Royal Caribbean's Private Beaches Make Second-Class Citizens of the Rest of Us
Posted on 08/27/2018, 6:00 AM
Most passengers on a Caribbean cruise are by now aware of the “private beaches” and “private islands” that cruise lines operate for the purpose of keeping you from contact with local residents or businesses when your ship alights at a particular port. This deliberate segregation has been tolerated by most of us because the artificial beaches or ports have been operated in such a way as to be r...
Real-Life Version of "Simpsons" Convenience Store Comes to Myrtle Beach
Posted on 08/21/2018, 9:15 PM
Fans of The Simpsons have a new place to satisfy their cravings for Buzz Cola, Squishee frozen drinks, Heat-Lamp Hot Dogs, and Lard Lad Donuts (what, no Duff beer?). A full-size, three-dimensional Kwik-E-Mart, the convenience store that frequently appears on the long-running animated sitcom, has opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Part of the Broadway at the Beach retail and entertainment c...
Chill with Superheroes at Air-Conditioned Theme Park in Abu Dhabi
Posted on 08/14/2018, 6:00 AM
And you thought Orlando was sweltering. Temperatures in Abu Dhabi regularly top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) during much of the year, making an outdoor theme park in the United Arab Emirates capital a sticky proposition, especially in summer. But you don't have to worry about succumbing to heat exhaustion at the new Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi—it's entirely indoors. The air-condition...
A Temporary Museum of the 1980s Opens in Seattle
Posted on 08/09/2018, 9:45 PM
There's nothing like seeing cultural artifacts from your childhood in a historical exhibit to make you feel like an ancient relic. Those of us with memories of the 1980s can have that disconcerting experience at Seattle's Living Computers: Museum + Labs, where a temporary exhibit called "Total 80s Rewind" transports visitors to the world of a teenager in the Reagan years. Gather 'round, kiddies...
Ticket Prices Go Up at Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Posted on 07/25/2018, 4:30 PM
The price of admission has gone up at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. It will now cost you $57 ($47 for kids ages 3–11) to see NASA artifacts and memorabilia such as the space shuttle Atlantis, a moon rock, spacesuits, rockets, and more. That's a $7 increase from the previous cost. While the price might sound astronomical by museum standards, wouldn't that be appropriate, ...
WWOOFing: Explaining a Different Way to Travel, Farm by Farm
The Game-Changing Museums of Indianapolis
Posted on 07/09/2018, 6:45 PM
Indianapolis is reinventing the museum. As dropping attendance and revenues plague museums across North America, Indy’s most storied institution, Newfields: A Place for Nature and the Arts—once known as the Indianapolis Museum of Art—has become the sixth-most-visited museum in the United States per capita. Part of the reason for its success has to do with that name change. In 2017, curato...
This Midwest American Town Is Turning 350 Years Old
Posted on 07/03/2018, 7:15 PM
You might have heard that New Orleans and San Antonio are each celebrating a 300th birthday this year. Both cities made our list of the Best Places to Go in 2018 for that very reason. But it's likely you missed the news about another riverside municipality's big milestone—even though it bests the other two by half a century. Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan turns 350 this year. The Soo, as it's kn...
Arthur Frommer: National Parks Devotees Can Utter a (Brief) Sigh of Relief
Posted on 06/25/2018, 12:00 AM
In the early months of the Trump administration, it was widely rumored that the new head of the Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, would propose a doubling of the entrance fees to some 100 national parks that charge admission. The reaction to that drastic proposal was so negative, and from both sides of the aisle in Congress, that it was since assumed that a far milder increase would be ...
New Great Wolf Lodge Water Park Opens in Chicago Burbs
Posted on 06/22/2018, 11:30 PM
Midwesterners in search of chlorinated fun have a new destination in the Chicago suburbs. Great Wolf Lodge Illinois, the 17th outpost in a chain of Northwoods-themed indoor water park resorts across North America, has opened in Gurnee, the same town (located about 40 miles north of downtown Chicago) where you'll find Six Flags Great America. The new Great Wolf occupies space once belonging to ...
Arthur Frommer: Universal Orlando Cuts Hotel Rates to Lure Visitors
Posted on 06/22/2018, 11:30 PM
For at least twenty years, Universal Orlando Resort has been on a hotel building spree. One after another, giant lodging has been squeezed onto its grounds, supplying close-at-hand rooms to would-be visitors. In hotels supplying thousands of rooms, Universal is approaching (though it obviously hasn’t yet reached) the number of hotels on the grounds of Disney’s parks, 15 minutes away by car. ...
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...
A Makeover and New Museum at Gateway Arch in St. Louis
Posted on 06/08/2018, 9:00 PM
A multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to gussy up the grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis culminates this summer in the July 3 opening of an expanded museum that tells the tale of America's westward expansion. Located underground, the newly rechristened Museum at the Gateway Arch replaces the similar but more limited previous facility, which had become outdated both in its simplistic, Gu...
Arthur Frommer: Experiential Travel Has Been Eclipsed by "Transformative Travel”
Posted on 06/01/2018, 2:00 PM
For several years now, conversations between travel professionals have been full of references to "experiential travel," a new variety of travel requested by more and more travelers. Unlike the standard, sightseeing-based programs, experiential travel stresses a more authentic contact with the life in various foreign locations, and it also immerses the travel passenger into those authentic experie...
Tips on Getting the Most Out of Your 2018 Summer Vacation
Posted on 05/30/2018, 4:00 PM
Remember when summer really meant vacation? I’m talking, of course, of the time before you were able to vote, when summer meant freedom from school and adventures at camp, a fun summer job, or long lazy days doing very little. However you did it, summer was a break from the daily routine—and a welcome one. But for most of us, summer now means the same commute, the same job, the same responsibiliti...
