Winter Europe on $75 a Day per Person, Including Quality Accommodations and Three Tasty Meals
Posted on 11/19/2014, 9:00 PM
This coming winter, hundreds of thousands of Americans from the northeast or midwest will compete with one another for the few low-cost or moderately-priced condos or vacation homes in Florida and Southern California. They are determined to spend at least two weeks and more away from the frigid ice, snow and temperatures that everyone expects. And I recently discussed those urges...
Despite an Almost Universal Criticism of My Viewpoints About the Latest Trends in Cruising, I Remain Unmoved
Posted on 11/19/2014, 5:00 PM
If you are dismayed by the decision of cruiselines to place bumper cars and basketball courts on their top decks, does that make you an "elitist" or a spoil-sport? If you prefer the cruise ships that provide you with quiet lounges, libraries, or reclining deck chairs for reading, if you value wide-ranging conversations with fellow passengers, if you enjoy attending seagoing lecture...
Et Tu JetBlue? Carrier Will Be Adding Bag Fees and Extra Seats to Cabins
Posted on 11/19/2014, 10:30 AM
Today, JetBlue released a bombshell-filled securities filing, one that will make investors happy but is going to take the swing out of the step of many travelers (this one included). Starting in 2016, JetBlue will be upping the number of seats on its Airbus A320 jets from 150 to 165, severely cutting back on leg room for those of us in steerage. In the second half of 2015, it's going to sell a ne...
Hilton and Marriott Announce Strict New Fees for Last–Minute Cancellations
Posted on 11/18/2014, 3:15 PM
Just as Cinderella had to high tail it home before the stroke of midnight, from January 1st on, travelers heading to a Hilton or a Marriott property will have to remember to cancel their reservations by 11:59pm local time on the day prior to arrival. Those who don't make that deadline won't be changed into a pumpkin, but they will be charged for a full nights' stay. This new policy will incl...
American Airlines Goes Its Own Way on Frequent Flyer Miles….For Now. And Travelers Should Be Grateful
Posted on 11/15/2014, 11:15 AM
Loyalty doesn’t always go both ways. That’s the sad truth that members of the frequent flyer programs for most of the major North American carriers found out this fall when two of the biggies—Delta and United—announced that they would be instituting major changes to their loyalty programs. To be fair, those changes brought them into line with the policies already being used by Southwest Airl...
Food, Travel and Marriage: Two Excellent New Memoirs Explore Journeys on the Silk Road and France
Posted on 11/08/2014, 12:00 PM
As a woman who was wooed and won by a man who laboured for three days preparing a lasagna — he made the pasta from scratch — I know, in a visceral way, that the connection between food and love is a potent one. Add well-seasoned prose and travel to the mix, and you have the makings for a compelling memoir. Or at least you do in the hands of Ann Mah and Jen Lin Liu, two accomplished author...
Winter's Coming and a Record-Breaking Number of Residents in the North Are Looking to Spend Several Weeks in Warmer Places. What are the Options?
Posted on 11/06/2014, 5:00 PM
With memories still fresh of an unusually frigid December through March of 2013-14, a larger than normal number of Americans in the northeastern and Midwestern states are frantically hoping to escape a similar ordeal in the coming months. But when they make their phone calls to hotels and the like in the south, they too often find that prices for the winter of 2014-15 have skyrock...
River Cruises are the Hottest Current Product in Travel, Selling Like Proverbial Hotcakes, But for an Experience that Scarcely Differs from One Cruiseline to the Other
Posted on 11/06/2014, 1:45 PM
Probably the most unusual recent event in travel was the announcement by the well-known Celebrity Cruises that it will soon add a river cruise to one of its familiar ocean cruises. Passengers will first spend a week-or-so sailing the Mediterranean and will then be delivered to a Riviera port for transfer to another one-week cruise on a river of France. Northing could better illustr...
Hailo Shuts Down: How Taxi Drivers Sabotaged a Golden Opportunity and Handed Uber and Lyft the Keys
Posted on 11/06/2014, 12:00 PM
Taxi, New York City, 2013 The cab-summoning app Hailo is dead. Yesterday, it suspended operations in North America, opting to concentrate its business in Europe and Asia. Media coverage has conflated the many e-hailing apps that enable travelers to call a car using their smartphones. Uber and Lyft, the two dominators, use a system of private cars, many unlicensed. They are ...
What to Expect When You're Expecting...And Expecting to Travel
Posted on 11/03/2014, 11:00 AM
The bachelor party and the “hen do” are thought of as the ultimate “last hurrahs” before the realities of adult life kick in. But I would argue that the newly popular “babymoon,” that last trip life partners take before the end of pregnancy, is a far more significant rite of passage. Because, as any parent can tell you, nothing changes your life more drastically than having a baby. But is ...
