Why Are So Many People Acting Like Jerks in National Parks? A Radical Proposal to End the Selfishness
Posted on 05/18/2016, 9:00 PM
Did you hear about the "Tourist Bros" who reportedly have a warrant out for their arrest for trampling on fragile areas of Yellowstone? A vanity project called "High on Life SundayFundayz" is in serious hot water. Somehow, these arrogant Canadians convinced people to send them money to take a cross-country American trip in a customized RV and shoot social media video as they went along. I...
Travel to Cuba is Now in Full Swing, Available on Group Tours or Cruises at Outrageous Prices, But Affordably to Totally Independent Tourists
Posted on 05/12/2016, 1:00 PM
Photo credit: Ana/Wikimedia Several months ago, when Carnival Cruises announced it would soon begin offering cruises to Cuba, it did so in the strangest way. Instead of promising a standard cruise program, one that would visit several Cuban ports and allow passengers to tour the highlights of those locations, it characterized its program (perhaps inadvertently) as consisting of o...
Two New Websites Are Poised to Become the Airbnbs of RV Rentals
Posted on 05/09/2016, 9:30 PM
It was only a matter of time. Just as HomeAway.com and Airbnb.com dramatically changed the home rental industry, now two relatively new sites are transforming the ways people rent motorhomes. As with the vacation home sites mentioned above, they’re created for peer-to-peer interactions. And the increased competition between average Joes and traditional rental agencies (also found on these si...
With Americans Caught Up in the Presidential Race, Travel May be Somewhat Reduced, Creating Unexpected Opportunities for Persons Determined to Travel
Posted on 04/28/2016, 4:30 PM
To the U.S. travel industry, now is the “election year curse”—a time when both domestic and international travel slow perceptibly. And this year, that sluggish trend has apparently been made worse by the terror attacks in Paris in November of 2015, and by the terror attacks in Brussels in early March, 2016. Though it’s too early to make a firm prediction, it’s possible that tran...
Not as a Hypothetical Prediction, But in Disturbing Reality, the Surviving Big Airlines of America are now Acting like Classic Monopolies
Posted on 04/25/2016, 12:45 PM
When, through mergers and acquisitions, the big airlines of America were reduced to four (Delta, United, American, and Southwest), such critics like me complained that they would soon begin acting like monopolies, taking joint actions, immediately copying each others' worst anti-consumer rules, ceasing to compete. Nothing could better support such a prediction than a tota...
There Are, Sad to Say, a Number of Caribbean Locations Where Gay Couples Seeking a Pleasant Vacation Will Occasionally be Unsafe
Posted on 04/24/2016, 9:45 PM
Our nation has been increasingly tolerant of gay rights. Stirred by the words of Pope Francis, or by Supreme Court decisions, one state after another has accepted the previously unthinkable phenomenon of same sex marriage, of the right of gays to adopt children, of their legally-protected claim to be free of bias in employment. And when other states have passed legislation to discrimina...
Cheaper Trans-Atlantic Flights, Cheaper Hotel Rooms, Fewer Mexican Destinations
Posted on 04/24/2016, 3:30 PM
/> Acapulco, Mexico Though little-noticed, three recent news events have brought about important developments in travel. Cheaper Transatlantic flights In the coming months, a growing number of Americans will fly the Atlantic to Europe for three to four hundred dollars per person less than is normally charged, round-trip. That's the result of an announcement...
The Recent Anti-Gay Action of the Legislatures of Mississippi and North Carolina Has Become a Travel Issue
Posted on 04/24/2016, 2:30 PM
Once, several years ago, I had occasion to meet the troubled daughter of a friend of my wife. I use the word "troubled" advisedly. She appeared anxious and often distraught, she affected a gruff manner, and had difficulty conversing with others. She seemed eager to leave our company and seemed dreadfully uncomfortable as a woman. Years later, I learned that she had subsequently under...
Beware! A New Airfare Gotcha Penalizes Travelers on Multi-Stop Itineraries
Posted on 04/12/2016, 7:30 PM
TimDorr/Flickr The majority of travelers buy non-refundable airfares for a simple reason: They're vastly less expensive than refundable fares. But those who try to book itineraries with several stops have been finding, in the past month, that they no longer are given the option of purchasing that cheaper form of fare—at least on Delta, United, and American Airlines. Our thanks to Scott M...
U.S. Airports Suffer Security Delays—Are You to Blame for Rejecting TSA PreCheck?
Posted on 04/04/2016, 10:30 AM
The TSA PreCheck program was supposed to make airport security inspections faster for many people. By paying $85 for five years and going through a background screening process (fingerprints, interview, and so on), passengers could earn the right to speed through a speedier TSA checkpoint lane, without having to remove coats, shoes, liquids, and laptops from bags. One problem: Not enough peop...
