Travel plan idea blog

Nakation info

The American Association for Nude Recreation defines a nakation as:

1. A clothes-free interlude from one's customary duties, as for recreation or rest; a holiday.
2. The part of your vacation you'll brag to friends about.

I almost went to a nude beach when I was in college, but I cancelled at the last minute because I was too nervous. Topless beaches never really bothered me but the idea of going to a nude beach really freaked me out and I haven't considered it since.

This slightly old New York Times article discusses a fellow who started taking clothing option vacations when he was around 67, a bartender who thinks minimalism is good for the environment (wonder if she bought carbon credits), and a woman who lost her inhibitions about being nude while on a nudist vacation.

The article mentions the Hidden Beach Resort - Mancunian wrote about that on this blog a while back. Then there's the Sea Mountain Inn (California), Mira Vista condos (Arizona), Occidental Grand Fuerteventura (Canary Islands). Then some popular hotels in Vegas have nude or topless pools: Caesar’s Palace and the Mirage in Las Vegas.

Of course, if all you need is a topless resort, I suppose most that welcome Europeans will be used to going topless at the pool / beach. Sirenis Punta Cana was certainly topless-friendly.

Responses to that article include information on gay nudist resorts and a complaint about Grand Lido Braco (Jamaica) where one woman was told to leave the beach if she didn't strip completely naked.

The article also said that naturalists have more nude vacation options than before:

The types of nude vacations have expanded too. Vacationers can now roll out a mat at all-nude yoga retreats, share banana bread with other guests at all-nude bed-and-breakfasts, gear up for nude mountain biking in California’s High Desert and saunter around the decks of cruise ships chartered specifically for clothing-free travel. In Germany, a travel operator has arranged for an all-nude charter flight this summer to take customers to a clothing-optional retreat in the Baltics. The naturists will take off and land fully clothed, but shed their clothes once airborne. (Flight attendants and crew will, however, keep their uniforms on.)

I understand nude yoga but not nude mountain biking...

This article talks about how nude recreation might help Arizona's economy. It's clear that travel companies see money to be made with the new nude flights, cruises, mountain bike excursions, etc.

For those of you who like to travel solo, many nude resorts don't allow single men. I guess single women are less likely to be voyeurs because there was no mention about turning women away.

Not quite back to normal yet

As I take breaks in my final push to finish correcting midterms, I come across articles that I present to you somewhat haphazardly:

An uplifting story about a volunteer program where people give wounded armed forces veterans access to their vacation homes.

Here we have a few book reviews including one travel book: “Home on the Road” (Syren Book Co., 5120 Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis, MN 55416, $14.95 paper) by Catherine Watson. Apparently if you don't vollow a link from Google news you have to register - I really hate that so let me give you the important bit:

I well remember Watson’s wonderful story about riding the Siberian railway years ago, being tailed by a Russian agent and drinking milk laced with formaldehyde. In her new book she describes a day in the small city of Suzdal in the most poetic of terms. Great!

I advise you to travel with Watson in this book to far-off places like Newfoundland, Tibet, Biminia and The Falkland Island and, yes, even Minnesota. If you missed her earlier book “Roads Less Traveled” published in 2005, it’s still available from Syren Book Co.

Then we have an article on how the cruise business is making Seattle one of America's busies ports but the ships brings environmental problems.

Dhani Jones on the Travel Channel: Dhani tackles the Globe

American football player Dhani Jones is filming for the Travel Channel. Apparently he plays with professional sports teams and the show, Dhani Tackles the Globe, focuses on sports that are not popular in America.

This article explains how he'll try to learn hurley, a sport I've never heard of.

I was able to find this clip of him playing rugby, but I don't think it's from the Travel Channel show:

So I guess we have to wait for this new series to come out to see if our complaints about the Travel Channel (and here are some more) have been addressed. Other new series include "Bizarre Worlds," starring "Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmern and "Cruise Season" for a look at cruise ships and port destinations around the world.

Still waiting for someone over there to notice my brilliant idea and make something happen.

Which parts of the travel industry are hurting most?

The Wall Street Journal says that the gloomy economic conditions are leading to shorter, less expensive vacations this summer.

I wish that meant sales, but thanks to gas prices airlines are expected to begin charging more.

There are some discounts to be had on European hotels:

WorldHotels, a company that does sales and marketing for more than 50 hotels in Europe, including properties such as Hotel California Paris Champs-Elysées and the Lindner Hotel in Berlin, have announced that U.S. passport holders can book rooms at a one-to-one euro-dollar exchange rate, which will save travelers at least 40%.

I went to the WorldHotels site - I didn't see anything about the special and the prices do reflect that the hotels listed there are 4 or 5 stars. I do hope to find a cheap, but nice place to stay for my trip to Amsterdam.

Cruise lines are actually doing well - possibly from new customers who are scrapping European vacations.

Aware that I should be cutting back

Here is yet another article on how many are finding it difficult to take vacations and another article with some vacation deals.

One of those deals is for Amsterdam:

House of Travel has land-only packages in Amsterdam for from $495 per person including two nights' accommodation at a three-star central hotel, breakfast daily, and a tour of Volendam and Marken. Return economy airfares flying Royal Dutch Airlines and Malaysian Airlines to Amsterdam via Kuala Lumpur from Auckland start from $2729 per person. For travel until November 5, with some closeout dates. For more information call: 0800 838 747.

I recently had to make a big travel decision concerning Amsterdam when my friend sent me an invitation to his 30th birthday party in Amsterdam (October this year). Now that's not long after my expensive summer vacation (cruise to Alaska) and I still haven't forgotten all the money I spent in Europe this winter.

My first reaction was, "Well it would be fun but I can't do it." Then I thought, "Well I could do it but it's not very practical."

Then I thought of a friend of mine, a great great guy named John Finnegan who died a few weeks ago at age 37. I had been in touch occasionally via email but hadn't seen him in maybe 8 years. Then I thought, "Some of my friends will be at this party in Amsterdam - do I really want to save money more than I want to make memories with my friends?" And I thought, "My birthday is at the same time - do I want to be home saving money on my birthday?"

So I'm going to Amsterdam in October. And still going on the cruise this summer. And I still spent a lot of money in Europe last winter. My wife and I are fortunate in that we do have jobs and are in enough demand that we can work overtime to help pay for all these vacations. Working all the time is tough but sometimes I can comfort myself by thinking that it's good to know what you have to do every day. Thanks Albert Camus!

We also have credit cards in case we don't work hard enough...

Geocaching & travel bugs

Here's a game I've never heard of before: geocaching. And its sister game "travel bugs". With the Geocache you use GPS coordinates to get to the general area and then search for the cache where you write your name down. Sometimes people put a travel bug inside the cache. Then the next person who finds the cache take the travel bug and hides it in some other cache. In this case, the travel bug would probably do more traveling than any of the people playing the game but I felt this was interesting enough to get a mention on my travel blog.

I don't think this game is for me, but if you're up for some local traveling you might give it a try.

Choosing a travel agent: Christoper Elliott's advice and my experience

About a week ago, I decided I needed a travel agent. This was something of a departure for me since I like planning things myself. I mean I started this blog to write about all the travel plans I was dreaming up and saving for when I had time and money to do something with them.

It seems that many people are like me, whenever I link to an article about travel agents we get comments about how unnecessary they are:

Travel agents & service
Travel agents & niches (no comments yet)
Travel agents by 2020

It's not that I never used travel agents by the way. I used to recommend researching plane fares online and then calling an agent or two to see if they could beat the online prices. They often could beat or match the prices in my experience.

Anyway, my experience so far seems to match some of what Christopher Elliott says in this article. He recommends travel agents and talks about how to choose one. After all you probably want to avoid most people who are just in it for the commission or those who recently bought into the "card mill" business / scam (depending on who you listen to)!

For example NCL has two different Alaskan cruises, Sawyer's Glacier and Inside Passage. I had no idea which one would be better. I could have spent some time researching it online but instead I asked the travel agent and got this response:

I did look at both cruises, and although the one on 7/5 is less expensive, I actually recommend the one on the 6th. The difference is the Glacier visit. On the 5th, they visit Sawyer Glacier, which is a very stable glacier, and calving there is not something that generally occurs. On the 6th, the visit is to Glacier Bay, which due to its instability, is the Glacier to see, as it has the best chance of calving during your visit. And lets be honest, looking at ice that just sits there isn't all that thrilling, after all. The last time I was in Glacier Bay, the calving started on the port side of the ship, and continued around the Bay till it just reached the starboard side. Magnificent!

She was also able to explain how my NCL coupons work - had I talked to her before calling the credit card company I would certainly have spent 500 points for a $500 discount rather than 400 points for a 2 person 2 category upgrade. Apparently a two "category" is like cheapest balcony to second cheapest balcony to third cheapest balcony. To me all balconies are in the same category (the balcony category). In the end we end up saving about $200 and spending 400 points instead of $500 and spending 500 points. I could blame Bank of America for not explaining the rewards well. Or I could blame myself for trying to apply my own brand of logic to a cruise line out there to make as much money as possible. Or I could just add it to my list of mistakes to learn something from and next time I need to deal with travel rewards talk to a travel agent first...

Now Christopher Elliott does say that the best test of a travel agent comes from troublesome situations so I hope I never really find out how good she is...

By the way, you may have noticed that I skipped posting on April 1st. I don't like that "fool's day" stuff so I just avoid human interaction (even online) as much as possible that day...

A few articles: Wisconsin adult resort, Cleveland museums, name spelling on flight tickets

This might be the British equivalent of the travel troubleshooter. I thought this one was interesting because correcting a spelling mistake on your ticket can be pretty tough. Who knew (maybe some of us could have guessed)? The other letters are pretty interesting reads as well.

I like this museum tour of Cleveland because I do want to get to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame one day and might as well see the other museums as well. A few things in the article apply only to students at Case Western Reserve University - the article comes from a student paper.

Finally we have an interesting sounding resort in Wisconsin. Unless my reading skills are worse than they used to be, the author tells us the price of a steak but not the price of a room. Weird. I went to check the resorts website but it was down. Anyway, the heated outdoor pool sounds nice. Not sure how it feels when you get out and the cold air takes over...

Budget Rent A Car screwing people over in Europe

Another travel troubleshooter article, this one warning us of potential problems renting cars in Europe. One piece of advice seemed pretty strange to me: "If none of those strategies work, you should consider walking away from the car rental counter. You might do better elsewhere."

I don't think anyone wants to spend their vacation shopping around for a rental car, especially after making reservations in the US.

Riots and the crackdown affecting Olympic travel plans

This article says of the Beijing Olympics:

There have been discussions of a possible international boycott of the Games, though the European Union and the United States have so far said they opposed the idea.

One Thai torchbearer has stated that she will no longer be participating because she wants to tell China:

...the world community could not accept its actions. The slaying of the Tibetans ... is an outright violation of human rights.

Of course this is a no-win situation for China because they can't let the riots continue and stopping rioters always means using soldiers or riot police and violence. I don't think that banning international media was a good idea - now we all want to know what China has to hide.

Mancunian wrote about possibly going to Tibet a while back and I have considered going myself. However I have a friend who said he won't visit Tibet because of the political situation there and this is making me think that I should follow his lead and not visit Tibet.

I was also thinking about heading to Beijing for the Olympics but I had already made other plans by the time the riots started and people started talking about boycotts...

Travel scams

This British article talks about some common travel scams including fake free trips to Florida, card mills (which aren't necessarily scams but you should know that it is network marketing and that many network marketing companies plus many network marketers don't deserve your trust), fly-by-nights, issues with travel insurance, people calling your room pretending to be hotel reception, bad exchange rates, fake cops who search you after a 'friend' gives you some drugs, drink-doping, unlicensed taxis, getting your bags stolen at security (especially common in US airports according to the article), trying to get in on a scam, and then a bunch of reader submitted scams.

The only real scam that I've experienced (one I didn't fall for since I had read about it before traveling) happened in Thailand. It's near the end of this travel essay. I remember being amazed that the Wat Pho guard sat there watching the scammer work on my wife and I. I don't know what those Wat Pho guards get paid, but whatever they get is more than that jerk deserves.

What do FEMA, the IRS, and TSA have in common?

Americans don't like any of them. This article talks about complaints Americans have with TSA expressed on the TSA blog.

Apparently, commenting on this blog can make a difference:

Last week, readers scored a point after some complained about a security procedure. At some airports, screeners had been ordering passengers to remove all electronics from their bags, rather than just laptops. There is no such rule. “We learned that this exercise was set up by local T.S.A. officers,” the agency reported back on the blog. By Monday afternoon, the word had gone out to T.S.A. screeners nationally: BlackBerrys, iPods and other electronics stay in bags.

Of course, people complain about TSA everywhere, even on this blog. But it's nice to know that on the TSA blog management may be reading...

Travel agents: besides medical tourism, in which niches are they needed?

When I asked about what travel agents will be doing in a few years, I stirred up some discussion. Many people say travel agents are no longer necessary but others have reasons why travel agents are still employed.

This article talks about how travel agents are still needed. The evidence they offer is that many people buy their plane tickets through travel agents.

Certainly there are niches where travel agents will always be needed. I think we can include the super wealthy vacations (though how would I know?), medical tourism, and a few others.

Speaking of medical tourism, we do have this article on dental vacations. Of course, I don't think you want to copy everything the family described in this article does since one person skipped going to the dentist for 10 years...

Kauai's identity: changing for the worse?

One of these days I will go to Kauai. I think I've written about these vacation rentals before and I know I've written about west Kauai.

However, this article talks about how Kauai is at a crossroads. Locals blocked the ferry Mancunian blogged about a while back because they were worried about increased traffic. The natives also have to deal with quickly rising real estate prices, and too much new construction.

Trips to Outer Space... Long awaited new shows on Travel Channel

For the person who has been absolutely everywhere (and some people have been just about everywhere, it seems) a trip to outer space (is there such a thing as inner space, or is all space considered to be outer?) is the next big thing in travel.

There seems to be something of a competition to be the first company to offer tours of space – this blog has talked about this on a couple of previous occasions) And if you want to honeymoon in space too, you may soon be able to do that.

Virgin Galactic (a subsidiary of Virgin Atlantic) is one of the main contenders when it comes to offering trips into space for those who can afford to pay for them. Virgin has even signed a contract with up to 50 travel agencies - meaning you can walk into a travel agent and book your space flight.

The company actually had plans to commence the trips this year, but now it seems as though they have postponed until 2009. Not that I have the money to pay for such a trip at the moment, anyway – the cost per person is around $200,000. Virgin already has around 200 people signed up for potential trips, although, apparently if you have enough Virgin frequent flyer miles, you can use those, according to one story.

On a completely unrelated note, the Travel Channel has started to show some new shows at last. This Monday saw the debut of Michael Palin’s new series “New Europe” in which he travels through various Eastern Europe countries. The first episode featured the intrepid traveler visiting a minefield in Serbia and exploring one of the most mysterious European countries - Albania.

The bad news is that Saturday evening saw back to back episodes of that old favorite “World Poker Tour”. According to our source at the Travel Channel, the Poker show won’t be on for much longer...

I’d better start buying those lottery tickets if I want a trip into space.

Guest entry by Mancunian.

And on a personal note, (this is me, not Mancunian) I wonder if anyone at the Travel Channel ever saw my blog entry on an idea for a budget travel show...

What is hard travel?

A friend of mine who has spen many years living and traveling in India and Nepal once called India "hard travel". This vidoe of a train ride in India reminded me of that statement and that I wanted to blog about it to get your opinions on hard travel. So what is hard travel?

Being on this train would certainly qualify:

However the term "hard travel" doesn't seem to be that common. A Google search showed me lots of hard travel cases, but that's about it.

So let me ask you, what is hard travel? Have you experienced it, heard about it, seen videos of it?

Packing, romance, hotels, cruises

I've taken several articles I thought were interesting and tried to tie them together into a coherent blog entry because I didn't feel like making 4 smaller ones.

This article made me smile. The author talks about how when she travel with her husband there's not much coordination when it comes to packing. But traveling with another woman is different because women know how to pack:

We understand the complexities of packing. One doesn't throw in a swimsuit just in case. It's a decision that involves suntan lotion, sandals, a cover-up, sunglasses and a month of dieting.

Speaking of traveling with your spouse, check out these tips on bringing some romance on your vacation. Hide a romantic card in your partner's luggage, have the hotel prepare roses and champagne in your room, visit the spa for a massage, bring body shimmer, temporary tattoos or body paint.

I guess you don't want to make a mess with paint in your own house but I'm not sure the hotel will be too happy if you get paint all over their room. Of course playing with paint is better than stealing - many old hotels are trying to get some of their old stuff back. Apparently you go on Ebay and find things like 5 gallon punch bowls that were stolen from a hotel 50 or more years ago.

And back to the topic of romantic travel, how about mentioning one of the more popular types of honeymoon - the cruise. According to this article, the cruise industry in the US might be facing a big change if a new rule is adopted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that would "require passenger cruise ships to spend at least half of each voyage in ports outside the United States." Somehow U.S. Customs and Border Protection thinks this will help cruise ships in Hawaii. I don't get it. Does anyone know why the cruise ships in Hawaii need help and how this new rule helps?

Nostalgia tourism: where would you go?

This article mentions nostalgia tourism:

...nine out of ten Brits were found to be using their holiday to return to a place that has a sentimental association for them.

The top five reasons were: 'Memories of a youth holiday' (27 per cent), 'lived in a destination when younger or as a student' (21.5 per cent), 'went there on honeymoon' (5.8 per cent), 'had a memorable romance there' (4.4 per cent) and 'got engaged or married there' (4.4 per cent).

This got me thinking about where I would go if I were to do some nostalgia tourism.

I considered going to Italy (instead of Munich, Zurich, and Madrid) this winter because my wife and I honeymooned there in 2001. We spent time in Rome, Assisi, Perugia, Florence, Venice, Naples, and Capri. We wouldn't have revisited all those places but might have done Rome, Perugia, Florence, Milan, and Verona or something like that. So Italy is definitely near the top of my nostalgia tourism list.

Another possibility is a road trip. When I was younger I went on two big road trips - one was a two week drive from New York to Orlando with obviously a number of stops on the way. A friend and I basically drove from youth hostel to youth hostel so ended up in some places I can't even remember - the woods of West Virginia somewhere, Kitty Hawk and Pembroke in North Carolina, some other places, and eventually Orlando. A road trip now wouldn't have to end up in Orlando and couldn't possibly follow the same route (well I guess I could look at a youth hostel map and mostly figure it out). One strong possibility would be something inspired by the movie Elizabethtown.

The other road trip I went on was when I drove alone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I would love to take my wife to Mardi Gras though I'm not sure I'm still young enough to party much. And I know I'm too old to drive there basically non-stop like I did back in the day. However, We were discouraged by a friend who lives in New Orleans. She told us that there are many more dangerous areas then there used to be, even where she lives in the French Quarter it is not uncommon to hear gun shots (not that it happens all the time or anything) and she is afraid to go outside for a smoke at night.

The last one I thought of was Disney World. I've been there three times but my wife has never been. I don't actually think I enjoyed it last time I was there (at the end of my road trip I mentioned above) although I do have a few good memories even from that visit. I still hate waiting in line, but I'm much less of an intellectual snob than I was back in college... I think my wife and I could have fun there - maybe make it a romantic holiday similar to a honeymooon.

And finally, I did recently do some nostalgia tourism when I took my parents and wife to Burlington Vermont this summer. I had a great summer there in 2000 when I was a camp counselor and was happy to share the city with my family and remind myself of some of the shops and scenes in Burlington.

Well I thought it was pretty fun thinking of nostalgia tourism. Would anyone else like to share their personal ideas on visiting places with some meaningful connection to your past?

Shopping on vacation: waste of time or good way to experience a country?

This entry started off as comment on my entry about how hard it is to get a tax refund after shopping in the EU.

I think it brings up a question entirely unrelated to that post though, so I decided to make it a standalone blog entry and see if you also feel it is worth discussing.

The question: Is shopping a good vacation activity?

Now the obvious answer is that it will be good for some and not so good for others depending on individual interests. But some readers seem to think that when I go on vacation there are better ways to spend my time and money than looking to buy nice clothes.

The comments that got me started were:

You must be nuts and VERY materialistic. Give me a break, Next time enjoy the country not the stores. Have a hard time feeling sorry for you.

Did you go shopping or did you go to meet the people and get to know them. Instead of staying in hotels stay at "zimmer frei" and you will get the most for your money and make friends for life. We tried getting our tax money back at Frankfurt one time and no one informed us we had to have the purchases with us. The agent stamped our receipts anyway and we made our way to the place to get our money. That said, it wasn't hardly worth it. All I read from your postings was how expensive everything was and your food was too expensive and the hotels were too expensive and the shopping was too expensive. Two hints: Don't go shopping and don't eat at expensive restaurants. Look for out of the way places and go to the small towns. If you don't have enough money to do it right, STAY HOME!!! An 18 trip to Europe Traveler!!!

Starting with the Jane Doe comment, I'm not crazy enough to argue that I'm not nuts and I don't ask anyone to feel sorry for me so no discussion there.

The bit about being materialistic though seemed important to me. I am materialistic and I don't see anything wrong with my vacation reflecting that. Let's say I need to wear a suit to work. I can choose to wear a cheap suit or a designer suit. I don't think too many people will say that choosing the designer suit is wrong. And since so many designers are European it makes sense to me that you might want to check out the choices if you happen to be in Europe.

This brings me to Jane Doe's bit about enjoying the country and not just the stores. Why can't you do both? I'd like to refer you to travelfan's comments about Zurich and how the stores on pedestrian streets are a great attraction (many long time readers will find it ironic that I use travelfan's comment to support my argument when we have had so many disagreements in the past).

What I'm trying to say is that the stores are part of the country. When you enjoy the pedestrian shopping streets in Zurich you are experiencing Switzerland. Sure there's more (I don’t ski and I missed the coffee museum in Zurich for example) but the stores are an important part of a visit to Zurich. The same is probably true for visits to most cities.

Then we have Lou's comment. He asked "Did you go shopping or did you go to meet the people and get to know them?" He also advises "Don't go shopping..."

Actually, I think that walking the streets and visiting the shops helps me meet people. After a few hours of shopping we've talked to lots of people but after a few hours in a museum we probably haven't talked to anyone. We also see miles of streets and thousands of people as we walk around.

So I disagree with people who say it is better not to shop while on vacation, especially when we're talking about my vacation. For people who enjoy shopping it's a great way to see the city (we spent hours wandering the streets every day despite occasionally sore feet), meet people (we didn't make any lifelong friends but we weren't really looking to either), pick up a few words of the local language, and see some of the local culture (assuming you visit shops that locals - and not just tourists - visit).

It can certainly be overdone and there is certainly a huge amount of personal preference here. I know I spent more time in shoe stores than I would have liked but if I'm with my wife - and she's happy trying on shoes - I can be happy too (for a while anyway).

Proposal for travel show - real budget travel expereinces

Here is my initial idea for a travel show to be aired on the Travel Channel or wherever. It is based on the comments on Mancunian´s last post. I´m just going to jot down my initial ideas. As you know, I am on vacation and can´t spend too much of my time in Madrid in the PC room. I hope that you will add your ideas ni the comments section so that together we can create a good proposal for a travel show we actually want to see...

The goal of my plan here is to get a travel show with real people trying to travel on a budget and enjoy their vacation at the same time.

First, each show follows a traveler for 2 episodes, say an hour each as they plan and go on vacation.

Second, some shows focus on single travelers, some on couples, some on families (singles or couples with kids).

Third, each traveler gets a budget for their vacation. Maybe $2,000 for singles, $2,500 for couples, $3,000 for families.

Fourth, the couple pays for the vacation themselves.

Fifth if the traveler does not go over budget, the show covers all vacation expenses. If the traveler goes over budget they get nothing from the show and they pay their own credit card bill or whatever.

New Year – New Travel Channel?

I have posted a couple of times previously on this site about the disappointing quality of shows on the Travel Channel. They seem to have a lot of shows that are not actually about travel, but about poker, monster trucks, treasure hunting, etc.

Well, we are a little way into the new year, so I thought I would check out the Travel Channel and see what kind of shows are on…On one of my previous postings on this topic, I got a reply from someone at the channel, defending the network and promising no more “World Poker Tour”! That alone would make me happy – especially as the poker show seems to always be on at peak viewing time.

One of the better shows on the Travel Channel is “Samantha Brown – Passport to Europe”. All of these shows have been shown several times now over the last year or two. If someone from the Travel Channel is reading this, can I suggest a new series of shows with Ms. Brown, presenting destinations in Asia, Africa or the South Pacific?

Well, I am sorry to say I haven’t been too impressed with the programming on the Travel Channel for the first week or so of this year. The offerings on New Year’s Day were the Tournament of Roses shown several times, followed by back to back episodes of “Cash and Treasures” – which I don’t really consider to be a travel show.

Today (Saturday) is not much better – we have “Bizarre Foods” and “World Poker Tour” along with several other programs which have been shown several times before – “Tokyo Revealed” and “Earth’s Natural Wonders”. And tomorrow (Sunday) seems to be mostly “Bizarre Foods”, “Passport to Europe” and “Treasure Hunting”.

And if somebody from the Travel Channel is reading this, I do have another request. Is it possible to broadcast a Bill Bryson show, which was broadcast in the UK in 1999? Bryson is better known as a humorous travel writer and one of his books “Notes from a Small Island” in which he travels around the UK, was made into a TV series. I have never seen it, but would like to. And also, when is Michael Palin’s new TV series going to be shown, in which he travels around Eastern Europe?

I’m curious – what do other readers of this site enjoy watching on the Travel Channel? And are there any shows / destinations you would like to see…?

Guest entry by Mancunian

Where can you vacation without losing your ethics?

This article asks whether its ethical to visit countries where people are oppressed by dictatorships or whathaveyou. I recently told my wife that I wouldn't visit North Korea with her. I don't really feel like paying Kim Jong Il to see the tiny part of the country tourists are allowed to see. I probably won't be going to Burma (Myanmar) but I did consider going to Tibet.

The article also mentions Iran and the Maldives. I have a colleague from Iran and he made his home country, especially the city of Tehran, sound pretty appealing. I'm not sure why the Maldives are mentioned in the same sentence as North Korea. Cuba also gets a mention - I'd go there if it weren't illegal for US citizens.

Which countries would you visit / not visit?

Gather for the holidays in your home or in a resort?

This article is obviously aimed at rich people:

She also advises clients to be open to unusual spots. Christmas in Provence or New Year’s in Seville can provide unexpected pleasures — a Gratsos client who took a villa in Spain had a memorable Christmas complete with flamenco dancing — and the properties can cost 25 percent less than they would at high season, she says. That means homes in Provence may run about $20,000 a week at Christmas, down from $25,000 in the summer.

But the question might be for everyone who can afford to travel for the holidays - there's no law that says you have to get a $20,000/week house. $2,000 a week might get you a nice house somewhere and if a few families are splitting the costs things might work out reasonably.

So I ask you: Have you tried or at least considered doing the holidays in a vacation spot instead of in someone's home?

I know we always do Christmas at my parents' house. This year my wife and I will be in Munich and we invited everyone to join us there. No takers though.

Another reason to be careful of local laws when you travel

A Britsh woman in Sudan was recently arrested for allowing her students to name a teddy bear. Naming the bear Muhammed was seen as an insult to Islam in Sudan (the verdict and penalty have been condemned by Muslim groups in London).

I guess she got off easy with only 15 days in prison and not the 40 lashes...

And if you want to leave some inflammatory comment, do it on the article I'm linking to. I will delete all comments that are not directly related to knowing local laws when you travel. Now if you have heard of a similar story or know someone who had a close call thanks to not knowing the local laws then your comment is welcome.

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.

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.

Who wants to see a volcano erupt on vacation?

Here's an interesting article about how in the Philippines, people are trying to prmote active volcanoes as tourist destinations:

"People are fascinated by the phenomenon of volcanic eruptions," said Francois Dominique de Larouziere, scientific director of Vulcania, a volcano park that has drawn some 2.45 million paying visitors a year since its opening in 2002 on an extinct volcano in the remote Auvergne region of central France.

During last year's deadly eruptions of the Mayon volcano 340 kilometres (210 miles) southeast of Manila tourists flocked to the area to catch a glimpse of the eruptions.

Now I would go to a volcanic spa, but I also hope it doesn't erupt on me...

Living near a criminal who isn't going to jail

Sorry for not posting yesterday but we had some excitement in our apartment building (we live in an apartment complex for foreign faculty) when one teacher beat up an old Korean man (with a chair).

He's not in jail. Apparently according to Korean law you have to hurt someone 4 weeks worth to earn jail time. The old man went to the doctor and will "only" be hurt for 2 weeks so the teacher is safe in that sense it seems.

Still something obviously needs to be done. When my wife went outside to see what all the yelling was about the bad guy yelled and cursed at her a lot. By the time she woke me up (heavy sleeper) things had calmed down somewhat but we're still pretty mad about it all...

I have a couple of articles coming in the next few hours but meanwhile, I thought I'd pose a discussion question inspired by the Korean law (as it was explained to me) that if you injure someone for less than 4 weeks you don't get prosecuted (I mean when a young man attacks an old man with a metal chair the young guy deserves to go to jail, right?):

What crazy laws have you learned about places you've been?

Let me qualify this by saying that I'd rather talk about laws that actaully matter or affect people. We've all heard crazy laws like "In Delaware it is illegal to get married on a dare" or "It is illegal to have sex with a porcupine in Florida" (who knows if those are even truly laws?).

Anyway, I'm not talking about weird, obscure laws that people will never encounter. Let's share laws that might be worth knowing or might actually matter to travelers.

Where should university exchange students study in America? Where did you (or should you have) studied?

Many of my students plan to study as exchange students (undergrad) in the US or attend graduate school here. For example, just today, one student told me he would be going to Madison, Wisconsin for a semester.

I've never been to Madison so there wasn't much I could tell him, but it got me thinking. Exchange students face all kinds of challenges. They think the language will be a big issue but if they pass the university interview system I think their English is good enough.

One of the big problems for those not going to a major city (and who can afford to live in New York or Boston these days?) is transportation. I wonder if my student will be able to get around in Madison.

Of course, there are other possibilities as well. Vancouver, Canada is a popular choice for students. And countries such as the Philippines are often less expensive options.

The other question I'd like to ask is where did you go if you did a study abroad program? Or where do you wish you had gone?

Personally, I always ignored the study abroad choices at my university. Now I realize that I was being stupid. There are hundreds of countries where a semester could have really helped me see the world. Some place close like Mexico, some place exotic like China. But I really wish I had experienced Europe during my college years.

Plan your winter vacation in advance

One line from this article about planning vacations in advance rang especially true for me:

Pam Seagle, an agent with Carlson Wagonlit Travel in High Point, N.C., said the families who "get it" booked their holiday travel plans back in January and February of 2007.

My wife and I were making plans for our trip to Europe this winter back in April when we called a travel agent to ask about flights (after shopping online).

It turns out that the cheapest flights from Seoul to Europe are with Thai Air. It's a very long flight, Seoul - Bangkok - Munich (or wherever). However we figured we could make it worthwhile by spending some time in Thailand, maybe a week to study Thai massage in Wat Pho or something. Then we learned that all the flights from Seoul to Bangkok for Dec. 19-21 (our possible departure dates) were already booked.

So we ended up with flights on Lufthansa or something but I just couldn't believe that everything was full so far in advance.

How many countries have you visited?

Do you consider yourself to be well-traveled? You probably haven’t been to as many different countries, states and territories as Charles Veley. According to this web site he has visited almost every place in the world – a total of 627 states, territories, countries and provinces. I’m amazed that he has somehow found the time to do this, as he’s only 42!

According to infoplease, there are 194 countries in the world today, although it depends upon your definition of a country. The 673 places are arrived at by listing not only every country, but all the US states, Canadian provinces, territories, island groups and disputed territories.

The web site lists places I have never heard of and will probably never visit – the Lesser Sunda Islands, Karnataka, Redonda and Pukapuka. Some of these places don’t even have scheduled air or boat service – and some of the places on the list I wouldn’t want to visit such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Rwanda.

The site also needs proof of visiting the country, in the form of a passport entry stamp, airline ticket or credit card receipt. So if your plane lands there but you don’t leave the airport, it doesn’t really count! Speaking of exotic and hard to come by passport stamps, Budget Travel’s web site has a slide show of some of the most unusual.

It seems as though it would take almost as much time and effort to visit every county in the United States – all 3086 of them. But apparently, there are people who do just that and call themselves the Extra Mile Club. And the club doesn’t need proof that you have been to the counties – they are prepared to take your word for it. By the way – in Louisiana, counties are known as parishes and in Alaska, they are called boroughs.

But with all his 627 places visited, there is no mention of Mr.Veley having visited the self-proclaimed nation of Sealand, which declares itself to be the world’s smallest country and is currently up for sale.

So which reader of this site has visited the most countries? I thought I was doing well at 21 countries, but obviously I have some way to go...

Guest entry by Mancunian

Vegas massage therapist speaks

Here's a moderately interesting article from the point of view of a Vegas massage therapist who complains about being grabbed and mistaken for a prostitute, customers who are sick or dirty, not getting a 20% cash tip, and customers who complain that women don't give good deep tissue massages.

A few articles to get you reading & thinking

I'm entertaining my Parents-in-law today so I hope you don't mind if I'm a bit brief...

We've had a few discussions on this site about when (and if) to use travel agents. If I were gay, I would use this travel agent. He says he works hard for his clients and he has been to 120 countries so he has a bit of first-hand travel experience...

Most of the article is about gay/lesbian travel. There seem to be lots of cruise options.

Here we have a handful of free vacations for US soldiers. I hate mentioning the war because we tend to get at least one crazy comment about it every time (not surprising that war makes people emotional though) and it leaves me open to criticism about not supporting our troops. In reality though, injured soldiers like the guy in this story need more support from the US. 23 free vacations isn't enough when thousands are dead or injured, is it?

Blowing Rock might be a funny name, but it sounds like a nice place for a vacation home. Apparently there are about 1,500 full-time residents but more like 10,000 people in the summer. Supposedly this place can compete with the nature spots we're talking about on the post from the other day.

What British people can do when travel plans go bad - do Americans have any recourse?

From this article, I get the impression that British travelers who are unhappy with their travel agents get taken care of much better than Americans in the same situation.

For example this story talks about a British couple that had planned a trip to Egypt. Then they had to cancel when they found out the flight schedule had changed. The travel agent (Thomas Cook) offered them a full refund plus 50 British Pounds (about $100).

That sounds wonderful to me - I can't even begin to imagine an American company giving you a full refund. Something a little extra for your trouble is just out of the question, isn't it?

But the British couple said 50 pounds wasn't enough - they wanted 10,000 pounds. Now that's American thinking!

This left the British couple with two choices:

Disappointed holidaymakers have two options: arbitration through the Abta (Association of British Travel Agents) scheme, where a third party hears both sides and makes a decision resolving the dispute; or going through the courts.

In America, I think the only real choice is calling one of the newspaper travel troubleshooters or trying the troubleshooting process out on your own. I don't know of an arbitration system, and going to court would probably be too difficult and expensive. And with the troubleshooters, you're lucky to get your money back. You're lucky to get any money back, really.

So the British couple in this story went to arbitration and lost. Honestly, what were they thinking asking for 10,000 pounds?

Now some people complain that Abta favors travel agents (considering the name stands for Association of British Travel Agents, I guess this wouldn't surprise me) but statistics show that many travelers do win even if their rewards are not as big as their claims.

What's the most striking nature scene you've seen on vacation?

First, I apologize for not blogging yesterday - I had to finish off a paper on how repetition is wrongly associated with only Behaviorism when (if done properly) it is actually cognitive...

Anyway, back to blogging and dreaming of vacations.

I love nature and everything, but I'm not so sure I see the appeal in bird watching. I like birds (when we were in Vermont we looked for humming birds while eating breakfast since there was a feeder just outside the window) but I c