Arthur Frommer's Blog, page 8

The Remarkable Attendance at the New York Times Travel Show This Past Weekend is Strong Evidence of a Comeback in Travel

The New York Times Travel Show, at which my daughter and I spoke this past weekend, was quite an event. Attendance -- which apparently set a record for the ten years of that show -- was so massive that it clearly proved that the travel industry has come back, just as the American economy as a whole is apparently recovering.

At the show, people thronged the booths of the most exotic travel destinations and types of travel. I don't remember a single question put to us during our participation that dealt with the prosaic aspects of travel, or with Orlando or Las Vegas. Instead, one person after another talked about Thailand and Myanmar, about Romania, Buenos Aires, and the Aurora Borealis. They purchased travel guides dealing with Alaska and Brazil, with Croatia and Bali, with Ecuador and India, and asked Pauline and myself to autograph them. It was obvious that a large number of Americans are planning to spend a great deal of money on international travel and are freely and enthusiastically planning to visit the most unusual places.

This coming Saturday, Pauline will be following up her appearance at Manhattan's travel show with a morning speech delivered in Chicago, at the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show. On Saturday February 9, she will be speaking at the Boston Globe Travel Show in Beantown, and on Saturday morning February 23, I will be speaking at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show in the Los Angeles Convention Center. And we'll be making further appearances in other cities in March.

That's not to say that everyone at last Saturday'sshow was uncritical of the travel industry. A great many people came up to me at the booth where we were autographing Frommer's travel guides (a record number of them were sold by the bookstore operating that booth, the famous Books & Books chain of Miami fame) to follow up on my complaint, delivered in the course of my earlier speech, about the increasing commercialization of the airline and cruiseline industries.

One person told of going for breakfast in the main dining room of the Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America Cruises, where she asked for a cappuccino in place of a normal cup of coffee. "That will be $1.75 extra," responded the waiter, creating one unhappy cruise passenger. Others cited example after example of this nickel-and-diming of the passenger (through unexpected fees and penalties) that is so prevalent at today's airports and on cruiseships. Others reported on the unexpected fees and extra charges encountered at hotels. Their ire is so evident that there will obviously be heavy pressure exerted on various regulatory agencies to make airline pricing and hotel pricing more transparent, without surprises. And there is obviously a movement on to reward those companies which continue to make their prices all-inclusive, without extra charges for baggage; I'm talking about JetBlue and Southwest.

The New York Times Travel Show was also the occasion for re-appearances or debuts of various travel companies that, for one reason or another, had faded from sight in earlier months. The Women's Travel Group is an example. Operated for many years by the vigorous Phyllis Stoller, Women's Travel Group runs small-group tours to colorful international destinations, limited in participation to women. It is a welcome travel alternative for women who want to travel only with other women. But Women's Travel Group has recently had the misfortune of using Club ABC (which recently went out of business, at least temporarily) for its bookings and other logistical support.

At the show, Women's Travel Group announced it was now allied with the major SITA World Travel organization (a member of USTOA, with strong financial backing). And henceforth, bookings for these women-only departures can be made with SITA at 800/421-5643 or by e-mailing maryb@sitatours.com. In 2013, Women's Travel Group will be operating interesting tours to Yunnan and Shanghai, China (in August) and to Northern India and the Pushkar Camel Show (in November). They go to South Africa in February of 2014.

Another interesting presence at the show was by a company offering discounts off business class and first class airfares. For many years, a Manhattan travel agency called CookTravel.net has seemed to have a lock on that segment of airfare sales. But in last weekend's travel show, a competitor emerged at a well-staffed booth: Regal Wings (tel.  888/734-2594; www.regalwings.com). While the latter seems to sell only international business class and first class tickets, that appears to be the only limitation on its savings and its successes; and this seems a rather powerful new entrant into the discount-airfares scene.

Although it had no booth, nevertheless Booking.com (the subsidiary of Priceline.com, which makes its hotel offers openly, without the guesswork involved in Priceline) was a strong presence at the show. I have never been able to figure out the difference between Booking.com and other hotel search engines like Hotels.com or GetARoom.com -- and there probably isn't any. But Booking.com, supported by a heavy advertising campaign, will now be a more frequently-used alternative to the better-known hotel websites; it has previously been far more active in Europe, but will now be making a major splash in the US. And it claims to offer all sorts of unbeatable hotel prices in various US cities.

Among the many speakers at the show, I enjoyed hearing Brian Kelly, "the points guy," an expert on the use of frequent flyer mileage, who emphasized what he considered to be the three most useful credit card programs: Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Awards, and Starwood Points. These were especially helpful programs, he said, because they all permitted the broadest possible transfer of the points or miles you earn to dozens of airlines and other firms. I will perhaps be discussing other presentations at this past week's travel show, in future appearances of this blog.   

Firms That Offer Free-Of-Charge Stays (or Nearly Free) Have Grown Gigantic

You would think that virtually all would-be, cost-conscious travelers would be familiar by now with such names as CouchSurfing, Hospitality Exchange, and other companies that assist economical people to find free-of-charge lodgings both in the U.S. and abroad. And yet I receive repeated inquiries from readers asking for reminders of the specific firms that perform the task of eliminating housing costs from your vacation plans.

In the world of free hospitality -- namely, the willingness of gregarious, warm-hearted, people to take strangers into their homes for a free night or two of lodgings --  CouchSurfing.org has reached giant size (several million members), and now claims to supply its members with the names and addresses of people in nearly every conceivable location who are willing to offer a free crashpad. Its chief competitor is GlobalFreeLoaders.com, which appears second in size although quite large (and which requires that members be willing to host other members and not simply receive hospitality). Both of them are now much larger than the 60-year-old pioneer in the field, which is USServas.org, which began as early as 1948 to make hospitality free to persons joining the Servas group (and which claims to carefully screen applicants before they are accepted as members). It's believed that people making use of Servas are older in age, in general, than the youthful types who patronize CouchSurfing and GlobalFreeLoaders. Servas claims to offer 15,000 homes in 125 countries, and charges a one-time fee of $85 for members who plan to be travelers as opposed to hosts.

A free hospitality service for women is the 35-year-old WomenWelcomeWomen.org.uk (membership fee of $50), whose members often -- but not always -- offer a free overnight stay or two in their residence to other female members (but some confine their hospitality to simply meeting a member passing through and having them over for a drink). First-time women travelers should look into this one. And finally, a smaller but quite effective source of free overnights in the United States and Canada (it's primarily designed for domestic trips, but does have some overseas members) is the long-in-existence Hospitality Exchange (www.hospex.net) that prides itself on the permanent friendships that often result from encounters between hosts and their guests.

(A hospitality exchange for people over 50, the reputable Evergreenclub.org, isn't included in my list because it imposes a small fee of about $25 per couple per night, as a means of reimbursing hosts for the cost of the copious breakfast they serve to guests and other incidental expenses of housing them.)

Hell-Bent on Obtaining the Lowest Airfare? Consult These Sites

When all is said and done, the most powerful method for finding the lowest airfare to your destination is to go to not one but to several of the sources for that data. It can't be sufficiently emphasized that no one source of airfares will always have the best fare for your particular date and time of flight. If price is that important to you, you have got to spend the time to survey at least three or four airfare websites before you make your final choice. And after you have found what appears to be the bargain fare for your date of departure, you should then go directly to the website of a couple of airlines to see whether they are improving on that price.

The aggregators of airfares -- namely, the websites that don't sell you tickets but simply advise where the best fares are -- total around a dozen different websites. Some are: 

Cheapflights.comCheapoair.comCheaptickets.comDohop.comFarechase.comKayak.comMobissimo.comMomondo.comPriceline.comSkyscanner.netVayama.com

And there are more. They are to be added to the online ticket agencies (OTAs) -- Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. I'm not suggesting that you go to all of them, but I am recommending that you spend ten minutes or so in quickly scanning the results shown on a few. 

For domestic flights on which you sense the possibility that you may have to later change the date or time of your flight, and on which you will be checking a suitcase round-trip, you might also consider going directly to the American Airlines website. That carrier has recently announced a bundled airfare privilege costing $68, which includes the $50 cost of checking a suitcase round-trip. The remaining $18 then gives you the right to change the flight date or time without penalty -- thus avoiding the forbidding $150 penalty you might incur for doing so. It's an insurance policy, in effect, for people somewhat unsure of the exact day on which they plan to fly, and it is made available only to persons who make their booking directly with American Airlines.

Otherwise, use one of the aggregators, and one or more of the OTAs, and then check their information against the prices offered by one or more airlines.

Travel Show Season Starts in Earnest This Coming Weekend; Here's Where We Hope to See You

Although a few travel shows have already been held in these early weeks of 2013, the real season for such events -- and especially for the big, newspaper-sponsored travel shows -- will start this weekend in New York City, when The New York Times Travel Show takes place for the public on Saturday and Sunday, January 19-20, at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. My daughter, Pauline, and I will be kicking off the NYTimes show (we're the first speakers) at 10am on Saturday, with an hour-long speech divided between the two of us.

But there's a slight problem: We're scheduled to speak first at 10am (we'll also appear in the afternoon, at 2pm), but the doors to the show also open at 10am. How can anyone get to the downstairs auditorium in time for the opening moments of our speeches?

I plan to deal with the problem by delaying the substantive part of my speech for about five minutes, to commence at 10:05am and thus permit early arrivals to take their seats. And I'm also hoping to persuade the Times to open the doors around 10 minutes early for persons wanting to hear us, in order to give them the time to reach the auditorium and take their seats. So if you're a fast runner, you'll be able to get there just in time to hear the substance of "Important New Developments in Travel." Later in the afternoon, at 2pm, we'll be speaking on "The Top New Destinations for Travel in 2013."

Following each speech, Pauline and I will be signing books at a booth located on the main floor of the show -- and we're looking forward to meeting with a great many readers at that time. It's always fun to exchange hellos, and travel memories, on those occasions. And what then happens after this weekend's Manhattan appearance?

Exactly one week later, on Saturday January 26, Pauline will be speaking at the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show. Shortly thereafter, on February 9, she'll be speaking at the Boston Globe Travel Show. And later in the month, on Saturday February 23, I will be speaking (morning only) at the Los Angeles Times Travel Show in the Los Angeles Convention Center. Details on our appearances in March will follow soon. Hope to see you in New York, Chicago, Boston or Los Angeles!

Oslo's Great New Opera House; LA's New Displays of a Ship, a Shuttle, and a Rock

Just as the Sydney Opera House made a touristic hit out of its Australian locale, and the near-completion of Gaudi's Cathedral in Barcelona brought torrents of new tourism to that city, while the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum brought hundreds of thousands to Bilbao, Spain, which had hardly enjoyed any such visitor numbers until Gehry's fantastical structure was built, in the same manner a new opera house in Oslo, Norway, has completely revitalized that capital. Designed by a hot new firm of Norwegian architects to feature a giant slanting roof on which Oslo's residents congregate and stroll, the Oslo Opera House has made architectural stars out of its designers, who have currently been given the task of redesigning the pedestrian thoroughfares of New York's Times Square and the pavilion just outside the September 11 Museum at Ground Zero.

To gain a glimpse of what these precedent-shattering designers are doing, take a look at the current January 21 edition of The New Yorker, which features a photograph of the Oslo building being heralded as one of the architectural masterworks of the 21st century (just as the Sydney, Australia, Opera House is the usually-acknowledged architectural masterwork of the 20th century).

In a slightly less dramatic fashion, involving constructions that are not really architectural in nature, three inanimate objects -- "the ship, the shuttle, and the rock" -- have created potent new reasons for visiting Los Angeles. These were described this past Sunday on our Travel Show by my daughter, Pauline, who had just returned from a whirlwind trip to California's entertainment capital. The maritime construction  is the S.S. Iowa, a giant battleship of World War II fame, which has just been moored for onboard viewing in the port of Los Angeles, a place that hardly anyone had ever imagined visiting in the past. Yet hordes of tourists are now making trips by rented car to what is the largest container ship port in the world. Although they come to visit the Iowa, they remain entranced by the sight of gigantic container ships entering the port from a Pacific Ocean crossing and then being relieved of their container cargo by skyscraper-sized cranes. It is apparently a remarkable sight, according to Pauline.

The shuttle is the space shuttle Endeavor, NASA's vessel for orbiting the earth, which has now been brought from the Los Angeles Airport to which it was recently flown from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and placed for viewing in the California Science Center, creating a major new attraction for the city. And the rock is the new artistic construction Levitated Mass by using a 340-ton boulder now found at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) -- and drawing crowds. So architecture, battleships, spaceships, and huge rocks can sometimes be creators of tourism, another example of the broad variety of travel attractions.

Opening of Third Major Pavilion at the World War II Museum Adds Cogent Reasons for a Visit to New Orleans

For many, a visit to New Orleans is an occasion to get drunk, or to hear superb jazz, or to imbibe the gourmet specialties that so many restaurants here provide. But increasingly, visitors to New Orleans are spending a day or two at that city's World War II Museum, which is currently being expanded into one of the leading collections of important history in the world. The third of some three adjoining buildings opened last week, and the eventual aim is to expand the museum into a complex of six gigantic structures.

I visited New Orleans' World War II museum some years ago (it opened in 2000), when the guides were mainly veterans of that historic conflict (1940 to 1945). There probably won't be many survivors continuing to provide an escorted experience on the occasion of your own trip, but the museum contains so many movie theaters, video auditoriums and large, explanatory, video screens that even a person with no knowledge of the events leading to that war, and the conduct of that war, will be able to understand the exhibits and their larger themes.

The museum deals with the warfare on and under the seas, in the air, and on land. It displays numerous actual aircraft of the warring powers. It presents you with an actual World War II submarine, with the landing craft that enabled the invasion of Europe by American, British and Canadian troops. It relates the experiences of American soldiers. It tells the story of the Holocaust, the Battle of the Bulge, the London Blitz, the second front in Russia, every other major phase of that war. The events it covers have now grown to such an extent that a single day is insufficient to cover them all. If asked, I would respond that a two-day visit must now be planned to gain a full understanding of the museum's story.

New Orleans' World War II Museum is within walking distance of the French Quarter; there's no need to take a bus or taxi to reach it. The museum is open seven days a week from 9 to 5, and one-day admission is $21 for adults ($6 for a second day), $12 for students (with ID) and children 12 and under; free for children 5 and under; and there's an extra charge for visiting the theater. Don't fail to visit it on your stay in New Orleans.

Transatlantic Flight, Four-Star London Hotel, and a One-Way Cruise on a Brand New Ship Remarkablly Priced from $1,199

 

This has been a week of unusual travel offers. Perhaps the oddest -- but a spectacular bargain -- is the price of $1,199 for a one-way flight across the Atlantic to London, a night in a four-star London hotel, all transfers from airport to hotel and from hotel to Southampton, England, followed by a six-night crossing of the Atlantic from Southampton to New York City, aboard the brand-new Norwegian Breakaway, which will be going into service for the first time with that ocean crossing. When you consider the price of a normal one-way transatlantic flight, a night at a good London hotel, and the glamorous six-night crossing of the Atlantic, you realize what a remarkable bargain can now be considered.

The date of departure from Southampton? April 30, 2013, just slightly more than three months from now, a more-than-adequate time for doing your planning and anticipating a one-week, transatlantic adventure.

And what will the Norwegian Breakaway be like? Well, according to the hype, it will correct all the design flaws that made its sister ship, the Norwegian Epic (launched a couple of years ago), less of a total success a few years ago. Epic was the gigantic ship that nevertheless seemed crowded and confined by a great many passengers (including myself).  Its cabin-layouts were especially unusual, and not for the better. Ships of its size and shape will now be corrected in design to seem spacious and leisurely in terms of crowd control and the like. And a great may people will be eyeing this new seagoing architecture very carefully.

After this initial transatlantic crossing, the Breakaway will be stationed in New York City, for sailings to Bermuda in the summer, and to Florida/Bahamas/Caribbean in the winter.

This $1,199 air-and-sea-crossing package is offered by Travel Themes and Dreams of Miami (tel. 877/870-7447; www.travelthemesanddreams.com).  

 

Miami Realtors Group Offers Well-Priced Apartments and Homes for Short Winter Stays

In recently suggesting Miami and Miami Beach, Florida, as offering strong vacation attractions and colorful ethnic variety this winter, I mentioned all the standard companies for obtaining apartments and vacation homes for your stay in the Miami area: Homeway, VRBO, Endless Vacation Rentals, AirBnB, and others. I should also have mentioned that several local real estate brokers have become especially popular among people who spend from two weeks to a month in south Florida every year.

Of these, FeelMiami.com seems to be the realtor best catering to cost-conscious vacationers and offering top values -- that means, low rental rates--and often features discounts of as much as 30% for last-minute rentals.

By contrast, realtors such as Miamihabitat.com seem to emphasize the elegant quality of their inventory, as does Miamibeachstays.com. Miamihabitat's website is especially well illustrated, offering a helpful glimpse into the quality and features of its condos, villas, and homes, but all these leading companies will also provide you with photos of the properties you've chosen. Finally, Vacaationrentalsmiami.com (phone 305/517-1297) is still another well-regarded source of short rentals, and prides itself on being open to your phone calls and visits seven days a week, throughout the day. By talking with its personnel, I can't imagine that you won't find a suitable lodging for a reasonably-priced visit to Miami or Miami Beach. 

Arthur's Blog: Walt Disney World is About to Attach RFID Transmitters to Its Visitors' Wrists

The most disconcerting travel story in recent years appeared in The New York Times on Monday. It told of a decision by executives of Walt Disney World, in Orlando, to eventually replace cardboard admission tickets to Disney theme parks with rubber bracelets capable of containing and transmitting personal information about the bearer.

The bracelets will contain the most sophisticated computer components: radio frequency identification (RFID) chips able to retain information, metallic transmitters able to convey it to electronic posts scattered about Walt Disney World and in the clothing of Disney characters. Purchasers will be asked to reveal their personal data on buying these wrist-band tickets: name, gender, date of birth, marital status, hometown, personal likes and dislikes. Then, instead of passing through a turnstile on entering a particular theme park, they will simply swipe the bracelet in front of an electronic device, which will let them.

Oh, and the bracelets will also act as credit cards recording expenditures, so that Disney will collect not simply information about spending habits, but every penny of the expenditures made by visitors, without commission to a credit card company. When those visitors do spend the money, that information will stored within the bracelet and transmitted to a giant, super-computer.

And how will this information be used? There are first the funny examples. On bending down to greet Donald Duck, Donald will respond to you by exclaiming, based on precise knowledge: "Hi, Jack. I hear today is your birthday." Or: "Hello, Mary, you've come a long way from Scranton, Pennsylvania."

It will all be comical to a fault -- until... The games will end when the bracelet will advise you of the need to take a mid-afternoon snack after you have earlier had lunch at a Disney restaurant. It may list all sorts of enticing foods, all kinds of toys and games suitable to your personality. It will save you a place at exhibitions you wish to visit, and then advise you to rush over immediately and you will be spared a wait in line. It will do all these things, nominally for the purpose of enhancing your enjoyment, but mainly to make you spend more money than you otherwise might have.

Is it only me? Am I among the few who detests this invasion of our privacy, this deliberate manipulation of our decisions, this constant advertising -- from voices coming from your wrist -- of what you should or should not do? Or is it that we Americans no longer wish to be left alone in such matters?

The Disney organization is apparently convinced it will make additional millions from the use of these rubber bracelets. I hope the idea enjoys a quick death. 

Arthur's Blog: Call Me Naive, But I Feel Confident About Naming Miami Among 2013's Hot Travel Destinations

In drawing up a recent list of the hot travel destinations for 2013 -- the places expected to enjoy the sharpest rise in their incoming tourism -- I got hit by a barrage of dissent when I included Miami and Miami Beach, Florida. Ridiculous! cried a number of readers. Dubai is the kind of place that deserves mention -- it's booming beyond doubt, they said. But Miami?

Today's blog is therefore by way of defending my choice, and a subtle means of suggesting a vacation trip for yourself in the immediate months ahead.

To begin with, the statistics are unmistakable and un-refutable. The Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau has flatly gone on record in stating that 2013 will see a record-breaking number of tourists to Miami and vicinity -- so many South Americans among them (especially from Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela) that the nearby Ft. Lauderdale tourist agency will soon open an expensive office in Rio or Sao Paulo. Miami's hotel capacity is now up by more than 7,000 rooms from the year 2008.

What's drawing them here? Well apart from the delicious weather and the safety that U.S. real estate and banks offer to those South Americans, there's been a surge of construction in the fields that serve tourism. The opening in November of the ultra-luxurious ($500 a night per room) SLS South Beach Hotel was perhaps the nation's top hotel event of 2012, as was the completion of the new St. Regis in Bal Harbour. The cruise terminals in both Miami and nearby Port Everglades received refurbishing treatment valued at over $50M. One recent development of major significance was the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, home to Michael Tilson Thomas' New World Symphony, which has created an extraordinary free cultural opportunity with its "wallcasts" where people sit outside on the lawn to watch concert simulcasts projected on a huge blank area of the building's facade. And finally, new hotels are going up all over the city: an Aloft property by Starwood Hotels, a boutique lodging called the Lennox Hotel across from the Setai, the Edison and a new Marriott, and a mammoth revamp of the famous Doral Resort.

Add to all this a souped-up schedule of festivals and boat shows occurring almost every two weeks in winter, and you have a jumping scene that's fun to experience. 

Long-time readers of this blog may recall that my wife and I stayed here for a time  (in a rented condo) last winter, and were especially impressed by a blossoming cuisine scene that had scattered multiple Peruvian restaurants, in particular, across large areas of the city. I rhapsodized at that time about the Mistura in north Beach and its classic dish of aji de gallina. We are considering a return visit later this winter, when we will be among the sharply increased number of visitors who have made Miami and Miami Beach into a hot destination. While the rest of the country emerges only slowly from the recession of 2009-2010, Miami seems to be booming at a record pace. I feel confident in correctly including it among the stars of this year's tourism.