Travel plan idea blog

Article on travel sites

This article talks about the following travel sites: boo.com, vayama.com, VibeAgent.com, Yellowpages.travel, SearchBoth.com, ProfessionalTravelGuide.com, yapta.com, and TripIt.com, Orbitz.com (their new social networking component), BestTripChoices.com, fabsearch.com, travel.yahoo.com, americanexpress.com, travelocity.roadtripwizard.com, and cfares.com.

Are any of those favorites of yours?

Brazil fact guide / travel article

From what I understand the writer of this article has been living in Brazil for a while. I thought this was interesting because I mentioned recently that a friend and I might start a travel business where we do tours of Brazil's less touristy (not Rio) carnavals.

Now I've never been to Brazil but I have a friend who has lived in Brazil for 5 or so years who would be designing the tours. He speaks Portuguese and answers all my questions about Brazil. However, for those of you who want to know something about Brazil and don't know where to ask - follow the link at the end of the article for a Q&A with the author.

Chornobyl Tour: good example of grief tourism

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable going anywhere near where V.I. Lenin Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station had its meltdown or whatever you call you it when a nuclear power plant explodes. It was more powerful than Hiroshima and it happened more recently...

But I am not the only traveler in the world, and some people want to visit "tThe exclusion zone guarding the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is a 30 kilometer radius of land stuck in the mid- to late-1980’s."

If you want to visit Chornobyl's exclusion zone, here are the tour operators:

SoloEast Travel (www.tourkiev.com) offers year-round guided tours of the Zone, and prices are dependent on the season and number of participants. Single participation tours can reach up to $400, while groups of more than 20 offer lower rates of approximately $100 each.

SAM Travel Agency offers special rates of $95 for groups of seven or more. Packages include return transportation Kyiv to Chornobyl, a guided tour of the Zone, and a hot meal.

Which airlines charge your surviving relatives a cancellation fee if you die before you fly?

A while back, Mancunian gave us some information on airline tickets and extra charges. Recently, a reader commented on my post about the US - London British Air sale noting that extra fees basically doubled the cost of a ticket; the sale was no bargain.

Continuing that theme, we have an article from Christopher Elliott. There's some very good information and some very bad omissions. For example I think it is worth noting which airlines charge a cancellation fee when you die but CNN doesn't give us that information:

When a passenger dies, airlines usually cut them a break. Sort of. Their next of kin can apply for a refund. But even in death, airlines have figured out how to make a little extra money. Check out this clause in one airline tariff: "NOTE -- IN THE EVENT OF DEATH OF PASSENGER AN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE CHARGE OF USD 50.00 WILL BE ASSESSED IN ORDER TO PROCESS A REFUND." The airline doesn't want passengers to abuse this "perk" so it adds, "PROOF OF DEATH MAY BE REQUIRED."

I, for one, would like to know which airline. Does anyone want to ask why Christopher Elliott is keeping that secret?

Anyway, it's an article worth reading.

What do you think about New Mexico's new ad campaign?

Some people are calling New Mexico's new tourism ad campaign creative and bold, but there are also a lot of critics out there. The ads have won an Adrian Award.

However, winning awards is not the same as increasing brand awareness and bringing in tourism dollars:

Dale Lockett, president of the state's largest convention and visitors bureau in Albuquerque, addressed the issue in a speech at a statewide conference in October.

Lockett told the creators of the ads, Santa Monica, Calif.-based M&C Saatchi, that their handiwork, while innovative, appeals to the wrong audience. Why, Lockett wondered, was the state targeting its centerpiece ad campaign to a younger crowd when baby boomers have time and money to travel?

Take a look at the photos and let us know what you think:

Magazine ad
Scene from a video ad

Still not enough good travel shows on the Travel Channel!

A short time ago, this site featured my comments on the lack of good travel shows on American TV and it seemed like quite a few people agreed with me. If you have cable or satellite TV, you probably get the Travel Channel. Despite its name, this channel is rather disappointing as it seems to show very few actual travel shows and a lot of programs such as “World Poker Tour”, “Monster Trucks” “Cash and Treasures” and “Made in America”

The Travel Channel does show some travel shows such as “Globe Trekker” “Passport to Europe” and “Earth’s Natural Wonders” but any regular viewer of the Travel Channel will probably have seen all these episodes before as they have all been on several times. Every episode of “Passport to Europe” has now been shown at least a dozen times over the last year or two.

And the offering for Thanksgiving Day on the Travel Channel was an all-day marathon of the show “Bizarre Foods” – possibly for those who had got tired of eating turkey…? A lot of those shows seem to feature various creatures having just been killed, so you certainly know that the food is fresh.

Britain’s BBC network has recently shown the latest travel show by one of my favorite travelers – Michael Palin - featuring Eastern Europe. Palin has to be one of the most well-traveled people on TV, having been around the world, across the Sahara and through the Himalayas. His old shows appear occasionally on the Travel Channel – hopefully this one will be shown sooner or later. By the way, you can purchase books and DVDs from his various travel shows at his website.

One of the best reality shows is back on CBS with a new season – The Amazing Race, in which teams literally race around the world. A recent episode had the teams traveling to Ouagadougou, which most of the teams couldn’t pronounce – let alone find on a map. (It’s in the small African country of Burkina Faso – I’m not sure I would have known that either!)

If anyone knows of any good travel shows hidden away on any of the cable channels, let me know.

Guest entry by Mancunian

New Buffalo casino & new luxury resort in Costa Rica connected by a weak transition

This article says that staying in a casino / hotel is like experiencing a foreign culture. I remember a professor from my university days who hated this sort of thinking. Going to Disney's Epcot to expereince 24 different countries or whatever they have and Las Vegas's street where everything is enclosed and the lights make it seem to be day or night absolutely infuriated him.

When I was in university his thinking was pretty influential but these days i find myself agreeing (with some hesitation) with the author. I would like to spend a weekend in Vegas and another in Disney to experience whatever that is. I won't equate it with experiencing a foreign culture - living in Korea the past 6.5 years has been experiencing a foreign culture so a weekend in a hotel doesn't really compare.

Anyway, the article is about a new casino in New Buffalo, Michigan. Supposedly this is a beautiful casino that "resembles nothing of the gaudy glam of Vegas." I'm still pretty sure that my old English professor would disapprove.

One of the attractions is that it's easy to escape the casino:

But it's also easily escapable. Downtown New Buffalo, which brings a healthy dose of weekender retreat, is a five-minute drive west; the southern tip of the Lake Michigan Shore Wine Trail is a 10-minute drive; Warren Dunes State Park is 15. There is the lake; there are antique stores; there are quaint cafes at which to sip coffee. And none of them is smoky or ringing with slot machines (see 5 More Reasons to Go).

That sounds nice, but so do most of these Las Vegas day trips.

I'm going to make a rickety transition to my next article if you'll bear with me. The author of the first article says:

Think about it: Top-notch restaurants, well-appointed hotel suites, luxurious spa services, live entertainment, boutique retail outlets, free-flowing alcohol and, of course, gaming galore -- in most cases, at all hours. Minus the whole "experience nature" thing, casinos essentially provide all the major amenities of a luxury vacation under one neon-clad roof.

If you're main interest is experiencing nature, you might be considering Cost Rica (like I was last summer). Enter my second article. This is a luxury resort in Costa Rica that aims to protect the environment and help the local community. Well, probably they mostly want to make money but they say they want to help the environment and the locals. Hopefully, it's true. Supposedly the resort will be integrated with the local communities somehow though it's hard to imagine how that works in practice considering the huge income gaps between the locals and the people living in luxury but it sounds nice:

“There are a lot of walled-off resorts in the world,” Mr. Case said. “There is a better way. What we’re doing here is taking the best property in the hottest market, and designing a resort community that integrates with the neighboring communities in an environmentally sustainable way. That is the future standard of luxury resorts."

By the way, funny story about living in Korea. I was playing World of Warcraft online the other day with a fellow American. When I told him I was living in Korea he asked what state that was in. I said, “Korea the country.” He said he’d never heard of the place before. It seems a little hard to have not heard of Korea considering the political turmoil of the past few years with North Korea and how so many products are imported to the US from South Korea. Then there was that war most people should have studied in school at some point...

US vacation plan: sluicing for gems with a few other diversions

Here's a US vacation plan for treasure hunters. It's been a while since I've written a vacation plan for you and I may not have time to do another one for a while with final exams and then my European vacation coming up. So here goes:

Hiddenite, NC

Go to the gift shop to buy our sluicing permits for Emerald Hallow mines. Expect a crowd and bring a book to identify the minerals you find. They don't have that information there so you should have an idea of what to look for. There are people there, but most visitors don't find them very knowledgeable or helpful.

At Hiddenite you get a mine and creeking permit. The mine at Hiddenite is an open pit. You will get very dirty on your first day, so many people think of Hiddenite as "authentic sluicing". Dishwashing gloves and wearing old clothes is a minimum.

The Red Roof Inn in Statesville is supposed to be well-kept.

Spruce Pine

You could stop at the Blue Ridge Mining Museum on the way here. Gem Mountain is very touristy. You won't get dirty unless you have an accident or something. You get someone who explains the prices of their buckets, starting at $15. Some more expensive buckets come with a free cut (people report finding gems worth cutting in these more expensive buckets).

Here there are displays with samples of minerals that you could use to identify your rocks. There was a very nice gift shop and the place is especially well suited for kids who will have fun finding gems but not get too dirty.

Little Switzerland

About 7 miles from Spruce Pine, in Little Switzerland, is Emerald Village museum, shops, and a mine. I've heard reports from people who have sluiced at this mine as well. One person found a "huge emerald" at the mine here. You won't get too dirty but there is a bit more dirt than Spruce Pine.

Biltmore Estates

Entry is $39 online or $45 at the estate. The Biltmore House can take 2 hours or even longer if you shell out another $8 for the audio tour. The Winery tour takes about 15 minutes, but you might want to take a little longer trying the 8 different wines included in the admission. To try the better wines it's $3 for a half glass or $7 for 3 half glasses.

The Days Inn Biltmore on the outskirts of Asheville is supposed to be nice and clean.

Franklin, NC

The Sheffield Mine outside of Franklin is $10 per person to sluice and you get 2 buckets of ore with that fee. Additional buckets are $2 or 2 for $3.

You have to pay attention to these buckets because there may not be anything in there. Well everyone finds something, but you could spend about 1 hour per bucket of native ore and not find anything good.

This place has a good reputation because the employees teach you what to look for and how to properly scrub and separate the stone.

Days Inn in Franklin is an older motel that gets decent reviews.

Pigeon Forge, TN

When you drive from Franklin to Pigeon Forge you pass Cherokee where there are all kinds of Native American shops. You may want to stop there. The Gem Stone Mine in Pigeon Forge is very touristy. You wont get dirty and you will get some nice stones. The cutting shop tells you what everything is but they are expensive.

The end.

Want more? You could then go to Nashville, on to Memphis, then Little Rock, then Crater of Diamonds State Park. Or do Chatanooga, Huntsville, Memphis, Little Rock, Crater of Diamonds.

Cruise ship close to sinking near Antarctica

Everyone was safely evacuated, but The Explorer is listing 40 degrees and may sink. They say that because of all the ice, cruising in the area is always a risk.

We try to take eco-friendly tours, but I imagine you'd have to buy a lot of carbon credits or plant quite a few trees to make up for the environmental damage done by a huge ship sinking:

G.A.P Adventures is a tour company that provides eco-friendly excursions with an environmental focus. The Explorer was in the midst of a 19-day circuit of Antarctica and the Falkland Islands that allowed passengers to observe penguins, whales, and other forms of local wildlife.

I hear that the Canadian company has (or possibly had depending on what this event does) a good reputation.

OK planes & crowded trains

This New York Times article says that Thanksgiving travel was relatively painless for most Americans yesterday. Well at least the flyers. If you were stuck in traffic you probably knew that was coming anyway...

But traffic in America is nothing compared to traffic in parts of Asia. In China, where tons of people live, one traveler said this about May "golden week":

"The problem is that everyone goes at once," says Jiang, a 41-year-old medical equipment supplier. "It's impossible to get a ticket. And even if you do, it's way too crowded. It's crazy."

The picture that goes with the article is pretty crazy but I actually saw the same thing (people climbing into a train through the windows) in Italy when we were in Assisi and trying to get a train to Perugia for a peace march (this was right after 9/11/2001).

In Korea everyone travels for Chuseok (kind of like Thanksgiving) and Seolnal (Lunar New Year). It's normal for a 5 hour drive to turn into a 15 hour drive or worse on either of these holidays.

Lanzarote: not ruined by tourists yet

I hope this doesn't offend anyone but ZI thought it was kind of funny that this author uses the analogy of God spilling his cat's litter to describe the beauty of Lanzarote.

The author praises the island for not letting tourists ruin traditional towns and notes that most tourists are content to stay in the resorts so lots of places are still very authentic. Apparently you can even find a secret surf spot that the locals will want to protect from foreigners. Not that conflict with the locals sounds like fun.

Anyway, the article is a pretty good description of the author's experience in Lanzarote, including the "weirdest bar in the world".

I found a Youtube video which has photos from a Lanzarote vacation. It's not ideal - they keep showing pictures of the same lady over and over again but I watched a few videos and this one had the best landscape shots, mostly in the last 30 seconds. If you skip the first 3 minutes or so you won't miss too much but there are a few interesting pictures mixed in with all the lame "I'm modeling at the resort" pictures.

Have you ever been to Lanzarote and was the nature really spectacular?

What do travelers have to be thankful for and useless travel trivia

This article on what travelers have to be thankful for wasn't particularly interesting except for one piece of useless trivia:

Moans and groans beyond counting and back injuries along with them have been averted because in 1987 a Northwest Airlines pilot named Robert Plath thought to put wheels on luggage and build in a retractable handle. Before that, the emphasis in the word "luggage" was definitely on the "lug."

Of course now you end up with people who have crazy heavy bags they refuse to check. They can roll them around but not lift them so the poor flight attendants have to struggle with these massive things on wheels. I always feel like helping the young, thin flight attendants but I never do. I also want to walk up to these people and tell them that if they can't lift it into the overhead compartment they should check it. Seriously - you are slowing everyone down standing in the aisle struggling and it's dangerous. One time I actually saw someone drop her bag on a seated passenger mid-flight. I hope it wasn't too heavy...

The second page actually gets better (saving the best for last) with a mention of Rocky Mountaineer (I mentioned that once) winter train (I bet the views are awesome), and a trvel deal:

China for $1,699

In a trip open to anyone, the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce in New Hampshire is sponsoring a trip to China March 14-22 for $1,699 a person. Highlights include transportation to and from John F. Kennedy Airport, round-trip airfare from JFK, hotel stays, three meals daily, English-speaking tour guides, admissions, and airport taxes. Highlights include visits to attractions in Beijing, the Great Wall of China, Shanghai, Suzhou, and a lake cruise.

Then there's the prison-turned-hostel travel site...

Investing in a Chinese travel company: Ctrip

I'm not investing in Ctrip, but the author of this article probably is. He mentions outstanding customer service and a strong presence leading to brand awareness and loyalty. I don't have too much to say about investing in Chinese stocks but somehow I ended up with this business category so I figured I'd fill it up a bit. Now I'll go find some more travel articles...

US airlines prepare for the busy Thanksgiving travel period

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that means not only turkey, pumpkin pie and all the trimmings - but also extra travel headaches. Airlines estimate that around 90 million Americans will travel by air this Thanksgiving – and it may seem as though most of them are at the same airport as you! US Airways even anticipates that around 60% of its flights will be late – if they know that already, perhaps they could start to reschedule them now? The Wednesday and Friday before and after Thanksgiving Day are usually the busiest travel days. The government is trying to help by allocating extra airspace, as this site reported a couple of days ago.

If you are flying somewhere over the holidays, here are some tips:

Arrive early – at least 90 minutes if you are traveling within the US, and at least 2 hours before if you are traveling overseas. Take advantage of such things as self service check in, on-line check in, pre-printed boarding passes and flight delay notification. Reconfirm your flight with your airline and make sure that they can reach you at your destination in case of delays.

Pack lightly – if you are only going for a couple of days, you can probably manage with just a carry-on bag. The airline cant lose your bags if you don’t check any! You are also allowed to carry on a personal item such as a laptop or purse, but the restrictions on taking only certain amounts of liquids on board are still in place.

If you do have to check your bags, make sure your name and address is clearly marked inside the bag as well as outside. This way, if your luggage is mislaid, it’s a little bit easier for the airline to reunite you with it in a timely manner. And try to make sure that the ticket agent who checks you in puts the right 3-letter airport code on your checked bag – you don’t want your luggage going to SCL (Santiago, Chile) instead of SLC! (Salt Lake City)

Leave your gifts unwrapped, even if you have them inside your checked bags. The TSA may unwrap all your gifts, delaying you at security. Airlines suggest taking wrapping paper etc with you and wrapping everything up when you arrive.

And if you are traveling by car over Thanksgiving, expect to encounter almost as many crowds on the roads. But you may encounter some seasonal generosity – on Wednesday the coffee company Maxwell House will pay the cost of the toll for drivers at 8 big American cities as well as paying the fare at select New York subway stations.

However you are traveling this week, happy Thanksgiving!

Guest entry by Mancunian

la Plagne 2100 Club Med in the French Haute Savoie

I didn't know that European ski vacations had a somewhat bad reputation, but this article says you can avoid all the negatives of a European ski holiday by going to la Plagne 2100 Club Med in the French Haute Savoie.

I think of beaches when I think Club Med, but in this case you need to think Mont Blanc and "breathtaking Alpine vistas".

As for the bad reputation I had never imagined, this article says:

For many of us, a European ski vacation conjures up images of big bucks and rude people invading your space and trashing your skis in the lift-line. Or of snooty waiters demanding $20 plus tip for a slope-side coffee.

Traveling made easy / hard in US / UK

While the US government is trying to make air travel easier for Thanksgiving, the British government is making travel more difficult, but hopefully safer, by mid 2009.

The US is planning to use military airspace for commercial flights. Since, according to the article, that airspace is unused anyway, I don't see why this should be done more frequently. The article also says something about new technology for air traffic control. I wonder if Thanksgiving is the best time to be trying out new technology though...

In England, the government wants to collect 53 pieces of information from international travelers. They say a test program has already helped them catch 10,000 criminals thanks to the extra information. I'm no detective, but why can't you identify criminals with a name and a birthday or maybe an ID number? Why does it take 53 pieces of information to identify criminals?

Having asked that, if it does take all that information, who are we to complain about the extra expense? I'd rather be safe than thrifty personally.

Kyla Ebbert's clothing, Southwest airlines, and Playboy

Kyla Ebbert says she was wearing this outfit when she was removed from a Southwest airlines flight and told she was dressed to provocatively for a family airline:

She was able to take the flight by pulling up her top and pulling down her skirt so she didn't actually get kicked off the flight. However it was a painful experience as she felt humiliated.

Personally, I've seen more revealing outfits on planes and the only thing I wonder is if they get cold (I always wear long sleeves on a plane). What makes Southwest's behavior really weird is that they say the have no dress code as long as the appropriate places are covered (they seem to be in this photo) and a Southwest flight attendant complimented the same outfit on the return flight.

Of course, it wasn't all bad news since Kyla Ebbert made a bunch of money taking off that outfit for Playboy. Don't worry - that's a family friendly link from your family friendly travel blogger.

So was Southwest out of line or is the outfit inappropriate?

Medical tourism FAQ, the travel biz, and downtime

First, if anyone visited while this blog was offline, let me assure you that all is now well. Apparently the hosting company (who I pay $225/month to keep this site online) had some problems. Overall, they've been pretty good about keeping us online even though we get a lot of traffic so I'm forgiving them.

Speaking of traffic, here's a business that gets 1,000-2,000 visits a day to their web site about traveling with kids. They decided to turn it into a business and so they became a travel agency. Apparently they do enough business to have 4 full-time workers and plans to expand. I get about twice as much traffic so I wonder if I should start my own travel agency...

In fact, a friend of mine and I are trying to get a business started where we take people on tours of some of Brazil's lesser know carnaval festivals. Surely there must be a few people who want to get away from the touristy one in Rio and see the real ones. Also, my wife and I are talking about doing tours in Italy when we finally retire there. Although I guess that means we'd be working and not really retired.

Anyway, I found this medical tourism FAQ and realized it has been a while since we covered that topic. Naturally you'd want to do more than read a single web page before going to Thailand for heart transplant or whatever - the only book I know of for you is Patients Beyond Borders.

Well there you go. I've explained why we were offline for a while, thought about selling out and making this blog some sort of business, and covered medical tourism briefly.

British Airways sale from US to London

For travel through March 23, 2008 British Airways has reduced fares from US cities to London. Apparently there's also a free hotel involved. Naturally there are lots of restrictions but this may be the most important: Only valid for new bookings made November 13-20, 2007.

Still you'll want to read the fine print. From what I understood however, if you register for their website and login before buying tickets you get an additional $20 off. However if you call them you have to pay an extra $20.

Fare to London (economy class, one-way, requires round-trip purchase)

New York (JFK) $169
New York (Newark) $169
Boston $189
Philadelphia $186
Washington DC $169
Baltimore $199
Miami $259
Atlanta $229
Chicago $207
Houston $239
Phoenix $251
Los Angeles $243
San Francisco $235

If you're not sure what you'll do in London, here are some free things, Sherlock Holmes literary tourism, London & Amsterdam vacation plan, and this England vacation plan.

Review of Aloha Whistler Accommodations

The following is a paid review:

I've been asked to review another web site, this one for finding condos at Whistler, a world famous place for skiing. Whistler is part of the huge 2 mountain Whistler-Blackcomb resort. Aloha Whistler Accommodations adds the following off-season sports: "Spring, summer and fall activities such as golf, hiking, rock climbing, and watersports make the Resort a year-round outdoor recreation paradise." Wikipedia told me that this area is also famous for mountain biking.

I was happy to see that the website I'm reviewing talked about the 2010 Olympics. Acting mayor Ralph Forsyth is quoted as saying, "Every day will be like Christmas and every night will be like New Year's Eve."

I'm not sure if I believe all the hype, but I do know that I've always wanted to see an Olympics in person.

Back to the website, the actual accommodations (the main focus of the site) seem good in that they have lots of choices. I don't ski, but I imagine the ski-in / ski-out condos are considered prime real estate.

I tried making reservations for February 2010 (the Olympics) but I found the place where you input dates hard to use. I was able to search for next week and was surprised to find something for as little as 1600 Canadian dollars plus tax. This was for 9 nights in a 2 bedroom ski-in / ski-out "townhome" in Upper Whistler Village (3-minute walk to the main Whistler Village and the Whistler or Blackcomb gondolas or the Blackcomb daylodge and Wizard chairlift).

I'm not sure if November is considered off season since it may be too early to ski and too cold to golf. Also this seemed to be the least expensive out of numerous options.

In the end, while entering the dates you plan to stay could be easier, there is no reason not to use this site as you compare prices if you're going to Whistler.

Christmas seems to arrive earlier each year (Christmas themed travel ideas)

I enjoy Christmas as much as the next person (unless the next person is the Grinch!) but isn’t mid-November a little bit too early to be celebrating the season? One of my local radio stations (in North Carolina) usually starts playing non-stop Christmas music around the beginning of November (due to popular demand, apparently) and I suspect that the Christmas tree outside my local mall will be put up in a few days.

I personally think Christmas should not start until December 1st. But if you really are one of those people who like to celebrate Christmas year round, here are some places that might be fun to visit...

Spencer County, Indiana

Perhaps the ultimate year-round Christmas destination. Spencer County is home to the small town of Santa Claus which lives up to its name with a museum, post office and theme park dedicated to the great man. These attractions are all open year round. Spencer County was also the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln, although he has been somewhat overshadowed by Santa Claus.

Kathe Wohlfahrt’s Christmas shop, Rothenburg, Germany

There are plenty of shops that sell Christmas ornaments and decorations year round, but this is probably one of the biggest and best. The shop sells Christmas decorations of all kinds, including some beautiful handmade wooden ornaments. There is also a small Christmas museum on the premises and at Christmas, the shop puts on special exhibits (and sells more decorations as well, I imagine) Here are some photographs of the shop and some of its wonderful displays.

Elkhorn, Wisconsin

If this town looks somewhat familiar, apparently it has been the inspiration for many Christmas cards over the years. In fact, Elkhorn is known as the “Christmas Card town” and has an exhibition of Christmas cards on display year round at the Chamber of Commerce.

Bronner’s Christmas Store

This establishment in Frankenmuth, Michigan calls itself the world’s largest Christmas store, and covers an area of over five football fields. They offer over 50,000 different decorations, lights and ornaments. Bronner’s also has a memorial chapel and features nightly displays of Christmas lights. Every year, over 2 million people visit the store, which is open year round – but closed on Christmas Day.

Anyway, if you are celebrating Christmas six weeks early – Merry Christmas!

Guest entry by Mancunian

Becoming a flight attendant for Korean Air or Asiana

I wanted to share a story I heard recently. I heard it from a friend who I trust but he heard it from someone I've never met so it may not be true.

Anyway, the story goes like this: becoming a flight attendant is a big competition in Korea (I believe this part since many English majors I know personally want to become flight attendants) and they attend a special school affiliated with a university and one of the two major Korean airlines where only a certain percentage of them can graduate to become flight attendants.

The main part of the story though is that to get into this school they have an interview in which they are required to scrub all makeup off their faces in front of the interviewers (presumably so they can make sure they hire beautiful young women as flight attendants).

Again, I don't know that this is true but it is believable as many people who have flown Korean Air and Asiana have commented on how attractive the flight attendants are (especially compared to western airlines).

If you've never flown Korean Air or Asiana, here is a little demonstration of the type of flight attendants they choose. I didn't watch the whole thing as it's pretty long:

I just want to confirm that these women are probably not just models in the airline uniform. The women you see on the plane are equally attractive.

The fact that they are pretty much all young reminds me of another story a former student told me a long time ago. She said that she would only work for Korean Air (assuming she passed the interview and graduated from the competitive school) until she was 26 because after that the airline would want to move her to ticketing or something to make room for a younger woman on the plane.

Now I don't know if this is true and on each flight you see at least one woman who is clearly over 26, but it is easy to believe that most of the flight attendants are 26 or less.

It would be easy to say that this is unfair and something should be done. I'm sure some people would suggest not flying an airline until it became clear that hiring practices were fair. However there is a reason my wife and I like flying Korean Air, Asiana, JAL (which seems to hire attractive women as well though more of them seem over 26 if I had to guess). The service is much much better than we get on American Airlines, Continental, Northwest, etc.

So fair or unfair, we're flying with one of the Asian airlines whenever we get the chance.

Expensive volontourism and responsible tourism

This article has some expensive ideas for traveling and doing good at the same time. The 14-day trip to Antarctica is over $6,000 / person but you can't go unless you donate $500 to the Climate Change Challenge (the Climate Challenge thing seems to be run by the same people charging you $6,000 for the trip). The article doesn't think that's a bad thing but it makes me wonder. Anyway, on the trip your job is to deliver equipment to scientists down there.

The other trips don't seem to have specific requirements - I guess they are just environmentally friendly tours. The Galápagos Islands will run you just over $4,000 / person while we don't get prices for a cruise in the North Sea.

Family ski vacation experience and & one person skis while the other goes to the spa travel plan

The title is a bit long but I decided to put these articles together anyway. The first is a family ski vacation experience with 10 people. The author says:

No family vacation is easy -- not even for an expert -- and ski trips are especially tough. All that gear to keep track of! All of those people to feed!

Here's my diary of our not-even-close-to-perfect, but-still-lots-of-fun trip last season to Crested Butte Mountain Resort in southwest Colorado (www.skicb.com) where you can ski free until December 15

The diary is not as detailed as the kind I would write (like my Punta Cana one) but it's still fairly interesting.

The second article could be very practical for someone who needs a vacation plan where one person skis and the other relaxes. It reminds me of the dual African vacation one reader submitted a while back but this one is in Canada so it should be easier (plus no one has to climb Mount Kilimanjaro like our brave reader did on his "vacation").

Anyway, this article contains a name that ought to be familiar to readers who have been here a while: Banff. One strength of the article is that it recommends specific spas and even treatments. And of course it suggests spas near popular ski areas.

Gift ideas for travelers

My birthday was last month but I suppose I could start an early Christmas list with some help from this article. I did actually get some good ideas - since I'll be in a hotel in Munich for Christmas I was wondering what to get my wife. Something from home and hide it all the way to Germany? Buy something in Germany when we'll be together the whole time? Nothing seemed so easy. But maybe something from the hotel if they have a spa or maybe something else along those lines would work. Perhaps a special dinner in Munich - anyone know of something?

Liberty Hotel Boston

While a little over $5,000 a night doesn't compete with some of the world's most expensive hotels, I probably won't be staying in the new Liberty Hotel in Boston any time soon. It could have an interesting theme though since it used to be a maximum security prison.

However, since the makeover (I gather) has pretty much wiped away the past the the fact that it used to be a prison seems kind of meaningless. I've never been there but it sounds like Liberty Hotel is just another luxury hotel - fancy but nothing special. If anyone checks it out, do let us know what you think.

Be nice to the rest of the herd

This article is a plea for all of us to be more considerate when we fly economy:

The number one problem with air travel, according to an exhaustive survey by the polling staff at the Peoples Weekly Brief, is self absorbed, inconsiderate passengers who act as if the entire transportation system should bend to their will.

Naturally I've run into a few problems like kids kicking my seat but I guess I've been fairly lucky that I've never had a really awful flight (not because of other passengers anyway).

A very strange article that mentions dark tourism

This really weird article (by far the weirdest I've ever linked to) warns you not to throw away your dictionaries in case Google collapses. I'm pretty sure I still have mine somewhere...

Then they say something about who the EU president should not be. And then, finally they get to the travel stuff, dark tourism. Apparently dark tourism could lead to "the situation that wars and misery are created for potential dark tourist benefits. And that would signify the moral end of humanity."

Of course, most dark tourism is not so extreme. Lots of people visit Ground Zero or Hiroshima or the site of some other disaster.

Crater of Diamonds State Park in the news again

Apparently Crater of Diamonds State Park yields so many stones that one man was able to make a living from selling the diamonds he found there. He now has a job in a convenience store, but after finding a 4.38 carat diamond I wonder how good that job looks.

I really want to look for gold or diamonds or something on one of my upcoming vacations. Imagine coming back from vacation richer than when you left...

Florida Keys vacation experience

Here's an interesting story about a vacation in the Florida Keys. Highlights seem to be the sunset and eating fresh fish. I don't like fish, so that would leave me with only the sunset if I went to the Keys...

Book a hotel online and then call the hotel

This article talks about booking travel online and then shifts to researching travel plans online. The part about booking online offers some useful details through the example of one traveler who used several techniques to make sure she was dealing with a decent website.

One smart thing she did was call the hotel to make sure they had her reservation. Not a difficult move and something that I'll be doing from now on if I book a hotel online through any site other than the hotel's own page.

You don't have to ski if you travel to the Midwestern US

This article looks at some resorts that offer more than skiiing in the Midwest. Attractions include ice skating, sleigh rides, dog sledding, snowshoeing, and full-service spa treatments.

It reminds me of the first time I went skiing. We had spent hundreds of dollars on ski clothes only to see them sit in our closet for a few years. So eventually we went to a ski resort to use them. Luckily, they still fit!

Skiing was too hard to be fun. The next day we went sledding and had a blast. And we finally got to break in our ski clothes.

Funny preflight instructions

I thought this was pretty funny. You'll need the sound turned on to appreciate it.

Round-the-world with kids

I'm sure many of us have dreamed about traveling around the world for a year. Some people actually do it and they do it with their kids. This New York Times article talks about that.

One family did all the planning themselves (that must have taken a while!) and spent $140,000. They also say that it works best with kids between 9-12 because they are old enough to appreciate and remember stuff but not old enough to resent their parents for dragging them away from dating and whatever else.

Join a card mill / travel agency MLM?

I noticed a few more articles on those travel agent / "card mill" programs. This one says that you can get travel disocunts but that they might not be worth $500 + $50/month.

Then again if you're going to Europe for a month like I am, and you could get half price hotel rooms throughout your stay, you would end up saving a lot of money. I already have my reservations so I guess it's too late for me to consider this though.

This article looks at the business side of things. It's really a general criticism of the MLM industry that seems to have been written by someone with no actual network marketing experience (MLM and network marketing being the same thing).

The criticism starts and ends with the money you have to invest (they also mention how netowrk maketers will sometimes pressure frieds and family into wasting a lot of money but starting an MLM is not supposed to be expensive). In reality, if you enter an MLM the money you invest should be minimal. These travel agencies charging $500 and $50/month are much more expensive than regular MLMs like Amway and NuSkin/Pharmanex (which I've seen up close and personal).

Now I'm not here to defend the MLM industry either. I just want to point out that the financial investment isn't extreme (even the relatively high $500 is fairly cheap for starting your own business) as the strength of the MLM industry is that most anyone can join since it's so easy (cheap) to sign up.

Of course, that's also the weakness - anyone can join. I've met both great people and true scumbags who do network marketing. You can be arrogant, stupid, mean, whatever; someone will still sign you up. That's why I don't criticize Royal Caribbean for shunning business with these "card mills". If a company like YTB has zero quality control why would Royal Caribbean want to do business with those agents? Sure some will be fine, but some will be absolute scum.

A scene from Iraq

If you're like me, you don't plan on visiting Iraq any time soon. However, I'm sure most of us are curious so let me quote from a letter from a Navy officer stationed in Iraq (a "sand sailor" as they call themselves which I thought was kind of funny). And let me beg you not to get too political - the letter is pretty positive and said things are improving in Iraq but I won't publish it in its entirety because I don't want to talk politics.

Anyway:

Jammed roads, bustling markets, a mix of modernity and the Third World jumbled together. Driving through in our convoys, the local police clear the road for us-- often requiring that we cross over into the oncoming traffic lane to avoid a jam. The locals shake their head in disgust as we hop the median or otherwise move past the traffic snarls, but it's in neither of our interest for an American convoy to stop in a crowded area. A stopped convoy is a target, and given the level of armor we travel with, the people or vehicles next to us would be the most likely casualty should someone seize the opportunity to shoot at us. Baghdad is largely quiet at night due to a combination of curfews and vehicle bans, but during the day, in the context of this mix of modern and 3rd World, it has the general feel of a large city. Roads filled with cars, trucks and the occasional donkey cart, markets crowded with people, children carrying schoolbooks or waving at our vehicles, the noise and tempo of city life swirling in wafts of exhaust fumes, grilled lamb and raw sewage.

Don't be cheap, be on time

The author of this article has a convincing argument for why you shouldn't shop for the cheapest airline ticket this winter: "Saving a few dollars on a flight will seem a hollow victory if you spend Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or New Year's Eve in an airport terminal."

Seeing as how the summer was pretty bad (this article also has some advice for avoiding delays) and the Christmas / winter holiday season could be worse, this is an important article.

They offer some good advice. The airline hub is important. As Jetblue learned, if your hub is in New York, and New York is buried in snow your ability to get customers where they want to go on time is limited. So an airline with a hub somewhere nice and warm is a good choice.

Different airports in the same area can also be an important factor. That means you need to think about where you depart from and where you arrive. It might be worth going to an airport a bit further away if you avoid a delay.

Bonfire Night in the UK

It may seem a strange thing to celebrate, but every November 5th, people in the UK remember the exploits of a certain Guy Fawkes, who unsuccessfully tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament back in 1605. Some say he was the only person ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions! If you are reading this in the UK, you or your children may well be making last minute plans for an event that’s celebrated almost as enthusiastically as Christmas or Halloween.

Festivities usually take the form of a bonfire and fireworks and if you happen to be in Britain on November 5th, a visit to a bonfire night celebration is an experience not to be missed. You can find bonfires today all over Britain, from the smallest village to the largest city, but the largest and most famous celebrations are held every year in the town of Lewes, East Sussex, about 50 miles south of London.

The town even has different bonfire societies that try to outdo each other with their bonfires, fireworks and fancy dress competitions. Huge effigies of Guy Fawkes are carried through the town by thousands of people wielding burning torches, turning the streets into rivers of flame.

In addition to the usual bonfire, the town of Bridgewater in Somerset, in the southwest of England hosts a huge carnival and nighttime procession through the town – calling itself the largest illuminated carnival in the world.

Not to be outdone, London also hosts a series of spectacular bonfires in its many parks and open spaces every November 5th. One of the best fireworks displays takes place at Alexandra Palace, a huge Victorian structure which offers spectacular views over north London. As well as watching fireworks, you can listen to live music and sample an ice rink and an inside funfair.

Today, you can still see the place where Guy Fawkes was executed by hanging, in the Old Palace yard adjoining the Palace of Westminster – ironically just a few yards from where he intended to hide and detonate tons of explosive. The adjoining medieval Westminster Hall is one of the few parts of the Palace of Westminster that remains unchanged since that day and is still free to visit.

And today – over 400 years later - the Palace guards still search the cellars of the Houses of Parliament before every state opening of Parliament to make sure there are no explosives hidden there – although hopefully this routine is carried out as a quaint tradition rather than an actual deterrent!

Guest entry by Mancunian