Arthur Frommer's Blog, page 14
October 12, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Choose an Unusual and Under-Visited Destination for Your Tropical Vacation
Or you could go to the less-visited destinations with fewer crowds, a usual absence of casinos, less emphasis on shopping, beaches just as inviting, and local populations that still smile at the tourist and appreciate their presence. I'm talking about places like Bonaire, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and some resorts along the Mayan Riviera of Mexico.
The Mayan Coast of Mexico : The Mayan Riviera just barely makes the list of attractive lures; its northernmost outpost, the giant Cancun, is as urbanized as any, and receives more tourist visitors than any other resort area of Mexico. But south of the famous "hotel zone" of Cancun, with its dozens of resort properties, the beaches are fully as spectacular, the water just as warm, and the hotels are fairly well-spaced from each other. Each is an all-inclusive resort from whose grounds you will rarely escape -- their single drawback -- but they supply unbeatable value to the person willing to confine a Mexican vacation to the expansive premises of one such sprawling establishment. At a big, modern property called Secrets Maroma, at which I stayed a few years ago, a single, flat expenditure for the stay enabled me to eat in any one of nine excellent ethnic restaurants, ordering as many cocktails or glasses of wine as I wished, to lounge about in seven bars with unlimited drinks, and to enjoy numerous programs of sea sports and evening entertainment. There are a couple dozen properties similar to that one, and all are within striking distance of the famous Mayan ruins at Tulum, which make for an unforgettable visiting experience.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines : Here's the very opposite of the mass-volume destinations, a grouping of islands that made little effort to attract tourism other than the upscale variety until very recently. It was held back by the fame of one of its islands -- Mustique -- where Princess Margaret of Great Britain maintained a winter home, and where the cost of renting one of the area's ultra-luxurious villas was so high as to saddle the other islands with the unwarranted reputation of being unaffordable. Add the fact that St. Vincent and the Grenadines are also a boating paradise attracting those wealthy aristocrats in their white flannels and blue blazers, and also a lesser number of scuba divers exploring exquisite underwater sights. And yet the grouping's island of Bequia (pronounced beck-way) has several totally affordable hotels and guesthouses, and exquisite beaches to enjoy. You can't fly here direct (that is, until an international airport now in construction on the actual island of St. Vincent is completed, probably around eighteen months from now), and most people get here by flying first to neighboring Barbados, and switching there to a smaller plane capable of landing on a short runway. Once here -- in the age-old cliche -- you'll "enjoy the Caribbean as it used to be," in a place untouched so far by mass-volume tourism.
St. Lucia : With its many all-inclusive beachfront resorts and many modest B&B's, St. Lucia is far more developed for tourism than St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and enjoys non-stop flights from numerous cities in Canada and on the East Coast of the U.S.: Toronto, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami; and also from San Juan. But although this British commonwealth member (where English is universally spoken) is visited by a great many sun seekers, its hotels -- with the exception of one sprawling Sandals resort -- are mainly small and quiet, without casinos but with a remarkable level of cuisine. Because St. Lucia was once occupied by the French, it maintains the French culinary tradition, and I for one was amazed at the gourmet quality served to me buffet-style at the beachfront resort I recently patronized. I felt I was in a gourmet restaurant, and looked forward with great eagerness to every tasty meal. Staying here, you never feel you are in a mass-market community of visitors; there are no crowds of people, and the main city is a purely-Caribbean town without even vestiges of the classic tourist traps for shopping -- in other words, an exquisite place, well worth the trip.
Bonaire: With the smallest population of any of my favorites, and only small hotels, this member of the Dutch Antilles (which enjoys connecting air transportation from Aruba and Curacao) is famed throughout the world of sports-lovers for its scuba-diving and snorkeling; its crystal-clear waters are above protected coral reefs and schools of exotic fish, and no one comes here for anything other than to lazily float above the surface of the sea entranced by the sights below you seen through your snorkeling mask, or else to undergo quick instruction in scuba-diving (you take a short "resort course") and go diving sixty feet down below the surface of the warm-as-a-bathtub waters. No matter what your age or normal athletic prowess, you'll be invited to pursue the sport of scuba-diving (after a short training course), and the resulting dive or dives will make your trip memorable beyond conception. Apart from that, you'll relax in a slow-moving atmosphere on a small and friendly island that also enjoys top-quality white-sand beaches. Crowds don't exist; casinos are only lightly patronized; and nearly everyone speaks English.
October 10, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Readers' Comments on Spirit's Big Fees and Tour Operator Bankruptcy
In reactions to our recent blogs on Spirit Airlines' new fees, and on the need to buy travel insurance, readers have made such valuable remarks that they need to be re-published in our main space, and not simply appended as comments.
Spirit Airline's Hefty Fees
First, the reader identified as Boomer48 has argued there are both pros and cons to booking flights on Spirit Airlines. He writes as follows:
Re: The Pros and Cons of Spirit and Its Fees
PRO: You CAN fly dirt cheap on Spirit, often much less than on any other carrier.
CON: A minefield of fees. Very spotty customer service or response, often non-existent. Seems even more cramped than other carriers.
He elaborates what to do about it here.
On Tour Operator Bankruptcies and Insurance
Prompted by the recent shut-down of the well-known tour operator, Club ABC, reader PDHenry has pointed out, that most travel insurance policies do not cover the bankruptcy of the tour operator. He points out, as examples, the provision in the policies of the well-known TravelGuard Insurance, that
Financial Default of an airline, cruise line, or tour operator. [...] There is no coverage for the Financial Default of any person, organization, agency, or firm from whom the Insured purchased travel arrangements supplied by others.
And he cites similar rules in the policies of Travelex and Travel Safe.
So what is the prudent traveler to do? As I've earlier pointed out, it's important to pay for your tour with a credit card, as many credit card companies will refund payments made to a bankrupt tour operator. Also, you would do will to confirm whether the tour operator you are using is a member of an industry association -- like the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA) -- which requires that members post certain bonds to protect the people who book with them against financial loss caused by the insolvency of the tour operator member of USTOA.
There's no complete protection against tour operator default, but the credit card mechanism is one of the common devices used to lessen the blow.
October 9, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Recent Letters Reveal a Broad Range of Worries by People Planning a Trip
Q. Where, in addition to our own State Department, can we go for informed advice on whether it is safe to visit particular foreign countries?
A. The website of the British Foreign Office, www.fco.gov.uk/travel (and then go to "Travel Advice" for a long list of countries) is famous for the clear and logical presentation of its views on choosing safe destinations. Under each country, the Brits discusses whether you should totally stay away (a) from the entire country, or (b) from only parts of that country. They discuss whether you can undertake safe trips there for important business or social purposes, again relating to the entire country or to only parts of that country. And then they award accolades where the destination is acceptably safe to persons who exercise care (a) in the entire country, or (b) in parts of that country. I find this discussion by British foreign office personnel to be clear and sensible, and superior in many respects to the sometimes-hard-to-decipher warnings of our own State Department.
Q. I've heard of organizations that arrange for you to make contributions to a couple's honeymoon trip, in place of the more traditional gifts that people give to newlyweds. Any specific recommendation?
A. I'm impressed with TravelersJoy.com, headed by Brandon Warner, who seems to offer excellent service and a good variety of travel options for honeymooners.
Q. We've been impressed by the offerings of an Italian tour operator [and here it is named] headquartered in Venice, but how can we tell whether it is truly reliable?
A. You ask for references. You request that they give you the names and phone numbers of other English-speaking persons who have used their services. You take the same care as you would in choosing an accountant, a dentist. But you must bear in mind that nothing in travel can be absolutely guaranteed; there is a certain degree of risk in choosing any travel firm, because travel itself is an uncertain activity relying on the actions of a broad range of people. You must often take a chance.
Q. We're planning a family reunion cruise for August of 2014, leaving from Bayonne, New Jersey, and spending five days going to and from Bermuda. Where can we get the best price?
A. It's much too early to try. For departures more than eighteen months in advance, few cruiselines or agencies will offer discounted prices. That far out, they want to get full price. It is only within a much shorter time in advance of departure that they start to "deal."
Q. Where can I watch the water fountain show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas the best?
A. From any sidewalk position skirting the grounds of the hotel. The show goes on every half hour during the daytime, every fifteen minutes at night, and it is always changing -- both in the music that is played (which can range from Rachmaninoff to Puccini, from The Beatles to Frank Sinatra) and in the patterns of the water.
Q. We're going on a cruise to several islands in the South Pacific. Where can we obtain shore excursions that avoid the use of those big motorcoaches, and show us around in small vans?
A. Try CruisingExcursions.com, PortPromotions.com, PortCompass.com, or ShoreTrips.com (the last-named operated for several years now by Barry and Julie Karp).
Q. Because China recently closed Tibet to foreign tourists, our tour there has been re-scheduled and re-planned to visit Kunming and Lijian. Are they worth seeing?
A. Your tour operator has done well. Kunming is a city of 7 million people, a virtual capital of Yunan province, with many theatres, museums, attractions. Lijian with one and a half million people is not quite as interesting, but a good example of a typical Chinese city of that size. Your experience in both will be instructive and perhaps memorable.
Q. How much should I tip when I go to a Chinese or Indian buffet, where the waiters are performing fewer and lesser functions than usual.
A. 10% to 15%.
Q. How do I choose a cruiseline? I am 47 and my wife is a few years younger. We'd like to avoid the party cruiselines, and since we'll be away from our kids on our anniversary, we'd like to avoid a cruiseline with heavy emphasis towards children.
A. The cruiselines with many children often on board are Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC. The lines that get fewer children are Celebrity and Holland America.
Q. We are two couples wanting to tour Spain and Portugal's [and here they name a particular religious heritage]. Where can we find such a tour?
A. Go to the Specialty Travel Index, which lists the offerings of more than 500 specialty tour operators.
Q. I'm going on a lengthy cruise, and just learned that my insurance doesn't cover possible medical evacuation.
A. Try Medjetassist, or go to InsureMyTrip.com for many more that do.
Q. Stop taking calls from listeners phoning from their cars! That's dangerous and productive of accidents.
A. You're right, and we'll ask such callers whether they have first pulled off to the side of the road to place their calls to us.
October 8, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Club ABC Tours Goes Bust, Hearst Castle Prices Skyrocket, and Antarctica Cruises Go On Sale
The biggest recent news in travel was the sudden and unexpected bankruptcy, last week, of Club ABC Tours, a firm in business for at least 50 years and -- from all outward appearances -- as solid as any. Given the poor economic circumstances of the past several years, it's surprising that more travel firms of a similar standing have not gone under as well. Yet so unexpected was the news that various listeners to the Travel Show yesterday seemed almost in a state of shock as they told of plans they had made to go on a trip arranged by Club ABC -- and of the substantial sums of money they had paid for a tour that now will not take place.
Two lessons are to be had from this tragedy. One is that you must always pay with a credit card, and not in cash, hoping that the credit card company will reimburse your expenditure if the tour company goes under. Second, take out a trip cancellation policy from an independent insurance company (look them up in Insuremytrip.com) and not from the tour operator. Several of the persons who phoned me told how they had bought insurance from Club ABC, and were now worried -- they didn't know whether this was the case -- that Club ABC may never have bought the policy from a travel insurance company.
Other poor news: The stratospheric rise in admission costs to San Simeon, the Hearst Castle, on the California coast. This iconic sight, a must-visit attraction on any road trip of that shoreline, used to be visited at a charge of $15 for a two-hour tour (you are not allowed to wander about on your own, but must join an escorted group), which has now been increased to $25 for a 45-minute tour (like one of the kitchens of San Simeon). Since most visitors will need to sign up for at least two such guided tours to gain a comprehensive view of the awesome place, they will pay $50 for an hour-and-a-half. Reason for the increase? The Hearst Castle is now a state park owned by California, and you've heard of the budget difficulties currently experienced by that state. They are apparently determined to make a profit out of what is now the only park -- state or national -- of America to be operated on a profitable basis. What a pity.
Care to visit Antarctica as early as November 29? Or on December 8 or 13? Norway's Hurtigruten cruiseline, which operates the diesel-powered ships that are now the only such vessels allowed in Antarctica, recently suffered several cancellations of large groups that had planned to make the trip. So they've put those itineraries on sale, at prices thousands of dollars less than usual. The discounts don't appear on the Hurtigruten website, but are revealed to customers who phone the Hurtigruten reservations system at 866/552-0371, as I've been reliably informed.
October 5, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Spirit's Latest Baggage Fees, San Francisco Battles AirBnB, & an Ultra-Cheap Cruise
And that's not all. Again starting November 6, flyers bringing a normal, non-carry-on suitcase to be checked in at the airport counter for a Spirit flight, will be charged a higher $45 for the privilege. Each way. And you'll be charged a higher $30 fee, each way, by checking in that suitcase online, so to speak, in advance of going to the airport. So realistically, the only way you can really fly cheaply on Spirit is by simply showing up without bags on any sort, not even a small carry-on, simply wearing your slacks and a jacket. I'm only kidding, of course. The only way that Spirit could now make matters worse is by charging you for wearing a raincoat or carrying a scarf.
Over in San Francisco, city officials are apparently incensed at the ease with which such websites as AirBnB permit owners of an apartment to rent it to transient visitors for short stays. The concern is that so many apartments will be almost continually rented to tourists that the number of available housing units for normal residents will be sharply decreased. In this regard, those San Francisco officials are joining their counterparts in New York who have enacted legislation sharply reducing the number of apartments that can be rented to tourists.
Seems to me that these city officials are confusing the continuous rental of whole apartments to tourists, with the occasional rental of a spare bed or spare room in an apartment whose owners remain in residence. That sort of activity does nothing to reduce the available amount of housing in the city. And when a resident goes on a short vacation, and decides to rent his or her apartment to a tourist during the period when they will be away, the act of doing so does nothing to reduce the amount of normal housing in that community. We must all bring these facts to the attention of legislative bodies and warn them against adopting blunderbuss laws that badly damage tourism to their cities. The occasional rental of apartments, or spare rooms in apartments, permits millions of persons to travel to such cities as New York or San Francisco, where normal hotel prices are sky high. The only interests to benefit from such prohibitions are the hotel industry -- and they are doing pretty well without such aid.
Although I recently decried the pitifully-small wages earned by workers on cruiseships, which is what enables the rest of us to enjoy such cheap cruises, there's no denying that cruising is presently being offered at remarkably low rates -- especially the so-called "re-positioning" cruises that move these large vessels in late autumn away from European waters and into the Caribbean. My specific current example is a 16-night ocean-crossing package of the upscale Celebrity Equinox, from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, leaving November 26 of this year, and costing only $1,979 per person in an outside, verandah cabin. What makes that price so very special is that the cruise discounter offering the package -- which is OnlineVacationCenter.com, phone 800/329-9002 -- is including in air transportation from the U.S. to Rome (worth at least a thousand dollars) and two nights in a Rome hotel prior to sailing, as well as $200 in onboard spending. The remainder value works out to around $55 a day per person for the cruise, in a balcony-equipped cabin on a modern and distinguished ship. It goes to Florence, Provence (Toulon), Barcelona, Cartagena and Madeira, before undertaking the ocean crossing, and the entire 16-nights -- with-air-and-Rome-hotel included -- comes as close to being an all-inclusive, two-week vacation as any I can imagine. It's quite an opportunity.
October 4, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Disturbing Baggage Fees, Low Cruiseship Wages, Special Rates at Omega, and Cuba Tours from $2,598
Six hundred dollars a month. Those are the wages, according to aBritain's Channel 4, earned by some of the crew on today's large cruiseships. And that is for work performed seven days a week, for weeks on end, in duties that do not earn tips. In the exposé Cruises Undercover: The Truth Below Deck that has aroused a great deal of attention in Great Britain, the British reporters are claiming that work conditions in cruising have reverted to the unacceptable levels that once drew a great deal of attention to this sea-going industry. And it is fairly obvious that those low salaries are the reason that we passengers are able to enjoy such cheap cruises; we are enjoying ourselves because of the sacrifices of persons from impoverished areas, who seize upon cruise employment as a means of sending money to their families. And what was the response of one particular cruiseline to the documentary on cruise employment? It was to point out that cruise workers receive room and board!
Here at home, the famous Omega Institute (two hours by car from New York City, near Rhinebeck, New York), a 175-acre campus devoted to "personal fulfillment," becomes unusually inexpensive in the month of October, and there remain plenty of vacancies for your booking. Prices for a seven-night stay include all three vegetarian meals a day, the right to engage in daily sessions of yoga, t'ai chi, meditation and movement, and accommodations, for $791 per person for a single person traveling alone and staying in the dorm, $875 for a single person occupying a tent cabin, and only $651 per person for each of two persons traveling together and staying in a tent cabin. Some guests pursue workshops and seminars in a range of topics that used to be called "New Age," at an extra charge, but it isn't required that you sign up for these. For more on a "Rest & Rejuvenation Retreat" of seven days' duration in October, go to www.eomega.org or phone 877/944-2002.
Finally, amid all the turmoil currently besetting the operation of legal tours to Cuba (more on this later), one fact remains true: YMT Vacations' program is the cheapest, and yet operates mainly during the key months of February and March, the best time of year to be in Cuba.
Calling a program to Cuba "cheap" requires a bit of a stretch, though, and is really correct only in a comparable sense. While nearly all the other tour companies operating licensed, legal tours to Cuba charge $4,000, $5,000 and up per person, YMT asks "only" $2,299, plus $299 in taxes and fees, for a grand total of $2,598 per person, including round-trip airfare between Miami and Havana. For this, you enjoy one night at a Miami Airport hotel and 7 nights in Cuba itself, receiving breakfast daily, 4 lunches and 4 dinners. Included, too, is the cost of your Cuban visa, a mandatory policy of medical insurance, and transportation of your baggage between Havana Airport and your hotel. Dates of departure still open for booking: February 12, 14, 17, and 21, and March 10 and 17.
The "turmoil" to which I earlier referred, results from a summer-long hold-up by the U.S. Treasury Department in issuing extensions of the licenses to operate tours of this sort. For a time, it seemed as though the Cuban program was about to end. Suddenly, the logjam seemed to break, and a great many licenses have recently been issued to a wide range of tour operators. But all of them except YMT are pricing their tours at levels that seem prohibitive.
To book, go to YMTVacations.com, or phone 800/922-9000.
October 3, 2012
Arthur's Blog: TSA Confiscates 47 Guns in One Week from Air Passengers During Screenings; Incidences on the Rise
In the year to date, the TSA reports a total of 1,100 guns have been found in carry-on luggage that people have attempted to bring aboard passenger airplanes. An increase in American laws allowing for the "conceal-carry" of handguns has led to the sharp increase in the number of persons attempting to carry loaded weapons aboard airplanes. This has been permitted by a 5-to-4 vote of the U.S. Supreme Court. The persons whose carry-ons were found to have such weapons have all responded, some of them tearfully, that they simply forgot that they had packed the guns into their carry-ons -- that they were innocent of any ill intentions. But so what? It is only the stern conduct of our TSA agents that prevented them from doing so, and can also prevent actual terrorists from bringing weapons onto an airplane. The nature of our security procedures has changed dramatically since the days prior to September 11 when airport security was in the hands of local, private, profit-seeking entrepreneurs paying minimum wage to those who staffed the security belts. It was those people who allowed 19 hi-jackers to board four planes with box cutters, and then fly those seized aircraft into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. I hope that readers will keep this recent concealed-guns-at-airports phenomenon in mind when they read the various dramatic columns and articles attacking the members of the TSA. Those are the articles, you'll remember, which claim that TSA agents actually enjoy patting-down the people who have set off security alarms. In contrast to the rest of us, who have almost always found TSA agents to be acting properly when they administer a pat-down, the alarmists claim that a huge percentage of the TSA are a species of criminals. This is an accusation that none of them can support. We should be grateful to have a serious, dedicated TSA working hard to prevent terrorists from taking weapons onto a passenger airplane and seizing control of it.
October 2, 2012
Arthur's Blog: A Variety of Readers' Questions About Travel Get Answered
Every week on The Travel Show, my daughter and I receive dozens of letters and e-mails from listeners posing travel questions for which they need answers. What's asked is remarkable proof of the complexity of travel, and of the differing opinions that can be voiced in response to difficult questions. I thought you might be interested in a small sampling of such questions and answers, all received within the past week. How would you have answered them?
Q. We are planning to travel to Alaska in the spring of 2013 to enjoy a 10-day tour of that state. Can you recommend a good travel agent for assistance?
A. though lots of mainland-based travel agents have sent clients to Alaska, and have a smattering of knowledge about it, I'd suggest you use an agent actually located in Alaska who enjoys intimate, daily knowledge of travel opportunities. Alaska Travel and Tours (www.alaskatravel.com) is headquartered in Anchorage, has been in business since 1995, and has a toll-free, 800 telephone number enabling you to discuss your options at length.
Q. On next summer's cruise of the Mediterranean, we'll be stopping in Messina, Sicily, from about 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. We'd love to visit Taormina, and also go to the top of nearby Mt. Etna, before returning to a Sicilian restaurant in Messina for dinner. Are those visits possible?
A. Not really. It will take you about an hour to go from Messina to Taormina, and another hour to reach the funicular for an expensive (about $40 per person) trip up the side of Mt. Etna. And then to manage dinner back in Messina at a good restaurant is simply attempting too much. Cruises are not the way to enjoy land tours of Europe; the time ashore on their daily port stops is so short that you really have only enough time to stroll around a bit and then enjoy a good restaurant meal. And most port stops are for a shorter amount of time than your cruiseship is allowing you in Messina: they generally let you off the ship around 9 a.m., and you must then be back aboard by 4 p.m.
Q. My daughter is a softball coach who will need to fly from Newark Airport to Orlando, Florida, on March 21, 2012, returning five days later, with the 20 girls of her team. They are getting quotes of $985 per person, round-trip. Is this reasonable?
A. $985 for a round-trip ticket between Newark and Orlando?! From whom are you getting advice?! $352 is more like it, on American Airlines or Delta, making one stop en route. And you can pay as little as $418 round-trip on a non-stop flight of JetBlue.
Since your daughter is undoubtedly adept at using the internet, ask her to open her computer and go to any of the airfare search engines--Kayak, Hipmunk, Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Momodo, Do-Hop. And once she's found the right flight and price, have her go directly to the airline's website for making actual reservations.
Q. My son lives in Pattaya, Thailand, and I have planned to visit him by a flight that goes through Tokyo. But he claims there are high levels of radiation at Tokyo Airport. Is it safe to fly via Tokyo?
A. If there were unsafe levels of radiation in Tokyo, then tens of thousands of rich Japanese would have fled that city long since, in an evacuation that would have been heavily publicized. Tokyo is a long distance from where the nuclear accident in Japan took place, and there is no reason to avoid an airport stopover in Tokyo.
Q. I live in Minneapolis, where no station carries your program. How can I listen to it?
A. Go to www.wor710.com, which streams the program live from noon to two EST on Sundays. Or go on your computer to Apple Computer's iTunes, insert the words "The Travel Show", and you'll hear it exactly as it sounds on the radio. I'm told by a friend that you can also listen to the show on your smartphone, if you have downloaded such apps as iHeart Radio and Tune In Radio.
Q. I've always wanted to vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Money is no object, and I want to stay and eat at the best beachside hotel.
A. The Sanderling is probably the area's best hotel, and directly across the street from it is an affiliated dining location called The Left Bank, which is undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in America. We dined there to celebrate my wife's recent birthday, and the meal was memorable.
Q. Where can we stay cheaply on Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands?
A. You can't. Virgin Gorda is a sparsely-populated island whose business interests have decided to cater to an upscale audience, for whom the small and exquisite resorts charge wads of cash. If you can share expenses with another couple, try renting a villa for four, which brings per person prices down.
Q. On your last travel show, you discussed re-conditioned cruiseships. Where can I get more information about them?
A. What we were discussing was re-positioning cruiseships, not re-conditioned ones. Each year in early autumn, cruiselines "re-position" the ships that have earlier been sailing in European waters, where they are no longer needed, and send them to the Caribbean, where the winter high season is about to begin. Then, at the end of spring, they send ("re-position") these ships from the Caribbean back to the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Because "re-positionings" in both directions require lengthy crossings of the Atlantic, which are not popular with the public, the re-positioning cruises are priced at bargain levels, sometimes for as little as $50 a day. You might consider such a cruise.
October 1, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Other Airlines Emulate Frontier's Move to Sidestep OTAs
Recently, I wrote about the decision of Frontier Airlines to make second class citizens out of people who booked seats on that carrier through an Online Travel Agency (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, and others). Starting immediately, Frontier will permit advance seat reservations to be made only by people who book their tickets directly from Frontier's website, and not those from the OTA's. It will limit other perks to the same people booking direct, and deny those perks to passengers dealing with those pesky OTA's.
Turns out, according to yesterday's travel section of the New York Times, that Frontier's anti-OTA policies are part of a broader drive by several major airlines, and several big hotel chains, to force customers to make their bookings directly on the websites of those airlines and hotels. Numerous airlines and hotel chains have now announced powerful "Price Guarantees." If an OTA (or anyone else) offers a lower price than the airline or hotel has quoted, the airline/hotel will not only match that lower price, but will also confer a present, an award, or gift, on the person making that booking: a voucher for for a certain amount of future air transportation or hotel stay, or some similar goodie.
Some hotel chains are now giving frequent points only to persons who book direct with them -- and this trend seems bound to continue.
Beyond that move, several airlines and hotel chains are now making use of their Twitter feeds to confer benefits on persons who make their bookings directly with the airline or hotel in question. JetBlue is especially prominent in this maneuver, and the Times suggests that you go to Google and insert three words: the name of the airline, the word "code", and the word "Twitter". Voilà! Out will often pop an airfare at a considerable discount, saving you as much as $100 per person -- and more.
In other words, the airlines and hotel chains are flinging down a gauntlet. They have declared war. They are no longer willing to give away big commissions to the OTA's, and those policies are not simply confined to Frontier Airlines but extend way beyond that western carrier to much larger air carriers.
What all this comes down to is that you simply must devote a few more minutes than usual to obtaining your air tickets on the internet. Although you might want to consult an OTA (the big four that I named above, as well as Kayak.com, Hipmunk.com, Momondo.com, Do-Hop.com, and others) to determine what prices and flights are offered for a particular trip, you will then want to go directly to the airline you've chosen for the actual purchase of tickets. The process takes a greater time than usual, but the results may be greatly to your benefit: a guaranteed price that will be further reduced if anyone in the chain lowers the price; the right to reserve seats; the receipt of enhanced frequent flyer privileges through purchase of the ticket from the airline.
September 28, 2012
Arthur's Blog: Readers Give Effective Reasons to Visit Trieste and Civitavecchia
In a recent post, I told of being stumped by four questions phoned in by listeners to the Travel Show. Two of them told of itineraries or cruise embarkations that required they stay for a short time in either Trieste (on the border between Italy and Slovenia) or Civitavecchia (the port city of Rome, an hour away). I responded that I very much doubted that either city had much for the tourist -- although I really didn't know. Like most Americans, my visits to Civitavecchia were a few minutes in duration, on the way to board a cruise ship leaving from that large, industrial, seaside port.
I have now received two responses e-mailed directly to me, and while neither letter outlined any outstanding sight or activity in either city, they told of less dramatic experiences which made me quite ashamed of my earlier cavalier response. They provided, in effect, important lessons of how travelers to Europe can benefit from a simple, direct, non-touristic contact with the people and ordinary institutions of Europe -- like its restaurants, like its hotel personnel.
First, from Gina Jaeger:
Mr. Frommer,
You asked for reader feedback on your infamous four questions. One was is there is any reason to visit Trieste? I say YES!
My husband and I visited Venice in December 2009 on a short holiday from our US Navy duty station in Sicily. We only wanted to stay several nights in Venice, and then get out and see more of the area. We rented a car, and off we went. We 1st went to Udine, near a wonderful winery that we became familiar with in the states -- Di Lenardo. We had a tour of the winery by Max Di Lenardo, whom we had met in Washington, D.C. at a wine dinner. It was fabulous getting that private tour, and we bought 5 bottles of wine and he gave us tee-shirts. We stayed at the Astoria Udine that night, and it was a very nice hotel, but the dinner we had was fabulous -- Max had recommended a restaurant called Vitello D'Oro, or Golden Calf in English. We had one of the best dinners in our two years in Italy at that restaurant seated in front of a nice fire.
The next day we headed to Trieste for the night, before heading back to Venice to catch our flight back home to Sicily. We did not know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. On the way to Trieste, we stopped and toured two sites: 1st, the Grotto Gigante -- the largest cave open in the world to visitors, and 2nd, Castello Miramare, or Miramare Castel -- home of Maximillan and Carlotta of Hapsburg fame. Although a drizzly day, we toured the house and the gorgeous gardens, and it was easily one of the best seaside castles we have visited.
Following these tours, we headed to Trieste -- and we stayed that night at the Savoia Excelsior, one of the best hotels in Trieste right on the Adriatic sea. Since Trieste is so close to Slovenia and Croatia, the food there has a bit of that influence. Since it was December, there was a Christmas Market and the town was decorated for the holidays. We ate dinner at a local favorite restaurant, Osteria di Scarpon -- it again was fabulous. I also remember that we stopped in a little pub at one point that evening and I had the best italian hot chocolate I ever had in my life! Although I searched high and low throughout Italy for a duplicate during our time there, I could never find one quite as good. It was thick, and creamy, and exactly what you need on a cold, drizzly December night in a pub in Italy -- it was absolute heaven.
So we were there only one night, but my husband and I made a deal after that visit that we would go back there and spend more time. We have not yet been back there, but one night was not enough! It was really a pleasant surprise.
And next, from Candy Skelton:
I agree with you there there is little to do in Civitavecchia. However, on a visit to Europe in 2005, our family randomly booked The Sunbay Park Hotel after finding it on the internet. We wanted to be sure to be on time to catch our Mediterranean cruise, so we arrived a day early.
The Sunbay Park Hotel turned out to be quite a treat and one that we still think of as one of the best we have ever stayed in. We have done quite a bit of travelling around the world.
We checked in and settled in our room, then walked to downtown Civitavecchia, a short 10 or 15 minute stroll, looked around, then returned to the Sunbay Park Hotel.
Our room was fabulous with Tuscan-like views and beautifully hand painted tiles in the bathroom. The hotel entry and hallways were bathed in deep, rich wood.
The pool and view of the Mediterranean were extraordinary. The hotel had many amenities.
The food in the restaurant not only tasted delicious but came with excellent presentation. And the waiters attended to our every possible need. It happened to be my daughter's birthday and she ordered Noodles Alfredo. While it was not on the menu, they made it specially for her and had their waiter named Alfredo, deliver it to her. They thought this was so funny, just as we did. They clapped and sang Happy Birthday to her. They made her a special dish of various desserts and even put a lit candle in one. It was charmiing! The restaurant overlooked the sea and we had a spectacular view of the sunset.
So for someone who is spending a little time in Civitavecchia, I can't recommend this hotel more highly. I'm sure they would accommodate anyone who wanted to spend a day visit at their hotel.
So there are two charming memoirs of brief stays in Trieste and Civitavecchia. Forgive me for my quick dismissal of both cities.
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