Who can explain it? Who can tell you why? Fools give you reasons, wise men never try (from "Some Enchanted Evening", by Rodgers and Hammerstein)

A 12-night re-positioning cruise between New York and Miami? How? Why? For what purpose? It is obviously a matter of simply using up time -- and is otherwise inexplicable. The planners at Norwegian Cruise Line have scheduled a 12-night cruise of the Norwegian Jewel leaving on October 28 from New York City and ending in Miami. And how do they stretch the itinerary to require 12 nights of sailing between New York and Miami (a two-day deal, at most)? By going, en route, to the Dominican Republic, Aruba, Curacao, Belize City, and Roatan (Honduras), before dashing back over the open sea to Miami.

It's a weird and whimsical itinerary that's simply an excuse to make use of the ship for 12 days, before delivering it to Miami. And on that wonderfully aimless routing, you can occupy an inside cabin for as little as $898 per person (around $75 a day). What's more, you're eventually delivered to Miami, and can thus use a cheap airfare to return home.

Anyone game for booking this (you'll need to vote by absentee ballot, and listen to election results at sea)? It costs, as earlier noted, an unlikely $898 per person in inside cabins, $1098 in an oceanview cabin, $1448 in a balcony cabin, plus government taxes of $83 (and a possible fuel surcharge). You can get that price by phoning Online Vacation Center at tel. 800/329-9002, or by going to www.onlinevacationcenter.com, and then clicking on their NCL offerings. (And by the way, the offer I've seen also includes return air from Miami -- but I'm sure that must be a mistake, which cuts an already low cost by another $250 or so).

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Labels: cruise

The current edition of Travel Weekly, the major trade publication of the travel industry, carries a story from Beijing headlined "Where did all the tourists go?" It describes the bewilderment of a Travel Weekly reporter over the sharp fall-off in travel to China, and includes such statements as: "I was virtually on my own to tackle the Great Wall at Badaling. At the Forbidden City in Beijing, there was plenty of room to roam on one's own, to visit entire portions of the vast royal complex with barely another soul in sight."

The reasons given for this strange development were: the recent tragic earthquake in central China (but far from Beijing, Xian and Shanghai), the violence and Chinese political crackdown in Tibet, and a tightening of Chinese visa requirements designed to thwart the movements of persons wanting to interfere with the Beijing Olympics starting August 8.

But I, for one, doubt that it will remain difficult for tourists to obtain a Chinese visa processed by recognized tour companies. Subject only to that possible problem, it now seems clear that July will be a fine time to travel to China, up to perhaps July 27, when athletes and journalists will begin descending on Beijing. You might try phoning one of the popularly-priced China tour operators -- Pacific Delight, China Focus, China Spree, Ritz Tours, Champion Holidays, Rim-Pac International, others -- to see whether they can rush you on to one of their departures and guarantee the issuance of a visa.

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Sooner or later, it seems, the internet responds to nearly every human need, and one subject matter of importance to travelers is the learning of foreign languages. A typical language-instruction site is operated by Britain's broadcasting service, www.bbc.co.uk/languages, which uses every high-tech, computer-related device (recorded sound, iPods, animation) to make its courses effective and interesting to pursue. Most important, the service is entirely free of charge, requiring only that you register to receive weekly e-mailed lessons. While the focus is on teaching French, German, Spanish and Italian, Chinese and Greek have recently been added and more languages are coming.

I'm going to be dealing more intensively in later blogs with this important service to would-be travelers, but suggest that you look right away at bbc.co.uk/languages and at the various options for picking up at least a smattering of commonly-used phrases. Knowing a bit of the language can make all the difference in your travels to foreign countries. À bientôt, mes amis.

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Labels: websites

Now that the cost of transportation is rising so greatly, our more adventuresome readers may want to acquaint themselves with the two specialist message boards for picking up free rides. These are hitchhikers.org (www.hitchhikers.org) for travel throughout Europe and Digihitch (rideboard.digihitch.com) for the U.S. and Canada. Note that neither site requires that you stand by the side of a highway waving your thumb; both list available rides that people have offered, departing on certain dates, either for no charge at all other than your companionship on the ride, or else for a nominal fee that offsets some of the driver's expenses.

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Labels: cheap transport

Reader Debbie Dubrow is herself the author of a blog called Delicious Baby (www.deliciousbaby.com), about traveling with little kids. She has recently sent me a list of ten suggestions for reducing travel costs, of which the first two are quite novel (at least, they have never occurred to me). With her permission, I am reprinting them here:

1) Consider credit card companion fares (and get more than one)
We fly from Seattle to California several times per year with our family of four. Let's assume a round-trip ticket costs $300 (it is often much more). Instead of paying about $1,200 per trip, we pay about $850. That's a savings of $350. If the fare is higher, we save even more. How do we do it? We use the $50 companion fare tickets that come with our credit cards, and we have enough accounts to accommodate all our planned trips

Here's the math:
Base Fare for Paying Adult $300 x2 = $600
Credit Card Annual Fee: $75 x2 = $150
Companion Fare: $50 x2 = $100
Total for two adults and two children: $850

Most people assume that you can only have one Airline credit card per airline per family, but in reality I have never had a problem adding additional cards and associating them with my frequent flyer number. Just make sure you don't actually USE all that extra credit to run up debt!

2) Re-negotiate your rates
Most travelers (myself included) like to reserve hotel rooms and rental cars well ahead of time to make sure they'll get what they want. That's a fine strategy, but don't forget to check prices again a few days before your trip. Rental car prices often go down as dates get closer, and few car agencies have cancellation fees. A day or two before your trip is a great time to search the rates again for substantial savings. Hotels also sometimes offer last minute specials, and most allow changes up to 24 hours before scheduled arrival.

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Labels: budget travel

Summer is when business slumps to Sin City. The big hotel search engine Hotels.com (www.hotels.com) has just listed 25 top room bargains for stays between now and September 30, but to be booked prior to July 14. Some of the hotels (with their bargain room rates in parentheses) are as set forth below, and they are all obtainable from Hotels.com:

Vegas Club Hotel & Casino ($33); Sam's Town Hotel & Gambling Hall ($35); Plaza Hotel and Casino ($35); Four Queens Hotel & Casino ($36); Sahara Las Vegas Hotel and Casino ($45); Tropicana Hotel and Casino ($49); Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino ($50); and Stratosphere Tower Casino and Resort ($55).

Determined to spend even less? Go to VegasView.com (www.vegasview.com) where you'll presently find:

El Cortez ($31); Buffalo Bill's ($23); Binion's ($30); Boulder Station ($30); Fiesta Rancho ($31); Fitzgeralds ($37); Palace Station ($33); Vegas Club ($29); and Texas Station ($34).

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Labels: las vegas

Yesterday I passed on word about the almost unbelievable rate for air-and-land packages to Barbados in September and October, from an enterprising Brooklyn tour operator called Atlas Vacations (tel. 800/634-1057; www.atlasvacations.net; note: the website does not properly render without Internet Explorer or a PC). Atlas was founded by Jamaican ex-pats and has strong ties there. As you'd expect, they have stunning prices to Jamaica, this time throughout the entire autumn (starting September) and early winter (until mid-December). For round-trip air and 7 nights at the White Sands Beach Resort in Negril, they'll be charging:

• $399 from Miami
• $543 from New York
• $656 from Chicago
• $656 from Philadelphia
• $552 from Washington, D.C.
• $541 from Atlanta
• $586 from Boston
• $536 from Orlando, and
• $517 from Los Angeles

Add $150 per person for round-trip airport-to-hotel transfers and departure taxes. And inquire about the surcharge presently being fixed for alternate accommodations with three meals a day at the Fun Holiday Beach Resort in Negril.

Dates for travel are September 1 through December 15, 2008. As we've discussed on several occasions, the Caribbean has become a hot bargain for the coming fall and early winter.

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Labels: jamaica

Reader David Berger, of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, newly back from a cruise, has supplied us with a detailed formula for sightseeing the port cities of the Mediterranean on your own two feet:

In Athens, the port of Piraeus (where the cruise ships dock) is a distance from the city center, but the subway from the port goes straight into town and has a stop right at the foot of the Acropolis, for only €1.5, as opposed to the horrendous charge for the cruise line's tour there. Admission to the Acropolis itself is €12. Imagine the savings and the pleasure of pursuing your own timetable.

In Naples, a five-minute walk from ship to train depot and for €11 a train ride to the very gates of Pompeii is available. You can even ride on down to Sorrento and more if you wish. And after I got back to Naples, I stopped for a pizza, that city's most famous export. You can't do that on an escorted tour.

In Rome, the ship docks at Civitavecchia about 45 miles north of the city, but again a train is available near the port dock. It takes you right into the heart of Rome, including a stop next to Vatican City. What's more, the ticket includes free use of the city's Metro. Just check a map for stops, and you can tour the Eternal City from end to end.

At Venice, the ship offered an $18 ride by boat to St. Mark's Square, with a return every hour. But if you read up just a bit, you'll learn that Venice has a fantastic water bus system and a stop right next to the ship, and an all-day, unlimited-transportation pass (for €11) on the canal boats lets you ride round and round, in and out of canals, on and off as you please.

With a little homework, I was able to enjoy all but one port of call without any organized, group tours. The exception was Ephesus, in Turkey, which required a long bus ride to reach the ancient site.

I think I've made my point. You can have such a great time in ports of call if you simply take the time to consult a travel guide, and check out the options ahead of time. Consulting the street maps in those guides can make for a great experience of those ports, and save you hundreds of dollars as well.

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Labels: cruise

The single greatest travel bargain continues to be the air-and-land packages to Barbados for vacation trips in September and October. Obviously subsidized by the Barbados government (a fact they've never denied), one-week trips to that faraway and rather elegant island are priced in the mid-$500s in these two, early-fall months, including not simply seven nights of lodging with daily breakfast but round-trip air there from as far away as New York -- and airport-to-hotel transfers.

I've been reminded about the Barbados promotion by an urgent e-mail from the enterprising Atlas Vacations of Brooklyn, New York, which lists the following September prices for an air-included (on an Air Jamaica flight) week-long hotel stay (at the Golden Sands Hotel):

• From Miami: $326 per person
• From New York: $430
• From Philadelphia: $478
• From Chicago: $552
• From Atlanta: $506
• From Orlando: $529

There is no single supplement to these rates. And thus, amazingly, single persons traveling alone pay no more than each member of a couple traveling together. But you'll need to add $150 for airport transfers and taxes (a transfer being necessary from the somewhat remotely-located airport of Barbados). Packages go up by about $100 for departures in October.

As I've said, these particular rates and conditions are available from Atlas Vacations (tel. 800/634-1057; www.atlasvacations.net; note: the website does not properly render without Internet Explorer or a PC). It's my guess that Atlas has space in late September and October, unlike one or two other tour operators that shut down their "Best of Barbados" program at that time.

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Labels: barbados

We are now ending the first week of à la carte pricing for air transportation in the U.S. -- the imposition of all sorts of extra fees and charges for services that used to be included in the cost of the ticket. Nearly every airline now charges $15 to check aboard the first suitcase per person and $25 to check a second suitcase. Some of the carriers now charge $2 for a small plastic bottle of water or a soft drink. I haven't yet learned how costly the peanuts will be.

These fees are part of a frantic effort by the airlines to raise money. One analyst predicted last week that if oil remained above $130 a barrel, several major carriers would be forced into bankruptcy by the end of the year. So they are panic-stricken and we probably haven't seen an end to additional charges.

In fact, you can gain a glimpse of America's airline future by noting the tactics of the low-cost airlines that fly within Europe. The biggest of them, Ryanair, goes well beyond charging the equivalent of $15 and $25 for the first and second suitcase checked aboard. They now also charge the Euro equivalent of $7.50 for simply checking in at the airport rather than online. But because you have to check in at the airport if you want to check aboard luggage, people with luggage to check always have to pay the extra $7.50.

Ryanair also charges $6 for using a credit card to pay for your ticket. And it imposes unusually harsh charges for overly heavy luggage, which it defines as more than 33 pounds. It charges $22 -- think about that -- for each two pounds above the weight limit. And that's each way. In some instances, passengers have paid more than €98 ($150) in total extra charges, which in some cases is higher than the cost of the Ryanair ticket itself. (Another European airline, the Hungarian/Polish carrier called Wizzair, is charging €1 ($1.54) per minute simply to phone them).

Because, here in the U.S., the extra charges haven't been imposed on persons who bought their tickets some time ago, and will only go fully into effect for new purchases in the days ahead, we haven't yet experienced the congestion, delays, and fist-fights that these penalties will bring about. But because so many people will attempt to limit their luggage to carry-ons stowed in the racks above their seats, it's obvious that rack space will soon be at a premium, that passengers will battle for that space, and that carry-ons will be strictly limited to small sizes. It's been reported that airlines are preparing to hire personnel to hang around the luggage belts, and at the gates leading into planes, spying on the carry-ons taken aboard, to insure that persons do not attempt to smuggle on overly large suitcases.

And because many persons will limit themselves to carry-ons, they will also have to insure that their liquid, gel or aerosol containers are no greater in size than 3 ounces apiece, all enclosed in a medium-size, transparent zip-loc bag. What a mess is about to result!

To worsen matters, scarcely a week goes by that the airlines don't increase their ticket prices, independent of these fees, by sums as great as $90 each way. Those increases will gain momentum as many airlines exhaust their earlier decisions to "hedge" the cost of aviation fuel -- and indeed, most hedge contracts expire near the end of this year. Already, the cost of fuel surcharges across the Atlantic is approaching $250 round-trip, on top of increased security charges, government taxes, and baggage charges. The days when you could cross the Atlantic, or the U.S., for $299 each way, are soon about to end. I'm expecting many one-way fares (and additional charges) to total (including fuel surcharge, taxes, fees, baggage and other added charges) $600 to $700 each way, at least $1,200 round-trip. A couple going to Europe, or from New York to California, will often need to budget $2,400 for round-trip transportation.

Unless you are among a small group of high earners, the only way you will travel in the future is by becoming increasingly cost-conscious with respect to lodgings and other land costs. I used to be looked upon as an eccentric for constantly stressing the need to consider alternative low-cost accommodations: hostels and hostales, pensiones and B&Bs, apartments and vacation homes, convents and monasteries, private homes and houseboats. May I suggest that these will now become necessities? May I advise that the glossy pages and upscale recommendations of Condé Nast Traveler and Travel & Leisure will now become crushingly irrelevant? Most American travelers, if they are to continue to travel extensively, will have to seek out economical approaches that offset the high cost of getting there.

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Labels: money

I recently posted a list of the multiple websites that direct you to the increasing number of so-called private hostels all over the world. These are not the non-profit, often-government-supported dorms belonging to Hostelling International (the long-established youth hostel organization that now takes guests of any age). Rather, a private hostel is a commercial, profit-seeking operation on the part of various entrepreneurs who primarily buy up former unsuccessful hotels and convert them into hostels by greatly expanding the number of beds they offer (turning doubles into quads, replacing beds with bunks, and so on). In these days of a weak dollar and stratospheric room rates at standard European hotels, the new "hostels” are a haven for cost-conscious people. They continue to charge the kind of rates that Americans used to pay, and they are multiplying in quantity.

I have now been advised by the founders of EuroCheapo (www.eurocheapo.com) that they have created a new website called EuropeanHostels (www.europeanhotels.com). Whereas EuroCheapo describes budget-priced hotels and guesthouses, EuropeanHostels will be more tightly focused on true hostels -- i.e., those in which most accommodations are dorm-like in nature, and where the nightly rate is sensationally low. (But there is an overlap between the two sites; many of the "hostels” also offer single and double rooms, and all of them accept people of all ages).

It's an interesting new website with a great many photographs and other aids that you may find helpful. Here's the pitch I received:

The site, which we initially created as a youth hostel directory in 1999, has been overhauled to include Editor's Picks and in-house hostel reviews, hostel photos, user reviews and travel forums.

The main feature we think will be most beneficial for budget travelers is our new hostel search engine. EuropeanHostels's customized search capability brings in much of the functionality found on travel search sites but has been overlooked within the hostel category.

The website's new search tools include sorting and filtering by Editor's Pick, Price, Distance to city center and Highest Rating, and it also displays hostels with Google maps.

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Labels: accommodations, websites