Aug 5, 2008
If you're going to limit your summer vacation to a major U.S. city, be sure to pick up a CityPass
It's described at www.citypass.com, and it functions simply. Customers buy a packet of entry passes to about six major attractions. When you walk up to those attractions, you just show the packet, and the pass is detached, granting you admission. The price paid for the packet is always less than what you'd pay if you simply purchased the same number of tickets at their box offices. A savings of 50 percent is not unusual.
Unlike many so-called "passes" for sale to tourists by the day, CityPass (tel. 800/330-5008) doesn't require users to race around, seeing a large number of attractions quickly in order to make their investment pay off. Instead, visitors are given about a week to see everything, and if they intend to see four or five of the most important attractions, they will almost always benefit from the savings represented by CityPass.
Also, unlike many passes in the tourism industry, the attractions are generally not minor. They are usually the cream of each city. In New York, for example, the Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Statue of Liberty are all included. Chicago comes with the Sears Tower and the Field Museum. In San Francisco, the use of CityPass also grants unlimited free rides on city buses, trams, and even the famous cable cars (usually $5 per ride).
CityPass currently has deals in 11 important tourist areas:
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Unlike many so-called "passes" for sale to tourists by the day, CityPass (tel. 800/330-5008) doesn't require users to race around, seeing a large number of attractions quickly in order to make their investment pay off. Instead, visitors are given about a week to see everything, and if they intend to see four or five of the most important attractions, they will almost always benefit from the savings represented by CityPass.
Also, unlike many passes in the tourism industry, the attractions are generally not minor. They are usually the cream of each city. In New York, for example, the Empire State Building, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Statue of Liberty are all included. Chicago comes with the Sears Tower and the Field Museum. In San Francisco, the use of CityPass also grants unlimited free rides on city buses, trams, and even the famous cable cars (usually $5 per ride).
CityPass currently has deals in 11 important tourist areas:
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Philadelphia
- Chicago
- Boston
- Toronto
- Seattle
- Atlanta
- Southern California
- Hollywood
- Houston
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Labels: atlanta, boston, chicago, CityPass, houston, los angeles, new york city, philadelphia, san diego, san francisco, seattle
Mar 18, 2008
Here's an odd suggestion for your upcoming summer vacation: spend it at Harvard!
Attracted by an advertisement of the Harvard Summer School, in which programs were described as being for "high school and college students, and adults," I phoned Harvard's public relations department and learned, to my surprise, that the entire summer program is available to adults of any age (although overwhelmingly attended by younger persons). Provided you are willing to spend a minimum of four weeks on a program, you can sign up for any summer school course, and take the course without subjecting yourself to grades or exams (but, of course, you'll get no college credit for it). What's more, the authorities will attempt to find you accommodations in a Harvard dorm, or in the many private residences scattered throughout the Cambridge, Massachusetts, area, in which Harvard students are housed.
So here's an alternative to Oxford or University College Dublin this summer. I've written a great deal about the residential summer programs offered in the universities of the British Isles and strongly recommended them as a supreme vacation activity. To check into an Oxford "quad," take instruction from a celebrated Oxford "don," and then enjoy meals in the same cavernous Gothic dining room pictured in the Harry Potter movies, is a once-in-a-lifetime thrill. But now, at lesser cost, you can have approximately that experience in one of America's leading universities.
When my daughter was a teenager attending high school, she attended Harvard's Summer School, and it was as a top moment of her life. The faculty is Harvard's faculty, the level of instruction is high, and the Harvard campus is full of cultural opportunities. Although the Harvard Summer School website itself makes no reference to "adults," I'm told that every program in it can be taken by an adult (as the advertising for the program states), provided only -- once again -- that you are willing to sign up for a four-week session (the minimum duration of programs). Go to www.summer.harvard.edu for all the details.
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So here's an alternative to Oxford or University College Dublin this summer. I've written a great deal about the residential summer programs offered in the universities of the British Isles and strongly recommended them as a supreme vacation activity. To check into an Oxford "quad," take instruction from a celebrated Oxford "don," and then enjoy meals in the same cavernous Gothic dining room pictured in the Harry Potter movies, is a once-in-a-lifetime thrill. But now, at lesser cost, you can have approximately that experience in one of America's leading universities.
When my daughter was a teenager attending high school, she attended Harvard's Summer School, and it was as a top moment of her life. The faculty is Harvard's faculty, the level of instruction is high, and the Harvard campus is full of cultural opportunities. Although the Harvard Summer School website itself makes no reference to "adults," I'm told that every program in it can be taken by an adult (as the advertising for the program states), provided only -- once again -- that you are willing to sign up for a four-week session (the minimum duration of programs). Go to www.summer.harvard.edu for all the details.
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Labels: accommodations, boston
Feb 29, 2008
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
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
