California Improving Coastal Access with New Beach Wheelchairs
Posted on 09/11/2019, 5:15 PM
Eighteen coastal sites in California—from Clam Beach, where Highway 101 meets the Pacific in northern Arcata, to lively Ocean Beach in San Diego—are getting new wheelchairs and other mobility equipment designed to roll on sand. The state-run California Coastal Conservancy has approved a program to award grants to 11 different nonprofits so that they can purchase a total of 29 beach wheelchairs ...
Do Travelers Lose Their Moral Compasses on the Road? A Surprising Study
Posted on 05/29/2019, 7:00 AM
My friend Deborah "borrowed" her favorite wool blanket from a hotel when she went on a business trip. Shannon, another pal, put her able-bodied daughter in an airport wheelchair to jump to the front of a Southwest Airlines boarding line so they could snag seats together. And Dave, a charming guy I know from college, owns a cane for the sole purpose of limping into airports so he can plausibly c...
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A Return to Northern Michigan With No Repeat Experiences
Posted on 06/14/2018, 12:30 PM
I’ve always taken the stance that when you return again and again to the same place for vacation, you’re only setting yourself up for ennui. I figured there were a few exceptions to this rule—namely, cities like Paris and Tokyo that are so huge and varied that you'll never exhaust the possibilities. But for the most part, I believed that vacations should be about the stimulating, the new, the un...
American Airlines Cracks Down on Support Animals
Posted on 05/15/2018, 7:00 PM
Emotional support insects are no longer welcome on American Airlines flights. Whoever heard of an emotional support insect, you ask? We have two words for you: Jiminy Cricket. In addition to keeping your helpful, devoted, and musically gifted bugs from the passenger cabin, the carrier's newly revised animal restrictions, which go into effect July 1, ban goats, hedgehogs, amphibians, ferrets, rep...
Disney World Now Charges for Parking at Hotels, Decreasing Their Value
Posted on 03/14/2018, 4:00 PM
It used to be one of the great courtesies of staying in a Walt Disney World resort hotel: You got free parking, and then you could take Disney transportation for free. It was touted as one of the perks and a big incentive to choose a Disney hotel over a room located outside the resort property's gates. Since Disney hotels are two or three times as much as a room of comparable quality a mile away, ...
Arthur Frommer: For No Real Reason, Feds Attack the Legality of Cannabis Tourism
Posted on 01/12/2018, 1:00 AM
Because the current U.S. Attorney General is a fierce opponent of marijuana, we can expect a massive legal attack against travel to the states—mainly California and Colorado—that have recently legalized its use. What is startling about this prospect is that the alleged dangers of smoking marijuana have been denied by every respectable study. The key examination of marijuana was cond...
New App Helps Visually Impaired Travelers Navigate Airport
Posted on 12/26/2017, 3:30 PM
American Printing House for the Blind's "Nearby Explorer" app—a GPS-enabled mobile wayfinding service developed specifically for visually impaired users—has a brand-new feature to help blind travelers get around Louisville International Airport. And the app's developers hope that's just the beginning. Dubbed "Indoor Explorer," the new tool uses Bluetooth connectivity, OpenStreetMap data, and mo...
It's Here: Donald Trump Robot Unveiled at Disney's Hall of Presidents
Posted on 12/19/2017, 1:15 AM
About six months behind its usual post-election refurbishment schedule, Walt Disney World has unveiled its Audio-Animatronic version of the current president of the United States, including a short recorded monologue by him about the American spirit. The attraction officially opens to the public on Tuesday, December 19. The Hall of Presidents, running since 1971 when Richard M. Nixon was in the ...
Hotel Chain Brings Real-Time Sign Language Interpretation to Guests
Posted on 10/11/2017, 8:30 PM
Travelers who are deaf or hearing-impaired can now make use of a cool new free service at Room Mate Hotels, a Spain-based chain with 22 properties in cities around the world, including Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Florence, and, in North America, New York, Miami, and Mexico City. Developed in collaboration with a company called Comunicados en Lengua de Signos, Room Mate's new program offers real...
A Tragic Backpacker Death Teaches an Important Travel Lesson
Posted on 09/20/2017, 11:00 PM
What happened to Kit Mallinson was the nightmare every parent has when they send their child away on a trip. Last December, the 18-year-old backpacker from Dorset, England, boarded a night bus in Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat. He had just completed a seven-week engagement as a volunteer building clean water pipes in Borneo, and he wasn't feeling very well, so he hoped the overnight trip would give ...
