Arthur Frommer's Blog, page 25
April 13, 2012
Looking for an Eye-Popping Travel Bargain? Scan the Prices for June Mediterranean Sailings
Something on the level of "Believe-It-Or-Not" are the prices charged by ships of Royal Caribbean for seven-night cruises of the Mediterranean in June. Go to Vacations To Go (
www.vacationstogo.com
), insert "June-through-August" into the booking charts, click on Royal Caribbean as the cruiseline and then choose seven-night cruises, and you'll be staggered -- as I recently was -- to see the per person prices for inside cabins for numerous sailings in June.
Would you believe $346 per person? $499 per person? $579 per person? I'm not saying that all of Royal Caribbean's seven-night sails of the Med are priced that low, but a great many are (reflecting discounts off brochure prices of 65% to 68%).
And if you'll go to the June, Mediterranean, seven-night sailings of MSC Cruises, you'll find numerous departures priced almost as low: $599, $629, $649, $699. Or go to June sailings of Costa Cruises (the unfortunate company that suffered that tragic sinking of its modern, 3,000-passenger Costa Concordia) and you'll also find seven-night sailings going for as little as $529 and $599 in June.
Now it's true that you'll usually need to add about $1,300 for the round-trip trans-Atlantic flight bringing you to various Mediterranean ports (Barcelona, Naples, Rome). But even adding that sum to a $600 cruise price brings you a rather glamorous one-week vacation that's virtually all-inclusive for under $2,000 per person. And you can add on a several-day post-cruise stay in Barcelona, Naples or Rome for just a bit more.
It's true that the cruise prices currently displayed inch upwards in July, and even more so in August. But I'm assuming that the cruiselines are following a policy of rolling in the sharper discounts as the sailing date approaches (you might call it a policy of "creeping discounts"). A month from now, in mid-May, we'll probably see June's prices ($346, $449, $599) repeated for July.
Need a cheap Mediterranean sailing in July? Simply wait to book until mid-May.
Indeed, Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas is already offering rates as low as $649 and $749 for a one-week Mediterranean sailing in July. I'm betting they'll come down even more as that month draws near.
Prices are even better for sailings of eight-to-ten-nights' duration. That's when the spiffy Celebrity Cruises charges, on occasion, as little as $749 for a ten-night Mediterranean cruise (under $80 a day). Go to to the eight-night sailings of ships belonging to Royal Caribbean, like the Navigator of the Seas, and you'll find sailings going, on occasion, for as little as $749 and $799 in June -- particularly the first half of June.
This year's best travel bargains? Summer cruises of the Mediterranean.
Would you believe $346 per person? $499 per person? $579 per person? I'm not saying that all of Royal Caribbean's seven-night sails of the Med are priced that low, but a great many are (reflecting discounts off brochure prices of 65% to 68%).
And if you'll go to the June, Mediterranean, seven-night sailings of MSC Cruises, you'll find numerous departures priced almost as low: $599, $629, $649, $699. Or go to June sailings of Costa Cruises (the unfortunate company that suffered that tragic sinking of its modern, 3,000-passenger Costa Concordia) and you'll also find seven-night sailings going for as little as $529 and $599 in June.
Now it's true that you'll usually need to add about $1,300 for the round-trip trans-Atlantic flight bringing you to various Mediterranean ports (Barcelona, Naples, Rome). But even adding that sum to a $600 cruise price brings you a rather glamorous one-week vacation that's virtually all-inclusive for under $2,000 per person. And you can add on a several-day post-cruise stay in Barcelona, Naples or Rome for just a bit more.
It's true that the cruise prices currently displayed inch upwards in July, and even more so in August. But I'm assuming that the cruiselines are following a policy of rolling in the sharper discounts as the sailing date approaches (you might call it a policy of "creeping discounts"). A month from now, in mid-May, we'll probably see June's prices ($346, $449, $599) repeated for July.
Need a cheap Mediterranean sailing in July? Simply wait to book until mid-May.
Indeed, Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas is already offering rates as low as $649 and $749 for a one-week Mediterranean sailing in July. I'm betting they'll come down even more as that month draws near.
Prices are even better for sailings of eight-to-ten-nights' duration. That's when the spiffy Celebrity Cruises charges, on occasion, as little as $749 for a ten-night Mediterranean cruise (under $80 a day). Go to to the eight-night sailings of ships belonging to Royal Caribbean, like the Navigator of the Seas, and you'll find sailings going, on occasion, for as little as $749 and $799 in June -- particularly the first half of June.
This year's best travel bargains? Summer cruises of the Mediterranean.
April 12, 2012
An Update on the Very Possible Return of Favorite (Barefoot) Windjammers
There's good news out of Florida, where a rich entrepreneur named Charles Kropke has just bought the 70-passenger, 240-foot sailing ship, the Mandalay, from the people who had earlier obtained it from the now-defunct Barefoot Windjammer Cruises. You will of course recall the legendary,wind-driven cruiseline that operated several ships all throughout the Caribbean, booked by a fiercely-loyal group of adventuresome vacationers who loved the informal camaraderie and sea-loving life aboard. The new resurrection of Barefoot Cruises will begin sailing out of a port still to be publicly named (approvals are pending), weekly beginning in May, but the ultimate name of the new company isn't yet fully determined. It is presently called Windjammer Sailing Adventures, and whether the word "Barefoot" will also make an appearnce isn't yet known.
In any event, you might want to begin haunting the internet for prices and details for booking the new cruiseline, if you're among that legion of loyalists for its famous rum swizzles, its playing of "Amazing Grace" on a loudspeaker, its tradition of frequently permitting passengers to sleep on deck. There is a Facebook page for Windjammer Sailing Adventures ( www.facebook.com/WindjammerSailingAdventures ), and I would also expect a normal website to make its appearance soon.
In any event, you might want to begin haunting the internet for prices and details for booking the new cruiseline, if you're among that legion of loyalists for its famous rum swizzles, its playing of "Amazing Grace" on a loudspeaker, its tradition of frequently permitting passengers to sleep on deck. There is a Facebook page for Windjammer Sailing Adventures ( www.facebook.com/WindjammerSailingAdventures ), and I would also expect a normal website to make its appearance soon.
Why in the World is Ecuador Permitting Construction of Large Resorts in the Galapagos?
Call me naive, but I had thought the world as a whole was determined to keep the waters and islands of the Galapagos as unspoiled and undisturbed as possible. And although I was aware that "liveaboard" diving was practiced by small ships venturing into these sealife-rich waters, I somehow felt that the creation of resort hotels there for scuba-divers and other adventuresome sorts would be discouraged. So it was somewhat of a shock to read the plans of Red Mangrove Galapagos and Ecuador Lodges to create the largest dive training center in the area. It is presently under construction, covering (in addition to its accommodations, restaurants and kitchens) 15,000 square feet of classrooms for up to 40 students, "changing rooms, lockers, a patio/juice bar...repair center, retail store...and custom compressors."
Isn't this the occasion for public outrage? Or perhaps for Greenpeace?
Isn't this the occasion for public outrage? Or perhaps for Greenpeace?
April 10, 2012
New Travel Challenges: Airline Fees, Tornados and More
It was quite a week. Allegiant Airlines joined Spirit Airlines in deciding to penalize passengers who brought small suitcases or parcels into their planes. And unprecedented tornados hit Dallas/Ft. Worth, causing the cancellation of 400 flights -- and resulting chaos in air transportation.
Allegiant Airlines' $35 per suitcase per one-way flight was the more immediate threat to our travel lives, for reasons relating to airlines other than Allegiant. It means that Allegiant's mentor, Spirit Airlines, has successfully violated an earlier taboo against blocking the ability of passengers to evade the costs of checking suitcases aboard the flight. It means that the attempted boycott of Spirit Airlines for doing so -- a boycott I, for one, urged -- has been unsuccessful. And it poses the threat that other airlines will soon emulate Spirit's initiative.
And why wouldn't they? Spirit recently announced that it had earned over $50 million in 2011 from its fees for bringing small suitcases and parcels into planes. If an airline as small as Spirit could enjoy such a windfall, imagine how much a Delta or a United would earn from the same fees.
So in all likelihood, we airline passengers will soon be damned if we do and damned if we don't. If we check our luggage at the check-in counters, we will pay $25 a bag for each one-way flight. If we bring our luggage into the plane, we will pay upwards of $35 for the same basic act. We will avoid such ruinous fees only by taking no luggage at all on our travels. (I actually get suggestions that passengers should now don several layers of clothing -- several trousers, several coats -- to be able to travel without luggage at all.)
The only effective remedy against the resulting, remorseless rise in the cost of air transportation? That tactic is to dramatically reduce your land costs at the destination once you've arrived -- taking public transportation from the airport into town (no matter how long you'll need to wait for a bus), replacing hotel stays with hostels and apartment rentals, sharing main courses with your travel companion at restaurants, sightseeing on your own two feet, resolving never to buy even the cheapest souvenir, purchasing food at supermarkets for later preparation in your apartment or communal hostel kitchen.
In this manner, you offset the high cost of air tickets. Or else you put on all your clothes in advance of boarding the plane, layering one item of apparel over the other, throwing appearance to the winds.
The recent, virtual closing of Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport because of nearby tornados and the possible damage to planes parked at the airfield, carries more abstract lessons. That weather-related catastrophe should cause us all to reflect on the fact that rail transportation is far less affected by extreme weather conditions than is air transportation. And if extreme weather conditions are to become a growing part of our lives, in this time of global warming, those constant weather events should remind us of the urgent need to expand and improve our rail system in the United States.
In Europe, the extraordinary recent winter weather conditions did far less harm to the ability of people to travel. Instead of going to the airport, they went to the train station and reached their ultimate destination in a reasonable amount of time. What a blessing if we could do the same in the United States!
Allegiant Airlines' $35 per suitcase per one-way flight was the more immediate threat to our travel lives, for reasons relating to airlines other than Allegiant. It means that Allegiant's mentor, Spirit Airlines, has successfully violated an earlier taboo against blocking the ability of passengers to evade the costs of checking suitcases aboard the flight. It means that the attempted boycott of Spirit Airlines for doing so -- a boycott I, for one, urged -- has been unsuccessful. And it poses the threat that other airlines will soon emulate Spirit's initiative.
And why wouldn't they? Spirit recently announced that it had earned over $50 million in 2011 from its fees for bringing small suitcases and parcels into planes. If an airline as small as Spirit could enjoy such a windfall, imagine how much a Delta or a United would earn from the same fees.
So in all likelihood, we airline passengers will soon be damned if we do and damned if we don't. If we check our luggage at the check-in counters, we will pay $25 a bag for each one-way flight. If we bring our luggage into the plane, we will pay upwards of $35 for the same basic act. We will avoid such ruinous fees only by taking no luggage at all on our travels. (I actually get suggestions that passengers should now don several layers of clothing -- several trousers, several coats -- to be able to travel without luggage at all.)
The only effective remedy against the resulting, remorseless rise in the cost of air transportation? That tactic is to dramatically reduce your land costs at the destination once you've arrived -- taking public transportation from the airport into town (no matter how long you'll need to wait for a bus), replacing hotel stays with hostels and apartment rentals, sharing main courses with your travel companion at restaurants, sightseeing on your own two feet, resolving never to buy even the cheapest souvenir, purchasing food at supermarkets for later preparation in your apartment or communal hostel kitchen.
In this manner, you offset the high cost of air tickets. Or else you put on all your clothes in advance of boarding the plane, layering one item of apparel over the other, throwing appearance to the winds.
The recent, virtual closing of Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport because of nearby tornados and the possible damage to planes parked at the airfield, carries more abstract lessons. That weather-related catastrophe should cause us all to reflect on the fact that rail transportation is far less affected by extreme weather conditions than is air transportation. And if extreme weather conditions are to become a growing part of our lives, in this time of global warming, those constant weather events should remind us of the urgent need to expand and improve our rail system in the United States.
In Europe, the extraordinary recent winter weather conditions did far less harm to the ability of people to travel. Instead of going to the airport, they went to the train station and reached their ultimate destination in a reasonable amount of time. What a blessing if we could do the same in the United States!
April 6, 2012
The Awesome Barrier of a $140 Per Person Fee to Visit the U.S.A. Does More to Discourage Tourism Here Than Any Lack of Visit U.S.A. Advertising
Several newspapers carried recent articles about the wholly commendable plans of Brand America (the new tourism-encouraging organization for visits to the U.S.) to spend tens of millions of dollars on overseas advertising for such attractions as the Grand Canyon. This, apparently, will cause foreigners to consider vacations in the United States.
I'd suggest that lack of advertising isn't the reason why the U.S. is lagging so far behind in visits by overseas citizens; those people overseas know about our attractions, and would normally be expected to come here in large numbers. A fraction of the proposed expenditure spent on contacting members of Congress and persuading them to enact legislation that would reduce our visa barriers to overseas residents, would do far more to increase our tourism numbers.
A friend who recently flew to Buenos Aires points out that when you approach the immigration and customs booths at the airport there, you see a sign directed to American visitors -- a sign in English -- reminding them that the fee to visit Argentina is $140 per person. That's in angry retaliation for the $140 that we charge Argentinians to visit the U.S.A. The same $140 per person is charged to citizens of Brazil, and a great many other countries, and does more to discourage incoming tourism here than any lack of advertising. It's an example of how the desire of one government agency (the State Department) to recoup its costs, can totally nullify the efforts of other government agencies (the Commerce Department, for instance) to increase our tourism figures, thus creating additional billions of dollars of income and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The links between the two -- visa barriers to foreign visitors and the overly-slow growth of tourism to the U.S. -- is so plain that those links, rather than an advertising solution, should be the predominant concern of Brand America.
I'd suggest that lack of advertising isn't the reason why the U.S. is lagging so far behind in visits by overseas citizens; those people overseas know about our attractions, and would normally be expected to come here in large numbers. A fraction of the proposed expenditure spent on contacting members of Congress and persuading them to enact legislation that would reduce our visa barriers to overseas residents, would do far more to increase our tourism numbers.
A friend who recently flew to Buenos Aires points out that when you approach the immigration and customs booths at the airport there, you see a sign directed to American visitors -- a sign in English -- reminding them that the fee to visit Argentina is $140 per person. That's in angry retaliation for the $140 that we charge Argentinians to visit the U.S.A. The same $140 per person is charged to citizens of Brazil, and a great many other countries, and does more to discourage incoming tourism here than any lack of advertising. It's an example of how the desire of one government agency (the State Department) to recoup its costs, can totally nullify the efforts of other government agencies (the Commerce Department, for instance) to increase our tourism figures, thus creating additional billions of dollars of income and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The links between the two -- visa barriers to foreign visitors and the overly-slow growth of tourism to the U.S. -- is so plain that those links, rather than an advertising solution, should be the predominant concern of Brand America.
April 5, 2012
You May Find Your Best Hotel Rates on a Search Engine that Scans Online Travel Agencies
I haven't yet written about Trivago ( www.trivago.com ) on this blog. It claims to be the unchallenged price leader in hotel search engines, when compared to such fellow hotel aggregators and booking comparison engines like HotelsCombined (www.hotelscombined.com) or Hotelly.com ( www.hotelly.com ). Since hotel prices vary up and down by the hour, with hotels constantly shifting their offerings to reflect booking trends, it's hard to confirm that claim by Trivago. But several recent test comparisons show it to be fairly impressive.
Trivago claims to canvas more than 100 international booking sites, including many of the top players. An intuitive set of sliders and icons in the sidebar allow you to organize the list of results by price, distance from the city center, star rating, popular amenities (like WiFi or pool), and type of lodging (hotel, B&B, apartment, etc.).
You can get quick popup windows with more details on each hotel without leaving the results list, including a locator map. Or you can click over to a main page for an individual hotel for even deeper information, including details such as which of the quoted rates include breakfast, photos, and a bar graph showing the varying daily prices for that hotel over the course of the month.
You might want to give a look at Trivago next time you need a hotel room.
April 3, 2012
There's a New Tactic for Saving Money on Shore Excursions that Undercuts Cruiselines' Prices
Trust the folks at Viator.com -- the website dedicated to sightseeing tours -- to come up with an interesting new method for reducing the cost of those shore excursions that most cruise passengers buy. It's a brand-new site called Viator Shore Excursions (
http://shoreexcursions.viator.com
), and it invites you to list the ship on which you're sailing and your date of departure. Thereupon, Viator lists the ports at which you'll stop and tours you can take from those ports on vans and buses charging far less than the cruiselines charge for the very same tour. Since the saving (in my calculation) seems to average around $35 per person, the new site is best for persons traveling in groups of at least two persons -- and even better for family groups of four and more, for which the savings will add up to a considerable figure.
Viator's new site joins a number of earlier private tour companies that cater to the needs of cruise passengers: ShoreTrips ( www.shoretrips.com ; the pioneer, and currently a popular provider of tours operated in 12-passenger vans), PortPromotions.com ( www.portpromotions.com ), and PortCompass ( www.portcompass.com ). Still another company -- Shore Excursions Group ( www.shoreexcursions.com ), apparently owned by Priceline.com -- has recently entered the market, but I haven't yet been able to vet its offerings.
If you do decide to use Viator, be sure to access the details of each of the tours it offers to determine the departure place for each tour. Unlike almost all cruiseship-operated tours which leave from the dock just a short walk from where your cruiseship is anchored, some of Viator's offerings are simply standard city tours that leave from various parts of the inner city, requiring that you then make your own way on foot or taxi to join the tour, sometimes a fairly long distance from the dock. Other tours leave, conveniently, from locations near the dock.
And keep in mind my own, rarely varying, advice: that the best shore tour is the one you make on your own two feet, not with other passengers in a motorcoach or van, but simply on your own -- independently. Those are the tours that bring you an intimate, authentic, up-close view of life abroad, the best rewards of travel. Except for those ports that are a long distance from the sights you wish to visit, it is rarely advisable -- in my view -- to take one of these vehicular, group tours.
Viator's new site joins a number of earlier private tour companies that cater to the needs of cruise passengers: ShoreTrips ( www.shoretrips.com ; the pioneer, and currently a popular provider of tours operated in 12-passenger vans), PortPromotions.com ( www.portpromotions.com ), and PortCompass ( www.portcompass.com ). Still another company -- Shore Excursions Group ( www.shoreexcursions.com ), apparently owned by Priceline.com -- has recently entered the market, but I haven't yet been able to vet its offerings.
If you do decide to use Viator, be sure to access the details of each of the tours it offers to determine the departure place for each tour. Unlike almost all cruiseship-operated tours which leave from the dock just a short walk from where your cruiseship is anchored, some of Viator's offerings are simply standard city tours that leave from various parts of the inner city, requiring that you then make your own way on foot or taxi to join the tour, sometimes a fairly long distance from the dock. Other tours leave, conveniently, from locations near the dock.
And keep in mind my own, rarely varying, advice: that the best shore tour is the one you make on your own two feet, not with other passengers in a motorcoach or van, but simply on your own -- independently. Those are the tours that bring you an intimate, authentic, up-close view of life abroad, the best rewards of travel. Except for those ports that are a long distance from the sights you wish to visit, it is rarely advisable -- in my view -- to take one of these vehicular, group tours.
There's New Tactic for Saving Money on Shore Excursions that Undercuts Cruiselines' Prices
Trust the folks at Viator.com -- the website dedicated to sightseeing tours -- to come up with an interesting new method for reducing the cost of those shore excursions that most cruise passengers buy. It's a brand-new site called Viator Shore Excursions (
http://shoreexcursions.viator.com
), and it invites you to list the ship on which you're sailing and your date of departure. Thereupon, Viator lists the ports at which you'll stop and tours you can take from those ports on vans and buses charging far less than the cruiselines charge for the very same tour. Since the saving (in my calculation) seems to average around $35 per person, the new site is best for persons traveling in groups of at least two persons -- and even better for family groups of four and more, for which the savings will add up to a considerable figure.
Viator's new site joins a number of earlier private tour companies that cater to the needs of cruise passengers: ShoreTrips ( www.shoretrips.com ; the pioneer, and currently a popular provider of tours operated in 12-passenger vans), PortPromotions.com ( www.portpromotions.com ), and PortCompass ( www.portcompass.com ). Still another company -- Shore Excursions Group ( www.shoreexcursions.com ), apparently owned by Priceline.com -- has recently entered the market, but I haven't yet been able to vet its offerings.
If you do decide to use Viator, be sure to access the details of each of the tours it offers to determine the departure place for each tour. Unlike almost all cruiseship-operated tours which leave from the dock just a short walk from where your cruiseship is anchored, some of Viator's offerings are simply standard city tours that leave from various parts of the inner city, requiring that you then make your own way on foot or taxi to join the tour, sometimes a fairly long distance from the dock. Other tours leave, conveniently, from locations near the dock.
And keep in mind my own, rarely varying, advice: that the best shore tour is the one you make on your own two feet, not with other passengers in a motorcoach or van, but simply on your own -- independently. Those are the tours that bring you an intimate, authentic, up-close view of life abroad, the best rewards of travel. Except for those ports that are a long distance from the sights you wish to visit, it is rarely advisable -- in my view -- to take one of these vehicular, group tours.
Viator's new site joins a number of earlier private tour companies that cater to the needs of cruise passengers: ShoreTrips ( www.shoretrips.com ; the pioneer, and currently a popular provider of tours operated in 12-passenger vans), PortPromotions.com ( www.portpromotions.com ), and PortCompass ( www.portcompass.com ). Still another company -- Shore Excursions Group ( www.shoreexcursions.com ), apparently owned by Priceline.com -- has recently entered the market, but I haven't yet been able to vet its offerings.
If you do decide to use Viator, be sure to access the details of each of the tours it offers to determine the departure place for each tour. Unlike almost all cruiseship-operated tours which leave from the dock just a short walk from where your cruiseship is anchored, some of Viator's offerings are simply standard city tours that leave from various parts of the inner city, requiring that you then make your own way on foot or taxi to join the tour, sometimes a fairly long distance from the dock. Other tours leave, conveniently, from locations near the dock.
And keep in mind my own, rarely varying, advice: that the best shore tour is the one you make on your own two feet, not with other passengers in a motorcoach or van, but simply on your own -- independently. Those are the tours that bring you an intimate, authentic, up-close view of life abroad, the best rewards of travel. Except for those ports that are a long distance from the sights you wish to visit, it is rarely advisable -- in my view -- to take one of these vehicular, group tours.
April 2, 2012
In This Year of the Maya, Tourism is Booming to Mayan Sites in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras
Many hundreds of years ago, priests of the Mayan world calculated that the calendar of their history would end on (the equivalent of) December 21, 2012. Some Mayan people believed that date would witness the end of the world in a gigantic, cataclysmic explosion. Others interpreted the priests' speculation to believe that a New Era of history will begin on December 21 of this year. Whatever, these ancient calculations have turned our current months into "The Year of The Maya." And tourists from around the world have reacted to that inspirational title by flocking to Mayan sites in Mexico and Central America. My daughter, who returned with her family from a ten-day stay in Belize this past weekend, reports that tourists are flooding into Belize and filling its hotels, all for the purpose of observing The Year of the Maya. In Belize in particular -- which has scores and scores of Mayan sites -- tourism is heavy to the Mayan structures at Xunantunich. An even greater number of visitors cross the border into neighboring Guatemala to visit the immense excavations of Mayan structures and streets at Tikal, as she did. There she met guides who had interrupted their studies at various world universities in order to clean up from the fees they can earn by serving as guides to tourists wanting an escorted visit to these famous, pyramidal-style temples and other buildings. To the tourists who make the trip, the guides tell a fascinating story, and one that has many lessons for today. In extremely-ancient times, say around 1800 B.C., Mayan priests were also accomplished scientists who taught Mayan farmers to accomplish miracles of agriculture. They were also superb astronomers, and made many correct observations of the heavens. In time, unfortunately, their zeal for objective advice waned, was replaced by spiritual nostrums, and the Mayan communities of Belize and neighboring areas declined to the point of extinction. (But 11% of the current population of Belize is Mayan). Once in Belize, costs are extremely cheap: Pauline and her family paid an average of $55 a night for family rooms in various guesthouses and small lodges. Meals were similarly reasonable: often as little as $11 per person for a multi-course dinner. But getting there was relatively expensive, around $800 for the round-trip flight between New York and Belize City (via either Atlanta or Miami). Some travelers save on those high air costs by using cheaper flights to Cancun in Mexico, and then proceeding by bus down the Caribbean coast of the Mayan Riviera to Belize. To hear more of Pauline's reactions to and recommendations for Belize, you can go to the podcast of the first half-hour of yesterday's Travel Show at www.wor710.com/arthur-frommer.
March 30, 2012
Tune Into Sunday's Travel Show to Learn About Pauline's Just-Completed Trip to a Place to Which You've Probably Never Been
My daughter Pauline and her family have spent the past nine days in a Central American nation to which only a small number of Americans travel each year. The stay, according to her most recent e-mails, has been "awesome," and since she's flying home tomorrow (Saturday), she'll be able to describe the trip in detail on this Sunday's Travel Show. The broadcast begins at 12:06pm (right after the news) on the WOR radio network (stations all over the country), and can also be heard as it streams live on
www.wor710.com/arthur-frommer
. I'll be quizzing her on the program (if I can get a word in edgewise) about all the colorful details and events of the trip, and since she shows more than the usual enethusiasm for what she has just experienced, the broadcast should be both fun, informative, and practical. The destination she'll be describing is an historic one, easily reached by air from numerous U.S. cities, and it is cheap. It is also inhabited by all sorts of beachcombers and the like, and seems exactly the kind of place that many of our readers will like. Tune in on Sunday.
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