Jul 24, 2008
Looking for free Wi-Fi while traveling? Equip yourself with a Starbucks card
Starbucks has made a few headlines in recent weeks for its decision to close about 600 of its stores. Apparently, there are plenty of people who have realized that paying $4 for a cup of coffee is perhaps not the wisest use of limited funds and have wisely cut back their consumption. Starbucks itself is also apparently becoming as aware of its saturation as the rest of us.
But the chain, which currently has some remaining 7,000 outposts nationwide, will be no less ubiquitous in the short term. That prevalence can be a good thing for travelers, even those who never drink a drop of coffee. Laptop computer travelers can now use Starbucks as their personal Internet cafe and never pay for web access on the road.
That's because earlier this year, the chain announced that it would change its wireless Internet services, which were a paid service in most fully-sized stores, to become free. The only thing customers must now do to gain access to the Internet with their laptops in its shops is obtain a free Starbucks Card (www.starbucks.com/card). That is a prepaid card, like a gift card, that is loaded with the amount that the customer chooses. As long as they use that card at least once a month, Starbucks Wi-Fi is free for two hours a day.
Customers can buy a water, a coffee, a sandwich to eat while they surf the web, or the usage can be as simple as putting a few more dollars on the card. That means that for the price of a beverage, the web could theoretically be free for a month.
The deal also means that AT&T, which arranges the Internet connectivity, may send customers up to four sales e-mails a year. To keep personal in-boxes unclogged, my suggestion is to set up a special, free webmail account on Yahoo or a similar service to which the pitches will be sent. A list of Starbucks stores with wireless facilities can be found at www.starbucks.com/wifi.
Write and read comments about this post.
But the chain, which currently has some remaining 7,000 outposts nationwide, will be no less ubiquitous in the short term. That prevalence can be a good thing for travelers, even those who never drink a drop of coffee. Laptop computer travelers can now use Starbucks as their personal Internet cafe and never pay for web access on the road.
That's because earlier this year, the chain announced that it would change its wireless Internet services, which were a paid service in most fully-sized stores, to become free. The only thing customers must now do to gain access to the Internet with their laptops in its shops is obtain a free Starbucks Card (www.starbucks.com/card). That is a prepaid card, like a gift card, that is loaded with the amount that the customer chooses. As long as they use that card at least once a month, Starbucks Wi-Fi is free for two hours a day.
Customers can buy a water, a coffee, a sandwich to eat while they surf the web, or the usage can be as simple as putting a few more dollars on the card. That means that for the price of a beverage, the web could theoretically be free for a month.
The deal also means that AT&T, which arranges the Internet connectivity, may send customers up to four sales e-mails a year. To keep personal in-boxes unclogged, my suggestion is to set up a special, free webmail account on Yahoo or a similar service to which the pitches will be sent. A list of Starbucks stores with wireless facilities can be found at www.starbucks.com/wifi.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: websites
Jul 15, 2008
Hospitality clubs continue to expand in size and importance. Ever heard of Guestroom Network?
With gas prices going through the roof, it behooves us all to consider reducing the cost of our lodgings when we travel. A great many avid travelers find that membership in a "hospitality club", enjoying the spare room or cot that members offer to one another, is not simply a means for saving money but actually enhances the trip by introducing you to local residents. And no such organization -- until now -- has been more successful in offering free hospitality throughout the U.S. than the Evergreen Club. It attributes much of its success to its policy of not offering completely free hospitality, but charging a nominal fee of $15 a night for the use of a member's spare room or cot. This, apparently, makes members more serious about honoring reservations (and also serving a tasty breakfast to their guests).
I said that Evergreen has been successful "until now." Recently, it has been reported to me that Evergreen's organizers include on their application form a place where prospective members can opt out of hosting someone because they are gay. I find that disturbing. If you don't want to meet someone based on their totally private sexual preference, what are you doing in the Evergreen Club to begin with? Evergreen, after all, is about meeting people.
So some Americans will begin looking for an alternative to Evergreen, and they may find it in Guestroom Network (www.guestroomnetwork.com). It works in the traditional manner of hospitality organizations, except that its fee for an overnight stay is only $4.
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I said that Evergreen has been successful "until now." Recently, it has been reported to me that Evergreen's organizers include on their application form a place where prospective members can opt out of hosting someone because they are gay. I find that disturbing. If you don't want to meet someone based on their totally private sexual preference, what are you doing in the Evergreen Club to begin with? Evergreen, after all, is about meeting people.
So some Americans will begin looking for an alternative to Evergreen, and they may find it in Guestroom Network (www.guestroomnetwork.com). It works in the traditional manner of hospitality organizations, except that its fee for an overnight stay is only $4.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
Jul 14, 2008
The new Theme Cruise Finder is a superb instrument for choosing a cruise that caters to your own special interests
History and world affairs. Music and photography. Liberal and conservative. Jewish and Catholic. Sports and performing arts. Gospel and bluegrass. TV and wellness.
And 500 more...
As broad as life itself, as varied as the world, as full of special themes as has ever been found in travel, a website called Theme Cruise Finder (www.themecruisefinder.com) attempts to inject invigorating excitement into a cruise industry that, until now, has grown more and more uniform and similar. It lists all the specially-themed cruises -- the ones led by celebrities who have made their names in various disciplines, from astronauts who have walked on the moon to rejected candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court. You click on the topic that interests you, and up come departures of cruises catering to that topic. It's an excellent idea that's been well executed, and I think you'll enjoy the well-designed site that lists exciting themed cruises. I also think that, perhaps for the first time, you may be tempted to book a cruise that focuses on one of your own special interests.
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And 500 more...
As broad as life itself, as varied as the world, as full of special themes as has ever been found in travel, a website called Theme Cruise Finder (www.themecruisefinder.com) attempts to inject invigorating excitement into a cruise industry that, until now, has grown more and more uniform and similar. It lists all the specially-themed cruises -- the ones led by celebrities who have made their names in various disciplines, from astronauts who have walked on the moon to rejected candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court. You click on the topic that interests you, and up come departures of cruises catering to that topic. It's an excellent idea that's been well executed, and I think you'll enjoy the well-designed site that lists exciting themed cruises. I also think that, perhaps for the first time, you may be tempted to book a cruise that focuses on one of your own special interests.
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Jun 26, 2008
Would you believe it? The internet is now full of websites offering to teach you a foreign language free of charge
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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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
Jun 23, 2008
Add Europeanhostels.com to the list of websites directing you to the fastest-growing type of accommodation in travel
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:
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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 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.
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.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
Jun 18, 2008
There's now an aggregator for finding inexpensive hotel rooms anywhere in the world, and its results seem phenomenal
The Australians have done it. They've created a website called Hotels Combined (www.hotelscombined.com) that searches every other hotel search engine and every other hotel chain, in popular cities throughout the U.S. and abroad, and then impartially sorts the results by price and reveals them to you. And although it also tells you whether the hotel in question has vacancies for the dates in which you're interested, it does not then proceed to book the room for you. Instead -- and I like this feature -- it advises you to go directly to the hotel they name and request a reservation. You also pay the hotel directly and do not incur a penny's expense for using Hotels Combined.
I have recently found some of the best hotel deals imaginable through the use of Hotels Combined. Example: I recently requested a room in New York for a two-night stay starting June 26. Would you believe that Hotels Combined proceeded to name New York hotels where I could get a room (in properties ranging from cheap hostels to decent tourist class establishments) for $29, $30, $31, $32, $34, $70, $87, $92, $97, $99, $102, $118, and so on -- in what has to be one of the most expensive hotel cities on earth? The Australian service not only surveys hotels directly -- including numerous properties that aren't handled by any of the established hotel search engines -- but also surveys such hotel-finding websites as www.venere.com, www.hotelbook.com, www.laterooms.com, www.hotelclub.com, www.lastminute.com, www.orbitz.com, www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com, www.booking.com, www.asiarooms.com, and others. (I assume, but haven't yet found, that it also surveys www.hotels.com and www.quikbook.com).
For the life of me, I can't find any catch to this service, any overlooked condition, any reason not to use it exclusively for hotel searches (since it surveys every other hotel-finding website, in the same way that an airfare aggregator surveys every other source of airfares, there's no need to go anywhere else).
Have I overlooked anything? If any of the readers of this blog have also used Hotels Combined, could they report on their experiences?
Write and read comments about this post.
I have recently found some of the best hotel deals imaginable through the use of Hotels Combined. Example: I recently requested a room in New York for a two-night stay starting June 26. Would you believe that Hotels Combined proceeded to name New York hotels where I could get a room (in properties ranging from cheap hostels to decent tourist class establishments) for $29, $30, $31, $32, $34, $70, $87, $92, $97, $99, $102, $118, and so on -- in what has to be one of the most expensive hotel cities on earth? The Australian service not only surveys hotels directly -- including numerous properties that aren't handled by any of the established hotel search engines -- but also surveys such hotel-finding websites as www.venere.com, www.hotelbook.com, www.laterooms.com, www.hotelclub.com, www.lastminute.com, www.orbitz.com, www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com, www.booking.com, www.asiarooms.com, and others. (I assume, but haven't yet found, that it also surveys www.hotels.com and www.quikbook.com).
For the life of me, I can't find any catch to this service, any overlooked condition, any reason not to use it exclusively for hotel searches (since it surveys every other hotel-finding website, in the same way that an airfare aggregator surveys every other source of airfares, there's no need to go anywhere else).
Have I overlooked anything? If any of the readers of this blog have also used Hotels Combined, could they report on their experiences?
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, websites
Jun 17, 2008
Internet "deal" newsletters don't always have the best deals
Our friends at Beat of Hawaii (www.beatofhawaii.com) have done a devastating job on those e-mailed newsletters that consist solely of so-called special bargains on the airlines and from tour operators. Many of these newsletters are paid by the supplier (the airline or the tour operator) to convey news of special deals, and that they are not objective, unpaid listings of top bargains of the sort that this blog and one or two other journalistic services provide. In fact, Beat of Hawaii points out that by the time the e-newsletter has posted its deals, the airlines have themselves undercut them.
By way of proof, Beat of Hawaii cites a special one-way airfare appearing on Travelzoo on June 11 of $447 between Los Angeles and Maui, and says:
By way of proof, Beat of Hawaii cites a special one-way airfare appearing on Travelzoo on June 11 of $447 between Los Angeles and Maui, and says:
No Deal: I priced airfares on four of the cities listed in the Travelzoo Newsletter and found significantly better deals for the same dates of travel.Write and read comments about this post.
- Boston: Travelzoo deal: $996. Northwest offered $725.
- Charlotte: Travelzoo deal: $908. American priced this at $556.
- Chicago: Travelzoo deal: $1,020. Check out Alaska at $860.
- Indianapolis: Travelzoo deal: $952. Northwest comes in low at $665.
Jun 12, 2008
Confined to all-inclusive resorts, a new internet service called ResortCompete will now duplicate the method of CruiseCompete
I've written about CruiseCompete (www.cruisecompete.com), which invites the entire travel industry to bid for your business. You list a cruise you want to take, and then various discount cruise brokers and cruise travel agencies all submit different bids (prices) at which they will get you that cruise.
The founders of CruiseCompete have now created ResortCompete (www.resortcompete.com). You fill out a form specifying your ideal all-inclusive resort: the general area in which it is to found, the kind of sports and entertainment facilities it has to have, the price you're looking for. ResortCompete passes on your request to no fewer than 630 all-inclusive resorts around the world, as well as to numerous tour operators and travel agents. They, in turn, submit the price at which they're willing to supply your vacation and the specific resort at which they price will be honored. It's then up to you to decide whether they've made you an offer you can't turn down.
Requesting such bids does not require that you give up your privacy. If you turn down the bid, nothing happens. As the site states: "There is no obligation to buy, and Sellers will not have your contact information unless you give it to them"
I think it's all quite interesting. Among other things, the site's list of islands and the number of all-inclusive resorts on each one of them, suggest vacation destinations of which you might otherwise be unaware. (Many travelers are under the impression that only the Dominican Republic has all-inclusive resorts). And note how the new service will be particularly appealing to families or small groups, forcing the resorts to negotiate hard for their business by offering special rates.
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The founders of CruiseCompete have now created ResortCompete (www.resortcompete.com). You fill out a form specifying your ideal all-inclusive resort: the general area in which it is to found, the kind of sports and entertainment facilities it has to have, the price you're looking for. ResortCompete passes on your request to no fewer than 630 all-inclusive resorts around the world, as well as to numerous tour operators and travel agents. They, in turn, submit the price at which they're willing to supply your vacation and the specific resort at which they price will be honored. It's then up to you to decide whether they've made you an offer you can't turn down.
Requesting such bids does not require that you give up your privacy. If you turn down the bid, nothing happens. As the site states: "There is no obligation to buy, and Sellers will not have your contact information unless you give it to them"
I think it's all quite interesting. Among other things, the site's list of islands and the number of all-inclusive resorts on each one of them, suggest vacation destinations of which you might otherwise be unaware. (Many travelers are under the impression that only the Dominican Republic has all-inclusive resorts). And note how the new service will be particularly appealing to families or small groups, forcing the resorts to negotiate hard for their business by offering special rates.
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Labels: websites
A website called Seniors Home Exchange serves a different set of travel needs
When I first heard about Seniors Home Exchange (www.seniorshomeexchange.com), I was frankly puzzled. What could such a site accomplish that wasn't better done by larger and longer-established home exchange websites for persons of any age?
The language and organization of Seniors Home Exchange made the explanation obvious -- but one that doesn't normally occur to most of us. Since many (if not most) seniors over the age of 50 are retired, they are able to take longer vacations than younger persons tethered to a job and restricted to short, two-week vacations. They are able to get away for one month, six weeks, two months, even three months at a time. And the home exchanges featured in Seniors Home Exchange are therefore mainly those longer intervals so suited to the life of a person in retirement. The exchange is often for several weeks and considerably longer than usual. Moreover, many seniors over 50 go on several trips a year and need to make a more constant use of the service than a younger person would.
This explained the fairly stiff $79 charge for a three-year membership (currently reduced to $59 for such a three-year period, through a special sale). Apparently, so many people have been willing to pay that charge to keep the site going, that it has now been in existence since 2001 and currently lists over 30,000 home exchange opportunities. It not only offers home or apartment exchanges (you stay in theirs' while they stay in yours'), but also hospitality offers whereby you stay as a free-of-charge guest in the home of a member while they remain in residence.
I have now received multiple recommendations for Seniors Home Exchange from readers of this blog, and its bona fides seems more than established. If you're over 50, or know someone who is, you might want to take a look.
Write and read comments about this post.
The language and organization of Seniors Home Exchange made the explanation obvious -- but one that doesn't normally occur to most of us. Since many (if not most) seniors over the age of 50 are retired, they are able to take longer vacations than younger persons tethered to a job and restricted to short, two-week vacations. They are able to get away for one month, six weeks, two months, even three months at a time. And the home exchanges featured in Seniors Home Exchange are therefore mainly those longer intervals so suited to the life of a person in retirement. The exchange is often for several weeks and considerably longer than usual. Moreover, many seniors over 50 go on several trips a year and need to make a more constant use of the service than a younger person would.
This explained the fairly stiff $79 charge for a three-year membership (currently reduced to $59 for such a three-year period, through a special sale). Apparently, so many people have been willing to pay that charge to keep the site going, that it has now been in existence since 2001 and currently lists over 30,000 home exchange opportunities. It not only offers home or apartment exchanges (you stay in theirs' while they stay in yours'), but also hospitality offers whereby you stay as a free-of-charge guest in the home of a member while they remain in residence.
I have now received multiple recommendations for Seniors Home Exchange from readers of this blog, and its bona fides seems more than established. If you're over 50, or know someone who is, you might want to take a look.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, retired, websites
May 30, 2008
It's clear to me that the local firms described in guidebooks are your best source for vacation homes and apartments
Periodically on this blog, I've listed the companies that arrange rentals of apartment and homes all over the world: Homeaway (biggest of the lot), VRBO (oldest), EVRentals.com (richest), Rentalo.com (aggressive), Craigslist (cheapest), Kijiji.com (coming up fast), and the like. To that list you might add Zonder (www.zonder.com), with an impressive website containing multiple photos of the homes they offer for rental. Zonder also claims its services are superior because they deal only with homes rented by local management firms that can fix things on the spot if furnishings or fixtures break down.
Having said that, it's obvious that these big worldwide companies can't be familiar with all the properties they represent. When they proclaim, as some do, to offer more than 60,000 properties, it's obviously impossible for them to have looked at the homes or apartments they make available.
Clearly, the best-informed of the rental agents are the ones that limit their services to a single destination, like Orlando, or London, or Vegas, and are located in that destination. These are the hometown firms with names of which you've never heard, but with impressive knowledge of the conditions and neighborhoods in their community.
And where do you find these firms? Apart from hunting them up on the web, using Google and then inserting the name of the city or area in which you'll be vacationing, your better course is to use a guidebook that contains names of the top rental agencies in that city or area. And so help me, I'm being entirely objective when I suggest that the new series of Pauline Frommer Guides, on sale in all major bookstores, performs that function extremely well. Pauline realized that the skyrocketing cost of hotel rooms would compel many travelers to substitute homes or apartments for hotels. And therefore, in the lodgings sections of her guidebooks, she has made it a point to describe the work of local rental agencies whose premises she has visited and whose owners she has interviewed.
Those discussions of rental homes and rental apartments usually lead off the lodgings discussion in her books. And from the responses of large numbers of readers, that assistance is now recognized as among the most valuable features of her books.
There are Pauline Frommer Guides to: New York City, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Italy, Costa Rica, Alaska, Orlando, Washington, D.C., Cancún & the Yucatán, and Hawaii, with books on Spain and San Francisco about to join the list (see a complete list in the Frommers.com bookstore). As a vacationer, I would always prefer the services of the locally based rental companies found in each book to the large worldwide websites listing tens of thousands of properties that no one has ever inspected. Call me biased, if you must, but that's how I feel.
Write and read comments about this post.
Having said that, it's obvious that these big worldwide companies can't be familiar with all the properties they represent. When they proclaim, as some do, to offer more than 60,000 properties, it's obviously impossible for them to have looked at the homes or apartments they make available.
Clearly, the best-informed of the rental agents are the ones that limit their services to a single destination, like Orlando, or London, or Vegas, and are located in that destination. These are the hometown firms with names of which you've never heard, but with impressive knowledge of the conditions and neighborhoods in their community.
And where do you find these firms? Apart from hunting them up on the web, using Google and then inserting the name of the city or area in which you'll be vacationing, your better course is to use a guidebook that contains names of the top rental agencies in that city or area. And so help me, I'm being entirely objective when I suggest that the new series of Pauline Frommer Guides, on sale in all major bookstores, performs that function extremely well. Pauline realized that the skyrocketing cost of hotel rooms would compel many travelers to substitute homes or apartments for hotels. And therefore, in the lodgings sections of her guidebooks, she has made it a point to describe the work of local rental agencies whose premises she has visited and whose owners she has interviewed.
Those discussions of rental homes and rental apartments usually lead off the lodgings discussion in her books. And from the responses of large numbers of readers, that assistance is now recognized as among the most valuable features of her books.
There are Pauline Frommer Guides to: New York City, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Italy, Costa Rica, Alaska, Orlando, Washington, D.C., Cancún & the Yucatán, and Hawaii, with books on Spain and San Francisco about to join the list (see a complete list in the Frommers.com bookstore). As a vacationer, I would always prefer the services of the locally based rental companies found in each book to the large worldwide websites listing tens of thousands of properties that no one has ever inspected. Call me biased, if you must, but that's how I feel.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
May 19, 2008
In planning a Caribbean vacation this summer, be sure to check the offerings of Liberty Travel
There was a time when Liberty Travel (tel. 800/897-9999; www.libertytravel.com) was always the cheapest to the tropics. During my own years as a tour operator, I used to rub my eyes when I saw the rates that this competitor offered for a weeklong stay at various Caribbean resorts. On one occasion I even called the president of Liberty Travel to suggest that a price in his ad might be a typographical error. He burst into laughter. I subsequently learned that Liberty's power with the public enabled them to get unbeatable airfares from American Airlines and rock-bottom rates from the hotels they used. No one else could come close.
In more recent years, Liberty hasn't seemed to play the price leader, and you would often find lower rates from much smaller firms. But that seems to be changing. Recently acquired (just two months ago) by a rich Australian conglomerate, Liberty's current prices are again quite impressive, and though they don't always undercut those of Vacation Travel Mart (www.vacmart.com), Apple Vacations (www.applevacations.com), or CheapCaribbean.com (www.cheapcaribbean.com), they frequently give battle to those firms. The Aussies are apparently intent on reestablishing Liberty's cost-cutting reputation.
All this is by way of suggesting that when you begin to plan a trip to Cancún, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Barbados and the like, you should always check your tentative decision by learning what Liberty will charge for the same trip (and though Liberty's offices are mainly along the eastern seaboard, they quote air-included prices from every major U.S. city as far west as Los Angeles). You do that easiest by simply going to Liberty's website, or by phoning its 800 number.
Write and read comments about this post.
In more recent years, Liberty hasn't seemed to play the price leader, and you would often find lower rates from much smaller firms. But that seems to be changing. Recently acquired (just two months ago) by a rich Australian conglomerate, Liberty's current prices are again quite impressive, and though they don't always undercut those of Vacation Travel Mart (www.vacmart.com), Apple Vacations (www.applevacations.com), or CheapCaribbean.com (www.cheapcaribbean.com), they frequently give battle to those firms. The Aussies are apparently intent on reestablishing Liberty's cost-cutting reputation.
All this is by way of suggesting that when you begin to plan a trip to Cancún, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Barbados and the like, you should always check your tentative decision by learning what Liberty will charge for the same trip (and though Liberty's offices are mainly along the eastern seaboard, they quote air-included prices from every major U.S. city as far west as Los Angeles). You do that easiest by simply going to Liberty's website, or by phoning its 800 number.
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Labels: caribbean, deals, websites
May 13, 2008
If you're a fan of casino-resorts and leisure destinations -- then TravelWorm is for you
TravelWorm has been around for more than 15 years, seeking out the most simple-minded of travel bargains: hotel discounts, in sun belt cities of the resort variety. Its current offer of $34 a night per room at the Sahara Hotel in Vegas is about $3 less than any other offer I've been able to find on the internet. Its $37 per room offer at Vegas' Stratosphere Hotel is $1 and $2 less than most others. If you're planning a trip to any of the resort cities listed above, you'd do well to go to www.travelworm.com, which also lists various meal discounts and other bonuses (free spa visits, for instance) at the hotels whose bargains they tout.
All in all, it's a pretty impressive website that has obviously grown unusually popular and mighty, enabling its managers to pressure big reductions from the hotels they feature. I believe you can book directly on the web, but you can also phone TravelWorm at tel. 888/700-8342.
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All in all, it's a pretty impressive website that has obviously grown unusually popular and mighty, enabling its managers to pressure big reductions from the hotels they feature. I believe you can book directly on the web, but you can also phone TravelWorm at tel. 888/700-8342.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: accommodations, las vegas, websites
May 7, 2008
Ever heard of Wizz Air? It will fly you from London to Krakow, Poland, for as little as $88 to $140 round-trip!
Most U.S. tourists traveling to Europe make no use of the continent's cut-rate carriers, mainly because they service cities of primary interest to European vacationers (but also because they are often for short hops of the sort that are far more interesting to traverse by train). But the longer flights of the cut-raters bring you to such interesting destinations, and cost so little, that they have to be considered.
London to Krakow, Poland, on Wizz Air is one such route. Krakow is a compelling sight (and also quite an inexpensive city in which to stay). Go to Cheapflights.co.uk (www.cheapflights.co.uk), click on the Union Jack button for flights of interest to persons leaving from London, and you'll quickly find the flight schedules and prices of Poland's cut-rate carrier, Wizz Air. Through much of the year, Wizz Air charges as little as $140 round-trip between London and Krakow, and occasionally has a "special" bringing the round-trip down to $88 (such a price stays up for a day or two but is quickly sold out).
Krakow, once again, is a hot spot among cheap destinations, and use of these outlandish, cheap carriers is a key to enjoying it (another search engine to try is CheapOair (www.cheapoair.com). Bear in mind that your luggage allowance on Wizz Air will probably be as low as 40 lbs.
A special tip: after you've scanned the results at Cheapflights, go directly to the website of Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com) itself, and click on its specials. There, identified as flights from London's Luton Airport to "Katowice/Cracow" (Katowice is a sister city of Krakow), you will occasionally find Wizz Air prices far below those of other websites, including round-trip fares as low as $88, including all taxes and fees.
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London to Krakow, Poland, on Wizz Air is one such route. Krakow is a compelling sight (and also quite an inexpensive city in which to stay). Go to Cheapflights.co.uk (www.cheapflights.co.uk), click on the Union Jack button for flights of interest to persons leaving from London, and you'll quickly find the flight schedules and prices of Poland's cut-rate carrier, Wizz Air. Through much of the year, Wizz Air charges as little as $140 round-trip between London and Krakow, and occasionally has a "special" bringing the round-trip down to $88 (such a price stays up for a day or two but is quickly sold out).
Krakow, once again, is a hot spot among cheap destinations, and use of these outlandish, cheap carriers is a key to enjoying it (another search engine to try is CheapOair (www.cheapoair.com). Bear in mind that your luggage allowance on Wizz Air will probably be as low as 40 lbs.
A special tip: after you've scanned the results at Cheapflights, go directly to the website of Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com) itself, and click on its specials. There, identified as flights from London's Luton Airport to "Katowice/Cracow" (Katowice is a sister city of Krakow), you will occasionally find Wizz Air prices far below those of other websites, including round-trip fares as low as $88, including all taxes and fees.
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May 6, 2008
The mystery of that second-rate Hawaiian hotel that got such a rave review in Trip Advisor gets murkier and murkier
In its confidential newsletter sent to readers who have registered for it, Beat of Hawaii (www.beatofhawaii.com) has furnished additional details on that extremely questionable Honolulu hotel that was so heavily recommended in Trip Advisor. Turns out that the average rating assigned to the hotel was Three Stars, and that one of the more recent ratings upped the appraisal to Five Stars. Take one look at the inn whose photograph appears in BeatofHawaii.com and you'll instantly see that it doesn't deserve a Five Star rating.
What's more curious, according to Beat of Hawaii is that hardly any of the persons rating this particular hotel had a history of appearing elsewhere on Trip Adviser. This leads Beat of Hawaii to ask: is it possible that the top rating was assigned by a person with a special self-interest in doing so (they don't know whether this is the case, and simply raise the question, as a matter of opinion).
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What's more curious, according to Beat of Hawaii is that hardly any of the persons rating this particular hotel had a history of appearing elsewhere on Trip Adviser. This leads Beat of Hawaii to ask: is it possible that the top rating was assigned by a person with a special self-interest in doing so (they don't know whether this is the case, and simply raise the question, as a matter of opinion).
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Labels: websites
I'm returning to the new mega-website called Ctrip.com because it's gaining in importance
Its deals change every day. And they are mainly for flights from Chinese cities to other Asian locations, like Singapore. A single U.S.-to-China bargain (Chicago to Shanghai) remained up for a few days but has now been taken down (probably because it quickly sold out).
But the website called Ctrip.com (english.ctrip.com) should be watched periodically by every traveler interested in visiting China. It's like the Expedia of China -- that nation's largest airfare and hotel search engine, an immense organization that is now publicly traded and announces giant profits in its periodic filings with the U.S.'s SEC.
Although you can book intra-China flights directly on the website, you cannot yet book international flights in that manner -- you simply learn about them and then phone an 800 number staffed by English-speaking reservationists (tel. 800/820-6666) to make the booking. Go to the main menu page, then scroll down and look at the headlines on the lower right-hand side: "New look, same great Ctrip," "Beijing hotels available for Olympics," "ChinaTravel.net, your China guide and travel community," and "Ctrip DOES book international flights." Click on the last-named headline, then look for the sentence "Check our latest deals by booking here," and click on "here."
And incidentally, even if you don't find a deal between the U.S. and China, you might nevertheless phone the number given to inquire as to what are the current rates for a round-trip flight from the U.S. to China. You might be pleasantly surprised. Currently, Ctrip.com is listing $691 as the round-trip fare between Vancouver and Shanghai.
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But the website called Ctrip.com (english.ctrip.com) should be watched periodically by every traveler interested in visiting China. It's like the Expedia of China -- that nation's largest airfare and hotel search engine, an immense organization that is now publicly traded and announces giant profits in its periodic filings with the U.S.'s SEC.
Although you can book intra-China flights directly on the website, you cannot yet book international flights in that manner -- you simply learn about them and then phone an 800 number staffed by English-speaking reservationists (tel. 800/820-6666) to make the booking. Go to the main menu page, then scroll down and look at the headlines on the lower right-hand side: "New look, same great Ctrip," "Beijing hotels available for Olympics," "ChinaTravel.net, your China guide and travel community," and "Ctrip DOES book international flights." Click on the last-named headline, then look for the sentence "Check our latest deals by booking here," and click on "here."
And incidentally, even if you don't find a deal between the U.S. and China, you might nevertheless phone the number given to inquire as to what are the current rates for a round-trip flight from the U.S. to China. You might be pleasantly surprised. Currently, Ctrip.com is listing $691 as the round-trip fare between Vancouver and Shanghai.
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May 5, 2008
To share the cost of shore excursions with other passengers on your cruise, use the "Roll Call" feature of Cruise Critic
A number of readers have been telling us about the use of Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com) to reduce the cost of independent shore excursions made by just 4 to 6 persons. That small group size is seen as desirable because more and more experienced cruisers are unwilling to sightsee with 45 other passengers in the typical, jam-packed sightseeing motorcoach. More and more of them would simply prefer to hire a taxi or van to conduct a more private tour, sharing the cost and thus reducing the price to far below what the cruise-sponsored motorcoach tours cost.
Increasingly, their e-mails tell of a feature on Cruise Critic which enables them to seek out other like-minded would-be tour participants. As I understand it, you first register for the use of message boards; you then use a "Roll-Call" feature limited to the ship (and departure date) on which you're about to cruise. Entering those Roll-Calls and reaching only the other passengers on your cruise, you then list the ports you plan to tour and ask others to indicate whether they'd like to share the costs with you. In this manner, say my correspondents, you quickly round up three, four or five other people, and form a small group. You arrange to meet aboard the ship at a given place and time. And then, arriving at the port, you jointly hire a taxi or make arrangements with larger vehicles to transport your group to the places you wish to see or experience.
I hope I have these details right, and I'd be grateful to hear from other readers who have used the very precise meeting-features of Cruise Critic to get in touch with other prospective passengers.
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Increasingly, their e-mails tell of a feature on Cruise Critic which enables them to seek out other like-minded would-be tour participants. As I understand it, you first register for the use of message boards; you then use a "Roll-Call" feature limited to the ship (and departure date) on which you're about to cruise. Entering those Roll-Calls and reaching only the other passengers on your cruise, you then list the ports you plan to tour and ask others to indicate whether they'd like to share the costs with you. In this manner, say my correspondents, you quickly round up three, four or five other people, and form a small group. You arrange to meet aboard the ship at a given place and time. And then, arriving at the port, you jointly hire a taxi or make arrangements with larger vehicles to transport your group to the places you wish to see or experience.
I hope I have these details right, and I'd be grateful to hear from other readers who have used the very precise meeting-features of Cruise Critic to get in touch with other prospective passengers.
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May 2, 2008
For an example of a disastrous hotel recommendation appearing in TripAdvisor, go to Beat of Hawaii
Though I count myself one of the few opponents of TripAdvisor, I have a fellow combatant at my side in the people who publish Beat of Hawaii (www.beatofhawaii.com). They recently (April 30) printed a photograph of a hotel in Waikiki that received stellar recommendations in Trip Advisor and which one of the Beat of Hawaii editors used for his own recent stay in Oahu. Needless to say, the hotel was dreadful, objectively bad, and had nevertheless received rave reviews in Trip Advisor.
Now, no one is perfect, and this may have been an aberration, but I hope you will go to the website post and ponder whether travelers can rely on hotel recommendations by unknown amateurs (or pranksters).
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Now, no one is perfect, and this may have been an aberration, but I hope you will go to the website post and ponder whether travelers can rely on hotel recommendations by unknown amateurs (or pranksters).
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Apr 21, 2008
A website called Rentalo.com is currently listing one-bedroom apartments in Paris, capable of housing up to six persons, for $134 a night
Evidence continues to accumulate that the most cost-effective means of visiting London, Paris or Rome is to schedule at least a one-week visit there and to stay in an apartment, not a hotel. An example is the current offer by Rentalo.com (one of the several major worldwide apartment rental firms) of one-bedroom apartments in the center of Paris for as little as $134 and $135 a night.
In a 17th century building on the Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau, two blocks from the Louvre and the Seine, a one-bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room features cable TV capable of receiving CNN, and high-speed Internet, for $135 a night (plus a small cleaning fee, if you desire to have a maid come in). Why so cheap? The apartment is in a five flight walk-up, and therefore only for vigorous people, who will be thrilled once upstairs to look out "sur les toits de Paris" ("over the rooftops of Paris"). Your landlord will usually require at least a one-week stay, but has been known to rent in slow periods for as few as four nights.
Elsewhere in Paris, a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment sleeps six (vai a king bed in the bedroom and two double sofa beds in the living room) on a quiet street near the Place de la Republique, a three-minute walk from a metro (subway) and a supermarket. The kitchen here includes a washing machine, dishwasher, iron, microwave, coffeemaker and toaster. And the price is $134 a night, with a three-night minimum.
It can't be sufficiently stressed that the rental of apartments in major European cities is an effective way to cut the cost of your European vacation. In addition to using Rentalo.com for finding these apartments, you can also go to Homeaway.com, to VRBO.com (now owned by Homeaway), to EVRentals.com, Zonder.com, and numerous local rental firms found by accessing information on the city in which they are found.
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In a 17th century building on the Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau, two blocks from the Louvre and the Seine, a one-bedroom apartment with kitchen and living room features cable TV capable of receiving CNN, and high-speed Internet, for $135 a night (plus a small cleaning fee, if you desire to have a maid come in). Why so cheap? The apartment is in a five flight walk-up, and therefore only for vigorous people, who will be thrilled once upstairs to look out "sur les toits de Paris" ("over the rooftops of Paris"). Your landlord will usually require at least a one-week stay, but has been known to rent in slow periods for as few as four nights.
Elsewhere in Paris, a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment sleeps six (vai a king bed in the bedroom and two double sofa beds in the living room) on a quiet street near the Place de la Republique, a three-minute walk from a metro (subway) and a supermarket. The kitchen here includes a washing machine, dishwasher, iron, microwave, coffeemaker and toaster. And the price is $134 a night, with a three-night minimum.
It can't be sufficiently stressed that the rental of apartments in major European cities is an effective way to cut the cost of your European vacation. In addition to using Rentalo.com for finding these apartments, you can also go to Homeaway.com, to VRBO.com (now owned by Homeaway), to EVRentals.com, Zonder.com, and numerous local rental firms found by accessing information on the city in which they are found.
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Labels: accommodations, apartment rental, europe, london, paris, rome, websites
Apr 18, 2008
At last! A Chinese website enabling you to obtain low-cost air tickets to and within China -- directly from the Chinese
For several years now, Ctrip.com has been China's leading source of travel news, accessed by a multitude of Chinese readers. But although it maintained a barely-working version in English, it was the Chinese-language website on which most attention was lavished. Lots o' luck.
Ctrip.com has now given its English website a big facelift and a crystal-clear address, www.english.ctrip.com. And it has also created a phone number (011-86-21-34064888, ext. 6) for inquiries or to make a booking (you'll hear a Chinese-language announcement until you press extension 6 at the end of the Chinese statement). Starting now, you won't find cheaper tickets to China, or within China, than on Ctrip's English-language site.
Prices are set forth in Chinese Yuan (CNY), which you convert into dollars by dividing by 7. Thus, 2,100 Yuan equals $300. Here are some examples of they're presently offering (all round-trips):
You can also e-mail Ctrip at e_service@ctrip.com. And you can book beach vacations in China (you've been dying to do so) at sharply-discounted rates. See you on the sands at Qingdao!
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Ctrip.com has now given its English website a big facelift and a crystal-clear address, www.english.ctrip.com. And it has also created a phone number (011-86-21-34064888, ext. 6) for inquiries or to make a booking (you'll hear a Chinese-language announcement until you press extension 6 at the end of the Chinese statement). Starting now, you won't find cheaper tickets to China, or within China, than on Ctrip's English-language site.
Prices are set forth in Chinese Yuan (CNY), which you convert into dollars by dividing by 7. Thus, 2,100 Yuan equals $300. Here are some examples of they're presently offering (all round-trips):
- Vancouver and Shanghai on Air Canada: 3,670 Yuan ($524)
- Chicago and Shanghai on American Airlines: 3,150 Yuan ($450)
- London and Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines: 4,080 Yuan ($582)
- Saigon and Guangzhou on Vietnam Airlines: 1,610 Yuan ($230)
- Shanghai and Xian on China Eastern Airlines: 1,000 Yuan ($142)
You can also e-mail Ctrip at e_service@ctrip.com. And you can book beach vacations in China (you've been dying to do so) at sharply-discounted rates. See you on the sands at Qingdao!
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Labels: accommodations, airfare, budget travel, china, websites
Apr 17, 2008
The growing consolidation of internet websites is starting to cast real shadows over the integrity of internet information
One of the problems of the Internet is that many of the cheeky, impudent, brutally-honest websites on it become so profitable that they are then bought up by big corporate conglomerates. The people who started the site take the money and run, and the site is thereafter administered by various complacent staff members with no history of journalistic honesty, no real understanding of integrity in travel.
Meanwhile, the big-time owners of the general travel sites have all sorts of conflicts. They sometimes own hotel chains, tour companies, airfare search engines, hotel search engines, other travel-related entities. And you can bet they're not happy when one of the websites they own publishes critical remarks about other websites or companies (hotels, tour operators, etc.) they own. If one of their websites should propose to expose one of their other properties, what do you think they do?
Our friends over at Beat of Hawaii have recently published a list of the properties belonging to major internet companies. They point out:
If you think they will, then I have a tooth fairy you'd like to meet.
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Meanwhile, the big-time owners of the general travel sites have all sorts of conflicts. They sometimes own hotel chains, tour companies, airfare search engines, hotel search engines, other travel-related entities. And you can bet they're not happy when one of the websites they own publishes critical remarks about other websites or companies (hotels, tour operators, etc.) they own. If one of their websites should propose to expose one of their other properties, what do you think they do?
Our friends over at Beat of Hawaii have recently published a list of the properties belonging to major internet companies. They point out:
- That Expedia now owns Trip Advisor, Smarter Travel, Cruise Critic, Seat Guru, Booking Buddy, Travel Library, and Travelpod.
- That Internet Brands now owns Flyertalk, Slowtravel, CruiseMates, CruiseReviews, Vacationhomes, Vacation Timeshare and Rentals, Wikitravel, World 66, and Vamoose.com.
- That Orbitz.com, through Travelport, now owns 10 different chains of hotels (like Wyndham, Days Inn, Ramada, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, and others), as well as Avis and Budget Rent a Car. Do you think you will now be seeing critical comments about these hotels and car rental companies on Orbitz? Or that Orbitz will be strictly impartial in sending bookings to other hotels in preference to their own?
If you think they will, then I have a tooth fairy you'd like to meet.
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Labels: big business, websites
Apr 16, 2008
You might consider using the Australian search engine for hotels, Wotif.com, for last-minute bookings to any of 30 or 40 countries
I've been receiving numerous favorable comments on a search engine maintained for last-minute hotel bookings (always within 28 days) by those enterprising Australians. It's called Wotif.com, and although it's mainly used by Australians and New Zealanders, it accepts searches and bookings from anyone, for travel to almost everywhere. It's best, obviously, for hotels in scores of Australian cities; it's worst for hotels in New York City; it's excellent for hotels in London and the U.K. And it has become a mighty presence in travel, with several offices around the world.
The company's website, www.wotif.com, stresses the last-minute nature of Wotif's best prices. Book within a couple of weeks, it claims, and you'll score big. Whatever, you might check the rates you've gotten from U.S. search engines with what the Aussies are offering.
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The company's website, www.wotif.com, stresses the last-minute nature of Wotif's best prices. Book within a couple of weeks, it claims, and you'll score big. Whatever, you might check the rates you've gotten from U.S. search engines with what the Aussies are offering.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
Does TripAdvisor refuse to publish negative reviews of hotels with which it has a business relationship?
Though it has nothing to do with Hawaii, a recent item about TripAdvisor over at Beat of Hawaii raises interesting questions. I'm passing on the point they imply, without comment from me, because I have no factual evidence to either support or deny the claim.
First, a bit of background. TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia, a billion-dollar corporation whose highly-paid CEO shows great interest in the bottom line. Expedia also markets properties that belong to ResortQuest, and one such property is the venerable Pacific Monarch Hotel in Honolulu.
According to one of the authors of Beat of Hawaii, he has twice submitted negative reviews of the Pacific Monarch Hotel in Honolulu to TripAdvisor. His complaints in each instance were standard commentaries, claiming the hotel was "dingy," the airconditioning "substandard," the furnishings "dated and junkie," the tv not bolted to its stand (it nearly crashed to the floor), and citing many other defects. All in all, he wrote, it was "one of the worst in Waikiki; no monarch would stay there".
"I submitted the same review twice for publication," he writes. "Both times I was told by TripAdvisor that my writing 'did not meet review criteria.'" His review has never appeared.
"Conflict of Interest?" he asks. "TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia which markets Resort Quest properties that include the Pacific Monarch Hotel. While it may just be a coincidence, is it in their best interest to publish a negative review?"
"The problem is I no longer feel that I can always trust their site," he concludes.
So to all those readers who have, in the past, criticized me for my skepticism about TripAdvisor: what do you make of this? Do you really believe a billion-dollar corporation has any special regard for principle?
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First, a bit of background. TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia, a billion-dollar corporation whose highly-paid CEO shows great interest in the bottom line. Expedia also markets properties that belong to ResortQuest, and one such property is the venerable Pacific Monarch Hotel in Honolulu.
According to one of the authors of Beat of Hawaii, he has twice submitted negative reviews of the Pacific Monarch Hotel in Honolulu to TripAdvisor. His complaints in each instance were standard commentaries, claiming the hotel was "dingy," the airconditioning "substandard," the furnishings "dated and junkie," the tv not bolted to its stand (it nearly crashed to the floor), and citing many other defects. All in all, he wrote, it was "one of the worst in Waikiki; no monarch would stay there".
"I submitted the same review twice for publication," he writes. "Both times I was told by TripAdvisor that my writing 'did not meet review criteria.'" His review has never appeared.
"Conflict of Interest?" he asks. "TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia which markets Resort Quest properties that include the Pacific Monarch Hotel. While it may just be a coincidence, is it in their best interest to publish a negative review?"
"The problem is I no longer feel that I can always trust their site," he concludes.
So to all those readers who have, in the past, criticized me for my skepticism about TripAdvisor: what do you make of this? Do you really believe a billion-dollar corporation has any special regard for principle?
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Labels: websites
Apr 11, 2008
Has anyone used Helpx.net, or known anyone who has? And how did they do?
In a recent issue, Time magazine described the various hospitality clubs that this blog, and Frommers.com, have been mentioning for years. But among the familiar names -- like www.usservas.org or www.couchsurfers.com -- they listed one of which I had not earlier heard, a club called Helpx.net, which arranges free room-and-board for you in exchange for four or five hours a day of your labor, usually at a farm or a backpackers' hostel.
Have any of our readers used or heard about Helpx.net? I'd be grateful if they'd respond about their experiences, as this is an intriguing service that many of our readers might want to consider.
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Have any of our readers used or heard about Helpx.net? I'd be grateful if they'd respond about their experiences, as this is an intriguing service that many of our readers might want to consider.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
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.
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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.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
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.
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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.
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Labels: websites
Mar 13, 2008
From now on, you'll need to consult Booking.com -- Europe's biggest hotel search engine -- when you're looking for a hotel room
In the U.S., Hotels.com (www.hotels.com) and Quikbook (www.quikbook.com) almost monopolize the field of hotel searches. In Europe, they run a remote second to a website called Booking.com (www.booking.com). And now, Booking.com has opened offices in New York and San Francisco and is flooding its list of available properties with American hotels, often naming unbeatable discount prices for their rooms. From now on, you'd do well to access Booking.com (an attractive, well-organized site listing many bargains) after you've first searched the offerings of Hotels.com and Quikbook.com.
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Labels: accommodations, websites
Mar 12, 2008
Don't look now, but there appears to be a counter-reaction to user-generated travel websites, a growing skepticism as to their worth
I've been vindicated. After many months of serving as one of the few journalistic opponents to the user-generated travel websites (I've written that they are prepared by inexperienced amateurs who have no comparative judgment, who have only been to one hotel or one restaurant in the city they're reviewing), none other than Newsweek magazine has quoted a research specialist who claims that the public is growing weary of greenhorn dabblers. She cites, as support for the counter-trend, the popularity of About.com (www.about.com), which relies on experts for its judgments, and the similar success of bigthink.com (www.bigthink.com), "where depth of knowledge and expertise reign."
So now there's someone else who's crying in the wilderness (like me): Bring back the experts! Down with the dilettantes!
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So now there's someone else who's crying in the wilderness (like me): Bring back the experts! Down with the dilettantes!
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Labels: websites
Feb 22, 2008
Six websites help to reduce the discomfort of modern-day aviation
Often unusual, sometimes quirky, but always useful, these online resources can greatly improve the pre-flight portion of the trip:
1) Finding the airport: Perhaps the best -- but often overlooked -- resources available to air travelers are the Web sites of the actual airports they will be using. Airport sites, which are listed at www.atlasnavigator.com/directory/airports.html, are treasure troves of information covering everything from maps of the terminals, with shopping and dining options, to real-time arrival and departure information. You can find the direct phone number for various airport services and, perhaps most useful of all, details (and links) for every means of getting to and from the airport, from private limo services and how much a taxi should cost to shuttle bus services, regional rail lines that link to the airport, and the frequently missed (but potentially cost-saving) local city bus lines you can use to get downtown.
2) Picking the perfect seat on the plane: To help you select the best seat available on any flight on any carrier every single time, visit www.seatguru.com.
3) Tracking your flight: The www.flighttracker.com service from Orbitz offers current weather and delay conditions at airports across the country, wait times for security lines, and links to track the flight status of any flight.
4) Finding a parking space: There's an effective solution to the high fees and often full airport parking lots at airports: parking at discount, off-site lots near the airports. They may add from 5 to 15 minutes of extra time on a shuttle bus to the terminal, but off-site lots have the benefits of a) costing several dollars less per day and b) allowing you to reserve a spot ahead of time -- often a crucial service during holidays and other busy travel periods. The two biggest networks and booking services are www.airportparkingreservations.com and www.parknflynetwork.com.
5) Killing time at the airport: Booking engine Expedia.com has thoughtfully posted selections from Harriet Baskas's book "Stuck at the Airport" detailing survival tips, hints, and insider secrets to getting the most out of a stop at each of 65 major airports around the world. You can find it at www.expedia.com/daily/airports.
6) Catching some Zs: For truly long layovers and unexpected flight delays, the funky www.sleepinginairports.com rates various airports terminals on how easy it is to catch 40 winks and lists the prime spots for snoozing without being bothered.
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1) Finding the airport: Perhaps the best -- but often overlooked -- resources available to air travelers are the Web sites of the actual airports they will be using. Airport sites, which are listed at www.atlasnavigator.com/directory/airports.html, are treasure troves of information covering everything from maps of the terminals, with shopping and dining options, to real-time arrival and departure information. You can find the direct phone number for various airport services and, perhaps most useful of all, details (and links) for every means of getting to and from the airport, from private limo services and how much a taxi should cost to shuttle bus services, regional rail lines that link to the airport, and the frequently missed (but potentially cost-saving) local city bus lines you can use to get downtown.
2) Picking the perfect seat on the plane: To help you select the best seat available on any flight on any carrier every single time, visit www.seatguru.com.
3) Tracking your flight: The www.flighttracker.com service from Orbitz offers current weather and delay conditions at airports across the country, wait times for security lines, and links to track the flight status of any flight.
4) Finding a parking space: There's an effective solution to the high fees and often full airport parking lots at airports: parking at discount, off-site lots near the airports. They may add from 5 to 15 minutes of extra time on a shuttle bus to the terminal, but off-site lots have the benefits of a) costing several dollars less per day and b) allowing you to reserve a spot ahead of time -- often a crucial service during holidays and other busy travel periods. The two biggest networks and booking services are www.airportparkingreservations.com and www.parknflynetwork.com.
5) Killing time at the airport: Booking engine Expedia.com has thoughtfully posted selections from Harriet Baskas's book "Stuck at the Airport" detailing survival tips, hints, and insider secrets to getting the most out of a stop at each of 65 major airports around the world. You can find it at www.expedia.com/daily/airports.
6) Catching some Zs: For truly long layovers and unexpected flight delays, the funky www.sleepinginairports.com rates various airports terminals on how easy it is to catch 40 winks and lists the prime spots for snoozing without being bothered.
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Feb 21, 2008
Kijiji is the latest source of vacation rentals in America -- and don't pass it up because of its funny name
Kijiji (www.kijiji.com) is a collection of free classified ads that began last summer and is already receiving more and more visitors each month. A great many of those users go to it for its information on "vacation rentals," which you find under the "housing" category. Click on the U.S. city to which you're going, scroll down to "housing," and you'll find a surprising number of notices alerting you to major bargains in both vacation apartments and vacation homes for the short-term stay you've planned in that city. While those notices aren't any different in quality from those you'd find on Craigslist, they are just plain different in many cases, and therefore an important source of savings.
The reason why Kijiji is growing so fast has something to do with its owner: eBay. Though eBay also owns a minority share of Craigslist, it has apparently decided to strike out on its own in the world of free classified ads, and it obviously knows a thing or two about establishing a website.
As for that ridiculous name, the name Google was also pretty ridiculous when first introduced. I predict that Kijiji will henceforth be used for a lot of travel purposes.
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The reason why Kijiji is growing so fast has something to do with its owner: eBay. Though eBay also owns a minority share of Craigslist, it has apparently decided to strike out on its own in the world of free classified ads, and it obviously knows a thing or two about establishing a website.
As for that ridiculous name, the name Google was also pretty ridiculous when first introduced. I predict that Kijiji will henceforth be used for a lot of travel purposes.
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Labels: websites
Feb 14, 2008
There's impressive, change-your-life advice for travelers over the age of 50 in a website awkwardly entitled Over50andOverseas.com
Joining the Peace Corps, or volunteering for a dozen other arduous volunteer programs overseas, is normally regarded as a young folks' choice. John Dwyer, who is well over 50 in age, doesn't agree. He has created a fact-filled website called Over50andOverseas.com (www.over50andoverseas.com) which describes a whole host of idealistic overseas programs that mature Americans are fully capable of joining.
His own biography supplies the best example of how a person in the mid-course of his life, so to speak, can change his life through travel overseas:
His website deals with less exalted opportunities for voluntary service overseas, but it does point out how middle-aged and older Americans can volunteer for such challenging posts as in the Peace Corps.
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His own biography supplies the best example of how a person in the mid-course of his life, so to speak, can change his life through travel overseas:
In 1991 [when he was over the age of 50], John Dwyer joined the Peace Corps, a decision that has since led to international service in 14 countries and travel to 38 countries. After Peace Corps service in Guatemala John served as a United Nations Volunteer in the first elections in Bosnia after the Bosnian War and subsequently has worked elections in Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Russia, Ukraine and Bangladesh. He managed camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Herat, Afghanistan and did development work in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He continues to work internationally.
His website deals with less exalted opportunities for voluntary service overseas, but it does point out how middle-aged and older Americans can volunteer for such challenging posts as in the Peace Corps.
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Feb 13, 2008
You can snare an outside, balcony-equipped cabin on a brand-new ship, for a 7-night cruise, for only $699 per person in March and April
Bargain rates for cruises are usually available in inside cabins lacking portholes; Online Vacation Center (tel. 800/329-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com) is offering them for outside cabins that come equipped with a balcony overlooking the sea, no less. On seven-night sailings of the Eastern Caribbean, leaving from Fort Lauderdale on March 14 and 28, and April 11 and 18, aboard the brand-new (less than a year old) MSC Orchestra, the fast-growing cruise discounter named above is charging as little as $699 per person.
For $20 more (a total of $719 per person), you can sail through the western Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale, again on seven-night cruises of the MSC Orchestra, in outside, balcony-equipped cabins, leaving on March 7 and 21 and on April 4.
Online Vacation Center, the source of those stunners, is headed by Ed Rudner, the founder of Alamo Rent-a-Car and Renaissance Cruises. His is a fast-growing organization whose stock-in-trade is discounted cruises and tours. Whenever you feel like a cruise, you'd be well advised to check its website, where prices compare quite well with all the other leading cruise discounters: Vacations-to-Go, CruisesOnly, Cruise Wizard, and others. And as you've seen, Online Vacation Center frequently offers rates for high-quality cabins that aren't always offered on the other websites. Though this is a time of plentiful cruise discounts, the ones that result in prices as low as $699 per person are usually for inside cabins.
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For $20 more (a total of $719 per person), you can sail through the western Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale, again on seven-night cruises of the MSC Orchestra, in outside, balcony-equipped cabins, leaving on March 7 and 21 and on April 4.
Online Vacation Center, the source of those stunners, is headed by Ed Rudner, the founder of Alamo Rent-a-Car and Renaissance Cruises. His is a fast-growing organization whose stock-in-trade is discounted cruises and tours. Whenever you feel like a cruise, you'd be well advised to check its website, where prices compare quite well with all the other leading cruise discounters: Vacations-to-Go, CruisesOnly, Cruise Wizard, and others. And as you've seen, Online Vacation Center frequently offers rates for high-quality cabins that aren't always offered on the other websites. Though this is a time of plentiful cruise discounts, the ones that result in prices as low as $699 per person are usually for inside cabins.
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By slashing its membership fee for student-age travelers to $25, U.S. Servas is fighting hard to regain its once-towering reputation
Long before there was a CouchSurfing (www.couchsurfing.com) or a GlobalFreeloaders.com (www.globalfreeloaders.com), there was Servas (www.servas.org; US site www.usservas.org). Founded in 1948 by peace activists in Denmark, it grew to be an organization of several thousands of "hosts" around the world who were willing to give free hospitality in their homes or apartments to travelers from other lands.
From the beginning, Servas was determined to operate its program as a means of promoting international friendship and understanding; it sought to attract travelers interested in conversation with their hosts; it established an elaborate system of interviews meant to screen out the dilettantes who were simply looking for a free crash pad. And it established a rather substantial membership fee of $85 per year.
In recent years, some felt that Servas' aging membership wasn't capable of maintaining its operation. A turnabout occurred two years ago when the leadership changed its headquarters from a long-established office in the New York financial district to a new location in Arcata, California (tel. 707/825-1714; e-mail info@usservas.org). And now, in 2008, Servas is expanding its appeal to a younger population by cutting the annual membership fee to $25 for students over 18 (either from the U.S. or abroad) wishing to travel within the U.S. and stay free of charge with American host families in as many cities as they choose. Servas hosts are in every part of the U.S. (other than Las Vegas), from Alaska (30 households) to Florida (57), with 300 in California.
Servas student travelers must be interviewed before their journey, and carry Servas photo id. From capsule descriptions of 1,500 households in the U.S. Servas host directory, travelers decide which hosts they wish to contact (usually by e-mail) for visits. Accommodations vary from a private guest room to sleeping bag space. Breakfast and usually dinner are included, along with time for conversation, shared interests, and community events. Servas, once again, is not a crash-pad service.
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From the beginning, Servas was determined to operate its program as a means of promoting international friendship and understanding; it sought to attract travelers interested in conversation with their hosts; it established an elaborate system of interviews meant to screen out the dilettantes who were simply looking for a free crash pad. And it established a rather substantial membership fee of $85 per year.
In recent years, some felt that Servas' aging membership wasn't capable of maintaining its operation. A turnabout occurred two years ago when the leadership changed its headquarters from a long-established office in the New York financial district to a new location in Arcata, California (tel. 707/825-1714; e-mail info@usservas.org). And now, in 2008, Servas is expanding its appeal to a younger population by cutting the annual membership fee to $25 for students over 18 (either from the U.S. or abroad) wishing to travel within the U.S. and stay free of charge with American host families in as many cities as they choose. Servas hosts are in every part of the U.S. (other than Las Vegas), from Alaska (30 households) to Florida (57), with 300 in California.
Servas student travelers must be interviewed before their journey, and carry Servas photo id. From capsule descriptions of 1,500 households in the U.S. Servas host directory, travelers decide which hosts they wish to contact (usually by e-mail) for visits. Accommodations vary from a private guest room to sleeping bag space. Breakfast and usually dinner are included, along with time for conversation, shared interests, and community events. Servas, once again, is not a crash-pad service.
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