Summertime Musings on Recent Developments, Events and Issues in Travel

Last week's most important travel news was in the world of currency rates and has to do with the considerable recent decline in the worth of (a) the Chinese yuan and (b) the euro. Violating every promise, the Chinese have again begun lowering the value of their currency to bolster their rapidly-declining export industry and their incoming tourism. If the yuan continues to lose at least 1% per week, as it did last week, China will become an even greater bargain than before. What's bad news for the world's economy is good news for the tourist. And have you looked at the euro lately? It's recently selling at $1.23, and although airfare to Europe is high, the cost of living once there is thus declining. You might want to reconsider your decision to avoid a trans-Atlantic trip this year.

The other big news was the move by the Department of Transportation to put 26 so-called Chinese bus companies out of business, because of alleged safety violations (unlicensed drivers working too many hours a day, poorly maintained buses). Left untouched were such apparently reliable firms as BoltBus and MegaBus, and you might want to keep those names in mind for your own next trip in the northeast and the midwest, where Chinatown buses (so named because they usually drive from one Chinatown to another) offer fares as low as $10 per one-way trip.

Also making travel headlines: the decision by Homeland Security to permit persons over the age of 75 to keep their shoes on and avoid pat-downs, if they are also willing to undergo swabs by a chemically-treated cloth that detects traces of explosives and multiple passes through an electronic security gate. The new rule is an experiment only, undertaken in only four airports. I hope it doesn't represent an unwise surrender to anti-T.S.A. hysteria.

I'm also seeing a great deal of Internet comment about the lack of sufficient life preservers and other safety equipment on ferries and tourist boats. Too often, travelers blithely sign on for brief seagoing excursions unaware that they will be in danger if the boat or ferry capsizes or sinks.

I wrote last week about the decision of YMT Vacations to offer air-and-land packages to Cuba, including 8 nights of accommodations, for $1,999 plus $299 in taxes and fees. I should have added a phone number for booking the bargain: 800/922-9000. And I should have mentioned that Friendly Planet comes in second with an 8-night program selling for $2,799.

Resort For A Day is a new start-up that obtains daylong beach privileges at 14 resorts in 9 Caribbean islands for cruise passengers passing through, at an average cost of $35 a day per adult for beach-and-swimming-pool only and $60 or $70 a day for eat-and-drink-all-you-want at all-inclusive resorts. It guarantees it will get you back to the ship on time, and also guarantees that the resort won't turn you away if it's full up. It also includes round-trip transfers between the cruiseship and resort -- something you can't obtain except for an expensive taxi fare on your own.

Advocates urging the Department of Transportation to require that children be seated next to their parents on airplanes without paying a surcharge for reserved seats, have added the argument that such a rule is a safety step. In an emergency requiring quick evacuation of the plane, what parent would leave without their children, and would they block others from evacuating until their children have been secured?