Arthur Frommer's Blog, page 18

Arthur's Blog: A News Round-Up and Mid-Summer Reflections on Travel

The news that a Florida law firm has brought a class action suit against Spirit Airlines has caused a great many consumer advocates to smile.  For several years now, they've been complaining that Spirit's aggressive creation of novel fees and expenses has gone too far, essentially preventing the public from realizing how high that budget airline has raised its fares. The Florida plaintiffs are complaining that Spirit left the mistaken impression that certain of its "user fees" were required by federal law; in reality, alleges the lawsuit, these fees were a purely voluntary creation of Spirit and had nothing to do with government regulations. We'll all watch with interest the outcome of what is bound to be a hotly-contested litigation.

I wrote yesterday about the decision of Celebrity Cruises to permit a cruise broker to charge as little as $43 a day for a 15-day "repositioning cruise" of one of its ships across the Atlantic, from England to Florida; and I called that rate "historic" for a ship of Celebrity's calibre. There are, of course, other dirt-cheap repositioning cruises scheduled for this autumn at less than $43 a day, but on standard vessels of Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC. It is the high quality of Celebrity's Constellation (the ship in question) that makes $43 so remarkable.

If you were to ask an experienced cruise passenger to identify the cruiselines that cater most to mature and elderly passengers, they'd answer in a flash that the ships of Holland America fit that bill. My daughter, in a blog post published last week in the Toronto Star, points out that the super-deluxe and so-called "premium" ships are also the vessels favored by super-annuated people -- ships like those of Seabourn, Regent, Seven Seas. Sedate river cruises are next in line. And which ships do younger passengers favor? According to Pauline, they like short cruises of almost any standard line going to the Bahamas and the Caribbean, or cruises scheduled for college breaks.

I was in England just prior to, and during the first several days of, the Olympics, and experienced the marvelous weather that spread over the British Isles at that time, a succession of sunshiny, rain-lacking days that you too seldom see there. The heavens created such a perfect background for television coverage that Britain must surely enjoy an upsurge in its tourism in the weeks ahead. And what was also unusual at that time, as pointed out to me by a colleague, was that Londoners were actually talking to one another. They were so hyped by the success of the games that they became more like Frenchmen than Brits. We'll see if that atmosphere carries over to the Fall.

In both Oxford and Bath, where I spent the stay, I was constantly impressed by the central locations and excellent amenities of the low-cost Travelodges in those cities. Travelodge in Britain (which has no connection to the Travelodge chain in the States) is an extraordinary budget find, charging rarely more than the equivalent of $60 a night for a double room -- an excellent rate for that often pricey nation. New Travelodge hotels are constantly springing up in other British cities (including London), and might be tops on your list for your own next trip to Britain. Incidentally, savoring brewed tea with scones (and strawberry jam) is a particular delight of visiting the occasional coffee shop in Britain; the experience reminds you of how much we have lost by making do with teabags in place of the arduous procedures of preparing a real cup of brewed tea.

They have just issued the catalogue of one-week courses for the Oxford Experience in July and August of 2013, and the course titles make me yearn to return. For one exciting week, you can sit in the living room of an Oxford don, in the medieval college created by Cardinal Wolsey and Henry the Eighth, and study the following: "The Beatles: Popular Music and Sixties Britain," or "The Age of Churchill," "British Spies in Fact and Fiction," "An Introduction to Particle Physics," "From Rasputin to Putin -- The Russian Enigma," or many more. Each week of a six week program features 11 totally different subjects, for which the one-week tab (covering everything other than your airfare to Britain) is about $1,800 per person, including wine with three of your 18 meals, comfortable rooms, afternoon excursions, and additional evening lectures on general subjects. Look up the "Oxford Experience." 

Arthur's Blog: $43 a Night for a Trans-Atlantic Sailing in a Top Quality Ship Might Be a New Pricing Record

As we end the summer season and enter an autumn period of positioning cruises (transfers of giant ocean vessels from European waters to the Caribbean), plenty of sailings will be priced at $60 and $70 a night.  They need to be discounted that heavily because they spend many days simply at sea, crossing the Atlantic ocean, and because they are not stopping at a port a day, they are unpopular with the American public.  So the cruiselines aim to fill their cabins with Americans looking for sheer relaxation -- namely, day after day of simply crossing what seems like an endless expanse of water.

But I can't remember a sailing on a top-quality, one-category-up-from-standard, ship, priced as low as $43 a night.  That's the financial  wonder that Online Vacation Center (www.onlinevacationcenter.com; tel. 800/780-9002) seems to have devised for the November 30 departure from Southampton, England, of the upscale, 2,000-passenger Celebrity Constellation.  From Southampton (you fly into London to board it) on the Constellation, you go to LeHavre, France, then spend two days at sea sailing to Lisbon, spend another day at sea going to the Canary Islands, and then undertake a remarkable eight-night crossing of the South Atlantic to Miami.  All in all, you have spent a total of 15 nights on the ship, enjoying all-inclusive amenities (all three meals and soft beverages, all on-board entertainment), for which you can pay as little as $649 per person in an inside cabin ($43 a day/night), $849 in an outside balcony cabin ($56 a day/night).

Note that you'll have to add a trans-Atlantic flight to London to board the ship, and you'll then fly back from Miami to wherever you live.

Many more of these rock-bottom-priced positioning cruises will be announced in the coming weeks, but I very much doubt that we'll ever see anything lower than the Constellation's $43-a-day for its November 30 sailing.  And incidentally, the Constellation has an indoor swimming pool.

Arthur's Blog: This 11-Day China Trip from $1,599 is an Okay Deal from LA, but a Stunning Bargain from NYC

At first glance, Gate 1 Travel's latest foray into the China market seems only mildly interesting: It combines 3 nights in Beijing and 4 nights in Shanghai with 4 nights on a Yangtze River Cruise, for a total of $1,599, including round-trip air to China from Los Angeles. Since tour companies like China Spree are offering a similar Beijing/Shanghai combination for $999 (without the Yangtze River cruise), the package seems quite reasonable, but no more than that. Who wants four full nights on the Yangtze -- and in winter, too?
But here's the kicker. Book the package by August 20, and you'll pay the exact same $1,599 flying to China from New York. Now that's interesting.
China's recent manipulation of its currency to keep its value low, will enable tour operators to offer all sorts of surprising bargains there in the coming winter months. China Spree's $899 for a winter week in Beijing (including air from the U.S. west coast) and $999 for a winter week in Beijing and Shanghai (including air from the U.S. west coast) are already proof positive of what China has accomplished by breaking its pledge to re-value its currency upwards. Go to ChinaSpree.com for all the details.
Gate 1 Travel is offering the $1,599 price on its departures of December 5, January 16, February 13 and February 20. Go to Gate1Travel.com for all the details (and use the promotional code DLAC150 to book), or phone 800/682-3333, and keep in mind that pesky requirement that bookings must be made by August 20 to enjoy the reduced price for a package normally costing $1,749 and normally available only from the west coast at that level.
And by the way, all airline taxes and fuel surcharges are included in the price.

Arthur's Blog: Vayable Promises Clients Different and Memorable Experiences in Major Cities or Islands

In 500 cities and other locations across the globe, individuals have signed up to lead you on a walking tour that promises a different experience of their city or home location. In the south Pacific, the "king" of a particular island will take you fishing. In London, a street artist will show you the best of the graffiti found in urban areas; another will take you shopping in Paris; still another will lead you to small, off-beat restaurants where the chefs will invite you into their kitchens to explain a distinctive approach to cooking. And in San Francisco's poverty-afflicted Tenderloin district, a homeless man seeking to earn income, will show you the highlights of the sometimes shocking urban life in a low-income district.
All these are "experience tours" offered by a one-year-old website called Vayable.com, for which I predict a prosperous future. The tours are inexpensive, they can be conducted for as few as one person, they are found in the world's leading and most popular locations, and they are growing in popularity.
But are they safe? Vayable claims to vet the reliability of each of their volunteer guides. But obviously, and in some instances, you'd be wise to request references -- the name and phone number of someone who has already taken one of the tours in question. Apart from that checking, Vayable itself holds on to your payment until after the tour has been completed and only releases the fund to the tour guide upon hearing from you that everything was delivered as promised.
Recently in San Francisco, my daughter used Vayable to come up with that otherwise-unemployed tour guide of the "tenderloin," and reports on a highly successful, provocative and instructive view of the kind of life led by our less fortunate fellow citizens. But bear in mind that Vayable will also provide you with a far-more-standard, but equally instructive, experience of the literary history of a particular city, conducted by a totally respectable resident with a penchant for higher matters.
Looking for a new and better experience through travel? I'm intrigued by Vayable, and suggest that you'll be tempted to make use of the new service after you've examined some of their offerings at Vayable.com.

Arthur's Blog: Robert Reich Advances Arguments for Legislation Guaranteeing Greater Vacation Time for Americans

The shortness of American vacation time is the main reason for the weakness of our travel industry and for the fact that our vacation opportunities are among the most limited -- and most expensive -- in the world.  If Americans as a whole were to enjoy as few as three weeks per year of paid leave, their travels would skyrocket and there would be need for thousands of additional hotels, resorts and flights, and thousands of additional travel agents and tour operators.  The cost of vacations per person would plummet.

And yet every study shows that the average American enjoys no more than a measly two weeks, on average, of vacation time -- and even those under fragile conditions.  You move from one job to another, lose the vacation privileges you earlier accumulated, and must painfully accrue new vacation time from your new employer.

The solution would be to amend the Wages and Hours Act to require that persons engaged in interstate commerce receive a minimum of three weeks' vacation per year.  And after that reform was adopted, we would then move on to consider a requirement of four weeks of paid vacation per year.  Already, persons in numerous other prosperous countries -- France, Scandinavia, Australia -- are guaranteed as many as five weeks a year of paid vacation.

Eventually, such legislation will be adopted in America.  And some of the strongest arguments for doing so were recently advanced by Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, noted economist, and currently Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.

He points out, first, that workers who "take time off are more productive after their batteries are charged" -- they have higher morale and better attention to their work.  There is more output per worker -- enough to compensate employers for the higher costs involved.  Greater vacation time (requiring the hiring of replacement employees) also brings down unemployment, results in higher tax revenues. 

More and longer vacations improve the health of employees, as every study has shown. Longer vacations result in fewer sick days and lower health care costs.

In other words, according to Professor Reich, longer vacations aid not simply the employee but the nation as a whole.

I can imagine the anguished screams that will now be directed at his argument.  They are the same protests that met the adoption of maximum hours per work week, time-and-a-half for overtime, the granting of maternity leaves, the elimination of child labor, the requirement for safe work places, and countless other humane programs that we, as nation, have earlier enacted.  These measures -- and you can include Social Security, anti-discrimination laws, food stamps -- prompted anguished screams from the die-hards.  And yet as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, Americans will one day join the ranks of numerous other advanced, prosperous nations in guaranteeing humane amounts of vacation time for our citizens. 

Arthur's Blog: Heathrow Airport Security Agents Perform the Same Routine Procedures as Our Own TSA

Knowing that I would probably set off the alarm while passing through security at Heathrow Airport London last Friday (I was returning home from two weeks in Britain), I was mildly curious to know how English security agents would handle the resulting need to search me (I have a hip replacement that always sets off the security alarm). And guess what? They did exactly what our TSA agents do. Donning rubber gloves to make the entire procedure less threatening, they "patted me down" with the backs of their hands to insure that I was carrying no explosives on my person. They even made me -- oh, horror! -- take off my shoes.
I looked around to see whether any of my fellow passengers, English or American, were gritting their teeth, or expressing alarm, in response to this violent invasion of personal privacy. But no one seemed concerned. Several persons quietly waited their turn to undergo the same examination. I immediately thought of those many sensation-seeking U.S. journalists and bloggers who have repeatedly expressed their anger at this supposedly unnecessary and intrusive invasion of our American rights, going so far as to call them "unconstitutional." Don't you get the impression, from their writings, that TSA pat-downs are a peculiarly American outrage? That it is those people in Washington, D.C., who have degraded and demeaned us by creating the TSA? Would the men at Yorktown, and at Valley Forge, they say, have countenanced such cowardly, un-American behavior?
Next time you read one of those lurid protests -- in the form of columns or blogs appearing on the Internet or in the press -- you might want to consider that the people administering airports all over the world have adopted many of the same methods as our TSA has to insure that bomb-carrying terrorists are unable to blow us up. You might want to reflect on the fact that it isn't just the U.S. federal government that has come up with these procedures, but the governments of Great Britain, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern European countries, India, China, Thailand and elsewhere who have adopted the same procedures.
And you might then join me in responding to these sensation-seeking bloggers and other journalists with the strong declaration that we support the work of the TSA and welcome the care and concentration they devote to their security tasks.

Arthur's Blog: Concordia Eco Resort on St. John is Already Up and Running as a Permanent Replacement for Maho Bay

I should certainly have studied the new and expanded website for Concordia Eco Resort before writing yesterday's blog about the imminent closing of the famous Maho Bay on the island of St. John, U.S.V.I., and its replacement at that time by the Concordia Eco Resort. It's obvious from photos of that site that Concordia has been greatly expanded and developed (in the number and variety of units, in the foliage on the resort's hillside grounds, and in numerous other respects) since my own visit to it eight years ago, as I should have realized.
In essence, the major expansion of Concordia Eco Resort has provided the Caribbean with a fairly large and non-standard, unpretentious, and tremendously affordable resort for non-standard Caribbean vacationers.
Concordia, currently open for business, and operated by the same Stanley Selengut (he should receive medals) who created Maho Bay, has been developed into a sprawling hillside facility overlooking the Caribbean; and its facilities now fall into two categories: studios (with hard walls and standard electric power) and tents (with canvas walls and solar panel electricity).
The tents will appeal most to adventuresome travelers. They can accommodate up to five persons per tent, and yet rent for only $110 a night per tent in off-season and a peak of $165 in high season -- surely a remarkably low rate for the Caribbean. While tents are not air conditioned, they are cooled by trade winds and by the fans found in each tent. Guests take their meals in an attractive outdoor cafe.
A good introduction to Concordia -- which should now become the world's leading eco resort -- is provided by a work program in September, October and early November of this year at both Concordia and Maho Bay. Essentially, participants volunteer their services for minimum periods of a month, and then receive one night's lodging for each four hours of work. (They work six hours a day for five days and have the next two days off). They also receive a 25% discount off the cost of meals at the cafe. Their labors consist of all the standard hotel activities -- ranging from light housekeeping to light office work or assistance in the cafe.
Go to www.concordiaeco-resort.com, click on "availability," and then on a reference to the work program.
Whether or not you're interested in a work program, you might consult the website anyway. It will suggest a pleasant, totally unpretentious, and very rewarding tropical vacation for all the years ahead.
 

Arthur's Blog: Maho Bay Camps in the U.S. Virgin Islands Just Announced its Final Season in its Original Location

May 2013. That's the date when the unique Maho Bay Camps on the exquisite isle of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands will finally call it a day (after several earlier postponements of its demise). The owner of the land on which Maho Bay sits, a hillside overlooking one of the most enthralling ocean views (studded with other islands) and beaches in the Caribbean, has given final notice that it will take over the property in just nine months from now and convert it to far more expensive accommodations for wealthy vacationers. An affordable tropical idyll in canvas-sided bungalows placed up and down a verdant hillside, will no longer be available to ecologically-sensitive, cost-conscious travelers.
So there are two points to make about last week's announcement of Maho Bay's final demise. First, you might want to make immediate reservations for a stay at Maho Bay Camps during the last high season of its existence (November through April). Go to Maho.org for all the details.
But second, you should also know that Maho Bay has been industriously completing a new eco-resort formerly called Estate Concordia and now re-titled as the Concordia Eco-Resort, on another hillside of St. John; and this new location offers powerful reasons to be chosen for a tropical vacation.
I last saw Estate Concordia eight years ago, when it consisted of a dozen tented bungalows somewhat similar to those maintained at Maho Bay. Although the new property has undoubtedly been further developed in the ensuing period, my earlier reactions to it are possibly still valid.
The vista enjoyed by guests at Estate Concordia is not comparable to the enchanting views that Maho Bay enjoyed. It's a bit bare looking, lacking the trees and vegetation that gave such character to Maho Bay. But the ecological principles maintained by Estate Concordia are even more dramatic than at Maho Bay, making for an exciting -- and totally different -- stay.
Estate Concordia comes as close as possible to being a resort that relies on no energy created by fossil fuels. Nearly every bit of its illumination and power comes from solar and wind-created energy. Its management is determined to become a model for all future leisure-time developments in the tropics. Staying there, you feel a bit like a pioneer. Without calling on the island's traditional electric grid, it creates hot water, light for nighttime reading, heat for cooking your food (there's a complete restaurant on site), and every other energy-based activity. And the people who patronize such a wonderful advance in resort design are some of the most interesting types in America.
I have a feeling that Estate Concordia will make up, at least in part, for the loss of Maho Bay Camps starting May of 2013. And I again suggest that you take a close look at the Maho Bay website (maho.org) for further details on both Maho Bay Camps and the Concordia Eco-Resort.

Arthur's Blog: The Olympics Offer a Lesson in Nations' Single-Minded Pride in Their Own Achievements

I was still at Oxford at the time of the opening ceremonies for the 2012 Olympics in London on Friday evening, July 27, and saw only the last 15 minutes or so on a small television set in the medieval college where I was residing. I was stunned by how weird and incomprehensible those ceremonies seemed.

Yet on the next morning, the British press was ecstatic over the quality of what had been presented, exulting in what they regarded as a striking and memorable illustration of British history. Their reaction was diametrically different from what the New York Times and other foreign newspapers were reporting. They -- the British journals -- were so overawed by the feat of the ceremonies' creator, film director Danny Boyle, that one or two London papers were demanding that he be knighted.

This difference in national attitudes was apparent in the days ahead. Every evening, after touring various British attractions throughout the day, I would turn on television to an endless succession of reports on British victories. On B.B.C. and on Britain's I.T.V. channels, one rarely saw the astonishing performances of Chinese gymnasts or American swimmers. The only coverage was of those rather special contests in which British athletes excelled: races by one-man sailboats, kayaks careening through turbulent waters, equestrians.

I now see that what British television did was a near duplicate of what American television is presently doing: almost always confining their cameras to the victories of our own national heroes. Returning to New York, I have recently seen the feats of numerous American Olympians, with only an occasional shot of Japanese or Australian or Brazilian athletes. Apparently, every nation is intent on displaying the virtues of their own contestants, and rarely does anyone witness the achievements of other nations. I am willing to bet that Dutch television, broadcast from Amsterdam, is filled with the occasional victory of someone from The Netherlands -- and little else.

So we are not really "One World." We remain a collection of proud nationalities. And therein, I guess, lies some of the fascination of travel. We fling ourselves abroad to view the odd differences in lifestyles or appearances. We enjoy being aware of the different tastes of national food specialties, watching different methods of dancing, listening to strange languages, witnessing unique lifestyles. We are constantly aware of national differences.

On the other hand, the novelty of these travel experiences is accompanied by a sense of tolerance and growth. We often see, through travel, that people from other nations do quite well for themselves, that there is more than one way to live, that there are lessons for us to derive from how other people solve their social and urban problems. I hope my reactions are comprehensible; they are still evolving as I watch more of the London Olympics.

 

Arthur's Blog: A Quick Trip to Bath, and Its Relics of Ancient Rome and Jane Austen, Were an Entertaining Supplement to Oxford

Some 200 years ago, the aristocracy of England came to the city of Bath to vacation and have fun.  The younger visitors flirted with each other at nightly balls and dances and became engaged, the older ones gambled at various card and board games and horse races, had sumptuous meals, and attended endless soirees; and all of them "took the waters" at the Roman-era baths in the center of town.

Those visitors were brought to the health-giving liquids of Bath in sedan chairs carrying a single person held aloft by two bearers.They arrived for their daily dousings as early as 6 a.m. and remained immersed up to their chins for two hours, then whiled away the time until around 11 a.m., when they immediately proceeded to have a six-course lunch.

Some 200 years later, my wife and I arrived in Bath for a short stay following our wholly-commendable weeklong studies at Oxford University.  Though Bath is no longer confined to the rich, it is still known as a pleasure capital of Britain, and you come here for mindless entertainment and not for enlightenment. Bath still has a famous racetrack, in addition to several theaters and even more museums.  It has 80 hotels and 200 bed-and-breakfasts, a giant and sumptuous abbey (of cathedral proportions) that must be visited, an enormous outlying shopping center in addition to countless chic downtown stores, several wealthy townhouse districts of the most impressive architectural beauty; and most important, it still has those famous Roman baths surrounded by more modern bath establishments in which modern visitors soak (in mineral waters and fiercely hot steam baths) for the purposes of health.

Actually, the 2,000-year-old Roman Baths are more important for their archeaological attributes than for actual bathing purposes.  When you descend staircases to examine the digs that were undertaken beneath and adjacent to the baths, you see remains of the actual time when Rome occupied Britain and Roman soldiers policed the land.  Not even in Rome have I ever seen such graphic and understandable evidence of the way in which life was actually experienced in those times.  The bas reliefs, the sculptures, the household implements and furnishings, are so compelling that you find yourself more focused on them than on the swimming-pool-like baths filled with their mineral-infused waters.

Fifty yards away from the Roman baths are the modern Thermae Baths using the same mineral waters, in which current-day visitors spend several hours of their stay, as we did.

I have a plane to catch (we fly home in a few hours) and will desist from further descriptions of the Jane Austen Centre (two of her novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, were set in Bath; www.janeausten.co.uk), of the Royal Crescent and the somewhat similar Circus (circular housing estates), the remarkable fashion museum (surely the best in the world), the Pump Room (where we enjoyed brewed tea and scones), the awesome Abbey, and much more.  That portion of the Frommer's guides devoted to Bath contains ample descriptions of affordable bed-and-breakfasts, and you have no excuse for failing to include Bath on your own next trip to the British Isles.