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Travel Blog
Passport rule for land and sea travelers postponed to June 2009 3/31/2008 1:28:17 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment Those traveling to the U.S. by land and sea won't have to present a passport until June 1, 2009, according to a ruling issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
The ruling follows the congressional passage of a December bill ordering a delay until at least June 2009 of the passport requirement for land and sea travelers.
"The good news is that the Bush administration will not fight the new law that moves the passport requirement to next year," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), one of the principal authors of the law enacted in December. "The bad news is that there is little reason to believe DHS will be ready even then."
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the government was "on course to implement and enforce" the passport rule for land and sea travelers.
But Leahy disagreed, saying, "There is no indication that they will be ready with the appropriate technology infrastructure at our borders to handle new documents. There is no reason to believe border upgrades will be ready. There is no signal they will reconsider using problematic Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that poses security and privacy concerns. There is no assurance that they will have enough time to hire and train the border agents who will be needed to implement the passport requirement. And there is no reason to believe that adequate consultations with Canada are underway, even now."
The DHS said it was giving notice of the rule more than a year in advance of its implementation to "give the public ample notice and time to obtain the documents they will need to enter or re-enter the U.S. on or after June 1, 2009."
Many cross-border travelers already have WHTI-compliant documents such as a passport or a Trusted Traveler Card (NEXUS, SENTRI and FAST), or a Washington State enhanced driver's license (EDL). The Department of State already is accepting applications for the new Passport Cards and additional states and Canadian provinces will be issuing EDLs in the next several months -- all of which are options specifically designed for land and sea border use.
Beginning June 1, 2009, the DHS will institute special provisions that allow school or other organized groups of children ages 18 and under who are U.S. or Canadian citizens to enter the U.S. with proof of citizenship alone.
Over the next 14 months, the departments will be conducting public information campaigns to inform U.S. and Canadian citizens about the new document requirements. These campaigns will include special outreach to residents of border communities who may be most impacted by the new document requirements. The DHS and Department of State are working with the Canadian government to ensure widespread and consistent communications on both sides of our land borders.
This announcement comes two months after the DHS ended acceptance of oral declarations alone of identity and citizenship at the land borders on Jan. 31. Since that time, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 19 and older have been asked to present proof of identity and citizenship. Children ages 18 and under are currently asked only to present proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate.
The changes that took place in January marked the beginning of a transition period intended to prepare the public for WHTI implementation on June 1, 2009. This common sense approach is designed to lessen the impact on individuals and allow time for travelers to become accustomed to the change and obtain the appropriate documents.
Upon implementation of the WHTI, travelers will be required to present a single WHTI-compliant document denoting both citizenship and identity when seeking entry into the U.S. through a land or sea border. Standardized, secure and reliable documentation will enable Customs and Border Protection officers to quickly and accurately identify travelers at land and sea ports of entry. The WHTI secure document requirement is already in place for all air travelers.
Both the EDL and the Passport Card will contain security features to prevent counterfeiting and will include vicinity RFID to help speed the entry process at the land borders.
The WHTI land and sea final rule and a notice on the Washington State EDL will be sent to the Federal Register for publication. Specific information on documentation requirements may be found at www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/ready_set_go/. For general information on the WHTI or other travel-related programs, visit www.dhs.gov or www.travel.state.gov.
| If the airfare is cheap, must it be Tuesday? 3/28/2008 11:49:46 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment BY ELLEN CREAGER - Detroit Free Press
Are airfares really cheaper on Tuesday nights?
That was the question I posed a few weeks ago. I asked for reader help in monitoring airfares for a theoretical trip leaving April 1 to any destination.
Now, results are in. And guess what? It appears that if airfares are going to drop, it probably will happen sometime between Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon.
Nine of 15 routes monitored by readers had price drops on a Tuesday or Wednesday. No routes had price drops on a Thursday or Saturday. Few drops occurred on Sunday, Monday or Friday. The trend happened across multiple airlines.
That's hardly a massive scientific poll. But it tends to reinforce the theory.
''I am never buying a ticket on Sunday or Monday again. The Tuesday theory works according to my research,'' reported Patricia LaBeau, after she tracked a round-trip flight from Detroit to Savannah and saw it drop from $324 at 11:01 p.m. on a Monday to $215 at 11:45 p.m. on a Tuesday.
Jim Herman tracked a Detroit-Pensacola round-trip and watched it drop from $359 at 12:30 p.m. on a Monday to $215 at 5:50 a.m. Tuesday.
Of course, if it were that easy, we'd all be buying tickets on Tuesdays.
In reality, the fluctuation in airline ticket prices is about as predictable as the flight of a butterfly and as tricky to predict as pork futures.
''I worked for the airlines for 34 ½ years, and I can tell you that the airfares generally are not cheaper on Tuesday,'' a former ticket agent told me. ``The airline offers so many seats at each airfare. When they run out of seats in a particular class, you will quote from the next highest category.''
However, Carl Schwartz, spokesman for Cheapflights.com, says most sales the airlines advertise start on Tuesdays. Diluting Tuesday's power is the fact that unadvertised sales ''can happen constantly throughout the week and at any time of day. They can run for just a few hours or a matter of weeks,'' he says.
What about the second theory, the one that buying tickets after 11 p.m. or midnight is best? It turns out that the theory holds water -- but only if you are looking for a frequent flier award ticket or a nondiscount seat on a crowded holiday flight, Schwartz says, because those types of tickets are released at midnight. For other deals, the evidence is pretty shaky.
Of course, some readers who did the test came away believing the Tuesday night theory is a dud.
Rackeline Hoff found a Detroit-Los Angeles round-trip fare that was $379 on a Saturday fall to just $331 on a Sunday, only to rise again to $344 on Monday and Tuesday.
Sue Armstrong found her cheapest flight from Detroit to Maui, $818 round-trip, on a Friday; Tuesday and Wednesday prices were more than $125 higher: ''It does disprove the Tuesday night theory,'' she says.
Randy Knight tracked a Detroit-Dallas fare for 10 days and found if you bought during the first Tuesday night dip for $245, you would miss an even lower fare the next Tuesday night, $229.
But don't give up. Monitoring prices of the routes you plan to fly can pay off.
''Being in the right place at the right time and taking advantage of it is about 75 percent of the requirement for snagging the deal of a lifetime,'' says Schwartz.
Laura Bauman can testify to that. She went online every hour on the hour on the Spirit Airlines Web site one Wednesday looking for flights to Orlando, until ''about 1:30 p.m., when I noticed they had their fares for $8 each way,'' she says. ``I punched in the days that they had available for tickets, and I was so excited to see that I was able to get my airfare.''
| Visiting the Vatican 3/27/2008 2:24:06 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment BY JANE WOOLDRIDGE
VATICAN CITY --
These 108 acres are home to a soaring marbled basilica, the bones of the apostle Peter, Greek statues and Egyptian mummies and what undeniably is the world's greatest mural. For the world's billion Catholics, The Holy See is also home to the leader of their faith.
Most Sundays and Wednesdays, worshippers flock here by the thousands, drawn by belief and tradition and spiritual significance that, for many, transcends easy words.
Joining involves a mundane process of lines and security checks amid Bernini's fabled 284 columns, and sometimes uncharitable jostling for views. But when the pope appears in his signature white robes, the crowd cheers wildly and all hassles are forgotten.
''It's hard to explain,'' said Noah Stefanelli, 9, of Truckee, Calif, who attended recently. He got teary-eyed when he saw the pope, he said. As for his mother, Laurie, ``I was bawling like a baby . . . this is the person we believe is closest to God. I'm trying to teach my children, to explain to them who this is.''
Whether visiting is a religious pilgrimage, a stop at a scene from a Dan Brown novel or a checkmark on your must-see list, Vatican City delivers history, religion, power, faith and soul-stunning beauty that can quell even the voices of rowdy teens.
VATICAN MUSEUMS
There were plenty of those -- mostly school groups -- at the Vatican Museums on a recent Tuesday. The kids dashed through as quickly as their teachers allowed on their way to the Vatican's superstar attraction, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.
At their age, who can blame them? But they're missing so much of the grandeur that ranks the Vatican Museums with the Louvre, the Prado, the Hermitage -- sculptures, tapestries, historical paintings and modern works housed in palaces so elaborate they would be worth the visit even without the art inside.
The Vatican Museums are all the more accessible since the museum's new entry area opened in 2000. No longer will you huddle in rain and blazing sun as you wait in line. The airy vestibule offers a friendly information booth, coat check, multiple ticket booths and the inevitable gift shop. Thanks to the museum café serving pizza and panini, espresso and yes, even beer at bargain prices, you can easily spend a day here.
The holdings are, simply, ''staggering,'' as Kate Gilhuly of New York exclaimed on this, her first visit. What the 4 million annual visitors find isn't only Christian art but a rich trove of masterworks from the Classical world before Christ's birth. From the sculptures first collected by Pope Julius II in the 1500s, the Vatican's holdings have expanded to include intricately painted Egyptian sarcophogi from the first century B.C., marbled busts from Rome's Imperial times, sculptures of rams and crabs and lions, statues of the muses, ancient mosaics, bronze statuary, jewelry and helmets and vases, vast muraled maps of 16th century Italian and papal holdings, and the startling revolving Sphere with Sphere, crafted in 1990 by Arnaldo Pomodoro and set as the centerpice of the museum's outdoor courtyard.
The centuries-old palaces containing them are marvels in themselves, and if you do nothing but stare at its vaulted ceilings you will have witnessed marvels: intricate carvings painted in gold, plaster figures leaping from paintings, trompe l'oeil scenes painted with lifelike perspective, Wedgewood-like reliefs.
And then there are the Raphael rooms, where every surface save the floors hums with color and emotion, resounding with the stories of history and the messages of goodness, truth, beauty and the Catholic Church's role. Solomon dispenses his wisdom, St. Peter is delivered from prison, Constantine donates Rome to the pope, Charlemagne is crowned. Painted by the vaunted Renaissance artist and his assistants in the early 1500s, figures in ceiling murals seem literally to climb out of windows and fall out of painted floors, creating a world unto itself that can leaving you unwilling to leave.
But the space that quiets even the teens is Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Even if you know the story -- how the young 16th century artist painted for four years on his back on scaffolding 65 feet high, and the ensuing controversy over restoration in the 1980s and 1990s -- and have seen this room before, you may find yourself dumbstruck.
The ceiling seems to encompass all of man's faults and virtues in a single neck-cricking canvas. Longing and uncertainty spill from the stark figures of Michelangeo's hand to the faces craning below: the promise of possibilies as God reaches out to the hand of Adam, shame and abandonment as Adam and Eve leave Eden, palpable fear amid the Great Flood. And above the altar, resignation and hope and searing despair as the quick and the dead gather for that last moment of judgment in a field of improbable blue -- the ultimate cautionary tale painted by an artist and man said to be plagued by doubt.
But this is more than a museum, it is a place of consecration and decision where the pope and cardinals celebrate the most important services. When one pope dies, the next is elected here by the College of Cardinals, with four votes each day until a single candidate garners a majority of two-thirds-plus-one. The results -- black smoke for inconclusive votes, white for a selection -- billow from the chimney.
Said Janelle Harrison of Orange County, Calif., ``It's very overwhelming . . . breathtaking. I'm not a hugely religious person but it was moving to me. I can't explain why.''
ST. PETER'S
If the museums leave you humbled, St. Peter's Basicila will leave you awed.
Five massive bronze doors open to marbled floors stretching to the horizon and columns reaching to the heavens themselves, and it's no wonder that visitors often wait in line an hour or more to get inside.
The sanctuary was built over the tomb of the apostle Peter, who came here after the death of Jesus and was murdered by the Roman emperor Nero, known both for international diplomacy and his cruelty at home. Nearly 300 years later, Constantine commissioned a church on the site, replaced in the 1500s by the domed shrine so recognizeable today.
The glory of Michelangelo's sweet Pieta, Bernini's canopied throne and the soaring architecture of Bramante cover nearly six acres and can accommodate 60,000 worshippers at a single time.
An imposing tribute -- but this is no comforting elbow of God. A more intimate experience waits in the tombs beneath, where both tourists and devotees stroll past the tomb of St. Peter and weep openly at the grave of John Paul II, remembered widely as friend.
Outside, as you stand amid fountains and the elliptical colonnade sheltering St. Peter's Square, you may find yourself pondering history and religion and the sheer beauty of the place. Snap a photo; the words won't come easy.
| Appeals court overturns New York law for fliers' rights 3/26/2008 3:42:41 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment While I feel that airlines can't be faced with dealing with separate laws in each state, something clearly must be done. Since the courts and common sense say it must be a federal law, then WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN!
By Marilyn Adams, USA TODAY
A federal court Tuesday overturned the first state law in the country requiring airlines to provide food, water and working toilets to passengers stuck in planes for hours on the ground, saying only the federal government has authority to enact such a law.
The U.S. Court of Appeals said the New York state law is pre-empted by the federal Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, which prohibits states from regulating airline prices, routes or service.
Although the judges did not define "service" as used in the act, they concluded that requiring airlines to provide food, water, electricity and restrooms during delays pertains to service.
New York had argued that amenities such as food and water fall outside the legal definition of airline service. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is reviewing the ruling. To continue its court fight, New York would have to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tuesday's ruling was a victory for airlines, whose trade group, the Air Transport Association, had sued to block the law, which took effect Jan. 1. But it was a major setback for consumer activists and lawmakers seeking legal protections for passengers stranded on planes for hours by flight delays. At least nine other states have proposed similar legislation, including Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey, according to the ruling.
Consumer lawyer Paul Hudson, who helped defend the law, said the ruling means "airline passengers on the ground now have fewer rights to humane or safe treatment than prisoners and even animals."
In the absence of federal passenger protections, New York's Legislature overwhelmingly approved the passenger Bill of Rights last year after a Valentine's Day ice storm stranded thousands of passengers on jets up to 10 hours at New York John F. Kennedy Airport. The law empowered the state to fine airlines $1,000 a passenger if they did not provide for essential needs during long delays.
One of the law's sponsors, Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a New York City Democrat, said the ruling "promotes corporate interests over public interests." He vowed not to give up.
The ATA said the ruling is a vindication for the industry, which argued that a patchwork of laws by states would hurt airlines. The group says long tarmac delays such as those at Kennedy are rare and that airlines are working to improve service when they occur.
Both Congress and the Department of Transportation have proposed passenger protections, but none as strong as the New York law. A DOT task force is studying how airlines and airports should handle long ground delays.
A record 80,937 flights in 2007 waited more than an hour before takeoff, up 21% from 2006.
| Bogota, Columbia - A Cultural Heart Beats Anew 3/25/2008 1:34:22 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment LA CANDELARIA, Bogotá’s oldest neighborhood, sits along the foothills that hem in the city’s east side. A warren of one-way streets lined with Spanish colonial stucco and tile-roofed buildings, the neighborhood was home to Colombia’s best-loved poets and politicians, a sort of living historical monument.
But until recently, the neighborhood was considered dangerous even by many Bogotános. In 2002, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the left-wing guerrilla group known as FARC, detonated a car bomb and launched mortars into the neighborhood to protest the inauguration of President Álvaro Uribe. Civilians were killed. But even before this, La Candelaria was crumbling, and its dark streets were home to thieves and thugs.
Through the dark times, however, a scrappy bohemian identity was forged and, with the violence fading, the city has started promoting La Candelaria as a cultural and artistic center. The revival was capped in January with the opening of the Centro Cultural Gabriel García Márquez (Calle 11, No. 5-60; 571-283-2200; www.fce.com.co). The circular complex of tawny bricks houses a large bookstore, a sleek casual cafe, galleries and a performance hall where readings and children’s arts workshops are held.
Juan Valdez Café, Colombia’s homegrown answer to Starbucks, occupies a space with a patio on the center’s lower level, and is a perfect place to people-watch while enjoying an expertly made cup of the country’s most famous (and legal) export.
The creative energy can also be felt on nearby streets. Home to several university buildings, the neighborhood now throbs with tiny candlelit bars and restaurants popular with students and artists. Many places still use wood fireplaces to chase out Bogota’s nighttime chill.
El Gato Gris (Carrera 1A, No. 13-12; 571-342-1716) serves good crepes and pastas, and has cozy nooks connected by narrow staircases that evoke a child’s playhouse. If you’re too high up in the rafters to feel the glow of the fireplace, order a sweet mulled wine, a La Candelaria staple.
Bogotá loves theater, and La Candelaria is home to the city’s most famous. Teatro de Cristóbal Colón (Calle 10, No. 5-32; 571-284-7420) built in 1885 in the heavy-on-the-gilt Republican style, is where Colombia’s symphony orchestra and visiting companies play. Coming attractions include a performance of “Cymbeline” by the Kneehigh Theater of Britain.
Next door to the theater is the completely restored Hotel de la Ópera (Calle 10, No. 5-72; 571-336-2066; www.hotelopera.com.co), housed in two 19th-century town houses that were once home to Simón Bolívar’s personal retinue of guards. The hotel features 14-foot-high ceilings, antique Italian furnishings and a new full-service spa, with rooms starting at $165.
After dark, students make their way to Escobar Rosas (Calle 15, No. 4-02; 571-341-7903), a disco where reggaetón, salsa and European house music can all be heard. The club has an easy door policy and is packed on weekends.
“Of all the neighborhoods in Bogotá, La Candelaria is the most cosmopolitan,” said Luis Fernando Garzón, a local city council member. "There is a wonderful mix of people here, the students, the working people, the intellectuals, the wealthy. All kinds."
| Your 2008 Fun List 3/24/2008 10:01:42 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment Seven new adventures—from the Grand Canyon Skywalk to Zorbing in Tennessee—are sure to deliver a rush, but you might not want to look down.
AUSTRALIA
The Edge
The Edge is a cube that slides out from the Eureka Skydeck 88 observation deck of Melbourne's Eureka Tower. When the cube is fully extended, the walls and floor turn transparent--and as if that weren't scary enough, speakers blare the sound of shattering glass. The Edge opened last spring; up to 12 people can spend five minutes suspended over the city. Only one in three Skydeck visitors is willing to brave the Edge, but of the 30 marriage proposals that have been tendered inside, there hasn't been a single no. 011-61/3-9693-8888, eurekaskydeck.com.au, $25 for Skydeck and the Edge. Susan Crandell
PANAMA
Canopy Crane Tour
More than 70 percent of all rain-forest species hang out high in the canopy, but it's not like you're going to climb a tree yourself. Tour operator Cox & Kings USA, however, is using the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's crane to bring you face-to-face with the fauna in Panama's Metropolitan Natural Park. The crane raises four guests and a naturalist guide 112 feet up through the treetops--and as much as 160 feet out in any direction. "When I first did the tour, we spotted a napping sloth and zoomed in for a closer look," says Susan Lee, who does marketing for Cox & Kings. "The naturalist imitated the call of an eagle, one of the sloth's main predators. The sloth looked at us, decided there was no danger, and went right back to sleep." Other commonly seen animals include green iguanas, toucans, and red-naped tamarins. The best time to take the 45-minute tour is between 6:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., when the wildlife is most active. 800/999-1758, coxandkingsusa.com, $110 per person (based on four people), no children under 12, reservations are required. Beth Collins
TENNESSEE
Zorb Smoky Mountains
Where some people see a hillside, others see a thrill ride. The popular New Zealand activity of Zorbing--in which you tumble down a slope while inside a plastic bubble--has arrived in the U.S., at Pigeon Forge, Tenn. Before you start, there's a two-page waiver to sign, five different courses to pick from, and two Zorb options: You can sit strapped into a seat or flip head over heels in a ball filled with water. ("It's like white-water rafting without the rocks," says CEO Craig Horrocks.) The 12-foot spheres reach speeds of up to 35 mph; the view is a blur of trees, sky, and your limbs, punctuated by the occasional scream of "Awesome!" 865/428-2422, zorb.com, from $37 per ride. Liz Ozaist
ARIZONA
Grand Canyon Skywalk
More than a few visitors to the Grand Canyon Skywalk at Grand Canyon West white-knuckle their way around the 70-foot-long, U-shaped glass structure, never letting go of the railing. Others jump up and down for the Skywalk's photographers, unbowed by the view of the jagged canyon about a mile below. The $30 million attraction opened last spring after years of collaboration between a Las Vegas businessman and the local Hualapai tribe, which owns much of the canyon's western rim. The surrounding area remains a work in progress, as a theater and a restaurant are under construction--so is the 14 miles of as yet unpaved road that leads to the entrance, making for a rather bone-rattling approach. grandcanyonskywalk.com, $60 includes admission to the reservation and the Grand Canyon Skywalk, cameras not allowed. Bus tours depart daily from Las Vegas, about two hours west (702/878-9378, destinationgrandcanyon.com, from $159). Henry Cabot Beck
FLORIDA
SeaWorld's Aquatica
The star attraction of SeaWorld Orlando's new water park, Aquatica, is Dolphin Plunge--a pair of 300-foot-long transparent tube slides that weave through an actual marine-mammal habitat. The black-and-white Commerson's dolphins who frolic in the lagoon seem to enjoy the action, too. "When I was zipping through the tunnel, the dolphins were following alongside me," reports operations director Bryan Nadeau. "For a moment, I felt like I was in their world." The water park also has an eight-lane racing slide that whips you in and out of tunnels and around a 360-degree loop. 888/800-5447, aquaticabyseaworld.com, $39, $33 for kids ages 3 to 9. Jessica Henderson
MAINE
Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory
The first Penobscot bridge, completed in 1931, was crumbling into the Penobscot River, so everyone agreed it was time for a new-and-improved bridge--if not on much else. "At first, the city wanted something that looked like the old structure," says Bruce Van Note, deputy commissioner for Maine's Department of Transportation. But area residents rejected every proposal, eventually coming up with a one-word idea of their own as inspiration: granite. "To lifelong Mainers, granite is rugged and timeless, and it matches the state's rocky coast," says Van Note. Made primarily of local Freshwater Pearl granite, the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory is one of only three cable-stayed bridges in the world to also have an observation tower (the others are in Slovakia and Thailand). No matter which direction you look from the glass-enclosed deck, the views are postcard-worthy. 207/469-7719, penobscotnarrowsbridge.com, $5, tower open May 1-Oct. 31. Sarah Mahoney
SINGAPORE
Singapore Flyer
When it opened March 1, the Singapore Flyer captured the title of the world's tallest observation wheel from China's 525-foot Star of Nanchang. The 541-foot Flyer has 28 gondolas; each one holds up to 28 passengers and rotates 360 degrees over Marina Bay. Watch your step while boarding: The Flyer never stops moving. "That surprises a lot of people," says general manager David Beevers. "But once the doors close, it's quite serene inside the glass capsule as it ascends over the bay." Halfway through the 30-minute ride, you're up high enough to see Malaysia and Indonesia. 011-65/6333-3311, singaporeflyer.com.sg, $21, timed tickets can be purchased online in advance. David LaHuta
| The safe (but scary) skies 3/22/2008 3:48:28 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment Stats say one thing, but the state of the industry suggests otherwise
By Joe Brancatelli
Has the safety flap surrounding Southwest Airlines rattled you? Have the fears you bury at the bottom of your carry-on bubbled back up to the top of your mind?
That's good. Be afraid. Fear is a frequent flier's best friend.
I've been flying for 30 years, and my head tells me that the system is safe. There are millions of flights and billions of passengers every year, and I can count on one hand the number of fatal crashes blamed on the failure of safety systems in this decade. We're talking Ivory-soap safe: 99 44/100 percent.
But there's always fear in my heart. I remember when one of my flights had to make an emergency landing on a frozen lake in Maine and wonder what would have happened if it had been summer. I'll never forget the day that two of my flights aborted landing just seconds before they would have smashed into aircraft on the runways below. And in my head I always hear my frequent-flying wife's assessment: "I think it's a miracle that planes ever fly."
Yes, it's true that more people die from slipping in their bathtubs than from plane crashes, that flying is the safest form of mass transit, that statistics prove you're at a greater risk of injury in the cab en route to the airport than you are in the skies. Yet every safety scare revives our deep-seated fears about hurtling at 600 miles an hour in a metal tube 35,000 feet above terra firma. And yes, there are reasons that those concerns are valid.
Inspecting paper, not planes
If you're looking for an intellectual rationale for your fear, the Southwest situation is a perfect place to start. The record fine of $10.2 million came only after our safety watchdog, the Federal Aviation Administration, found irregularities in Southwest's reporting regimen. And when Southwest briefly grounded dozens of planes last week, it was because the airline noticed a hiccup in its own paper stream.
The situation reveals an ugly truth about how we monitor airline safety: Generally speaking, the FAA inspects paperwork, not airplanes. The agency doesn't have vast armies of white-coated inspectors who routinely investigate aircraft and maintenance facilities. Instead, it mandates procedures and trusts the airlines to perform the safety checks and required maintenance work. Airlines then file a blizzard of forms testifying to their compliance. If an airline fudges records or FAA bureaucrats have a wink-wink relationship with a carrier's safety executives — something that may have happened in the Southwest case — it's far too easy to hide.
Outsourcing safety
As if the paper chase weren't chancy enough, most airlines outsource maintenance work to third-party firms. In a frenzy of cost cutting after 9/11, carriers turned to thousands of supposedly certified maintenance facilities around the world. The FAA's oversight of these firms falls short of accepted standards. How do we know? Calvin Scovel, the inspector general of the Department of Transportation, the FAA's parent agency, told Congress so last year.
As the amount of outsourcing skyrockets — outside firms now perform about two-thirds of airline maintenance — the FAA is falling further behind. Scovel said that airlines don't have to identify their outside contractors, and some work is being done by shops and mechanics that aren't FAA certified. "Without some form of verification, FAA cannot be assured that air carriers have provided accurate and complete information," Scovel warned.
The fatigue factor
Everyone and everything involved with flying — pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, and even the planes themselves — are exhausted. Once again, cost cutting is the culprit. After years of airline budget cuts and downsizing, the surviving flight crews and mechanics work longer hours than ever. Fatigue and jet lag mean that employees aren't operating at peak efficiency. And aircraft that used to fly just a few hours a day now operate for 12 or even 16 hours a day, leaving little ground time for repairs.
The fatigue factor reached a frightening crescendo last month in Hawaii. A Go jet flying the 214-mile route between Honolulu and the Big Island overshot the Hilo airport by 15 miles. Air-traffic controllers were unable to reach the flight crew on the radio for about 25 minutes. The FAA's suspicion: Both the pilot and the co-pilot were literally asleep at the wheel.
Out-of-control air-traffic control
The government-operated air-traffic-control system is overworked, understaffed, outdated, and being ripped apart by internal dissent. Endless streams of reports from the Government Accountability Office (Congress' investigative arm) and the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates accidents, have reached the same conclusion: The FAA has bungled much-needed upgrades of its 1950s-era computers, employs too few controllers, and overworks its staff.
One tragic example is the 2006 Comair flight that killed 49 people when it took off from the wrong runway in Lexington, Kentucky. (Comair is owned by Delta Air Lines.) A subsequent investigation revealed that members of the flight crew had outdated maps and were working on short rest. Why didn’t the air-traffic controllers catch the errors before disaster struck? There was only one controller on duty instead of the required two, and he was working on two hours of sleep.
Meanwhile, it's estimated that controllers are retiring at three times the expected level, because senior staffers — most of whom were hired after President Reagan fired striking workers in 1981 — object to a new, unilaterally imposed contract that cuts their pay and imposes a picayune set of work rules.
Does any of this distressing news mean you should cancel your next flight and cower behind your desk? Of course not. But it does mean it's OK to be worried.
As my wife says, flying is a miracle anyway.
The fine print ...
One more thing to worry about: Pilot pay has been slashed so drastically that airlines can't find qualified candidates to fly commuter aircraft, the entry-level flying job. With pay for commuter flights starting not far above minimum wage (some pilots have left to drive trucks), airlines are hiring pilots with as little as 500 hours of flight experience. That's about half the old minimum requirement.
| Searching for summer bargains on air fares? Forget about it. 3/20/2008 8:19:17 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment Bad news is piling up for families looking to fly overseas or even cross-country for vacations. Airlines are cutting flights, adding fees and fuel charges, trimming frequent flier benefits and reducing customer service personnel, particularly at airport counters.
It's not just the airlines. The declining dollar is making overseas travel out of the question for many Americans, even those who are used to shopping excursions and Mediterranean cruises.
Delta Air Lines this week underlined the issue facing travelers and the industry. It announced plans to ground more than 40 planes and slash domestic flights by 10%. Today it raised domestic air fares by $10.
It's happening all over the airport. United Airlines and Northwest Airlines also said they would cut domestic flights, and analysts said other big carriers were likely to follow. Shorly after Delta's latest fare hike, American Airlines and Northwest raised fuel surcharges on international round-trip flights by $20. Fuel fees, which airlines charge on top of the base fare, now average about $200 for longer international round trips, or about double that of last year's average, according to Bestfares.com.
With fewer flights this summer, travelers can expect higher fares and planes even more packed than today, which is prompting some families to forgo flying altogether.
"I'm probably going to drive somewhere this year," said Bryce Berg, a Long Beach resident and a father of two boys ages 6 and 9. Berg typically takes his boys to visit family in either Chicago or Idaho for the summer, but "with the economy as it is, I'm not going to take a big trip."
Of course, there will always be opportunities for those who dig deep enough, and there is no stopping travelers who feel a summer vacation in the Azores is a must.
But air fare deals to popular destinations are likely to be harder to find. Want to redeem those frequent flier miles for a free ticket? Wait in line.
Already, a plane ticket for a trip overseas during the peak summer travel months is up an average of 10%, according to a Summer Travel Forecast report that online travel service Farecast.com is unveiling Thursday.
Dana and Roy Dolin of Westchester are taking their three sons and the children's grandmother to Italy in July despite air fares that were about $800 more per person than they had expected to pay. The Dolins, who booked the trip last month, said they thought they "could get by" for about $1,000 per person based on fares they'd seen last year.
"It's going to be quite costly but the kids are getting older and it's getting more difficult to do these kinds of trips together," Dana Dolin said. "This may be the last hurrah for us."
With fewer seats and more travelers resigned to high prices at the gas pump and elsewhere, airlines for the first time in years have been able to raise fares, a trend that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
"Fare increases have stuck and that's a new phenomenon," said Wido Schaefer, president of TravelStore, a travel service headquartered in Brentwood. In the past, a fare hike was often withdrawn after other airlines refused to follow or consumers balked.
But "now faced with high prices of oil, they are not budging," Schaefer said, adding that the average round-trip air fare to Honolulu from Los Angeles rose to $500 recently, and is climbing to nearly $1,000 for peak summer travel.
The fares are "pushing a lot of people out of the market," he said. "It's going to be a rough and tough summer."
But Chris McGinnis, a travel consultant for Travel Skills Group., said that despite the looming fears of a recession and higher fares, most families are still planning vacation trips this summer. It'll just be less "expensive, exotic and luxurious."
"There is a gigantic focus on value travel," McGinnis said. "There was a focus on five-star hotels last year. Now it's about 'how can I go' and at the very best price."
Deals are still available for savvy shoppers. Farecast.com says some of the best fares can be found by flying Tuesdays or Wednesdays and returning on those days.
And fares start to drop toward the end of August and the beginning of September. If children's school schedules allow it, there is a two-week to three-week "sweet spot" of lower fares.
Travel experts say its probably too late to find cheap summer deals for the most popular destinations since many of them were scooped up in January and February. But there is still a chance for last-minute shoppers as airlines typically launch big end-of-summer sales in early to mid-July.
"Consumers need to be more strategic this year about their summer travel plans," said John Rauser, a Farecast analyst. "Consumers can make small adjustments, such as changing the day of week they depart or selecting alternative destinations to save money and stay on budget for their summer trips."
Airlines say they have no choice but to cut flights and raise fares. Even then the industry may not post a profit this year. After five years of billions of dollars in losses in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the industry posted its first full-year profits in 2007.
With fuel prices where they are, and expected to remain there for a while, airlines are looking at other revenue sources such as charging fees for services that have long been included in the price of a ticket.
In addition to slashing 2,000 employees, or 4% of its workforce, Delta said it would begin charging $25 to check in a second bag. United Airlines last month was the first big carrier to impose the fee, which it said could generate $100 million in revenue annually.
Delta President Ed Bastian, in a meeting with New York analysts Tuesday, called the high fuel costs "unprecedented if not a crisis for this industry."
If oil prices continue to hover at the current record levels, the airlines' fuel expenses would increase by more than $2 billion compared with last year, he said.
"It's not a good time for the industry," Bastian "We're in an uncharted territory."
| Why And How To Choose A Travel Agent 3/19/2008 9:57:28 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment If you want personalized service when planning your next vacation, you might want to call a travel agent.
Personalized service seems to be an important factor in the planning of many trips, since, despite the fact that travelers are able to book trips online, travel agent usage is on the rise. Research shows that many consumers use the Internet to conduct travel-related research but turn to agents to book their travel.
"Over and over again, we find consumers reaching out to travel agents for personalized service and for the knowledge and resources they offer as experts," said Cheryl Hudak, CTC, president and CEO of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA).
There are many reasons to use a travel agent:
• Agents can find you the best value and offer convenient one-stop shopping. By maximizing their supplier contacts, they can save you money and time.
• If you have a problem with a particular part of your travel experience, the agent is there to act on your behalf. ASTA, for example, is the only travel association aggressively fighting to improve the travel experience and air transportation, in particular.
• Travel agents are experts in deciphering myriad travel information and codes.
• Instead of an impersonal voice thousands of miles away, a familiar travel agent knows what you want and what you value in your travel experience.
• Travel agents offer professional advice to get you where you want to go when you want to go.
• Instead of checking a long list of travel Web pages, which only provide rates and fares for the companies that have contracted with them, why not go straight to the source? Travel agents have all the information at their fingertips, saving you hours in front of a computer.
•Agents work for their clients, not a travel supplier. A happy customer will be a repeat customer.
When choosing a travel agent, ask if the agent is a member of a professional organization such as ASTA. Select a travel agent as you would any other professional consultant--ask for references, get advice from family and friends and, if you are able, stop by the agency to get a feel for its office and the agent's willingness to work with you. For help in finding an agent and more tips on travel, visit www.travelsense.org.
A travel agent has the tools to get travelers where they want to go--in less time and often for less money.
| 'New' Ireland retains its mystique 3/18/2008 1:28:28 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment By Dan Strieff, msnbc.com reporter
DUBLIN, Ireland – While reporting stories on contemporary Ireland, lines that W.B. Yeats wrote nearly a century ago kept coming back to me:
"Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone, / It’s with O’Leary in the grave," he wrote in support of a labor strike in 1913.
The rural Irish life, romanticized in such films as the 1952 John Ford classic "The Quiet Man," starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, or the "emigrant Irish" depicted in Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s "Far and Away" can seem like relics of the past when viewed against the growth of the country’s cities and huge influx of immigrants.
For many years, Ireland suffered from wretched poverty and religion-based violence – hardships that built the nation’s character and fed the country’s unmatched literary heritage.
"It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while," wrote Frank McCourt in his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1996 memoir "Angela’s Ashes."
Now, Ireland has been ranked as the second richest European country (after Luxembourg) on a per capita basis. Corporations that have located major European operations to Ireland include Google, Pfizer, Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett Packard and Jansen Pharmaceutical.
So, after reporting on the changes – chiefly, prosperity and multiculturalism – that have swept Ireland in the past decade, the question emerges: Has anything been lost in the "new" Ireland?
Nationwide boom
"Young people were taking control of their country again, because the brightest people … weren’t leaving anymore. And you could feel it. It was actually tangible," said Duncan Maguire, who owns a Japanese bar and restaurant on Dublin’s trendy Exchequer Street.
The 31-year-old was telling me of the nationwide boom that began in mid 1990s.
International firms, especially from the United States, took advantage of generous tax benefits and demographics – Ireland was cheaper than Britain; and it had a native English-speaking population, unlike other low-cost options like Portugal.
Now, cities like Limerick, where the author McCourt was raised, are still tough, but have benefited from the Celtic Tiger: Dell’s main European Manufacturing Facility, the computer maker’s biggest manufacturing plant outside the United States, is located in there. So is Analog Devices and contact-lens maker Vistakon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
Meantime, while Ireland’s emigrant population was once integral to the development of several countries, especially the United States, its own immigrant population has been vital in filling the demand for labor caused by its Celtic Tiger economy, which propelled Ireland from the "poorest of the rich" (in The Economist’s phrase) to one of the world's wealthiest nations per capita in less than a generation.
An island at peace
Meanwhile, The Troubles, a euphemism for the religiously-tinged violence between pro-Republic of Ireland Nationalists and pro-U.K. Unionists in Northern Ireland (that reportedly killed around 3,500 people between the years 1969-2001) are effectively over.
The British province, which makes up part of historic Ulster, now has a significant measure of self-rule – an unheard of prospect just two decades ago.
The country’s Catholic identity is also changing.
Although high by the standards of most other countries, weekly Mass attendance is down, and the number of young people joining the priesthood has nose dived.
Last call?
Another legendary mainstay of Irish life – pub culture – is evolving.
Maguire, the bar and restaurant owner, told me that his friends rarely meet in pubs anymore.
"There’s a huge social shift going on," he said. "People don’t go to the pubs like they used to. I don’t meet friends in pubs anymore. I meet them in restaurants."
Some older Irish people have complained that since the boom, pub owners’ focus has also changed.
"In old times, an old man or a woman, they would go into a certain part of the pub to sit in comfort, but they wouldn’t keep them seats for them now because there wouldn’t be the same amount of money" spent compared to younger pub-goers, said Sally Keogh, a sprightly 82-year-old Dubliner while on her way to Mass on a recent weekday morning.
And statistics released last year indicated that Guinness sales in Ireland and Britain were off 7 percent, while the sales of wine and other specialty beers were taking off.
But, conversely, foreign workers may end up taking new tastes home with them.
Pawel Jaskowski, a Polish waiter in Dublin, said he can’t go wrong with Ireland’s legendary thick black beverage. "I like Guinness. Stick to Guinness. All the time," he said in a ringing endorsement of Ireland’s most famous drink.
Still, visits to many rural pubs can be just as lively as years past, as well as old standbys in central Dublin like the Stag’s Head, O’Neill’s or the tiny Dawson Lounge. It seems unlikely that something as ingrained in a culture as pub life will vanish anytime soon.
Warmth
Regardless, the famous Irish sincerity remains, evident in talking to people like Keogh, who referenced the Irish emigrant experience when framing the plight of current migrants in Ireland.
"I wouldn’t like to be in a foreign country, looking for work, not knowing the language or anything. I just wouldn’t. And, I mean, our people went away years ago and they should know what it’s all about because there were notices against them: ‘No Irish need apply’ when they were looking for accommodation. So we should be the ones to show the example, you know?" the 82-year-old said.
South African-born Joshua N. Amaechi, who came to Ireland after living in Britain, said the Irish warmth was apparent in one of his first visits to a pub.
"I was on my own. These three Irish guys walked up to me and they were like, ‘You’re on your own? Do you want to join us?’ And coming from England, I was like, ‘Hello!?’ … I ended up having a great time. … And that (friendliness) was one of the things that kept me here," he said.
Good on them?
James Joyce once wrote that "if Ireland is to become a new Ireland, she must first become European."
It appears that is precisely what has happened.
If the "new" Ireland has seen a change in some of the country’s traditional aspects, which sometimes coincided with poverty, sectarian bloodshed and the often heartbreaking separation caused by emigration, can anyone be blamed for saying (as the Irish might put it), "good on them"?
| Washington State: The nation's other wine country 3/17/2008 4:54:09 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment BY FRED TASKER
Kathy Charlton offered Bordeaux winemaker Benoit Murat a job in her new winery on the Pacific Ocean side of Seattle in 1999, he wondered if she was serious.
``I didn't even know they made wine in Washington.''
When Rob Griffin told his professors at California's famed UC Davis wine school in 1977 that he was going to Washington to make wine, they tried to talk him out of it.
``They said it was too cold to make wine there.''
Well, surprise, surprise. Today there are 500 wineries in Washington, growing 20 kinds of grapes, selling $3 billion worth of wine a year -- more than any other state but California.
Wine-fan tourists are catching on, realizing there's a welcoming, uncrowded new wine country to visit without the disheartening dollar-to-euro conversion of going abroad. Where you can visit industry giants like Chateau Ste. Michelle, which puts out 4.5 million cases a year from an 87-acre wooded park with strutting peacocks, tasting and tour, and an outdoor amphitheater where you might see Harry Connick Jr. or Stevie Wonder. Or mom-and-pop operations like Wind River Winery, where you're as likely to be welcomed by Daisy, the winery dog, as owners Kris and Joel Goodwillie, and where you'll taste their spicy syrah on an outdoor deck with a fabulous view of snow-capped, 11,249-foot Mt. Hood.
This is the tour for couples in which one is wine-obsessed and the other indifferent -- one in which you can visit six wineries a day if you want, or spend an hour instead at a lavender farm straight out of Provence. Or visit art galleries, tasting rooms and white-tablecloth restaurants in a surprisingly sophisticated university town called Walla Walla. Yes, like the onion.
And if you're a history buff, you can drive the length of the Columbia River, checking off historical markers that tell what happened to Lewis & Clark as they navigated their canoes and pirogues down those wild waters to become the first white men to cross from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean in 1804-06.
Oh, and the wine: Starting in the 1970s with cool-weather white wines such as riesling and pinot gris, Washington has branched into such red wines as merlot, barbera and the wine that many say will put the state on the enological map -- hearty, spicy syrah. Today the state grows 20 varieties -- from mainline cabernet sauvignon to the obscure Madeleine angevine, a hybrid from the cool, damp regions of Eastern Europe.
Why so many?
''Because we can,'' says Craig Leuthold, a former jacket-and-tie exec out of Spokane who gave up the wholesale plastics biz and built a winery called Maryhill, overlooking the historic Columbia River. ``We have so many micro-climates, so many soil types that we can do a lot of things.
''Down there by the river,'' he says, gesturing, ``there are two plots of zinfandel no farther apart than Tiger Woods can hit a golf ball. One of them gets ripe two weeks earlier than the other. That's how varied the conditions are.''
The grounds at Chateau Ste. Michelle are flowered, beautiful, with strutting peacocks puffing out tail feathers in proud greeting.
While they make the wines here, they don't grow the grapes here. It's too wet on the rainy, western side of the Cascade Range. The grapes come from South Central Washington, in the huge, semi-arid Columbia Valley, irrigated by the Yakima and Columbia Rivers.
There's plenty here to taste: A tart-and-lemony 2005 chardonnay ($15), a 2003 black cherry scented cabernet sauvignon ($17), a sweet, peach-flavored 2006 Muscat Cannelli dessert wine.
THE WINE TRAIL
A half-day drive east out of Woodinville takes visitors through the Cascade Mountains, past 14,000-foot Mt. Rainier, into the near-desert of Eastern Washington.
This is the Yakima Valley; stretching to the horizon are parched, treeless, shallow hills bearing beige dry grass. The valley itself is an artificial oasis -- a lush, green strip from one to five miles wide on both sides of the Yakima River. Here starts the Washington Wine Trail.
Two hours east is Richland, at the southern end of the Yakima Valley. Local winemaker Rob Griffin describes his Barnard Griffin Winery as ''a bootstrap, hardscrabble operation,'' but he's being coy. He makes 70,000 cases a year of wine and has a wall full of trophies.
He got the wine bug as a kid, visiting his uncle's farm in Napa, and got his wine degree from the top-rated enology program at the University of California's Davis campus. ''I love to make wine, but I drive marketers crazy because I make too many varieties for them to sell,'' Griffin says.
His wines are some of Washington's best: A tart-pear-flavored 2006 pinot gris ($17), a cranberry scented 2006 rose of sangiovese ($11), a mellow, mulberry-and-chocolate-flavored 2005 malbec ($35).
LAVENDER FARM
An hour closer to Walla Walla, a right turn on dusty Frog Hollow Road leads to a bit of France in Washington -- a lavender farm. Karen Grimaud majored in French in college, moved to France, married Frenchman Jean-Paul Grimaud and brought him back to Walla Walla. He became a professor of French at the local college. She took up the quintessentially French occupation of growing lavender.
Her two-acre patch in the bright sun and cool air is vivid with color and scent, alive with buzzing bees. Grimaud sells sachets and dried bouquets, plus alimentary-grade lavender for flavoring whipped cream, caramel or, with a good grinding of black pepper, a nice marinade for pork or lamb. She offers guests glasses of intriguingly scented lavender lemonade.
It's aromatic, tasty.
Walla Walla, Wash., pop. 30,000, is named for the Nez Perce word for ''many waters.'' Built first as a stopping-place for pioneers entering from Idaho on the trek West, the city today is an oasis of sophistication, in part because of Whitman College, which dominates the city.
It's quickly becoming a wine town, and vintage downtown buildings -- including a notorious 1800s brothel -- are being renovated into wine tasting rooms, jewelry stores, art galleries. Gourmet restaurants are springing up.
The wine-themed restaurant called 26 Brix (it's a term for describing the ripeness of grapes at picking), serves Dungeness crab cakes with a rich, local Dusty Valley chardonnay, or hangar steak with a smooth and powerful local Romus syrah.
Walla Walla is also an oasis of bed-and-breakfast mansions. Green Gables Inn, built in 1909, is a big old bungalow in the Craftsman style on an idyllic street lined with mammoth trees. Inside there's a huge, wood-beamed living room, and cozy bedrooms with homey, frou-frou quilts and curtains.
Basel Cellars, a few miles south of Walla Walla, is easily the fanciest winery in Washington. It was built for $14 million as a luxury resort in the style of the great national park lodges -- all open beams and log-bound glory, for only 18 guests. Later it became a winery.
Lindsey Brammer, running the tasting room, pours samples: A crisp, intensely fruity sauvignon blanc ($18), a lean and tannic cabernet sauvignon ($20) and a generous, licorice-scented syrah ($42) from 87 acres of its own grapes plus other grapes from around the Columbia Valley.
WEST TO THE RIVER
Heading out of Walla Walla now, west toward the Pacific Ocean, the wine route reaches the Columbia River. Fifty miles west along the Columbia is Maryhill Winery. Leuthold, its co-owner, is a man at peace. He sits in a canvas director's chair on his winery's outdoor balcony, tousling the creamy coat of Potter, his docile, 130-pound Great White Pyrenees so-called guard dog.
In front of him is a modern, 55,000-case-a-year winery. Over his shoulder, green rows of vines run down to the broad, dark Columbia River. Across the river in Oregon is the snow-clad peak of Mt. Hood, a presently dormant 11,249-foot volcano.
Maryhill's wines include a 2006 Wildflowers white blend of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, semillon and viognier that's complex, tart and lush ($14), a 2004 sangiovese with lots of oak and black cherries ($26), and a 2004 zinfandel with a walloping 16 percent alcohol ($36).
Another two hours west, then 10 miles up the White Salmon River past Husum, pop. 2,000, is the Wind River Winery. Its website says it's open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. And when we arrive at 10:20 a.m., it is, indeed, open. They never said there'd be anybody there.
We're greeted by Daisy, the winery dog. We hesitate, then enter the tasting room, grab wine glasses and half a dozen already-open bottles and retire to the wooden deck outside. Later, winery employee Ryan Durgan shows up, welcomes us and brings out more wine. Says the owners are in Los Angeles for a bar mitzvah.
This is the winery with the view. Sitting in plastic lawn chairs on the deck, sipping syrah, we look south over long, lime-green rows of riesling vines, past a dark pine forest, across the Columbia River at the sharp, snowy top of Mt. Hood.
''We just sit here and look at the mountain sometimes,'' says Durgan, grinning. ``It isn't too stressful.''
A Wind River tasting includes a sweet, grapey riesling from Silvertooth Vineyard ($15), a firm, peppery lemberger from Celilo Vineyard ($25) and a very impressive syrah from Horse Heaven Hills, with black cherries and bitter chocolate flavors ($25).
For those familiar with coastal Washington's rainy climate, it's a surprise that there are vineyards west of the Cascade Range as well. An hour's drive from Seattle is Port Townsend, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It's a collection of Victorian mansions built in the late 1800s -- today a relaxed weekend getaway resort for overcaffeinated Seattleites.
The Ann Starrett Mansion is a grand, ornate old structure built in 1889 for the opulent sum of $6,000. Chock with gables and turrets outside, its architectural highlight inside is a free-standing, three-tiered staircase.
A few miles out of town is the nicely renovated old barn that is home to Olympic Cellars, which in turn is home to Working Girl Wines. Founded by Texas Instrument exec Kathy Charlton, who took early retirement in 1999 at age 51, it makes a feminist statement. Giving pieces of the action to two female friends and hiring a French winemaker, she has parlayed it into a 25,000-case-a-year winery with distribution in 20 states. Part of the profits go to women's health charities, in return for volunteer help at harvest time.
It was after much debate that they chose the name Working Girl Wines.
''We know the name has implications,'' says retail manager Molly Rivard, grinning. ``We're willing to live with the consequences.''
Rivard and Benoit Murat offer samples of their nonvintage Rosé the Riveter, a rosé made of lemberger, a red grape from Eastern Europe; it's sweet and crisp, with raspberry flavors ($14), and nonvintage Go Girl Red, of lemberger and merlot, soft, juicy red plums, fully dry ($14), and their 2006 Vin Nouveau, of Madeleine angevine and Madeleine sylvaner grapes, sweet and soft and grapey ($13).
The nouveau, made of hybrids from the cool, damp regions in northern Germany, is the only one made of grapes grown on this rainy side of Seattle. The rest come from vineyards in the Columbia Valley.
Most experts say it's too cool and wet here to grow the better-known grapes like pinot noir or chardonnay.
But Murat is hopeful: ``I think I can do it.''
It's the kind of spirit that for more than 20 years now has been creating Washington State's new wine country.
| Seeing the Sights, Ditching the Shipmates 3/14/2008 2:26:36 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment By MICHELLE HIGGINS
AFTER standing in line for the buffet, staking out a lounge chair on the sun deck and squeezing into the hot tub with total strangers, you might be forgiven for dreading the cruise excursion, which typically involves hundreds of passengers piling into little boats to go ashore, queuing up for a bus to take you to the standard tourist sites and straining to hear the guide rattle off some rote facts.
But it’s getting easier to avoid that cattle-car experience. Spotting a niche, some travel companies are now specializing in shore excursions that allow passengers to ditch their shipmates and book smaller, more intimate jaunts, whether it’s snorkeling in the Bahamas or dog sledding in Alaska.
Steve Leland, president of Port Promotions & Services in Plantation, Fla., was a cruise director for 12 years and ran shore excursion desks onboard cruise ships. Now he sells the same trips to consumers and travel agents for less.
“We use the same operators cruise lines do,” Mr. Leland said. For example, Carnival Cruise Lines contracts with Alaska Travel Adventures to run its $120 Mendenhall Glacier Float Trip. Port Promotions offers a similar tour with Alaska Travel Adventures for $115.
Another company, ShoreTrips, started in 2002 by Barry and Julie Karp offers standard excursions like snorkeling in the Caribbean, as well as offbeat adventures like “cave tubing” in Belize and Segway tours of Florence. Like Port Promotions, ShoreTrips offers a refund if the ship doesn’t make the port in time.
Cutting out the middleman tends to offer the most flexibility and savings. And you might even stumble upon the same outfitters that the cruise line uses. For example, if you’re trying to book a helicopter ride during an Alaskan cruise, you might come across Era Helicopters (www.flightseeingtours.com), which offers a two-hour Four Glacier Adventure in Juneau for $265 a person. It’s the same trip that Holland America offers at $339.
Not to be outdone, cruise lines have started offering private shore excursions for passengers looking for the flexibility and intimacy of a custom tour, combined with the reliability and peace of mind of using a vendor known to the cruise line. Crystal Cruises offers tailor-made trips, called Private Adventures, including private tours of vineyards in Italy and birthday picnics atop the Rock of Gilbraltar. Prices vary widely as each trip is custom designed, but average $500 to $1,000 a person.
Seabourn Cruise Line offers a similar service through its Signature Service Desk, which lets guests plan excursions, like a private visit with a Russian family in their summer dacha outside St. Petersburg ($500 a couple), or a tour through Berlin’s Meilenwerk complex of vintage-car shops ($1,790 a couple).
And it’s not just the so-called luxury lines that have custom excursions. Norwegian, for example, offers Freestyle Private Touring, which could be a four-hour tour of Juneau in a chauffeured Hummer at $995 for the trip.
These excursions cost a premium and often include other V.I.P. perks. “In St. Petersburg, Russia, such a private excursion can whisk you from site to site and allow you to cut long lines at crowded attractions like the Hermitage and Catherine Palace,” said Evan Eggers, president of SureCruise.com.
More intrepid passengers, of course, can always create do-it-yourself excursions. Determined to see eagles on his Alaska cruise, Stephen Mandel from Parsippany, N.J., hired a taxi driver to take him around Sitka.
“He took us through the back of a McDonald’s and before us was the largest flock of eagles,” Mr. Mandel said. “They were congregating around the outfall from a fish cannery. I can tell you that those that booked through the cruise didn’t get to see what we did.”
But there are risks. The biggest is being left behind.
“If it’s a cruise line-sponsored tour and something happens, like your vehicle gets a flat tire, the cruise line bears the responsibility to get you to the next port,” said Joe Petkunas, owner of Cruise Holidays, a travel agency in Seekonk, Mass. “If you do something on your own, you’re on the hook for whatever the cost is to get you to the next port.”
IT’S also possible that your ship will arrive late. Ships reserve the right to change course. If a hurricane is headed toward Puerto Rico, for instance, a ship may dock in the Dominican Republic to avoid it. If that happens, that rain forest hike in El Yunque you booked yourself is worthless.
Arranging shore excursions through the ship can also save you time and trouble; there is something to be said for one-stop shopping.
And cruise ships offer a degree of reliability. “All tour operators are researched extensively and tours are reviewed on an ongoing basis by both our shoreside and onboard staff,” Sarah Scoltock, a spokeswoman for Holland America, wrote in an e-mail message.
If a guest is unhappy with a tour, she added, the cruise line is able to handle grievances. “A letter written to a local operator by a dissatisfied guest who is unlikely to return to the port is not likely to receive a very positive response,” she noted.
Still, passengers who want to get away from the crowd can scour the forums of CruiseCritic.com, which features cruise news and reviews, for suggestions. Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, recommends booking excursions through the ship if you’re a first-time cruiser, when the excursion is a long way from a port (like tours of London or Paris), or when the port is particularly exotic.
“On a recent cruise in the Middle East,” Ms. Brown says on her site, “a place as foreign in culture and language as anywhere I’d ever been, the comfort of the tours arranged by the cruise line, was indisputable, especially in challenging places such as Yemen’s Aden and Oman’s Salalah.”
| Going to Cabo? Maybe you should 3/13/2008 12:50:51 AM Link 0 comments | Add comment Los Cabos, Mexico is many things to many people: a dramatic desert oasis ripe for exploration, a hot spot for pulsating night life, an authentic Mexican village or an award-winning resort destination. There are many ways to experience and enjoy Los Cabos. From the moment visitors approach the destination by air, they are witness to the diversity of the landscape. El Arco, a natural stone arch formed where the Sea of Cortes meets the Pacific Ocean, stands as a monument to the breathtaking contrasts of Los Cabos or “the Capes.” Craggy peaks of the Sierra de la Laguna Mountains create a backdrop for the miles of golden beach, azure water and dramatic red rock formations. While only yards but worlds away, saguaro cactus, palms and cultivated gardens dot the pale gold desert landscape.
Located at the end of the world’s longest and most majestic peninsula, Baja California, Los Cabos is a vibrant vacation destination with a history and diversity as rich as all of Mexico. Los Cabos is comprised of two small and very different towns -- San José del Cabo to the northeast, Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip -- that bracket a 20-mile seacoast “Corridor.”
Picturesque and historic, San Jose del Cabo was once a sleepy mission town established in the 18th Century. It has developed a charming patina appealing to those in search of more than the miles of modern resorts. San Jose is overlooked on one end by the original mission church. At its center is a village square where concerts, dances and craft markets are held. A large number of artists now call San Jose del Cabo home and the town is sprinkled with galleries and studios showing and selling art by local and international artists. Boutique hotels, eclectic restaurants and a wide variety of specialty shops further satisfy a visitor’s curiosity.
Twenty miles down the coast and marked by the famed arch, lively Cabo San Lucas pulses ‘round-the-clock with shops, restaurants and nightclubs, the marina and mariachis. Those in search of lively beaches, glass bottom boat tours, kayak excursions to El Arco and Lover’s Beach, toes in the sand dining, live music with dancing to the wee hours and more, will find Cabo San Lucas home. The Cabo San Lucas Marina is also home to the new “Cabo Dolphins” program where visitors can swim and interact with the playful Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Fishermen who head out to sea in search of the big catch as well as sunset cruises, “pirate ships,” yachts and catamarans depart daily from the Marina to take in the sights along the coastline.
Connecting the two towns is twenty miles of a “corridor” road along which are resorts both grand and intimate and a rolling sea of famous golf courses. One side of the corridor offers endless views of pristine white sand beach and blue sea, while along the other side is the quiet desert and beyond that is the mountain range. A diverse landscape by any measure.
Wherever one stays and whatever one’s interests, whether romantics or outdoor enthusiasts, visitors relish in the selection of hotels (from budget to luxury) and the wealth of activities (from sunbathing to marlin fishing) found in this picturesque destination surrounded by sands of both desert and sea.
Families, honeymooners, mature travelers, golfers, eco-tourists, artists, photographers, sightseers and others find what they are looking for when they visit Los Cabos. Located at the southern tip of Mexico's Baja Peninsula, Los Cabos offers travelers an exotic escape within easy reach of most U.S. cities.
With non-stop flights or convenient connections available from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento, California; Houston and Dallas, Texas; Portland, Oregon; Kansas City, Missouri; Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, New York, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Seattle and more, Los Cabos is both accessible and exciting.
| Maybe You Should Be Heading to Philadelphia 3/11/2008 10:44:49 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment In Philly, beer is best
Philadelphia has many historical distinctions but now it’s being called the best beer-drinking city in America.
So says Don Russell, who is also beer columnist “Joe Sixpack.”
Its neighborhood pubs and award-winning brews have been overlooked, he argues.
So bring on Philly Beer Week, a 10-day, 150-event extravaganza designed to highlight the city's centuries-old tradition of brewing and tippling, reports the AP.
"Our Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence and Constitution in the taverns of Philadelphia," Mr Russell said.
Later this week, there will be beer tastings and dinners, brewery tours, pub crawls, seminars, meet-the-brewer events and trivia contests, including the "Philly Beer Geek" competition.
Philadelphia's beer history dates back at least to 1680, when city founder William Penn began work on his brewery. The first American lager is said to have been brewed here in 1840. And U.S. Marine lore holds that the corps was conceived at long-gone Tun Tavern in the Old City neighborhood in 1775.
By 1870, there were 69 breweries in Philadelphia, according to Russell, and eventually an entire neighborhood called Brewerytown. But Prohibition shuttered many facilities, and the last city brewery, Schmidt's, closed in 1987.
It wasn't long before the microbrew trend caught on and the region began returning to its roots. Today, there are at least 20 breweries in the Philadelphia area.
| Trends in adventure travel 3/7/2008 10:28:32 PM Link 0 comments | Add comment BY MEGAN K. SCOTT
Associated Press
Forget the tan, the Mickey Mouse photos and the cliche souvenirs.
These days, travelers want to experience something more than the gated resort and the cruise ship buffet. They want to go on a walking tour, climb a mountain and kayak down a river -- adventures that can make a vacation more meaningful.
''In travel, people are increasingly seeking the authentic unique experiences that stretch the imagination and create potent memories that last a lifetime,'' says Chris Doyle, vice president of the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA). According to the organization, adventure travel is the fastest growing segment of the leisure travel industry.
Of course, adventure is in the eye of the traveler, and ranges from a walking tour to whitewater rafting. But because of that, it remains relatively unaffected by the weak dollar and economic downturn, says David Larkin, managing director of AdventureUs.com, a social networking and directory for adventure travelers.
Here, according to the experts, are some of the latest trends in adventure travel.
• Girlfriend getaways: More women are leaving the men at home. More than 50 percent of adventure travelers are women and most fall between ages 41 and 60, according to a 2006 survey by the ATTA. ''We used to think of active holidays for 20-somethings,'' says Evelyn Hannon, creator of journeywoman.com, an online travel resource for women. ``Now it's not unheard of for 50- and 60-year-olds to be going kayaking, mountain climbing, surfing.''
• Volunteer vacations: Combining volunteerism with vacation continues to be a growing trend; Global Volunteers saw a 30 percent increase in participation last year, according to co-founder Michele Gran. Baby boomers still rule, she says, but the fastest growing demographic in the last 18 months has been people under age 20, more than likely baby boomers who bring their children with them.
• Expeditionary travel: More people are helping researchers through the Earthwatch Institute, an international volunteer organization supporting science. Expeditions include surveying coral reefs on a remote Bahamian island or feeding and caring for cheetahs in Namibia. Most of the trips are two weeks, and no special training is required. (Exceptions may be trips that require scuba-diving certification or a high fitness level). Other examples include conservation-minded tours to watch giant sea turtles lay their eggs in coastal areas of the southeastern U.S., Mexico and Costa Rica.
• Charity travel: Think of an extreme version of a walkathon. Venture Expeditions, a Christian-based organization, sponsors trips to raise awareness and funds for various organizations, such as biking through Thailand to raise money for an orphanage. Travelers pay for the trip and then make a minimum donation to the charity.
• Action-packed vacations: some people call action-packed vacations The Bucket List for the movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, two terminally ill patients who want to complete a list of things to do before they kick the bucket. Ultimate 5 Lifetime Adventures packs five of what it calls the world's greatest adventures into one week: a military-developed Ropes Challenge Course, skydiving, Indy car racing, rappelling and piloting a primary combat trainer aircraft.
• Family adventure vacations: Some families (including multigenerational) are forgoing theme parks and all-inclusive resorts for ''more genuine nature-based, cultural, and education and learning excursions,'' says Doyle. He attributes this in part to baby boomers who have the means to travel ''coupled with a strong interest in bonding more deeply with families.'' GordonsGuide.com, a Web site on adventure and active travel, says the top vacation requests are all family friendly -- dude and guest ranches, houseboat rentals, whitewater rafting and horse pack trips and trail rides.
• Soft adventure vacations: An increasing number of people are choosing a vacation that centers around a theme, such as a culinary tour in Asia or wine vacation in Israel. Yoga has also seeped into the mix. Best of Both Women's Adventures has yoga on all of its trips and a specific yoga and surf vacation in Puerto Rico. (Surfing is one of the top activities that women want to do, says Dez Bartelt, co-founder of Best of Both Women's Adventures.) Other combinations include yoga and snowboarding or yoga and wine tasting.
• Expedition cruising: Look for more people to take expedition cruises to Antarctica, the Galapagos and Alaska, says Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor-in-chief of CruiseCritic.com, three places that are hard to see without sailing there. The cruises, while less glitzy than big ship cruise lines, include lectures and presentations about the place. ''On an expedition cruise, everything revolves really around what you see off the ship,'' says Brown. ``On the big ship cruises, everything revolves around what happens on board and the ports are sort of an addendum.''
• Roots vacations: With an increasing number of people swabbing their cheek to find their roots, some are taking it a step further and traveling to the places where their ancestors lived. Discover Natural Ancestry (amazingdna.com) not only provides DNA analysis and genealogy services, it puts people in touch with tour operators who plan the trip for them. ''If they are breathing, then they have a genetic story hidden within them and we help them to discover and explore the unknown secrets about their heritage,'' says Yvonne Walker, marketing director for Discover Natural Ancestry.
• African travel: While the Kenya Tourist Board says the sporadic and isolated violence has calmed and tourists were never in danger (the situation was internal and occurred in places where tourists generally don't go), there has been a downturn in tourism in Kenya and some spillover to other countries in East Africa, says Wil Smith, director of Deeper Africa, a tour operator with trips to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
''I believe the bounce back in the neighboring countries is going to be swift,'' he says. ``I think it's probably going to take best scenario, six months for Kenya to recover.''
When the region recovers, look for more people to go gorilla tracking in Uganda and Rwanda; visit Ethiopia, an emerging destination, and climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, before the snow on its peak, which has been gradually receding, disappears.
| Italy's Most Overlooked City - Prato - Only 30 Minutes from Florence In Tuscany, the Revealing of a Forbidden Love
PRATO’S all-time favorite scandal — the love affair of the local Renaissance painter Fra Filippo Lippi, who also happened to be a monk, and his model, a beautiful nun — has for centuries overshadowed the spectacular work that was born of their romance. But no longer. Against Prato’s Tuscan backdrop of Romanesque and Gothic churches adorned with local albarese stone and rich green marble, Lippi’s magnificent frescoes in the Cattedrale di Santo Stefano are newly restored after seven years under scaffolding.
The luminous masterpieces depict momentous events in the lives of St. Stephen and John the Baptist. They are rich with emotion, innovative perspective and brilliant swells of color. And they are, at least for now, off the beaten path of the tour circuit.
Prato is a city few Americans visit, and it’s a shame. The 30-minute bus (or train) from Florence winds through a sprawling industrial community of 175,000, but the 13th-century stone walls and watchtowers enclose a beautifully preserved pristine city that is easily walked, filled with charming trattorias and pizzerias, and host to enough small inns to make it perfectly hospitable.
The second-largest city in Tuscany, after Florence, Prato has been a capital of the thriving Italian wool textile trade for nearly 500 years and is home to the Museo del Tessuto, a leading textiles museum; the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, a modern art museum; and the behemoth Swabian-style castle built by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the 13th century. The city also happens to be the birthplace of biscotti di Prato (more on that later).
Lippi arrived here in 1452 after his patrons, the Medici family, bailed him out of prison on a false swindling charge. He spent the next dozen years living and working near Santo Stefano in the center of the old city and served briefly as chaplain of the Santa Margherita convent. It was there that he first laid eyes on Lucrezia Buti, the young nun whom, according to legend, he snatched off the streets and took to his workshop where she became his lover and bore him a son, then a daughter.
Lippi’s scandalous appetites have at times drawn attention away from his art. But in 2001, the Italian cultural heritage ministry put 1.25 million euros into restoring the frescoes. The restorers were careful to preserve the natural elements of aging, including the loss of details Lippi had painted after the fresco plaster had dried, while painstakingly returning facial expressions, gestures and colors to their earlier depths.
Collaborating on a historical novel about the artist, I came to Prato with my co-author, Laura Morowitz, to walk in Lippi’s footsteps and study the work he’d done in a frenzy of desire, artistic discovery and fear of economic ruin. Day after day, I stood in the nearly deserted chapel behind the main altar of Santo Stefano and soaked in the detail of Lippi’s six panels of fresco scenes, his lunettes and the large stained-glass window he designed. I was rarely bothered by the other visitors.
Lippi’s iconic figure of Salome dancing at King Herod’s banquet has been recently adopted by Prato as a symbol of the city, now seen on brochures, banners and posters. Knowing he modeled the temptress on his lover, I gazed at Salome’s floating figure and contemplated what had compelled the artist to paint the same woman as both his Madonna and the girl who delivers John the Baptist’s head on a platter.
On my final visit to the cathedral, I was accompanied by a local historian, Simona Biagianti, who took me on a rare climb into the old bell tower, behind the locked gates of the Cappella della Sacra Cintola and to the edge of the sacred exterior pulpit where, one day each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors throng the square below to see the belt of the Virgin Mary displayed by the bishop. This relic, the green sash the Virgin is said to have handed to St. Thomas at the moment of her assumption into heaven, has been twice venerated by the Vatican, and is kept in the cathedral under several locks and keys.
“Sept. 8, on the feast day of the Virgin, is the best time to come to Prato,†said Ms. Biagianti, who lives in an apartment overlooking the Piazza del Duomo, where locals congregate near the fountain and church steps during the passeggiata, the traditional stroll on weekend evenings.
I ate at a number of charming rustic restaurants in Prato, but my most memorable culinary discovery was those cookies. After four days of finding a plate of delicate almond biscotti on my breakfast table at the Borgo al Cornio B & B, I finally asked where I could buy them. I was directed to Biscottificio Antonio Mattei (Via Ricasoli, 20; 39-0574-25756), where the first biscotti di Prato on record were baked in 1848 and praised by the writer Hermann Hesse during a visit in 1901. For 7 euros a bag ($10.50 at $1.50 to the euro), I carried away several bags of this blue-papered local treasure and an earful on the distinction between the traditional twice-baked biscotti and the chewier cantucci.
The Pratese, it turns out, are nearly as proud of their biscotti as they are of their Lippi.
VISITOR INFORMATION
The closest major city to Prato is Florence. Trains run throughout the day from Santa Maria Novella station in Florence to Prato’s Central Station or the Stazione di Porta al Serraglio in the historic district. Although Santo Stefano is open daily, most museums in Prato are closed on Tuesdays. For travel information in English, visit the helpful Web site of Monash University (www.ita.monash.edu/visit/tourist.html).
WHERE TO EAT
Aroma di Vino (Via Santo Stefano, 24; 39-0574-433800) is a cozy place directly behind the cathedral. Don’t pass up the delicious cappuccino.
Bar Formica (Via G. Mazzoni, 9; 39-0574-24608) is primarily a tobacco shop, but you can pick up a chocolate or a sandwich, have a fresh cup of espresso and make your local calls from the public phone.
Caffè Bacchino (Via Cairoli, 56; 39-0574-401533) serves a daily pasta lunch plate for 3 euros and is open through the siesta.
Osteria Cibbè (Piazza Mercatale, 49; 39-0574-607509) is a friendly, rustic restaurant serving a delicious pappa al pomodoro, a thick tomato and bread soup that’s a local specialty.
| When travel arrangements go bad Here are some helpful hints. As a travel agent I agree that there are many bad agents out there. Your interests are served best if you use only an agency that has good recommendations from people you know and trust.
The stories of trips gone bad are endless, but savvy consumers can avoid the headaches.
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By John Frenaye
Travel columnist
Every year, I hear more horror stories of travel arrangements gone bad. Look at any of the online blogs and you will see what I mean. Our own favorite travel ombudsman, Christopher Elliott, is busier than ever, and my colleague Anita Dunham-Potter recently told a horror story about a group of 73 would-be cruise vacationers who were left stranded when their so-called “travel agent” abandoned ship.
Bad travel arrangements don’t have to happen to you. Just keep these four pointers in mind as you plan your next trip.
The Internet is not god
Savvy travelers know that the Internet is nothing more than a huge brochure for travel. Before they rely on any online information, they make sure they can trust the source. Do you expect your local restaurant to divulge that cockroaches routinely scurry across the floor or that mice are snuggled up in the cutlery drawer? No? So why would you expect such information to be disclosed on a travel supplier’s Web site?
So-called “third-party” or “consumer-reviewed” sites are not necessarily any more reliable. Trip Advisor is one of the largest travel Web sites on the Internet, but unfortunately a lot of its content is now suspect. Why? Because savvy hotels have started hiring people to post positive reviews. Just look at Craigslist and see how many “pay for review” jobs are out there.
Lesson? Take what you find on the Internet and double-check it with several different sites, a travel agent or perhaps a neighbor or friend who has been to the part of the world that interests you. If it all jives, you are probably good to go; if not, move on. Yes, diligence is time-consuming, but negligence is more so — as you will learn when you try to fix your ill-considered trip.
Your travel agent may be untrained
Lately I have seen an unprecedented increase in what I call “travel-agent-in-a-box” programs. For a $500 fee, these programs offer mostly-useless credentials, promises of perks that seldom materialize, and travel discounts that rarely offset the expenses. But the real issue is that they are infesting the travel industry with untrained, unmentored and unsupervised “agents” all trying to sell you travel — or, in worst cases, the opportunity to join them in their dubious enterprise. Those 73 cruisers would not have been left high and dry had their group leader, Jerry Wilkinson, been dealing with a professional.
Travel suppliers are slowly taking notice of these quickie-agent operations, and are refusing to do business with them. Both Royal Caribbean and the International Airlines Travel Agent Network (IATAN), have terminated relationships with several such companies, including Your Travel Biz (YTB). If you are interested in reading up on these scams, I covered them in a prior column, or you can read the informative, adversarial — and controversial — blog called MLMs and Travel: A Bad Mix, which discloses all the downsides.
And then verify the answers.
You would not trust your legal needs, accounting needs or financial-planning needs to an amateur. Why risk it with your travel arrangements?
Price is not the most important thing
Sure, price matters. In today’s economy we are all watching our pennies. But remember that when you purchase travel, you are purchasing an experience — not a product. You are looking to lie on the beach with the soft Aruban breezes flowing over you while a waiter refills your piña colada and adjusts your umbrella. You are not looking to just sit on a pile of sand. See the difference?
So, when comparing prices (and I recommend that you do compare prices), make sure it is apples to apples. All too often a client will insist that someone else offered the same experience at a much cheaper price. Usually that is not so. A $299 weekend in the Bahamas including airfare from Baltimore is a bargain, alright — until the bedbugs take over and you find yourself saddled with a $1,200 Bahamian hospital bill. When you see a price that seems too good to be true, be skeptical. I’ll bet there’s a reason it is so low.
Common sense will serve you well
Having a great vacation experience is not rocket science. Unfortunately, some people get so wrapped up in the planning that they let their guard down. Jerry Wilkinson let his guard down and it cost his group $21,000. Had he been skeptical of the price, used some common sense, and dealt with a professional agent, he could have avoided the whole mess.
Sure, I’m biased. I’m a professional travel agent myself, and I generally recommend booking with a qualified agent for all but the simplest travel plans. That way you are guaranteed that someone is looking out for your best interests. But if you have an easy trip in mind and you are comfortable going it alone, go ahead and book your travel online. Just make sure there is someone to personally contact if a problem surfaces. If you do book online, book direct with the airline or hotel (my first choice) or with one of the established online agencies like Orbitz, Travelocity or Expedia. Don’t get suckered in to any travel deal. There are too many agency scams operating today, and it can be hard to tell the good from the bad. Look before you leap.
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