that's because more and more suppliers are now charging your agent the same as they would charge directly to you.
These thoughts were occasioned by the decision of British Airways Holidays (the tour operator for British Airways' packages to Britain and beyond) last month to eliminate commissions for travel agents selling tour packages created by British Airways Holidays. If British Airways charges $799 for a weeklong air-and-land package to London, the travel agent selling that package will now receive no commission from British Airways. He or she will have to be paid by you. He or she will have to add -- repeat, add -- a fee to that basic $799 paid to British Airways Holidays.
Once upon a time, this was not the case. A dozen-or-so years ago, almost every supplier paid a commission to travel agents. And thus, it cost you no more to use a travel agent. In such cases, it wasn't really necessary to seek out a really exceptional agent. You had nothing to lose by using one. If the cost of a ticket from New York to Los Angeles was $400, you paid $400 whether or not you used a travel agent. Today, now that commissions have been eliminated by most airlines, and by a great many other suppliers, it will cost you $400-plus-a-fee (sometimes as much as $60) to buy that ticket from a travel agent.
I'm an enthusiastic supporter of the use of talented, knowledgeable travel agents who earn their fees. I am not an enthusiast about using some of the newly-coined, totally inexperienced, home-based "travel agents" who pay $500-or-so for a mass-produced identification card which falsely states they are travel professionals. The smart consumer adopts the same precautions in choosing a travel agent that they would use in choosing any professional: They seek references.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: travel agent
I just have to return to the news about the additional $1-a-ride (but usually $15) cut-rate bus lines
Just as Southwest Airlines, Skybus, Spirit Airlines, and other upstarts have revolutionized the pricing of air transportation in America (as Ryanair and easyJet did in Britain and Europe), we are now witnessing a similar upheaval in ground transportation within the U.S. Although I dealt with this subject yesterday, it's important enough to warrant further discussion today.
First, I neglected to mention yesterday that the new Megabus (www.megabus.com) service from New York will also go to Atlantic City, the difference being that the casino-bound buses will leave from the Port Authority Terminal on 42nd Street rather than from the northwest street corner of West 31st Street and Eighth Avenue (to Buffalo, Toronto, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore). And I should also have emphasized, more than I did, that from its hub in Chicago, Megabus also services every Midwest city of note. Added to its service from Los Angeles, Megabus will (as of May 30, the start-up of its New York service) deal with a large percentage of the American population in their routine transportation needs.
In doing so, Megabus joins DC2NY, a hip bus service on which free mineral water and wi-fi service are featured; it joins Bolt Bus (the Greyhound subsidiary that services only New York-to-Boston presently, but will obviously expand to many, many more cities in the coming months); and it joins the several "Chinatown" services (so-called because they drive from one Chinatown to another) like Fung Wah and others.
So here's an excellent alternative to the overly-expensive airplanes and trains to which we've been relegated in the past. Shuttle flights from New York to Boston or Washington, D.C., already cost more than $150 each way, and the cheaper Amtrak services between the same cities will almost always cost as much as $89 each way. (The speedier "Acela" trains charge as much as a shuttle flight.)
So will Americans flock to the new cut-rate buses? It's a matter of psychology. We've been trained to regard inter-city buses as something for the poor; and indeed, if you scan the people in an average bus station, you rarely see lawyers-with-briefcases or graduate students-with-laptops. But that's about to change. The fact that the new cut-rate buses will offer such amenities as power outlets at each seat is a powerful new improvement in transportation and will win many persons over from the higher-priced planes and trains.
Let me also stress that if you make your bookings right away on the new Megabus services, you stand a good chance of snaring a $1 ticket. Yesterday, an associate of mine booked a 50¢ round-trip on Megabus between New York and Philadelphia (for post-May 30 dates). And $1-and-up tickets are presently available on Megabus and Bolt Bus on all the other services they either presently operate or are about to commence.
All you cost-conscious travelers: this is a Mega development! Go to the websites of the bus lines I've named above and begin following the story over the weeks to come. We are on the brink of something big in travel.
Write and read comments about this post.
First, I neglected to mention yesterday that the new Megabus (www.megabus.com) service from New York will also go to Atlantic City, the difference being that the casino-bound buses will leave from the Port Authority Terminal on 42nd Street rather than from the northwest street corner of West 31st Street and Eighth Avenue (to Buffalo, Toronto, Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore). And I should also have emphasized, more than I did, that from its hub in Chicago, Megabus also services every Midwest city of note. Added to its service from Los Angeles, Megabus will (as of May 30, the start-up of its New York service) deal with a large percentage of the American population in their routine transportation needs.
In doing so, Megabus joins DC2NY, a hip bus service on which free mineral water and wi-fi service are featured; it joins Bolt Bus (the Greyhound subsidiary that services only New York-to-Boston presently, but will obviously expand to many, many more cities in the coming months); and it joins the several "Chinatown" services (so-called because they drive from one Chinatown to another) like Fung Wah and others.
So here's an excellent alternative to the overly-expensive airplanes and trains to which we've been relegated in the past. Shuttle flights from New York to Boston or Washington, D.C., already cost more than $150 each way, and the cheaper Amtrak services between the same cities will almost always cost as much as $89 each way. (The speedier "Acela" trains charge as much as a shuttle flight.)
So will Americans flock to the new cut-rate buses? It's a matter of psychology. We've been trained to regard inter-city buses as something for the poor; and indeed, if you scan the people in an average bus station, you rarely see lawyers-with-briefcases or graduate students-with-laptops. But that's about to change. The fact that the new cut-rate buses will offer such amenities as power outlets at each seat is a powerful new improvement in transportation and will win many persons over from the higher-priced planes and trains.
Let me also stress that if you make your bookings right away on the new Megabus services, you stand a good chance of snaring a $1 ticket. Yesterday, an associate of mine booked a 50¢ round-trip on Megabus between New York and Philadelphia (for post-May 30 dates). And $1-and-up tickets are presently available on Megabus and Bolt Bus on all the other services they either presently operate or are about to commence.
All you cost-conscious travelers: this is a Mega development! Go to the websites of the bus lines I've named above and begin following the story over the weeks to come. We are on the brink of something big in travel.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: bus
The strike down of New York's passenger rights laws should cause us all to pressure Congress to act nationally
You really need to have experienced four or more hours in an airplane stuck on the tarmac, as I have, to fully appreciate how badly legislation is needed to prevent that happening to you. It is a frightening and claustrophobic time that causes great distress, and yet the possibility is quite realistic: several hundreds of flights were affected in that manner in 2007, and the numbers don't even include the flights that were later cancelled.
The airlines, with their eyes on the bottom line, thinking only of the cost of taxiing the plane back to the gate and permitting passengers to disembark, will never correct the situation of their own volition. They have to be forced to do so by law. And since a Federal Court of Appeals has now ruled (as they did this week) that the individual states may not pass laws regulating the airlines in this manner, our recourse must be to Congress. The Federal Government is clearly entitled to establish one uniform standard for the entire country.
In my view, they should not adopt New York State's fuzzy and now-defeated edict that the airlines guarantee the availability of fresh air, water, food and toilets to the passengers on stranded planes. They should set down a clear and automatic requirement that any plane stranded for four hours must be returned to the gate and passengers permitted to disembark.
And you know what? The airlines will find that a four-hour requirement is to everyone's benefit, the airlines' as well as the public's. You can contribute to such a result by contacting your representatives in Congress and urging them to act on this matter.
Write and read comments about this post.
The airlines, with their eyes on the bottom line, thinking only of the cost of taxiing the plane back to the gate and permitting passengers to disembark, will never correct the situation of their own volition. They have to be forced to do so by law. And since a Federal Court of Appeals has now ruled (as they did this week) that the individual states may not pass laws regulating the airlines in this manner, our recourse must be to Congress. The Federal Government is clearly entitled to establish one uniform standard for the entire country.
In my view, they should not adopt New York State's fuzzy and now-defeated edict that the airlines guarantee the availability of fresh air, water, food and toilets to the passengers on stranded planes. They should set down a clear and automatic requirement that any plane stranded for four hours must be returned to the gate and passengers permitted to disembark.
And you know what? The airlines will find that a four-hour requirement is to everyone's benefit, the airlines' as well as the public's. You can contribute to such a result by contacting your representatives in Congress and urging them to act on this matter.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: rights
Mar 26, 2008
Would you believe a $400-a-day re-positioning cruise on SeaDream Yacht Club?
The most expensive cruise ships in all the world are the two, 110-passenger, yacht-like vessels (SeaDream I and SeaDream II) that sail under the name SeaDream Yacht Club, where caviar and paté de foie reign (you apparently have them at every meal). If you will go to any cruise website, you'll find that many of their sailings begin at $1,000 per person per day. And for that outlay, you receive -- ooh la la! Among other things, each vessel carries 8 Thai massage therapists and "Balinese DreamBeds." Its passengers are described, in the cruise line's literature, as "well-heeled."
That's why it's surprising to learn that SeaDream is having a sale, on April 27, when one ship will sail for 12 days from San Juan to Seville, Spain (for $4,900 per person, with no single supplement) and the other for 12 days from Barbados to Malaga, Spain (for $4,900, with no single supplement). Those rates represents such an enormous discount off SeaDream's normal charges that they needs to be considered by readers (and there are some) who hanker to hangout with the rich. Don't say you weren't warned. For reservations tel. 800/707-4911 or www.seadream.com.
Write and read comments about this post.
That's why it's surprising to learn that SeaDream is having a sale, on April 27, when one ship will sail for 12 days from San Juan to Seville, Spain (for $4,900 per person, with no single supplement) and the other for 12 days from Barbados to Malaga, Spain (for $4,900, with no single supplement). Those rates represents such an enormous discount off SeaDream's normal charges that they needs to be considered by readers (and there are some) who hanker to hangout with the rich. Don't say you weren't warned. For reservations tel. 800/707-4911 or www.seadream.com.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: cruise, deals, fat cats
Is it possible that the cruise ship industry is facing a major glut of capacity in the Mediterranean this summer? I tend to think so
There used to be a joke about a year when all the cruise lines decided that the industry needed one more ship. So each of nine cruise lines proceeded to build that ship.
An excessive reaction to a perceived need seems underway in the Mediterranean. Because conventional wisdom believes that hundreds of thousands of Americans will replace a traditional tour to Europe (where the Euro has made matters overly expensive) with a Mediterranean cruise (priced in Dollars), every single cruise line seems to have assigned a whopping and unprecedented percentage of its fleet to Mediterranean cruising this summer. Elsewhere, like in the Caribbean, cruises have been drastically reduced, while the newest and biggest of all the ships will be heading to Barcelona/Rome/Livorno/Athens and thereabouts.
Have they miscalculated? Will they be frantically discounting many of those sailings? I tend to think so. Though every cruise line exec, when interviewed, will voice total confidence about the coming season (see their interviews in the February 18 issue of Travel Weekly, "Most cruise lines insist softness is not an issue in the Med"), one cruise line -- Crystal Cruises -- has already quietly extended the season when heavy discounts will be available on its ships, and one of its executives has already uttered that unmentionable word, "softness."
When cruise line officials say that "the economic slowdown hasn't hurt us at all," or "we haven't noticed the slightest slowing, the smallest recession," or "consumer confidence just hasn't declined as far as vacations are concerned," then you just have to know they're lying.
Here's one situation where, contrary to the usual advice, it might pay to wait to book your Mediterranean cruise. Sometime around late April, the websites advertising discounted cruises -- www.vacationstogo.com has the most comprehensive list -- will almost certainly begin blossoming with all sorts of cut-rate sailings. This type of overreaction to a perceived need (e.g., flinging every boat to Europe) happens over and over in the travel industry. And it will most certainly happen here. If you are at all tempted by the thought of a European cruise, wait a bit. The prices will go down from their currently high levels.
Write and read comments about this post.
An excessive reaction to a perceived need seems underway in the Mediterranean. Because conventional wisdom believes that hundreds of thousands of Americans will replace a traditional tour to Europe (where the Euro has made matters overly expensive) with a Mediterranean cruise (priced in Dollars), every single cruise line seems to have assigned a whopping and unprecedented percentage of its fleet to Mediterranean cruising this summer. Elsewhere, like in the Caribbean, cruises have been drastically reduced, while the newest and biggest of all the ships will be heading to Barcelona/Rome/Livorno/Athens and thereabouts.
Have they miscalculated? Will they be frantically discounting many of those sailings? I tend to think so. Though every cruise line exec, when interviewed, will voice total confidence about the coming season (see their interviews in the February 18 issue of Travel Weekly, "Most cruise lines insist softness is not an issue in the Med"), one cruise line -- Crystal Cruises -- has already quietly extended the season when heavy discounts will be available on its ships, and one of its executives has already uttered that unmentionable word, "softness."
When cruise line officials say that "the economic slowdown hasn't hurt us at all," or "we haven't noticed the slightest slowing, the smallest recession," or "consumer confidence just hasn't declined as far as vacations are concerned," then you just have to know they're lying.
Here's one situation where, contrary to the usual advice, it might pay to wait to book your Mediterranean cruise. Sometime around late April, the websites advertising discounted cruises -- www.vacationstogo.com has the most comprehensive list -- will almost certainly begin blossoming with all sorts of cut-rate sailings. This type of overreaction to a perceived need (e.g., flinging every boat to Europe) happens over and over in the travel industry. And it will most certainly happen here. If you are at all tempted by the thought of a European cruise, wait a bit. The prices will go down from their currently high levels.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: cruise
Suddenly, the business of operating low-cost buses is expanding to all parts of the U.S.A.
At the airports, the delays are worse than ever, the flights are fewer and costlier, the conditions just plain dismal. At the railroad stations, die-hard train enthusiasts put up with the limited service of an Amtrak that's been starved of adequate operating funds. But who's saving the day? Buses! And though you've been alerted to some of them, you ain't see nothing yet! With this week's announcement that Megabus (www.megabus.com) will soon (May 30) be connecting New York with six other cities (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Washington, D.C. , Buffalo, and Toronto), and charging only $1 per seat for the first several seats on each departure ($14 for the others), the rock-bottom, low-cost bus business takes on a new dimension.
We wrote last week about the new $1 a seat (and up from there) Bolt (www.boltbus.com) operating between New York and Boston (turns out that Bolt is owned by none other than Greyhound; it was obviously formed to compete with Fung Wah and other Chinatown bus companies like DC2NY.com (www.dc2ny.com) that have revolutionized long-distance bus transportation (in addition to charging absurdly low rates, the new transports provide electric outlets at each seat, mineral water, and free Wi-Fi).
Megabus is currently doing business out of its two initial hubs: Chicago (connecting to several cities in the Midwest) and Los Angeles (connecting with other cities in California, Nevada and Arizona). By now establishing itself in Manhattan as well (from a pick-up spot at Eighth Avenue and 31st Street), Megabus begins to resemble a nationwide line, and you'd be well advised to frequently check in at its website to learn of further developments.
It's exciting that bus transportation between major U.S. cities is now available for from $1 to $14 to $20 each way; it would be more exciting still if comfortable, fuel-efficient trains made the same trips.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: bus
Mar 25, 2008
Though it's not for everyone, an inexpensive, self-drive auto tour of Europe, using motels for lodgings, is entirely possible
Some U.S. families regard the self-drive automobile tour, staying in highway motels, as an excellent way to see the country. Surprisingly enough, a great many Europeans feel the same way about their highways and motels. At strategic Autobahn and autostrada exits across Europe are modern roadside motels waiting to welcome them with standardized comforts, few frills, and rock-bottom rates: €29 to €75 for a double room.
I've written before about Travelodge (www.travelodge.co.uk), a British chain of 330 motels where Web sales can bring the price of a double room as low as £19, but that is far from the only motel chain operating in Europe. Travelodge's rival Premiere Inn (www.premierinn.com) boasts 500 hotels in the U.K. and Ireland -- and there are motels beyond the British Isles, from Berlin to Budapest.
Accor, the vast French-owned hotel group, may be more famous for its higher-end hotel brands Novotel and Sofitel (and, in the United States, Red Roof Inn and Motel 6), but at the other end of the lodging spectrum it runs the famously basic Formule 1 (www.hotelformule1.com), a chain of 380 motels in 14 European countries. These utterly bare-bones motels are fully automated (aside from a few hours each morning and evening), the "receptionist" consisting of an ATM-like machine you use to check yourself in.
One step up in the Accor family is Etap (369 motels in 11 countries; www.etaphotel.com), with a live receptionist all day, rooms with a double bed and a lofted bunk for a child, and an included breakfast buffet (breakfast at Formule 1 costs an extra €3.90).
Another French lodging includes the motel-like brands of Campanile (more than 300 properties in nine countries; www.campanile.com) and Kyriad (200 motels, all in France; www.kyriad.com). Europe even boasts familiar roadside signs for such American chains as Holiday Inn Express (www.hiexpress.com) and Days Inn (www.daysinn.com), where rates start around €55 to €75 for roadside properties, rising to €130 to €210 for hotels closer in to city centers.
This brings up an important point. European motels are increasingly no longer limited to highway interchanges, airport approaches, and ring roads. A surprising number of these bland but reliable chains are opening up along the outskirts of, and sometimes even within, the historic city centers of Europe's major cities.
Write and read comments about this post.
I've written before about Travelodge (www.travelodge.co.uk), a British chain of 330 motels where Web sales can bring the price of a double room as low as £19, but that is far from the only motel chain operating in Europe. Travelodge's rival Premiere Inn (www.premierinn.com) boasts 500 hotels in the U.K. and Ireland -- and there are motels beyond the British Isles, from Berlin to Budapest.
Accor, the vast French-owned hotel group, may be more famous for its higher-end hotel brands Novotel and Sofitel (and, in the United States, Red Roof Inn and Motel 6), but at the other end of the lodging spectrum it runs the famously basic Formule 1 (www.hotelformule1.com), a chain of 380 motels in 14 European countries. These utterly bare-bones motels are fully automated (aside from a few hours each morning and evening), the "receptionist" consisting of an ATM-like machine you use to check yourself in.
One step up in the Accor family is Etap (369 motels in 11 countries; www.etaphotel.com), with a live receptionist all day, rooms with a double bed and a lofted bunk for a child, and an included breakfast buffet (breakfast at Formule 1 costs an extra €3.90).
Another French lodging includes the motel-like brands of Campanile (more than 300 properties in nine countries; www.campanile.com) and Kyriad (200 motels, all in France; www.kyriad.com). Europe even boasts familiar roadside signs for such American chains as Holiday Inn Express (www.hiexpress.com) and Days Inn (www.daysinn.com), where rates start around €55 to €75 for roadside properties, rising to €130 to €210 for hotels closer in to city centers.
This brings up an important point. European motels are increasingly no longer limited to highway interchanges, airport approaches, and ring roads. A surprising number of these bland but reliable chains are opening up along the outskirts of, and sometimes even within, the historic city centers of Europe's major cities.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, budget, europe
If you've got a month for a summer vacation, and $5,000 to spend, you can enjoy a luxurious, 28-day Grand Cruise of the Mediterranean and Aegean
Some of our readers may remember the late, lamented Renaissance Cruises, whose last days on earth were in the year 2000. These were rather elegant smaller ships carrying only 700 passengers, whose anti-travel agent policies caused them to be widely scorned by retail professionals and thus driven into bankruptcy.
Well, two of Renaissance's vessels were bought by Royal Caribbean Cruises and made into Azamara Cruises, following the same basic policies but without the anti-travel agent animus. The ships have also been totally refurbished, and ply their 700 passengers with white-gloved butler service, 300-count Egyptian cotton sheets, fresh flowers and baskets of fruit on the coffee tables of each stateroom, and other assorted luxuries. Yet, amazingly enough, their prices are rather moderate, though higher -- obviously -- than a Carnival or Royal Caribbean cruiseship would charge.
The best of the values offered by Azamara are so-called "Grand Cruises" of 26- and 28-days' duration. Several such voyages are scheduled for this summer leaving Mediterranean ports like Rome or Athens and sailing to all the classic locations over a one-month period. Yet many of the cabins on these lengthy voyages are available for under $5,000 from such discounters as VacationsToGo.com (www.vacationstogo.com). The plus-or-minus $5,000 that is charged for most trips works out to about $178 per person per day, which is a breathtaking low rate for ships and cruises of this quality.
Write and read comments about this post.
Well, two of Renaissance's vessels were bought by Royal Caribbean Cruises and made into Azamara Cruises, following the same basic policies but without the anti-travel agent animus. The ships have also been totally refurbished, and ply their 700 passengers with white-gloved butler service, 300-count Egyptian cotton sheets, fresh flowers and baskets of fruit on the coffee tables of each stateroom, and other assorted luxuries. Yet, amazingly enough, their prices are rather moderate, though higher -- obviously -- than a Carnival or Royal Caribbean cruiseship would charge.
The best of the values offered by Azamara are so-called "Grand Cruises" of 26- and 28-days' duration. Several such voyages are scheduled for this summer leaving Mediterranean ports like Rome or Athens and sailing to all the classic locations over a one-month period. Yet many of the cabins on these lengthy voyages are available for under $5,000 from such discounters as VacationsToGo.com (www.vacationstogo.com). The plus-or-minus $5,000 that is charged for most trips works out to about $178 per person per day, which is a breathtaking low rate for ships and cruises of this quality.
Write and read comments about this post.
We've reached the month when you must sign up for a summer vacation at an eminent university, if that's your preference
A few days ago, I described an oddity in summer vacation travel, the ability to attend courses at Harvard University in July and August as an adult "auditor." Though you don't take tests, and get no credit, you must still sign up for an entire four-week session, and the experience is a rather serious one, in the company of senior high school students from around the nation. The required four-week stay is the main reason why only a few adults participate (though they are eagerly welcomed by the Harvard faculty, as I learned in a phone conversation with Harvard officials last week).
A more serious summer learning opportunity is the "Summer Classics" program of St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about which I've previously written. Here, for only one week at a time, you sign up to read and discuss one book -- like Dante's Inferno, like Thuycidides Pelopponesian Wars -- for a full week, while residing in student quarters on the scenic, mountainside campus of St. John's.
But a compromise between Harvard, on the one hand, and St. John's, on the other, is Cornell's Adult University (www.sce.cornell.edu/cau) in Ithaca, New York, scheduled this year for a series of one-week sessions from July 6 to August 2. This is for adults (whose children, if they come, pursue a separate program) in a wide variety of subjects in the Liberal Arts, all presented by eminent members of the Cornell faculty and discussed with serious intent by the intellectually-curious people who sign up for this kind of "vacation." The cost ranges around $1,400 for a week -- and that includes not only your tuition, but housing in a Cornell dorm, all three meals a day, various social programs, access to the gym, and many other extras.
The popularity and acceptance of Cornell's Adult University is proven by its thirty-year-long history and by many enthusiastic recommendations. If a trip to England's Oxford (for its famed summer school) seems too costly this year, and St. John's Great Books discussion seems too heavy, you might settle instead on Cornell.
Write and read comments about this post.
A more serious summer learning opportunity is the "Summer Classics" program of St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about which I've previously written. Here, for only one week at a time, you sign up to read and discuss one book -- like Dante's Inferno, like Thuycidides Pelopponesian Wars -- for a full week, while residing in student quarters on the scenic, mountainside campus of St. John's.
But a compromise between Harvard, on the one hand, and St. John's, on the other, is Cornell's Adult University (www.sce.cornell.edu/cau) in Ithaca, New York, scheduled this year for a series of one-week sessions from July 6 to August 2. This is for adults (whose children, if they come, pursue a separate program) in a wide variety of subjects in the Liberal Arts, all presented by eminent members of the Cornell faculty and discussed with serious intent by the intellectually-curious people who sign up for this kind of "vacation." The cost ranges around $1,400 for a week -- and that includes not only your tuition, but housing in a Cornell dorm, all three meals a day, various social programs, access to the gym, and many other extras.
The popularity and acceptance of Cornell's Adult University is proven by its thirty-year-long history and by many enthusiastic recommendations. If a trip to England's Oxford (for its famed summer school) seems too costly this year, and St. John's Great Books discussion seems too heavy, you might settle instead on Cornell.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: education
Mar 24, 2008
As a political truce appears to be holding, tourism has returned to Kenya
Several U.K tour operators announced last week that they were resuming travel to Kenya and their safari programs to that nation. One company is filling whole airplanes there, based on its confidence that peace is firmly established as a result of the recent, U.N.-brokered truce between both leading political parties. According to the British trade press, the city of Nairobi is calm, and the games parks are again receiving tourists in fair numbers.
In other African countries, a trip to view the wildlife can occasionally result in disappointment -- a failure to see any large herds of animals. That doesn't happen in Kenya -- you invariably view thousands of animals each day on their migrations across the Masai Mara. And because Kenyan safaris are the cheapest of all African safaris, you may again want to consider the many excellent packages for this once-in-a-lifetime trip. They consist of programs costing from $2,000 to $2,500 per person (including round-trip air to Nairobi from the east coast of the U.S.) from companies like Adventure Center (www.adventurecenter.com), 2Afrika (www.2afrika.com), and Lion World Tours (www.lionworldtravel.com).
Write and read comments about this post.
In other African countries, a trip to view the wildlife can occasionally result in disappointment -- a failure to see any large herds of animals. That doesn't happen in Kenya -- you invariably view thousands of animals each day on their migrations across the Masai Mara. And because Kenyan safaris are the cheapest of all African safaris, you may again want to consider the many excellent packages for this once-in-a-lifetime trip. They consist of programs costing from $2,000 to $2,500 per person (including round-trip air to Nairobi from the east coast of the U.S.) from companies like Adventure Center (www.adventurecenter.com), 2Afrika (www.2afrika.com), and Lion World Tours (www.lionworldtravel.com).
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: kenya
Barbados and the Maya Riviera are the two current hot spots in the Caribbean
It's interesting to note that the top travel bargains currently advertised in the newspaper travel sections include not a single package to Europe, even though low-season airfares are still partly in effect over the Atlantic. Rather, the Sunday newspapers are full of offers to the Caribbean, whose most dramatic travel bargain -- available from most major tour operators to the Caribbean -- is a one-week stay in Barbados for only $369, including round-trip air from the northeast.
Close runners-up are air-and-land packages to the Maya Riviera, that stretch of Mexico's Caribbean Coast that lies immediately south of Cancún. It has seen so much new hotel construction in the past several months that hotel rooms are widely available at breathtaking low rates.
For an interesting cultural adventure at low cost, you might consider treating yourself to Barbados or the Maya Riviera in April or May.
Write and read comments about this post.
Close runners-up are air-and-land packages to the Maya Riviera, that stretch of Mexico's Caribbean Coast that lies immediately south of Cancún. It has seen so much new hotel construction in the past several months that hotel rooms are widely available at breathtaking low rates.
For an interesting cultural adventure at low cost, you might consider treating yourself to Barbados or the Maya Riviera in April or May.
Write and read comments about this post.
Spain and Portugal are the latest locations to advertise the benefits -- and low cost -- of their hospitals for foreign tourists
Two or three years ago, when various commentators began discussing the benefits of medical and dental tourism, they were usually talking about travel to hospitals in far-off Thailand, Korea or Singapore, or occasionally about inexpensive dental treatment from the many highly-skilled dentists of relatively-far-off Hungary. Other possibilities included cosmetic surgery in Rio de Janeiro and other remote locations. But just last month, a new medical/dental tour company (they make both the travel and the hospital arrangements) called Fly2Doc (www.fly2doc.com) began advertising the professional, scientific, and cost advantages of medical treatments in Spain and Portugal, both of them relatively easy to reach. According to Fly2Doc, the fully-accredited hospitals of Spain and Portugal offer dentistry, eye surgery, cosmetic surgery, weight loss programs, and orthopedic treatment and surgery at a fraction of the cost you'd incur in the U.S. Anybody who has recently been in modern Spain will treat seriously the claim by Spanish hospitals that they are up to world-class standards.
Write and read comments about this post.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: medical travel, portugal, spain
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
