Because my daughter is traveling this week, as a good travel writer should, I'll be appearing all alone on this Sunday's Travel Show. So I'll be responding to twice the number of questions and comments as I usually encounter, and you are cordially invited to phone those in during the course of the program (dial 800/544-7070).
At the outset of the program, I'll be discussing in depth the apparent collapse of cruise prices for remaining summer sailings of the waters off Alaska. It's quite a development, that permits you to book a seven-day Alaskan cruise for as little as $349 (in late July, and throughout August and the first half of September). And because, from many American cities, you can fly round-trip to the embarkation ports (Seattle, Vancouver) for as little as $500 and $600, the total cost is a reasonable one, for a travel experience that's one of the great thrills. Everyone, at some point of their lives, should experience the pure nature of Alaska.
What else will I be discussing? Well, I'll be choosing a number of outstanding travel bargains for the months ahead, ranging from those in such heavily touristed cities as New York and San Francisco to such popular destinations as Belize and Guatemala. I'll talk about some outstanding low-cost packages to Bali, and -- as always -- there will be angry confrontations from listeners to some of my own utterly reasonable opinions about travel. I hope you'll tune in (noon to 2 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, when you can hear the program either live on one of the 130-plus stations carrying it or live on the WOR website (wor710.com). But if you're not available to listen, you can go later to wor710.com, scroll to the bottom of the main page, and click on The Travel Show, where you'll hear a recorded podcast of the program (sans commercials) that remains up for several weeks ahead.
Every year, as we enter the month of July, cruiselines get frantic about the empty cabins on their remaining cruises in the waters off Alaska. They stop kidding themselves. They realize, as they have ultimately realized every year, that they have placed too many cruiseships into the Alaska market, and that something needs to be done -- fast.
I had a premonition that this year's problem was greater than usual, when I saw a massive sale on the website of Online Vacation Center. Earlier this week, they devoted several pages to remarkable Alaskan discounts for the remaining months of the Alaska cruise season. Seven-day cruises for $349! Other seven-day cruises for $399! Lots of seven-day cruises for $649, and $679, and $699!
And these were cruises of Alaska offered not on the mass-volume cruise lines but on the upscale ships. Seven-day $349 cruises on the Statendam and Volendam of Holland America! Seven-day $399 cruises on the Celebrity Millennium! Seven-day $679 cruises on the Celebrity Infinity! Seven-day $599 cruises on the Oosterdam and Westerdam of Holland America! These are all fine ships. And if you want to learn more about such values, you have only to phone Online Vacation Center at 800/329-9002.
To learn whether matters were as bad as they seemed (or as thrilling, from a consumer's standpoint), I went to Vacations To Go and consulted their comprehensive listings of cruiseships sailing in the waters off Alaska. And my suspicions were confirmed. Time and time again, you find seven-day cruises of Alaska for the remaining departure dates in July, August and September selling for as little as $399 per person.
Obviously, it is the cruises that leave from Seward (the port for Anchorage) that are the most heavily discounted. That's because the one-way airfare all the way to Anchorage is fairly high. But even for sailings out of Seattle and Vancouver, all with fairly modest airfares, heavy discounting is now practiced. To learn how heavy, go to www.vacationstogo.com.
How about the airfare for reaching the embarkation ports for those cruises? I just went to Hipmunk.com and requested a mid-July round-trip between Chicago and Seattle (the latter being a frequent jumping-off point for Alaska cruises). You can buy such tickets for as little as $470 round-trip and for as much as $540. Add that sum to a
$399 cruise, and you have an excellent, quality vacation for a reasonable cost. Those of you who have sailed the waters off Alaska will confirm that doing so is a unique experience, bringing into view lands where human beings have never walked and probably never will.
Last week, I drew attention to the fact that a new and major addition to the Disney theme parks in Anaheim, California -- a large new exhibit called Cars Land -- had totally re-vitalized a once-dwindling attraction; people stood in line all night to be the first inside a park displaying the images, characters, and talking autos of the Disney's two Cars films. That new area, part of a separate Disney theme park requiring a separate admission charge, is being credited for turning California's Disneyland into a two-park visit requiring more than a single, short day in Anaheim (and Anaheim has been visibly improved and expanded, too).
Would you believe that an enterprising tour operator has created an air-and-land package to make it doubly exciting to visit the new Disney Land? A Florida-based outfit -- Travel Themes And Dreams -- is offering a $419 per person package to Anaheim that includes:
Round-trip air on Southwest Airlines to Anaheim from Las Vegas or Phoenix, Arizona
Three nights' accommodation at the excellent Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim
A $75 per person food-and-beverage credit at the Sheraton Park Hotel
Round-trip airport-to-hotel transfers
What's more, it's offering only slightly higher rates for flights emanating from numerous other cities For further details, visit www.travelthemesanddreams.com or call 877/870-7447.
Along with this domestic option is a genuinely cheap, but high quality, river cruise of Europe that has just been announced by Gate 1 Travel. While several other river cruise companies have recently announced less-than-compelling reductions of $8,000 river cruises down to a price of $4,000 (which few Americans can presently afford), Gate 1 has created a 7-night cruise on the Danube, Main and Rhine Rivers in October (going to Nuremberg, Regensburg, Bamberg, Wurzberg, Rudesheim, and Koblenz) for just $699 (cruise only) per person, reflecting a two-for-one discount. Departures are on both October 11 and October 18, and must be booked at that price on or before July 2. You get all meals, unlimited wine with meals, all port taxes, and evening entertainment. And trans-Atlantic airfares at that time should be down somewhat from their current levels.
Given the current and wholly unrealistic pricing for most European river cruises, this rather luxurious $699 cruise is quite a value. Go to Gate1travel.com for all the details, or phone 800/682-3333.
If you can't commit to Ireland on or before June 29 (the deadline for booking Sceptre Tours' $899 bargain package combining trans-Atlantic air, hotels for seven nights, and a one-week car rental), you're still not out of luck. Brian Moore International -- another longtime specialist in packages to the Emerald Isle -- is offering a weeklong fly/drive program to Ireland this autumn and winter for as little as $749. For that sum, you receive round-trip air between New York and Dublin and a rental car (manual transmission) for one week. Although, this time, hotel accommodations are not included, many visitors to Ireland will prefer spending around $50 a night per person for bed-and-breakfast in Irish guesthouses located up and down all the main roads of that country.
You end up spending around the same as you'd pay to Sceptre Tours, and you don't need to meet Sceptre's June 29 deadline.
Brian Moore's $749 price (which sometimes dips to as low as $709 and $729, and sometimes climbs to as much as $779) is offered on scattered dates starting October 28 and continuing through the end of February. It's a complicated pricing structure, for which you'll need to consult the company's booking charts). But by being reasonably flexible in your dates of departure, you can go to Ireland for an exciting week of motoring to all the major sightseeing attractions, and for far less money than to England or anywhere else in Europe. This is a major travel opportunity.
Add-on prices from other U.S. cities? Brian Moore (www.bmit.com; tel. 800/982-2299) lists them from no fewer than 40 U.S. locations, and they are all quite moderate.
Brian Moore has been operating trans-Atlantic for more than 30 years, and is currently a subsidiary of the giant TUI corporation, one of the largest travel companies around.
Last week in this blog, I led off a list of outstanding travel bargains for the months ahead with the remarkable air-and-land package to Beijing offered (November through January) by China Spree. I now realize that an equivalent bargain is available to Ireland, provided only that you book on or before Friday, June 29. It's from Sceptre Tours, a long experienced specialist to the Emerald Isle, and for the very same $899 (including round-trip airfare from New York), it includes so many valuable features as to deserve much acclaim.
For departures from October 1 to December 15, Sceptre (www.sceptretours.com; tel. 800/221-0924) will fly you (included in the package price) round-trip to Dublin, and then provide you with seven (7) nights of accommodations in good hotels: one night in Newpark Hotel Kilkenny, two nights in Blarney Castle Resort in Cork, two nights in the Absolute Hotel in Limerick, and two nights in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin, as well as with a one-week car rental in a manual shift auto. Although you'll receive breakfast on one day in Kilkenny, no other meals are provided (but you can buy an optional package for $99 that provides you with full Irish breakfast for every morning of your seven-night stay, as well as with a whole raft of escorted sightseeing tours and admission charges for attractions in Ireland).
All local taxes and service charges, as well as all government air fees and taxes, are included. And you can extend your stay (as well as your use of the car) for extra nights, for $75 per such night. Airfare surcharges from cities other than New York? It's typical of this remarkable package that you pay only $43 more from Chicago, and equally gentle additions from numerous other cities (Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., etc.). And there are gentle surcharges (sometimes as little as $11 and $22) for weekend departures.
Please note: You can book at the lowest price by simply using the website; if you must speak with a live person, you'll pay $25 extra.
Few countries have suffered more than Ireland from the current European economic crisis. That means, as you'll probably agree, that we'll be seeing many more of these ultra-cheap air-and-land packages to Ireland as we approach the late fall and winter months. But for a starter, this one is pretty special, and I'm proud to bring it to your attention. Erin go bragh! as they say.
When the California Adventure Park opened at Disneyland in Anaheim several years ago, it bore with it the hopes of the Disney organization that Disneyland might become a two-park destination encouraging more visitors to spend two or more days at Disney's west coast location.
Those hopes were quickly squashed. Though California Adventure was mildly interesting, it failed to boost attendance to the extent that Disney had planned. So Disney turned to another idea: the use of Disney's Cars franchise to provide the theme for an expansion of California Adventures. Though Disney Pixar's Cars movie wasn't as initially successful financially as the studio's previous releases (think Toy Story; Monsters, Inc.; and Finding Nemo), the subsequent sale of Cars toys, apparel and licensed items was encouraging.
So Disney transformed the 12-acre parking lot of California Adventure into a vast new expansion of that park's appeal -- increasing the square footage of Disneyland by as much as 20%. It opened earlier this month, and it has been a colossal hit. People brought sleeping bags to spend the night outside the new park on the day before its opening, so they could be first in line at 5 a.m.
Travel writer Jason Cochran has visited the new Cars Land theme park, and his interview on the subject will start near the top of the first hour of this Sunday's Travel Show (noon to 2 p.m. E.S.T., streamed live on wor710.com and preserved in a podcast (click on "The Travel Show" on the list of programs appearing at the very bottom of the main menu). Jason has an extraordinary facility for being able to discuss the broader travel consequences of a popular event in travel and to provide insight into travel trends.
I spoke with Jason yesterday, a day after the recording of his interview, and was impressed with the remarkable gamble (more than a billion dollars) that Disney has risked to expand its California theme park. According to Jason, not simply the theme park but the surrounding community of Anaheim has now been greatly expanded and improved to make a much more enjoyable stay out of a visit there.
So I hope you'll tune in. Jason's interview will start at 1:06 p.m. E.S.T. on Sunday, and he'll also be describing the various rides and exhibits that make an intriguing, car-focused, highway-focused, attraction out of Disney's new Cars Land. In the meantime, if you'll google the words Cars Land on your computer, you'll be able to see several videos of the individual attractions that make up Cars Land.
Never let it be said that Frommers.com is only interested in profound travel subjects and not in the popular entertainment that draws so many people into the world of travel.
In my years as editor of Budget Travel magazine (I founded it in early 1998 and left it in mid-2003), my favorite feature was the "The 40 Best Bargain Vacations" section, which appeared in every issue. Grouping its discoveries geographically, it sought to ferret out the travel industry's most awesome deals -- the ones that made your mouth drop open -- and it quickly became the most heavily-read and carefully-used segment of the magazine. It was also copied in later years by various Internet newcomers -- the difference being that they generally charged a fee to the tour operators whose packages appeared in their round-ups, while we made our choices editorially solely on merit and without contacting these companies for permission, let alone charging them.
Because I had the assistance of the entire staff of the magazine, I was able fairly easily to collect 40 brand-new and worldwide bargains in every monthly issue. Today, doing this blog all my myself, I'm going to repeat that earlier triumph -- but only by listing 12 of them. Maybe in subsequent appearances of this blog, we'll get back to choosing 40!
Here, to avoid exhaustion, are merely 12 candidates that come to mind, all but one of them for departures in July, the remaining bargain being an especially remarkable winter trip.
(Since airfare is usually included in the prices I cite, I will be assuming use of a west coast gateway city for trips to Asia, and Miami for a trip to the Caribbean or Central America. In each case, a slight add-on will result in the total cost from your own particular departure city).
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
$753 per person throughout July (Monday departures) for seven nights of all-inclusive arrangements at the Cofresi Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, including round-trip airfare (and all government fees and taxes) from Miami. For the most cost-conscious traveler, here's an unusually cheap vacation near Puerto Plata on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, at a 468-room beachside resort. Package includes round-trip air from Miami, all government fees and taxes, airport-to-hotel transfers, and seven nights of accommodations with three meals daily and unlimited drinks. Go to www.cheapcaribbean.com or phone 800/915-2322.
Costa Rica
$839 per person for a six-night July vacation in Costa Rica, including round-trip air (and fuel surcharge) from Miami, hotel accommodations throughout with breakfast daily, and 7-days' rental of an SUV mini with unlimited mileage. This is from Gate 1 Travel (www.gate1travel.com; tel. 800/682-3333), departing Miami on July 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26 and 31. You receive hotel accommodations for 2 nights in San Jose, 2 nights near the Arenal Volcano, and 2 nights in the Monteverde-area rain forest, always with breakfast daily, as well as a "Suzuki Jim" SUV for the week, with unlimited mileage. Because round-trip airfare between Miami and Costa Rica is included, Gate 1's top price of $839 for the entire package is an unprecedented bargain -- but government fees and taxes, as well as car rental fees, are not included.
$1,095 per person for escorted tours in July: On twice-a-week departures in July (specifically, July 1, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27 and 29), the long-established Caravan Tours will take you by escorted motorcoach on a 10-night tour of every important sight of Costa Rica, for a total of $1,095, including quality accommodations, all three meals daily, daily escorted sightseeing and entrance fees. Airfare to Costa Rica, for which you make your own arrangements, is not included. Go to Caravan.com or phone 800/CARAVAN.
$1,139 for "The Best of Costa Rica," independently, on daily departures throughout July (but not including airfare), consisting of 9 nights in four different and distinctive locations of Costa Rica. As operated by the well-known G Adventures, this comprehensive tour of Costa Rica -- operated daily throughout July -- takes you to four outstanding locations of Costa Rica, in each of which you receive guided touring. You spend one night in the capital city of San Jose at the start of your visit (and one other night at the end), are then taken to Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast (a two-night stay there, viewing its canals and rain forest), go then to LaFortuna at the base of the Arenal Volcano and its area (two nights), and are then taken to Guanacaste and its superb beaches on Costa Rica's Pacific coast (a full three nights there), before returning to San Jose for a final night (altogether you have received nine hotel nights, nine breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners; budget $95 to $125 for the other meals). Price is $1,139 for each of two persons traveling together, $1,579 per single. Book at www.gadventures.com or by phoning 800/800-4100.
Riviera Maya, Mexico
$899 per person for a week in July on the Riviera Maya, at the 480-room Viva Wyndham Maya resort near Puerto Morales, on Mexico's Caribbean coast. The price includes round-trip air from Miami (and all government fees and taxes), and seven nights of all-inclusive arrangements at the Viva Wyndham Maya resort, with its four restaurants and four bars. The remarkable rate, for a resort of such quality, is only $899 per person on Saturday departures throughout July. Tour operator is Bookit (www.bookit.com; tel. 888/301-9981).
China
$899 for six nights in Beijing, including round-trip airfare and all taxes and fees from San Francisco, and accommodations with full breakfast daily at a fine Beijing hotel. I'm leaping ahead to the upcoming winter to disclose a remarkable bargain. At a time when $899 won't buy even the shortest six-hour flight to London, tour operator China Spree "Timeless Beijing" package will not only fly you there round-trip from San Francisco (including all taxes and fees) but put you up for six nights (with full buffet breakfast daily, and three lunches) at a fine Beijing hotel (the four-star Traders Hotel by Shangri-La), providing you also with round-trip airport-to-hotel transfers, and three days of escorted sightseeing (leaving the remainder of time for your own wanderings). Departure dates: November 18, 21 and 25, December 2, January 6, 13, 20 and 27. To book, go to www.chinaspree.com and click China Tours, then Winter Specials. China Spree's toll-free phone number is 855/556-6868.
$2,199 to $2,299 for four Chinese cities in eight nights, throughout July, including round-trip air from San Francisco to Beijing and Shanghai (and all government fees and taxes), hotel accommodations with three meals daily (except on one "free day" in Shanghai), and daily escorted sightseeing including all entrance fees, for departures throughout July. Though the published price is a higher $2,399 and $2,499, passengers receive a $200 discount by making their final payment by check rather than credit card; deposits can always be made by credit card). China Focus Travel's prices (www.chinafocustravel.com; tel. 800/868-7244) have risen considerably from before, but are still a remarkable value that places you for two nights in Shanghai, three nights in Tai' An (to which you're brought by "bullet train" from Shanghai, a 430-mile trip accomplished by train in three hours), and three nights in Beijing; you also visit a fourth city -- Suzhou (the so-called "Venice of the Orient") -- but do not spend overnight there.
Cruising the Mediterranean
In July you can find daily rates ranging from $48 to $94 a day on several Mediterranean cruises. Go to VacationsToGo.com, click on "Mediterranean," then on 7-night and 9-to-11-night cruises, and you'll discover that cruise prices for those European waters have sharply fallen because of inadequate demand. Mediterranean cruise rates in summer and early fall are among the great bargains of travel, and are particularly attractive on sailings of 12 nights' duration, when on numerous dates prices are as low as $48 and $52 a night on ships of Norwegian Cruise Line ($579 and $629 for the entire 12-day cruise); as low as $74 and $94 a night on Royal Caribbean ($899 for 12 nights and $839 for 9 nights); and as low as $77 a night on MSC Cruises ($849 for an 11-night cruise). The bargains are even more numerous on 7-night cruises aboard Royal Caribbean for as little as $549 ($78 a night); and so on. Note, of course, that you'll need to pay at least $1,300 (including taxes, fees and fuel surcharge) for a round-trip trans-Atlantic flight to the port of embarkation.
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
$949 for a week in July at the giant Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, including round-trip airfare from Miami and all meals and drinks. The resort is the giant, 730-room Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, with its six restaurants and 8 bars, and the stay is for seven nights of all-inclusive arrangements (room, all three meals daily, unlimited drinks and beverages). Departures are on most weekdays throughout July, and air transportation is round-trip from Miami. The tour operator: Bookit.com, tel. 888/292-6703.
Las Vegas, Nevada
$99 to $119 per suite per night at Vegas' elegant Vdara Hotel, on 21 out of 31 July dates. Provided your stay is for mid-week dates (Sunday through Thursday), you'll find that July rates at the deluxe hotel properties of Las Vegas are now available at substantial discounts. Go to the booking charts of the 1,400-unit, all-suite Vdara Hotel on the Strip (arguably, one of the best hotels in Las Vegas) -- www.vdara.com or www.mgmresorts.com -- and you'll note at least 21 dates in July when such remarkable accommodations are renting for as little as $99 to $119 per suite per night. Vegas' luxury hotels do poorly in July (it's hot then), but the opportunity to enjoy a deluxe suite for as little as $109 a night per suite in July will overcome the city's other deficiencies.
Peru
$2,039 for Lima, Cuzco, and Machu Picchu in July, including round-trip airfare from Miami. The long-established Gate 1 Travel (referenced above for the first Costa Rica trip) is currently offering this air-included tour to Peru for the reasonable rate set forth above, which includes round-trip air between Miami and Lima, air between Lima and Cuzco, a hotel for three nights in Lima and 3 nights in Cuzco, with daily breakfast, an escorted city tour of Lima, and a full-day escorted tour to the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu by "backpacker train." Date of departure: July 9. Visit Gate 1's website for further details.
And Don't Forget About Alternate Accommodations
Spacious apartments are available in major touristic cities for less than you'd spend for a hotel room. Provided only that your stay is for at least a week, you will find that housekeeping apartments are currently available in major international cities for less than the cost of an equivalent hotel, and in a more spacious setting equipped with a kitchen for making occasional meals. Numerous local real estate brokers supply such accommodations (look them up in search engines), and six major websites are today felt to provide reliable and cost-saving apartments in all major cities:
The continuing rise of international airfares now requires that cost-conscious travelers offset that transportation cost with less expensive apartment accommodations whose value is enhanced by the opportunity to prepare some of your own meals. Apartment accommodations are often a major travel bargain.
The biggest news in travel last week was the decision by United Airlines to raise the fee for checking a second suitcase onto a trans-Atlantic flight to $100. Expect other airlines to do the same fairly soon. Multiple or extra-heavy suitcases will result in punishing penalties not only on flights to Europe but also on the cheap airlines that fly from city to city in Europe; they get furious on seeing extra-heavy or multiple suitcases and charge you accordingly. To Europe, cost-conscious Americans must accustom themselves to traveling light.
Suites at the super-deluxe Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas have now been reduced even further in price, to $99 per night per suite, on seven different dates in July, to $109 per night on four July dates, and to $119 per suite on ten July dates. Provided you go to Sin City during that torrid month, you and your traveling companion will stay at the posh Vdara for a total of $99 to $119 a night on 21 out of 31 days, a Vegas record for a hotel of such quality.
Exchange your dollars into foreign currency at an overseas bank or airport kiosk, and you sometimes pay as much as 15% of the transaction for the privilege to do so. Use your credit card to pay for foreign bills and the cost is almost always a uniform and much more reasonable 3% (or $5 for using an ATM machine). That's the helpful reminder that travel columnist Ed Perkins recently gave us. The single reliable method for avoiding those charges (apart from using an exotic credit card of the sort that few of us carry)? Obtain a Capital One credit card, which charges no percentage fee at all.
And as long as we're talking about good samaritans: let it be remembered that Southwest charges nothing for checking aboard two suitcases on any Southwest flight; while JetBlue charges nothing for checking aboard the first suitcase. Southwest is also operating its usual summer sale for persons who book their tickets prior to June 26, for flights occurring between July 9 and November 14. But its sales prices are nowhere near the bargain levels it used to charge for such flights. They do offer a cost advantage, though.
An outfit called AFPRelaxNews recently listed what it considers to be the next, upcoming, popular destinations: Panama City, Uganda, Lebanon, Vietnam, Argentina, Albania, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. I agree about Panama City and Vietnam.
My daughter Pauline has recently disclosed in her blog that JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic have agreed to waive the surcharge for "premium economy" seats if that's what's needed to allow families to sit together without paying ruinous penalties for their children.
Looking for a good-but-cheap suitcase? Hardly anyone thinks of going to Ikea for such a purchase, and yet the luggage on display there seems of good quality and yet priced at a quarter of what you normally encounter in a luggage store or luggage department.
Read it and weep: for a sense of what our counter-productive, indefensible, travel embargo against Cuba is costing us in terms of vacations, get a copy of a Canadian newspaper and look at advertisements for the air-and-land packages to Cuba offered by Canadian tour companies and airlines. Sunwing of Canada is currently offering seven days of all-inclusive arrangements (room, all three meals, unlimited drinks) at a seaside, Varadero Beach resort in Cuba, including round-trip airfare there from Toronto (with all taxes and fees thrown in), for $655 per person in July, weekly departures. Americans, of course, won't be accepted on the plane.
In all the world of cruising, there is nothing like a sailing on the uniquely-intellectual, 350-passenger Minerva operated by the famed, British, 60-year-old Swan Hellenic, going in 2013 on various itineraries in Northern Europe, the Baltic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, or South Atlantic. Every departure is accompanied by celebrated scholars, authors and other academic experts in the countries visited, who provide the lectured commentaries on port excursions included in the price of the cruise. Swan Hellenic's new 2013 catalogue can be viewed at www.swanhellenic.us, and persons booking a cruise before August 31 of 2012 receive 15% off the early-booking fares.
Sun Valley, Idaho, is the grandaddy -- a very rich grandaddy -- of all the foremost ski resorts of the United States. It opened in 1936, more than 25 years ahead of its chief later competitors, Aspen and Vail, when railroad magnate Averell Harriman (later an important diplomat and political figure) built it as a self-contained and relatively compact mountain-ringed resort area of two important lodges (containing a total of 250 or so rooms), which have since been supplemented by condominium buildings and private homes. Among its important features are heated swimming pools surrounded by glass walls that keep out the cool wind, a large ice skating rink, an "opera house" for concerts, plays and musicals, and every kind of dining facility and fashionable clothing shops.
Everything you might ever want for a summer of hiking, fishing, hunting or mountain biking, or for winter skiing and ice skating, is available to you, directly from the resort.
Like Aspen and Vail, Sun Valley is associated with a town -- in this case, Ketchum, Idaho, just a mile-or-so away. Ketchum, with its population of nearly 3,000, is smaller than the ski towns of Vail (4,500 residents) and Aspen (6,500 residents), but fully as attractive.
The lodging and dining options in that historic town are far less expensive than those in the Sun Valley resort, and nothing in Ketchum achieves the baronial splendor of the lobbies, lounges, rooms and dining halls in Sun Valley. Walk out the main entrance of the Sun Valley Lodge and in front of you is a small lake with regal, long-necked, white swans floating open it. It is all a picture of elegance and luxury, and you are attended to by solemn, courteous staff members wearing black uniforms. Despite an atmosphere of exclusivity, visitors to Ketchum have no problem strolling the grounds and buildings of the Sun Valley Resort or using (for a daily fee) the many ski lifts that carry you up to the peaks of the several mountains that surround Sun Valley.
Now unless you're prepared to pay top dollar for your digs and meals, you'd be better off staying in Ketchum and not Sun Valley (rent a car to travel between the two). And to live even cheaper (assuming that you have a car), you might consider nearby Hailey, Idaho, a twenty-minute drive from Ketchum. Hailey is generally where many people who work for a living in Ketchum, live. Buying a house in Ketchum is a pricey business, although Ketchum's real estate values have declined considerably during the last three years of a less than buoyant economy.
I found it great fun to wander the halls outside the main lobby and lounges of the Sun Valley Lodge to look -- for over an hour -- at the photos of movie stars and other celebrities (Jackie Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Ted Kennedy) who have stayed, skiied and caroused in Sun Valley. I spent almost the same amount of time walking through other corridors lined with photos of the nation's top professional skiers who have used the mountains and slopes of Sun Valley for their training.
How do you get to Sun Valley/Ketchum? You fly there via Salt Lake City, San Francisco or Seattle, changing planes in those hub cities to a smaller, propeller-driven aircraft flying to Sun Valley Airport (which is at Hailey, Idaho). From there, you either rent a car or take a taxi to Ketchum or Sun Valley. Or else you can drive there from other western states. There is no rail transportation to Ketchum or Sun Valley; the nearby tracks of the Union Pacific line, whose interests led to the creation of Sun Valley, were ripped up many years ago and are now a bicycle trail.
Someday you should make the trip. These parts of Idaho are an enchanting treasure of the United States and remind us of what a beautiful -- and thus far protected -- wilderness we still enjoy.
As a young boy living in Jefferson City, Missouri, my contact with the outside world was often the photo essays in Life magazine, to which my family subscribed. And one week, Life did its cover story on Sun Valley, Idaho, which was then the nation's first real ski resort, with newly-invented mechanical lifts. I was fascinated by the resort's glamour and spirit of high adventure, and by the Hollywood movie stars -- Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert, Norma Shearer and Clark Gable -- who were its heavily-publicized guests. As a pre-teenager, I recall thinking how neat it would be to ski or even see Sun Valley.
For a reason I can't understand, it was not until last week that I was myself able to visit the famed Sun Valley -- or Idaho itself. My daughter Pauline and I were invited to deliver a speech on travel at the Community Library of Ketchum, the picturesque little town of 3,000 residents located only a mile from the Sun Valley resort. Ketchum's Library had been named the winner of last year's nationwide library contest for the best display of Frommer's Travel Guides, and we flew there (no small task, requiring transfer to a small propeller plane in Salt Lake City) to commemorate that feat. It was a fine introduction to another of America's most stellar sights, a heady immersion into the Far West.
Idaho is an enormous and sparsely populated place stretching for nearly 500 miles from south to north. Four fifths of the state is rugged hills and mountains, nearly all of them untouched and undeveloped, with more pure wilderness than in any state other than Alaska.
Vast areas are covered by national forests, of all things, not national parks, as you'd expect, including designated wilderness areas from which mechanical vehicles, including even bicycles, are prohibited. Around Sun Valley are only a handful of highways, very little signage, no billboards; and rumor has it that the category of "forests" rather than "parks" was chosen to permit members of Congress to go hunting there.
Whatever the reason, you are constantly surrounded by pure nature in awesome mountains and valleys to a greater extent than anywhere else you have ever been. And you experience such nature primarily by hiking to elevations where you enjoy spectacular views, but you can also go river rafting, hunting, fishing, and mountain biking (where it's permitted). Pauline, who had flown to Sun Valley a day before I went there, joined a tour guide for a hike into the Sawtooth Mountain area just north of Ketchum, and was regaled by his accounts of joining multiple search-and-rescue teams to aid various impetuous types who had hiked off-trail. In an entire day of hiking, she saw only two other people.
Ketchum is an affluent and picturesque town whose main street is intermittently lined by authentic cowboy-type buildings of the late 1800s, wonderfully preserved. It has, in addition to two impressive bookstores, a great many fashionable shops and art galleries, and several fine restaurants. Many of its residents are out-of-staters owning second or third homes in Ketchum, who come there to enjoy the air (it's like perfume), the fishing and hiking, the winter skiing (both cross-country and downhill), and the giant, well-endowed library at which we spoke. It was typical of Ketchum that champagne and hors d'oeuvres were served after our talk.
Ernest Hemingway lived here at several times of his life, and wrote a portion of For Whom the Bell Tolls in Ketchum in 1940. He also spent the last year of his life as a resident of Ketchum, committed suicide by shooting himself, and is buried in the town cemetery. Pauline and I paid a pilgrimage to his grave, which is covered with tiny bottles of gin and vodka that admirers have placed on the horizontal gravestone as a symbolic tribute to this heavy drinker.
I can't resist pointing out that in the fascinating local history room of the Community Library is a copy of a dossier compiled by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, which had maintained surveillance of Hemingway as a potential subversive (probably because of his support of the loyalists during the Spanish Civil War). Astonishingly for a sheaf of documents fifty years old, some of its references are still redacted. Ask to see it on your own visit to Ketchum.
Another part of the history room is devoted to the creation of the Sun Valley Resort by Averell Harriman, then the main owner and chairman of the Union Pacific Railway. It was he who, after viewing the ski resorts of Austria and Switzerland, determined in the mid-1930s to create a similar attraction in the United States (partly as a means of getting winter visitors onto his railroad passing near Ketchum). He hired a heavy-skiing Austrian count to survey all the Rocky Mountain states to find an appropriate location for an elegant, large, winter resort, and it was through his efforts that Sun Valley was born.
In tomorrow's blog: my own visit to the Sun Valley Resort. (Please be assured that as a facility designed for the 1% and not the 99%, and thus far above my station in life, Sun Valley is not where I stayed; I resided happily instead in a Best Western in Ketchum. But visiting Sun Valley, Idaho, was a fun experience, about which I'll be writing tomorrow).
