New 5-Star Iberostar Playa Mita Slashes Room Rates as Low as $105, But Book By Sept. 30
Posted on 09/12/2013, 5:00 PM
Iberostar, a Spanish operator of major beach resorts for the past 30 years, is opening its first resort on the Mexican Pacific Coast this December, and to drum up word of mouth, it's slashing rates for people willing to buy ahead. The new, five-star Iberostar Playa Mita will be 25 miles north of Puerto Vallarta in the Riviera Nayarit area, far from major cities and so far dominated by long st...
Here's Why You Don't Want to Buy the Disney Dining Plan When You Visit Orlando
Posted on 09/11/2013, 4:30 PM
If you book a vacation at a Walt Disney World hotel in Orlando, you will be offered the option of purchasing the credit-based Disney Dining Plan, which pre-pays many of your meals. It is extremely complicated, with all kinds of rules, exclusions, and premium versions, but lots of people cave and buy it in the name of convenience, thinking it will make everything easier. Although now and then ...
Travel Freebies Of All Sorts from Services To Entrance Fees to Hotel Nights
Posted on 09/11/2013, 3:45 PM
There are few lovelier words in the English language than "free" and "travel". Combine them and you have a blockbuster of a phrase. Here are a few of the good deals--all very different from one another--that we've found this week. Cheaper New Zealand, with Free Car Rental and Free Hotel Night Tourism New Zealand apparently wants to drum up some business. So it has teamed with Hawaiian Airl...
Two Remarkable New Websites are Bound to be Wildly Popular Among Travelers Looking for Hotel and Dinner Bargains of a Very Special Sort
Posted on 09/10/2013, 12:00 AM
As you may or may not agree, most of the brand-new websites are copycat imitations of older “hits” (like a “hit movie” or a “hit show”). An entrepreneur invents a way to stay in a well-priced apartment (AirBnB) and 37 others rush to offer (they think) the very same thing. An innovator collects the walking tours available in major capital cities, and 10 others immediately attempt to of...
Andante Travels Uses Archaeologists and Professors to Show You the World's Greatest Treasures
Posted on 09/09/2013, 5:00 PM
While very few U.S. companies now hire professors and experts as tour guides without also charging usurious tariffs for the privilege, the tradition of affordable educational tours for the masses is still alive and well in Great Britain, so if it's an edifying trip you crave, you may have to pick up your next vacation in London. Since 1985, the specialty of the UK-based Andante Travels (011-4...
Theft of Mobile Devices Is On the Rise At Airports and In Airplanes. Here are Some Strategies to Keep Your Possessions Safe
Posted on 09/07/2013, 10:30 AM
Some 50% of the thefts in North America today involve mobile devices. That’s right: there are few more coveted prizes for criminals today than the laptop, phone or tablet you’re likely reading this article on. And we’re seeing a marked increase in the pilfering of these gadgets at airports and even on planes. That’s the conclusion that the folks at Absolute Software have come to. This 20-year...
The How-To's of "Couch Surfing" From a True Expert
Posted on 09/05/2013, 5:30 PM
Last September, I got a call from a dear friend who’d just gotten a job playing harp in the orchestra of a Broadway touring production. Erin was hoping to save money on the road by staying with friends or friends of friends, but was having trouble finding the right connections. I suggested she try the website Couchsurfing.org, which introduces travelers to friendly people all over the world who...
Car Rentals Through Firefly, a New Brand, are Dramatically Cheaper than Others, So What's the Catch?
Posted on 09/03/2013, 12:00 PM
Firefly, a discount car rental brand, begins arriving at American airports this month. You might think it's a new competitor. As it turns out, everything about it is older than you think. Hertz created Firefly, a lower-priced offshoot, in Europe last spring, in part to fill the price gap that was left when it sold off the Advantage car rental brand. Now there are 40-odd locations there, inclu...
In late October and Throughout November, A Two-Week Cruise of the Mediterranean Aboard the Spectacular Queen Elizabeth Can Cost Only $999
Posted on 09/01/2013, 10:30 PM
If you're like me, you receive a dozen repetitive e-mails a week from cruise brokers and cruiselines offering one week sailings of the Caribbean or Mediterranean for $499, two weekers for $799. Cruises are undoubtedly the top vacation bargains in travel today. But though the ships are fine, quality vessels, they are no different than what we've come to expect on an ocean cruise. ...
A Nightmarish Incident on a Recent Cruise May Cause Vacationers to Rethink Buying Insurance Directly from the Cruise Line
Posted on 08/31/2013, 4:45 PM
By now, you likely have heard the story of elderly couple who were put off an Azamara Cruise ship in a small town in Turkey, when the 89-year-old husband fell and broke his hip. Complaining that they’d been abandoned by both the cruise and the insurance company, the couple was finally helped by their U.S. Senator, and transferred to a more adequate hospital in Istanbul. Here's a link for furthe...
