Although the 22-year-old tour operator called Vacation Express, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has always done best in air-and-land packages designed for would-be vacationers residing in the southern states, it has offered the same vacation product to Americans flying out of almost any location. Access its website, www.vacationexpress.com, and you'll be able to ascertain the cost of an air-and-land package using scheduled air transportation from literally scores of U.S. cities to Mexico, the Caribbean and Costa Rica.
That nationwide reach is undoubtedly what made it a prime candidate for acquisition by Europe's TUI travel conglomerate. A giant, billion-dollar-plus travel firm, TUI has shown an increasing interest in entering the U.S. market; it owns, among others, Go-today tours, which offers packages from the U.S. to Europe. And more recently, it acquired half of the Canadian package giant, Sunwing Vacations, which also owns its own vacation carrier, Sunwing Airlines.
Last month, Sunwing acquired Vacation Express, and now gives TUI an important toe-hold in the United States. Since Sunwing already sends tens of thousands of Canadian vacationers each year to tropical islands and resorts, its valuable hotel relationships will permit Vacation Express to be more competitive than ever in the vacation market to the Caribbean, Mexico and Costa Rica.
I have never regarded the product of Vacation Express to be comparable to the tropical values and bargains offered by such U.S. companies as Apple Vacations or Gogo Tours, except perhaps from Atlanta where its prices are excellent (and where it often operates direct charter flights to the tropics). But that may all change. It's obvious that TUI, acting through Sunwing of Canada, will breathe new vigor and ambition into Vacation Express.
So what does this have to do with you, the American vacationer? It means that you should now consult the vacation prices of Vacation Express, from your city, whenever you're tempted to vacation in the Caribbean, Mexico or Costa Rica. I would make a point of always scanning the opportunities offered by Vacation Express for such a trip. I have a feeling that Vacation Express will now become more aggressive than ever in seeking to increase its market share of U.S. travel.
The economic problems of India are beginning to open up new possibilities for tourism. As of this week, the exchange rate of the Indian Rupee has crashed through a value of 53 Rupees to the U.S. dollar, the lowest exchange rate of the Rupee in recent history and a decline in its value of 17% in the year to date. Thus, the cost of accommodations, meals and sightseeing in India has declined considerably for American tourists, suggesting that now might be a good time to consider a trip there.
That unusual exchange rate has begun attracting attention from various financial newspapers and newspaper columnists specializing in international finance. According to the experts, India's trade deficit is worsening and it is the only one of the emerging BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) to suffer a decline this year in its foreign investment. The consequence of that: a continued probable decline in the value of the Rupee. According to the Times, "The Rupee still looks vulnerable" (even at a startling exchange rate of 53 to the Dollar).
So what does this portend for your own possible trip to India? Although the cost of airfares there isn't cheap (you pay about $1,200 round-trip between New York and Delhi or Mumbai, unless you take a difficult, two-stop flight on Gulf Air requiring two overnight stays in the London and Bahrain airports), that outlay is greatly offset by the bargain-level of most costs in India itself (which was a cheap country to visit even before the decline of the Rupee). If you've never before been there, you might consider a winter trip, which is the best time of year for touring that colorful country.
To me, the leisure enjoyed during the holiday season is a perfect time in which to plan future vacations. And so I've compiled a list of my own favorite destinations, of which there are 10:
1) Sanibel Island, Florida: Off the west coast of the Sunshine State, a few miles from Ft. Myers, is this idyllic haven of white-sand beaches, condos whose seafront apartments are available for weekly rentals, excellent restaurants, good shopping--and most important, the Ding Darling Nature Preserve, visited by thousands of birds of every species, who bask in the sun after diving for fish, and are one of the great natural sights of wildlife in America.
2) The Island of Bali, in Indonesia. A Hindu outpost in a Muslim nation, it is inhabited by some of the most gracious people on earth, who invite you to witness their religious processions, wedding ceremonies and joyous funerals. Making a base in the village of Ubud in the central highlands (which I greatly prefer to the beach areas of Bali, heavily visited by Australian surfers), I enjoy one of the cheapest vacations on earth, and yet one that is a profound cultural experience, supplemented by shopping expeditions to the arts and crafts shops of skilled artisans in the other central villages that surround Ubud.
3) Paris, France: I can never get enough of this glorious capital, whose beauty has been so well captured in Woody Allen's recent "Midnight in Paris" film. To me, Paris is on the frontier of virtually every subject I care about: cuisine (its restaurants and open-air markets are legendary), art (its museums and galleries are countless), theater (numerous playhouses and concert halls), life of the mind (its newspapers, colleges and forums are an endless source of new solutions), and history. Its residents, contrary to a popular misunderstanding, are actually quite friendly; and its prices are reasonable to the tourist who takes the time to research the options.
4) St. John in the U. S. Virgin Islands: One of the Caribbean's less developed islands (90% of it is a national park), it is also the site of Maho Bay Camps, a unique vacation complex of canvas-sided bungalows on a hillside overlooking a breathtaking ocean view. By comparison with most Caribbean resorts, Maho Bay is moderate in cost, patronized by unpretentious, intellectually-curious Americans, and open for the next two years (before its lease expires).
5) Cairo, Egypt: Though we will have to wait a while until the political discord of Egypt subsides, we will eventually return to the great sights of Cairo--the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Egyptian Museum with its relics of Tut, the Nile and its river trips to Upper Egypt (Aswan, Luxor, Abu Simbel). These come as close to being indispensable destinations as any I know.
6) Bonaire, one of the "ABC" islands of the southern Caribbean: A scuba-diving capital. After taking a short "resort course", you will find yourself hanging weightless some 60 feet below the surface of the sea, viewing an enchanting sight of sealife and vegetation. And all this is enjoyed on a small, laid back and lightly-populated island, without the pressures and commerce of the better-known tropics.
7) Yachats, the Oregon Coast: A tiny seaside town, and yet with several gourmet restaurants (featuring Dungeness Crab at some), a number of small motel-like lodgings, and a good beach--in sum, the ideal spot for a stop in the course of a motoring trip along the breathtaking (and largely undeveloped) Oregon coast.
8) Chiang Rai, Thailand: A short ride from the better-known and much larger Chiang Mai, it houses a number of small travel agencies whose personnel will arrange a visit (on foot, by elephant, and by boat on the Mekong River) to the "Hill Tribes" in the mountainous "Golden Triangle" of Thailand, where Thailand meets Cambodia and Laos. The "Hill Tribes", living much as people did during the Stone Age, are fascinating to visit, and they will put you up for an overnight stay (or two nights) in their thatched huts on stilts.
9) New York City's Greenwich Village (and its Off-Broadway theaters): Many of the most important new trends and causes in America--the civil rights struggle, feminism, equal rights for gays, environmentalism,economic equality--all got their first hearing in these small theaters, which continue to perform a similar function today, exposing all of us to novel political and social ideas. Here's a remarkable chance to expand your consciousness.
10) Kenya. On an overland safari expedition from Nairobi into the Masai Mara and the Serengeti (without roads or power lines), you will see the world as it looked before human beings inhabited it. In Kenya, you are guaranteed of seeing tens of thousands of animals -- wildebeest, giraffes, lions, elephants, rhinoceros, and more) in a single day -- an exceptional experience.
Runners-up to my 10 best: Copenhagen, St. Lucia in the Caribbean, Oxford, Mexico's San Miguel de Allende, and Rio.
How many websites attempt to help you make the right choice of travel products? The answer is: tens of thousands. But as I prepare for my own trips, or respond to inquiries from friends, relatives or readers, I find myself returning over and over to just 10 of that mammoth array. They are set forth below:
My favorites include:
1) For finding hotel rooms in the United States: www.getaroom.com. Though only a fraction of the size of its larger rivals (it accesses hotels in more than 200 cities, but concentrates on bargains in the 57 most heavily-visited ones), Getaroom claims to supply unique room rates, and actually encourages you to phone them for even better unpublished rates.
2) For finding hotel rooms in Europe: www.venere.com. From its headquarters in Rome, Venere accesses over 50,000 hotels all over the world, but does best -- and offers special bargain rates -- in European cities, for which you should primarily use it.
3) For finding low-cost overnights in private homes worldwide: www.airbnb.com. After only three years in existence, this San Francisco outfit is handling tens of thousands of bookings in private apartments and homes all over the world. Usually, the owner remains in residence while you occupy a guest bed or room.
4) For snaring a free-of-charge overnight in the home or apartment of gracious, generous people worldwide: www.couchsurfing.org. It reveals an awesome number of people who will put you up as a free guest.
5) For vacation homes or rental apartments: www.vrbo.com. VRBO.com eliminates the middleman by putting you in direct touch with the landlord, but therefore requires that you carefully check references. If you do, you'll often obtain remarkable values for your next vacation stay.
6) For unbeatable airfares both here and overseas: www.momondo.com. This Danish-based aggregator of flights, operated by a handful of people aided by what is apparently a remarkable computer program, has frequently provided me with airfare bargains that no other website revealed.
7) For sharp discounts on your next cruise: www.vacationstogo.com. Though more than a dozen cruise brokers compete for your business, this one presents its offerings in such clear, understandable fashion as to win my vote.
8) For discounted prices on your next auto rental: www.autoslash.com. In addition to revealing low rates, it also draws your attention to special coupon offers that can reduce your costs even more.
9) For lower-cost shore excursions on your next cruise: www.shoretrips.com. In addition to offering lower rates in nearly every major port at which the big cruiseships stop, it also places you in 12-passenger vans instead of the 45-passenger motorcoaches used by the cruiselines themselves.
10) For bargain rates on air-and-land packages to the Caribbean and Mexico: www.vacmart.com. Vacation Travel Mart lists heavily discounted prices for departures from Fort Lauderdale and Miami, but will actually handle such packages from any major U.S. city.
There's a new source of trips to Hawaii, and judging from its initial offerings (which launched the program just a few weeks ago), it will be giving the traditional Hawaiian tour operators a hard fight. Known for its travel products to everywhere except Hawaii, Gate 1 Travel (www.gate1.com) has apparently decided to enter hula-land with a bang -- and the result is some outstanding opportunities for your next vacation: deals that include round-trip airfare to the islands (from San Diego) and yet start at just a hair over $100 per person per day for stays at beachside resort hotels. For the time being, and until the standard Hawaiian tour operators fight back, Gate 1 will occasionally be the source (not always, but occasionally) for your lowest-price vacations to the Islands.
There are, to begin with, several single-island air-and-land packages listed by Gate 1 for stays of three nights, from only $479 to Oahu, $519 to Maui, and $589 to the Big Island -- always including round-trip air from San Diego (departures from other cities add from $22 to $300).
However, the really intriguing bargains are the weeklong, multi-island deals: three nights on each of two or three islands, with trans-Pacific airfare as well as airfare between the islands thrown in, starting at $769 per person.
Or go for broke on a 9-night/10-day, three-island package (Oahu, Big Island and Maui; or Oahu, Kauai and Maui) for just $1,099. Again, including airfare to and within the islands.
There's also a 12-night/13-day blowout that covers all four islands (Oahu, Big Island, Kauai and Maui) from just $1,399.
Those prices all include fuel surcharge, but not airport taxes and fees (which can add $65 to $80), nor breakfast at most hotels (save, refreshingly, at the cheapest option on Oahu, where breakfast is included), nor any hotel "resort fee" of $10 per day (though that is only charged at two of the hotel options on Kauai).
Because they are reporting a fair number of days when all the visitors' passes have been taken up, and no more are to be had, the website for New York's September 11 Memorial site at Ground Zero in the Financial District (www.911memorial.org) does devote a few (usually overlooked) words to the fact that passes can occasionally be obtained from the people who run the NY Water Taxi organization (www.nywatertaxi.com). If you are a visitor to New York, and you've been turned down in your direct effort to obtain a pass to visit the September 11 Memorial, you can almost always obtain one by spending $25 (for adults) or $15 (for children) for passage on an around-the-island-of-Manhattan water taxi.
Friends of mine from out-of-town did just that this past weekend. Turned down for passes for themselves and their family, they went to Pier 84 at West 44th Street (at the Hudson River in Manhattan) and bought a Water Taxi ride that leaves from there almost hourly and stops at Battery Park to allow passengers to visit the Memorial. (The Water Taxi is one of those hop-on hop-off facilities, that then permits you to reboard the next boat and thus continue a sightseeing tour by water around Manhattan). While you'll spend either $25 or $15 for the purpose of visiting the Memorial, you'll also receive free transportation on the Water Taxi from its mid-town departure point to the Memorial site -- a trip that you would otherwise have to fund on your own.
While the Memorial people claim that only a limited number of passes are assigned to the Water Taxi organization, I've never heard of anyone being unable to get one who buys a Water Taxi trip. So here's a slightly-expensive method of seeing the Memorial on your next trip to New York. Need I add (as someone who has been to the Memorial and was tremendously impressed by what has been achieved there) that the visit is a memorable one and should be scheduled as an important part of your New York experience.
The new year is two weeks away, and I've been thinking of the travel resolutions I should make for a better 2012. Here's an initial list:
I will make every effort in the year ahead to be courteous and respectful to airport and airline personnel and members of the TSA; they work under unusually stressful conditions, fielding enormous pressures, and they deserve our smiles and understanding.
I will constantly remind myself of the moral obligation to leave a generous tip to the chambermaids who have made up my hotel room -- theirs' is an underpaid profession and we should supplement the measly wages of the hotel chains.
I will avoid traveling on airlines that delight in public-be-damned attitudes, the companies that exult in an openly-expressed disdain for the traveler, making a virtual point of their arrogant references to the passenger. And I will give hard thought (the decision isn't yet final) to including Spirit Airlines and Britain's Ryanair on that list.
On my very next flight, I will politely ask permission of the person sitting behind me to recline my seat.
I will stop burying my head in a newspaper or book, and converse with the airline passenger sitting beside me, if they have indicated a desire to talk.
I will make every effort to travel to countries whose demonstrations and protests have been for the purpose of achieving democracy, but occasionally at the cost of losing their tourism. Egypt is among the nations deserving our visits, and for other reasons the Asian nation of Myanmar -- at last moving towards decency -- deserves our tourism, too.
I will try to emulate my daughter's policy of limiting her luggage to one small carry-on bag; I will remember that on numerous trips, I have actually worn only a fraction of the items that I have carried with me in a large suitcase.
I will continue to argue for high-speed rail, wherever an opportunity exists -- either in journalism or simply in public meetings -- to make a case for a technology so urgently needed in a country that will soon have a population of 400,000,000 people, as dense as any other on earth.
I will agitate as well for an easing of our nation's foolish and impractical visa requirements, which have blocked millions of foreigners from making visits to our country.
I will remember to make a yearly contribution to ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking), an organization that fights the exploitation of children in sex tourism.
I will bring sandwiches with me, prepared at home, to my next trip on an airplane. I will haughtily dismiss the thought of airline snacks that taste like sand.
In my writing about travel, I will try to rediscover the feeling of novelty and excitement of a first-time visitor to almost any new destination. I will constantly remind myself that my own reactions after traveling for the 60th time to London or Amsterdam, are not the same as those of most of my readers.
On my next trip to Curacao, Barbados or the Bahamas, I will make a point of visiting the museums on the history of slavery found there. (On a tropical vacation, none of us should lose sight of the horrendous early circumstances of so many islands in the Caribbean and south Atlantic).
I will never leave on any trip before spending a least a few hours reading about the history and culture of the places I am about to visit; the failure to do so ruins more vacations (or at least robs them of their full potential) than any other factor.
I will supplement the recommended tipping policies of the cruiselines with additional sums meant to recognize the hard labors of the people who staff the cruiseships, and who work long hours for sums that we ourselves would never accept. It is a tragedy (and a scandal) that we travelers benefit from the scandalously low wages of the desperate people who take room or dining steward positions on cruiseships, thus making cruising as cheap as it is.
I will never book a cruise that stops at the many "private islands" or "private beaches" that cruiselines are throwing up around the Caribbean, robbing passengers of the opportunity to encounter the real life of the islands, eliminating the experience of foreign travel from cruises.
I will give some thought (I'm not sure I have the courage to do so) to changing into pajamas on an overnight flight across the Atlantic. First class passengers are currently encouraged to do so (and sometimes supplied with pajamas and robe by the airline); why shouldn't economy passengers wear the same?
And finally, in the writing I do and the talks I deliver, I will continue to regard travel not as a mere recreation, but as a serious learning activity, a way of understanding the world, an essential element of a civilized life.
A remarkable new website has just gone online, designed to get you a better deal on your next hotel stay than the hotel at which you've earlier made a reservation. Because it requires that you first have such a reservation, I haven't myself been able to test it. But it has the potential to be a remarkable tool for travelers.
Backbid.com operates a bit like Cruise Compete, the website that circulates your cruise desires among hundreds of travel agents, asking them to bid for your business--that is, to state the price and the ship they're able to obtain for your vacation needs. But Backbid.com is somewhat different.
On Backbid.com, travelers post the details of hotel arrangements they've already made (room cost, dates, and amenities) -- without specifying the name of the hotel itself -- and hotel members of the site can then compete to undersell or outbid the deal and get the traveler to switch to them.
It's somewhat like Priceline.com, only in reverse. They do all the comparison-shopping on your behalf, and you just sit back and pick the deal you like best. The site claims to have 100 hotel partners and counting -- though currently only in the U.S.
The new site is also a nothing-to-lose proposition. You've supposedly already found and booked a hotel you're willing to use, so if you don't see a deal that you like better, you're still good-to-go with your original choice.
The continuing ingenuity of online entrepreneurs is a marvel to behold!
If your incoming e-mails are like mine, then they are full of links to an influential article entitled "Requiem for a Train" in a recent edition of Slate, sent to me by well-meaning friends and readers. In it, the author accumulates all the reasons for not embarking on a national campaign to upgrade our rail lines: it will cost too much, it will not achieve speeds over 100 miles an hour, it will attract far fewer riders than anticipated, it will be a boondoggle -- -something, I suppose, like Seward's purchase of Alaska in the 1800s.
Alaska, as you'll recall, was a boondoggle, too. An absurd waste of money. So was the automobile, a ridiculous unnecessary alternative to the animal-drawn carriage. Remember reading about the hoots that people delivered at others who were having difficulty starting their cars? "Get a horse!" was their favorite cry.
"Get a horse!" Those words resound in my mind when I read all the pettifogging, cavilling arguments against proceeding with high-speed rail. We will eventually lapse into a second-rate nation if we do not proceed with these projects. We will drown in automobiles, crash in planes crowded into air routes between close-in cities.
Have you driven recently between Ft. Myers and Naples, Florida, along the west coast of that state? Stewed for upwards of three hours on a highway only 60 miles long, as recently happened to me? Encountered traffic jams of an unprecedented sort? Have you driven between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale? Or from Tampa to Orlando? Have you been stuck for hours on highways between Los Angeles and San Francisco? Have you needed to devote several hours to a trip by air between New York City and Syracuse? Have you stewed at the airport, hearing one announcement after another of delayed flights for a route that should be handled by rail, not by air?
We have no alternative to high-speed rail.
The arguments arrayed against high-speed rail by that avatar of intelligent planning, the Governor of Florida, or by the affluent residents of California who hate the idea of a nearby rail line, remind me of the people who used to shout "Get a horse!"
The rest of the world -- nations from China to western Europe -- are unanimous in their support of high-speed rail, and are busily engaged in bringing their countries into the twenty-first century. We should join them.
Almost in the believe-it-or-not category is the $999 air-and-land package from New York to Osaka, Japan, just announced by KIE/Kintetsu International, the giant Japanese tour and travel agency company. Though somewhat lower prices have occasionally been announced from Los Angeles, this one is from New York on a non-stop flight aboard China Airlines, of all companies (one usually doesn't see such cooperation between Japan and China). For $999, apparently including all taxes and fees, avid travelers on the East Coast can fly non-stop and round-trip to Osaka (far removed from the area suffering from the recent nuclear meltdown elsewhere in Japan) and enjoy two nights of accommodations at a major hotel there (with the opportunity to extend the stay on their own for as long as they wish, anywhere in Japan).
The press release announcing this odd flight and odd package doesn't supply any further details or list of conditions, but suggests that persons interested in an unusual travel opportunity should either phone the New York office of KIE/Kintetsu at tel. 800/422-3481 or e-mail for more information to info@japanforyou.com. You might want to know that KIE/Kintetsu operates five branch offices in the USA staffed by more than 100 employees.
Osaka, incidentally, is only 34 miles from Kyoto, which can be reached from Osaka in an easy, half-hour train ride. It is a place of two and a half million people, the third largest and second most important city of Japan (a commercial capital), and has a dazzling, neon-lit downtown, several theaters, famous temples, art and history museums, and unique food theme park. And it is well-known for still another theme park operated by our own Universal Studios called Universal Studios Osaka. Many visitors combine their stay in Osaka with a visit to nearby Kyoto, and regard that two-city combination as offering an excellent introduction to Japan. In these days when many tourists steer clear of Tokyo (290 miles away), a flight to Osaka (and nearby Kyoto) takes on added appeal.
