First Flight from U.S. to Cuba in More Than 50 Years
Posted on 09/01/2016, 12:00 AM
In air travel, yesterday was one for the history books. The first regularly scheduled commercial passenger flight between the United States and Cuba in more than 50 years left Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday morning and landed in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara a little after 11 a.m. JetBlue flight 387 marked the beginning of a new era in Caribbean travel, following decades of a travel ...
Travel Site User Gets 47-Year Layover and Hilarious Customer-Service Response
Posted on 08/31/2016, 12:00 AM
We know it's only Wednesday, but you can stop looking for the Customer Service Rep of the Week. It's Jen from Skyscanner. The company, an airline search engine that compares flights to help you find bargains, received a post on its Facebook page from user James Lloyd, whose Skyscanner search had suggested a more than 400,000-hour layover in Bangkok during a trip from New Zealand to London. ...
Qatar Airport to Charge Departure Tax to All Passengers
Posted on 08/31/2016, 12:00 AM
Starting on December 1, if you happen to pass through Hamad International Airport near Qatar's capital city of Doha, you're going to be charged a "departure tax" of about $10 (35 Qatari riyals), even if you're only there to catch a connecting flight. The change—which applies to every single passenger flying out of the airport—is designed to boost revenue in the Persian Gulf country following ...
Orlando Theme Parks Dispensing Free Insect Repellent to Ease Zika Fears
Posted on 08/31/2016, 12:00 AM
Visitors to Orlando's major theme parks are now being offered free insect repellent as fears of the mosquito-borne Zika virus continue to grow in Florida. You can get complimentary mosquito spray and lotion at Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld Orlando as of this week—even though no cases of mosquito-transmitted Zika have been reported in Central Florida and even though...
Photographer Captures the World's Most Beautiful Metro Stations
Posted on 08/30/2016, 12:00 AM
Stockholm's Solna Centrum public transit station (photo: Chris Forsyth/Instagram) Twenty-year-old Canadian photographer Chris Forsyth has been documenting some of the world's lovelist public transit stations in a photo series he calls "The Metro Project." After first focusing on the 1960s-era stations of his hometown of Montreal, Forsyth next turned his lens on Europe, capturing eerie, ...
Late Summer Airline Fares Poised to Drop
Posted on 08/30/2016, 12:00 AM
For travelers whose schedules aren't tied to when their kids are in school, we're entering the most wonderful time of the year when it comes to buying plane tickets. As summer dies down and classes resume, airfares tend to drop considerably, and they usually stay low well into the fall, until people start booking their holiday vacations. According to airfare-tracking app Hopper, the aver...
France's High Court Strikes Down Burkini Ban
Posted on 08/30/2016, 12:00 AM
As the United States has discovered in its own fight against terrorism, it can be difficult to combat militant extremists while preserving human rights. The beaches of the French Riviera are the latest front in that struggle. On Friday, France's high court struck down the so-called burkini ban—a restriction on certain types of modest swimwear worn by some Muslim women. In the wake of seve...
Give to Charity, Get Discounted Hotel Rate
Posted on 08/29/2016, 12:00 AM
A new hotel booking website aims to incentivize charitable donations by linking them to discounted rates for rooms. It's called Kind Traveler and here's how it works: users who donate to a charity through the site get hotel prices that are 10-25% lower than published rates. The site launched earlier this month with 21 hotels in 11 North American locations. Participating properties—which ...
Steep Decline in Paris Tourism Following Terror Attacks
Posted on 08/29/2016, 12:00 AM
From January to June of this year, a million fewer people visited Paris compared with the same period in 2015. If you follow the news, you shouldn't have trouble figuring out the reasons for this sharp dropoff: recent attacks by Islamist militants in Paris as well as other locations in France including Nice and Normandy. Labor strikes and flooding in the French capital earlier this year have...
Obama Names New National Monument in Maine
Posted on 08/29/2016, 12:00 AM
Mount Katahdin in Maine (photo: InAweOfGod'sCreation/Flickr) On Wednesday of last week—the day before the National Park Service's 100th birthday—President Barack Obama created the 413th site in the system: Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. It's located in northern Maine, on 87,000 acres donated by Burt's Bees founder Roxanne Quimby. The monument encompasses the East Branch of...
