Travel plan idea blog

Airport layovers, Atlantic City, disappointment damages

Here's an article on making the most of your time during a layover. The advice ranges from reading to writing Christmas cards but basically the idea is not to sit there bored out of your skull.

And here's an article about Atlantic City trying to become more of a luxury vacation destination and less of a gambling town. "For our survival, we couldn't rely on gaming anymore," says Jeffrey Vasser, executive director of the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority.

And finally we have an article that I don't know what to make of. It's about disappointment damages - apparently travel agents in the UK will sometimes give customers who had crappy vacations a bit of cash.

The disappointment damage concept is pretty clear to me, but then I read this stuff about competing with German vacationers that seemed a little hard to believe:

The annual race to place your towel by the pool before the Germans get there has escalated in a most unexpected manner. Last week we heard that two English tourists returned home furious with Thomas Cook because their holiday resort in Crete was overrun by Germans. Mike and Amanda Barber, who hail from East Sussex, claimed their €3,000 sunshine holiday with their three children was ruined. They said the hotel reps told their daughter that "Only German children can play on the swings." It appears all non-German families were locked out of the main children's club, so, with nothing for their kids to do, the Barbers ended up spending an extra €1,250 on day trips and other activities.

And then in what I want to think is a joke the article recommends avoiding hotels that have more German guests. They can't be serious, can they?

Posted by James Trotta at August 3, 2008 10:10 PM