More and more mentions of the potent Po Chai's are appearing in travel and other literature (see, for instance www.gadling.com). And what are they? They're Chinese medications that supposedly work wonders with respect to such travel-associated discomforts as indigestion, heartburn, vomiting, diarrhea and bloating. Po Chai's (which are also known as Curing pills or Bao Ji pills) can be purcased at many pharmacies in U.S. Chinatowns, and are an example of the herb-based remedies so highly prized by Asian cultures.

I've seen a number of recommendations for PoChais by avid travelers and am curious as to whether any of our readers have tried them and if so, with what results. I'd also like to hear tips on good ways to acquire them, since the Internet is swamped with bogus pill sellers, and buying medicines in foreign countries can be more hazardous than getting them in the U.S.

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Labels: medical travel, tips

Just yesterday, Northwest Airlines joined the meanies that now charge $15 even for the first suitcase you check onto a flight. A number of readers have asked that I summarize the entire situation relating to both checked luggage, carry-on luggage, and shipped luggage.

Presently, every single airline other than Southwest charges $25 for the second suitcase checked aboard a flight. But only five airlines charge $15 for the first suitcase checked aboard: United, US Air, American, Northwest, and Spirit Airlines.

That leaves a number of airlines continuing to accept the first suitcase without charge, and these are the ones you should now patronize when you have to travel with at least one large suitcase. These "good guys" are: Alaska, Continental, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, and Southwest.

As for carry-on luggage, the airlines seem more interested in the size of those carry-ons rather than their weight. Most of them impose a limit of 45 linear inches on the smaller bags that you stick into the overhead racks (I'm talking about the total of the width, height and depth of the bag). Thus, a bag that's 9 inches by 14 inches by 22 inches, is 45-linear-inches. If your suitcase bulges beyond those limits (I'm reminded by my daughter Pauline) -- say, if you overpack one of the outside pockets -- you could be stopped and required to check it.

How about simply shipping the luggage to your destination (via FedEx or UPS) rather than carrying or checking it with the airline? That really doesn't work. If you'll talk to your nearest FedEx or UPS outlet, you'll discover usual fees of $40 to $70 to $100 and more for shipping luggage within the U.S., meaning you'd be better off simply paying the $25 that airlines charge for a second suitcase checked onto the flight.

Maybe these pesky fees will cause us all to pack less -- and even to limit our luggage to one small carry-on bag.

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Labels: airlines, tips

Were you aware that in Orlando, you can leave the theme park areas and later return on the same day without incurring additional expense? The tickets you've purchased are valid all day, regardless of the number of times you enter and leave. Same with parking privileges. Once you've paid to park your car, you can drive away from the theme park to an inexpensive eatery (like a Denny's or any other family restaurant), and later return to the same theme park parking lot without paying another charge.

That's the advice I've just received from Orlando expert Jason Cochran, author of Pauline Frommer's Orlando. With meals on theme park grounds costing so very much (a bare minimum of $10 to $12 per person at fast food stands), more and more families, he claims, are driving once a day for meals to far less expensive food outlets off the Disney, Universal or SeaWorld grounds, carefully keeping their admission and parking receipts. They save a ton on food costs, which is an important method of keeping down the expense of visiting theme parks in Orlando.

The detailed procedure: When you leave the park, you simply need to make sure you exit through the turnstiles devoted to people who intend to come back -- they are usually called "Same-Day Return." The park may give you a hand stamp in invisible ink, but you will always need to keep your original ticket.

An additional advantage: Leaving the park can also give you a chance to hit your hotel pool during the hottest hours of the day-- which can be a lifesaver if you've got weary kids in tow.

A single disadvantage: the tactic works best at all the theme parks other than Disney's Magic Kingdom. At the latter, getting to the parking lot can occasionally be so burdensome (you will either have to take a ferry or a monorail from the park) that for that one location, the hassle may not be worth it. (It could take you as long as 45 minutes to reach your car.) Otherwise, parking lots are always adjacent to the front gates.

A related suggestion: I also asked Jason whether families can bring their own picnic ingredients with them on a visit to the various Orlando theme parks, and he answered Yes. Says Jason: "Parks do not officially sanction bringing food inside, but I have never once heard of them actually preventing guests from doing so. In fact, many people do bring light meals in, which they then eat on one of the many park benches. I'd suggest not making a big production out of it -- stash sandwiches here and there all around your bags. Again, the parks never make trouble about this. Just don't bring alcohol."

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Labels: orlando, tips

My daughter and fellow guidebook author Pauline appeared alongside me on the Today show on Thursday morning to share ideas for trips you can take with your father. You can watch the clip below.



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Labels: holidays, pauline, tips, video

We have just experienced two of the most difficult and disappointing weeks in the recent history of travel. The sadness began with the debacle of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, where British Airways totally bungled the opening of a giant new facility, destroying the trips of thousands, losing the luggage of tens of thousands, and creating a reputation for incompetence that will takes years to dispel. The bad news continued with the bankruptcy in one week of three airlines: ATA (a major source of low-cost air tickets to Hawaii), Aloha Airlines (internal flights within the Hawaiian islands), and Skybus (charging $10 a seat for the first several seats on its flights to and from Columbus, Ohio); and the insolvencies continued the very next week with the Chapter XI filing by Frontier Airlines (which has, however, continued flying). (Various travel pros are currently taking bets on the next carriers to go under, and the list includes some of the best known.)

Then things got worse, with the cancellation of hundreds of American Airlines flights due to the need for long-delayed inspection of aircraft wiring, ruining trips by more than a hundred thousand passengers and causing airports to bulge with stranded travelers. (On my own Delta flight to Atlanta, Georgia, this past Friday, there were 30 stand-bys -- all people attempting to travel onward via the Georgia capital in substitution for the more logical itineraries of their cancelled American Airlines flights.)

And finally, this past Friday, the U.S. dollar resumed its drop against the European Euro, reaching a level of $1.59 per Euro -- which means an actual exchange of more than $1.70 per Euro when the fees and commissions of money-changers are factored in. (Not too long ago, the U.S. dollar sold at par against the Euro.) As is already the case in Britain, where you must double the price in English pounds in order to get the dollar equivalent, we may soon have to do the same with Euros on the continent -- as if European prices weren't high enough already!

So what's to be done? You must always pay for your travel purchases with credit cards, hoping that the credit card company will reimburse you if the trip you have purchased goes down the drain. You might also take out travel insurance (go to www.insuremytrip.com for an analysis of the policies), purchasing only those policies that protect against the default of the supplier. And with respect to the high cost of traveling in Europe? Well, that's another matter.

I can tell you from the experience of my trip over the past two weeks that Europe has not lost its appeal. It is still the classic destination for Americans, a part of our cultural life, a source of our heritage. Your recourse is to radically change your method of traveling in Europe, substituting much cheaper alternative accommodations (apartments, hostels, rooms in private homes, monasteries, schools, free hospitality services like Servas, Couchsurfering, and Globalfreeloaders) for hotels, eating picnic meals once a day, splitting mealtime plates with your companion. Approached in that manner, Europe can even become a more vital and authentic experience.

And finally, you can take that long-delayed trip to Central or South America in place of Europe, traveling where the dollar remains strong. By 2009, and possibly depending on political developments, the dollar may regain some of its strength, and it surely will do so over the long run.

In this blog, we'll be constantly on the lookout for other means of reducing the cost of a European trip. If anything significant occurs, you'll learn it here.

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Labels: airlines, money, tips, travel insurance

It wasn't a really substantial trip, my seven recent days on a Rhine riverboat (stopping in six cities and four countries), followed by three nights in Lucerne, Switzerland. But in any overseas setting, you are reminded by actual fresh experience about the basic principles of smart travel, as follows:

1. The various European rail passes are more valuable than ever. From checking the railroad ticket offices, it became obvious to me that the increase in the cost of point-to-point rail tickets in Europe has not been matched by an increase in the cost of the various European rail passes. It's as if the people who market these promotional devices in the U.S. have deliberately slowed their rise in price to keep the trip attractive; people I met were able to hop-scotch all over Switzerland with a Swiss Rail Pass for just a little bit more than we paid for two tickets at a Swiss railroad station. In advance of leaving for Europe, look into the various rail pass possibilities at www.raileurope.com.


2. The ATM is your very best bet for obtaining cash. Over and over, I discovered that I could get a decent rate, and pay no big fee, by using my ATM card at the various ATMs in European cities. By contrast, I was shocked by the fees and poor exchange rates of the various money-changing kiosks -- and especially by those kiosks and counters at airports and train stations. The latter, paying high rents to be near the tourist crowds, give you a lousy number of Euros for your dollars, and then charge an additional 5% (at least) as a fee. Even banks, I discovered, now charge big commissions for changing your money. Don't use them. Go to an ATM, and you'll receive an honest exchange.


3. The European equivalent of our T.S.A. will confiscate the same items that T.S.A. does. In European shopping, you have got to stay sensitive to the security check you will later encounter at the airport. We had friends who deliberately passed up the chance to buy reasonably-priced Swiss Army Knives (as gifts for their friends) at shops in Lucerne in the thought that they could buy them for much less at an airport tax-free shop. Passing through security in the airport for the flight home, and rushing to the area of the tax-free shops, they of course discovered that none of these shops were able to sell Swiss Army Knives (since those knives could no longer be placed in luggage checked aboard). You have got to keep mentally agile on your trips to Europe, you have got to think logically and have eyes in the back of your head.


4. You can enjoy big savings by crossing the Atlantic on a flight making stops en route to your destination. I met person after person who had flown to cities in Europe using frequent flyer mileage not on the carrier whose program they had joined, but on the planes of an "alliance partner" flying out-of-your-way to another European city -- and only then to your desired destination. Thus, people flying to Amsterdam on frequent flyer mileage earned through Continental, would go there at very cheap cost via Dusseldorf on Lufthansa, a "partner" of Continental; this involved a bit of a hassle, but saved big sums. Bear in mind that all the major U.S. airlines -- American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United -- belong to airline alliances whose other members will honor the frequent flyer mileage programs of the big American carriers (but you are not always told that by the U.S. carrier; you have to raise the subject and insist).


5. All the tried-and-true rules for smart eating continue to bring major savings in today's Europe. Because more and more European hotels include a large buffet breakfast in your room charges -- enough to fill you long past the lunch hour -- it has become smarter than ever to make lunch a picnic meal from ingredients purchased at a grocery. You eat well, cheaply and healthily. Similarly, at low-cost European restaurants, the servings are generally so large that the smart traveler orders an appetizer for themselves, a main course for their companion, and then proceeds to split the plates.

Europe never loses its appeal. As disappointing as the weak U.S. dollar is, a trip to Europe is still memorable beyond measure.

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Labels: airport security, europe, money, tips

7. The increase in bargain-priced re-positioning cruises. As more and more cruiseships alternate between the Caribbean (winter) and European waters (spring and summer), and need to move between one area and the other (re-positioning), there's been a tremendous rise in the number of cruises costing as little as $60 a day. Go to VacationsToGo.com (www.vacationstogo.com) for the most clearly-identified listing of re-positioning cruises.

8. The emergence of the European river cruise. Cruises along the Rhine and the Danube, in particular, are soaring in popularity and increasing in frequency. For an unusually relaxing, and very different form of vacationing, you might consider one.

9. The emergence of medical and dental tourism. Urged on by a new book entitled Patients Beyond Borders by Josef Woodman, many thousands of medically-uninsured Americans are now seeking low-cost medical or dental care abroad, in clinics and hospitals accredited by the same organizations which accredit clinics and hospitals in the U.S.

10. The almost universal need for a passport. As directed by the Department of Homeland Security, it is now necessary to possess a passport if you plan to fly anywhere in the world -- even simply within the Western Hemisphere. Get one.

11. The come-back of Priceline.com. By first using a website called BiddingForTravel.com (www.biddingfortravel.com), which tells you how other travelers have succeeded in using the opaque Priceline, an increasing number of savvy travelers have had success with Priceline. Some, who regard Priceline as unsuitable for air travel, are making use of it for hotel rooms.

12. The increasing regard for Amtrak. At last, serious efforts are afoot in Congress to place Amtrak on a firm financial footing; and ridership on the national train system is increasing each year.

13. The emergence of hidden hotel fees. To their discredit, hotel executives have greatly increased their use of this improper tactic -- like charging $15-a-day "resort fees" for beach towels which remained in your room. Never make a booking without demanding to know whether hidden fees will increase your bill.

14. The startling increase in zany Las Vegas weddings. Your minister is disguised as Elvis Presley. Another rises eerily from a coffin. The wedding march is to the melody of "Viva Las Vegas". For a reason I will never understand, increasing numbers of couples are opting to be married in a weird Las Vegas wedding chapel -- and that, too, is a major recent development in travel.

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Labels: tips, trends

My daughter and I were asked at the New York Times Travel Show to name what we considered the top travel bargains for the year ahead, both in destinations and in facilities for travel. Here's the second part of our answer:

11. Eastern Europe and Croatia. In countries that haven't yet adopted the Euro, prices remain much lower for Americans than in western Europe.

12. Kenya (possibly). Provided only that a political truce between warring factions remains in effect, Kenya will once again be offering low-cost African safaris to persons booking from Lionworldtravel.com, 2Afrika.com, AdventureCenter.com, or GapAdventures.com.

13. Southwest and A.T.A. to Hawaii. You fly America's biggest cut-rate carrier to Oakland, California, and there transfer to an A.T.A. flight to Hawaii, enjoying rock-bottom airfares to that tropical paradise.

14. DIY bicycle tours. Shunning the high-priced, escorted, group bicycle tours for non-escorted, do-it-yourself biking along a prescribed route has become a major, budget-priced vacation activity, and no service handles this better than BikeToursDirect (www.biketoursdirect.com).

15. Discount cruises. Though cruiseline executives will deny it, a giant number of cabins are being sold at sharply-discounted, rock-bottom rates. Go to VacationsToGo.com (www.vacationstogo.com), Cruise Wizard (www.cruisewizard.com), CruisesOnly (www.cruisesonly.com) and you'll find stunning low fares.

16. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Though Canada in general has lost its low-cost appeal due to the strength of the Canadian dollar, these Atlantic provinces remain moderately priced for everything from accommodations to succulent lobster dinners.

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Labels: deals, tips

A smart traveler takes the time to review the big developments in travel, because these larger trends can inform your own vacation decisions. Some are awfully obvious, and yet deserve renewed attention:

1. The dramatic decline of the U.S. dollar. That drop affects not only a possible trip to western Europe (whose Euro and British Pound have risen greatly in cost), but also to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, whose currencies have also risen greatly. Your most obvious course is to substitute a trip to Central or South America, or to Asia other than Japan, where the U.S. dollar remains relatively strong. Or else you must adopt radically different policies for arranging your lodgings (vacation homes or apartments, rooms in private homes, hostels) in travel to western Europe.

2. The ever-larger cruiseship. The cruiselines continue to build vessels for up to 4,000 passengers, and the only smaller new ships are those of "premium" lines costing an arm and a leg. If you are to avoid the cruiseship crowds, you must learn how to use the websites of the various cruise discounters, who occasionally -- very occasionally -- have bargains to offer on the smaller luxury vessels.

3. The contined strength of the airfare aggregators. Such names as Kayak (www.kayak.com), SideStep (www.sidestep.com), Farechase (farechase.yahoo.com), Momondo (www.momondo.com), and Mobissimo Travel (www.mobissimo.com) are popular because they impartially list all the low-cost airfares available to you. They do not sell air tickets, but simply direct you to the relevant airlines.

4. The growth of the vacation exchange industry. "You stay in their home while they stay in yours". The 2006 Hollywood film, The Holiday, has caused a torrent of Americans to pay attention to this single most logical, sensible and effective method of reducing your lodgings costs.

5. The increasing popularity of free hospitality services. Websites like www.couchsurfing.com, www.globalfreeloaders.com, and www.usservas.org, enable you to enjoy free hospitality.

6. The growing trend towards the rental of vacation homes and apartments. A giant movement. More and more Americans have learned that a vacation home or apartment can cost considerably less than an equivalent hotel room or rooms. Try HomeAway (www.homeaway.com), among others, for obtaining such a lodging.

7. The increase in bargain-priced re-positioning cruises. As more and more cruiseships alternate between the Caribbean (winter) and European waters (spring and summer), and need to move between one area and the other (re-positioning), there's been a tremendous rise in the number of cruises costing as little as $60 a day. Go to VacationsToGo.com (www.vacationstogo.com) for the most clearly-identified listing of re-positioning cruises.

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Labels: tips

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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Labels: alaska, cruise, tips

Have you ever wondered how to locate a Wi-Fi hotspot at the destination of your next trip? The place collecting that information is JiWire (www.jiwire.com), which currently displays 226,377 locations in 135 countries (including the US) where WiFi access is either free of charge or nominally priced. You access the website, then go to "WiFi hotsports" and click on the city in which you're seeking the location.

Be sure to obtain and mark down those addresses before you leave home as obviously you'll have to be online before you can access the website.

City with the largest number of WiFi hotspots? It's Moscow, followed closely by London and Paris. Ranking 7th, 8th and 9th are Tokyo, Berlin and New York. Country with the most hotspots? The United States followed closely by the United Kingdom.

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Labels: tips, websites

In July of last year, I wrote about eating in Europe and suggested ten ways to keep down the tab. After much reflection (and suggestions from friends), I've concluded that an additional seven approaches are needed to fully cover the topic. Here they are:

11.) Call up for take-out. You can order pizza delivery in Italy just as you do at home, or stop by a grocery store to pick up the ingredients of a home-cooked meal (it helps if you have a kitchenette, though its also easy to cobble together a more picnic-style meal that doesn't require cooking). Many restaurants in Europe let you order to go, so you can enjoy your meal in the comfort of your hotel room without paying cover charges, service fees, or tips (plus, take-out makes it much easier to order fewer dishes per person and then share them).

12.) Skip the main course. Frankly, cooked meat tastes pretty much the same everywhere -- so you don't get much of a cultural experience from ordering it -- yet main courses are the priciest items on any menu. I'd advise to skip the steak and concentrate on a medley of appetizers, first courses, and desserts. Not only will this save you the cost of the entrees, but by ordering a kaleidoscope of first courses you get to sample far more of the dishes that make the local cuisine special.

13.) Stick with the house wine or local beer. Don't bother paying $40 for a labeled bottle when a liter carafe of the house red or white will almost invariably be just as tasty and just as genuine yet cost less than $15. In beer countries (Germany-speaking nations, the Low Countries, much of Eastern Europe), just order whatever's on tap -- at home you'd pay through the nose for such an "import;" the locals consider it the 50¢ draft.

14.) Drink tap water. The water in Europe is perfectly safe to drink. Most Europeans order mineral water with their meals to the tune of $3 to $5 a bottle. A carafe of tap water is free. You do the math.

15.) Patronize pricey restaurants only at lunch. If you want to splash out on a fine restaurant in Paris, by all means do so -- but go at lunch, when the prices are frequently and mysteriously much lower than at dinner, or when a set lunch menu may be available, allowing you to sample the haute cuisine without paying the haute price.

16.) Order the tourist menu or fixed-price menu. Most restaurants in Europe offer set-priced meals that cost a good 10% to 25% less than à la carte. Some deals are better than others (the best include wine, water, dessert, and coffee), and for some reason a "fixed-price menu" usually offers more options (but slightly higher prices) than a "tourist menu," where your choice is usually pasta with tomato sauce followed by roast chicken or veal and fruit or dessert.

17.) Always ask, "Is service included?" This might be printed at the bottom of the menu, but even if it is not, always ask (and call it "service," a word more widely understood than "tip"). It's usually 10% to 15%, which is standard in Europe. Whatever you do, don't double-tip. If service is included, you needn't pay anything beyond the total on the bill. However, if the waitstaff were particularly good, feel free to leave behind an extra euro per person to show your appreciation.

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Labels: dining, tips

Following a recent car trip, when I passed through small cities and made use of a free computer in local libraries, I am reminded that the public library is a key to such use not simply within the United States but abroad. Numerous friends have confirmed that on their own recent trips to international places, they sought out a local library and found that it had at least one computer linked to the internet, which they were able to use free-of-charge. And they had no difficulty using it even though they had no library card for that location.

How do you find a local library? You ask the tourist office for specifics. And why, in this era of wi-fi in hotels and at airports, should you be concerned with finding a free service? Because a usual minimum charge for wi-fi, wherever you are, is $1 a minute -- and that adds up. While cybercafes are remarkably convenient, they also come with a price tag at least as high as $1 a minute.

So to check in occasionally with work, keep up with the news, or Skype your friends and families (2.4¢ a minute to a traditional phone number), go to the public library.

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Labels: communication, tips

Yesterday I described five significant new travel developments that became apparent in 2007. Here are five more, which all of us should consider and absorb.

6) 2007 was a record year for passenger traffic on Amtrak, causing growing support in Congress for adequate, multi-year appropriations for the beleaguered national railway system. Attempts by anti-Amtrak forces to phase it out seem to have been thwarted -- and we should all rejoice. We should also give an edge to Amtrak in our travel planning.

7) A boom in the rental of vacation homes occurred in Orlando and other sunbelt locations, as well as abroad. New online services for renting vacation homes have been launched even by the hotel companies (see Wyndham Hotels' new EVRentals.com) that compete against the use of vacation homes.

8) There's been a surprising rise in the popularity among Americans of European river cruises, apparently seen to supply a pleasant and inexpensive method of touring the continent. A similar jump has occurred in the rental of self-skippered boats for cruises along the canals and other non-river waterways of Europe.

9) Foreign airfare "aggregators" -- notably, www.momondo.com of Denmark and www.mobissimo.com of Italy -- have attracted a major U.S. audience of technophiles who use these services even for obtaining low-cost airfares within the United States.

10) Priceline.com has made a surprising comeback, mainly in the rental of hotel rooms and cars. Apparently, large numbers of travelers felt in 2007 that they took no risk by bidding low prices for deluxe hotels whose ratings insure a good stay regardless of their identities.

Runners-up to these 10 most significant developments? They include: the recent startling rise in the number of zany Las Vegas weddings, filling the marriage chapels of that weird city; the growth of the vacation exchange industry (you stay in their home while they stay in yours), a tactic that received the supreme accolade in 2007 of a big Hollywood movie; the growing popularity of the re-positioning cruise spending many days simply at sea (since early in 2007, they are no longer so hard to sell); the emergence of free hospitality for young people using such websites as www.couchsurfing.com and www.globalfreeloaders.com. Have I missed any?

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Labels: tips, websites

As we near the end of 2007, it may be helpful to review the chief travel developments of the year that's about to end. What was new and different in travel, and how will those developments affect our future travels?

1) The Dollar comes first. It plummeted against the Euro and the British Pound, greatly reducing the number of Americans traveling trans-Atlantic (a 20% drop, says the U.S. Tour Operators Association). Future consequences of that? We cost-conscious travelers will now need either to consider traveling to new destinations (Central and South America, Eastern Europe, or most of Asia where the dollar remains strong) or become more willing to use ultra-inexpensive lodgings (private homestays, weekly apartments, vacation exchanges) in Western Europe.

2) Cruiseships exploded in size. With the exception of a very few hyper-expensive ships, virtually every new, normally priced cruiseship is being designed to carry 2,500, 3,000 or 4,000 passengers apiece. Cruises have thereby become an activity for crowds, and the nature of the experience is greatly altered. Persons preferring a quiet, maritime interlude will need to keep a sharp eye for the occasional discounts offered by small luxury cruiseships.

3) Central America has soared in popularity. In addition to Costa Rica, awash in tourism, increasing numbers of Americans are traveling or thinking about traveling to Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua. The construction of condominiums in Panama has surpassed Miami levels, and numerous American retirees are making exploratory trips there.

4) Medical and dental tourism have recently attracted record numbers of Americans to health facilities in Thailand, Singapore, northern Mexico, South Korea, Hungary, Costa Rica, and Rio de Janeiro. A number of serious books favorably commenting on accredited hospitals in those countries have overcome the former reluctance to seek low-cost medical and dental treatment outside the United States.

5) It has become clear throughout the past year that a U.S. passport will become a necessity for Americans traveling by land, sea or air from any foreign nation into the United States. Travelers will anxiously scan the news reports for evidence that the U.S. State Department is able to issue such passports expeditiously.

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Labels: tips

In nearly every European hotel, the key to your room is a plastic card with magnetic stripe that not only unlocks your hotel room door but then permits you to turn on the room lights. You first stick the card into a slot to open the door, and then stick it into another slot inside the room to permit lights to be turned on. Unless you stick the card into the second slot, and leave it in, you are unable to turn on your room lights.

Later, when you leave the room and need to take the key with you, you remove the card from the slot into which it has been placed. That immediately turns off every light in the hotel room. In Europe, in other words, it is impossible to leave your room without turning off the lights! And instead of lights remaining on in millions of hotel rooms -- as they often are in America -- they have to be turned off when the room is not used.

Why hasn't this energy-saving device been adopted by American hotels? It would save not simply a small amount of electric energy, but a massive amount -- the energy consumed by leaving the lights on in literally millions of hotel rooms for lengthy periods of the day. I wish a U.S. hotel executive would explain why the U.S. hotel industry has not adopted the sensible European system. Do any of our readers know why? Please advise.

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Labels: accommodations, tips

In recent days, I've discussed a fairly small service for obtaining rental apartments in some of the cheaper areas of Europe. Using The Right Vacation Rentals (www.therightvacationrentals.com), you have the security of relying on the 30-year-old Untours organization, which has personally inspected the some 200-or-so European apartments it is making available for weeklong and longer rentals, in relatively unfamiliar places like Croatia, Crete, Cyprus, Corfu, the Dordogne, Emilia Romagna, Slovenia -- you get the picture.

But what about the more popular areas, and the places where the U.S. dollar isn't quite so weak? I should point out that as many as a dozen major worldwide services have emerged to offer rentals of apartments and vacation homes -- in fact, the business segment they occupy is one of the hottest in travel. One of the big players is ResortQuest (www.resortquest.com), with many thousands of properties to offer. Another is Endless Vacation Rentals.com (www.evrentals.com), owned by the mighty Wyndham Hotels, and claiming to represent some 60,000 properties, including many in Europe.

There is, of course, Vacation Rental by Owner (www.vrbo.com), which we've mentioned on many occasions on this blog -- and which also spans the world, offering apartments ranging from Europe to Japan.

And finally, there's one we've overlooked: Rentalo.com (www.rentalo.com), a Florida outfit, which maintains a "Special Offers" box on its main menu, highlighting savings of up to 65% on apartment rentals and vacation homes in the tropics, in particular (you use it for Florida, the Caribbean, California, and Hawaii, in which it lists thousands of properties). It's a major firm with a good record to date, although some of its offers are based on the requirement that you book for a minimum of 30 days -- always stay alert for that kind of fine-print condition.

Currently, Rentalo.com is offering a two-bedroom bungalow capable of housing a family of six on the west coast of Puerto Rico, close to popular beaches and every kind of commercial and entertainment attraction -- for only $99 a night (for the entire bungalow, not per person) from now until March 4, 2008. Here the minimum rental period is only seven nights. Rentalo.com is also offering a giant Florida villa in the Orlando area (four bedrooms, three baths, swimming pool and extended deck, sleeping eight) for only $90 a night in the month of January only, for a minimum rental of five nights. With great care, Rentalo points out that the rental is suitable for a family with pre-schoolers, since all doors to the pool are fitted with child alarms.

Have any of our readers actually experienced the services of any of these increasingly important firms? If you have, we'd love to hear about it in responses to this post.

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Labels: accommodations, tips

Pick any popular area, where tour buses prowl and hotels and restaurants charge a premium. Now shift your gaze slightly north, south, east, or west and you'll find an area that is undoubtedly just as attractive yet far less trammeled and, hence, less expensive. It almost goes without saying that, as with any strategy that takes you off the beaten path, this also offers you a chance to have a more unique and rewarding travel experience away from the madding crowds that infest the most popular areas.

Here are a few illustrations to prove the point. Millions of visitors descend each year upon the beaches and towns of Provence, yet relatively few venture further east along the Mediterranean coast to France's Languedoc region, also full of sunny beaches, roman ruins, mighty castles, fine wines, and pastel-washed medieval towns.

For every hundred tourists who drive the Ring of Kerry and kiss the Blarney Stone in Western Ireland, maybe ten head just north up the coast into County Clare, famed for its traditional music and dramatic landscapes--and perhaps only one or two of those might continue up into County Sligo, where postcard towns surround roofless abbeys and forlorn Celtic tombs top windswept hills.

Most visitors to Andalusia stick to the popular western half of the region along the Costa del Sol of the Mediterranean coast and the inland cities of Seville, Cordoba, and Grenada; few discover the charms of the eastern, Atlantic Ocean half of the region: the pueblos blancos string of whitewashed hilltowns, the ancient border town Jerez de la Frontera whence comes the world's sherry supply, pilgrim routes through stunning national parks, and the ancient city of Cadiz -- at more than 3,100 years old, the longest-settled human city in Europe.

In Germany, consider the castles of the Neckar River rather than those of the Rhine River, the towns of Franconia rather than those of Bavaria. In Switzerland, explore the eastern Appenzell region rather than following the crowds to Interlaken and the Berner Oberland to get your taste of the Alps.

This strategy of setting your sights just off-kilter from the tour bus routes can also work by degrees. Central Italy is a perfect example. Take Tuscany, a justifiably popular region, but a place where most tourism focuses on Northern Tuscany (Florence, Pisa, and Lucca) and the Chianti/Siena region of Central Tuscany. That leaves the Maremma in Southern Tuscany relatively unspoiled, discovered mainly by German bicycling groups.

But perhaps you're an old Italy hand who feels all of Tuscany is overcrowded and overpriced. Move one degree further out and to the east and cross the border from Tuscany into Umbria, a region that features many of the same attractions (medieval hill towns, Renaissance art, Etruscan ruins, picturesque vineyards) but is not nearly as popular and, hence, not nearly as expensive.

To those who say that even Umbria has already been discovered and is on a par with Tuscany, I say: continue out yet another degree, looking east into the regions of The Marches and, a bit to the south, Abbruzo. The hill towns and wineries continue, but the majority of tourists have turned back to seek out Rome or the Cinque Terre. These areas of Central Italy are still almost entirely yours to discover -- and at prices far below those of the Chianti in Tuscany.

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Labels: budget, europe, tips

Here's a strategy that will let you thumb your nose at the mighty Euro; here's a way to overcome the increasingly-weak level of the U.S. dollar: By staying in towns within an easy radius of the major European cities you wish to visit, you can cut your hotels costs -- and even some of your meal costs -- by two thirds.

You simply need to find a neighboring city to the famous one you would like to tour that lies within about an hour's commute by public transportation (and where prices are significantly lower enough to justify the extra time and expense of taking that train ride into the major city for a couple of daytrips).

For example: rather than paying through the nose for a room in crowded and costly Venice, try staying instead in the lovely university town of Padua (Padova in Italian), a half hour away.

Padua boasts a fresco cycle by Giotto arguably greater than that in Assisi, the famed Basilica of St. Anthony (complete with Donatello sculptures) -- and it's just 30 minutes by trip from Venice herself, so you can visit the city of palaces and canals on a daytrip or two but leave behind the high prices of its hotels and dinners each evening. As a bonus, Padua is less than an hour by train from other Veneto highlights, including the Palladian villas of Vicenza and Verona (the city of Romeo and Juliet, which has an ancient Roman amphitheater hosting outdoor opera performances).

Now it helps if the neighboring inexpensive town has attractions in its own right that make it an interesting place to explore--for example, I would never recommend staying in dull and dreary Mestre rather than Venice, even through it lies closer to Venice than does Padua.

That said, here are many other cities where this tactic works well: stay in Haarlem rather than Amsterdam, Prato instead of Florence, Avila instead of Madrid, Chartres instead of Paris, and just about anywhere instead of London (I suggest Oxford).

Will this entail a different trip from one on which you stay in the big city and experience everything it has to offer, from hotels to nightlife? Yes. But it will also be a cheaper trip and, in its way, more rewarding since you will get to know two cities for less than the price of one.

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Labels: budget, europe, tips

Pardon me for seeming technologically backward, but I just experienced -- for the first time, two days ago -- the use of a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) device while driving. And I am still exhilarated by what it did.

We had landed at night, my daughter and I, at the airport of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and rented a car to reach our downtown hotel. When she slid behind the driver's wheel, Pauline whipped out her Garmin (a three by four inch little navigational box) and affixed it to the windshield. Quickly, the Garmin accessed a high-altitude satellite, figured out where we were, super-imposed our position over a map of the confusing criss-cross of airport-area highways, and directed us by arrow and spoken commands along the correct route to our hotel.

When a right turn or left turn or U-turn was needed, the arrow indicated that turn and a female-mimicking robotic voice advised us that the turn was coming up in such-and-such a distance. When we were within a few hundred feet of the correct turn, the voice again reminded us to make the turn.

In the midst of frightening traffic whizzing along an absolute jumble of both parallel highways and crossing highways, we found our way effortlessly to our hotel. The next morning, when Pauline had to appear on various TV programs broadcast from the Fort Lauderdale area, she used the Garmin to get correctly and almost effortlessly to all three stations within a total of two hours.

Pauline and her husband had bought the device (which is simply one of the many brands of GPS devices) through eBay, and I do not know how much they paid for it. On the internet, the Garmin sells (in its most modest version) for $219. Earlier this year, they took it with them on a trip to Scotland, where they also rented a car and drove to a number of locations. The Garmin worked perfectly even in that foreign country.

I assume that readers of this blog have already used some version of a GPS system for a number of years now, and I must seem a complete innocent in my enthusiasm for the comfort and efficiency it beings to our travel lives. But if you haven't used it, ask a friend who has one to demonstrate the device, and I'm willing to bet you'll rush to acquire a GPS for your own car.

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Labels: tips

Though few of us have paid any attention to the possibility, it's fairly easy to suspend many of your paid subscriptions while you travel. Depending on how long your trip is, you might save money that you would otherwise have thrown away on unused services.

For example, there' s no sense in paying a full month's fee to your gym if you're only going to be using it for half that period. Cable television, too -- or just the pay channels like HBO or Showtime -- can be halted with the flip of a switch. Some companies require payment of a small fee to activate such temporary stoppages, but ask what they are and do the math -- in many cases, even with the fee, you might save money by suspending services during your vacation.

Granted, now that DVRs and TiVos are popular, many people will prefer for their televisions to be operational and recording in their absences. But newspapers? They are of no use to someone who's away.

Go though your regular expenses and determine what you can save money
on during your vacation. Why throw the money away?

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Labels: tips

On our trip to Panama last week, Roberta and I were scheduled to fly back at 9am from Panama City. We placed a wake-up call at the hotel for 6am, were downstairs with our luggage at 7am, and reached the airport at 7:30am, only to learn that the flight had been postponed until 2:15pm, nearly six hours later. We had made the classic mistake of greenhorn travelers: We had failed to phone the airport in advance to learn of our flight's departure time. Instead of a morning at the pool, or shopping in downtown Panama City, we cooled our heels for several hours in a very uninteresting airport -- and were groggy from a 6am awakening for the rest of the day. Never, never leave for an airport without first phoning the airline to learn whether the departure is on time.

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Labels: tips

It turns out that one old chestnut of a travel rule -- you will always get the best price by calling a hotel directly to book a room -- still holds true, even in this era of Web specials and so-called "lowest price guarantees " by online booking engines.

In an excellent piece of gumshoe travel journalism by Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle (www.kansas.com/news/story/200385.html), Dion has compiled the data to prove that hotel booking engines -- from Travelocity to Orbitz to CheapTIckets.com -- often add questionably high fees to the prices they charge for hotels.

Lefler found that even the booking engine's pre-tax "basic rates" were around $4.50 above the hotels' own "rack rates," the highest price you'd pay to book directly, before taking into account any discounts, low-season price drops, or sales. What's more, according to Lefler's research, taxes and fees pushed the booking engine's prices up to as much as $21.84 above the going rate. Add to this the fact that some booking engines charge taxes based on their total price of base rate plus fees, not on the base rate alone, which is all that is taxable by law.

Lefler also points out that when a booking engine shows a hotel as being "sold out," it doesn't mean there are no vacancies. It just means the booking engine has sold out its share of rooms.

In other words: caveat emptor. Online booking engines may make finding and booking a hotel easy, but it won't always be the cheapest way to get that room. Ever since chain hotels introduced toll-free numbers, I've counseled that you almost always get a better rate by calling the hotel directly. It seems that advice hasn't changed even in the dot.com age.

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Labels: hotels, tips

In this age of the Internet, you can find pretty much any answer with Google. But what if you're on the road without a computer and need to find a phone number -- say to find that great restaurant your friend recommended, or the nearest Motel 6?

Once upon a time you could call directory assistance to get the number of any business for free. Then, in the 1990s, 411 started charging a modest fee of around 35¢. Now the charge for calling 411 has jumped to a ludicrous $1.25 to $3.49.

Enter 1-800-FREE-411 (tel. 800-373-3411; www.free411.com), a "free" directory assistance number. I call it "free" because there is a kind of cost: about 30 to 40 seconds of your time spent listening to brief ads, one before you ask for the listing and another before you get the number.

The system is not perfect. For one thing, the automated voice recognition software has a few bugs. I tested it by asking for the number of a favorite pizza parlor called "caserta vecchia." The automated system thought I had asked for "conservative party." A live operator came on to sort things out and I did get the proper number in the end. A test to find a residential number worked much better.

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Labels: cellphones, tips

I have friends who swear by these compression bags, which are essentially like giant Ziploc baggies fitted with one-way pressure valves along one edge. Once you fill the bag with all your clothes and seal the top, you squeeze all the air out of the bag by rolling it up, then unfurling it again, to reveal that your kit has been compressed into literally half its original size.

These bags were originally hawked as a way of shrinking sweaters, bed comforters, and other bulky seasonal items to maximum household storage space, but they also make an excellent space-saving tool for travelers. As a bonus, they help organize the mess in your bag -- at least this way all your clothes are compartmentalized into one place. One warning: they can wreak havoc on wrinkle-prone materials, but savvy travelers know to avoid packing wrinkly clothing in the first place.

There are two main brands. The Compression Sacs from Eagle Creek (www.eaglecreek.com), sold at luggage stores and in travel gear catalogs such as Travel Smith (www.travelsmith.com) and Magellan's (www.magellans.com), are the heavier-duty option, and sized for travelers, but are also more expensive: $8 to $12 a piece, depending on size.

Less expensive, but also less sturdy, is the Space Bag (www.spacebag.com), which you may recognize from their infomercials, widely available at places like Target (www.target.com) and Walmart (www.walmart.com, which sells a set of eight travel-sized bags for around $20). If you choose the Space Bags, be sure you pick up the smaller sizes and not the Extra Large bag (or the kind that needs to be sealed by a vacuum cleaner hose) intended for household uses.

Also, pay little heed to the user reviews on some retail sites that complain about the bags' inability to stay vacuum-sealed. It's true that, if not sealed properly, the bags can slowly lose their compression over time (and, after several years of use, will start springing slow leaks even when sealed properly). However, this is only an issue if you're trying to keep a brace of sweaters compressed for six months at a stretch in your basement. The bags have no problem holding a tight, compressed vacuum seal for the brief period they'll spend in your luggage, and besides, you'll be opening and resealing it every time you switch hotels.

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Labels: packing, tips

We have none other than the respected British medical journal Lancet to cite for the claim that ginger -- just plain ginger -- is an effective remedy for sea sickness. In a controlled experiment recently described (and headlined in an August issue of The New York Times), subjects were given a) ginger, b) various anti-motion-sickness medications (Antivert, Bonine or Dramamine), or c) a placebo. The persons receiving ginger did the best in terms of avoiding dizziness or nausea.

The same results have been noted by researchers in several other medical and scientific institutions. And presumably, taking ginger does not set off the drowsiness that anti-motion-sickness medications often create.

According to most of the literature, ginger for controlling sea sickness can be taken either raw, or powdered in pill form, or as tea. It can even be ingested via a glass or two of ginger ale (!), provided only that real ginger is used in the beverage. And if you think I'm making this up, go to Google and insert the words "ginger and sea sickness."

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Labels: health, tips

Over the last week, I suggested answers to the first seven of the ten most frequent travel questions put to me in various forums (and on my Sunday travel broadcast). Here are the last three, together with the responses I make:

8) Should I permit my 18-year-old to vacation in Europe? I hedge on that question -- having no way to judge the maturity of the 18-year-old in question -- and suggest that the questioner look up the tour offerings of Contiki Holidays (www.contiki.com), which operates escorted motorcoach tours limited to persons 18 to 35 (and primarily booked by the younger end). Contiki is a solid organization, long in business, and generally regarded as thoroughly reliable for your travel-eager kids.

9) What's there to do in London, Paris, New York or (here they name a large, world-renowned city)? I answer, with barely-disguised dismay, that if they have to ask that question, they haven't done their travel homework. A trip to anywhere should be preceded by a visit to the library, an evening or two in which you bone up about the city or country you're about to visit. A failure to do that dooms you to disappointment.

10) Should I use a travel agent? Only if that agent possesses real knowledge of the destination you're planning to visit. Because use of a travel agent usually costs more than do-it-yourself planning (agents charge an airfare fee, now that they no longer receive commissions from the airlines), they should be able to justify the extra cost with their special familiarity with the details of a particular trip.

Incidentally, if you're not in one of the hundred-and-five-or-so cities where my program is heard, you can nevertheless listen to it on the internet. Go to www.wor710.com, click on "listen live" (Sundays noon-2pm) or "podcasting", and you'll hear the program either live or delayed.

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Labels: tips

Ten questions account for the overwhelming percentage of all travel questions put to me in various forums and on my weekly radio program. I discussed three of them on Friday, and am turning to four more today, along with the responses I usually make to each.

4) Can I, a single person without a companion, travel pleasurably on group tours? If the tours you're considering are the standard if-it's-Tuesday-it-must-be-Belgium sort, then the chances are overwhelming that you'll be among couples, families, and other conventional types, and that you might feel alone. The answer is to book a specialty tour that focuses on a cause or special interest outside of yourself. In that intensely-focused activity, people mix and mingle without references to whether they are couples or singles -- and a great many other single persons are usually found. Go to www.specialtytravel.com, where you'll find hundreds of special interest tours departing each month.

5) Should an unaccompanied woman travel alone? This is a variant to question #4. The answer is flatly yes. The world has grown far more sophisticated and no longer looks askance at the unaccompanied woman or subjects them to discrimination. Indeed, a great many feminists will argue that it is preferable to travel alone, becoming more sensitive in that fashion to the local culture, having a greater chance to meet local residents.

6) Is it safe to visit (here, they name a destination)? No one other than yourself is able to answer that question. Terrorism and/or crime is now a statistically possible risk (though a small one) almost everywhere (like in Egypt, Morocco, Bali), and in the last analysis, only you can decide whether you're determined to live your life free from fear or whether you'll avoid every place where an incident might conceivably occur.

7) For a cruise I am about to take, should I buy shore excursions in advance? Absolutely not. Wait until the cruise is underway to determine whether or not you feel on a particular day like joining a busload of your fellow passengers, or whether you've met other people with whom to share a taxi, or whether you'd prefer to simply wander the port city free of charge.

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Labels: tips