Arthur Frommer's Blog, page 58

Three Simple Tactics That Will Improve Your Next International Vacation

Several years after I began writing guidebooks, I discovered that I was dissatisfied with the traditional forms of vacation travel. To take on the expense and fatigue of a long journey simply to look at a dead physical sight -- the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower -- no longer seemed worth it.

Rather, I began to understand that the travel I enjoyed was associated with people and ideas, the travel that enabled you to experience other lifestyles and ideologies, new and different cultures, totally different ways of dealing with urban and social problems, provocative assumptions and opinions that contradict everything you normally believe. To look upon what was different from your own life, I concluded, was part of the adventure of life.

I wrote a book on the subject, The New World of Travel, that's no longer in print or bookstores (but may be in your local library). But I have recently realized that three extremely simple tactics not requiring book-length treatment can bring you close to my ideal form of travel. Mind you, they do not themselves guarantee a life-enhancing trip, but they make a start on doing so:

One: Arrange to meet and converse with local residents at the destination. In advance of departure, pester your friends and business acquaintances for the names and phone numbers of English-speaking people they know at the destination. My wife and I did just that in advance of a recent trip to Stockholm; armed with such names, we then phoned these residents and invited them to be our guests for dinner at a top Stockholm restaurant. And for three successive nights, we dined with three different Swedish couples who responded to our questions and regaled us with different opinions about Swedish politics and social programs. Sensing that we would put such questions to them, one couple even arrived for dinner with a thick batch of papers carrying economic statistics for Sweden. Those encounters, built on common sense efforts, made all the difference in our enjoyment and understanding of Stockholm and Sweden.

Two: Arrange to dine in the home of residents. A totally new resource is the program of dinners cooked by local residents of Italy in their own kitchens and served in their dining rooms to visiting tourists. It's all described in Home Food ( www.homefood.it ), and is so successful that it has now generated a broader effort to offer such home-cooked and home-enjoyed meals in major cities all over the world. Described in The Ghetto Gourmet ( www.theghet.com ), this relatively-new international program may eventually make it possible for travelers to enjoy the experience of dining in a local's home on every one of their trips.

Three: Arrange to stay in homes or apartment in residential neighborhoods, rather than in hotels, and thus enjoy the unique sensation of living like a local. Such very successful firms as HomeAway ( www.homeaway.com ), VRBO.com ( www.vrbo.com ), Rentalo.com ( www.rentalo.com ), and Endless Vacation Rentals ( www.wyndham-vacations.com ) will rent apartments or homes to you, and for even shorts stays of a week. Such companies as Airbnb ( www.airbnb.com ) or Crashpadder ( www.crashpadder.com ) will arrange for you to live in the spare room of an apartment or home whose owners remain in residence. Other programs like U.S. Servas ( www.usservas.org ) and GlobalFreeloaders.com ( www.globalfreeloaders.com ) will enable you to enjoy free hospitality in apartments and homes around the world. And home exchange programs such as HomeExchange.com ( www.homeexchange.com ) or Intervac ( www.intervac-homeexchange.com ) will enable you to live in someone's foreign apartment or home while their owners stay in your apartment or home during the time of your respective vacations. Nothing could be better suited to envelop you in the actual life pursued by other residents of this earth.

Those three tactics will not change your life. But they will greatly improve your next vacation, making it memorable and rewarding.

Use of a Pre-Departure Checklist Can Help Avoid Travel Mishaps -- And Lighten Your Suitcase As Well

In a recent article in the New Yorker, Dr. Atul Gawande reviewed the failure of too many American hospitals to require the use of checklists in treating complex conditions in their operating rooms -- checklists similar to the ones that airline pilots consult before taking off. He argued that use of such checklists would eliminate most medical mistakes.

He could have been talking about travel, as I learned on a recent trip. A checklist, I realized, would have reminded me to take a re-charging cord for my cellphone, instead of simply the cellphone. On another trip, I brought the re-charging cord, but forgot to bring the separate head for plugging the re-charging cord into a power outlet.

My most embarrassing oversight occurred on a trip to deliver a speech before a distinguished audience in a Midwestern town. In the rush of packing, I included a rather solemn blue suit and white dress shirt, but forgot to pack my dress shoes. I boarded the flight in casual attire, wearing sneakers. I had to wear those sneakers to deliver the speech, at which I was introduced by the lieutenant-governor of that state. Earnestly, I asked her to include in her introduction an apology for my strange choice of shoes resulting from overly-pressured packing. She got the request all wrong, forgot exactly what I had asked, and ended her introduction with the words, "One thing I can say about Mr. Frommer, he sure likes his shoes!"

Drawing up a checklist will remind you to bring a comb, to bring a necktie, to bring your swimsuit, to bring a needed medication. It will also enable you to pack lighter than you otherwise would. When I write down the exact items of apparel I will need on a trip, I always end up with fewer items than I would otherwise throw hastily and without considered judgment into the suitcase.

So I'm all for the checklist movement. Tell your doctor to urge his hospital to take this obvious step.

Witnessing $4-a-Gallon Gas on a Driving Vacation Through California Has Been a Shock

I am presently on a three-day California-coast vacation (staying in Oxnard, visiting Ventura, and Ojai) prior to driving on Friday to Los Angeles for an 11am appearance at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show on Saturday. And one of the most striking experiences has been seeing gas stations advertising a bottom price of $4.07 per gallon of gas -- considerably more than elsewhere in the country.

A California friend claims (I hope she's right) that this unusual cost is the result of a unique-to-California tax of 40¢ a gallon designed to reduce emissions, evidence of the sensitivity of that west coast giant towards environmental issues. What is so striking to me is that the world has not come to an end as a result of that extreme measure -- the highways seem more crowded than ever, and Californians are obviously adapting to sky-high gas.

Thomas Friedman of The New York Times has urged Congress to immediately adopt an extra $1-a-gallon tax, an imposition that would not only go far towards eliminating our governmental deficits but would help us wean ourselves off of Middle Eastern oil. We should have adopted this measure years ago, he argues, and to have done so would have radically changed driving habits in the U.S. and lessened our need to be dependent on some of the worst regimes in the world.

Anyway, I hope you'll see this issue as one related to travel. We are going to encounter much heavier costs of transportation in the months ahead -- transport not only to international destinations but within our own country. It will be necessary to offset these much-heavier transportation costs with increased frugality in our spending for accommodations, meals, and the like. A budget-minded approach will be wiser than ever. How about visiting our National Parks?

Successful with its Safaris, Lion World Tours Has Created a $1,599 Air-and-Land Package Simply to CapeTown

Lion World Tours (tel. 800/387-2706; www.lionworldtours.com ) has just announced another outstanding air-and-land package to South Africa. It's a nine-day trip to the city of Cape Town, for the unheard-of price of $1,599 per person (plus $145 in government fees and taxes), including round-trip international airfare and fuel surcharge (on South African Airways from either New York-JFK or Washington, D.C. (Dulles) to Johannesburg and then to Cape Town.

[image error] And that's only for starters. You also receive six nights at the Protea Hotel President, a well-located quality hotel in Cape Town, breakfast every morning, a half-day Winelands tour, and airport-to-hotel transfers. And there is no single room supplement for single persons traveling alone, who receive their own single room at the hotel. Dates for travel are May 1-16, 2011, and August 11-September 30, 2011. Not included are 

I have singled out this $1,599 package for appearance in our blog because it enables cost-conscious travelers to enjoy an initial experience of South Africa at a cost -- $1,599 -- that has never previously been available. Cape Town is an outstanding resort city, with more than enough to fill a six-night stay, and the possibility of enjoying it for $1,599 -- with no single supplement -- is an outstanding travel option.

Photo Caption: Cape Point lighthouse in Cape Town. socal1888/Frommers.com Community

I Hope to Meet Readers at Saturday's Los Angeles Times Travel Show

As you read this post, on Tuesday, March 15, I will be in California, preparing for my appearance this coming Saturday morning, March 19 at 11am at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show in the Los Angeles Convention Center. There I will be speaking (in Petree Hall C") on the topic, "Thinking Outside the Suitcase: Injecting New Life Into Your Vacation Plans." Pray for me.

Following that talk, I'll be signing Frommer's travel guides at a bookstore booth located near the auditorium for my speech, and I would very much like to meet readers of this blog and talk with them. I've had some interesting exchanges in the earlier part of the travel show season (in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and elsewhere), and it's always interesting to hear your reactions to this blog and recommendations for future posts.

Two Events Will Keep Ireland Very Much in Our Minds in the Coming Weeks

This coming Thursday, March 17, is St. Patrick's Day. And then, on June 16, avid readers all over the world celebrate Bloomsday. That's the date on which Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce's monumental novel Ulysses, spent a full day in various activities, walks, encounters, meals, discussions, triumphs and defeats, in a Dublin of nearly 100 years ago. The memory of that book will keep Ireland very much in our mind, and the most intense literary scholars and readers will actually travel to Dublin to revisit the scenes of Bloom's very human experiences.

[image error] Photo Caption: St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. PatintheHat/Frommers.com Community

On Sunday's Travel Show ( www.wor710.com/frommer-travel-show ), I interviewed travel writer Michael Shapiro, who has recently returned from a stay in Ireland and is eager to share his reactions to that country, which has suffered the worst recent economic decline of all the nations of Western Europe (it vies with Greece in that regard, with Spain a runner-up). Michael is the author of the book A Sense of Place, which studies the lives of various prominent travel writers, and of Guatemala, an introduction to that country. He publishes on travel in major national magazines and important newspapers.

Has the economic crisis of 2007-2009 affected tourism to Ireland, he was asked? Immensely, he responded. By gravely lessening the incomes and assets of the Irish population, it has made them less able to pay heady prices in restaurants and shops. The result is a general lowering of prices in those establishments, which directly benefits the tourist. At restaurants all throughout Ireland, there are now "early bird specials" enabling the early diner to enjoy major discounts. Patrons are not simply permitted, but are actually encouraged, to share main plates and thus reduce the overall cost of their meals. At theaters and cinemas, prices have been reduced. Shops are scheduling far more sales than formerly. Hotels that cater to business visitors are experiencing lower occupancies and thus reducing rates.

Paradoxically, the worsened economic climate has made the Irish more approachable, more easygoing in their ways, he maintains. Gone is the occasional arrogance of the days when Ireland was the much-talked-about Celtic Tiger of nations. People have returned to the modest attitudes of past centuries, when the Irish extended a welcome to foreign visitors that was unprecedented among other European nations.

I'd be interested to know whether other readers who have recently been to Ireland, have experienced the same phenomenon of which Michael Shapiro spoke. It is undeniable that airlines and tour operators serving Ireland have recently offered some of the best values in travel, reflecting the lower amount of business they now enjoy from their own citizens.

Book Passage Will Host its 20th Annual Conference for Aspiring Travel Writers This August

Every August for the past 19 years, an important, independent bookstore located just north of San Francisco, Book Passage of Corte Madera, California, has sponsored a four-day conference on travel writing designed to teach fundamentals of that activity to aspiring travel journalists.  In attendance are some of the most famous names in the field; I have met distinguished travel writers there ranging from Jan Morris to Pico Iyer, and have myself addressed the conference, as has my daughter, Pauline Frommer.  

As the Conference's literature points out, "The faculty includes publishers, editors, photographers, travel essayers ... guidebook writers, and more.  There are hours of informal interaction between faculty and students during lunch and evening discussions.  Many alumni of this Conference have published books, articles and photos as a result of lessons learned and contacts made at the Conference."

This year's event will be the 20th annual meeting of the Book Passage Conference on Travel Writing and Photography, and it promises to be an especially robust gathering that has been characterized by its chairman Don George (former travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle) as having "gained renown globally for the quality and accessibility of its faculty, the range of its workshops and panels, and the extraordinary achievements of its graduates, who have gone on to publish hundreds of books and articles in magazines, newspapers and websites."

For information, or to sign visit http://bookpassage.com/travel-food-photography-conference .

Maybe It's Not So Easy to Book a Bargain Flight to Paris with XL Airways

Two weeks ago, I learned of the plans of XL Airways to begin offering cut-rate fares across the Atlantic between New York or Las Vegas and Paris, and I immediately placed a call to representatives of that carrier in New York. They provided me with a telephone number (tel. 877/496-9889) where bookings could be made, and also read off the name of an English-language website ( www.xlfrance.com ) where bookings could be made on an imminent basis; it was apparently in the process of going live. All of which I then incorporated into a blog post.

Very quickly I began receiving comments from readers that the website didn't work. When I placed another call yesterday to the same representatives, I was told they had made a mistake, that the correct website for XL Airways was www.xlsirways.fr . When I later pointed out that was a French-language site for flights originating in Paris, they apologized for their mistake, and said that an English-language site would go up "in about a month." They also hesitantly mentioned that persons attempting to use the French-language site might encounter difficulties in using their U.S.-issued credit cards to make bookings on that site.

Imagine! A French airline has announced it will begin flying the Atlantic on May 22, but the website for that line will not go up for a month!

Now it is true that XL Airways has apparently made arrangements to honor bookings made by consolidators and others; a friend of mine was recently able to reserve a New York-to-Paris XL flight for her family of four on Vayama ( www.vayama.com ). The XL Airways representatives in New York almost breathlessly recited to me that they were soon going up on all the online travel agencies (like Travelocity) and that travel agents would soon be able to make bookings for XL Airways' trans-Atlantic flights.

But as for direct bookings made by the public -- bookings that would not carry a booking fee -- those will have to be done, apparently, by phone calls to an office number serviced, it seemed to me, by a very small number of persons.

These events have shaken my attitude towards XL Airways. An airline so badly mishandling their introduction into the U.S. market is not one to inspire confidence. One wonders whether, in actuality, they will really be offering such great price advantages over the Atlantic. One also wonders whether its executives are almost wholly focused on French-originating bookings made by French citizens, and have not given too much thought to the effective marketing of their seats in the United States.

How to Save Up to $200 Off Gate 1 Travel's Air-and-Land Packages

Gate 1 Travel (tel. 800/682-3333; www.gate1travel.com ) already offers excellent pricing on well-regarded tours around the world. And each week, it features several special bargains in air-and-land packages, trips that are already low-priced, but are reduced further in price in that weekly announcement.

Yet here's a further tip on lowering those prices even further. If you sign up for their weekly newsletter, sent out each Monday, you can save up to $200 on any of five trips featured each week merely for entering in your email address.

These savings are available only to newsletter subscribers, and the discounts usually come in around $100 on trips costing under $1,000, and $200 on trips costing more than $1,000.

As an example, here are subscriber deals (and the list prices) for the week of March 7, 2011:
$799 (rather than $899) for the 6-Day London, Culture & Theatre Special. This includes airfare, hotel, sightseeing and a theater pass.$899 (rather than $979) for the 10-Day Barcelona with 7 Day Western Med Cruise. Ports of call include Toulon, Villefranche (France), Livorno (Pisa/Florence), Civitavecchia (Rome), & Naples$1,399 (rather than $1599) for the 10-Day Tour of Guatemala & Honduras. This includes all airfares and visits to Guatemala City, the pyramids of Tikal, Puerto Barrios, Copan, and Chichicastenango.$1,499 (rather than $1699) for the 10-Day Escorted Tour of Alaska. This is a land tour (not the usual cruise), and as such includes parts of Alaska the cruises usually miss, including Anchorage, Valdez, Fairbanks, and Denali National Park.$1,599 (rather than $1799) for the 12-Day Tour of Vietnam. This includes airfare and a classic tour to Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Hue, Halong Bay, and Hanoi.(Note that, on vacations where airfare is included, you can expect to add anywhere up to $370 for various unavoidable government taxes and airport fees.)