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May 9 at 11:22 a.m. During a recent week when all of America was focused on the Boston marathon bombing, and later the flight delays caused by the sequester, a major travel event occurred that got almost no attention: United Airlines raised the fee for changing an air ticket to $200. A family of four planning to fly on June 16, for instance, which then encounters an emergency requiring they fly four days later, will be charged $800 for the right to do so. The increase amounted to a full 33 percent, lifting a former penalty of $150 for changing a ticket, to $200.
By Arthur Frommer | May 5 at 8:03 a.m. Let’s say you crave a beach vacation in a hot, tropical area – but you don’t care exactly where. Or you want to fly to California but don’t care whether your destination is Los Angeles or San Francisco. Or you crave a cultural vacation but don’t care whether it’s in New York or New Orleans.
April 24 at 1:44 p.m. A columnist for the Los Angeles Times, David Lazarus, has revealed one of the most questionable schemes – of dubious ethics – in travel today. Lazarus has discovered a person running a website that advertises the sale, for $100, of a slick, black, plastic card identifying the holder as a “reviewer” of hotels and restaurants.
April 18 at 11:58 a.m. You’re about to read one of the most startling, but probably accurate, new discoveries about airline shenanigans in recent travel history. A book by USA Today reporter William J. McGee, titled “Attention All Passengers: The Airlines’ Dangerous Descent,” is claiming that numerous airlines have begun collecting data on their passengers and would-be passengers - their previous purchases, the extent of their cost-conscious attitudes, their race, income and gender, whether they make impulse purchases or else “shop around” - and then tailoring the prices offered to them according to those personal characteristics. Two passengers requesting the same flight at the same time are quoted different prices on the airlines’ websites.
April 14 at 7:35 a.m. It’s a significant development: EasyJet, the British budget air carrier, has announced that, like its rival Ryanair, it will no longer employ staff to issue your boarding pass or otherwise attend to your pre-boarding needs. Except for an “emergency facility” that it said it will maintain for Luddites who fail to obtain boarding passes from their computers and printers at home (and it makes that promise somewhat ambiguously), it will stop employing a human being to check you in (there will be a single separate area for depositing your luggage, with a luggage tag that you also will have printed at home).
April 4 at 11:32 a.m. Because Great Britain clearly is the most popular trans-Atlantic destination among Americans, it behooves us to stay current with touristic developments there, both for the purpose of recommending visits by others or for affecting our own vacation plans. And among those developments, the British are claiming that the ability of tourists to visit, and even use, some of the facilities that were built for the 2012 London Olympics is a new and potent reason for a visit.
Oct. 16 at 9:23 a.m. l receive countless inquiries asking me to suggest novel methods of vacationing __ tactics designed to get the listener or reader out of a vacation rut. To my surprise, these questions continue to recur, even though I regard the answers to them to be rather obvious. Here is my take on five suggested tactics for avoiding a "vacation rut":
Oct. 9 at 9:06 a.m. The press is full of reports that most of the major airlines — American, United, Delta among them — have reduced the number of holiday dates to six on which they will be charging surcharges of $20 to $40 each way. So this Thanksgiving and Christmas, it will be only a small number of instances — like the day before Christmas or the day before Thanksgiving, or the day after New Year's — when rates will suddenly skyrocket, as compared with the 12 or so days that saw such surcharges in 2010. Are the airlines frightened that they will be unable to fill their seats if they suddenly charge more on such days?
Sep. 25 at 6:35 a.m. We live and learn. When a caller to my radio program recently requested information about how to obtain a "European passport" (she meant an Irish passport entitling the bearer to all the privileges of the European Union), I casually responded that this was impossible, it couldn't be; I was certain that an American could not enjoy dual citizenship.
Sep. 18 at 12:08 a.m. In January, exceptions to the 50-year-old embargo against travel to Cuba were announced by the Obama administration, raising hopes that this totally counterproductive policy finally would be phased out.
August 28 at 6:35 a.m. They may be a product of the recent riots in Britain, but autumn airfares across the Atlantic, and particularly to London, are suddenly much cheaper than was recently anticipated.
August 21 at 5:11 a.m. In the world of cruising, most of the recent attention has gone to the floating amusement parks — the mega-sized Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas and Norwegian Epic. But the real breakthrough in ship design occurred nearly three years ago with the introduction of the 3,000-passenger Celebrity Solstice. It was the product of a graceful new design meant to carry a large number of passengers but in an unusually spacious and traditional cruise-ship setting. On the Solstice, there were no lines or crowds, no bowling alleys or giant water chutes, no carnival-like attractions. It was a dignified cruise ship, and it received unusually favorable reviews and considerable customer loyalty.
August 14 at 6:23 a.m. How big a leap is it from renting a spare room in your apartment to tourists, to renting use of your car to tourists when you don't need it?
August 7 at 6:06 a.m. I was recently curious about a large and long-established resort hotel known as the Melia Varadero on Varadero Beach in Cuba, and so I went to TripAdvisor.com to see how the Canadian public (the majority of its clientele) were reacting to it. What a problem I encountered! Dozens of people liked it, and dozens of people hated it.
July 31 at 6:15 a.m. Heaven knows how many times I've been to Europe (several hundred?), and yet every trip brings either new lessons or emphasizes the worth of old lessons. Here are 10 of those — some painfully obvious but important to repeat.
July 24 at 5:53 a.m. Want a rock-bottom-price cruise of the Rhine or the Danube? In a field where companies have boasted about the deluxe nature of their river cruises (and charged accordingly), a celebrated champion of cheap vacations — the long-in-business YMT Vacations — has suddenly made a surprise appearance.
July 17 at 5:57 a.m. I have just completed a visit to Warsaw, which is a large and dynamic world capital that few Americans visit. With its 43 theaters with live productions, its 32 museums, its palaces, castles, resplendent squares and countless architectural highlights, it reflects the remarkable cultural heritage and history of Europe.
June 26 at 6:33 a.m. Volunteer vacations are a major vogue in travel, and people who attend travel lectures seem intrigued by the possibility of devoting their leisure time to a worthwhile cause. They soon find that the options are limited.
June 19 at 9:41 a.m. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." That well-known suggestion (in other words, work harder to solve difficult problems) could have been applied to the decision by most cruise lines to offer bargain rates for their summer sailings in the Mediterranean.
June 13 at 6:30 a.m. Just an hour north of Palm Beach, Fla., by car, the Navy SEALs Museum at Ft. Pierce, once largely unknown, is now awash with visitors. Before embarking on such feats of derring-do as taking out Osama bin Laden, the Navy SEALs were known as Underwater Demolition Teams, and played a key role on D-Day in 1944. The museum tells their story in fascinating detail.
By Arthur Frommer | May 15 at 12:24 a.m. We all know the situation — and the dilemma. You've arrived at your airport destination at an ultra-early hour, say 6:30 a.m., after an overnight flight. You then arrive at your hotel at 8 a .m., exhausted, craving to take a fast nap or yearning to shower and change clothes. The hotel advises, reluctantly, that you can't check in until 2 p.m. All the rooms are still occupied, and those that aren't have yet to be cleaned and made ready by the chambermaid staff.
May 8 at 12:06 a.m. The Internet is aflame with cries of alarm, anguished protests and extreme dismay over an application by the State Department that uses a new biographical questionnaire to be filled out by some people applying for an initial or renewed U.S. passport.
April 24 at 12:06 a.m. This year the most frequently asked question to numerous travel editors is, Where can I get inexpensive trans-Atlantic airfare for a summer vacation in Europe?
BY ARTHUR FROMMER | April 17 at 12:49 a.m. Born in Sicily, Carmelina Ricciardello moved at the age of 7 to Australia, where her father could obtain work. But 28 years later, the homesick Carmelina returned to her seaside village of Sant'Ambrogio, and later decided that the right type of tourism could revive the fortunes of her Sicilian hometown. (In the 1990s, young people had deserted Sicily in droves to seek a better life in Rome, Bologna and Milan, and the population of the aptly-named Sant'Ambrogio had dropped from 2,300 to just 500 people. Numerous ancient homes stood empty.)
BY ARTHUR FROMMER | April 10 at 12:38 a.m. Like-a-local (www.like-a-local.com) is one of the most intriguing, most exciting travel websites I've seen in some time. It is somewhat like one of those free-of-charge greeters programs in New York or Chicago, except that this one imposes a modest charge for its services.
By Arthur Frommer | April 3 at 12:44 a.m. Several years after I began writing guidebooks, I discovered that I was dissatisfied with the traditional forms of vacation travel.
March 27 at 12:06 a.m. Several weeks ago, I wrote about the decision of Lion World Travel to charge only $2,199 per person for a one-week Kenya safari leaving from Washington, D.C. (including airfare) throughout March and the first week of April, and $2,299 for the same trip in the latter part of April, the month of May and many dates thereafter. It was obvious to me — as I pointed out in an effort at sarcasm — that the unusual price (several hundreds of dollars less than the competition) was brought about by using Ethiopian Airlines as the carrier from Washington, D.C. I was immediately besieged by numerous angry e-mails from readers who claimed that Ethiopian Airlines is a fine and reliable carrier, and I subsequently issued a full-throated apology.
March 20 at 12:08 a.m. The airlines versus the Internet search engines. The motorcoach tour operators versus the cruise lines. Sometimes it seems as if the entire travel industry is at war, devoting as much attention to attacking their colleagues as to selling travel.
BY ARTHUR FROMMER | March 13 at 12:33 a.m. Although the formal warnings of the U.S. State Department remain in effect, advising you that the situation in Egypt is still too unsettled to make tourism entirely safe, most tour operators to Egypt are gearing up for an imminent restart of their programs. I recently spoke by phone with Elie Sidawi, chairman of Sunny-land Tours (www. sunnylandtours.com), which undoubtedly operates the most extensive list of trips to Egypt. He told me emphatically, and a bit triumphantly, that he will restart his key tours to Cairo and Upper Egypt this month, and is cutting the price in half to assure that every seat on his flights will be full.
BY ARTHUR FROMMER | March 6 at 12:33 a.m. The 20-page booklet, which recently arrived in my home by mail, is a handsome production of stunning color photographs and elegant typography, all of it promoting a single 21-day tour of Africa leaving the U.S. Jan. 9, 2012, and costing $68,950 per person, double occupancy (not including round-trip airfare to London, from where the tour departs). In other words, a couple traveling tog ether will spend a total of $137,900 to buy the tour arrangements detailed in the booklet, plus airfare for two people round-trip to London. Single people traveling alone pay a surcharge of $9,450, for a total of $78,400, again not including round-trip airfare from the U.S. to London.
Feb. 13 at 12:04 a.m. Although specific rules won't be issued for another several weeks, it appears that the new policy of the Obama administration respecting travel to Cuba is somewhat broader than earlier reported in permitting such travel to occur. A study of the announcement indicates that "cultural" travel, in addition to religious or educational travel, will be permitted, encouraging a great many organizations to request permission to operate such trips.
Feb. 6 at 12:24 a.m. In the ever-evolving world of travel, two recent news events deserve to be studied:
Jan. 23 at 12:51 a.m. Nearly nine years ago, in March 2002, the airlines stopped paying commissions to retail travel agents — and dealt a mortal blow to what was once a thriving segment of the travel industry. More than 20,000 travel agencies proceeded to go out of business, and travel's retail sector hasn't been the same since.
BY ARTHUR FROMMER | Jan. 16 at 12:48 a.m. On several recent Tuesdays, JetBlue Airlines has published news of one-day sales over various routes that it flies in the U.S. Going in the morning to www.twitter.com/jetblue, on a Tuesday, you would find announcements of tickets for $19 on some of the airline's shorter itineraries. Later in the day, there would also be a flash announcement — valid for only a couple of hours — of transcontinental flights available for more than $19 but for far less than $99. The practice is not limited to JetBlue, and it's worth following the activities of other airlines on Twitter. Simply type www.twitter.com/ and then place the name of the airline (as a single word) following the slash line.
BY ARTHUR FROMMER | Jan. 9 at 12:40 a.m. Because the fake village at Falmouth, Jamaica, will not be completed until April 2011, Royal Caribbean Cruiseline has substituted the fake village of Costa Maya in Mexico (not a real town but an artificial, recently constructed shopping mall) for what would have been a stop at the fake village of Falmouth in February and March by Royal Caribbean's much-touted Oasis of the Seas cruiseship and its new sister vessel, the Allure of the Seas.
Jan. 2 at 12:04 a.m. Though commercial life may slow down at the end of one year and the beginning of another, the world of travel remains full of recent events and new products that might affect your vacation plans.
By Arthur Frommer | Dec. 19 at 12:22 a.m. We tend to forget that a feisty, cost-cutting carrier called Iceland Express (not to be confused with the larger and long-established Icelandair) is now crossing the Atlantic (via Reykjavik, Iceland) throughout the year, and offering the world's best prices for those flights. If you go to www.icelandexpress.com, you'll find that the relatively new airline is currently charging a total of $469, including all taxes and fees, for that round-trip flight from New York, on twice-weekly dates between Jan. 7 and March 28. Considering the inclusion of hefty, British-determined fees and taxes, its price is the lowest for that route in travel today.
By Arthur Frommer | Dec. 12 at 12:54 a.m. They are called Tune hotels, boasting "five-star beds for one-star prices." Their owner is a wealthy airline magnate of the Far East (Tony Fernandes of AirAsia), and he has just opened the first European example of this new breed of economically priced hotels charging about 50 British pounds ($78) for a double room with private facilities in high season (but as little as 35 pounds, or $55, when demand is low). Fifteen more such hotels — and that's no misprint — will soon sprout at other central locations in London, or so he claims. Nine other Tune hotels are already operating in various Asian locations (all, thus far, in Malaysia and Indonesia).
Dec. 5 at 1:50 a.m. Savvy travelers have known for years that the various websites dealing with hostels actually are much broader in their listings. Go to London, in one such site, and you'll find countless cheap hotels that aren't hostels by a long shot — they are simply unpretentious bed-and-breakfasts hoping to attract ultra cost-conscious travelers.
Nov. 21 at 12:37 a.m. "Nightmarish" is the only word to describe the job of booking a holiday week in the tropics for your Christmas vacation. The planes to the Caribbean and Hawaii are largely full at that time, their prices astronomic (JetBlue is charging $1,400 round-trip between New York and Aruba), and the hotels all chock-a-block despite charging their top rates of the year.
Nov. 14 at 12:03 a.m. Following its last trans-Atlantic crossing in early to mid-November, the elegant ocean liner the Queen Mary II will return to New York for a series of 11-night cruises to the Caribbean at a price so low as to be news. The giant, glamorous ship will sail round-trip from and back to New York on Nov. 27 and Dec. 8, charging as little as $599 per person in inside cabins for those 11 nights at sea (an unprecedented $54.45 per day). It will stop during those lengthy, almost two-week-long sailings, at such interesting ports as St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados and Grand Turk.
Nov. 7 at 12:02 a.m. Remember the days when you could fly "stand-by" to your destination, leaving on an earlier flight than the one you had booked in advance? Nowadays, that simple, sensible act requires that you remember to pay a fee at the very time when, from home, you first make your airline reservation by phone or computer.
Oct. 31 at 12:02 a.m. Good news in travel was recently supplied by the three families that own the land on which Maho Bay Camps (www.maho.org) are located on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Although Maho's lease is scheduled to end after the upcoming winter season, the landowners have agreed to extend the lease period for still another full winter season — in fact, until the summer of 2012. And there are hints — only hints, not guarantees — that a further extension may be granted after completion of the winter season in 2012.
Oct. 24 at 12:03 a.m. We are a mere day away from the time — Oct. 25 is the usual date — when package operators to European capitals reduce their prices to less-costly winter levels. The price leader, Go-today.com (www.go-today.com), lowers the rate for its six-night stay in London (round-trip air from New York, and six nights of hotel accommodations with daily continental breakfast) to $699 per person, and remains at that figure until Dec. 15, then spikes upward for the holiday period, but reduces again to an even-lower winter floor of $649 starting Jan. 10 and continuing until the end of February. Prices from other U.S. cities are only slightly higher.
Oct. 19 at 6 a.m. Pacific Delight Tours (operating trips to Asia) and SunnyLand Tours (operating trips to Egypt and elsewhere) aren't known for their bargain packages. Yet recently, in these times of economic uncertainty, both companies suddenly have added budget-price packages to their standard lists. Nothing could better reflect the current condition of international travel and the decision by travel companies to overcome the current cautious spending habits of the American public — with bargains.
Oct. 10 at 12:38 a.m. The news in travel is of growth. Southwest Airlines has agreed to acquire AirTran, which gives it a major presence in Atlanta; the city of Las Vegas is about to acquire a new (and totally unnecessary) 3,000-room hotel; and airfares for Thanksgiving and Christmas periods are zooming out of sight.
Oct. 4 at 6:37 a.m. The good news first: For many years, a fleet of six authentic sailing ships, serviced by a supply ship, went cruising the smaller islands of the Caribbean in a manner that was pure magic to its loyal followers. Created by the colorful Capt. Mike Burke, their crews were an insouciant but lovable group who joked with passengers, drank with them, accompanied them on island excursions and snorkeling, served them excellent food, and maintained a sailing tradition that featured informality both in dress and socializing, youthful, fun camaraderie, and a general atmosphere befitting the name "Barefoot Windjammers."
Sep. 26 at 1:06 a.m. We hear of it happening to friends, and never dream it could one day be directed at ourselves. Several weeks ago, a friend of mine received an e-mail from Europe purporting to describe a misfortune suffered by a colleague on vacation. The colleague, it said, had been robbed of his travel cash and credit cards, and urgently needed $2,000.
Sep. 19 at 12:03 a.m. Though half of my recent visit to Britain was spent in London, the main reason for it was to attend the Edinburgh Festival, which takes place throughout August. What an exhausting and exhilarating introduction to Scotland!
Sep. 7 at 7:03 a.m. If you're planning a fairly short trip to Spain, and haven't the time to go everywhere, then you'll have to answer the question: Madrid or Barcelona? I tend to respond: Barcelona.
August 29 at 12:19 a.m. I have several times expressed my wonderment that verandah (i.e., "balcony") cabins aboard the Celebrity Solstice, one the most comfortable, high-quality ships afloat, are presently being sold for as little as $699 per person for a one-week cruise, round-trip from Fort Lauderdale, September through mid-December. Imagine my surprise to learn more recently that such cabins have been discounted down to $649 per person by OnlineVacationCenter.com (phone 800-329-9002) for the sailings of Sept. 5, 12, 19 and 26, 2010. The cautious Online Vacation Center claims this is a price charged only to "seniors" (defined as 55 years of age or older), but younger would-be passengers might try for the same price by dialing the number above.
August 22 at 12:32 a.m. The Sunday London Times has just completed what it claims to be a serious study of the main airfare search engines, and has named Momondo.com as the best of them. It bases that decision on Momondo's "great coverage searching more airlines than all the others, and featuring no-frills and smaller, niche carriers . . . Over multiple searches, it . . . gave the best prices for long haul." For more details, see the upcoming London Times Travel Supplement for September 2010.
August 15 at 12:04 a.m. To the surprise of many, they actually did it. The brash and aggressive Spirit Airlines has recently put into effect a fee of from $30 to $45 for luggage brought into a plane and placed in the overhead rack. And a great many passengers are unhappy. Though it's hard to believe, a number of people on the first Spirit departures to charge the penalty seem not to have heard of the new policy in advance (according to several tabloids that covered the event). "If I had known," said one passenger, "I would have flown on JetBlue." And indeed, the new charge sometimes wipes out the price advantage that Spirit frequently enjoys over other airlines, like JetBlue.
August 8 at 12:35 a.m. To the dismay of everyone in the travel industry other than hotel executives, Gov. David Paterson of New York has signed legislation outlawing the rental of apartments in New York (which means primarily New York City) for periods of less than 30 days. A large pro-tourism industry has just received a staggering blow, and tens of thousands of tourists will have to pay expensive hotel rates for their stays in New York City. Manhattan, in particular, has just joined the island of Maui and the city of Paris, France, as a place where tourists can no longer enjoy a far more spacious, far more pleasant, form of accommodation for much less than most hotels charge.
August 1 at 12:02 a.m. The cheapest rates ever at the ultra-deluxe Aria Hotel in Las Vegas (centerpiece of the new, sleek City Center complex) —an almost unbelievable $109 a room — have just gone into effect for a large part of August. The dates on which $109 will pay for an elegant room at the Aria are: Aug. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12; 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, after which they return to normally discounted levels ($159, $229 and $259). To book, go to MGM's Aria website (www.arialasvegas.com) and click away.
July 26 at 7:23 a.m. Everyone has heard of Miami and Miami Beach; television took care of that. But most Americans, and especially those who have never been, would be hard-pressed to schedule their time. Apart from renting a room on the beach and lolling on the sand, what is there to do or see in this subtropical South Florida playground?
July 19 at 6:46 a.m. Last week, on a Sunday morning, I returned home to the peace and quiet of New York City, from the clangorous, frenetic atmosphere of the 150,000-ton Norwegian Epic. I need a rest.
July 4 at 12:06 a.m. Recent weeks have seen important newspaper headlines that have a direct bearing on travel. Of most significance was an announce-ment by the central bank of China that it would reverse course and permit that nation's currency — the Yuan — to gradually increase in value. Although, a day later, it issued a supplementary statement that the increase would be modest and over a long period of time, it was nonetheless obvious that China was at last giving in to pressure from the world community to no longer maintain an artificially low exchange rate.
June 27 at 12:02 a.m. It's worrisome to receive reports from North American tourists (both U.S. and Canadians) that they are having difficulty in Europe when they attempt to use their credit cards. For this to happen just when other conditions for such tourism have improved (the euro and the British pound have declined substantially in value) is particularly galling.
June 21 at 7:07 a.m. Most of us have a spare and unused room, or a spare cot. Why not make them available — for no charge or a nominal charge — to responsible travelers as they pass through our home cities? Why not provide such hospitality out of either idealism or a desire to meet people from other countries or places — but also to obtain hospitality for ourselves on our own future travels?
June 6 at 12:35 a.m. Travel websites come and go — hundreds of new ones emerge each year — but 10 remain unchallenged, in my view, for their ability to save you large sums of money on nearly any vacation trip:
May 23 at 12:28 a.m. If you had gone to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in the 1970s, you would have found a pleasant, fairly nondescript South Florida city with some impressive waterways, a good beach and a rowdy, alcohol-soaked spring-break bacchanalia. That last element might have put it off-limits for you.
May 16 at 12:40 a.m. Ten stray thoughts about the upcoming summer travel season: 1. The most delightful new travel product is Italy's recently announced "Home Food" network, a system for publicizing the meals served in private homes by talented amateur cooks. You learn about their willingness to feed you from a website called HomeFood.it (www.homefood.it), listing scores of towns and villages whose home chefs charge 3 euros for registration and then 35 euros (around $45) for a several-course meal (with local wine) prepared by, say, a grandmother, from recipes more than a hundred years old. What a fine alternative to standard evening activities.
May 2 at 12:02 a.m. I am indebted to travel writer Matt Gross for discovering a unique new way to enliven and expand your appreciation of Italy by arranging to have an authentic multicourse dinner with an Italian family in their home. It costs a registration fee of 3 euros, then 35 euros for the magnificent feast itself (including wine), which leaves you so bloated with satisfaction that you can scarcely walk out the door when the evening ends. We can only hope that other countries will create similar programs for their own homegrown family chefs, and thus add another dimension to the rewards of international travel.
April 25 at 9:32 a.m. Travelers all throughout the nation have been protesting the plan of Spirit Airlines to begin charging fees (up to $45 per bag) for carry-on luggage that is placed in the overhead racks of its planes. Complaints in large numbers have been received by the Department of Transportation, and at least four U.S. senators have introduced legislation to thwart Spirit's new policy (which is to go into effect Aug. 1).
April 19 at 7:22 a.m. It hasn't yet been noticed by most commentators, but the cruise lines have scheduled what I estimate to be as many as 60,000 berths a week leaving from Miami, Fort Lauder-dale and other ports of Florida this coming summer.
April 11 at 12:43 p.m. I know a way to make headlines — positive, approving headlines — for tourism to the U.S. It involves announcing a major gift to foreign visitors that would dramatically display our regard for them. It would cost nothing, require only a small amount of effort on the part of public officials and would be infinitely more effective than all of the overseas advertisements and TV commercials to be funded by the new Tourism Promotion Act recently passed by Congress.
April 4 at 9:44 a.m. In a recent press release describing all the bells and whistles, toys and games added to the island called Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, where each of its giant ships spends one day a week, Norwegian Cruise Line has candidly admitted that "Norwegian has owned the island since 1977 when it became the first cruise line to offer an uninhabited tropical island experience exclusively for its guests."
March 28 at 12:58 a.m. An important recent analysis in the New York Times (March 16) has served to remind us of what we subconsciously knew: that the car-rental industry has gone way over the line in a current stampede to add multiple extra fees to your eventual bill — fees that no reasonable person could have anticipated.
March 22 at 8:56 a.m. When Ed Kushins agreed four years ago to have his company, HomeExchange.com, featured in the Hollywood film "The Holiday," he didn't fully foresee the transformation which that lucky break would bring about in his life. A big movie hit, that featured Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz exchanging homes and finding love as a result, the film brought an avalanche of new members to HomeExchange.com, making it undoubtedly the single largest U.S. company in the field.
March 14 at 12:06 a.m. As we enter the spring/summer season for vacation travel, what are the top travel bargains? I find they are six basic areas or modes of travel:
March 8 at 6:34 a.m. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, the British consumer press has been unusually harsh in dealing with accusations against TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com). Newspapers ranging in size from those in small countryside hamlets all the way up to the London Times have headlined various reports claiming that a substantial number of the hotel assessments appearing in TripAdvisor are fraudulent.
March 1 at 6:43 a.m. When Universal Studios opened the second of its big attractions in Orlando, Fla., the one called "Islands of Adventure," it hoped that by jamming super-scary roller coasters, Jurassic Park, Spider- man and Dr. Seuss into one fun park, it would at last pose formidable competition to Walt Disney World, which is a few miles away.
Feb. 21 at 1:19 a.m. Looking for an alternative to pricey Europe for your summer vacation? Consider Panama, where round-trip airfares can be as low as $300 from many U.S. cities.
Feb. 15 at 8:50 a.m. As recently as the 1940s, America had the world's finest system of passenger trains. Brought down in later years by our obsession with the automobile and the airplane, and by government neglect, America's railways are today on a par with those of Bulgaria.
Feb. 7 at 10:10 a.m. What's the next big thing in travel services on the Internet? A Connecticut boarding-school math teacher named Luke Dudley thinks it's LuggageLimits.com, which he created to keep people from incurring ruinous luggage fees (an increasing problem) or extra airline charges because they have exceeded various luggage limits. To me, the new Web site seems ultra-timely and valuable now that luggage has become such a bone of contention, with airlines charging increasing amounts for checked luggage, limiting the size of carry-ons and causing other hangups and pitfalls for the innocent passenger.
Feb. 1 at 6:47 a.m. If you're the kind of person who follows political events in Latin America, you're of course aware of the beating that poor little Honduras (a tiny nation of Central America) endured through most of the second half of 2009. Its popular president (Manuel Zelaya) ousted by a military coup; the political uproar that followed; the economy and tourism falling off a cliff; a later attempted intervention by the U.N. and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Zelaya's effort to regain his office; the cessation of protests by Zelaya's political party; new elections and finally, the Jan. 27 inauguration of the new President Porfirio Lobo.
Feb. 1 at 1:37 p.m. February, with its Presidents' Week commemorations, is a popular month for travel; March is less so. I regard six different travel opportunities in March as remarkable bargain opportunities:
Jan. 17 at 10:59 a.m. Because "hope springs eternal," I'm going to inaugurate the New Year with a recitation of promising developments over the past decade in travel — a list split into two successive columns in which I sing about the "good" in travel. Here are six promising developments that have greatly improved matters in the world of travel and vacations:
Jan. 3 at 8:25 a.m. One discovers travel bargains in the oddest places. Here are three highly practical but rather unusual suggestions for your upcoming trips:
Dec. 28 at 6:11 a.m. A cruel blow was struck several weeks ago when the two pioneers in mass-volume Alaskan cruising — Holland America and Princess Cruises — announced that they were withdrawing another two ships from the once-popular summertime (May through Septem-ber) season for exploring a dramatic maritime wilderness — the ocean shores of Alaska.
Dec. 21 at 6:03 a.m. The fastest-growing tour operator in Great Britain is undoubtedly a company called (appealingly enough) Low-Cost Travel, whose Web site is www.lowcostholidays.com. Last year, it sold vacations in the tropics to 1.2 million Brits, a number that was double the level of business it enjoyed the year before.
Dec. 13 at 12:03 a.m. Two separate tour operators — one specializing in Hawaii, the other in the Caribbean — have both advised me in recent days that people hoping to book bargain offers should contact them by phone, and not over the Internet. That's because the airlines are continually raising and lowering their airfares on particular dates and for particular flights, creating a bewildering jungle of prices. The people who insert various dates for the air-and-land packages they desire will too often be disappointed in the results, and will need to spend a large amount of time trying other dates and times of day.
Nov. 30 at 7:53 a.m. For the past several years, White House officials of both parties and U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury have sought to pressure China into raising the value of its currency. Although they have succeeded in part — the Chinese yuan, once exchanged at a rate of nearly 8 to the U.S. dollar, is now selling for 6.82 — they have never achieved the realistic exchange value that a unit of Chinese currency should have: around 5 to the dollar.
Oct. 11 at 12:39 a.m. In November and December, all the major tour operators to Turkey offer 12-night tours of that country's main sights for as little as $1,063, not including airfare. That sum comes to $88.58 per person per night, including excellent accommodations, three meals and all escorted sightseeing.
Oct. 5 at 4:56 p.m. In October and throughout November, dozens of cruise ships in European waters are moved from their now-chilly locations and sent on long, trans-Atlantic sailings to the Caribbean or South American waters. Because, when they cross the Atlantic, they are solely at sea for at least five, six or seven days and make no port stops during that time, they are unpopular with the public; passengers with short attention spans can't stand the thought of being aboard a ship that isn't making daily visits to land. And many members of the public can't devote the two-or-so weeks that most repositioning cruises require (several port stops in the Mediterranean before reaching the open sea of the Atlantic, then the crossing, then several port stops on the way to the ultimate destination in Florida or elsewhere).
Sep. 20 at 12:06 a.m. Why does it matter? Why should a fee affecting flights within the U.K. and Europe be of significance to readers on my side of the Atlantic? It's because decisions by the U.K.' s leading low-cost airline have a disturbing tendency to influence later decisions by U.S. airlines flying domestically. Ryanair was the first to institute a la carte pricing in air travel, and the system it inaugurated has since been copied — triumphantly, enthusiastically, wholeheartedly — by American carriers.
Sep. 8 at 7:36 a.m. Twitter scored a major success by persuading users to confine their "tweets" to 140 characters or fewer (including spaces and periods). Let me see if I can do the same thing in print for 10 major new travel developments:
August 30 at 12:04 a.m. A famous radio announcer used to start his broadcasts by shouting, "There's good news tonight!" In these days of economic slowdown, there are a great many instances of good travel news, born out of the urgent needs of travel suppliers to increase their business:
August 24 at 7:38 a.m. In the world of travel, no news event has had a greater impact on public attitudes than a recent drama on board a Continental Express plane stuck on the tarmac in Rochester, Minn., for nine hours.
August 16 at 12:04 a.m. Judging from the almost complete lack of U.S. advertising for it, you'd never know there was an important World's Fair (called the World Expo) scheduled to take place in Shanghai, China, from May through October of 2010. Yet all throughout the world, it appears, excitement is rising over an event in which nearly 200 countries and 48 world organizations will maintain breathtaking pavilions containing important, instructive exhibits about the future. These have been heavily featured in European and Asian publications, and some of the more unusual designs make architectural history.
August 9 at 12:05 a.m. Though everyone's crying gloom and doom about U.S. aviation, there are several positive recent developments to report.
August 4 at 7:36 a.m. People in travel are talking about Mexico. The combination of the outbreak of swine flu several months ago and reports of drug-related violence served to decimate tourist traffic to Mexico this past winter and spring, and the downturn continues in summer. In those non-holiday weeks when there isn't a large amount of local, Mexican traffic, many hotels have been reporting occupancy rates so low as to defy credulity. The response of those properties — especially the deluxe hotels — are pricing lures never before seen.
July 27 at 6:59 a.m. No tourist destination in America has been hit harder than Las Vegas. The current prices there for rooms and meals are so low that they can't be grasped in the abstract; they have to be set forth dollar-by-dollar to be believed.
July 20 at 11:51 a.m. It has become chic to be cheap. It is dumb to spend recklessly. It has never been more important to economize: using public transportation, hostels, apartments and guesthouses, inside cabins, sightseeing passes, cut-rate carriers and all the other devices of cost-conscious, sensible vacations.
July 13 at 1:33 p.m. No matter how many times I answer the question (and I always do so with a resounding no), the listeners to my weekly radio program persist in posing the challenge again and again: "Should we sign up for shore excursions in advance of our cruise?"
July 7 at 7:07 a.m. Jet-lagged and unable to sleep, I awake a few minutes before 5 a.m. and step onto the balcony of my room overlooking Istanbul. Suddenly the colored lights atop minarets all over the city go on, and the voices of a dozen muezzins are heard from loudspeakers resounding all about me. It is the morning call to prayer, a strangely beautiful sound, repeated at four other times throughout the day.
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