Travel plan idea blog

What do you do with old travel guide books?

Since I'm in the middle of moving, I find myself wondering which old stuff to keep and which old stuff to get rid of. Among my stuff I never think about using are a number of travel guides like Lonely Planet Italy and a Let's Go Italy - both purchased before my honeymoon in 2001. And there are lots of other books that aren't quite as old but are old enough that I'd think twice before using one of them again - if I ever even had the opportunity to use one of them again.

But sadly, I don't think I'm going back to Turkey or Japan any time soon. So should I throw these books in the garbage? Living in Korea, there aren't really a lot of charity thrift shops looking for English travel guides so I can't donate them easily.

Anyway, how long do you keep guide books around? Does anyone get rid of them as soon as they're done with the vacation they got the book for?

Posted by James Trotta at 8:33 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

Looking for follow ups to the Andaman Islands' "human zoo"

Human zoos are, it seems, nothing new, but I'm seeing the term for the first time.

I'm late, the article is a few months old, and talks of the Andaman Islands in India. Other articles from the same time talk of worldwide outrage and the suggestion that the video that sparked this outrage is 6-7 years old.

Looking for more recent articles, I found that Thailand has it's own Andaman Islands; the area includes Maya Bay (Phi Phi Ley), where The Beach with Leonardo DeCaprio was filmed.

But where is the worldwide news coverage? I figured some enterprising journalist would have done a bit of research and looked to learn if the video was, in fact, 6 years old.

I did find this brief follow up from about a month after the original story broke. And I did find a more recent article on human safaris (similar to the human zoo term it seems) in Peru.

Has anyone seen a more recent article about the investigation (or lack of one) in India?

Posted by James Trotta at 7:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Exchange student safety

This article says America is not doing enough to protect visiting high school exchange students. It got me thinking about the safety of exchange students. I'm curious how many American high school students ever go abroad to study in a foreign country and how safe they are when they do. And while college students should be better equipped to live on their own, how safe are they when they do semester abroad programs and such?

And a similar question for my non-American readers - would you or did you send your kids to study in America. What, if anything, worried you when you did?

Posted by James Trotta at 7:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Would you travel to watch turtles lay eggs?

I recently got a press release about stuff going on in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.There was one thing that made me stop and think - what's the point in watching sea turtles lay eggs? And it's somewhat funny that I think this way because I could see watching a turtle laying on the beach as being pretty great.

Turtle Time. Experience the circle of life as three endangered sea turtle species gather during the summer nights to lay their eggs. Families can enjoy guided nighttime "Turtle Walks" at various locations throughout the area starting in June and July, including the Moonlight, Sea Turtles and You! at the Museum of Discovery & Science, Sea Turtle Awareness at John U. Lloyd Beach State Park in Dania Beach and Sea Turtles and Their Babies at Anne Kolb Nature Center at West Lake Park in Hollywood. These turtle nesting programs offer travelers the opportunity to get reacquainted with nature up close. Visit http://www.sunny.org/visitors/beaches/seaturtles

Posted by James Trotta at 10:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How nice are you when you travel?

I still remember hanging out with some homeless kids in New Orleans when I was there for Mardi Gras in 2000 or so. I considered myself a budding sociologist at the time and figured I had a chance to learn about a new culture. Plus I was sleeping in my car each night and not really eating in order to save money so I fit right in anyway.

Except that I could only watch them beg for money, being far too shy to try it myself. And I wasn't interested in bragging about track marks from the previous night's drug use.

Anyhow, something happened that week in New Orleans that made a lasting impression on me. When one kid asked a guy for money, the guy responded by buying us a loaf of bread and a package of baloney or something. It wasn't delicious, but still a great meal I'll never forget.

This press release I received recently sort of reminded me of the kind traveler I want to be. And I can't help but be reminded of the opposite of New Orleans kindness during the 2009 Mardi Gras shooting.

When traveling, we often become consumed by thinking of what souvenirs we can collect to bring back home. Why not change it up and leave some kind behind!?

Start by bringing along your Boom Boom! Cards, intentional acts of kindness cards, to play it forward with the locals wherever you go! Help spread the Boom Boom! love near and far!

Each card contains an act of guerilla goodness for you to perform, then pay forward, helping you to spread kindness and positivity throughout your home, community, and life (wherever it may lead you!). From there, engage with the Boom Boom! community at http://boomboomcards.com by posting your kindness stories, photos and videos, and follow your cards (each has a unique ID) on the Boom Boom! map, so you can see how your acts of kindness create a positive ripple effect!

"Wish someone a happy half birthday. If you are feeling especially festive, buy them a card and maybe a small gift."

"Commit the radical act of kindness of your choice. Be daring. Be outrageous. Be whimsical. But above all, be kind."

OH well. At least it's a cool idea, even if the implementation seems a bit weak.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How hard should it be to climb Yosemite National Park's Half Dome?

Interesting article here on an effort being made to restrict access to Yosemite National Park's Half Dome.

One argument goes like this:

"At the end of the day, if the visitors and users of wilderness aren't willing to make sacrifices to preserve the wilderness character of these areas, then we just won't have wilderness. We'll have some Disney-fied version of it," said George Nickas, executive director of Wilderness Watch.

"Once you get up there it's like 'holy cow.' It's just one of those moments in your life when you go 'wow' and you question your existence and space and time and everything else," said hiker Townsley, who thinks everyone should be allowed the experience.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Is Cancun a famous honeymoon spot?

I was talking to a student today and the subject of Cancun came up. When I said I had been there she replied that she was jealous. I'm not a big fan of Cancun so I asked her why. She said because it was such a popular honeymoon spot with American couples.

If she's right, it's funny that a Korean college student would know Cancun's reputation better than me since I'm an American who has been there. I got the feeling that American college kids go there to party although the front desk staff did mistake my sister and I for a honeymooning couple since we had the same last name.

Also, I do remember we went on a snorkeling tour and one young woman had lost her engagement ring. The Mexican snorkeling tour leaders were diving to search for it and coming up empty-handed. She obviously didn't believe them and thought they must have found it and pocketed it. Yet, she never volunteered to help them search for it in the first place.

Anyhow, what do you think of when you think about Cancun?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

How do you estimate the value of your next vacation?

My wife and I have been going back and forth the past few days on whether or not we should go to Hawaii in February. We both want to, of course, but we're not sure if it's worth the money. And we're not sure how to decide.

We figure we're looking at at least $4,000 if we do things as cheaply as we're able. That includes getting a friend to pet sit for us - otherwise add another $900 for the pet hotel. Obviously we prefer to save the money but our friend has a job and dogs can use extra attention because one of them is pretty old and has to eat three times a day at the same time every day. Even with a friend pet sitting, we figure about 5k if we don't count pennies, and while I am somewhat cheap, I don't like being super cheap on vacation because it stresses me out.

And while we'd like to see Hawaii, we'd also like to save more money to move to Hawaii or somewhere else while I do a PhD. It would be nice to save up some money before becoming a poor student again.

Plus, we could be happy staying in our apartment with our dogs, possibly visiting a few places in Seoul or elsewhere in Korea - a staycation or a close-to-home vacation. Probably staying in Korea with the dogs would not make us as happy as being on a beach in Hawaii though. And we could seize the moment, live for today, follow our bliss, etc.

Anyone else have / had a similar dilemma? How did you decide to vacation or not?

Posted by James Trotta at 9:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

What's the appropriate punishment?

What's the appropriate punishment, if any is warranted for an honest mistake, in this situation:

RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Beach took a group of 30 people, including Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta, in a boat to scuba dive in the open ocean.

When Kline and Garcia surfaced, however, they found that the boat had gone. They had to cling to buoy for 2 hours in shark infested waters before a private yacht rescued them.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:37 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Hidden hotel fees and charges / First day of Autumn / Haunted Prison / Most Traveled Person Update

We are all familiar with hidden airline fees, those annoying extra fees and charges added on to the ticket price for everything from an extra pillow, to a pre-reserved seat. However, a recent trend seems to be hidden hotel charges, although I have yet to encounter any of these. I am guilty of always paying hotel and restaurant bills without actually looking at them, which of course is not what you should do. Some hotels have been charging between $5 and $8 for a packet of tea or coffee, and some charging between $20 and $50 for early check in - things which most of us assume should be included in the basic room price. In fact, it is estimated that hotels stand to make $1.8 billion a year from these extra fees and charges. Experts say that if you are hit with these unfair charges, you should complain in person when you check out, before paying your bill, as after the fact, it is often difficult to get reimbursed for anything.

It was the official first day of Fall / Autumn a few days ago and if you live in the United States and need some ideas for places to see the leaves changing color, this site may give you some ideas. I moved to New Jersey about a year ago and did not really realize there were mountains here, although apparently there are in a region of the state known as the Skylands. In fact, people go skiing up there too and I certainly didn't think of New Jersey as a skiing destination. Of course, it is almost the time for haunted houses and ghosts and I was intrigued to learn that I live near one of the most haunted places in the country, the Eastern State Penitentiary. This was once one of the strictest prisons in the United States, and home to Al Capone among others. Their website makes it sound as though visiting at Halloween would be more than just a little bit scary.

In addition to Halloween, October is also the month for state fairs and I as I always used to go to the NC State Fair and eat overpriced sickly food, it got me wondering which is the largest and best state fair? The largest apparently is Texas, (although not necessarily the best) and the Texas State Fair takes place this year from September 30th to October 23rd. In fact, it describes itself as the greatest state fair in the world, although I'm not sure other countries have state fairs. Perhaps Charles Veley, the world's most traveled person, should add state fairs to his list of places to visit if he runs out of countries. Since I last mentioned him, Mr Veley has been busy traveling and now only has 50 countries, states, provinces and islands to go until he has visited them all. This means he has to go to such remote places as the Desventuradas Islands and Karakalpakstan. I'm not quite sure how anyone has the time and money to do that, but it must be nice!

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 5:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Pan Am / Travel Bookshop / Packing Light and Baggage Fees / TSA Procedures for Children

I have complained about the lack of travel shows on American TV several times on these pages and although things have not really changed much, there is at least an airline themed new show coming on ABC on September 25th. It is called Pan Am, and judging from the previews looks to be a little bit like a soap opera, although it is set on and around the now defunct airline at the beginning of the 1960s. According to the network's site, the show will take in such exotic locations as Berlin, Paris, Jakarta and Monte Carlo. I would be surprised if ABC had the money to film in all those places, but we shall see. I have noticed that in many TV shows and films, Montreal often stands in for Paris. Also on the same evening, one of the best reality shows, the Amazing Race, returns, in which teams race around the world and perform various tasks.

I think its a shame when any bookshop closes (I will probably be the last person in the world to buy a Kindle, or whatever the other thing that you can read electronic books on is called) but particularly sad is the story that the Travel Bookshop, that featured in the 1999 movie Notting Hill which starred Julia Roberts, is set to close, according to this UK newspaper. I remember going to the shop occasionally when I lived in London, although there is always Stanford's, also in London, and said to be the world's largest map and travel bookshop. I spent many happy hours in there too, poring over maps to places I will probably never go to.

This site has talked before about high airline fees for just about everything, including of course, those for excess baggage. The excess baggage fees can certainly make some money for the airlines, as apparently during the first 3 months of this year they collected around $780 million in bag fees. I have never paid an excess baggage fee, and would rather just pack lightly, and if I am going to England for just a few days can almost get away with just a carry on bag and no checked luggage. The travel writer and TV presenter Rick Steves points out http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/pack-light.htm that he spends several months in Europe every summer with just a regular carry on size bag. I suppose if you don't mind having a limited wardrobe and doing a lot of laundry, that would be realistic! In fact, if you take one of Rick's tours to Europe, you are only allowed to take one carry on bag, measuring the standard 9 by 22 by 14 inches. How do other people pack, and would this limitation be something you could live with?

With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 behind us, the TSA here in the United States has decided to ease the rules on children traveling. Children under 12 will not have to take their shoes off and a physical pat down will only take place, if there seems to be a good reason for it. Also, once on the plane, all children under 12 will be required to sit and read quietly for the duration of the flight and not constantly ask: Are we there yet? Can I use the bathroom? When do we get fed? Can I have a soda? I don't like this food! Can I get something out of my backpack, which has been crammed into the overhead compartment, so that it inconveniences as many people as possible?

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 10:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Garuda Indonesia searching for breast implants and tattoos when hiring female crew

This story recently became news in Korea: Garuda Indonesia wanted to hire some Korean cabin crew and as part of the hiring process had a male Indonesian doctor check the women who applied (I don't know if any men applied) for breast implants and tattoos.

Tattoos they don't like for religious reasons and breast implants they say are a health hazard (a loss in cabin pressure hurts people with breast implants or something).

Defending themselves, Garuda Indonesia quotes (they say the original quote came from Korea's Chosun Ilbo) one of the people they examined (and hired perhaps?):

We are not fools. If the doctors really touched our breast, don't you think all 27 ladies would have done something about it? All the applicants that underwent the physical check-up were told to keep their bras on and wear an examination gown, and during that time, doctors only examined their chest.

The Huffington Post also quotes a Korean newspaper:

One applicant told Korean newspaper The Hankyoreh that during her exam she "removed her brassiere while covered in a blanket, lay down, and had her chest palpated with a medical instrument by the male doctor."

"Had I known what kind of examination it would be, I would not have agreed to it," the applicant told the paper. She added that she agreed to the check-up because she was told it was required and was not given any other details before hand.

What do you think about a breast exam required of female applicants (because the airline can say the women gave consent, but really if they want the job what choice did they have?) in which the doctor uses a medical instrument to check for implants? Is it Garuda Indonesia's responsibility to have a female doctor on staff? Is the exam wrong without considering the sex of the doctor?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dangerous beaches? Are sharks your primary safety concern?

This article about beaches where you're more likely to get bitten by a shark caught my eye when it reached Yahoo's front page. Naturally, my first reaction is to not swim at those beaches where attacks are more likely, but shark attack stats don't tell the whole story.

For example:

Stephen Schafer was kitesurfing 500 yards off an unguarded part of Stuart Beach, in Martin County, Fla., last February when he was attacked by a swarm of sharks.

The other thing is that sharks aren't the only danger you ought to consider. A beach with no shark attacks could theoretically be more dangerous because of the currents or for other non-shark related reasons.

Are there any beaches you refuse to swim at? If so, what makes the beach dangerous?

Posted by James Trotta at 7:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Talking about travel = sexier you & good date material?

This excerpt from a Lonely Planet blog by Robert Reid got me thinking about how my wife seduced me by talking about how she lived in Rome for a while and walked by Il Colosseo every day. Here's the excerpt:

Travel makes you sexier

It's not just a tan you return with, but stories. According to one recent ItsJustLunch.com survey, the best first-date conversation topic was hobbies, with travel following second. Somehow manage to combine the two, and brace yourself Romeo.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

US Airways & police vs. Deshon Marman: authorities on a power trip or offensive young man?

The airline says his pants were below his knees. Deshon Marman says only the top of his underwear was showing. Then a detective allegedly lied to him to get him off the plan peacefully and then once off the plane he was violently arrested. All that from this video.

LZ Granderson of ESPN says it has to do with race. That lots of people wear their pants low but that black Americans suffer most for it. It's a very small sample but this comparison does support the claim:

Besides, in an incident earlier this year, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington got into a verbal spat with another passenger on a United flight. Huffington was removed from the plane after she ignored the flight attendant's request to turn off all electronic devices, yet she avoided handcuffs. If violation of a Federal Aviation Administration law concerning the safety of the aircraft isn't enough to get someone arrested, how did saggy pants get Marman in handcuffs?

I tell you how.

He's big and black and was dressed in a way that many interpret as thuggish, and his reaction to being asked to pull up his pants did little to help matters.

This video looks that way to me. He sounds like a guy who doesn't want to be arrested while he's not breaking any laws. He says he has taken care of the problem (pulled up his loose pajama pants). Sounds like the people in authority don't care - just happy to go on a little power trip.

Another passenger had this to say: The passenger said Marman's sweatpants sagged to mid-thigh level and revealed skin-tight black underwear.

"When I first saw him coming down the aisle, I was like, 'Come on man, really?' " he said. "But after he sat down, you couldn't see anything."

The passenger's statement conflicts with this CNN report which says Marman refused to pull up his pants. It sure doesn't look like that to me based on what Marman says in the video and the eyewitness account.

Going back to my title for this post, US Airways & police vs. Deshon Marman: authorities on a power trip or offensive young man?, you can see I'm not entertaining the idea that our student athlete did anything dangerous. He did wear pajamas onto a plane and they were too low. How bad is that? Was the captain right to impose a dress code (US Airways doesn't have one)?

How does this compare to other cases of people getting kicked off planes but not lied to and then surprise arrested? For example there was the "bye bye plane" baby and the breast feeding mother whose husband wouldn't hold up a blanket. There's Cynthia Angel who feared her pilot may have been drinking. There's the girl who coughed too much. Then there's Kyla Ebbert who wore a short skirts (but was eventually allowed to fly).

In the end, I think the different treatment Ebbert got compared to what Marmon got lends a lot of weight to the idea that this was a racist incident. The big black guy gets cuffs - despite adjusting his pants - while the pretty white girl is allowed to continue on her way after making an adjustment. Seems like the authorities (flight crew, pilot, and police) see a big black man and have to impose their will on him and break him down - show him who's boss. At least it seems that way to me. Knowing we may not have all the facts, what do you think about US Airways & police vs. Deshon Marman?

Posted by James Trotta at 12:03 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

The Pujie Girls: Planking for tourism, stray dogs, and bizarre photo ops

When I saw a news headline on the front page of Yahoo about planking for tourism and stray dogs, I had to check it out. I had no idea what planking was (although I do know about plank, the exercise and am a firm believer in the importance of exercise since having a strong back and other body parts makes traveling easier) but I like tourism and I like rescuing stray dogs.

Here's the article - or at least a version of it since I couldn't find the Yahoo one again - and you see a pair of Taiwanese women lying face down in front of some cool-looking building that I don't think I saw when I was in Taiwan (the article doesn't name the building in the picture). Apparently these women are planking and using the resulting pictures to draw attention to various tourist attractions (the article doesn't expand on the stray dogs). It seems like an interesting way to pose for a photo.

This plank is slightly different from the exercise plank I know - in mine you are on your toes and elbows rather than your toes and face. I did try this new plank on my face to see how tough it would be - it is pretty tough because there's a lot of pressure on your neck when most of your weight is on your forehead. I don't know if it's good for strengthening your neck or just extra pressure where you don't want it but it makes for a dramatic photo I guess. Of course if you let the entire front of your body rest on the ground instead of just your toes and face the challenge should be pretty minimal.

EDIT - Now that I look at some more pictures of planking - it does seem to be the norm to allow your upper body to rest on the ground - I guess I'm lucky I didn't break my neck doing it my way.

One of the Pujie girls planking with a stray dog in Thailand (I think).

The article also mentioned the dangers of planking. I didn't think they meant the pressure on your neck so I searched for some more stuff on planking. This article discusses it and shows someone planking on the ledge of a highrise building. Yeah, that could be dangerous. In fact, it can be fatal.

But planking in general? If my wife doesn't kick me while I'm down (for getting dirty), I could see planking in front of a cool tourist destination or something for a photo.

Planking takes a travel photo and makes it kind of unique - at least for now - if planking really gets popular it may no longer do the trick.

Planking has the less confusing but also less cool sounding name of "lying down game" as well.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Antiquing: Anyone here travel for antique markets and such?

My wife, my sister, and I went to a flea market in Seoul (my sister is in town for a quick visit). We had never been to this one before but it turned out to be pretty cool and there were some affordable;e and some not-so-affordable antiques. MY wife and I actually picked up some furniture and my sister got a nice teapot which should make a pretty goo souvenir.

Anyway, while I was walking around there it made me think of how it's pretty fun to walk around flea markets looking for antiques and things. I don't have the expertise to do much writing about this stuff but I have been to several places in America where antique stores tend to concentrate. I did mention it briefly when we saw some expensive toys in Paris. Anyway, who here goes looking for antiques and travels to find them?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Atlantic City and its casinos in trouble

Interesting article here (and a shorter one here) on Atlantic City's economic woes. The biggest cause seems to be the failure to account for new competitors. Atlantic City (AC) is trying to change now, but turning things around is going to be tough and they have to become a destination that happens to have gambling, not a destination that is almost all about gambling.

Anyway, I find this interesting because we recently covered AC's poker rooms on this blog, and because I've been there a few times (I didn't like it, mostly because I don't gamble and there wasn't much else for me to do - exactly the problem they are now frantic to fix).

Posted by James Trotta at 11:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wing chun kung fu for flight attendants: good idea?

Flight attendants for Hong Kong Airlines are beginning to study a type of kung fu called wing chun. Do you think this is a good idea?

It makes for a very pretty commercial in Chinese:

And in English:

But does it make sense for flight attendants to train in wing chun? It does according to Katherine Cheung from the Hong Kong Wing Chun Union. She is one of the instructors teaching wing chun to flight crew members. "Wing chun can be used in small, confined spaces so it's suited for an airplane," she says. Cheung adds that "wing chun was designed by a woman for women."

There's a video here that shows a bit of the training they do. I love martial arts, but I have to wonder if flight attendants are getting a false sense of security: "You cannot predict what will happen on the plane, so wing chun is good because it's so fast," said crew member Lumpy Tang. "I feel safer because I can defend myself and I'm happy to be one of the first cabin crew to learn wing chun in the world."

Certainly disruptive passengers are a problem but anyone who studies martial arts will tell you that it's far better not to have to use them. Sometimes if you believe you can defend yourself you are less likely to avoid a confrontation that could end up with someone, even a martial artist, getting hurt.

In addition, may people question the value of traditional martial arts in actual violent conflicts. For example if you look at the punches the flight attendants training wing chun demonstrate (see the link to the Yahoo news page around 1:38), those punches are pretty weak. and they leave the person wide open to all kinds of terrible things. It's really just horrible punching technique for a real-life altercation. That is the kind of training that can get people hurt because they end up relying on techniques that seem designed to get them beat up.

The elbows, on the other hand, the ones around 40 seconds into the Yahoo video look like they could be effective. And if a confrontation is unavoidable then, yes, by all means have some sort of preparation to protect yourself. But training in a traditional martial art often does not translate into effective brawling in real life so to all you flight attendants studying wing chun please don't throw wing chun style punches.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Does it bother anyone else that embassy officials are the first to leave?

It's no surprise that foreigners are fleeing Egypt as fast as they can. And it's no surprise that they can't get out as fast as they want (crew can barely get to the airport to operate flights). This article mentions something that bothers me a little: 42 US embassy workers and their dependents have already been evacuated. The other thousands of Americans are still working to get out of the mess at the airport or waiting for the US government to help (they are sending more planes).

Does it bother anyone else that America's embassy officials are the first ones the government helps? And I don't know what kind of plane they used, but the next plane carries 180 people. If there were empty seats on that plane so the 42 embassy people could fly in comfort that would be even worse. If we could find out what kind of plane they were flying, I'd be very curious to know.

Posted by James Trotta at 7:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Traveling around and doing what you love - Anyone here in a club?

This article on a new spicy chili pepper made it to Yahoo's front page and then caught my attention. At the very end they talk about the "Clifton Chili Club -- a group of Brits who travel around sampling chilis."

It reminded me of my trip to China with my hiking club. We failed at getting a massage and then we failed at getting up the mountain, Taishan or Great Mountain, for the sunset. Then we left before sunrise. I've since quit that hiking club but I have joined the Seoul Hiking Club on Facebook and they organize a lot of hikes around Korea - I just haven't gone on any yet.

I know in America, a lot of car clubs will travel to antique car shows, a subject we've mentioned here once before. That can be a lot of fun and I have lots of memories of my father and I going to car shows when I was a kid (sometimes the whole family).

Is anyone reading this a member of a club that travels in order to do something fun?

Posted by James Trotta at 3:22 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

What made you start traveling?

I was just emailing the unstoppable family, who were kind enough to email that they liked my blog and to tell me their travel story.

So I wanted to tell them my story, but then I figured people who read my blog might as well hear it too!

My story is partially told in past blog entries:

My most recent entry on travel romance, my entry on teaching English in Korea, and even this one on Tom Cruise's and Katie Holmes' wedding in Italy. I figured there'd be something in my bio on this site, but there's really just the story of this blog.

To kind of put it all together and summarize so it's not too long a story, when I was 23 I was bored. I didn't want a desk job and while teaching SAT classes and working in a deli was alright, they didn't pay a ton and I was living a pretty boring life in my parents' house in the suburbs. My friends and I used to talk about how we had to make our lives more interesting. I guess before that I had been influenced by On the Road by Jack Kerouac - that's probably what convinced me that traveling was cool.

I had a couple of offers to make my life more interesting and remain in the US. I could have lived pretty cheap with two friends and one mother in a closet in Boston. I always liked the idea of being different and living in a closet would certainly prove I was not average. But living with someone else's mother isn't cooler than living with your own parents and I'd have been paying rent to do it (the rest canceled out because Boston was cooler than my suburbs but the closet wasn't as nice as my room in my parents' house). I also had an offer to start a marijuana farm - all I had to do was rent an apartment and then I'd get the seeds and the cash would start pouring in. I've always been scared of getting in trouble though so the drug business wasn't for me.

A friend of mine started looking into the au pair business and so did I. I hated kids but liked the idea of traveling abroad. On one of those foreign jobs websites I found other stuff like teaching English and bar-tending in Vienna.

I didn't get any au pair jobs and the James Joyce bar in Vienna passed on me but I did get several offers to teach English, either in Japan or Korea. Being more famous, Japan was my first choice but after speaking with a former SAT student from Japan I decided on Korea. My former student had told me the Japanese economy was no good. This was 2001.

Anyway, the plan was to spend a year in Korea and then come back to America and be cool since I had lived abroad and proved I was different. I left for Korea in February 2003, after Valentine's but before White Day. Then I met my wife in April. She had recently returned from living in Rome and London and I thought that was amazingly cool. She said she used to walk by Rome's Coliseum twice a day and I said, "I want that." We got engaged in June with no real plan other than wanting to go to Italy.

I had wanted to get married in Italy but the papers were impossible so we got married in Korea and then honeymooned in Italy. It was a weird honeymoon but maybe we'll save that story for later. Or I've probably already told it on here somewhere. Anyway, that's what made me start traveling - boredom with my life, the need to prove I was different, and jealousy over walking by the Coliseum.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

What are your favorite travel romance movies / stories?

I finally watched In Bruges, which was the subject of a movie tourism article written by Sharon Slayton. Since that movie involves traveling and finding romance I started thinkgin about some of the many other films that do the same. It's kind of like a Hollywood rule - travel and find romance. You've got Roman Holiday from 1953 and more recently you've got The Holiday. And there have certainly been some before, between and after those two movies.

So originally I was going to ask about your favorite travel romance film, but then I figured it would be more exciting to include personal stories (if you have had a travel romance you can talk about in public that is).

I'll start with meeting my wife. I was 23 and had done almost no traveling when I came to Korea to teach English. Living in a small Korean city called Jinju, life was interesting. There were about 20 foreigners teaching in private language schools in Jinju and we got together fairly often. One of those get-togethers was a trip to a beach called Namhae. My wife was also on that trip because she was a Korean who taught English and had been invited by some foreigners. I asked for her number and two dates later she asked me to marry her.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:51 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

2010 Human Development index - How expensive is traveling to Norway?

I've talked to a couple of friends about the 2010 Human Development Index in which the UN ranks countries according to money and education and things. Norway is #1, the best country in the world to live in, according to the newspapers.

So everyone I know who has been to Norway says it's crazy expensive, but I wonder if I could travel there comfortably. I mean someone said Oslo is the second most expensive city after Tokyo, but I found eating out in Tokyo quite reasonable - far more reasonable than Zurich. Speaking of eating out, everyone talks about paying $20 for a McDonald's happy meal in Norway (where apparently you can get a McLak made with lutefisk). But I don't eat McDonalds so I'm left wondering if there are other, more reasonable options (not to mention healthier) options for eating in Norway.

If you're curious about the rest of the report, here are a few more countries and there ranks:

1. Norway 0.938
2. Australia 0.937
3. New Zealand 0.907
4. United States 0.902
5. Ireland 0.895
6. Liechtenstein 0.891
7. Netherlands 0.890
8. Canada 0.888
9. Sweden 0.885
10. Germany 0.885
11. Japan 0.884
12. South Korea 0.877
13. Switzerland 0.874
14. France 0.872
15. Israel 0.872
16. Finland 0.871
17. Iceland 0.869
18. Belgium 0.867
19. Denmark 0.866
20. Spain 0.863
21. Hong Kong 0.862
22. Greece 0.855
23. Italy 0.854
24. Luxembourg 0.852
25. Austria 0.851
26. United Kingdom 0.849
27. Singapore 0.846
28. Czech Republic 0.841
29. Slovenia 0.828
30. Andorra 0.824

Korea moved from 26 to 12 because of the economic problems in Europe which hurt countries like Greece, while I was surprised to see England is 26 - why so far behind Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US? Still it was interesting to see relative dominance from the countries where English is a native language.

Luxembourg was another surprise. I was told, and thought I saw with my own eyes, that Luxembourgians are wealthy. No beggars, unlike in America and some other high-scoring countries.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Maldives Resort will disprove the idea that blondes are less competent

The Olialia company's unnamed resort to be built on an unnamed island in the Maldives won't be ready until 2015 but it's in the news already.

This article, from The Guardian, says the real reason is sex appeal but that a few days of being surrounded by blondes will drive you crazy (because it will feel wrong when everyone has the same hair color). Since they have to be natural blondes to prove that blondes are equally competent they'd all be white. She says men know enough not to categorize women by hair color.

Some of us might be smart enough not to categorize women by hair color but what the UK article does not mention is that the employees are going to be blonde models. Models are models regardless of hair color so I'm not so sure men will run screaming from the resort as the author implies. I doubt many men are smart enough to avoid caring about the model category.

ABC news is where I got the model bit from. Also that there's a plan to attract female guests as well:

there will be an education center called "Pretty Women" that will teach female guests always to be perfect and look great -- and part of the mission is to create a paradise for men who just like being surrounded by beautiful, young blondes.

I figured I might as well get an Australian article too, so here it is. This article says two conflicting things - first an all-blonde resort would break a Maldives law that requires 50% local staff and also that they might not be all be natural blondes. The company currently hires women who "often reached for the bleach after spending so much time among their blonde colleagues."

It doesn't sound very practical so I wonder if it makes business-sense. But the company does turn a nice profit and profits are increasing so they probably have a better idea than i do.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:11 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Funny bathroom sign from Dora Observatory, South Korea (DMZ)

So my wife and other tour guides know that if you have to use the bathroom after a Chinese tour group has come through, there's a good chance you'll see footprints on the toilet seat. I guess in parts of China, squat toilets are still very common. I guess they're pretty common in Korea as well but not more common than western style toilets.

Anyway, the folks at Dora Observatory, where tourists can get a peek at North Korea through binoculars, they came up with this sign for people who don't use western-style toilets correctly:

My wife took this picture with her phone in the ladies' room.

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Good flight attendant instructions during this emergency landing?

If you're already a bit scared of flying, you may not want to watch this video a passenger took while his plane was landing at JFK with one set of landing gear stuck up.

Here's the Daily News article.

The point I thought was worth discussing actually came up in the comments left for the article. So far 2 people have said that the flight attendant was too dramatic as she yelled for people to stay down and keep their heads down. The argument seems to be that she could help people stay calm if she also calmed down and just said it normally a couple of times. Another commenter said that screaming it over and over is necessary to keep panicking passengers from standing up. I don't know who's right and who's wrong but I know I'd prefer calm. What about you?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:38 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Weird news from JFK as flight attendant quits in dramatic fashion

I'm busy these days on a kind of business trip, teaching LG employees business English. We start at 9:00 AM and finish at 9:00 PM. Tonight we went out drinking after class.

I plan to tell you a little bit about where we're staying, Gongjiam resort (owned by LG), but I still haven't had a chance to see most of it. For now, let me offer some weird news about a flight attendant who I guess was fed up with unruly passengers.

This article has the story. A Jetblue flight attendant gets smacked in the head by a passenger taking her bag, demands an apology, gets insulted by the passenger, curses on the PA, blows the emergency slide, and bolts the airport. Then he got arrested.

I know the guy deserves to be punished - no doubt this stunt delayed a number of people and cost Jetblue a big chunk of money - but this sounds a bit extreme:

He is being charged with 2nd-and 4th-degree criminal mischief, 1st- and 2nd-degree reckless endangerment and criminal trespass in the 3rd degree, according to a spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown. Slater faces up to 7 years in prison if convicted.

Anyway, if my logic is up to snuff the reckless endangerment charge is pretty much garbage based on this:

JetBlue, in a statement, added, "At no time was the security or safety of our customers or crewmembers at risk."

Posted by James Trotta at 11:11 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Cynthia Angel kicked off plane for asking if pilot had been drinking - fair or unfair?

Interesting situation described in this article where a few passengers thought they smelled alcohol on the captain's breath. What would you do?

Well one woman reported it and the captain got tested. He had not been drinking so everything was fine. Except the woman got kicked off the plane.

"All I did was voice my concerns," said Angel. "I wasn't a threat to anyone and for them to remove me was wrong."

I happen to agree with her. What this does is it sends a message to other passengers not to speak up. Yet if you read Influence by Robert Cialdini you know that we already have a tendency to trust authority too much. When I asked before what you would do, I honestly don't think I'd do anything. I bet most people are like me. That could obviously lead to a real problem if people know something is wrong and don't report it.

The other side is this:

"If you think someone is drunk, you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and other passengers to report it," said Aimer, who is also a retired United Airlines captain. "However, in this case, because the captain had not been drinking, Delta made the right decision by asking her to leave the plane."

Aimer explains that in situations like this, flights usually end up delayed or canceled because the captain will take himself off the flight.

"It's an either you or me situation," said Aimer. "She had to go because the captain has his crew and hundreds of other passengers to think about."

Aimer adds that if he found himself in a similar situation, he'd do the same thing.
"The issue of pilots and drinking has become a very big deal, and accusations like that could end your career," Aimer said.

And how is the career thing relevant? Either he was drunk and his career is over or he wasn't drunk and his career is fine, no? And if not, what are we saying, the captain wants revenge for this woman putting his career at risk?

By the way, the airline is claiming that she continued to complain about the pilot after he passed the breathalyzer. This makes even less sense to me - if she still thought the pilot was drunk wouldn't she want to get off that plane?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:56 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack

New York to destroy about 170,000 geese

This blog talks about how New York wants to reduce the number of Canadian Geese in the state from 250,000 to 85,000. The plan is to clear out the geese near airports. Considering that geese brought down US Airways Flight 1549 it's obvious that something needs to be done.

Posted by James Trotta at 5:27 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Is traveling to a happy country inherently different than traveling to a less happy one?

The other day I talked about debate and travel and mentioned that I had just judged a debate. This article and this slideshow reminded me of that.

It's an article on the happiest countries in the world and many are popular tourist destinations. You've got Denmark, Costa Rica, Canada, etc. I don't think that's a coincidence. I remember how Canadians seeming friendly and happy really made our visit there more fun.

Getting back to the debate stuff, the YTN HUFS debate championship was based on the following resolution: This house believes that higher education is a prerequisite for happiness.

Now I wasn't happy with the resolution and it did lead to some funny comments that didn't really enhance the debate. Naturally there was some argument over defining or measuring happiness (that part of the debate wasn't so bad). When one debater started talking about how college wasn't that great the other team (they were all high school kids) asked "How would you know? You've never been to college!" The other team said, "If higher education is a prerequisite for happiness and I've never been to college, can you say I've never been happy?"

Those comments elicited some laughs but as a debate judge it's not the kind of clash you want the finals to depend on.

Anyhow, that's not as related to this post as I hoped it would be so let's move on. I've never been to Costa Rica but it has been discussed here several times and it has to be one of the more popular travel destinations in the Americas. Sure it's beautiful and all that but Costa Rica being the happiest country in the Americas (and the 6th happiest in the world) has to have something to do with that right? I'm guessing that when you go there you have a better chance of enjoying yourself because you'll be dealing with more happy people.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:03 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Any debaters here? Can debate make for a good travel experience / job?

I had debate on the mind today because I just finished judging the elimination rounds of the YTN-HUFS youth debate championship. YTN is a Korean news channel. HUFS is Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

About a month ago I went to this training thing and took a test to become a certified adjudicator in the World School Debate format. The trainers were from Malaysia. One was a teacher in Korea and the other was a grad student in Korea.

It occurred to me that one way to make a little extra money when you travel is to judge debates. As far as I can tell you get between $150 and $300 per day of judging, but today was my first day so I can't be sure. Also it may be different in other countries. Obviously it's not the kind of job you travel for but if you happen to be heading somewhere as an exchange student or whatever (and you're allowed to work with whatever student visa you get) finding out if there's an active debate scene might be a good idea.

Also, I'm sure students travel for debate but I never did so I wonder if anyone here knows how that works. Do debaters get to experience the places they visit or do schools keep too tight a leash on their debaters to let them see / do anything other than debate?

Also, I'm sure college students get some freedom when they debate. When I took my test, the debate we judged was a quarterfinal in the SE Asian championships. There was a team from India and one from Thailand. I don't know where they were debating but at least one of those teams was traveling...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Seen any unique performances in your travels?

Over the past few days friends have been sending me videos of some fun performances. I'm wondering if in your travels any of you have been in the right place at the right time to see an unforgettable performance. These are the videos that inspired the question:

Bruce Springsteen on a street in Copenhagen: "I'm on Fire"

The Boss again: "The River" and "Dancing in the Dark"

Jewel at a karaoke bar:

Star Wars Improv in NYC: Darth Vader arrests Princess Leia on the 6 Train

As for me, I've never really seen anyone famous up close and personal like Jewel at karaoke or Springsteen with a street performer but I have seen some memorable stuff. One thing was at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in (I think) 2003. My wife and I saw Tracy Grammer for the first time. We had never heard her music but we liked it so when she mentioned there was a kind of remembrance thing in the campground for Dave Carter where she and others would be playing I decided to go.

That was pretty unique, at least in my experience. You had a bunch of people some better than others, playing songs that Dave Carter performed when he was alive. And you had Tracy Grammer talking and playing to the 25 or so of us gathered around the tent. You could really sense her sadness both in words and music so it made the experience kind of real and emotional. The heat had knocked my wife out so she missed it unfortunately.

The other one was a bit earlier, the day Jerry Garcia died actually. I was never a big dead fan so normally I wouldn't have done anything special that day. But I happened to be going to a Santana concert that night. The scene there was kind of surreal. Lots of people crying and soap on car windows saying "We miss you Jerry" and stuff like that. Santana talked about it. He said something like, "When you go home light a candle or whatever you choose to light up in memory of Jerry." Looking up the date of his death, August 9,1995, I guess I was still young. The fact that I remember anything from that long ago is pretty special.

What performances do you remember?

Posted by James Trotta at 12:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

3 days with no internet = vacation

I can't even remember the last time I went three days without logging on to the net. Even on vacation I will blog and check email...

But if you're wondering where I've been the past few days, last Friday afternoon I had to head down to Jinju to do some paperwork on the apartment we own (but are selling) there. Selling that is going to help pay for the new one in Seoul.

Honestly, though, that amounted to 15 minutes in a real estate agent's office so it was basically a weekend getaway spent with the in-laws. Well, except for Saturday when we drove to Busan and spent the day in the largest department store in the world - I guess I'll write about that later.

Anyhow, I normally make an effort to get online when I'm in Jinju and often end up in a PC room for an hour checking email and writing here. This time I made no effort to get online and it felt pretty relaxing.

Now sometimes I can go online and still be totally relaxed (or close enough for me) like when I'm at a resort doing nothing. But for a weekend getaway like this one was, I think not bothering with the internet made a huge difference in the relaxation factor.

Has anyone else found that avoiding the net makes even a small trip pretty refreshing?

Of course I may have been a little too relaxed because I totally forgot to talk to some hotels / motels on behalf of my sister...

Posted by James Trotta at 11:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

What's the weirdest store you've ever seen? The strangest sales pitch you've ever heard?

What's the weirdest store you've ever seen?

Today I was walking from my apartment to the supermarket and I noticed a shop that I must have passed 100 times before (actually my wife noticed). They sell shoes and dresses and the woman inside was giving a man a haircut. And then we noticed they sell cigarettes too.

My wife said that could only happen in Korea though she had never seen that kind of combination of products and services before either.

What's the strangest sales pitch you've ever heard?

I don't remember hearing any extraordinary sales pitches, but a good friend of mine was in Egypt when a salesman said that if she didn't purchase anything he would beat his wife when he got home. How do you come up with such a crazy sales pitch? Does it work? My friend didn't buy.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:34 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Gulf oil spill / transatlantic by sea / London / Cycling in the Czech Republic

The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has not only had a harmful effect on the environment, but also on people's vacation plans in that part of the world. Many tourists have either cancelled, or are thinking of canceling their trips, but hotels in the area have been reluctant to give refunds, as this USA Today article reports. Traditional travel insurance doesn't cover this situation, as apparently it's considered to be a problem caused by human error and not an act of God. This doesn't really seem fair to me, but then it seems that just about all insurance policies have exclusions that somehow don't cover the very thing that ends up happening to you.

However, some organizations are doing more than others to be helpful and offer options in case the oil spill makes landfall. The Panama Beach visitors' bureau in Florida has a policy (called a real fun guarantee) in place that offers a $200 credit towards a future trip, should you have to cancel due to the oil spill.

One of the long term effects of the Iceland volcano, that apparently is still causing the occasional problem is that more people have become interested in crossing the Atlantic by sea, although the only really regular scheduled transatlantic service is on the Queen Mary 2. Apparently they had a waiting list of over 1,000 people for their most recent sailing. If you wait two years, you can travel across the Atlantic on a ship that recreates the maiden voyage of the Titanic, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the disaster in 2012.

London, of course is one of the most expensive cities in the world, but if you are visiting in June, there is a free event - the historic and popular Trooping of the Colour (UK spelling) which celebrates the Queen's birthday. Seats for the occasion are sold out but you can go and stand and watch, although you may only see the backs of people's heads.

I haven't ridden a bicycle for as long as I can remember (although they say you never forget how to do it) but my intrepid cousin is just embarking on a cycling trip around the Czech Republic, where he lives. Anyone interested can follow his progress on his web site. I can't help thinking that might make a good TV show - as my regular readers know that I'm constantly disappointed in the lack of good travel shows on American TV. And I'm not even going to mention the Travel Channel, which may as well rename itself the Food Channel.

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 11:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Universal's Harry Potter theme park opening next month

It has been a long time since I covered the Disney vs. Universal argument. I have covered Disney a few times but I can't remember blogging much about Universal. I'm not sure much has changed since that 2006 blog about Universal and Disney but change is coming in the form of the Harry Potter theme park.

This is a 26-acre attraction at Universal Resort's Islands of Adventure.

The food is supposed to be traditional British. There's Butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks restaurant. There's Honeydukes for chocolate frogs and Bott's Every-Flavour beans...

The big attraction is Forbidden Journey, an hour-long tour through Hogwarts Castle, above Hogwarts Castle, into a quidditch match, and to close encounters with a Dementor and a Whomping Willow.

Other attractions include arriving at Hogsmead station on the Hogwarts Express, a fitting in Ollivander's wand shop, a dual-track rollercoaster themed around a Triwizard Tournament, and Flight of the Hippogriff which allows children to get a 'birds-eye' view of the park.

I still don't know what kind of music they're going to have but this article has some nice pictures and a pretty enthusiastic tone.

Does anyone here think this park will have a major impact on the Universal vs. Disney question?

Posted by James Trotta at 7:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Scanners reveal private parts; TSA officials react

I don't usually post the weird news but I have covered TSA once or twice. Anyway, here is some weird news for you:

A TSA worker in Miami was arrested when he "lost his mind" and attacked a colleague who repeatedly made fun of his small penis after the security screener walked through a high-tech scanner that showed his genitalia, according to Miami-Dade police.

I'd say the chances are extremely high that TSA employees laugh at our bodies and this not-so-well-endowed TSA guy's case may end up being strong ammunition for people who argue that the use of these body imagers are an invasion of privacy.

I would also guess that this story hurts TSA recruitment as it seems fairly obvious that there can be sexual harassment at the workplace. In fact it's hard to imagine too many professions where employees might be subjected to enough sexual harassment to make them go nuts and attack.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano: dealing with the unexpected and a link to some amazing photos

I haven't written about the flight interruptions from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption yet, largely because you've probably already heard about them. Over the last few days, my wife, who is a tour guide in Seoul, has actually met a few people stuck here in Korea because they couldn't get a flight to Europe. The smart ones are making the most of their time here and visiting the DMZ or sights in downtown Seoul or whatever.

This kind of reminds me of when snow messed up travel plans and people got stuck in Paris or wherever this winter. My wife was telling me about a couple on her tour that had to switch hotels because the one they were staying in was fully booked. They had to check out but they couldn't go home. They took my wife's tour and asked her if she could find them a hotel. My wife did but it cost the European couple about $275/night. I'm sure they weren't planning to spend that money (or the money for their tours, but what else can they do? As travelers we have to be willing to make the most out of tough situations like that. I know it's easy for me to say it, and the truth is I've never had a real serious problem getting stuck somewhere while traveling but we should all realize that as long as we're traveling we might have to deal with something like this.

These stories just remind me to prepare myself in case I ever have to deal with something. In most cases spending more money is enough to make it OK. It might mean more nights in a hotel than you budgeted for or bribing your way out of a bad spot.

But here is the real reason I am writing about this now. Here are some truly amazing photos of the eruption and its effects.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What food do you bring on vacation? Nurungji? Protein bars?

Yesterday I mentioned my student's speech on UNESCO World Heritage Sites that are endangered. Today I have another student-inspired topic: vacation snacks you bring from home.

I personally like to bring protein bars. When I went to Europe this winter I brought a box of Labrada Lean Body Cookie Bars. I love cookies and have a sweet tooth but these were a little too sweet. But it was better than paying for overpriced hotel breakfasts and they were good for snacks during the day without having to stop at a restaurant.

I think most protein bars actually taste surprisingly good. They're not Twix bars or Kit Kats but I stopped eating those things years ago so protein bars are as close as I get and it's close enough I guess. You can get a few ideas for protein bars here.

Anyhow, my student mentioned that while many Koreans traveled with ramen she preferred nurungji because it can be eaten without the hot water (although in hot water nurungji is supposed to be a more filling meal):

Nurunji also takes up less room than ramen. Plus it's healthier (although still all carbs). By the way it's the crispy rice left over at the bottom of the bowl - Koreans often think it's the best part.

I'm not sure how easy it is to get outside of Korea though I imagine if you live in a major city you could find it somewhere. I understand that they have something similar in In China (guoba) and in Vietnamese (cơm cháy).

So what food do you pack when you're traveling?

Posted by James Trotta at 4:48 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Danger: which one would you most like to visit?

One of the classes I teach is public speaking and several of my students have chosen travel related topics for their first informative speech. So I have a few "fresh" ideas for this blog.

Today, it's UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Danger. The official list mentions 31 world heritage sites that are in danger. I suppose it's not surprising to see sites in Afghanistan and Iraq on the list. I was a bit surprised to find Ecuador's Galápagos Islands (2007) endangered. though I shouldn't have been.

My student will be discussing this one and Jerusalem (Site proposed by Jordan): Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls (1982).

One of the ways she'll try to connect with the audience is by asking if they'd like to see these sites before it's too late, kind of like tourism of doom (and tourism of doom part 2). That old list is why the Galápagos Islands shouldn't have surprised me - it's on there.

Anyway, back to the question: which of the endangered UNESCO World Heritage sites would you most like to visit? I might go with the rice terraces, mostly because other rice terraces have been mentioned on this site (and they look pretty).

Posted by James Trotta at 7:29 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

If NASA does less and private companies do more will we see more space vacations?

I don't know if space travel will become affordable in my lifetime but maybe since I grew up a Star Trek fan I can't help blogging about space travel.

Mancunian covered Virgin Galactic over 2 years ago. Just a few months ago I mentioned their space hotel. And almost exactly two years ago I asked where you would honeymoon after a wedding in space (still not sure where now that I think about it).

So even though I usually shy away from politics and travel (I think I had to delete about 15 political and/or vulgar comments on the Sarah Palin Alaska travel show blog entry) this one has to get a mention.

The New York Times talks about President Obama and NASA. Obama wants private companies to start doing some of NASA's old job:

Mr. Obama's budget request to Congress in February proposed a major shift for NASA: canceling the Constellation program, started five years ago to send astronauts back to the Moon, and turning to private companies for carrying astronauts to the International Space Station.... And he argued that turning to private entrepreneurs would result in more space flights and more astronauts in orbit than the space plan he inherited.

This next bit will be totally unfair because it's a political comment and I reject political comments on my blog, but this one I find funny: "One senator in particular was determined to achieve a new altitude record in hypocrisy, claiming that the public option was bad in healthcare, but good in space!"

I'm no scientist, but it's not hard to believe that companies trying to make money will end up being more efficient than the American government.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Taking a few days off from blogging to move

So I'm moving into a new apartment over the weekend and Monday and may not be able to blog. However, since you are all travelers I guess some of you may be interested in Korean real estate and moving culture.

First, when renting an apartment it is possible to pay monthly rent but there is also a system that involves a huge deposit (also called key money - anywhere from 30% to 85% of the value of the apartment depending on location). Any deposit money that the renter can't come up with becomes monthly rent. Say I have an apartment where the deposit money is $100,000.00 If a renter gives me 100 grand I don't charge them monthly rent. If they give me 80 grand I charge them $200/month. If they give me a 40 grand deposit, I charge $600/month. Deposit money is returned in full when the rental contract is up (normally 2 years).

People always ask how the owner makes money. I presume through investing that deposit money. Until recently it was possible to get 6-7% interest from a bank. Now it's more like half of that here in Korea...

So today I handed over a huge deposit to my new landlord and for the next two years I don't pay monthly rent while he makes money with my deposit.

Monday is the official moving day. It was about $100 cheaper to hire the movers on Monday because it's not a good luck moving day. The good luck days depend on the lunar calender:the 9th & 10th, 19th & 20th, and 29th & 30th. This month, Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th are good luck days on the Lunar Calender and therefore it's more expensive to move on those days because of greater demand.

$100 may not seem like much to an American who might spend thousands of dollars moving but we're spending about $400 to move so another 100 is kind of a big percentage.

To compensate for moving on Monday when there will be more evil spirits floating around who could follow us into the new house, we have to take some precautions.

Saturday we bring something wooden (we've picked out some wood furniture we can move ourselves) to the new house along with our rice cooker and some uncooked rice. I figured we'd cook the rice and eat it, but that's not required (or convenient because the rice cooker goes in the bedroom).

As my wife clarifies the details for me she says, "It's just a stupid superstition."
"But we're doing it?" I ask.
"I think we have to do it..." She replies.

So we put the uncooked rice in a bowl with a lid and then put that in the rice cooker and then put that in the bedroom. Done!

Well not quite. It's good to pee in the new house but even better to take a load. This will seem odd to some of you, but those familiar with Korean culture know that poop is great luck. A fellow tour guide made a lot of money on commissions today and my wife asked her if she had dreamed of poo the night before. In Korea this is called a dong dream.

Anyway, I'm going to be busy the next few days moving and following some Korean superstitions. Wish me luck!

By the way, we've been thinking of moving for a while but what really made us take action was coming home from our winter vacation with frozen pipes again. My university gives me a free apartment but it's not that nice and it's managed by idiots so I'm moving out at my own expense.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Virgin America 'Flightmare' / Some Golfing News

There have been several memorable stories during the last couple of years about passengers being stuck in planes for hour after hour due to delays; and the latest of these is the Virgin America flight from LAX to JFK that recently turned a 6 hour flight into a 16 hour ordeal. The story has been on the news and was even being updated on Facebook as it happened. Apparently the plane had to circle the airport for two hours due to heavy winds and then sit on the ground in Stewart for several hours, before the passengers were taken by bus to New York. Virgin America ended up apologizing and refunding the ticket price and awarding a $100 voucher for a future trip - which I think is quite fair. What does anyone else think...?

New legislation by the FAA effective in April means that airlines can be fined up to $27,500 per passenger if a plane is stuck on the ground for more than three hours and passengers aren't given the opportunity to deplane. For a full plane, this could mean a fine of over $3.5 million. I am flying to England next Friday (on US Airways) so I just hope we won't have any horrendous delays.

If you are a golfing fan, you probably know by now that Tiger Woods has announced that he will be playing at the US Masters next month in Augusta, Georgia. However, the Masters isn't the only golfing tournament coming up; if you happen to be in Siberia towards the end of March, you can enjoy the Baikal Prize Open Championship, a golf tournament played on ice. I was amazed to find that there are several ice golf tournaments held around the world, in Europe, Canada and South America. And in case you are wondering, apparently the most northerly golf course in the world is the Akureyri golf club in Iceland, which every year hosts the Arctic Open. The sun never sets there during June, so you can play golf even at midnight.

I wish I could say my golf was good enough to play in any of the above events, but sadly, miniature golf / putt-putt golf is more my game. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is considered to be the world capital of miniature golf, with an estimated 40 courses, some of which would not look out of place on the Las Vegas Strip. I haven't played any of these courses, so I think that would be a good excuse for a family vacation to Myrtle Beach this summer...

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 7:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How popular is Florida with UK travelers?

So thinking about the recent Florida Keys post I found this British Florida holidays site. I know what Americans think of Florida but I didn't know it was so popular with British tourists.

If you check out these package deals, some of them sounds pretty good. Well most of them actually: 7 nights in Miami and 7 more in the Florida Keys? Yes please! They also have cruise and stay packages like 7 nights in Orlando and 7 days on a cruise. I should have done something like that when I went to Alaska because while the cruise was awesome I would have loved to have stayed in one place longer to hopefully see more wildlife.

I was hoping to find some travel plans on the Florida site but I think the package deals are AirTel packages - when I click for more info I don't see itineraries - just more about the hotel and a list of local attractions. They don't really tell you how to spend your time but they do have a Florida map and tourist guide that could help with the vacation planning though.

I tried searching some UK newspapers to see if Florida was a big item in the travel sections there. I found this article pretty interesting - the reporter went to a cheerleading practice at the Miami Dolphins' training ground near Fort Lauderdale. Apparently the writer is not cheerleader material and this line was somewhat surprising: "Being American, they were all too polite to laugh -- at least in public". I would never have imagined that Americans have a reputation for being polite to travelers. I always thought Canadians were much more friendly...

Back to the cheer leading thing, this could be a regular tourist attraction (you don't have to be a reporter to get access if your timing is right:

Anyone can gain access to the sportsmen at pre-season summer training camps, while, from February to April, wannabe cheerleaders can join in hour-long dance classes at the exact spot where the Dolphins' gals train -- and it costs only $20 (£12). And ladies, if you're good enough, according to the myth, you'll be considered for the squad.

Anyway, I still haven't quite figured out how big a destination Florida is to UK holidaymakers but I'm guessing from the website and news article I found that Florida is a pretty normal vacation destination for our friends across the pond.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dirtiest Hotel / Airports / Amazing Race / Strange Questions

I would be horrified if my hotel was listed as the dirtiest in the United States. TripAadvisor recently named the 10 filthiest hotels for 2010, based on travelers' reviews on the web site. (Well, we are only two months into the year, plenty of time for improvement!) I also saw this same story on Inside Edition on TV a few weeks ago. The dirtiest hotel is apparently in San Francisco, although it actually looks quite nice from the pictures on its website. Then again, the prices seem perhaps suspiciously low - $60 and up - for a hotel in a tourist area of San Francisco. They also have similar lists for Europe, Asia and the UK - I was relieved to see I haven't stayed in any of the world's dirtiest hotels. My worst experience was with mold on the wall of a hotel (I can't remember the name of it) near London Gatwick airport a few years ago; at least I got a free night's stay out of it.

Talking of lists, USA Today has this story that lists the best US airports in a recent survey of passengers, three of which are in the Midwest - Detroit, Kansas City and Indianapolis. Perhaps not surprisingly, busier airports such as Newark, Miami and Los Angles scored badly. And this list on the Popular Mechanics website has the world's 18 strangest airports, including the short runway on the tiny island of Saba in the Caribbean. There is even a video of a plane landing there, with the plane coming to a stop on the end of the runway, with only a few feet to spare before it falls into the ocean.

The 16th season of the Amazing Race has just started, (Sundays, 8pm EST on CBS) with teams visiting Santiago, Chile and the Chilean Lake District. It's one of the best reality shows around and is worth watching, as it seems to be one of the few travel shows on American TV. On the first episode, some teams had trouble with Santiago as they thought it was in China (China..Chile..I can see it's easy to be confused!) and some teams changed their US money into Brazilian currency, thinking they could use that in Chile...

By accident, I found another site which has a lot of strange questions that have been asked by tourists visiting Shropshire, UK. I am visiting there for a few days next month; I will do my best to not ask such strange questions! Anybody have any other examples of strange or just plain stupid travel related questions?

Guest entry by Mancunian

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 1:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Presidential travel back in Nixon's day compared to Obama's travel plans today

Here's a different kind of travel article where they talk to Ron Walker, a former Nixon aid who was in charge of Richard Nixon's travel plans. Apparently, things are much more complicated with Obama's plans today:

Walker says he had five people in his office, compared to the 25 to 30 in President Obama's Office of Presidential Advance. Walker says technology's grown dramatically, too.

"I mean, we did schedules on a manual and/or electrical typewriter," Walker says. "There were no Xeroxes. We had a TWX, which was similar to a telegraph. All our schedules had to be typed on an electrical typewriter and then the schedule was put on 3-by-5 cards."

"And now you've got Blackberries. I mean, you get instant answers," Walker says as he thinks about what he had to go through in the 1970s. "I'd have to write a memo. It would go up the channel. And it may be two or three days before I get an answer. Now they put it on their Blackberry and they've got an answer almost immediately. So the world has changed, not only technology, but the speed of sound."

Posted by James Trotta at 11:41 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Up in the Air / Internet Access in Hotels / Valentine's Day / Amazing Race

If you are one of those people who spends far too much time in airports, hotels and business meetings, you may enjoy the film 'Up in the Air' which stars George Clooney as a man who flies all over the country firing employees of other companies and racking up frequent flier miles and eventually making it to the coveted 10 million mile level. (His airline of choice is American) I saw the film the other day and would recommend it - it's a good story, funny as well as touching and has a lot of clever and subtle observations about business travel, unemployment and workplace politics.

Still on the subject of frequent flier miles, this story in USA Today reports that a man in Germany has been apprehended for scamming airlines out of more than 5 million miles, although it isn't entirely clear how he managed to do that. At least he has enough miles to flee the country if necessary (and if he can actually turn in the miles for a seat)...

The same newspaper also has an interesting story on free internet access in hotels; a subject discussed here a while back. Many business travelers say that they are virtually able to demand this, as a lot of hotels are struggling to keep guests. Free internet access in a hotel room has become important to me, to the point where I wouldn't stay there otherwise.

Don't forget it is Valentine's Day in a couple of weeks! I learned long ago not to buy a card or gift the evening before, as there will be nothing left by then. I found some interesting ways to celebrate in various places: in London, couples can take a Lover's Leap Bungee Jump - the cost of about $160 (yes, you actually have to pay them to do this) includes a ½ bottle of champagne, which I would probably need to drink before I jumped... And this site has suggestions for romantic Valentine's Day getaways (for those with money, presumably) in such places as Brazil, China and Malaysia.

And another reason to remember the date of February 14th - one of the best TV reality shows returns to American TV; The Amazing Race, in which teams of 2 race each other around the world. Destinations this season include Chile, France, the Seychelles and Singapore.

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 11:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Parisians are friendly?

They certainly have not been living up to the rude reputation so far...

We met one who gave us two metro tickets while we were stuck at Paris Nord with ticket machines that didn't like our credit cards and didn't accept cash (we didn't have enough coins). She wouldn't even accept money though we tried to pay.

Then we were talking directions on the Metro and a stranger started helping us out. Very nice guy.

Then we asked a random couple for directions and the fellow stopped, broke out his handheld GPS, and gave us directions.

They weren't quite good enough so we asked another guy for directions. Our pronunciation sucked but he took out his reading glasses, figured out which street we were talking about, and showed us the way.

And the hotel is giving us free Wifi unlike the Holiday Inn Amsterdam...

So what gives? Are Parisians actually the most friendly people in the world and just have a bad reputation? They were horribly rude to me in the airport 2 years ago but I am delighted so far in 2010...

And by the way Paris is amazing so far. We walked into the Louvre after dinner, the area around the main entrance with the glass pyramids and it was just beautiful - the kind of place you could walk around every night and then always go to bed happy.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:28 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

International adoption travel

This story reminded me of a blog entry from almost a year ago about how people adopting overseas often have to be flexible when it comes to travel dates.

Anyway, without turning this blog into an International adoption blog, I do think there are people who need information and others who are just curious about these kinds of travel stories. The one I linked to above is pretty heart-warming: a 7-year-old girl adopted from China got her first birthday cake now that she's in America.

The article doesn't say too much about the 15 day travel experience in China but it sure was expensive: $31,000 to adopt Maria - not sure if that includes travel to China or not.

It also reminds me of the time my wife and I brought a babe each (14 months) from Korea to America so that the adoptive parents wouldn't have to go to Korea. We got discounted airfare ($300 instead of $1000 per ticket if I recall) and I guess it felt good to do something nice. We have never considered doing it again though, even though saving money is nice...

Posted by James Trotta at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Would you take a gang tour in LA?

Interesting article here on LA gang tours. The idea is to take a bus full of tourists to a 'bad' area, "giving tourists a look at the cradle of the nation's gang culture -- the birthplace of many of the city's gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th Street."

People who don't like the tour call it exploitative (which I don't see since the tourists' money is supposed to be out to use helping that neighborhood) and voyeuristic (which it certainly is but is that a real problem?):

It seems to echo, more than anything, the "slum tours" of such sites as India's Dharavi township and Rio de Janeiro's favelas. Those operations have been lauded as innovative economic tools and mechanisms for humanizing poverty -- and also attacked as exploitative and voyeuristic.

Should poor parts of the world be off limits to the affluent? Or should the affluent be required to enter poor areas on their own instead of with a tour? I just don't get it.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Priceline got me in trouble

A while ago I asked if anyone had never stayed at a Holiday Inn. Looks like I'll be staying at one in Amsterdam.

My wife and i were researching hotels for Dec. 29, 2009 to Jan. 2, 2010. Naturally, New Year's Eve is an expensive time so it looked like we'd be spending some serious money. I mentioned Priceline to my wife and I guess she was tired of looking at hotels because she told me to do it.

We picked "city center" entered a price of $120/night, and clicked go. We ended up at the holiday Inn Amsterdam. This was a bit of a shock because we had been looking at hotels in the city center forever and had never noticed it. Turns out it's in a business district. My wife's mad at me.

Personally, while it would be nice to stay in a cooler area, I don't think a 10 minute subway ride to the city center is the end of the world and I like that it's not costing a fortune. But I still told my wife to pick out a hotel she likes for the end of our trip (also in Amsterdam) so I can't get in any more trouble.

But then we were looking at hotels in Paris (we decided to go after all) and my wife told me to use Priceline again! I'm probably lucky they rejected my offer...

Posted by James Trotta at 10:18 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Advice on flying during the holiday season and keeping your kids happy

This article in the Boston Globe talks about finding a good seat and covers the basics like talking to the gate agent (which I recently learned about) who can often find an empty row for you or something like that. My wife and I were able to get a row of 4 on an American Airlines flight after talking to the gate agent. It didn't make any difference to me but my wife got 3 seats...

Then this article from the Tribune News Service talks about keeping your kids from throwing tantrums. I don't have any personal experience here, but some of the same rules apply to adults I would think. I know I am a big fan of nap time and if you're not relaxing on vacation, then you might be doing it wrong.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Travel bookings picking back up - sales in 2010?

Not long ago i asked if the travel deals would keep coming in 2010? This article may have some relevance although it does focus on one travel agency in Minnesota. That agency is hiring back employees they had laid off because of an increase in travel bookings.

On it's own it's not so meaningful but if we similar articles coming out of other regions, we may not have the deals in 2010.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Who says there's no such thing as a stupid question?

Have you ever asked - or been asked - a stupid question when traveling? I worked for a major airline for many years and have fond memories of some of the questions that I was asked, by otherwise seemingly intelligent people. One day I will try to publish them all in a book; meanwhile, here are some of the things I remember. I often spoke to people who weren't sure if they wanted to fly or drive to Hawaii for their vacation and several others who were surprised to learn that New Mexico was actually part of the United States.

But one of my favorites was a passenger who was flying to some obscure and exotic destination, where he needed to have a visa as well as a passport. I told him this and after a long pause, came the reply: "I don't have a Visa. Can I take my MasterCard instead?"

And then there is the classic story about a woman calling the airline to ask about the size of container needed when transporting a dog by air; I did not speak to this person, but the story is purportedly true. The reservations agent told the lady that the dog's container should have enough room for the dog to lie down in, turn around in a full circle and move its head and tail. Replies the passenger: "Oh, dear! I am leaving tomorrow - I don't think I can train him to do that by then!"

This UK newspaper site has a list of stupid questions asked by visitors to the UK and other countries. It's in the form of a slideshow, so you have to keep clicking to see the next picture, but some of my favorites are:

"Why did they build Windsor Castle (which of course, is centuries old) on the flight path to Heathrow airport"
"Why did they build so many ruined castles and abbeys in England"
"Do you know of any undiscovered ruins"
...and from a visitor at the Grand Canyon: "Was this man-made?"

There are quite a lot of other sites out there that list stupid questions, including this one that includes the question: "If it rains, will the fireworks be held inside?"

Lonely Planet also has a travel forum where you can post stupid question and answers. Does anyone have any stupider (or is it more stupid) questions than these..? Please share!

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 8:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Do you wish you had had more vacation flings?

I'll leave you with a quick question for now since after teaching today I went to Opera Gallery in Seoul to meet Romero Britto and somehow that knocked me out.

Anyway, this article on regrets after marriage inspired the question:

Just thinking about all the solo trips -- not to mention vacation flings -- I missed out on makes me a little sick. I'd definitely take a do-over on this.

So the question is - do you married folks regret not taking more trips while single / not having more vacation flings?

Related question from June, 2008.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:07 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Travel planning technique: spiderwebbing

According to the person who seems to have come up with the term:

Think of spiderwebbing as controlled adventure where your travel itinerary is determined by like-minded individuals that you mainly don't know.

The article goes on to talk about how the author talked to a friend (who happens to be a hotel expert), talked to her daughter, and got some advice from magazines (but not travel ones).

I'm not sure this spiderwebbing travel planning can work for me. I don't read magazines (unless academic journals count but they never mention hotels). I do get some advice from people but not the main trip planning advice. For example I'm planning a trip to Lisbon but I don't really know anyone who has stayed in a Lisbon hotel. I did have a colleague recommend something (would be nice if I could remember) about a place to stay for a month that's good and cheap. I guess I'll have to talk to him again...

Anyone hear plan a vacation through spiderwebbing?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Chako Paul City (the northern Swedish town full of sex-crazed lesbians)

This story is pretty funny. It seems Chinese media ran a story on Chako Paul City in northern Sweden:

Many of the town's female residents became lesbians "because they could not suppress their sexual needs", Chinese news service Harbin News reports.

The myth has been embraced by the Chinese media, with millions of men crippling the country's internet providers trying to find out how to get to the town.

Anyone know where this story might have come from? I think this is the first mention of it outside of China, so far as I know anyway. Maybe someone working for Harbin news in China felt like playing a little joke on every man in the country?

Posted by James Trotta at 8:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Slow travel = staying in one place for a while and connecting with the culture

I saw someone wearing a t shirt today that said "slow travel" and had some text about staying in a vacation spot for a while and connecting with the locals. I've always been a fan of staying in a city for a month in order to really get to know it. I came home and searched for "slow travel" and found a few sites talking about it. I learned a new phrase!

The idea is to live at the destination. That means:

Stay for a while (I'd say a month is just about right).
Shop for groceries and other items that locals shop for.
Get into a routine and meet locals (like going to the same cafe every day).

The best example I have of slow travel was my honeymoon where we spent 1 month in Rome while I took a language teaching course. Some people in the course were Italians so we went out to dinner with them, went to a bar with them, etc. We also went to the same cafe, gelateria, and pastry shop every day (often more than once a day) and though we gained a bit of weight we did get to know the people there a little bit.

This was actually more evident in Assisi where we also stayed for 1 month. There was only 1 gelateria there and we got to know the owner pretty well since he was there every day (and we went at least once a day). There was a restaurant, Il Duomo, that we went to at least every other day. Also, one of my classmates from the course in Rome owned a shop in Assisi where she sold hand made wood toys and music boxes. My wife likes music boxes and these were quite nice so we went to that store often and bought a bunch of music boxes that we still have on display but that no longer work. I think they need some oil or something - they seem to get stuck.

We were planning to stay in Lisbon (not the Lisbon in Ohio) for a month this winter. Now we're thinking we might split that trip up so we spend some time in Amsterdam (where I was supposed to meet a friend a while ago and maybe we can finally meet there this winter), then somewhere, then Lisbon - maybe a week or a bit more in each.

That timing worked out pretty well when we spent a week in Munich, a week in Zurich, and about 2 weeks in Madrid. I don't really consider that slow travel although we did meet and get friendly with a few locals in Madrid. I actually felt more like slow travel in London when we would go to the same Costa Coffee every day and talk to the Italian guy who started the original Costa Coffee. I hope it's true because no one actually believes I met the founder when I tell the story - at least not if they know how big Costa Coffee is now.

Another trip I have planned for some day is a month in Italy for a language course so my wife and I can work on our Italian. Maybe Bologna.

And it was actually a slow travel story that got me motivated to travel when I was 22 or so. I met a guy who had spent a month in Ghana taking xylophone lessons and living in some village for $25 a week or something. It sounded pretty cool.

Has anyone here had a slow travel experience? If so, can you tell us something about it? Or if you had a month would you go somewhere specific for a slow travel experience?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Some Fascinating Fall Festivals / Not so Fascinating Travel Channel

Guest entry from Mancunian (welcome back!):

Firstly, my apologies for not posting on here in quite a while.. (Not since May of this year, I see) I have just been busy with things - I'm sure everyone knows how that is! Including taking my son to summer camp, where he enjoyed archery, hiking, orienteering, baseball games, trips to the zoo and tennis every day (he seems to have a more exciting life than I do).

Anyway, my son has been back at school for a few weeks, so I suppose that means it must be fall. To my amazement, the local Home Depot had a Halloween display up at the front of the store as long ago as August 31st - that seems almost as bad as celebrating Christmas months before the actual day (I remember the date well as I had to buy a new water heater - the only scary thing I found in the store was the price of them.)

Anyway, as it is fall (or autumn, if you are in the UK) here are some interesting and fascinating events that you shouldn't miss. The famous Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta takes place from October 3rd to 11th this year, in New Mexico. The festival features over 700 balloons and pilots from countries such as Latvia, Israel and the Ukraine and apparently is the most photographed single event in the world.

I have seen signs for several corn mazes while driving around recently, although I hadn't realized just how popular these were. Apparently, there are more than 600 of them all over the United States - even one in Washington, DC. And the largest one is said to be Sever's corn maze in Shakopee, Minnesota. Of course, if you get lost in it, I suppose you can just trample your way to freedom.

Another thing associated with the fall is the pumpkin. This site has everything you ever wanted to know about pumpkin festivals and weighoffs all over the US, as well as some overseas. If you are in Half Moon Bay, California on October 12th, you can catch the world pumpkin championship weighoff - the winner collects around $20,000.

The next month or so is a great time to go to Europe - cooler temperatures, lower airfares and not as many crowds. And if you are heading to Germany in the next couple of weeks, you can try to catch one of the world's most famous and spectacular (not to mention overcrowded) festivals, the Oktoberfest in Munich. This year's extravaganza is from October 19th to October 4th.

And I can't resist mentioning one of my favorite subjects - the Travel Channel. I had high hopes that their programming would get better, although this has not really happened. The Travel Channel hit an all time low a few weeks ago by showing the movies "National Lampoon's European Vacation" and "National Lampoon's Vacation". Yes, admittedly they are films in which people travel, but to me this is rather like showing films in which people happen to be eating, on the Food Network! And the World Poker Tour is still on!!! Re-runs, at that! Anyone else have any opinions on the Travel Channel? I know we haven't discussed it for a while.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:26 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Traveling for life?

A few interesting articles here on people who travel (or will get to travel) for extended periods of time:

First, is a retired man who seems to cruise full-time always on Carnival. Now I haven't heard anything recently but a few years ago there were a lot of complaints about Carnival cruises. Still, you can have fun on a cruise and still find things to complain about as my recent review of the NCL Spirit proves (I had fun but also got hammered for complaining too much).

Still, I don't care if it's the best cruise line, the worst one, or somewhere in between - a cruise is still a cruise and while I would eventually want to spend longer stretches on land to really explore and get to know a place, I certainly see the attraction of cruising for a big chunk of time. Somehow this search turned up an old blog entry on misleading ads and the cruise industry - this is a topic I'd like to explore in more detail so maybe this will help me remind myself.

The second article talks about a travel job where you really travel (or blog). There are actually two jobs:

Tourism Queensland -- a six-month island caretaker job in the Whitsundays with a pay packet of $150,000 to sit on the beach and blog.

The company Mason Horvath is offering six months of luxury travel for two valued at $US500,000 ($A700,000) plus $US50,000 pay in return for promotional video blogs en route by the winner.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Anyone here gone backpacking?

2 days ago my wife met some cool people on one her DMZ tours. Tonight we had dinner with them. The parents live in Mexico in a resort retirement community and the 24-year-old woman just finished a 1 year teaching contract in Daegu, Korea.

Now she's going backpacking in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and maybe another country or two. I saw her backpack today and it was big (she's not). It's 39 pounds.

I've never gone backpacking. Carrying 40 pounds around on my back sounds pretty tough and I'm not sure I'd enjoy it. On the other hand, here's a travel experience I've never had and part of me is certainly curious.

So has anyone here gone backpacking? Where'd you go and how much of a burden was your pack?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

How could soccer players be such ridiculously bad travelers?

What does it mean to be a good traveler? This is perhaps not unlike the question about what it means to be well-traveled we asked a long time ago.

I meant to blog about this in 2006. I'm going to link to an old article in a bit but first I want you to guess where Djibril Cisse, a soccer player on the French national team is talking about:

"There was nothing to do there," confessed striker Djibril Cisse. "We hung out inside the hotel just waiting for the next day, for the next match. Going downtown was out of question."

Here's a little hint. When I took a friend of mine from New York here in 2006 he said that they should call this city the one that never sleeps. He said New York City doesn't deserve the nickname because in this other city at 5:00 AM the bars and clubs are still open and people are still out drinking. To be fair by 6:00 or 7:00 some of those people are passed out on the sidewalk (or sometimes even the street):

So the answer. The French team was bored in Seoul during the 2002 World Cup. Keep in mind that Seoul is a city of 13 million people or so I'm told.

Who do you blame when you're bored in Seoul?

To make things worse, Seoul was not the place they would have chosen to stay.

Their luxurious five-star hotel on a hill from where you could see the Han River swiftly became a kind of bunker....They stayed by themselves and started to get bored.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:16 PM | Comments (0)

Would you travel for Running of the Bulls or Cheese Rolling?

I know I'm not the most exciting person in the world but I really don't get why people do dangerous stuff. I'm not even sure if I'd enjoy watching things like...

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling.

Or Pamplona's Running of the Bulls:

Did you notice the picture at 3:24? That's funny on YouTube but in person? I don't think I need to see it happen.

It's not that I just like sitting around. I like action - just not the kind where I end up hurt. And I certainly do things that "normal" people don't get.

For example this weekend I'm hopping a car with 3 friends, driving about 2.5 hours to a campsite in New Jersey, and doing some live action roleplaying. We hit each other with swords but they are made of foam so no one gets hurt. The campsites (and I've never been to the one for this weekend but here's a campsite in PA where the same game - called a larp - is played) usually have some woods, some cabins, some tents, and a place to eat.

And you and your friends get to spend a weekend beating up on other people with foam swords:

I'm actually in that video, which was taken at the campsite in PA I linked to above.

Anyway, what kind of "action" or "adventure" do you look for on vacation (if any)?

Posted by James Trotta at 9:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Back to the travel agent discussion

I was supposed to call my travel agency today but I forgot. The reason I'm supposed to call is that I haven't gotten all the papers and things I expect to get before my cruise on August 14th.

My sister tried calling the travel agent, my travel agent Lynn at Royal International. Apparently Lynn no longer works there but no one told us she was gone (until my sister called up and asked for her).

Now I'm sure being a travel agent is tough these days. Commissions are down and fewer people are traveling. More people are traveling cheap and booking online. It must be tough to be a travel agent.

That's why if I worked at Royal International, I would be contacting Lynn's customers in an effort to make them my customers. It would also be good for the agency itself and management should have made sure they followed up with Lynn's customers. I really don't like not knowing when my papers will arrive and who I have to talk to in order to get them. I have to consider finding a new travel agency or just booking online (which I sometimes do anyway). I mean one of the benefits of using a travel agent is not going through the trouble I currently have trying to get my papers and stuff.

Of course, there's always the possibility that they just don't want my business. They normally deal with VIPs and luxury travel. I think the only reason Lynn ended up being my travel agent is because she reads and comments (or used to comment) on this blog.

Posted by James Trotta at 7:44 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Who are the worst tourists in the world?

Interesting article here on a flawed survey from Expedia. They found that French tourists are the worst in the world, although apparently the mpst-likely-to-complain Americans gave them some competition.

Apparently this is big news in France where they have been the worst tourists for a few years in a row.

They only asked hptel workers so only a small part of the service industry got to respond to the survey. Had they talked to bar tenders pr whoever I wonder hhow different the results would be.

Japanese tourists are the best in case you were wondering...

Posted by James Trotta at 1:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Do you agree with these survey results?

Interesting results from a tripadvisor survey. I really don't understand how they have New York as both the friendliest and least friendly. I guess they screwed up. I could see it being the most expensive though.

Favorite City: New York City, San Francisco, Chicago & Boston
Least Favorite City: Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta
Most Underrated: Portland, Oregon
Most Overrated: Las Vegas
Most Economical: Las Vegas
Most Expensive: New York City
Cleanest: Portland, Oregon
Dirtiest: Detroit
Sexiest: Miami
Most Boring: Cleveland
Healthiest: Seattle
Least Healthy: Detroit
Friendliest and Most Helpful: New York City
Least Friendly and Helpful: New York City
Best Free Attractions: Washington D.C.
Most Romantic: Honolulu
Nicest Sounding Accent : Atlanta
Most Annoying Accent: Boston

Posted by James Trotta at 11:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Here's one story from a woman who doesn't regret traveling to Mexico. Unfortunately we don't get many details of the actual vacation in Mexico but we do get an interesting look at some of the fears the author felt before taking the trip (violence and swine flu in Mexico).

At first I was going to say something positive but after rereading the article, something seems hollow about the author writing that visiting this resort in Mexico will make her a real traveler:

Perhaps it was also the desire to be able to make sophisticated and knowing comments about distant places, with the kind of self-satisfied authority I heard in so many accomplished travelers.

I guess it comes back to the old question, what makes someone a real traveler? If you're curious, I spent 20 minutes looking for this entry - that's why you see so many other links above - I guess this blog is too big and too old.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hawaii safety concerns and Ms. Wheelchair Iowa 2009

This article popped up on one of my news alerts, and I wasn't planning to mention it until I read this part:

But only one concerned person with a Hawaii trip planned has called the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau seeking information, state tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said on Friday. With Hawaii's huge military presence, no one should be afraid to travel to the islands, she said.

This story is even a more unlikely candidate for my travel blog but I include it here because some may find it inspirational. It must have popped up on my news alerts because Ms. Wheelchair Iowa 2009 wants to become a travel agent. More specifically, she wants to run a business that plans for vacations for disabled travelers.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:08 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Ever been quarantined?

Today I have a link for you.

One of my students turned me on to this blog I'm linking to. It was written by a friend of his, an English teacher in Korea, and describes his 8 day quarantine experience in South Korea thanks to the swine flu scare.

I guess this qualifies as a travel experience since the guy writing is not Korean. Makes me wonder if my own daily life qualifies as a travel experience since I am an American living in Seoul, South Korea. Then again I've been here for 7 or 8 years so am I still a traveler? What if I go do my Ph.D. back in America but not in my native New York? Would I be a traveler living in Tennessee or California or something?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What's worth doing in your hometown?

Here's an interesting article. The author is from Luton and he grew up bored of the place. Then he went back and tried to write a travel article on Luton. I'd say he found something pretty cool:

Ever since I was at school I had heard of Luton Hoo. I knew it was some kind of fancy stately home and I knew it wasn't for ordinary folks like me. It is set in 1,000 acres of rolling countryside only eight miles from where I grew up. In the past, films including Four Weddings and a Funeral and The World is Not Enough have featured Luton Hoo as a location, and in the past year the estate has been relaunched as a five-star hotel. My room is the Queen Elizabeth suite, and it was where our present Queen spent her honeymoon night.

We're also about 45 minutes from Woodbury Commons. I don't know if outlet stores are a tourist attraction to most American travelers (although I do know some LL Bean lovers who visit Maine for the outlets in Freeport). Anyway, Woodbury Commons is very popular with international travelers. I hear lots of Chinese and Korean when I go (and I go pretty often because of my wife).

So what can travelers do in or around your hometown?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

What's at the top of your travel list?

International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota because I want to hear wolves howl again.

Singapore Night Safari because I want to hear wolves howl again.

Numerous cities in Europe because I want to make sure that Rome really is my favorite before I retire there. Lisbon, Krakow, Paris, Bologna, Prague, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Milan all make the list.

Some nature in North America. The Grand Canyon would be a good start.

New Zealand and Australia. I'm not exactly sure where.

Tokyo, Japan.

Nepal for trekking.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Naturally there are tons of other things I'd like to do but these are the first few that come to mind, without me really thinking about it.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Timeshares & YTB - news about some old controversies

Timeshares have been a bit controversial on this blog over the years.

Here's an article on a timeshare selling scam where one company asked for a $500 listing fee and made some promises about what they could get for timeshares. It seems that you never get your money back when selling a timeshare.

Our old friend YTB got some bad news from the state of California. They now have to tell people it's almost impossible to make money by selling travel and I think they are no longer allowed to charge $450 to join up.

That just makes sense - you don't have to spend money to join other network marketing things, or at least not much. You are strongly encouraged to buy products - YTB just didn't deal in products so they got lumped in with the pyramid schemes.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Tourism of Doom part 2

A while back, I blogged about an article that listed some tourism of doom sites - one which might be gone soon.

Yahoo has a similar article that made it to their front page yesterday.

Previously we had:

Glaciers of Patagonia (melting)
Coral of the Great Barrier Reef (threatened)
atolls of the Maldives (eroding)
Kilimanjaro (see the sunrise on the highest peak in Africa before the ice cap melts)
Galápagos Islands (getting worse)
a stay at a remote lodge in the Amazon (might be a cattle ranch soon)
Cruises of Antarctica (melting glaciers and sinking ships)

Add:

Croatia's Dalmation Coast (government is less friendly to foreign investment)
The Alps (losing ski areas)

Posted by James Trotta at 9:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Has swine flu got you thinking about summer travel plans?

With all the talk about swine flu spreading and possibly becoming a huge worldwide issue I'm curious if anyone here is rethinking their travel plans? SARs had a huge impact on travel and I don't remember the same talk about possible global pandemics back then.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:56 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Great Wolf Lodge, YTB, tour request poll

This article is about a place I almost visited, Great Wolf Lodge. The one I almost went to was in the Poconos but I guess all 12 are fairly similar.

Anyway, I was going to visit Great Wolf Lodge with my wife and 2 other couples. There was some 3 bedroom suite that was going to cost us $190/couple or something if memory serves. I had to cancel because that was when my grandfather got sick (you may remember the AA / JAL drama and the mystery of the missing clock motor and handles).

Anyway, the other 2 couples went - my friend said he'd be willing to go back but that it was more for families than for couples.

This article also dredged up some memories. Remember all the fun we had talking about YTB? I am not as negative on network marketing as most people, but the commenters talking about how great YTB (and how I was a big liar) was just made me shake my head. Anyway, YTB might be finished - we'll know more after the dust clears from the lawsuit by California and the class-action lawsuit.

Let's wrap up with this tour company's blog. They asked their readers to pick a destination they'd like to tour. I didn't notice the results on their blog but they were in the press release I got:

Madagascar, with 941 votes
Antarctica, with 910 votes
Ireland and Scotland tour, with 836 votes
Croatia
Bali
Brazil
Costa Rica
Papua New Guinea
Norway and Sweden
France
Philippines
Belize

Which of those have you visited? I'm going to Costa Rica this summer. And went to Cebu in the Philippines but really didn't see much of the country beyond a transvestite bar (I'm going here next time). My wife often talks about Antarctica but I worry about the cost. One of these days I will certainly get to Brazil - I mentioned a while back that a friend and I wanted to start a Brazil tour business for less touristy carnavals than the one in Rio (he was always going to do most of the work since he is the one who lived in Brazil for several years but we both seem to have lost some of our initial enthusiasm).

Posted by James Trotta at 11:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Continental sued over Mileage Program? / April in Paris / Unclaimed Baggage Center

USA Today reports that a frequent flyer with Continental Airlines is suing the airline over its frequent flyer program. The lawsuit maintains that the airline told him he would have to use 50,000 miles instead of 25,000, and also charged $75 to get the mileage ticket at the last minute - in this case, with less than three weeks notice. I have some sympathy for the passenger, but unfortunately most of the airlines do have these rules explained in small print on their web site, so I don't expect he is going to be very successful.

This blog has commented before on the increase in fees and extra charges that seem to be added on by the airlines, often for things which most of us have long taken for granted. I think that if you have a lot of airline miles - and some people have millions of them - you should use the option of more miles to secure a seat; most airlines offer double mileage awards which are not capacity controlled. As in the above mentioned lawsuit, there was a seat available - but only if you had the extra miles. There is also usually no charge to change a reservation booked with extra miles. This site has a lot of other tips and advice.

April is a good time to be in Paris (according to the song) or anywhere else in Europe - weather not too cold, not too many crowds and airfares that aren't too high. USA Today also lists these ten bargain European travel deals for April. And if you are lucky enough to be heading across the Atlantic, this site has details of European fairs and festivals - everything from the drag queen Olympics and a scarecrow festival to Europe's biggest kite festival.

I may not be going to Paris any time soon but I am quite excited as at last I am going to visit the famous Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. My family and I are visiting relatives in the area next week and having written about the UBC before, I can't resist visiting it. Perhaps the book I left on the plane 25 years ago will be there...?

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 6:50 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dubai: headed for a fall?

We've talked about Dubai which seems to be trying to survive as a high-end tourist destination. We also know that luxury travel is on the decline. This article talks about how the global recession is hitting Dubai.

Dubai certainly didn't help itself when they refused to give Shahar Peer a visa.

But some people may overlook the issues to see stuff like this. At that website, click on "Dubai Project" - I can't link to it directly. Here's a collection of Dubai photos:

So, what do you think will happen to Dubai? Can the city get what it needs from tourism to justify the money spent on construction?

Posted by James Trotta at 5:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Fun with my NCL Mastercard

I wrote about travel credit cards a while back (well mostly you guys did the writing in the comments section) and I mentioned how I didn't really use my points wisely when I took that Alaskan cruise.

Don't feel sorry for me, but I felt like I had to take another NCL cruise because of that credit card and the points. In fact I have 200 extra points because last time I couldn't use all my upgrades (my travel agent got me a free upgrade so the coupon became unnecessary).

So I booked one to Bermuda this summer. Then I got a letter saying that the NCL points program was changing - they would mail me my certificates in January 2009 because old points had to be redeemed now whether you like it or not.

As an aside, that timing worked for me since I had already booked a cruise anyway, but there are some people left with coupons expiring in a year that may not want to - or may not be able to - take a cruise this year.

Anyway, I got my coupons. There were 200 points missing. So I found the letter from NCL to Bank of America (BoA) stating that they were giving me the 200 points back and called up BoA. They said they saw the 200 points in the system and they would transfer me to a colleague.

I figured I was getting a manager, but after a slightly confusing exchange I figured out that Miguel was with NCL, not BoA. He said that they had screwed up the award certificates and would send some more. But since he didn't work for BoA and had no information about my account, he had no idea if those corrections would include my 200 points or not. Apparently the best I can do is wait and call again if I don't get my certificates by the 20th.

Also, I don't know what I'll be doing with the certificates. I learned last time that I should have gone for the money off instead of the room upgrades - just a much better value since the room upgrades are cheap compared to the money you can get off ($500 ofo for 500 points).

I thought I'd be getting 3 $100 off coupons but now I'm learning that 100 point coupons can only be used for room upgrades so who knows? My travel agent said she'd try to get me the discount. If that doesn't work I guess I'll have the nicest possible inside cabin on the ship.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act was introduced to the House of Representatives on Feb. 4th. I would expect a favorable reaction from Obama since he said he supported easing travel restrictions to Cuba during his campaign.

Long-time readers might remember that I'm in favor of travel freedom but there are issues people who may want to visit Cuba should be aware of.

1. Before booking a resort, realize that Cubans are barred from many of them. That's actually not too different from resorts in poor countries when I think about it. For example in Plantation Bay I met only one Filipino guest and in Sirenis Punta Cana I met only one Dominican guest.

2. Spending money in Cuba will probably help the Castro regime.

If you're curious, Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass introduced the bill. Co-sponsors include Representatives Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Sam Farr, D-Calif., and Ron Paul, R- Texas.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:22 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Luca Marchio: Real traveler or naive tourist?

A while back I asked what it meant to be well-traveled. Here's a story about a pretty unique traveler: unique because he wants to see the entire world, including Iraq.

“I explained to him that it was not safe to move around,” said Renato Di Porcia, the deputy chief of mission at the Italian Embassy in Baghdad. “He is a little bit naïve.”

Can we call someone naive if they are able to get a 10-day Iraqi visa, enter northern Iraq, get to Baghdad, then go to Fallujah? And this is on his own - although he did hire a local guide in Baghdad - this guys was traveling solo.

What seems crazy to me is this: "An American marine working with the police suggested taking him to the city limits and dropping him where Falluja met the main highway."

How is abandoning a guy on the side of a road in Iraq going to protect him? Luckily, it seems like they didn't listen to that guy: "On Friday night Mr. Marchio was being held for his own safety, the Iraqi police said. “He will leave with the earliest flight tomorrow morning,” Mr. Di Porcia said."

Anyway, if you're looking for something to do, please read the article and think about whether Luca Marchio is a naive tourist or a savvy traveler and share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:57 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Quick question: country or city vacations?

Well I just arrived at my university's Yong In campus to work on some test questions. I normally teach at the Seoul campus. Seoul, of course, is a 13 million person city. Yong In is more country - lots of trees and open fields and stuff.

On the way here I was talking to a professor from Salzburg who prefers country living to city living. That got me thinking about vacations - I usually vacation in city areas because they are close to airports. Every once in a while I'll fly in to wherever and then take a bus or whatever to someplace relatively far away from an airport. But not usually.

So I thought an informal survey here would be interesting. When you travel do you see more city or more countryside?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:21 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Irish students' Leaving Cert holidays

I'm guessing this is kind of similar to American high school students going on vacation to celebrate graduation though it seems to be much more common in Ireland with basically all students doing it. This article talks about travel agents' role in booking these holidays. Apparently it's a good (and relatively new) source of income but also a good deal of work.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

What small islands have you visited?

Here's an article on travelling to small islands and how they make great travel destinations. The smallest island I've been to was So Mae Mul Do in South Korea.

So Mae Mul Island had 28 people living on it when I went. There was one store where you could buy bottled drinks and snacks and stuff. You had to find the owner to open it if you wanted something. There was one cafe. Again, you had to find the owner to open for business. I talk about it a lot but it wasn't really that fun - just different. I don't think I'm going back.

Next would be Capri in Italy. I am going back there some day. I wouldn't call Jeju a small island, but it's not huge. I wrote about Love Land a few days ago and this article mentions that plus some of Jeju's other tourist attractions.

What small islands have you been to?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Anyone think it's weird that we see vibrator commercials on the Travel Channel?

So Mancunian has criticized the Travel Channel before, as have a number of commenters here, based on their programming:

Nothing new
Samantha Brown's Passport
Not enough progress
Dhani Jones and sports around the world
Something new
My idea for a travel show
We need more
The post that got us started

So all that criticism was related to programming. Does anyone want to criticize them for airing a Trojan vibrator commercial? I don't personally have any problems but if I had kids trying to figure out what they were talking about (and asking me for help) I think I might...

Link to the commercial: here so you can decide for yourself it's appropriate for the Travel Channel. It's nothing too dirty or anything. The biggest crime is probably the crappy script and acting, but still, I don't think I'd want my kid to see this commercial (if I had kids) and it was aired on a Sunday afternoon.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:31 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Will travel be more expensive in 2009?

This article talks about American Express predicting lower prices for hotels and airfare in Australia for the rest of this year but higher prices next year.

I don't know how they came up with this forecast but I am pretty curious. What do they think will change between now and next year when prices might increase?

If prices really do go up in Australia I would expect them to go up elsewhere as well. Has anyone seen any predictions for travel costs for international flights or US domestic flights, or hotels anywhere in the world other than Australia?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Will I be willing to pay for a family visit this winter?

It's been a while since I asked if the economy would hurt the travel industry. Now the economy is even worse. Some people regret buying vacation homes for example. Others are mad about AIG salespeople (or executives depending on who you believe) getting pampered. A week ago I figured that since stocks were way down it would be a good time for my IRA contribution. Woops.

This article talks about how airlines need to lower prices to fill planes even though they've cut routes. Hotels are offering discounts. A stronger dollar means better values abroad for Americans. Tour package prices might go on sale.

For me, despite my canceled birthday travel, I still wonder if it's worth paying big bucks to visit family for Christmas. I'm already thinking of going in February for hopefully cheaper airfare and if it's not cheap enough than just going somewhere cheap on vacation and not seeing family at all this winter. We'll have to see what the ticket prices are...

If you are looking for a vacation package, this is supposed to be the best season to visit Wyoming's Snake River in the Teton Range, in the Rocky Mountains.

Next I have this article on a couple of niche cruises - a Cajun/Zydeco Dance Cruise and a Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise. The blues one sounds OK to me...

Posted by James Trotta at 3:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Amsterdam birthday travel plan thwarted

Well my birthday trip to Amsterdam got canceled. My wife needs to work and she doesn't want me to go alone. I wish I could see Amsterdam and spend my birthday with friends there but I'll have more chances for both - just not a chance to do both at the same time.

I did want to share what my friends are up to though. Apparently they found a 3 story townhouse for 675 euros plus tax. That's for 3 nights and since they'll be splitting it 5 ways or so in ends up being quite reasonable.

Naturally, trying to look at the bright side, it's money I won't be spending. Airfare would have run about $1200-$1300 each so it was never going to be a cheap birthday. Until now...

The location of the rental is supposed to be good, on the oldest street in Amsterdam (apparently this is near the redlight district).

Posted by James Trotta at 9:23 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

XL goes bust: what happens next?

This article on how many in the UK have had their vacation plans ruined by the demise of XL, Britain's third-largest tour operator, makes a scary suggestion:

But the repercussions of the collapse are expected to travel much further. Will the demise of three holiday companies now signal fundamental changes in the way the market operates? As the industry contracts, will low cost flights and bargain basement holidays become a thing of the past? And will the much-maligned but relatively safe package holiday run by mass-market travel companies – derided by a new generation of budget-conscious, internet-savvy, independent travellers – make an unplanned comeback?

If so, will weary travellers be forced to return to the days of being herded aboard coaches by clipboard-wielding officials on their way to the obligatory "welcome" meeting, where cheap sangria is liberally dispensed to disguise the pain of substandard accommodation on a miles-from-nowhere building site?

Posted by James Trotta at 5:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What does it mean to be well traveled?

So when a language teacher meets a class for the first time we usually do a getting to know you activity. Last semester I did one where students wrote interview questions, interviewed someone else in the class, and then reported what they found to everyone. My students told me that every teacher used the exact same activity.

This semester I wanted to do something different. I don't want to be the same as all the other teachers. So I invented an 'awards game' where students choose an award and then interview classmates to see who deserves it.

Some awards were hardest studying, heaviest sleeper, most likely to succeed, and biggest traveler.

When I talked to the biggest traveler people I asked them what interview questions they would use to give the award. The only one they had was "How many countries have you been to?"

I told them that I thought they needed more. I mean someone can visit a bunch of countries but that alone does not make them well traveled. I told them they could ask how many countries someone has been to but they would also need to ask questions that dug deeper.

They said they would add how long the person spent in each place but for me that is still not enough.

So I thought that this would be an interesting question to discuss here. What makes someone well-traveled?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:20 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Facebook Where I've Been Countries Map Application

This will be a rant. You have been warned.

I really really hate this Facebook application. It's also for Mysapce and some things I've never heard of. I recently found an old college friend on Facebook and she had this application installed. It was the first time I had seen it. It didn't really excite me - you scroll over China and it says "Jane Doe wants to go here". You scroll over Hawaii and it says "Jane Doe has been here." Then I saw something about how she had seen 5% of the world. I thought 'that can't be right'.

A day or two later we're catching up and she says "I've been to 5% of the world which I think is pretty sad." I thought 'can she really think that?'

From her map it looks like she has been to about 10 states in America plus Ontario. Basically you fill in the information and the map shows people where you've been, where you've lived, and where you want to go. Then it 'calculates' how much of the world you've seen.

It's pretty ridiculous as far as I can tell. The US gets divided into states and Canada gets divided into provinces, but China is just China. Only the US, UK, Canada, and Australia get divided up. You can actually choose cities, but they don't seem to have smaller towns and I didn't see a chance to enter cities in China or wherever. Mostly North America I guess.

Now I was in China for 2 or 3 days. I saw 2 airports, 1 city, 1 dirty massage (well almost), Confucius' home, and a mountain. Have I seen China? I lived in New York for 12 years. Have I seen 5% of New York? Can you now calculate how much of the world I've seen?

I couldn't get the stupid thing to tell me how much of the world it thinks I've seen, but if 10 US states plus Ontario = 5% I must be up around 20% or maybe 30%. Yet I know that I've seen way less than 5%.

In the end, it's not the map that shows people where you've traveled I have trouble with. It's that only 4 countries get divided into states / provinces / whatever. And that they give you a crazy percentage of the world you've 'seen'.

Tripadvisor paid 3 million for this thing and I'm sure the exposure and advertising and awareness they get is totally worth it for them. But I still hate it. Better to just leave a comment here if you ask me.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Some Fall Reality Shows featuring Exotic Places!

It's that time of year again when the US television networks excitedly announce their fall line-up of television shows. A couple of the most popular reality shows are back and are going to some exotic places around the world. The latest installment of the long running CBS show Survivor was filmed in the small African country of Gabon – described as one of the last unspoiled wildernesses left on earth. (Hopefully the contestants won’t spoil it too much!) According to this article, Gabon actually sounds like an interesting place to visit – it is a politically stable country, and around 10% of the land is designated a national park. (Survivor starts Thursday, September 18th on CBS)

And one of the best reality shows, the Amazing Race is back for its 13th season (Starting Sunday, September 28th on CBS) If you haven't seen the show, eleven teams of two literally race around the world, trying to solve clues and be the first to arrive at the next location. The last team to arrive is usually eliminated.

The new series will include locations such as Russia, Brazil, Bolivia, Cambodia and Kazakhstan, and teams include an ex-NFL player and a couple of aging hippies. The show’s host Phil Keogh, who makes an appearance at every one of the show's locations, must surely be one of the most traveled people in the world by now.

I don’t see anything on the Travel Channel website about a new exciting fall line-up, so my feeling is that it will be the same shows repeated over and over. And the dreaded World Poker Tournament is still on all Saturday evening on the Travel Channel...

It isn't particularly exotic, but I spent last weekend with my family at Dollywood, Dolly Parton's theme park near Pigeon Forge in Tennessee. The park isn't as huge and overwhelming as some parks, but it has enough rides and entertainment to keep you occupied. My only complaint is that it cost $8 to park, which seems rather high, especially as we paid a lot just to get in the park. Which makes me wonder... what is the most anyone has ever paid for daily parking... either at a resort, theme park, airport or any other travel related place..?

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 10:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Airport layovers, Atlantic City, disappointment damages

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by James Trotta at 10:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Article on saving money

A while back we talked about how the economy might effect the travel industry and that topic has been revisited once or twice. Here we go again.

This article talks about what people are doing to save money and 21% surveyed said they would not travel. They talk about one couple that hasn't traveled since their honeymoon 3 years ago.

I know the higher airline fares are making it much harder for me to make up my mind about visiting family for Christmas.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

When you travel, learn something or bring something back that makes you more interesting

Today I visited a couple of friends in New York City, good friends that I don't see very often. While it was fun visiting with old friends, the highlight of the visit was trying some tea that another fellow (just met him today) had brought back from Argentina.

Here's the Wikipedia entry in case my description doesn't make sense.

And before I forget, my whole point is that because he brought back this tea from Argentina (and you can buy it in the US) and was able to tell people about this part of Argentinean culture everyone thought he was more interesting and he was the center of attention.

The first time I came back from Korea I brought some ginseng liquor (which isn't even popular in Korea) that looked pretty interesting because of all the ginseng roots in the bottle of alcohol. Anyway, if you learn to cook a foreign dish, make a foreign drink, or something other people will enjoy learning about the culture you visited, you can make yourself the center of attention if you want.

So the Argentinean tea was interesting. Apparently in Argentina everyone shares one cup with a metal straw in it. The person who makes the tea passes the cup to the left. That person drinks the tea and hands it back to whoever is in charge. They pour more water and pass it to the second person to the left. And on it goes.

Now the cup doesn't hold much water so it only takes a few seconds to drink the tea when it's their turn. And there's no waiting for the tea to cool down since everyone else is also waiting.

The metal straw burned my lips a little bit and the tea was quite bitter. Wikipedia says the tea is bitter when made with boiling water, but it's also bitter when made correctly with hot but not quite boiling water.

Now Brian might or might not care that I think he's cool for teaching me about and sharing Argentinean tea, but everyone else was also interested so the ladies present gave him more attention since they were learning something interesting.

And he is a more interesting person that he was before he learned about Argentinean tea. That reminded me that when I travel I should also try to improve myself in some way - hopefully by learning something about the other culture that I can share with others.

So what have you learned in your travels?

Posted by James Trotta at 12:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Checking in on the Travel Channel again!

Well, we are about half way through the year and it’s been about six months since we discussed the programming on the Travel Channel, so I thought I would check in with them again. At first glance, it isn’t promising – almost every program this weekend seems to be about Hawaii or Las Vegas. Admittedly, they are both popular travel destinations, but I would still love to see some well-produced shows on such places as France, China, the South Pacific, Italy, the Greek Islands, Australia, etc. And to my dismay, World Poker Tour is still on all Saturday evening – my suspicion is it’s the same program shown over and over…

Samantha Brown is back with a new series featuring weekend escapes in various areas of the United States – one of today’s episodes featured Samantha along with the Pussycat Dolls (Which unfortunately I missed!) There are several new shows on the Travel Channel, but there are till too many re-runs and shows about fast food, treasure hunting and gambling. What do other viewers think…?

With the price of gas averaging just over $4 a gallon in the United States, you may not be able to afford a weekend escape this 4th of July weekend. AAA estimates that around 40 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home – a decrease of 1.3% over last year.

New York, Boston and Washington, DC all hold spectacular fireworks displays every 4th July, which can be seen on TV or in person. But perhaps surprisingly, one of the biggest Independence Day celebrations are held every year in Urbandale, Iowa. The celebrations begin the Sunday beforehand and feature parades, a carnival, games and competitions, as well as fireworks.

Wherever you spend the holiday, happy 4th of July!

Guest entry by Mancunian

Posted by James Trotta at 9:55 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Vacation sex > regular sex?

I've been writing about how the economy is changing vacation plans and how staycations are a viable option, but this article asks couples to go somewhere on vacation, especially stressed out couples, because the vacation sex (in some cases better than non-vacation sex). What I'm getting from this article is that a lot of researchers are studying sex and vacation sex and whatnot. And I thought researchers were boring...

Anonymous comments only please...

Posted by James Trotta at 7:54 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Are you a real adventurer?

The author of this article on Darwin writes, "For a real adventurer, to travel hopefully is not enough: Some end must be in view."

Perhaps that's why none of my vacations would make much of a book. Anyway, I'm just curious if any of you have an "end in view" when you travel?

Posted by James Trotta at 2:47 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Could I have been wrong about the economy seriously hurting the travel industry?

A few days ago I suggested that the economy will hurt the travel industry. There is room for conflicting opinions however. This article says that more Americans are traveling abroad this year than last year. It doesn't say if people are going to Canada instead of France but it's still significant - we're not talking about staycations if one goes abroad.

This article says that hotel bookings are fairly typical for this time of year - another possible indication that people are traveling despite the weak economy.

Interestingly, each article also mentions that the economy might be changing vacation plans. The first says that 51% of people say that money is the biggest problem when planning a vacation and the second quotes a hotel manager who thinks people will be taking shorter trips. But if the same number of people end up in his hotel I guess there's a chance the travel industry won't suffer much.

This article suggests that the way people travel could change. I personally love the suggestion of bringing snacks instead of stopping for fast food. Save money and your heart.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Best time of year to visit central Europe

One of the most often asked questions by tourists to tour guides like myself is the simple question of what time of year is the best time to visit. Depending on when this comes up in the tour, my answer can vary (as in how much time I have to answer, on walking tours you don’t necessarily have time to answer things in detail). I’m a tour guide of Germany and Austria with several years of experience monitoring ideal conditions for tourists.

The simple answer would be either early September or the middle of October. If neither of those works out, then spring would be the next best choice, with hesitation.

The main things people are worried about are the weather, crowds, and museum opening hours.

I think it's fairly common sense that late spring or early fall would have the ideal weather for the average tourist. In southern Germany and Austria, the highest amount of rainfall is during the middle of the summer, so June, July and August are rather wet. Most of the time between November and April it hovers around freezing, making it not very pleasant for wandering around new cities.

As far as crowds are concerned, those are also very much predictable. I would try to avoid spring break periods, and since different schools have them at different times, it’s difficult to guess and so from February until late April, there could be peak season crowds because of spring breakers, depending on your luck. May, June, July, and August are the busiest times, as well as the most expensive times to visit the region. One last thought on crowds is that since I live in Munich, crowds heading to and from the Oktoberfest make everything in the general region extremely busy as well.

A little tip to go along with that Oktoberfest comment: the crowds leave Munich nearly over night, which means if you come the week after Oktoberfest ends, Munich is empty. (Also, note that the Oktoberfest is at the end of September, and ENDS the first weekend in October)

Museum opening hours are of course the best during the peak times, but it is a little more general than that. April through September has the best opening hours for museums. Going along with that, fountains are covered by what I like to refer to as “large wooden huts”, which greatly diminishes the beauty of many of the cities in the region, from November until April.

In summary, the absolute best time to visit central Europe, based on weather, crowds, and opening hours, is early September. The next best in my opinion would be October, followed by late spring.

Mike Richardson - the professional tourist

Posted by James Trotta at 11:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Will the economy hurt the travel industry much?

This article asks if the travel business is recession proof, but I don't think it is. Obviously the industry can not die entirely, but it seems to me that people are cutting back on travel. Or at least they think they should be.

So while taking a vacation is certainly a priority (especially for us since we spend quite a bit of time on travel blogs!), people who have less money will spend less on travel. So whoever said "All the evidence going back to 1990 shows that holidays are one of the last things consumers cut back on. Things have got to get really bad for that to happen," has to realize that for many people and many economies things are worse now than they have been since 1990. I'm no economic historian, but besides the internet bubble we haven't faced too many recessions in the last 15 years, have we?

I don't think that means trouble for everyone. For example Dubai depends on tourism money (though if that slows down you'd think oil money would be able to compensate) according to this article, but they try to attract fairly wealthy people who will still have money to travel. And that article seems to agree with me that the travel industry will suffer at least some:

For the next year or two, the travel industry is likely to find its long-standing customers in rich Western countries a less than reliable source of growth. As American families plan their holidays, many will be worrying about the frailty of their country's economy, the rising cost of petrol and—for those venturing outside the United States—the weakness of the dollar. They are delaying booking in the hope of nabbing cheap, last-minute deals.

Anyway, what do you think? Will the economy hurt the travel industry much?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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.)

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

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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.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:26 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

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%.

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

Posted by James Trotta at 11:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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.

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...

Posted by James Trotta at 1:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:34 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

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!

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...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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...

Posted by James Trotta at 3:12 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 5:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

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.

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

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...

Posted by James Trotta at 11:49 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:56 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

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...

Posted by James Trotta at 1:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:47 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

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...

Posted by James Trotta at 9:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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?

Posted by James Trotta at 6:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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?

Posted by James Trotta at 10:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

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).

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?

Posted by James Trotta at 3:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

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).

Posted by James Trotta at 2:14 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:03 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

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

Posted by James Trotta at 9:58 AM | Comments (26) | TrackBack

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?

Posted by James Trotta at 1:32 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

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.

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:55 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:42 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:19 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack

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.

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:13 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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

Posted by James Trotta at 1:01 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:34 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:40 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

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.

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.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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 can't focus an entire vacation on looking for one type of bird...

These guys on the other hand, organized a vacation to go look for Himalayan snowcocks. Depsite the name, they only had to go to Nevada which is easier than India or Nepal...

I was thinking about a trip to India's Corbett National Park to see the nature (as research for a book I plan to write one day). And I do enjoy hiking - I've published a few hiking vacation ideas on this blog. This one in Banaue comes to mind.

Speaking of nature, we should all be this lucky. I'd settle for a lot less in a a vacation home...

Also on the subject of enjoying nature on vacation, here's an article on declining numbers of campers in Yosemite and other parks. There's a place I'd like to go camping but I understand why they are closing campgrounds:

A few generations back, 80 percent of Yosemite visitors spent the night, said park spokesman Scott Gediman. Now just 20 percent do, a sure sign that people's vacation patterns are changing. They're taking fewer days off, planning shorter excursions. Research shows that in the park, hotel-style accommodations are king.

Of course, camping would be cheaper as this article on saving money reminds us.

And while we're on the topic of parks, here's a Yellowstone vacation itinerary. I would love to go to Yellowstone, Yosemite, see the Grand Canyon, etc.

What's the most striking nature scene you've seen on vacation? For me it might be seeing a moose in Algonquin Park (up in Canada) although seeing wolves (and hearing them howl) in the moonlight in Singapore's night safari was my first thought. I wasn't sure if it counted since it wasn't exactly "in nature"...

Posted by James Trotta at 10:41 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Some of everything: visas for crime victims, Sandals losing divers, social networking

I have a good mix of articles for you today.

Illegal immigrants in America are being offered a limited number of visas if they were the victims of a crime and help law enforcement with the investigation. It seems that many illegal aliens were afraid to report these crimes to the police because they feared deportation. In true government fashion, the law was passed 7 years ago but the visas are just now being made available. Well, 30 days from now.

The same article has a scary story about a border patrol guard facing murder charges for allegedly executing an illegal immigrant who had surrendered while trying to cross the border.

Here's a story about British families getting a free Sandals vacation. Of course, on their first Sandals vacation (Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa), the Sandals dive team left without them - leaving them in the ocean somewhere.

Luckily the two British men were vacationing with their wives. And luckily their wives were waiting for them to return - when the women noticed their husbands weren't on the boat they called for help. I guess the men were rescued with no real trouble.

I do have a couple of previous blogs on Sandals including one on Selling Sandals vacations and this honeymoon advice blog entry where Sandals was recommended.

This article mentions a few social networking sites for travelers. I'm on Facebook if anyone wants another Facebook friend... I might sign up for Myspace one of these days. As for the travel social networking sites, I'm not sure. I don't think I know anyone who uses them. Does anyone use any of these?

Asmallworld.net - international user base, and users try to meet up when on the go.
FlierTalk.com - frequent fliers.
World66.com - users share travel advice, creating a kind of wiki.
Dopplr.com - business travelers share travel schedules.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:25 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

How stupid is the average traveler?

In an article that argues everyone needs a travel agent, John Frenaye offers as evidence some stupid comments he's heard from past clients (he is or was a travel agent).

Of course his argument that 25 stupid comments proves that everyone needs a travel agent makes him look about as smart as his dumbest clients... I'm sure some people enjoy reading about the stupidity of others but let me give you a sample so you know what you're getting yourself into if you go read all 25:

How much is a train to Jamaica? (We are sold out, but if you call Amtrak, they have space. Be sure to ask for a seat on the left side of the train so you don't miss the Lost City of Atlantis on the way down.)

What language do they speak in England? (Swahili. Would you like to purchase our "Learn Swahili in 10 Easy Steps" manual?)

The answer, according to this article, is that the FAA is too weak to stand up to all the warring factions (airlines, labor unions, politicians, airplane manufacturers, executives with corporate jets, etc.). It's as plausible a reason as I've heard...

I guess we really will have to switch to train travel.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:50 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

More competition = better service (we hope)

Just a quick article that may be of interest to some about how competition in the online travel business is going to heat up. That should mean better customer service since industry growth won't be strong enough to increase profits at these big companies.

It's a UK article, but I imagine the same applies in the US. I sure hope so!

Posted by James Trotta at 1:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Traveling alone: single and solo vacations

Here's an interesting article on traveling alone that mentions two types of independent travel:

Solo vacations are more structured, experiential travel for people who want to go to a destination they may never get to visit with family.

Single vacations are more-mixer oriented geared towards people who want to be in the company of other single travelers.

Well I don't have time to explore the issue further - I'm doing my sister's wedding ceremony tomorrow (In Massachusetts I can be ordained for a day in order to do a wedding ceremony). While I think I'm done writing my speech, I'd better make sure...

Posted by James Trotta at 1:42 AM | Comments (20) | TrackBack

What should I do in Boston (besides the duck tour)?

I'm in Boston for my sister's wedding. I won't have much free time, but I do have a bit of free time to explore. Our family is already planning a duck tour so I could use some advice on what else to do while I'm in Boston.

I have pamphlets for New England Aqurium which I hear is very good. I have another one for the Mapparium mentioned on this blog a long time ago), which I've visited and absolutely love. I might just go back there. I also have a card for the ICA, Boston's Institue of Contemporary Art and one for a 4 hour whale watch.

Contemporary Art is pretty hit or miss with me plus I've already been to Boston's ICA so Boston's Museum of Fine Arts would be a more likely choice. If I find myself with enough time to make a museum visit viable, maybe I should just walk the Freedom Trail or the Black Heritage Trail.

I will have some time tomorrow night, well I could have some time if I don't join my future brother in law and some of his friends for drinks, so the Prudential Observatory is an option for night views of Boston. Of course I should just go to the bar, but I don't like drinking and my wife would then have to go hang out with my sister and her friends. That's not bad, but I think she'd prefer the observatory since we've been to the top of the Empire State Building, Namsan Tower and the 63 Building in Seoul, and the Petronas buildings and the tall KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur. We really like night views of big cities from high vantage points.

There are a few movie and TV tourism choices like the two "Cheers" bars (an original which inspired the TV show's setting and a replica set up by Hollywood at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. I have a brochure for that one too.

It's also restaurant week in Boston, so maybe we shoud try to take advantage of that...

But now that I'm done brainstorming, what are your ideas for fun things to do in Boston?

Posted by James Trotta at 1:44 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack

19 month old baby kicked off plane for threatening words "bye bye plane"

I didn't like it when an annoyed couple got booted off a cruise. I didn't like it when a coughing girl got kicked off a plane.

I really don't like it when babies get kicked off planes.

Did you hear about the passenger who was kicked off an airplane for repeatedly saying "Bye-bye, airplane" while the flight attendant was giving the safety demonstration?

According to an AP wire service story, the toddler (19 months old) was looking out the window and waving goodbye to a taxiing aircraft. The flight attendant became so agitated over the child's words, she had the plane return to the gate and the mother and child removed from the aircraft.

But isn't kicking a 1 and a half year old off the plane a bit much?

According to this news story, the flight attendant was on some kind of crazy power trip. The flight attendant suggested baby benadryl and lied saying that the mother was threatening. All Kate Penland did was refuse to drug her toddler.

If you ask me, Continental Express and Express Jet Airlines have a flight attendant that needs firing and owe the mother, Kate Penland, and her baby, a very sincere apology. I mean their flight gets delayed 11 hours and then their flight attendant goes nuts on a baby?

I have much less sympathy for the mother who was kicked off a Freedom Airlines / Delta flight for not covering up her breastfeeding with a blanket. I don't care if you're in the second to last row, I don't want to see any breast feeding.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:33 PM | Comments (84) | TrackBack

Do you travel without your spouse?

I liked this article on how it's becoming increasingly common for spouses to vacation without their bettter halves. I know that a collegaue and I once went to Hong Kong and Taipei while my wife stayed home. It was a good experience but I definitely remember thinking that Hong Kong was a fairly romantic city (especially the ferry rides) that would have been better with my wife.

And my wife has been to Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Utah/Arizona/California without me. Those trips were half business though...

At some point, we'll probably do it again, mostly because there are some things I want to do that she's not interested in (kayaking and hiking in particular). I wonder how you feel about traveling solo when married (or traveling with friends but not your spouse) - is it healthy and normal?

Posted by James Trotta at 5:21 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack

Travel troubleshooting: on your own, in the US, in the UK

Here we have an article from Christopher Elliott, National Geographic Traveler's ombudsman and the Miami Herald's Travel Troubleshooter.

He has some advice for people fighting with bad travel companies on their own:

Don't wait. Keep meticulous records. Take a deep breath. Talk is cheap. Write tight and polite. Start at the bottom. Cite the rules. Tell them what you want -- nicely. Copy all the right people. Press 'send' or mail. Be patient. Appeal your case to a higher authority. Take another deep breath. Take extreme measures. Go to court. Know when to cut your losses.

While the advice seems solid, I do wonder how useful it will be. Even American Express Platinum Travel won't help its customers until the travel trouble shooter gets involved. In this case, they promise a room rate in US dollars but dues to currency fluctuations, the rooms ends up costing more. All the travel agent had to do was tell the customer the price in pesos along with the current exchange rate, but since the travel agent screwed up we have problems...

Then we have a British travel trouble shooter. The problems don't change too much when you're on the other side of the Atlantic.

Or the Pacific for that matter as one Air New Zealand passenger had a particularly outrageous experience. Her flight was cancelled due to weather, the Air New Zealand agent promised a refund upon returning to London, the airline contract says customers can get a refund if their flight is cancelled for any reason, and the airline refused to give the refund.

It's hard to believe, but there it is. I hope that someday my humble travel blog has enough clout to sponsor a travel troubleshooter. We sure need them with all these evil corporations out to get us...

Posted by James Trotta at 4:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Brick & mortar travel agencies vs. online travel agencies

This article says that travel shoppers are starting to return to regular travel agents. They are turning away from the online travel businesses because of poor customer service.

I understand. If I had booked my trip to Costa Rica through a travel agent, I would have ended up in Costa Rica. Instead, I'll end up in Punta Cana this summer. I also would have saved myself many hours of work but I probably would have spent more money. I'm not even sure about that though.

On the other hand, the one time I did use a travel agent was when I went to Cancun. Everything was OK but we expected the travel agent to pick out something better for us. I think that if I had done the research myself I would have ended up in a better resort. One of these days I'll figure out the name but it's probably too late for a review anyway since this was in 2001.

This article on travel insurance for British travelers, says to buy travel insurance online (directly from the company), not through a travel agent. Apparently travel agencies overcharge for travel insurance (about 1.3 billion pounds worth). That includes normal agents and online ones.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:53 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Enjoy the July 4th holiday!

And don't forget to tell us about the fireworks you see.

Yes I know some of you will see this early. My blog is on Korean time, 14 hours ahead of New York. I do this so it looks like I beat all the other travel bloggers to the best news stories or because I'm a visiting professor of linguistics living in Seoul.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Advice for traveling in groups

I thought this article on group travel was interesting.

It reminded me of the time I traveled in a group to Mount Taishan in China. The group was my hiking club, but somehow once they got into China a few people lost their will to hike. They went up Mount Taishan so slowly that we missed watching the sunset. That was supposed to be the highlight of the trip.

Of course, seeing the sunrise could have made up for that, but some group members had to get home for work and the flight was leaving early so we had to leave Mount Taishan without seeing the sunrise either.

Anyway, I quit the hiking club.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Where are you going to read Harry Potter? Edinburgh?

I really liked this article on hotel specials. We have mancations, , and why not go to a release party and then to a hotel to read Harry Potter:

Attend a private party at Waterstone's West End bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 20 to celebrate the release of the final "Harry Potter" book. The party begins at 10 p.m., two hours before the book's official release, and offers partygoers the chance to retire to specially reserved "fan reading rooms" at their hotels once they have the book. Fans can also reserve the room in Edinburgh's Balmoral hotel where author J.K. Rowling finished the book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," with travel packages offered by HP Fan Trips, a Harry Potter-themed fan tour group.

The Harry Potter themepark isn't open yet, but these Harry Potter-related tourist attractions are. And in this England vacation itinerary, Harry Potter fans get to tour Christ Church and listen to Evensong (during day 2).

Anyway, is anyone here going to a Harry Potter themed party or are you just waiting for your books to come in the mail so you can read them at home?

Posted by James Trotta at 1:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Can big British travel companies compete with specialty travel agents?

I'm collecting articles from British newspapers today. First, the British travel industry is changing. Thomas Cook will merge with MyTravel and First Choice will merge with Tui, the German owner of Thomson.

According to the article, "The key to their long-term future will be offering holidays that Ryanair and easyJet can't hope to provide, such as cruises to Antarctica and treks to Tibet."

But how does a company that tries to do it all compete with niche travel companies? This article talks about companies that specialize in all sorts of niche travel markets:

Custom itineraries such as "gorillas in Rwanda, Latin American bird-watching and musical festivals in Mali."

Tours to the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran that often change due to military activity.

Expeditions in Egypt into unvisited areas of the Sahara.

Adventure sports like "motorbike safaris through the Philippines, volcano surfing in Nicaragua and trips to Switzerland to replicate James Bond's famous leap off the Verzasca Dam in Goldeneye."

Weekend bike trips that "trace the stages of the Tour de France and Dauphine Libere cycle races."

Skydiving, skiing and summer breaks in the Alps.

Races in crappy cars (or riding crappy scooters) through dangerous areas known for bandits and whatnot.

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Passports, the Bronx, New Orleans, & vocation vacations

Here's a crappy vacation story for you. Just because the US says it won't require passports for travel from the Caribbean, doesn't meant the country you're going to doesn't require a passport. Turks and Caicos, a British territory, does require a passport to enter.

Here's an interesting one about a vacation for amateur choral singers.

As a New Yorker, I thought that the Bronx's new advertising campaign is an interesting one. They have good attractions (Bronx Zoo and Yankee Stadium), but I'm not sure being so close to Manhattan will help attract people who actually stay and eat in the Bronx.

I really like this article about visiting New Orleans. I missed almost everything when I went there for Mardi Gras right after graduating college, but next time I'm going here:

Get the ultimate cheap lunch at Johnny’s Po’ Boys, an eatery whose interior is as humble and scrappy as the sandwich itself. The po’boy is New Orleans’s answer to the submarine or hoagie, served on French bread with the filling of your choice. The classic po’boy is made with fried oysters or shrimp, but favorite deli foods—roast beef, ham, meatballs—also have strong followings. Nobody does po’boys like Johnny’s. If you ask for your po’boy “dressed,” it will come with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and mayonnaise. (511 St. Louis St; 504/524-8129; open noon-4 p.m. daily; cash only)

"Seventy-five per cent of these people are truly looking for new careers," said Brian Kurth, founder of the company, which is based in Portland, Ore. "About 25 per cent are signing up for brew master or sports announcer or something like that that's usually a gift from women to men. But most are serious job seekers."

Travel agencies offer programs for travellers seeking to spend a vacation doing some volunteer work or exploring a new culture, and groups like Internships For America connect people with short-term positions in everything from hotel management to culinary training.

But VocationVacations' two- or three-day internship model is unique. It offers dozens of "dream job" holidays across the U.S., including white-water rafting outfitter, chocolatier, sword maker, raceway manager and dog day-care owner.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:17 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Who gets vacation time and why we all need more holidays

We've talked about vacation time before, but this article has an interesting country by country comparison. It looks like Finland and France make sure workers get plenty of vacation time.

Of course the real issue is what kind of work you do. When I was a kid I thought that teaching was a good gig because of summer and winter vacation. I have a friend in the Air Force who gets 30 days vacation and university professors can get 4-5 months.

Back to Americans and their too short vacations, this article speculates on the financial implications of shorter vacations:

John A. Challenger, of the Chicago-based consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said the trend toward weekend trips could hurt expensive and distant vacation destinations and help local attractions....

“Where this will hurt is places like Hawaii and Las Vegas, where so many fly to get there,” said David Jackson, of the Bucks County Conference and Visitors Bureau. “In our scenario in Bucks County, this could kind of work in our favor.”

This article reminds us why we need to spend a little money on vacation: "Companies are beginning to realize the benefits of vacations for their weary workers - fewer sick days, smaller health care bills and a more motivated workforce." Of course, you also have to wonder how many vacationers are still working on vacation. I know when I'm on vacation I'm always looking for stuff to blog about on here. Not that I'm complaining - I think I do a good job keeping my life fairly low stress (although that stray dog is still driving me a bit nuts).

I imagine that the readers here, like me, know how important it is to travel a bit. And this is true not only for corporate types but also for people who get their stress from raising kids.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

New Discovery Channel travel show: 1,000 Places To See Before You Die

We talked about travel shows a while back and here's an article on a new one based on the popular book 1,000 Places To See Before You Die (also the name of the new show). The hosts spent 4 months traveling aorund the world - getting paid to travel is a great job if you ask me!

By the way, who has seen Christopher Elliott's new travel show?

Posted by James Trotta at 11:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Why is it so hard to find resorts that permit night swimming and/or answer emails?

Those of you who saw my positive reviews of Plantation Bay in Cebu know that one of the things my wife and I loved about the place was that we could swim all night long.

If you've been reading more recently, you know that Spirit Air is forcing me to go to Punta Cana so I'm researching various resorts there, including Sunscape. What I haven't been able to find is a resort that has a pool open 24 hours. In fact, they all seem to close the pools at 6:00 PM.

I don't understand this. A resort that allowed night swimming in Punta Cana would make my decision on where to stay (and review) so much easier. Yet after searching for an hour or so I haven't found one resort with a pool open later than 6:00 PM. Some people say they went swimming in the ocean at night but had to contend with sand fleas, crabs, and jelly fish. I hate all three of those pests.

Of course a simple email would also help me decide where to stay. So far I've emailed Grand Palladium, Riu Palace, Secrets Punta Cana, Tortuga Bay, Excellence (adults only which I like), Bahia Principe, Majestic Colonial, and Iberostar Bavaro. Can you believe that I've only gotten one reply?

That reply was from Secrets Punta Cana and all they said was that they weren't a Secrets Resort. I replied asking what kind of resort they were but they haven't answered. If i ever figure out that little mystery I'll let you know.

I just don't get it. Surely my week-long stay (not to mention the exposure they'd get on my travel blog here) is worth a reply to an email, no? If not, why do they publish the email address on their websites?

Posted by James Trotta at 2:26 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack

Tourism in North Korea & happy Memorial Day

Here's a rare topic for you, the travel appeal (and lack thereof) of North Korea. It talks about how fewer and fewer Chinese tourists are visiting Kim Jong Il's Hermit Kingdom although that does give it a certain appeal to travelers who want to do something different:

A Chinese travel agent says North Korea’s poverty is part of its off-beat appeal. If North Korea were to become richer, she says, it would lose its competitive tourism advantage. Not that it is a huge draw, even when it does welcome tourists. The Arirang performance, originally due to last for a month, ended several days early because of insufficient paying visitors.

China still can be somewhat prickly (as my wife learned in Beijing), but certainly not like North Korea. I remember watching a documentary on travel in North Korea a year ago where a British guy (after leaving North Korea) was cursing because he'd just spent a week in prison for asking why Kim Jong Il was chubby when all his people are so skinny.

He was probably lucky it was only a week. And I guess he got that unique travel experience he was after.

With Memorial Day coming up it reminds us to appreciate the sacrifices of US military. My grandfathers and some of my current friends have served and while some people complain about different militray actions or strategies we can at least all be grateful that we don't have to worry about a lot of the things that people in North Korea worry about.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Watching people body surf at Newport Beach's the Wedge?

I wonder how many of us have watched surfing while on vacation.

I have a friend taking a business trip to California's Newport Beach. When he asked for suggestions on what to do in his free time someone recommended the Wedge (the "body surfing mecca"):

Is it just me or would most of us actually find this fairly stressful (the longer you watch the crazier it gets)? I hate watching people almost (or really) get hurt. Then again, I think I am getting more squeamish since my surgery. For example today I had no interest in watching K1 or UFC or any of those other fighting shows but normally when I'm flipping channels I'll stop and watch...

Anyway, I'm home from the hospital. Thank you to everyone who wished me luck. Everything has gone well so far and I just have to finish recovering.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:45 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

New travel TV show: Christopher Elliott's What You Get for the Money: Vacations

I recently mentioned the new Disney video on demand and fairly recently we talked about not having enough good travel shows.

Maybe this new travel show will be worth watching. "What You Get for the Money: Vacations" from the Fine Living TV network will be on Saturday at noon. It will feature Christopher Elliott's (he is a travel columnist ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine) tips for cheaper travel.

There will also be giveaways - vacations featured on the show will be awarded to sweepstakes winners.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Virtual vacations or fantasy vacations with Second Life computer software

I suppose people are becoming too addicted to computers when they go on virtual vacations like the one in this article where people would rather watch their avatar lay out on a beach then do it themselves:

Visitors need only download a free program, then log in. With the help of elaborate 3-D locales designed and built by the world's residents, tourists can watch their online embodiments -- known as their avatars -- lounge at the beach, dine at a romantic restaurant, or go out dancing at a crowded nightclub.

This very similar article (some parts are the same) calls them fantasy vacations. However some people treat them as if they were quite real:

Like in the real world, it's easy to get lost. Longtime inhabitants of "Second Life" are creating automated tours, opening virtual travel agencies and even publishing travel guidebooks modeled after those seen in the hands of confused tourists.

"There are sections on how to fly and how to hover," said co-writer Paul Carr. But despite such necessary adjustments, he said, "it's very much like going to a foreign country."

Has anyone tried this free program (at least you don't have to pay to not go on vacation) called Second Life?

Posted by James Trotta at 5:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Delaware vacation: Rehoboth Beach or Bethany Beach & hotel recommendations please

I recently received this question: I have a wife and 2 small kids. Has anyone stayed at a place in either Rehoboth Beach or Bethany Beach that they could recommend to a family with small kids. Thanks...

I've compiled a few answers. Please leave a comment below if you can add something.

Answer #1: Henlopen Hotel is oceanfront but pretty reasonably priced.

Answer #2: Thos are pretty nice beaches. Rehoboth Beach is known as the gay beech town though. Don't know if that would bother you with the kids. I would stay in Bethany Beech instead.

Answer #3: Didn't stay there, but passed on my way up from Ocean City. Very nice town with a lot of places to eat and shop and looked like nice beaches. They make excellent beer there also, DogFish Head...

Answer #4: I stayed in nearby Bethany Beach a few years back and liked it a lot. It's a little more laid back but still plenty close enough to Rehoboth or Ocean City, MD. We stayed at Sea Colony, a high rise complex. It was very nice so I can recommend it. Dewey beach nearby is good times.

Answer #5: Rehoboth beach is known to have a strong gay community. However, don't let that stop you. It is a very nice place for your family. The town is really nice and as you can imagine...well kept. I would also recommend the Henlopen right on the beach and boardwalk

Answer #6: I have a friend who lives in Henlopen Acres and that is beautiful but he hates Rainbow Street because Rehobeth has a very large gay community and they like to express themselves too much for my friend's conservative tastes.

Answer #7: I like the Henlopen and stay there frequently with my wife and two kids, and the location is unbeatable. The Henlopen is nice because it is towards the end of the boardwalk so its not as loud at night and is more private.

Its a great town. Even though it is known as a 'gay town', it doesn't affect it being very family friendly. I've never seen anything that I would consider bad for kids in the many years I've gone there. As for the gay aspect, yeah, it's there... but the town goes out of its way to be family friendly. It is well maintained and is very clean.

And eat at Nicola's. Excellent food!

This is a noisy 3 minute video of the waves at Rehoboth Beach - I got bored after 30 seconds, but it did look like a nice beach in the short time I spent watching the video. If you make it through the whole thing let me know how it ends!

Posted by James Trotta at 3:17 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Go somewhere exotic to find a model for your garden

Here's an interesting article on expensive tours (2 week tours in the $8,000 range not including airfare) to places like Papua New Guinea, Bhutan, and the Maldives (over $10,000 but your bungalow comes with a sailboat). There are also spots in Europe, including Slovenia. Interestingly I was just talking to some friends about going to Slovenia because it's cheap. But I guess some people are willing to pay big bucks anyway.

When go to these exotic destinations, make sure to check out some gardens so that you can make your neighbors jealous. Here's an article about modeling your garden after what would be found wherever you travel. After all, a "garden can recreate the excitement of stepping onto foreign lands every day."

Posted by James Trotta at 6:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The importance of taking vacations

Here's an article strongly recommending a "girls' trip" (that's what the author calls it - not being sexist I would have to say "a trip for women only" or something) because mother's regular lives are so tough:

Mothers rarely have time to truly recharge. Sure, we work out, we sit down, sometimes we even go out with our friends for an evening. But when the break is over, we are back to the 24/7 duties that don't end. Motherhood is a project that is never finished.

But I do get it. Mothers need time away from their normal responsibilities. I'd say that's true for everyone. We all need some vacation time. Using vacation time helps your health and doesn't hurt your career. It could be Las Vegas like the author of our "girls' trip" experienced. Or it could be something more exotic, maybe Ratha Jatra, the Festival of Chariots of Lord Jagannatha celebrated every summer (July 16, 2007) in Puri. Puri is a temple town in Orissa, India (on the east coast).

Your vacation doesn't have to cost a fortune either. That trip to India would probably cost a few bucks (at least the airfare). Soon I'll be taking a long weekend to go to Cebu and stay in the Plantation Bay resort - you'll see a review and pictures in this blog in late April. It will be a very expensive long weekend, but I'm working hard and could use a break. This USA Today article will show you how to take a vacation in Martha's Vineyard for under $500/person.

If I can go back to my Cebu vacation for a moment, while I'm looking forward to a few days in a resort, there's a part of me that wants to do something a little less touristy. I have the Manila to Palawan travel plan which is slightly less touristy. Banaue, in the province of Ifugao (in the mountainous Cordillera region of the Philippines) would certainly be a cooler story. Ilocos Sur, in the northern part of the Philippines, would also make me sound like more of a traveler.

Well, eventually I'll do some real traveling. For now I just need a relaxing break so Cebu it is. No matter what your job is, make sure you take a break once in a while.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Emotional story: Jennifer West, Sarah Hall, Oprah Winfrey

This is a story that's hard to talk about but that has to be shared. A young widow nominated for Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine "Live Your Best Life" contest by a total stranger now gets a vacation and a birthday party that might help her get on with her life.

Good luck Jennifer.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:37 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Is it too late to book a spring break vacation?

According to this article, spring break vacations are getting booked quickly but a little flexibility can really help you. This late in the game, however, makes it very difficult to save money on a spring break trip.

For students at Purdue, spring break in Cancun is most popular but Amsterdam is also drawing college students (I wonder what they do there). Not that I should talk considering that I blogged about Amsterdam's best coffee shops (not that I've ever been to Amsterdam).

Posted by James Trotta at 12:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Chile, Spas, Israel

First I have an interesting article on Pucon, Chile. Pucon seems good for people who like the outdoors:

Why does anyone bother with Pucon? You should be at least a closet-outdoorsman if not a hardcore backpacker. There are plenty of opportunities to fly-fish for salmon and rainbow trout in well-stocked lakes and brisk rivers, along with hiking, bicycling, kayaking and white-water rafting, horseback riding or just lolling in a local thermal spa.

Here's an article on tourism in Israel, including the Dead Sea and Eilat.

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Suggestions: what golf courses to play in the Vegas area

This is a reader submitted article on golfing around Las Vegas:

Hi James. A friend recently asked me for some advice about where to gold in Vegas and I thought of your blog. Maybe whatever I know will help some readers.

Bali Hai - Very nice course, but many men go to oogle at the beautiful cart girls.

the Wynn - Directly behind the Hotel is a nice golf course. Rates were around $500 when I was there so it's expensive.

the Las Vegas Country Club - A mid-level, reasonably challenging course, very fast greens.

TPC at the Canyons - Is said to have very good rates for the summer.

Badlands - In the Summerlin area, this Johnny Miller course is fairly challenging - the desert areas come into play on pretty much every hole. It is very scenic and very well maintained with a friendly staff. It's a little gimmicky - lots of "target golf" where you're teeing off with irons on par 4s in order hit small landing areas, etc. Not your standard track but enjoyable if you want a change of pace.

Rio Secco - Often said to be better than Badlands.

Angel Park - Also in the Summerlin area, Angel Park is a fair to middling course. It has a lot of nice views of the surrounding area, and fast greens for a public course. However, the pace was glacially slow the day I played - 5+ hours.

PGA West - I played 36 holes at in September one year. It was 120+ degrees. No caddies - but a covered golf cart with a complimentary gatorade sized thermos of water attached was the club's rule of the day. Most of the fringes were burned and there were fans blowing on all of the exposed greens to keep them from burning. We were the only players on the course that day, it was a trip.

In the desert in the summer, dry dry dry and hot hot hot. It can be really brutal. Bring and use plenty of sunblock, wear the right clothing including a hat with a brim.

Bear's Best - This Nicklaus course is fairly challenging with some 500+ yard par 5 holes.

Paioute - There are 3 different courses at Paioute, and it is a 30 or 40 minute ride from the strip, so you are better off renting a car than cabbing it. Pauite is very good and it is reasonable (for Vegas).

Anthem at Revere - In Henderson, Revere at Anthem has two beautiful courses, which are fairly challenging. In addition to the other two names I sometimes call this one Revere Anthem.

Lake Las Vegas - Two courses which are gorgeous, and have the nicest greens I have ever played. Enjoy, but they can be pricey, even in July.

Wolf Creek - If you are good and want a once in a lifetime experience, drive 80 miles (only an hour there) to Mesquite and play Wolf Creek. It's like playing golf on the moon. Unreal golf course...trust me.

Well I hope you enjoyed this reader submitted article on golf courses in Vegas. If you want to share your travel knowledge, email jtrotta@gmail.com.

I know comments haven't been working since I got the new server set up. Sorry for that but they should be working soon.

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Travel news for Superbowl Sunday

I have a few travel articles for you. First there's one on getting ready for vacation with reminders like planning your trip and pet sitters in advance, trying new stuff, etc.

One story that bothers me is that of the Norwegian cruise ship that ran aground and leaked oil in Antarctica. As far as I can tell, Norwegian Coastal Voyage is doing nothing to clean up their mess. They are tracking the situation. I hope this raises their insurance premiums enough to punish them.

Study abroad programs can be kind of like vacations depending on what classes are involved, but they are always travel experiences. Here's a domestic study travel experience. Do it in Colorado and do a lot of skiing, do it in Miami and watch basketball, do it in San Francisco and go to an S&M festival, do it in Malibu and go surfing.

I'm not sure why, but not all parents paying their kids way through college are convinced:

With college costs already steep, Carol Powers of Pembroke, Mass., wasn't thrilled when her son Tom passed over a business-management program in Australia for a pricier option in Los Angeles that required her to take out a $6,000 loan. "It seemed ridiculous. He needs a rental car so he can live with beautiful people?" says Ms. Powers, a 59-year-old social worker who fears he will be seduced by the money and "blonde, tan, perfect bodies" of L.A. "I think it's so superficial. In Australia he would have learned about a lot of different cultures."

Tom, a business-management major from Boston University, is taking classes in entertainment law and management, but has spent much of the past month cruising with his friends along Sunset Boulevard and looking for an internship. He says here, too, there are cultural differences: He doesn't have to wear a tie for interviews, and unlike Boston, where "you are what you do, in L.A., you are what you drive."

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Travel trends: Asia, Europe, river cruises, volunteering, & the environment

Those of you not too caught up in holiday madness have noticed that I'm not blogging as regularly as I normally do. That will continue for the next week or so although I do have something for you today.

Here's an article on travel trends that says more Americans are visiting China and India although as you'd expect, Europe is still very popular. In both China and Europe, river cruises are becoming more popular. Volunteer and environmentally friendly vacations are also gaining popularity.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Trouble with Destination Adventures in Branson, Mo.

Here's a brief complaint to one of the newspaper troubleshooters (but not the travel troubleshooter) where a woman is promised a refund that never gets delivered. It turns out that Destination Adventures in Branson, Mo. has lost its BBB membership: "the Better Business Bureau in Springfield revoked the company’s BBB membership because of the company’s failure to respond to one or more customer complaints." Sounds like one to avoid.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Which 7 "New wonders of the world" are you voting for?

Which 7 attractions are you voting for in the new 7 wonders of the world survey? I haven't decided yet, but some of the wonders seem to lag way behind the others. For me, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, and the Sydney Opera House are cool, even great. But do they really compare to India's Taj Mahal or Turkey's Hagia Sophia? Anyway, what do you think? Who are you voting for?

Posted by James Trotta at 3:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Is Sandals trying to destabilize St. Lucia?

Here's one I thought was interesting. Maybe because I used to be in the Political Affairs Club in college or maybe because I once wrote a blog entry about selling Sandals Resorts vacations. Anyway, St. Lucia's attorney-General, Victor La Corbiniere, is claiming that Sandals is trying to destabilize the country by announcing 100 job cuts (services like security are being outsourced) at an inopportune time (election time). Is Sandals playing politics?

Posted by James Trotta at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Encouraging comments on a few old and very old travel posts

In case you missed the Holland America not honoring its advertised prices post, this one is setting a record for most comments on my blog (complaints about Carnival cruises is barely in the lead). Feel free to tell us what you think.

British actress Keira Knightley, the 21-year-old made famous by Pirates of the Caribbean wants an Italian wedding like Tom Cruise had (several comments there as well). "We've already decided to get married in Italy. Tom Cruise is living my dream by marrying in a castle," the actress said. If you have or want to get married in Italy, read or comment on this thread about me trying to get married in Italy.

This one wasn't as popular with commenters, but maybe someone feels like talking about German sausage? Saving money on a cruise is more likely to interest most readers I suppose. If you feel like getting political, there's always Cuba. If you want to feel sad or angry, there were a number of comments on the Jude Jarvis cosmetic surgery in India post.

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NASCAR infield party at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama

I used to travel to folk festivals for the partying that happened in the campground but I don't think I've experienced anything quite like a Talladega NASCAR infield party. 250,000 NASCAR fans come to a rural town of 15,000 people. According to the author he was the only non-white person out of these 250,000 people.

The author (an Asian guy who writes for Giant Robot - see below) was impressed by the friendly people offering food and beer and the women showing their breasts (the author calls this "a less talked about side of the famous southern hospitality").

However, he seems less impressed with the grandmother who high-fives him when her 15-year-old granddaughter shows a bunch of old drunk men her breasts (after dancing in her underwear for a while men yelled at her to take her shirt off), when 13 year-old girls posing for pictures ask if they should pose with their tops on or off, or when a father convinces his daughter to flash some guy in exchange for a free drink (the father got the drink, not the daughter who had to do the flashing).

I've never been to a NASCAR race, but are the infield parties as bad as the author describes in terms of underage nudity? If you've experienced this, is it safe to bring your family to a NASCAR race? Perhaps most people go enjoy the race while a few wack jobs leer at the under 18-year-olds? I guess I' asking what's it like?

Giant Robot magazine

The only reason I can write this blog is because a friend gave me a magazine called Giant Robot for my birthday. It seems to be an Asian magazine written in English and mostly about modern art. But there's an article by Doug Kim about what he observed in Talladega. This was basically the only travel article in issue 43, October 2006.

Related articles: Spa and the Belgian Grand Prix (Formula One), the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Richard Petty racing experience (takes you to another site).

Posted by James Trotta at 2:02 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

When are the lines short in Disney World?

I've heard from a couple of people who say that the best time to go to Disney World is January/early February. You can avoid the big crowds and one person claims to have done the entire park in one day using the fastpass ticketing system. However I was warned that Disney World hours are shorter during this time and that they often choose this time to randomly close rides for maintenance. When did you go to Disney World and how were the crowds / lines?

Posted by James Trotta at 12:47 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

Does a city's relative safety influence your travel plans?

Two days ago when I wrote about Aruba, and even more when I wrote about Aruba before that, I got some comments about how it's too dangerous there. With the new Morgan Quitno Press ranking of most dangerous US cities coming out, I started wondering how many people use these rankings to determine travel plans?

For example, would you go to St. Louis now that it has "beaten" Camden, New Jersey and been ranked America's most dangerous city? Would you go to Detroit knowing that it is ranked the second most dangerous US city?

I'm sure that much of the crime happens in non-touristy areas, but St. Louis and Detroit both just dropped a bit on my list of places to visit.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:43 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Most popular US and international vacation spots

There's a unique mix of travel related information in this Chicago Tribune article. They mention that "Taking a Caribbean cruise was the top international vacation, but five Mexican destinations were in the top 10: Cancun, the Riviera Maya, Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Playa del Carmen. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic placed in the top 10 as well, along with London and Rome, which climbed to fourth place this year from seventh place in the top 10 last year.

Three other Italian destinations, Florence, Tuscany and Venice, were in the top 20 international destinations."

They also talk about popular US destinations, Disney's world tour, a new museum in Berlin, and Medicare coverage for travelers (this Medicare coverage sounds very limited so I don't think you'll want to rely on it).

Posted by James Trotta at 3:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What is a last-minute vacation?

Here's an interesting article written by someone who has booked a number of last-minute holidays. However, even last-minute vacations need to be planned slightly in advance. But how far in advance? On the one hand, if you really book last-minute you should have a good idea of the weather you'll get on vacation. On the other hand, there are very few vacations left if you wait until the very last minute:

If you book your trip less than a week before you depart, the pickings are awfully slim. Some airlines post a handful of air-only deals on Tuesday, for travel beginning that Friday or Saturday. But other air-only deals and most of the air-hotel packages listed at online travel agencies like site59.com are posted the previous week, 10-12 days before departure, and are snatched up quickly.

The dilemma, of course, is that it's awfully hard to predict the weather that far in advance.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:23 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Should my friend be upset with his travel agent?

Someone I know just booked a Princess leaving from Ft. Lauderdale. This is his second cruise leaving out of Ft Lauderdale. This time, the travel agent's service didn't meet his expectations. Let me tell you what happened and then ask you what you think - did the travel agent do anything wrong or is my friend too demanding?

The travel agent the first time set up everything. This time they went back to the AAA travel agency and the agent they used last time is no longer there. Yesterday they made the final payment for the cruise and started talking about a hotel for the night before the cruise. They explain to the travel agent that all they need is a place to sleep and where they can get a shuttle to the cruise the next morning. The agent did not know of a good hotel and offered to get back to them.

My friend told me that this caused a big red flag to go up. The agent did not know and would have to get back to us? Why? So the question, did the travel agent do anything wrong or is my friend too demanding?

If you're curious, my friend ended up finding a Ramada that states it's only 1.5 miles from the airport and Port Everglades cruise port with a shuttle from airport and cruise port. Should the travel agent have been prepared with a hotel like this?

Posted by James Trotta at 1:59 AM | Comments (12) | TrackBack

Saint Maarten YouTube video: planes near beaches

Here's something I've never done before. Normally, I when I write about beaches, I write about quality beaches (like the best beach in America) or beach vacation experiences (like Sunscape the Beach in the Dominican Republic).

Today is a little different. I'm going to embed a YouTube video about some beaches that are crazily close to runways. If it weren't for the people in the videos, I would never believe that anyone was allowed on these beaches. Has anyone here been on a beach link this?

If you're at work, be careful because when you press play the sound will come on. Unless you're in the travel industry you might not want your boss knowing that you're reading a travel blog on the job...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:06 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Vacations in New York City and Puerto Rico

I have two interesting articles for you today. The first is the author's experiencing finding a place to stay in Manhattan by using Craig's List. It took 4 days to find a place after emailing and calling lots of people. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth to me.

The second article is about the little town of Rio Grande on the northeastern tip in Puerto Rico. Rio Grande is a few miles from the El Yunque National Rain Forest a 30-minute drive from Old San Juan. San Juan is crowded with tourists but Rio Grande has quite a few natural attraction in addition to Texas Hold'em and spas.

If you like to keep active, how about golf, tennis, water sports, rainforest trekking, and kayaking?

(The author took a) two and a half hour kayak trip at night into the Laguna Grande, (think Jurassic Park)—one of nature’s most magnificent sights. The lagoon is filled with billions of one-celled organisms called dinoflagellates, which light up under the water. We kayaked in the pitch black and somehow lived to tell about....paddling into a lagoon filled with iguanas and giant, hanging vines that can take you down in the dark.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

28 islands of Kochi

Here's an interesting vacation experience from an Indian newspaper. If you have no idea what I'm tlaking about here's an excerpt from the article:

There's Vypeen for instance, that has a famous 15th century Portuguese fort. And Bolgatty, with its Dutch palace (1744) that is now a 5-star heritage hotel. And tiny Gundu island, with its ancient coir factory hidden among the palms, actually owned by the Taj. However, it's still Willington island that has me hooked, man-made but with a charming tale that Captain John Early tells me his grandfather passed on to him years ago.

I may just do some more research, though, and you'll know why after reading the article. There's lots of talk about history, spas & massages, boats & ferries carrying you around the islands, and other good stuff.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:47 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Keeping a travel scrapbook

I couldn't find many interesting travel experiences for you, but I did find this article about someone who bought an old photo album with lots of hotel stationary in it. The author then decided to collect stationary from hotels and add it to the album.

When I was a kid, I used to collect stuff from vacation: tickets to Disney, postcards from museum gift shops, and whatever else. I've thrown it all away, but part of me wonders if looking back at whatever scraps we have leftover from old vacations isn't worth the trouble of maintaining a scrapbook.

I'd like to hear from anyone who does keep more than photographs of their vacation experiences. What do you do to make sure you have a physical reminder of your travels?

Posted by James Trotta at 2:59 AM | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Mancationing

We've talked about vacations for women gaining popularity but it's not only the fairer sex that wants to travel with their own kind. What do men want on vacation? The usual guy stuff: "everything from poker parties to hand-rolled cigars, buckets of beer to sports tickets."

There are plenty of Mancation ideas, from "Dudes on the Dunes" to "The Fishing Mancation" to the Regent South Beach (opening soon) and some pretty cool hotel packages:

Fairmont Chicago's "Mancation Package" includes seminars on style and entertaining, cigar sampling, whiskey tasting and a steak dinner starting at $399 a person. And the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa has a "Speed Meets Spa" package pairing three-day race driving instruction with man-friendly spa treatments starting at $4,795.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Is swimming with stingrays safe?

Swimming with stingrays is a popular vacation activity in the Caribbean. In addition to Antigua and Grand Turk, Grand Cayman’s Stingray City is a very popular tourist attraction. However, some tourists most be reconsidering after the death of Steve Irwin, the famous ‘Crocodile Hunter’. Irwin died after he was stung by a stingray.

Stingray swims are still deemed safe by most experts and all the cruise lines:

Carnival said "The death of Steve Irwin was a terrible tragedy. Experts agree that it was an extremely unusual occurrence involving a particularly large breed of stingray found in Australia. To be stung by a stingray is rare and, despite the tens of thousands of our guests who have participated in the stingray shore excursions offered by our tour operator partners, there has never been a fatality or serious injury."

Disney offers stingray excursions at their private island Castaway where they manicure stingrays' barbs to make the experience even safer for guests. I’m not sure how I feel about this; I hope these “manicures” aren’t painful for the animals.

Holland America said that there has never been a serious injury on one of their stingray tours.

Royal Caribbean International's Lyan Sierra-Caro says "I think everyone understands that this was a rare circumstance. The stingrays in the Caribbean are much different then the kind found in Australia. Also, the stingrays that our guests usually see are used to being around humans and even fed by them."

Posted by James Trotta at 3:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Travel trouble, smoking, flying, Cuba

I don't have much to write about today so hopefully I'll start getting more winter vacation plans submitted via email to jtrotta@gmail.com - remember every vacation plan that passes the initial screening gets a $5.00 prize and is in the running for much larger prizes.

What do I have for you? We have the travel troubleshooter looking into the Mariott for sending a traveler to a crappy motel when they couldn't honor his reservation.

Then there's a new airline for smokers, launching next year with a Germany - Tokyo flight. Instead of going 12 hours without a smoke, flyers can go 12 hours in a cabin full of smokers. Makes me glad I don't smoke!

We've got an American woman on a humanitarian mission to Cuba. I lover her quote, "I always like to go places where I'm not supposed to be," says Mary Ann Olding of Clifton. "I like to see things for myself."

Speaking of Cuba, we have Tom Hall from Lonely Planet answering questions about driving in Cuba, spending two days in Bangkok, and more.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hot but funny Paris vacation experience

I enjoyed reading this Paris vacation experience, especially the part that reminded me of my own experience in China:

We try to go to the public pool, but the rules require that ladies wear bathing caps and men wear briefs, like Speedos. No "boxer" swimsuits allowed. We're not even permitted to look at the pool unless we don such silly garb. It is like being told that we can't step into an art gallery unless we wear a beret.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

When should you visit Boracay?

Boracay's rainy season is from June to September, but that may actually be a good time to visit:

The chaotic, stressful and claustrophobic clutter of the summer past is gone and replaced with a serene atmosphere, which opens the opportunity to a string of favorite activities: scouring shops for bargains, dining to your heart’s content without the long wait, enjoying your favorite spa treatment that’s hard to book in the summer...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Women only tours: men are too goal oriented and efficient

Women only tours are becoming increasingly popular. I guess we men behave so badly that single women can't endure our company. Plus we just have different travel desires:

"Men are more goal-oriented," Wade said. "Women appreciate every little thing about the experience. They are more relaxed."

For example, they both may want to hike to the top of the mountain, but men tend to want to reach the peak efficiently while many women don't really care how long it takes, preferring to meander through villages and markets on the way.

But some members of the group (women as luck would have it) were just too slow. We had to stop frequently to let the stragglers catch up. The sun set while we were on the mountain somewhere and we had to finish hiking in the dark. It got cold and it was dangerous. And we totally missed the sunset.

Since I try to be entertaining (rather than grumpy) company, I rarely tell that story about missing the sunrise and sunset thanks to joining a slow hiking group. My special massage in China story (the night before the hike) always gets a laugh though.

Anyway, what do you think? Are men and women really so different on vacation?

Posted by James Trotta at 1:18 AM | Comments (3)

A little hardship and a little humor

People flying from England are now permitted one small carryon. Some flights are still being cancelled as well.

Here's a slightly humorous article by a teacher who has unusual travel interests that leave him unable to make normal conversation:

I love to travel, but my interests are not the typical tourist's. I've taught English in China and Finland. I flew into Russia on a Friday evening and the next morning ran the Moscow Marathon. I worked as a volunteer at the Atlanta Summer Olympics and lived with families in South Africa. I took Swedish dancing lessons in Stockholm. These experiences I can remember. But they aren't what friends want to hear about.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

Cruise news, home exchanges, and traveling oil money

I've found a few interesting travel articles in the news recently.

The largest cruise ship in the world will soon be joined by an equal. This article talk about the progress on the next huge cruise ship. Speaking of cruises, here's a $300.00 reason not to be late for yours.

Here's a happy story about a successful home exchange, with a recommended site for seniors. I'm going to try that one day.

Here's a story about where all the money you spend on gas goes. Apparently it goes to France, which has lost some American tourist dollars but found some from the Middle East.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:08 PM | Comments (0)

Where are all the happy travel writers?

It's tough to find happy vacation stories these days. Nobody writes about fun anymore? Anyway here's one vacation that involves injured kids and a broken down car.

We do have some good news for seniors who can book interesting vacation packages through a nonprofit called Elderhostel. For those under 55, REI is recommended. They don't seem particularly inexpensive though.

Speaking of happy endings, I suppose it's time to write about my friend's last night in Korea.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:57 AM | Comments (2)

The bad and the ugly in travel

Here's another article on vacationers stuck in a war zone. Talk about a scary vacation.

Another disturbing thing I read is the trend for married men in Qatar to find temporary wives to vacation with (leaving their real wives at home). Even after reading the article I don't quite see how this works.

Bad news that almost seems good compared to the other stuff: Americans aren't taking any vacation, or at least not their fair share. Toward the end of that article you'll find a few tips on how make sure your work / career doesn't suffer too much while you're on vacation.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:23 AM | Comments (2)

Is Dubai a good place to visit or live?

The article of this author has mixed feelings about Dubai, but in the end he concludes it's worth a visit:

All in all, Dubai is a discombobulating place, where East collides with West and mutates into some new idea of a city that careens among bloated, ridiculous, audacious and beautiful, and it's all moving too fast for anyone to make the distinction. This futuristic city is a fascinating place to visit, but I would never want to live there.

Posted by James Trotta at 5:06 PM | Comments (3)

Where to keep your money and how to keep money safe on vacation

When I was in New Orleans for Mardi Gras in 2000, I hid my wallet in my car, a credit card in my shoe, and a little cash in my pocket. All in all I felt pretty safe from pickpockets (looking back a car thief would have ruined my vacation though I suppose that will always be true).

Then I met a young woman who I liked. We went to the House of Blues and that cost a few bucks. Then she wanted me to buy her a beer somewhere on Bourbon Street. The little cash in my pocket was getting used up quickly and who wants to take credit cards out of their shoes when they are trying to impress a lady?

Anyway, this article on keeping your money safe might have come in handy back then. Had I taken their advice and brought my wallet (minus social security cards, debit cards, extra credit cards, etc.) I might have seemed slightly more normal to the young woman (who if I recall was from Kalamazoo and named Missy). One interesting point was that it's better to bring a credit card than a debit card because a stolen credit card won't deplete your bank account.

Still, maybe I was on to something with the credit card in my shoe. The article does say to keep one card in your wallet and another somewhere else...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:15 AM | Comments (6)

Travelocity.com car rental trouble

First, I just read Javaun's comments on Portland Oregon and the surrounding area and if you haven't read it yet, go do so. Javaun has done all of us a favor with some excellent information based on his own vacation experience.

Now Javuan shared some great experiences, but sometimes there's trouble. The travel troubleshooter had to take on a Travelocity.com case again (remember I have vowed never to use Travelocity in the past). It seems that they promised someone a full-sized SUV Thrifty car rental. Problem is, Thrifty Cost Rica doesn't even have such a car...

They got a car from another agency, did their traveling, and contacted Travelocity.com when they got home. No response. The troubleshooter got Travelocity to pay the difference, but again we see a big company just ignoring complaints until they get in the newspaper.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:47 AM | Comments (1)

What is the right mix of adventure and relaxation?

I'm too busy watching World Cup soccer (not in Germany, on TV) to write much, but I did find one good article for you on planning family vacations.

A good point in this article is that you have to find the right balance between adventure and education and relaxation but this one vacation sure sounds cool (if not relaxing):

We took Josh one year to the Yucatan on an organized learning vacation, kayaking in a beautiful biosphere with a Mayan storyteller.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:18 AM | Comments (0)

More about that 3 week vacation in Europe

Here's a little more from Dr. Z, the sports writer who loves wine (and who just got back from vacation). Here he talks about almost throwing up and passing out in a fancy restaurant (not because each meal was 142 Euros) that turned expensive food into a 3.5 hour ordeal. He also names a few European restaurants he likes.

Also interesting was the art in Hotel Turm in the northern Italian town, Fie. A not to army vets: visiting your old base might be more frustrating than fun:

"No is no, see?" And then it all started coming back. The Army. The tight, stupid faces. The denials--just to show they could do it. The barracks sergeant who cleaned out my locker the day the football season ended, and threw out, among other things, draft cards I'd gotten from the Colts and the Browns.

"Let's get the hell out of this place," I said to Linda.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:59 AM | Comments (2)

Some advice on going to Universal Studios during a Disney vacation

This question about taking a day off from Disney to visit Universal Studios came up on a sports message board and I thought I would share some excerpts with you.

Question: I am planning a trip to Disney World, we will be staying 8 days we are bringing my 7 year old daughter, my wife and I were discussing the possibility of going over to Universal Studios for a day while we are in Disney World...I'm sure people have done this, overall was it worth the time away from Disney? Are both of Universal parks able to be seen in one day? Any other helpful tips about my trip? Thanks.

Answer 1: In my opinion, you can't do both Universal parks in 1 day. However, Islands of Adventure is basically a Six Flags amusement park that can easily be skipped. Being a huge Disney fan, I'd suggest skipping Universal altogether... :)

A different answer: Universal is great and I think you can do both Islands of Adventure and Universal in one day. And your daughter is right at the age when she can probably ride on the Hulk, Spiderman, Fire & Ice, etc. One suggestion is to spend the $15 per person to get a pass where you basically circumvent the entire line and go thru "back doors" to enter all the attractions. It's well worth the money - only drawback is that if they run your card thru their scanner, you can only go on the ride once. Good times there...more fun than Disney, in my opinion.

A third answer: Don't skip Universal. If she is too small for the big rides, you can definitely do both parks in a day. Don't miss Spiderman at Islands of Adventure, or Back to the Future in the other park. Terminator is also very cool... hell, just about everything there is great. It's right on par with the Disney parks, and is better than MGM's "studio" themed park.

The last answer: I agree about the fast pass feature. At Universal, you pay extra and avoid lines. It's not that much more and saves a lot of time. A word of warning though: Universal is definitely geared towards older kids. There are a lot of rides that will be a bit much for a 7 year old (some 3-D rides are pretty intense) and others that have height restrictions. It's also very definitely not Disney. An older, rowdier crowd. You might want to check out their website for some guidance on the suitability of rides. Good luck.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:12 PM | Comments (9)

Vietnam, Kilimanjaro, and Lake Quinault Lodge

This will be a shorter entry since I was out shopping all night and am anxious to get to bed. I did find a neat article about a Vietnamese travel destination that should be off the beaten path.

I found another article that I thought would be another boring one on Freedom of the Seas, but did find something interesting:

Luxury cruise specialist Crystal Cruises is offering a new overland adventure to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Thrill-seekers will revel at the rare chance to climb 19,340 feet to Uhuru Peak, through an equatorial jungle and dense cloud forest to the snow-capped summit, en route to the highest peak in Africa. The nine-night extended land program debuts in March, 2007, and is available pre- or post-cruise in conjunction with two Crystal Serenity itineraries beginning or ending in Cape Town, South Africa.

Lastly, a great vacation experience article. The author stayed at Lake Quinault Lodge, a rain forest in Washington state. Follow in his vacation footsteps and you too can see "the largest Sitka spruce in the world, 54 feet around and roughly 1,000 years old" and a cougar (don't run from cougars because they will stalk you and attack - instead hold your ground and fight if necessary). The lodge starts at 87.00/night (106.00 during high season). Dinner will be 80.00+ at the lodge, breakfast 8.00 for oatmeal and closer to 20.00 for fancy eggs. Apparently the general store across the street makes decent sandwiches for a few bucks each.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:44 AM | Comments (0)

Where is your vacation paradise?

55 million years ago it would have been the subtropical North Pole (greenhouse effect researchers found out that the North Pole used to be pretty warm which supports the theory that we need to do something about greenhouse gasses).

If you were in 4th grade, you might be dreaming of 6 Flags or "Kennywood, Sandcastle and the park" whatever that is.

For me, right now, it might be a resort somewhere nice that focuses on yoga, healthy eating, mud and mineral baths, and massages. Vacation doesn't start until the 19th for me, but it's never too early to dream about vacation!

Posted by James Trotta at 3:10 AM | Comments (4)

Niche markets help travel agents stay in business

Over the past five years, the number of travel agents has gone from 142,000 to 91,000 thanks to the ease with which people can book online. The survivors are finding niches like adventure travel, eco-tourism, and ethnic travel (I don't exactly know what ethnic travel is so maybe there will be a future article on it once I've done some reading). They are also marketing their expertise:

"If you're spending $20,000 or $30,000 for a trip, why wouldn't you spend the extra few hundred dollars to get the expert advice of someone who's been there?" adds Nigosian (a travel agency owner), who has visited 100 countries.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)

Mexico recovering from the hurricane

Mexico is recovering from the hurricane. Riviera Maya, which didn't get hit full-force by the hurricane, has about 97% of its hotel rooms ready for tourists. I have some tips on Riviera Maya and Play del Carmen from a few weeks ago if you're interested. There's also a little conversation about retiring in Riviera Maya (specifically in the jungle nearby).

That reminds me of an even older post about Cancun. Remember when I asked if the travel agent was to blame for sending British tourists to Cancun during hurricane season? That post received quite a few responses. According to the article I linked to above, "More than 18,000 of Cancun's 27,800 rooms are open now and another 3,450 are scheduled to come on line by the end of June." Cozumel is said to be fully recovered.

I wasn't a big fan of Cancun (and haven't been to Cozumel or Riviera Maya), but I am happy to see Mexico getting things back in order and hope that life is returning to normal for Mexicans affected by the hurricane.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:19 AM | Comments (3)

Travelocity, travel insurance, slow refund

It always amazes me how companies will rip us off. This story about Travelocity failing to issue a refund is a perfect example as one customer had to work for 6 months in order to get the refund he was owed. Even after 6 months, Travelocity only responded to the Miami travel troubleshooter.

Interestingly the troubleshooter says that a polite email would have yielded better results than 6 months of phone calls. I personally find this impossible to believe though I do accept that it's worth sending both emails and making phone calls. Even then, big corporations can be slow to do the right thing for their customers.

Add Travelocity to the list of companies I'll never use to book a vacation.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:02 AM | Comments (12)

Traveling with small packs

Has anyone tried packing with space bags? I haven't, but it seems like they can really save you a lot of space and I love traveling without bulky packs.

Now I'm just thinking out load here (not really - I have given it a little thought), but if I took this large space bag that holds 10-12 sweaters and shrinks storage space up to 75%, and used it on my vacation clothes wouldn't that work out well?

The only potential problem I see is packing up at the end of your vacation. You need a vacuum with hose to evacuate the air. I suppose most hotels would have something if you could track down room service.

I suppose it would make more sense to use these travel space saver bags. I guess since you roll them up you don't need a vacuum. This package says it has 2 Carry On Size (13.5 Inches x 19.5 Inches - Holds 2 Blouses, 1 Jacket, 1 Sweater) and 1 Suitcase Size (18 Inches x 22.5 Inches - Holds 2 Shirts, 2 Sweaters, 1 Jacket).

Has anyone tried these space bags before? How well do they work?

Posted by James Trotta at 6:06 PM | Comments (10)

Don't let mosquitoes ruin your vacation

I hate mosquitoes. The only reason I haven't gone back to Algonquin Park for some wolf howls or gone on a jungle trek is because mosquitoes really take the fun out of everything for both me and my wife. So I did a little research on how to keep mosquitoes off.

I already knew about DEET, but last time I went to Algonquin the Cutter Backwoods Insect repellent (30 or 35% DEET) just wasn't enough. Not even close.

I learned that both DEET and picaridin are supposed to block a mosquito's ability to find you. DEET appears in Off!, Cutter and Repel. A picaridin-based repellent is Cutter Advanced. Oil of lemon eucalyptus is a natural ingredient found in a number of products, including insect repellents marketed by Repel and Off! Botanicals.

I wonder if it would help to use both Cutter Backwoods and Cutter Advanced?

Posted by James Trotta at 3:17 PM | Comments (8)

3 books about buying real estate in Italy

On my other blog, I was blogging about an article that called buying real estate in Prague a great way to get rich. Well Prague isn't too far away from Rome, which is where I want to buy a little real estate.

Of course, I have no intention of investing. I just love Rome and want to live there. Some of you may remember this from when I wrote about Rome museums and restaurants. On that blog entry someone asked how one goes about retiring in Rome. There's something I should know!

So I tracked down a few books, which I thought I'd share here to see if you have any comments on the books or other suggestions. Buying a Property: Italy certainly has the right title, but not all reviews are positive. One speaks of misleading information. The Complete Guide To Buying Property In Italy also has a good title but no reviews. Buying a Home in Italy: A Survival Handbook is more for EU citizens than for Americans according to one review.

I suppose I'll have to read them all for myself, but if anyone has any suggestions, please share!

Posted by James Trotta at 1:47 AM | Comments (2)

Politics: seal hunt and Canadian travel boycott

Yesterday's post on the cruise ship disappearances wasn't exactly political, but it was on a fairly controversial topic. This post is all politics so be warned (and if you want the controversial posts to stop, don't worry - I'm working on a post about wolf watching in Spain). Quotes below come from the Edmonton Sun.

Anyway, you've probably heard about this issue, the Seal hunt in Canada that has environmentalists crying themselves to sleep or sending you petitions in your email.

Well one U.S. family, the McLellans of Minnesota, cancelled a Canadian vacation because of the seal hunt. They wrote to some Canadian senators about their plans to boycott their vacation in Canada to protest the seal hunt.

Quebec Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette replied "What I find 'horrific' about your country is the daily killing of innocent people in Iraq, the execution of mainly black prisoners in the U.S., the massive sale of guns to U.S. citizens every day, the destabilization of the whole world by the aggressive foreign policy of U.S. government, etc."

Separately, Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette advised, "Look in your own backyard and start correcting things that are more horrific than the seal hunting in Canada."

Now I should note that other Canadian politicians are distancing themselves from Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette, so it's not like she speaks for all Canadians. We're talking about one politician with a very critical message.

Personally, I'm not a fan of war or hunting and I don't really see why protesting the seal hunt has to be connected with US foreign policy. Actually, I think a more rational person would connect this issue with environmental policy in the US (which is also fairly easy to criticize).

Posted by James Trotta at 12:10 AM | Comments (4)

Rock of Gibraltar and Barbary Apes

There are lots of places I want to go around the Mediterranean: Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, and Gibraltar. When visiting the famous Rock of Gibraltar, look out for the monkeys. They are called Barbary Apes, but they are technically monkeys.

Anyway, the monkeys called Barbary Apes want to be fed. Be careful though; some people have been attacked as the “apes” search for food. If it happens to you just let go of the food and the Apes will leave you alone as they go for the food.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:09 AM | Comments (0)

Vacation planning activity for kids

One interesting idea I heard recently is involving kids when planning a family vacation. I don't have kids, but I am an educator and I love this idea. Kids can learn about budgeting, responsibility, and compromise.

Kids might plan one day of your vacation. This would include choosing restaurants, activities and possibly transportation. Give them a vacation budget and let them make the choices about what to do and where to eat.

The kids can create a folder with the itinerary, just like a travel agent. They can include "brochures" that they can make themselves.

Of course kids information and travel resources, a folder, paper, scissors, and glue for the brochures. The travel resources could come from a travel guide (this is a comprehensive collection of travel guides with reviews), the website of a newspaper local to wherever you're going, brochures from the travel agent, etc. Internet savvy kids might enjoy searching Yahoo and Google for restaurant reviews and the like.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:39 AM | Comments (6)

Sustainable tourism in developing countries

For my winter vacation, I'm going to Cambodia's Siem Reap. In 2002 Siem Reap had 2,500 rooms. The figure is now 5,000 rooms and is predicted to reach 8,000 by the end of the year. Meanwhile electricity does not meet the demand of local residents, and poor waste treatment is causing pollution. There is also concern (and there is no imminent danger of this happening as far as we know) that using so much underground water will lead to landslides and the collapse of Angkor Watt’s temples.

I don't think there's a lot that we can do as tourists (beyond the obvious conserving water and energy and we should do that no matter where we are) but I sure hope that governments like Cambodia's can find the right balance between developing tourism and preserving the environment.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:20 AM | Comments (2)

Researching online travel agents and booking direct

The US-based Internet monitor Hitwise (which monitors more than 25 million internet users) said that visits to online travel agents remained stable last year, while visits to hotel and airline websites increased nearly 20%.

Hitwise said that travellers are researching travel agency websites but then booking directly with airlines and hotels: there was ''a big push to book directly with airlines and hotels at the expense of the online agents'."

Posted by James Trotta at 12:45 AM | Comments (1)

Terrance Hawkins allegedly scams Oprah fans with phony travel package

The Maryland Attorney General's Office has issued a cease-and-desist order against Terrance Hawkins from Temple Hills who allegedly took deposits from more than 90 people for a bus trip package to Chicago and Detroit that included Oprah tickets, hotel reservations and casino rebates. Hawkins could not provide them. Consumers who pay for a trip that is later canceled have the right to a refund, said Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.

Terrance Hawkins, who did business under the names Royal Travel Group and Royal Stages Inc., must return more than $30,000 to consumers, the Attorney General's office said Tuesday. The Oprah Winfrey Show does not provide large blocks of tickets -- so Hawkins had no way to provide the tickets he was hawking.

Actually, this does give me an idea for a future travel plan, a vacation where you visit different talk shows like Leno, Letterman, and of course Oprah...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)

Description of a wedding in Las Veags

It's Vegas day! While I was on the subject of the nature around Las Vegas, I figured I should share this little story about getting married in Vegas. The writer tries to make some sort of deep statement, but really it's the depiction of the wedding that's interesting. It involved Elvis and the Wedding Queen. Anyway, heres one couple's reasoning for getting married in Vegas:

But why Vegas? Why a wedding chapel? And why, oh why, Elvis?

"Why not?" says Rafael with a grin. "It's Vegas, how can you not have Elvis? It's cheese, it's all about cheese, isn't it? That's the whole idea. Have a bit of a laugh."

They did laugh, this couple and their children and their friends and family, as Elvis finished singing, snarling and swaying. Then The Wedding Queen stepped forward.

"Well, what a joy," Charolette exulted. "What happiness has been brought to your hearts this very moment as you become husband and wife. And that's what life and marriage is all about. It's about being happy, isn't it? It's about being together and belonging to each other forever and ever."

Posted by James Trotta at 11:26 PM | Comments (6)

George Clooney urges Americans to travel and learn

Actor George Clooney says Americans need to0 travel internationally and learn about non-US cultures. According to Contactmusic.com, Clooney believes that global understanding can reduce international conflict. I tend to agree.

Yesterday I had the unpleasant experience of reading and getting involved in a message board thread (on a popular New York Giants football forum) about the recent outrage at some European newspaper's cartoon depicting Mohammed and the reaction of the Muslim world.

And some of my fellow Americans are very ignorant and anxious to post their stupidity. I read disgusting generalizations about muslims overreacting all the time, not being able to take a joke, wanting to eliminate non-muslims, imposing their values on others, 9/11 and 3,000 reasons to hate muslims, etc. The owner of the message baord said "I've never met a muslim with a sense of humor." I have but so what? I don't want to go into too much detail because it's upsetting.

Clooney said: "Here we are in Morocco and three times a day a siren goes off and everyone stops their cars, gets out in the middle of the street, kneels down and prays. We are dealing with a passionate belief system and anyone who thinks you can bomb that ideal out of them needs to travel more.

"I just wish more people in our country travelled more. They'd learn a lot about how hated we are."

And if you went to my football message board you might know why we are so hated.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:07 AM | Comments (34)

French travelers waiting for visas for US

There are some interesting articles in the news about French people unable to visit the United States do to new US visa regulations and politics between French unions and the French governent. The International Herald Tribune reports that France has promised to begin issuing new high-tech passports demanded by the US in May.

The new US regulation affect 26 countries, and say that passports delivered after Oct. 25, 2005 must include an electronic chip with the image and fingerprints of the passport holder. The articles I've read seem more critical of the French union than anything else. Monsters and Critics even says that this is an example of whatt's wrong with the French economy:

The reason offers an insight of sorts into France's economic blues -- fostered in part by its seemingly all-powerful unions, which both protect workers and incense many victims of its strictures. When the French government tapped a private company to churn out the biometric passports, French unions blocked the move -- arguing the state-owned printing company should have the contract.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:24 PM | Comments (3)

Popular travel spots

On Jan. 4, Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates unveiled the 2006 results of their annual Travel Trends Survey. Carlson Wagonlit Travel polled 363 of their travel associate owners, managers and frontline agents throughout the United States. The survey was conducted from November 28 to December 16, 2005.

Las Vegas remains king of domestic destinations and Caribbean cruising continues to be the hottest international option for travelers. Caribbean cruising was followed by the Riviera Maya in Mexico with 51.2 per cent while Cancun in Mexico was third with 49.3 per cent. Jamaica was ranked 4th and Puerto Vallarta made a leap into the top five from its 12th position in 2005. The surge in travel to Puerto Vallarta and the western coast of Mexico has been attributed to the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma.

Top 10 Domestic Destinations: 2006

1 - Las Vegas, NV 79.6%
2 - Orlando, FL 71.3%
3 - Maui, HI 58.1%
4 - Honolulu, HI 57.9%
5 - New York City, NY 40.8%
6 (tie) - Anchorage, AK 19.0%
6 (tie) - Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ 19.0%
8 - Kauai, HI 16.3%
9 - Fort Myers, FL 16.0%
10 - San Francisco, CA 12.7%

Top 10 International Destinations: 2006

1 - Caribbean Cruising 76.3%
2 - Riviera Maya, Mexico 51.2%
3 - Cancun, Mexico 49.3%
4 - Jamaica 34.7%
5 - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 30.6%
6 - Rome, Italy 25.6%
7 - London, United Kingdom 23.4%
8 - Punta Cana, D. Republic 22.6%
9 - Cruising Mexico 19.0%
10 - Cabo San Lucas/ 16.5%
Los Cabos, Mexico

Top 5 Cruise Destinations: 2006

1. Caribbean (Western) 30.6%
2. Alaska 24.8%
3. Caribbean (Eastern) 20.1%
4. Caribbean (Southern) 8.8%
5. Mexican Riviera 5.8%

Posted by James Trotta at 12:13 PM | Comments (3)

Costa Rica questions and answers

I will be travelling to Costa Rica with the wife & my 2 girls (16 & 7). We will arrive in San Jose and be staying near Jaco.

Right now our plan is for the following day trips:

1. Volcan Poas/La Paz Waterfall Gardens (Arenal is farther and my 7 y.o. is dying to see the butterfly garden in La Paz)
2. Parque Manuel Antonio
3. Pacific Rainforest Aerial Tram (near Jaco)
4. Possibly taking a boat trip out to one of the small Pacific islands

Question: I am considering renting a car to get around instead of taking shuttles. Does anyone recommend that or is driving too dodgy?

Answer: If you haven't driven around in Costa Rica yet - I would recommend that you learn the lay of the land first - the trips you mentioned sound like a good sampling - once you see how the main roads work and the driving style of the country - which is very agressive - you will probably feel more comfortable driving.

Question: What are the best resources for traveling to Costa Rica?

Answer: In my opinion, here are the two best guide books - Costa Rica for Dummies and the Lonely Planet Guide to Costa Rica.

Question: I've heard great things about the Nicoya Peninsula and would also be interested in any tips or recollections you might share.

Answer: The Nicoya peninsula is great - We've stayed at Playa Samara and Montezuma and enjoyed both for different reasons. However I will tell you - we are strange and don't like to go where the crowds are - hence we stay away from some of the more popular locations.

We rented a car and drove out to Montezuma (and Mal Pais, St. Teresa, & Cobano) . I thought Montezuma felt a bit more touristy/college town than Tambor or Mal Pais, but I liked them all. Montezuma is a real kids hang out - but where we were it was about a km East of the village on the beach - that's where the wildlife preserve begins and runs all the way to Tambor. We rode horses through it and that was a real treat.

We also watched some football in Spanish and ate lunch at the Sano Banano. (Who knew that a sack was a "captura"?) I liked that football was easy to find down there. The nachos were good and I loved the presentation, even the refried beans were good which I usually hate.

If you ever go to Southern Nicoya, in Tambor there is a little Italian place (the sign just says pizza and Italian kitchen or something) that is really great.

We did the Cloud Forest before heading (by ferry) to the Nicoya Penninsula. Monkeys, iguanas, geckos, every kind of bird imaginable, coati, and some so-so scuba diving. A great trip. Costa Rica was beautiful, and the people were quite nice.

We were in Manuel Antonio for a week, we stayed in a beautiful place called La Mansion. Lots to do in the area, and with kids in toe you may want to check out a place called Anaconda for dinner one night. They've been feeding those crazy little spider monkey guys for years and they come like crazy everyday, around 5ish, ask someone and they will tell you.

Your girls and you will get a huge kick out of it. The park is an awesome experience and if you have time, check out the hotel Mariposa for a drink at the bar. Incredible hotel. We did a rafting trip which was great.

Question: Can we drive from San Jose to Arenal?

Answer: It is a trek from San Jose to Arenal because you have to go over and around the mountain chain in the area - the Poa Volcano is more of a straight run up hill - and if you go to Poa and have a chance you can visit the Doka Coffee Plantation there - despite what the other coffe tours say - that's where the best coffee can be had - their Organic Roast is amazing - we are set on trying to work out a deal to distribute their organic coffee.

Question: Didn't they set Jurasic Park in Costa Rica?

Answer: We drove through the area where Jurassic Park was filmed two years ago. It's on the Central Carribbean side of Costa Rica - it was awesome - miles and miles of Tropical rainforest wilderness

Question: Where's your favorite spot in Cost Rica?

Answer: The best spot we were at was the Tabacon Resort under the Arenal Volcano (which is still erupting) we hung out in the lava-heated hot springs there - in the middle of a spectacular rainforest with volcanic views and massages and great food. Avocado salad made right at the table and the ceviche (raw fish marinated in lime juice) just amazing - that's a great meal.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:07 PM | Comments (6)

The Arenal volcanic spa, Cloud Forests, and Pacific Coast of Costa Rica

Enjoy this story from a football fan catching the Giants playoff game while on Vacation in Costa Rica:

Just back from two beautiful weeks relaxing at the Arenal volcanic spa, the Cloud Forests and the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. While there this Giant fan was not going to miss the Playoff Game with the Panthers so here is a report for your amusement of what happened in Costa Rica.

We pulled into Montezuma, a sunny, dusty, dry beach town on the Southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica, at 3pm the day before the game in 95F weather. We had driven 7 hours from the Arenal Volcano overland - unwisely - instead of driving to Punterenas (about 2 hours) and taking the ferry to Paquera (about 1 1/2 hours) and then driving to Montezuma (another hour). Not only was the drive long, but only about an hour of driving took place on adequately paved roadway. Which means we bounced, jiggled, jogged and swerved along the road while raising many clouds of dust in our leetle Diatsu 4WD.

Well I walks into El Sano Banano, a bar on main street that doubles as our hotel reception area, rings the desk bell, and when the Tica comes out I tells her that I have a very serious issue that needs to be resolved for tommorrow before we can check in. I need to know where I can watch the very important American football game at 12 noon (Costa Rica is CST). Well the Tica (a very pretty Tica) tells me that I will have to talk to the manager sitting at the sidewalk table on dusty main street about this. Will the game be on ESPN?, he asks me when I pose my request. I tell him it will probably be on Fox. He tells me no problem, be here at El Sano Banano at noon tomorrow.

Our hotel room was a geodesic dome on the beach about a 10 minute drive from town. Surrounded by Palm trees, orchids, some tree that grew Ylang ylang flowers, three types of monkeys, 2 parrots, little furry creatures called agoutis, giant marine toads, an assorment of geckos, two rope hammocks and views of the turqoise surf pounding the beach. We had no phone, no clock, no TV, no AC, and when it got dark - a lot of stars - and nearby a very pleasant restaurant perched just off the beach lit maily by candles and fire poles.

The next morning after breakfast we strolled down the beach and over to main street, and there in front of El Sano Banano the manager had erected a handmade poster that hadn't been there yesterday when we checked in announcing - NFL Playoffs Today at El Sano Banano - We walks in and at the back of the bar there was a 52" LG flatscreen plasma TV - tuned into ESPN and a soccer match - which shortly after we sat down and ordered nachos and drinks - was switched to FOX and the game began shorlty thereafter - with Spanish speaking commentators.

Mi Amigos, I was a very happy man - I wouldn't even have to listen to the moronic commentators narrating and belaboring the issues of the game! After the Giants lost, we walked out of El Sano Banano and went swimming.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)

Safe traveling in Turkey

With bird flu cases being found in Ankara and Eastern parts of Turkey and infected chickens found in Istanbul, many tourists are reconsidering their planned trips to Turkey.

Tourists can still travel in Turkey safely, as long as they avoid all contact with poultry, surfaces contaminated with uncooked poultry, bird droppings, and feathers. Poultry farms, slaughter houses, butchers and markets selling live animals should be avoided.

The bird flu virus is present in the droppings of infected birds, poultry meat, blood, and eggs. The virus is killed by temperatures of around 160 degrees farenheit (about 70 degrees celsius), so when chicken is well cooked there should be no problem. The same applies to eggs, but runny yolks must be avoided.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:47 PM | Comments (2)

Lonely Planet taking some heat

The popular Lonely Planet is taking some heat for their new Blue List book. The New York Post (Dec. 20, 2005) writes that the book contains "three pages of anti-American cliches, portraying us all as obese, idiot war-mongers obsessed with dieting, nude vacations and raucous St. Patrick's Day celebrations." I suppose it's worth noting here (as the Post does) that Lonely Planet is an Australia-based company.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:42 PM | Comments (18)

Russia vs. Eastern Europe

There's an interesting Newsweek article about how tourism in Russia is declining. If you've seen the pictures of Moscow and St. Petersburg you may be surprised.

However there are a number of reasons:

Tourism officials cite red tape, poor infrastructure, poor service, security fears—and, most recently, cost. A weeklong visit to Moscow or St. Petersburg has tripled in the past four years to $1,700, many times more expensive than any of their Eastern European neighbors.

Part of the infrastructure problem is caused by a lack of hotel rooms. Hotels are bein torn down but new hotels are not being built. Another issue is the lack of English signs.

Then there are the increasingly difficult visas, increasing numbers of robberies, and extortion from police. All in all, it's easy to see why people are choosing Poland and Turkey.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:58 AM | Comments (3)

Stag parties in Eastern Europe

Here's an interesting article about how stag parties in Eastern Europe are becoming more popular for British men and how the locals don't appreciate this brand of tourism:

And as thousands careen around East European capitals each weekend, locals are starting to grumble about a distinct lack of appreciation for local sensitivities. The impression of the British as a genteel people is rapidly waning. In Prague, for example, locals have complained about being overrun with bawdy Brits drinking cheap lager and scoping out prostitutes. As many as 1,200 stag groups are thought to descend on Prague each year and British visitor numbers to the city jumped more than 50 percent last year. The mayor, Pavel Bem, has already sought to rein in the red-light district and wants visitors to respect local customs. Bars and restaurants have started to refuse large groups of men, according to city hall spokeswoman Jana Kobesova.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:58 PM | Comments (4)

British travelers reconsidering France

Traveling to France has generaly been seen as a pretty safe plan but many people are not so sure these days. The Times Online reposrts that in France tourists need to avoid certain areas and driving after dark.

Tourists bound for France were urged last week to take extra precautions to avoid getting caught up in riots. The Foreign Office said anybody passing through affected areas should be “extremely vigilant”.

Emergency powers have been brought into force in several tourist destinations, including Paris, Nice, Lille, Marseilles and Le Havre. The subway system in Lyons was temporarily closed after a firebomb exploded in a station.

The French tourist office in London urged travellers not to panic. “All the places affected have been residential, not tourist areas,” she said.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

Civil rights?

The head of Civil Rights for the US Department of Homeland Security is urging Muslim air travellers to register with the Federal government before flying to reduce the chances they might be stopped at an airport because their name is on or similar to names on an anti-terrorism watch list.

Daniel Sutherland says that registering will not eliminate the risk of Muslims being stopped for extra security checks, but thinks it will improve the US Department of Homeland Security's relations with Muslims and Arab-Americans.

"We need to listen to their concerns," he said at the seminar on homeland Security sponsored by the Knight Centre for Specialized Journalism.

"We need to build a level of commitment and trust that's unprecedented in our nation's history, not an 'us-versus-them' perception in the community. One way to do that is by having Muslim and Arab-American travellers complete the form on the web page of the transportation security administration, a division of Homeland Security responsible for protecting mass transit systems including airports.”

Personally, I don't see how this is going increase trust.

Posted by James Trotta at 5:31 PM | Comments (3)

Indonesia travel warning

Australia has warned its citizens that another attack on Westerners in Indonesia is being planned:

"Any popular tourist area or location known to be frequented by Westerners is a particular target, including resort areas,'' the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned. "The possibility of another attack against Australians cannot be ruled out.''

Posted by James Trotta at 5:24 PM | Comments (0)

Travel agent to blame for sending British vacationers to Cancun?

How responsible is a travel agent for sending tourists to Cancun while a hurricane watch is in effect?

We may find out since Ros Davies, a solicitor who specialises in personal injury claims, may sue MyTravel after being trapped with her family for four days in a Mexican hotel room with little to eat or drink after Hurricane Wilma struck is considering legal action.

She thinks the travel firm should ahve found her an alternate vacation spot since they had some advance warning about the hurricane. The travel agent says they had no way of knowing exactly what kind of weather would come.

The company says:

"We completely reject the suggestion that we would knowingly fly people into an area that was expected to have a hurricane. There is a big difference between a hurricane watch and a hurricane warning.

"The Caribbean could not function if everything ground to a halt when there was a hurricane watch. At the time the Davies family flew out, we had no idea a hurricane was going to hit the area where they were staying."

"Our main priority has been to get people out safely. The evacuation exercise has cost us £4m and it is remarkable that no British holidaymakers have died.

"The hotel where the Davieses were staying had sufficient protection for people not to be evacuated.

"Of course we have sympathy with them, but they were a lot better off than many other people - they were, after all, in a five star hotel."

The would be holiday maker says:

"When we arrived at our hotel on the evening of October 18, everything was fine. The day after we heard rumours from other guests that the hurricane was on its way, but when we spoke to the tour rep she told us we were only likely to get the tail-end of it. By the Thursday evening things were pretty bad and after we had gone to our room a note was pushed under our door telling us the hurricane was expected to pass over and that everything would be OK.

"But when the hurricane hit we were stuck in our room with no electricity, running water or food. Fortunately we had some bottled water. The staff delivered bags of food on the Saturday and Sunday - we each got a ham sandwich, a cake and a juice box to last a day.

"Our room was in a building outside the main hotel, and it was considered safe for us to go into the main building on the Monday. When we got there, we were given a paper plate with some cold pasta and melon.

"We left last Thursday and after our flight from Cancun was cancelled three times we were taken to another airport. The flight was going half an hour later, so we had to abandon our luggage and leave only with the clothes we were dressed in.

"They flew us to the Dominican Republic, where we stayed on the tarmac for a couple of hours while the plane was refuelled.

"The holiday cost £3,000 for the three of us and a further £2,200 for my in-laws. I honestly think we should have been offered an alternative holiday before we left Wales."

Posted by James Trotta at 5:24 PM | Comments (20)

Travel to Mexico

The latest hurricane has destroyed resorts in Cancun and Cozumel, so people who had been planning to travel to Mexico need to make new plans. Mexico is still an option: "There is much more to Mexico than Cancun and Cozumel; those just happen to be the easiest to access from this part of the country,” said Linda Jenkins, manager of leisure travel for Conference and Travel.

Acapulco, the Mexican Riviera, Mexican Baja. I've never been to any of these places, but I imagine they can be at least as good as a trip to Cancun. I don't think a visit to Cancun is one of those unique travel experiences people like to talk about. I've been to Cancun but I don't think I've ever bother writing about it until now. It's a great place to party, but I'm sure it's not the only place...

Posted by James Trotta at 1:04 AM | Comments (15)

More trouble in Bali

After explosions in Bali that seem to have been aimed at tourists (the three bombs went off in tourist restaurants) many are wondering what the impact on tourism will be.

Reaction seems to be much calmer than after the bombings in 2002, and Japan hasn't even changed its tourist advisory for Bali. Personally, I'm thinking about nearby destinations that are also worth visiting like Cebu in the Phillipines and Langkawi in Malaysia.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:12 AM | Comments (0)

Hong Kong day 2

So after taking the tram up the Peak in Hong Kong on our first day, we started our second day taking the MTR and then a train to the Hong Kong Cultural Heritage Museum. The display on Cantonese Opera was very informative and we learned about a free performance on Saturday (you just have to buy an admission ticket).

After making our way back to the train station (which was surrounded by shopping), we headed toward the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. It was not like the cathedrals in Italy but it was OK.

We walked from the cathedral down to Star Ferry Pier where we took the Star Ferry and ended up on another island. The hawkers here were fairly in your face and irritating but once we escaped the pier the hawking stopped.

We walked to the vantage point fot the laser light show. The area was rather crowded but everyone had a good view. If you're traveling with kids you'll have to arrive early to get a spot where the little ones can see. The light show was pretty good with buildings and lasers involved. It helps that Hong Kong has a pretty skyline anyway, so the light show doesn't need to be great to impress.

One of the reasons we did so few things is that we did a lot of walking. When you spend several hours each day walking around you get a feel for the city but have less time for tourist attractions...

Posted by James Trotta at 7:16 PM | Comments (3)

Links for disabled travelers

The Malaysia Star has compiled a list of links for travelers with disabilities. The idea is to get in touch with disability organizations or disabled people in the country to which you're traveling. It doesn't say specifically, but I presume the next step is to get advice from those people about where to go and what to do on vacation. The websites are supposed to have information on travel insurance, flying, and assistance.

Posted by James Trotta at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)

Sydney, Bali

Sydney has been voted the world’s best city destination for the eighth year in a row in Travel and Leisure magazine’s annual readers’ survey, which also selected Bali as the top island. It was a fourth successive triumph for Bali, which remained the top island destination, ahead of Santorini in Italy and the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai and Maui.

Sydney beat out the Thai capital Bangkok, as well as Rome and Florence. Another Thai city, Chiang Mai, was voted the fifth best city. I can boast that I've been to Rome, Florence, and Bangkok (which is the order I'd rate them in by the way). I still have to get to Sydney and Ching Mai.

The Four Seasons Resort at Sayan in Bali was voted the world’s best hotel ahead of the Singita Private Game Reserve, in Sabi Sands South Africa. The Asia-Pacific region dominated the best international airline category, taking eight of the top 10 places with Singapore Airlines in the number one slot.

The results of the survey will be published in the August issue of Travel and Leisure, which is published by American Express Publishing Corp.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:05 PM | Comments (3)

Travel ban lifted

The travel ban that sparked a number of comments here a few days ago has been lifted. It seems that the US government had a little chat with the Pakistani government.

Ms. Mai meanwhile was placed under house detention and told she could not travel abroad, apparently because officials believe her personal accounts of the ordeal could harm Pakistan's image.

Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca told Congressmen at a hearing Tuesday U.S. officials were dismayed over the treatment of Ms. Mai, and that the issue would be taken up immediately with Pakistani authorities.

At a news briefing Wednesday, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed that matter was raised with Pakistani officials in Islamabad and Washington, and that the travel ban had been lifted.

Posted by James Trotta at 9:41 PM | Comments (0)

Not allowed to travel

Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman, who was gang raped in 2002 allegedly to punish her brother for a crime. After receiving an invitation to visit America from Amnesty International, she has been banned from traveling by the Pakistani government. The opposition claims that this is to try to prevent further tarnishing of Pakistan's image. Of course, if there is no legitimate reason for the travel ban, the government's image will suffer even more than it already has.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:26 AM | Comments (19)

Share your vacation experiences or plans?

Would you like to see one of your articles published on this travel blog? It's possible if you ahve an interesting travel experience or travel plan to share. Just email your article to jtrotta@gmail.com along with your name so I can give you credit.

Disclaimer: I obviously can't promise to publish every article I'm sent, and I reserve the right to edit articles for spelling. grammar, and style.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:38 AM | Comments (9)

This guy knows how to travel

Although this site is about travel plans, and I prefer to ahve some sort of plan when I travel I have always admired the more adventurous people who just go places.

Harold Stephens has been to the Australian outback and met Aborigines and lived with the Negritos (tribe) in the Malay jungle. But perhaps what impressed me the most was that he hitched across the Pacific (from Tahiti to Singapore) on schooners.

His books get good reviews on Amazon: The Last Voyage: The Story of Schooner Third Sea and Who Needs a Road: The Story of the Longest and Last Motor Journey Around the World are two examples.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:11 PM | Comments (1)

Research laws and justice sytem

A tourist from Queensland, Australia, Ms. Corby, is on trial in Bali. She allegedly smuggled in some maijouana. Australians are very upset, not because countries like Indonesia, Malyaisa, and Singapore are very strict and often put drug offenders to death, but because they don't believe Ms. Corby is getting a fair trial.

Tony Foster is a travel agent making the news:

Tony Foster, who is also mayor of Brighton, said he was outraged at the "kangaroo court" trial of Queensland woman Ms. Corby in Bali.

Mr Foster, who expects Ms Corby to be found guilty, said he was horrified at the seven-month saga since she was charged with smuggling marijuana into the tourist island.

Posted by James Trotta at 7:20 PM | Comments (0)

Who knows about the proposed US passport rules?

A few days ago I wrote about how the US government was considering requiring passprts of travelers returning from Mexioc, Canada, and other countries where currenty a US driver's license would suffice.

Seems no one asked Bush what he thought before making the announcement:

Bush, a former Texas governor, said he has ordered a review of the rules. “If people have to have a passport, it’s going to disrupt the honest flow of traffic. I think there’s some flexibility in the law, and that’s what we’re checking out right now,” the president said.

“On the larger scale, we’ve got a lot to do to enforce the border,” he said.

In December, Bush signed into law an intelligence overhaul that requires tighter border security against terrorists and was the basis for the passport proposal. The White House did not say why the president was unaware of the plans, which his administration announced a week ago.

Posted by James Trotta at 5:38 PM | Comments (5)

Credit card warning

I like to use Discover for travel purchases because the cash back is nice on a big purchase like airline tickets and the like. However there is at least one case where Discover failed a customer seeking a refund when hotel reservations were canceled due to a hurricane.

The travel trouble shooter published in the Miami Herald is advising one person with a problem to dump Discover and get a new credit card because "Discover let you down by not standing behind a perfectly legitimate dispute".

Other culprits are Travelocity and Ocean Pointe Suites in Key Largo although the troubleshooter had better luck convincing Travelocity to take care of things that the customer did.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:16 PM | Comments (2)

Travel scams and time shares

When I was in Cancun there were all sorts of free offers that sounded great until you heard you had to sit through a time share sales pitch to qualify.

Travel scams today include surprise time share sales pitches, necessary "upgrades" because the room type you requested is booked, fees, taxes, etc. Even experienced travelers need to be careful (you have to register to read):

The pitch for real estate can be very convincing, according to Keith Bellows, the editor of National Geographic Traveler, the National Geographic Society's travel magazine. Bellows, at 27, was talked into a $7,000 time share he couldn't afford.

"No matter how much we think we're experts - and I think I'm a pretty savvy traveler - we can get ripped off," Bellows said.
Kelly thinks he knows why.

"We're all greedy to some extent, and we all want the cheapest price for something," he said. "Sometimes that can get you into trouble."

Posted by James Trotta at 2:39 PM | Comments (0)

Here's an article by Simon Raines. Tetraplegic (known as Quadriplegic in USA). Age 40.

Disabled people find it very difficult to find holiday accommodation which is truly accessible. Travel agents will often tell you a hotel or villa is wheelchair accessible yet when you arrive, it may have steps up to it, or doorways are too narrow. Even if you do find a suitable venue to stay, including the equipment many disabled people require, there is the problem (especially for the more severely disabled) of getting to it from the airport you fly to. Not to mention travelling about to local towns, supermarkets, restaurants or sightseeing further afield once on your holiday. Wheelchair accessible transport where the wheelchair user may get in a vehicle without leaving the chair simply is not available. My wife and I have experienced all these issues and more which precipitated our decision to address all these issues with our villa detailed below. We hope you agree.

Casa Ourico do Mar has been adapted to suit people of all disabilities. It is situated 20 minutes from Faro airport and is just a 3 minute drive outside the market town of Loulé. Despite its proximity to Loulé the villa is set in a very quiet countryside location. The property is built into the side of a very steep valley affording breathtakingly stunning views down and across a valley and out to the sea.

There is a local café and shop selling essentials within a short distance of the villa as well as a restaurant a bit further down the road.

Loulé is not within realistic walking distance, so we offer an adapted van for use. Loulé offers many restaurants and cafes as well as plenty of shops including several supermarkets and the open air market which attracts visitors from afar every Saturday morning.

The accommodation can sleep six people and up to eight people with use of the bed settee. It comprises 3 twin bedrooms all with en suite bathrooms (2 with wheel-in showers and wardrobes). The larger wheelchair accessible bedroom with wheel in shower and wheel-in wardrobe, one of the beds in this room has a luxury memory foam Tempur mattress or Roho mattress to aid pressure relief. Second smaller wheelchair accessible bedroom also has wheel in shower and wardrobe. The non accessible bedroom has twin beds with ensuite including a bath and shower.

A large open-plan lounge/dining area includes a settee and a bed settee and TV with Sky digibox and card showing Sky World Family Package. There is a portable telephone to make local calls. You may also, with use of the access code we can give you, make international calls for which you will be charged (15 cents (10p)/minute to the UK). The kitchen includes an electric cooker and gas hob, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher, washing machine (in pool side store room), kettle, coffee maker and toaster. There is a large terrace with eating and barbeque area leading off from the lounge and kitchen (also accessible from car parking area), which has views out over the valley and to the sea - relax, enjoy the views and enjoy the sunsets!

Access to pool and large terrace area is from the lounge via a large 'straight in - straight out' 2 x 1.10 metre Otis lift. This area consists of a heated pool with hoist (both seat and sling options) and built in steps in the shallow end, pool side room with relaxed seating and fridge to keep your drinks cool, flat terracing surrounded by garden below. The salt water swimming pool is 4 x 10 metres in size and is heated to 25ºC (May to October incl.) but this can be increased up to 30º or nearly 35ºC on request (extra - see prices). The property also has central heating and softened water.

This property is built into the side of a very steep valley affording spectacular views and is therefore on split levels - each level is accessed by the large lift. The lower level is the pool and terrace area; the middle level is the 3 bedroom rental unit and the top level is occupied by us. Guests park their car on the middle level and have flat access to their property, using the lift to get to the pool where they have total privacy. My wife Denise is fully qualified in Aromatherapy Massage, Reflextherapy. Metamorphic Technique and Professional Energy Field Therapy and your stay entitles you to one free treatment per group. Of course, all of these are available on site to all at reasonable prices, why not relax and enjoy a massage by the pool!

Posted by James Trotta at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

Safety in Rio de Janeiro

This travel Q & A from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel discusses the increase in crime in Rio, two airlines that do (sometimes) allow smoking, and the Palio in Siena, Italy. Here's some advixe about keeping safe in Rio from the article. It probably applies to many cities around the world:

Tarlow suggests that you don't walk anywhere alone and always carry enough money to satisfy a robber if you're approached (leave the rest in your hotel safe). On the beach, don't leave anything unattended; if you want to swim, have one person stay on shore to watch your possessions, he advises. The State Department also warns Americans to avoid city buses, to be cautious when using ATMs and not to venture into the favelas.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:22 PM | Comments (8)

How to pack light

Here's some advice about how to pack for your next trip. Advice includes rolling your clothes, wearing the same clothes more than once, planning and packing in advance, and bringing clothes that can be worn in layers.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:08 AM | Comments (3)

India and Pakistan travel tips

Anthony Mitchell has some advice for travelers in India and Pakistan. Some of the things I learned were things most of us would never think of:

In some parts of India, particularly Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), if a car or bus hits a pedestrian, cyclist or animal, passersby might assault the driver and possibly the passengers as well. Buses that are involved in accidents might be set alight. Never be in a vehicle that hits a cow in India.

Posted by James Trotta at 12:38 AM | Comments (3)

Traveling against Uncle Sam's wishes

Bobby Fischer has been in trouble ever since he traveled to Yugoslavia to play chess in 1992. He is now in jail in Japan because he was traveling with a fake passport. However, he is getting a real one from Finland.

If he ever gets out of Japan he'll be able to travel in the Schengen countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:57 PM | Comments (2)

For people traveling with electronics

USA Today talks about a neat-sounding product for travelers with lots of electronic gadgets:

The $120 iGo Juice is a multipurpose power system sold in Radio Shack stores and online. Adapters at one end of the Juice can be used to draw power from standard AC wall outlets or from a DC plug, such as a car's cigarette lighter or plugs offered on some airplanes.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

Skiing in Korea - part 2

A month or so ago I wrote about Hongcheon ski resort in Korea, where I went but didn't ski. This time I went skiing for the first time ever.

Somewhere between Pusan and Chinju is Muju ski area. We were there Saturday night, and arrived at around 6:15 just before they opened for skiing at 6:30. Traffic and parking weren't too bad. The skiing looked better than Hongcheon, but I never made it up the slope. I was at the bottom trying not to crash into all the other beginners...

The next day we went sledding. Sunday afternoon, around 1:00 PM, traffic was terrible and we ahd to park pretty far away from the actual park. If we had been going to the ski area we might still be in traffic.

But we were going to the sledding area where for about 7.00 you get to go sledding on their little orange, plastic sleds until they close at 5:00. Around 3:30 or so, the slope was pretty icy which meant more speed and more collisions. The sleds, like shopping carts at Emart (the huge local grocery stores), don't seem to go straight.

The sledding area wasn't too crowded and they only let 10-12 people go at a time. After walking back up the hill for 12th time or so we were pretty tired (my legs were a little sore from my first ski experience the night before).

Posted by James Trotta at 12:30 AM | Comments (1)

A new book with an interesting travel story

Posted by James Trotta at 2:14 PM | Comments (0)

Traveling solo

Jane Engle talks about the difficulties solo travelers face searching for bargains and offers some advice, including where to look for bargains and rooming with strangers.

A single lady from London reports that the worst part about being single is that when you come home you realize that no one missed you while you were gone. Anyway, her story about traveling to New York might be worth reading if you ahve nothing else to do.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:52 PM | Comments (2)

No helping the Cuban Nuns

As long time readers will know, I don't support the ban on travel to Cuba imposed by the US government. Here's a case where a Catholic couple took a trip to Cuba to do some missionary work and take a vaction. Now they're going to court to appeal a $5,000.00+ fine.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)

Learn from Bill McGee's misfortune

Here's an informative article about some problems that have cropped up while this one reporter was traveling. He's been promised one rate over the phone (by Delta), made the reservation, and then told at the airport he has to pay a much higher rate. He's been billed for phone class twice by the Kensington Close Hotel in London. He's been billed twice for a Spirit flight.

It seems that all of the situations except the Delta one have been resolved.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:40 PM | Comments (3)

How safe is Northern Mexico?

The US recently issued a travel warning:

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that 27 U.S. citizens had been kidnapped in Mexico in recent months. Two were killed, 11 remain missing and 14 were released, he said.

Creel said the warning ignored the deployment of hundreds of federal troops and agents to the region last week. He suggested the United States was not doing its job in fighting the drug war.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:00 PM | Comments (10)

Travel Ban to Iraq pays off for China

China was able to tell hostage takers in Iraq that it already bans travel to Iraq. According to the Turkish Press this has led to the freeing of the hostages.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:39 PM | Comments (0)

Crazy about the Superbowl

Planning to travel to the Superbowl?

Wilder's company can get you there, place you in a hotel and get you a ticket - but it's not cheap. Sleeping four to a room will cost about $3,900 apiece; single rooms will run around $5,400 for a three-night stay.

Doing it on your own might be cheaper but could end in disaster. Last year people payed as much as $2,500.00 for fake tickets. Who knew you couldn't trust scalpers on the street?

Also last year, other fans flew to Texas but couldn't find any ticket for under $1,000.00.

If it were my thousand dollars I'd rather take a little trip to Europe; Tickets from JFK to major cities like Rome, Paris and London are often quite reasonable. If we were talking 5,400 (the single room price I quoted) or in that area, I think my wife and I managed 9 weeks in Italy for about that much each.

The moral is that if you have to watch the superbowl, watch it on TV. Unless you're one of those people who has too much money, or the kind of person who hates traveling to Europe.

Posted by James Trotta at 6:19 PM | Comments (2)

Europe getting expensive for Americans

Here's an interesting article dicussing how a weaker dollar affects various aspects of the travel industry. For example an American woman living in France who gives Americans tours and gets paid in US dollars claims to be hurting. So do many Americans who work in embassies and consulates in Europe. I know they make good money, so I don't feel sorry for them no matter what the exchange rate is.

European companies in the tourism industry are seeing smaller profit margins as they try not to pass on the cost of the rising Euro to American tourists. Meanwhile, Americans are headed elsewhere. For example a trip to Prague is about 1/3 cheaper than a trip to Rome. Go further into Eastern Europe and I'm sure prices will also decline although finding the right plane tickets becomes more difficult.

Also interesting is that European tourists are more likely to come to America now that their money goes a bit further. This is expected to be the first year since 2000, that we see an increase in the number of European tourists.

Posted by James Trotta at 2:37 PM | Comments (3)

Traveling with extended family

Here's an article that suggests cruises for large family vacations. I would have to second that. When I was young my parents took my sister, me, and the grandaprents on two different cruises. I enjoyed both of them.

There's something for everyone on a cruise and the food is usually great. My sister is a vegan and even she was happy with the food they prepared especially for her. Plus as the article says, you don't need to do too much planning to go on a cruise.

The only thing you ahve to watch out for is sea sickness. One of the cruises i went on put all the women in my family in bed, but for some reason me, my father, and grandfather were unaffected. This was a New York to Bermuda cruise, so I might suggest flying down to Florida and then taking the cruise. The bad spots were off the Carolina coast.

Posted by James Trotta at 8:36 PM | Comments (2)

Is the US trying too hard to prevent us from traveling to Cuba?

The US claims that they are keeping money out of the hands of Fidel Castro's oppressive government, but I feel that the Cuban travel ban limits my personal freedom. I believe that through learning about other cultures we can understand other people. Through understanding we can reduce prejudice and become more open-minded.

Now the US is banning its citizens from dealing with foreign travel agencies that can arrange vacations to Cuba:

Treasury cracks down on Cuba tour firm
Cuban travel agency sanctioned (this paper, the Washington Times, requires registration.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:21 PM | Comments (5)

More travel warnings

It's sad that we have to think so much about safety before making travel plans, but it's reality. Here's a travel warning for New Zealenders that I imagine applies to most of us. The focus is violence and the areas affected are Southern Thailand, Israel and Palestine, and in Papua New Guinea's Mt Hagen and Highlands provinces and the cities of Port Moresby and Lae.

Posted by James Trotta at 3:05 AM | Comments (0)

Travel agencies

Here's an interesting article about how travel agents are having trouble staying profitable. While the travel industry is still recovering from 9/11, many travelers are now shopping for travel online. One travel agent had this to say:

If all a traveler is doing is booking a $199 plane ticket to Orlando, then it probably makes sense to do it online, McCabe said. Where the company makes a difference is in more complicated business trips or vacations, and when something goes wrong.

Posted by James Trotta at 11:05 PM | Comments (4)

Phillipines travel warning

I read about this travel warning on http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-11/02/content_2168388.htm

The US State Department has renewed a travel warning barring nonessential travel to the Philippines, particularly in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao and neighboring islands of Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

Great Olympics travel story

These guys no how to travel cheap: they camped out on a beach in Athens (sounds like a vaction in and of itself), bought cheap seats to Olympic events, ate cheap, and drank wine. I guess Greece is like Italy, in that wine is cheaper than bottled water...

Posted by James Trotta at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

The Cuban travel ban

I know there are lots of countries in the world, but I would persona;;y like to be permitted to vist all of them. I don't appreciate the US government telling me that I can't take a vacation in Cuba.

Understandably, people with relatives in Cuba are even more upset.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:01 PM | Comments (0)

The Pacific Islands

My wife and I have been considering a trip to Guam. It's closer to Korea than Hawaii and much much cheaper. However, a student who has been to Guam recently warned me that there was nothing to do. She may be wrong; she may be right, but I do know that many of the pacific islands need tourists to escape chronic poverty.

Enter low-cost airlines:

Air Nauru, which has been on the skids for more than a year, is due to re-launch a low-cost service connecting Australia and Nauru with the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands next month. Richard Branson's budget carrier Pacific Blue will start flights from Australia to Fiji and Vanuatu in September, and has plans to further extend its service to the Cook Islands.

The problem here is that each tiny island has its own national carrier. The budget carriers may mean more tourists, but they also threaten the 20 or so tiny national airlines. Australia is puching countries to stop supporting their national carriers, but no one seems interested...

Posted by James Trotta at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

SARS and travel advisory complaints

It seems that some people are unhappy with the way the WHO handled SARS travel advisories. Apparently one person who did have SARS was missed due to a flood of frivolous cases, suposedly brought on by the travel advisory mistake by the WHO. Personally, I don't see how no travel advisory would have helped contain SARS. I think the WHO had to put out a travel advisory.

Posted by James Trotta at 1:27 AM | Comments (0)

Travel agents vs. the net / plane tickets

I just read an interesting article about a Canadian travel agent who was losing market share because his customers were turning to the internet. He has strated winning back customers with a web site of his own. I suppose this isn't just an issue for Canadian travel agents. The article mentions that nearly half e-commerce spending in the US and Canada is on travel. Here in Korea, I know I always search online (or my wife does) and when we find cheap plane tickets advertised or whatever we call up that agent. But that agent would never have gotten our business without their web site.

Speaking of plane tickets, I'm flying JAL again when I go visit my family this summer (I work in Korea; they live in America). Korean Air is the only airline flying direct from Korea to New York, and their service is excellent. But they are a bit pricey. We've also fflown JAL and Northwest. Prices are similar, but JAL's flight attendants are ten times better than Northwest's. I mean I only flew Northwest once, but never again.

Posted by James Trotta at 4:35 PM | Comments (1)

Tourists are returning to Hong Kong

Last year SARS really hurt the travel industry and Hong Kong was one of the hardest hit. Now tourism to Hong Kong has almost returned to normal but new cases of SARS on mainland China are causing concern.

Posted by James Trotta at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

Time to visit Eastern Europe

So I read in the April National Geographic Traveler that now is the time to visit Eastern Europe, specifically the countries joining the EU on May 1. Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia all join the EU in May. While this might mean easier travel between countries, it also means higher prices. National Geographic Traveler reports that prices in Prague are already on the rise and that after next summer prices will be similar to those in Western Europe.

Another reason to travel to Eastern Europe now is that the "character of these destinations will undergo a permanent metamorphisis." If you want to see what Eastern Europe is like before influence from the west and get a bargain, the time is now.

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Posted by James Trotta at 2:45 AM | Comments (2)

Scripted and unscripted vacations

This isn't really a vacation idea or a vacation plan; it's a discussion about planning vacations or winging it.

A few days ago I wrote about my friend's vacaton to Vietnam and Cambodia. As I told my wife, I'm jealous. Partially because his vacation will be 3 weeks or so longer than mine but also because it won't be scripted.

Here I am going through my Lonely Planets, picking out the things I want to do in Bangcock, the things I want to do in Malaysia, the things I want to do in Singapore... Don't get me wrong, it's all interesting stuff, but it's not quite an adventure.

I remember going on a road trip when I was in college. It was winter, and our plan was to drive south until we were warm. Three weeks later we were in Orlando Florida having a great time as we did most of the way down there. Of course, it's easier to meander in your own country, but it's certainly possible to do it in a foreign country (as my friend is proving right now).

Posted by James Trotta at 5:43 PM | Comments (3)