Arthur Frommer's Blog, page 49

Tourism to Turkey is Now Being Promoted by Non-Specialized Tour Operators More Than Ever Before

Most frequent travelers are aware of the many tour operators -- companies like Pacha Tours, Celsus Tours, City of Sultans, Baltac Tours, and others -- that specialize in travel to Turkey. But fewer of the general, non-specialized tour operators have paid much attention to Turkey in the past.

That may be changing, with the increasing prominence of Turkey in world affairs (it is becoming an especial leader of Islamic nations in the Middle East). It's significant, in my opinion, that a general tour operator like Smart Tours should now be offering a comprehensive, 14-day tour to a dozen cities in Turkey, including round-trip trans-Atlantic airfare, for only $1,699.

Go to smarTours ( www.smartours.com ), and you'll find a departure of October 28 operated with Turkish Airlines, in which a relatively modest sum for a 13-night air-and-land package is offered by the well-established smarTours firm (with slightly more expensive two-week trips offered earlier in September and October). $1,699 for round-trip air between New York and Istanbul, followed by a 13-night escorted motorcoach tour of every important city and sight in Turkey, with first class hotel accommodations and many meals, is an excellent price, and a considerable surprise from a general tour operator.

Fall Re-Positioning Cruises Get Sweeter with Amazing Rates and Free Airfare

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." That well-known suggestion (namely, work harder to solve difficult problems) could have been applied to the decision by most cruise lines to offer bargain rates for their summer sailings in the Mediterranean. Having placed far too many ships in those European waters, some of the lines have cut prices to as low as $399 and $499 for a seven-day sailing in June.

But now a different problem has arisen. With the end of the Mediterranean season fast approaching (early October is the usual date when that fabled sea loses its appeal), the cruise lines must return those too-many ships to the Caribbean for the start of the winter travel season. In previous years, they approached that task by offering remarkably low rates for the westward crossing of the Atlantic ocean. But to enjoy those low rates, passengers had first to fly to Europe to board. And this year, the price for a one-way trans-Atlantic flight is so high that the cruise lines face difficulty in filling their cabins for the re-positioning trip.

So "the tough got going." The cruise lines have apparently negotiated with airlines such excellent rates that the former are now including trans-Atlantic airfare as a feature of their re-positioning cruises. In fact, some of the cruise lines have found it so necessary to create an irresistible package that in some cases, they are offering two flights in their re-positioning prices: a trans-Atlantic flight to Europe to board the ship, and then a flight from the U.S. debarkation port to the passenger's home city.

The result are offers of a near-irresistible level. Take, for example, the 14-night cruise of Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas, leaving Rome on November 6 and sailing to Livorno (Italy), Toulon (France), Barcelona, Cartagena (Spain), and Ponta Delgada (Portugal), before embarking for six nights at sea to Ft. Lauderdale. From Travel Themes and Dreams (tel. 877/870-7447; www.travelthemesanddreams.com ), a prominent cruise broker, and for only $1,499 per person in inside cabins, you'll receive not simply the entire 14-night cruise but air transportation from Florida to Rome, and then one-way air transportation from Ft. Lauderdale back to your home city. You'll also receive, for no extra charge, an overnight in a four-star hotel of Rome on November 5, and transfers from airport to hotel in Rome and from port to airport in Ft. Lauderdale for your flight home. All this, I should emphasize again, for $1,499 per person! Add on $99 for fights from New York; $299 for Los Angeles or San Francisco.

From the same cruise broker, and this time for only $1,299 per person in inside cabins, you can book another re-positioning cruise on Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas, leaving Barcelona on October 30 and sailing for 13-nights to New Orleans (stopping in Cartagena, Seville, and Ponta Delgada on the way), including 9 days simply at sea. This time, in addition to the full 13-night cruise on an excellent ship, you'll receive one-way air transportation from New York to Barcelona and from New Orleans to New York, all transfers, and an overnight in a four-star hotel in Barcelona on the day before departure. Given the value of the two flights and the hotel overnight, you are really receiving the 13-night cruise for free! Air add-on from South Florida: $50; from Chicago: $150; from Los Angeles or San Francisco: $199.

The very same sailing of the Voyager of the Seas is available through Online Vacation Center (tel. 800/780-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com ) at the same price, but with slightly different features (like two hotel overnights in Barcelona before boarding the ship). You'll want to carefully consider both alternatives.

Re-positioning cruises have always been among the best bargains in travel, and for the coming fall, they have become even more outstanding. Provided only that you're able to enjoy a lengthy period spent solely at sea, a time for contemplation and relaxation, you'd be remiss to pass up these vacation opportunities.

XL Airways of France Is Finally Flying Between New York or Las Vegas and Paris

Remember XL Airways of France? A couple of months ago, I announced that this European carrier would start up trans-Atlantic service between the U.S. and Paris on May 26, continuing until late September. But I was unable to list an English-language website on which you could make bookings for that service.

Well May 26 was last week, and I called the marketing firm for XL Airways to learn what was up, and was told, to my surprise, that the first flights have actually taken off from both New York and Las Vegas. Why the lack of further publicity? It's obvious to me, though denied by XL, that it expects the overwhelming bulk of passengers on these flights to be from France, originating in Paris.

Though U.S. passengers can probably make bookings through several rather-minor online travel agencies, or through a just-launched and barely-functioning English-language website (tel. 201/484-8036; www.xlairways.com ), the XL people have stressed to me that the preferred method of booking these XL flights, for U.S.-originating passengers, is through a U.S. travel agent. Any ARC-appointed U.S. travel agent, they emphasized, can book an American onto these flights. And if your own preferred travel agent is not ARC-appointed, they suggest that you have that agent call them and they'll see what can be done.

Why is XL Airways an important resource? Because it is apparently undercutting the normal U.S.-to-Paris airfares by a considerable amount of money -- as much as $300 round-trip, and possibly more than that on specific flights, depending on whether Air France and other big carriers react to XL's threat and rush through a few price cuts.

The schedule for XL's flights? From Las Vegas, they are now flying every Thursday and Sunday to Paris, and will continue doing so, apparently, until late September. From New York, XL hopes to fly at least six times a week -- Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, although the Tuesday and Saturday flights may not begin until July 2.

So faites attention, mes amis! There's a way to fly cheaply to la belle France!

Windstar Cruises Was Acquired by a Billionaire and Is Again Safe to Book. But How About Hellas Jet?

On this past Sunday's Travel Show, Pauline and I received anxious inquiries about the fate of Windstar Cruises and Hellas Jet. The well-known cruiseline of simulated sailing ships (which rarely use their immense sails but are propelled almost always by their gas-driven motors) went into bankruptcy several months ago, even though it has continued to schedule departures of its three nifty ships. Fortunately, an announcement made in late May has quashed any anxieties. The well-known Denver billionaire, Philip Anschutz, who owns Xanterra Resorts (more than a dozen giant and often luxurious resorts in the U.S. national parks), caused Xanterra to buy Windstar Cruises out of bankruptcy, for what seems a steal ($39 million). All sailings will now proceed as earlier scheduled, and the various people who passed on their worries to us can rest easy. With pockets as deep as Anschutz (and his other successful, leisure-time companies) enjoy, Windstar Cruises is now as secure as almost any other cruise company. Honeymooners especially, who have enjoyed memorable sailings on the sophisticated, trendy Windstar ships (enabling you to dive off the bow of the ship for a swim when it is docked), should now be reassured that the same experiences will undoubtedly be available to others for many years to come.

Hellas Jet is another matter altogether. I can't fathom why we received phone calls asking about its status, from people who were certain that the Greek-owned charter airlines would soon commence scheduled service from New York to Athens. Active in the market for intra-European flights, there have been no announcements whatever that Hellas Jet would soon fly the Atlantic, not even a prediction from aviation commentators.

Have any of our readers heard about such plans? It seems highly unlikely that Hellas Jet would start up so late in the season, and without an advance period for marketing itself to the American population. Nor does it seem that there's such heavy demand for New York-to-Athens service as to justify another airlines jumping into the fray. Is it possible that Hellas Jet has simply scheduled a couple of trans-Atlantic charter flights? I'd be grateful to receive the comments of any reader who has information on the subject.

Prices for Mediterranean Cruises of Seven Nights' Duration Have Fallen to $399 and $499

I would have never imagined that a cruise of European waters would someday sell for as little as $399 and $499 per person in inside cabins. Yet if you'll turn to the Mediterranean sailings set forth in chronological order on Vacations To Go ( www.vacationstogo.com ), you'll discover those amazing rates on numerous cruises operated by Royal Caribbean and Costa.

On the sailing of Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas scheduled to depart Venice on June 11 (returning to Venice seven days later), inside cabins are offered for $399 per person. The same $399 is offered on the next week's sailing of the Voyager of the Seas, leaving Venice on June 18.

On June 19, Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas is sailing round-trip from Rome on a seven-night itinerary, and charging as little as $499 per person in inside cabins. On July 2, Voyager of the Seas is charging $449 per person for a seven-night round-trip sailing from Venice.

Then, throughout the month of June, on numerous sailings from Barcelona, Venice or Rome by several ships of Costa Cruises, the price is either $449 or $499 for seven-night sailings of the Mediterranean, returning to the same port from which they began.

These amazing prices should overcome any concern you may have about the high cost of flying to the Mediterranean in June and early July of this year. Although those tax-included prices are daunting -- they come to as much as $1,200 round-trip to Barcelona, Venice or Rome from New York -- they are more than offset by the unexpected drop of cruise prices to $399, $449 and $499. I mention this simply to point out that if you haven't yet made your vacation plans, and can leave in the month of June, a Mediterranean cruise of a week's duration is an awfully exciting way to achieve a memorable vacation.

If those sailing dates in the month of June are too early for you, then you might alternatively want to consider a lengthier re-positioning cruise in October or November of this year. A typical opportunity is the one offered by Online Vacation Center (tel. 800/329-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com ) for the November 20 departure from Barcelona of the Celebrity Constellation , making a 15-night ocean crossing to Ft. Lauderdale. For $1,799 per person, you will first be flown from U.S. gateways to Barcelona for no charge, given a two-night pre-departure stay in a Barcelona hotel, and then placed in a veranda cabin on the Constellation for a trip that first stops in several Mediterranean ports and then crosses the Atlantic to Ft. Lauderdale. On the way, you are given $100 for on-board expenditures. When you consider that the Constellation is an upscale ship, you realize the extent of the bargain you are receiving for 15 nights aboard that ship.

A similar bargain (10 others are offered by Online Vacation Center) is an October 22 sailing from Rome of the Celebrity Silhouette (another upscale vessel), going all the way to Cape Liberty (in New Jersey, near New York City) in the course of a 13- night ocean crossing. Here you are charged $2,099 per person for your veranda cabin, but included is free air transportation from Newark to Rome, a 2-night stay in a Rome hotel before boarding the ship, and $50 in onboard cash.

All in all, it's clear that European cruises are currently vying with tours to China as the top bargains in travel today.

Cruise Compete's Sister Site Vacation Compete Is a Winner

Several years ago, this blog paid a good deal of attention to a fledgling website for obtaining discounts off the price of cruises. Called Cruise Compete ( www.cruisecompete.com ), it asked you to name the ship and date on which you wanted to travel, and it then sent that information to several hundred cruise travel agents and cruise travel brokers asking them to bid for your business. If they had a particularly good deal for your ship and date, they e-mailed that information to you for your consideration.

Cruise Compete, headed by Bob Levinstein, has scored a fair success, and is used by a great many would-be cruise passengers. So Levinstein proceeded to create an ancillary site called Resort Compete ( www.resortcompete.com ), inviting you to name the all-inclusive resorts where you wished to stay and your preferred dates -- information that was then sent to around 150 eager travel agents who had varying degrees of relationships with those resorts.

Resort Compete was such an instant success that Levinstein has now replaced it with a broader Vacation Compete ( www.vacationcompete.com ), on which you could simply name any hotel of any kind at which you wished to stay and your preferred dates. That information is passed on to the same 150 agents, and those who have a deal to offer, proceed to e-mail you the price they can get for you if you use them. They are sometimes not only able to obtain a preferential price, but another form of advantage: an upgraded room, a basket of fruit sent to your room, free use of the spa, free parking, etc., etc.

I have a feeling that Vacation Compete will do well. You might take a look and consider using it when next you seek a hotel reservation for an upcoming trip.

Based on Yesterday's Hints From the New York Times, You May Want to Bypass Air India

Frequently, the airfare search engines will disclose that Air India has the cheapest flights to London or a number of other destinations. If you're a reader of The New York Times, you may decide to book a higher-priced airline. In a lengthy article appearing in yesterday's business section, the newspaper came close to alleging that the state-owned carrier of India has potential safety problems. It doesn't exactly say so, but its cautiously worded opinions come close to doing so.

According to the Times, the airline suffers especially from a lack of trained co-pilots, who are nonetheless often left at the controls while the pilot leaves the cockpit to take a smoke. In a recent incident, the co-pilot accidentally caused the plane to go into a dive and was at a complete loss to figure out how to right the aircraft. It had reached an altitude of only 7,000 feet when the pilot succeeded in re-entering the cockpit to end the plunge.

This is one of the lesser examples cited by the Times. It pictures an airline abandoned by its own national audience, lacking skilled leadership, suffering from many empty seats, pasting newspapers over the cockpit windows to tone down the glare of sunlight, and offending in a dozen other ways. If you credit the opinions of the Times -- and they are only opinions, although strongly voiced -- you may decide to pay a little more for your next trans-Atlantic flight, rather than go on Air India.

Travelex Has Announced it Will Sell Americans Chip-and-PIN Cards Online

The chip-and-PIN credit card is coming to America. That conclusion seems inescapable from the recent announcement by Travelex that it will facilitate the purchase of pre-loaded debit cards for Americans ordering them online. No longer will the American traveler have to visit a retail outlet of Travelex in order to obtain such cards. They will now be available in the few minutes it takes to place an order on your computer.

The chip-and-PIN credit card has now become virtually universal in Western Europe. It is a card requiring that the user verify his/her identify by disclosing a four-digit pin number, which the chip in the card is able to read. The card, in other words, works exactly as an ATM card works, requiring use of a pin number, and the arguments for such pin number protections seem overwhelming. It is only the dread of incurring the vast expense of transferring the American system over to chip-and-PIN technology that has thus far prevented the major credit card issuers from adopting this logical step.

And yet cracks are appearing in the once-solid front of opposition. Several credit card unions have announced they will be issuing chip-and-PIN cards to their members, and one or two major banks have announced they will be experimenting with the issuance of such cards to their elite -- but only their elite--customers.

Travelex -- the big dealer in foreign currencies -- announced several months ago that it would sell pre-loaded pin-and-chip cards in their various retail outlets. (Holders of the card will themselves determine how much money is to be "loaded" into the card, and the card will be usable only up to that limit). The announcement this past week that they will sell such loaded cards online means a vast potential expansion of the number of cards that will now be purchased by Americans.

What makes these cards so handy for use by the American traveler is that up until now, we Yanks have not been able to use our standard, magnetic-stripe cards at the automatic, unmanned kiosks that are often found in European railway terminals, bike rental stands, and the like. And even when a European human being is around to accept use of a U.S.-issued credit card, it sometimes involves a bit of a hassle to persuade that person to accept the card (although eventually they usually will do so).

Any day now, it's obvious that the dike will be breached, and that the major credit card issuers in the U.S. will commence issuance of chip-and-PIN cards. This initial step by Travelex is an important start on that development.

Specifically, the new Travelex instrument is a MasterCard Debit Card that can be loaded in either Euros or British Pounds, and will be usable against bills presented in Euros or British Pounds. It comes with a guarantee that if purchasers can prove they could have obtained a better exchange rate for those Euros or British Pounds on they day they purchased the card, Travelex will make good the difference. Travelex also points out that the card "is not connected to the cardholders' bank account, thereby minimizing the risk of identity theft in the event the card is lost or stolen. The card also still includes a traditional magnetic stripe for those merchants not yet using chip and PIN technology."

For more details, or to order the card, go to www.us.travelex.com .
 

Weeklong Sailings in Inside Cabins on the 4,000-Passenger Norwegian Epic Are Now Being Offered for as Little as $649 per Person

The bloom appears to be off the rose. When the brand-new Norwegian Epic was placed into service several months ago, it was hailed as a game-changer for its corporate owner, a ship so full of games, bells and whistles -- giant water chutes on top deck, bowling alleys and rapelling walls, rock-and-roll venues, loud music blaring everywhere -- that it was sure to be overwhelmed with business and command top dollar for even its inside cabins.

Would you believe that for the coming autumn and winter, those inside cabins are now being offered (on weeklong sailings from Miami) for as little as $649 per person (plus government fees and taxes)? Source of the discount is iCruise.com (tel. 800/427-8473; www.icruise.com ), and bargain rates are being offered by them for the following departure dates from Miami:
November 25 for $679December 2 for $649December 9 for $649January 6 for $669January 13 for $669January 27 for $719February 3 for $719February 10 for $719February 17 for $719February 24 for $719Those rates, for a ship hyped to the extent the Epic was, appear to me to indicate that the public's response to this ship (and to its insipid itinerary, sailing round-trip from Miami and spending three full days at sea in the course of each week) is disappointing.

The Winter Season of 2011-12 Will Likely Be the Last for Maho Bay

In a somewhat dejected message to former guests of Maho Bay Camps, the unique ecological resort on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Maho Bay's founder and president, Stanley Selengut, has warned that the forthcoming high season (December through May of 2012) of Maho Bay may be its last. Negotiations for an extension of the resort's lease have thus far been inconclusive, and reservations are no longer being accepted for periods later than May of 2012. The owners of the land on which Maho Bay sits -- a breathtaking expanse enjoying one of the most enthralling views of the island-dotted Caribbean -- have placed those grounds for sale at a proposed price of $23 million. Obviously, the operators of Maho Bay Camps are unable to make that purchase, which seems obviously intended for a residential development of luxurious estates.
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So if you have never been to Maho Bay, the forthcoming months will provide your last remaining chance, an opportunity to see how all resorts in the Caribbean should, ideally, be maintained. Maho Bay Camps consists of canvas-sided huts (tent cottages) accommodating two to four persons, each on a small wooden platform cantilevered over the side of a hill that overlooks the view to which I have referred. The canvas bungalows are connected by elevated wooden walkways to toilet (showers, sinks and toilets) facilities, and to a large dining area mostly serving vegetarian meals. The high season charge for such a tent cottage starts at around $140, far less than you'd pay elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Did I point out that at the bottom of the hill on which Maho Bay sits is a superb beach? A beach reached by wooden stairs, and serviced by every variety of boat?

Maho Bay attracts some of the most interesting vacationers in America. To learn more, go to Maho.org.

Photo Caption: The waters below Maho Bay Camps. BDK Images/Frommers.com Community