Rental Car Rates Could Zoom Sky-High Thanks to Lobbyists
Posted on 09/12/2017, 11:15 PM
Today, the American Car Rental Association (ACRA), a lobbying group for the car rental industry, is wrapping up its annual Washington, D.C. "Legislative Conference," during which it plots its political agenda and schmoozes lawmakers to help make it happen.But some of its battles against consumer protections have already been won on the state level. AutoSlash, the discount car rental aggregator, rep...
Up-to-the-Minute Online Tool Finds Wisconsin's Best Fall Foliage
Posted on 09/11/2017, 6:45 PM
New England states get all the attention when it comes to fall foliage, but there are other leafy places worth peeping during Pumpkin Spice Latte season.One of the best in the Midwest is Wisconsin, where vivid displays in spots like the Kettle Moraine State Forest (pictured above) provide beautiful backdrops for scenic drives, waterfall hikes, and stops at orchards in small farm towns. Travel Wisco...
Canada Completes World's Longest Hiking Trail
Posted on 09/07/2017, 4:45 PM
After 25 years of trying, officials in Canada have managed to stitch together a network of hiking, biking, and paddling trails that stretches across the breadth of the country from coast to coast. With a total length of 14,000 miles, the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans-Canada Trail, is now the longest hiking route in the world. By way of comparison, the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Ma...
Non-Flyers Now Allowed Into Secured Areas at Pittsburgh Airport
Posted on 09/06/2017, 4:30 PM
We've got good news for airport shoppers, chaperones, and prolonged goodbye-sayers.For the first time since 9/11, an American airport is allowing people without tickets into secured areas. The facility in question is Pittsburgh International Airport, where officials have worked with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) over the last two years to develop a program called MyPITpass, which...
Bringing Plastic Bags to Kenya Could Land You in Prison
Posted on 09/03/2017, 8:00 PM
While some world cities have been dabbling in the reduction of plastic bags by charging customers if they want one or switching to paper, Kenya has just instituted the harshest plastic bag ban in the world.Now, importing plastic bags to Kenya could result in fines of up to $31,000 or even prison time.Plastic bags, which take as long as 1,000 years to break down, make their way into oceans, where th...
Wildflowers Now in Bloom at Chile's Atacama Desert, the Driest Place on Earth
Posted on 08/31/2017, 8:00 PM
The driest place on earth is currently blanketed in purple wildflowers.Northern Chile's Atacama Desert typically gets a measly 0.6 inches of rain in an entire year. Nevertheless, every five to seven years—usually along with El Niño weather patterns—multitudes of beautiful mallow flowers fill the arid landscape with a surreal expanse of color. It's like finding a botanical garden on Mars (it so happ...
Boston's Logan Airport Might Charge You to Drop Off and Pick Up Passengers
Posted on 08/31/2017, 5:45 PM
A new fee could soon be put in place at Boston Logan International Airport—and drivers are not going to like it. The airport has launched a study to look into charging people for bringing their private cars to the terminals in order to drop off or pick up passengers.These are ordinary drivers we're talking about, mind you—not those offering Uber or taxi services. The potential measure is only at th...
L.A.'s Angels Flight Railway, Featured in "La La Land," Reopening After Four Years
Posted on 08/30/2017, 3:45 PM
Except for a single day during the shooting of La La Land, the Angels Flight funicular railway in downtown Los Angeles hasn't operated since 2013. That's when a derailment during the long-running tourist attraction's steep sojourn on Bunker Hill prompted officials to close the ride down, pending repairs.La La Land director Damien Chazelle secured special permission to capture a kiss between the mov...
Four New Cities Get $99 Flights to Iceland
Posted on 08/29/2017, 8:00 PM
WOW Air, which has been earning its name with an aggressive expansion plan and tickets as low as $99 with advance purchase, is adding nonstop flights to Iceland from four Midwestern American cities that, until now, have not enjoyed them.This spring, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and St. Louis get their own routes to Reykjavik. Once there, WOW also connects to Northern Europe.WOW already flies fro...
Women-Only Taxi Service Debuts in Paris
Posted on 08/29/2017, 6:00 PM
Women have a new option for getting around Paris.A taxi service called Women Drive has debuted in the French capital. The business is staffed with female drivers and geared toward female passengers.The hope is that customers won't have to worry about "prying eyes or indelicate questions," as the Women Drive website puts it. The company also wants to provide job opportunities for women cabbies in a ...
