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What it's Like to Volunteer Abroad

Terry Ward — 2011-03-08T15:00:00+00:00

Alistair Bremnath

Every year, thousands of travelers choose to volunteer abroad during their time off, pitching in at spots around the world. For two weeks in January, I was one of them.

I volunteered with a Boston-based non-profit organization, All Hands Volunteers, in Léogâne, Haiti, the city closest to the epicenter of last year's earthquake, where some 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed and thousands of lives were lost.

My decision to volunteer abroad came from a vague longing to "do something" other than sit in front of my laptop, followed by an exhaustive Google search that lead me to All Hands. The organization, formerly called Hands On Disaster Relief, started in 2005 when founder David Campbell flew to Thailand in the wake of the Southeast Asian tsunami to help. Since then, All Hands has been in Iowa as well as Indonesia, and the organization did hurricane flooding relief work in Gonaives, Haiti. I liked the way Project Leogane functioned-you got yourself to Haiti and agreed to work seven hours a day, six days a week. All Hands would provide a safe place to live and three modest meals a day. There were no fees involved with signing up, though donations were naturally welcome.

Leaving for Haiti, media reports and the State Department's warnings left me unsure of how I would be received in the country, and if I could actually contribute anything. I decided to go and see for myself. I am still processing the experience-one of the best things I've ever been a part of, for sure, but a hard thing to describe. I think about all the work still being done in Haiti and I already know I want to go back. Especially thanks to all the people I met.

Terry (right) with volunteers Fana and Rose-Daphney; Terry Ward.

Prior to Spence, a builder from Boston, decided to go to Haiti to volunteer after losing a childhood friend in the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince. Emily, 18, had saved money for a year while working as a barista at a Manhattan Starbucks to come help in Haiti. Back home in Queens, she lived in a homeless shelter. There was a cancer survivor in his early 50s who had been in Haiti for months and said that now, in life, he had "only ups, no downs." I met a man from St. Louis who plays poker for a living and spent his winnings on coming to Haiti to volunteer. It was his second time in the country with All Hands. His parents reminded him that, after this trip, it was time to get a "real job."

There were Haitian volunteers as well. Vlad, from Léogâne, lost the love of his life in the earthquake. Her family couldn't bear to tell him until six months after the catastrophe. Of course, he already knew it in his heart. A Haitian girl named Fana, who had the biggest smile you've ever seen, had lost her younger brother to a blood disease the day before the earthquake. She said that it was his passing that changed where she might have otherwise been on that day, saving her life.

Robinson, a 23-year-old who loves Christian music and playing the trumpet, had survived the earthquake along with his family. He had already volunteered with All Hands before, during hurricane flooding in Gonaives that badly damaged his family's home. And there was Alexandra, 20, who I met on the street when I was working at the mass gravesite helping build a memorial fence. She and her family had been displaced from near Port-au-Prince to a tent camp outside Léogâne in the days after the earthquake. She always wore little plastic flower earrings that perfectly matched her shirt, and when I complimented them, she went to pull them from her ears as a gift.

The stories were everywhere.

The All Hands driver who picked me up from the airport in Port-au-Prince for the 20-mile ride to Léogâne (an hour an a half away, on a good day) told me he lost his 14-year-old son in the catastrophe. As I watched the scenes of destruction in the capital as we navigated its crowded, fissured streets-the collapsed presidential palace, the homes that looked like they had tumbled only seconds before-I admitted to him I'd had some trepidations about coming to volunteer. Many in the aid world say that sending your money is worth more than any work you could physically contribute-that coming to Haiti to help, no matter how good the intentions, meant overburdening a very burdened place. "The money that was sent here, we won't see it," the driver told me flatly, in French. "By showing you are not afraid to come here to help, it is worth more than money. It is worth your life."

The All Hands base in Leogane has bunk beds and rooftop space for tents to house roughly 100 volunteers; Terry Ward.

At our base in Léogâne, I pitched a small tent amidst a sea of other volunteer encampments on the roof of the massive building. The large concrete structure, largely open to the elements, was in the process of being built as a nightclub when the earthquake struck. It weathered the quake well but remained unfinished, with rebar sprouting from rooftop support columns. There was housing for about 100 volunteers (there were around 70 when I was there). On the ground floor were several rows of bunk beds alongside a large concrete courtyard area that was often used as a staging ground for building projects (as well as impromptu basketball and hockey games). Another covered area next to the courtyard was crowded with Adirondack chairs, benches and tables built by the first volunteers to arrive after the earthquake as a lounge. The accommodations were bare-bones, as was expected. The shower block was a wall of stalls hung with blue tarps-large buckets and dipping bowls at the ready for cold showers at the end of the workday. In the toilet block, a separate area, the rules were simple-yellow, keep it mellow, otherwise, use a bucket filled with water collected from the dripping faucets to flush.

Meals were served buffet-style under a tent outside. For breakfast, there was coffee, cereal with powdered milk and small rounds of dense white Haitian bread to spread with spicy peanut butter and jelly. Lunch and dinner were usually some version of beans and rice, fried chicken or meat stewed with tomato sauce and onions (one small piece only was the rule), or spaghetti topped with ketchup spooned from a large can. There was always salad, too-watercress, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes (the one piece rule applied here as well).

A typical day of volunteering went like this: After a rather light sleep in my tent to a soundtrack of roosters that crowded through the night and the occasional beats of voodoo drumming or a nearby party, I'd emerge into the daylight around 6:30 am, splash water on my face, brush my teeth and spread some peanut butter on a piece of bread. At 7:30 am, the tap taps-colorful pickup trucks ubiquitous in Haiti and named for the tapping sound you make on the metal to indicate a requested stop-would arrive to transport volunteers to the day's work sites. The streets of Léogâne were a bustling place-kids in uniforms walking to school, pigs and goats snuffling in piles of rubbish, vendors perched behind piles of papayas and oranges near the market and the ubiquitous scent of burning trash in the gritty air. There were windows of open space where buildings had once been, and rubble still languished in piles, waiting to be picked up and taken away, though nobody seemed to know when and where.

At 11:30 am, we would return to the base for lunch. Then back to the work site until 4:30 pm, followed immediately by dinner and the nightly 5:30 pm meeting to recap the day's successes and failures and make work assignments for the next day (there was a mad rush to the signup board after the meeting to get on the jobsite of your choice).

After a heavenly bucket shower to rinse off the day's dust, there were a few options regarding how to spend the hours before All Hands' strict 10 pm curfew, when the generators would shut down for the night. I would join whoever was heading out for a Prestige beer and perhaps a game of dominoes at one of the local watering holes. Joe's Bar, next door to the base, was known for its salsa dancing nights. But beers were cheaper down the dirt road at one of the shack-style hangouts like Little Venice (named, I presume, for its location next to an open gutter clogged with plastic bottles) or Jackson Bar, where you grabbed your own cold drink from a refrigerator tipped on its side. The walk home was inky and starlit. Small shacks alongside the gutter lit with candles providing the only light lining the route. Then it was time to sleep and prepare for the next day's work.

Alexandra (left), a local volunteer, and her family; Terry Ward.

I had the opportunity to get involved in a few different projects. I spent one day sifting gravel and washing sand needed to make the Biosand Water Filters that the organization installs at the homes of residents of the community (they even filter out cholera). Thomas, a young Haitian who worked with me that day, told me that when the earthquake struck he was eating sugarcane in the fields with a friend (they were supposed to have been at home doing homework). "I thought it was a tractor coming through the fields," he said, until the shaking made him fall down again and again.

Another day, I was a cog in an assembly line, heaving buckets of sand and gravel into a concrete mixer at the site of a school-the eighth that the organization is building, to date-in a community near Léogâne.

And I spent another morning at the baby orphanage with Robinson and Emily. The kids gathered around Robinson, who read a book in Creole about a turtle who had retreated into his shell after a very bad thing happened to him. Emily and I scooped up infants from the small, dark room where they lay two wide in cribs and carried them into the courtyard, sunlight streaming through the branches of a mango tree into their dark, startled eyes. Before we left, Robinson plugged an iPod into a small speaker and played the Waka Waka, Shakira's song from last summer's World Cup. The younger kids bobbed up and down and the older girls shook their hips, raised their arms and tossed back their heads, singing out loud, "If you get down get up, oh oh. When you get down get up, hey hey."

The project I worked on the most during my stay, however, was a memorial fence around the mass grave for earthquake victims in the center of Léogâne. A few weeks before the year anniversary of the earthquake, the mayor of Léogâne approached All Hands to ask for assistance designing and building the enclosure. On a plot of land smaller than a basketball court, some 2,000 people had found their final resting place when the UN had arrived, in the days after the earthquake, with the heavy machinery needed to excavate a gaping maw in the ground. Tap taps waiting for passengers now parked on top of it and animals nosed around in the rubbish that had accumulated on the mass grave. If you didn't see the metal cross placed there to honor the victims, you might not have known about the lives buried beneath.

For five days, I helped affix white pickets to slanted pieces of wood that would give the fence a waving look. A group of volunteers moved large rocks into place to form a Zen-like garden over the grave, and other teams mixed concrete for setting the posts. Sometimes, while we were working, residents of the community would come by to observe, compliment the project and pitch in. Most seemed to understand we were volunteers, but once someone asked me if I was getting paid to build the fence. He was looking for work, too, he said. I explained as well as I could that we were not paid, but I am not sure that he understood or believed.

"I have family buried here, more than one person," said another man. "The fence is beautiful. Now the area is more than a mass grave, c'est une place," he said in French, indicating that it was a place to be and reflect.

Site leader Chris Mewes greets Leogane's adjunct mayor during a visit to the site the day before the quake's one year anniversary; Alistair Bremnath

On January 12, the one-year anniversary of the earthquake, Alexandra-the local girl I had gotten to know while building the memorial enclosure-came to the All Hands base to pick me up. She wanted to bring me to where she lived. We rode three deep on a moto taxi about 25 minutes outside of town, down a dusty dirt road lined with breadfruit trees, to the field where her family had been living in a tent since their home in Carrefour had crumbled to the ground. Alexandra introduced me to her mother, sister and two brothers, pointed to a cot donated by a French aid group where I should sit and placed a stub of a pencil into my hand so I could write down my contact information. We didn't stay long. A few minutes later, we rode back to Léogâne to join in a procession toward the site of the mass grave.

Alexandra looped an arm through mine as we walked along the street, past barbershops and churches, hardware stores and aid organizations-and piles of rubble and seas of tents where so many people were now living. Surrounding us were the residents of Léogâne and many of the All Hands volunteers from Haiti and around the world whom I had gotten to know a bit during my stay. The music of the brass band in front of us was rising, and with it a sea of voices, growing stronger.

"It's the song of Haiti," Alexandra told me in French, the national anthem, and she joined in.

"For our country, for our ancestors," she sang, "United, let us march."

January 12th Earthquake Memorial from All Hands Volunteers on Vimeo.

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The Future of Frequent Flier Programs

Terry Ward — 2011-02-10T16:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel

AFP/Getty Images

The merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, paired with the more recent announcement of Southwest Airlines' plans to acquire AirTran, has 2011 shaping up to be a very significant year for the merging of U.S. frequent flier programs. So what does that mean for you?

Three of the four largest domestic carriers and their respective loyal passengers are involved in big changes coming down the pipeline. After everything has finally been integrated -- by early 2012, by most estimates -- the unified United/Continental airline (which will go by United's name) will be the U.S.'s largest carrier of domestic passengers, with Delta and Southwest Airlines coming in just behind.

And if you're a frequent flier with any of the involved airlines, there's a good chance you've already started wondering just where your status, miles and potential reward travel are headed.

The good news? Not down the drain. Although that's not to say you'll be merging your mileage accounts for a faster path to reward travel anytime soon.

More About Frequent Flier Miles

o. Ten ways to prevent your frequent flier miles from disappearing

o. Survey Shows Not All Frequent Flier Programs Are Created Equal

o. Not Loyal Yet? Our Guide to Becoming a Frequent Flyer

o. The battle for your frequent flyer mile loyalty: Flyertalk versus milepoint

For the near future, according to United spokesperson Mary Clark, United Airlines' Mileage Plus program and Continental's OnePass program will remain separate. And while there's no official news about how or if reward redemption amounts will be affected by the merger, an FAQ page indicates that by the end of 2011, elite status miles earned on both the Mileage Plus and OnePass programs will be combined to count toward 2012 status in the new program.

"The airlines are in the process of aligning the programs to create the world's leading loyalty program," said Clark via email, "and program developments will be announced periodically throughout 2011 as we aim to fully combine our loyalty programs by 2012."

And while Southwest Airlines has recently completely revamped its Rapid Rewards program, to be officially rolled out March 1, how AirTran's A+ reward fliers will see their mileage balance worked into the equation after the acquisition is still nebulous, despite a website aimed at reassuring members of both programs.

"We'll plan to integrate the two programs once we close the deal, but it's too early to say exactly what that will look like," says Chris Mainz, a spokesperson with Southwest Airlines.

"Whatever will be worked out will be fair to everyone and people don't really have to be concerned about losing any benefits," says AirTran Spokesperson Cynthia Tinsley-Douglas. "[AirTran's A+ members] can still earn miles. We are still operating as a separate entity from Southwest."

As vaguely encouraging as such commentary sounds, there remain plenty of question marks about how travelers can prepare for merging mileage programs and what's to come.

"It's the first time I can remember two pretty major mergers going on at the same time," says Randy Petersen, CEO of Frequent Flyer Services. "Probably 50 percent of all frequent fliers out there will be going through some sort of frequent flier chaos at some point this year."

That said, Petersen feels the mergers themselves are likely to go fairly smoothly.

Do you make an effort to collect frequent flyer miles?
Yes,I am airline loyal.	4029 (37.6%)
No,I am not airline loyal.	604 (5.6%)
Yes,I even have a credit card that earns miles.	6096 (56.8%)

"I don't think I've seen two airlines work better toward becoming a merger than United and Continental," he says. "There's no official merger of the two mileage programs right now, but if we look at 90 percent of the frequent flier benefits between the two airlines, they already mirror each other -- that includes things like upgrades and status levels."

"Now [United and Continental] have the same amount of miles required to reach elite status," he says, "They didn't before."

And while some passengers may be getting edgy about how and when their miles will be compiled into a single account, Petersen says one way mileage members can prepare is by ensuring their contact details with both airlines are up to date (for receiving e-mail and mail) and that the postal address on both accounts is the same. To avoid confusion, he says, don't have one airline mailing you at a home address and another using a business address to get in touch.

"Most people are not very good at managing their miles," says Petersen. "If you haven't heard from your airline, regardless of the merger -- if you don't remember getting anything over the last six months from them -- you need to go and update your profile, because something is missing."

And while it would be nice to be able to use your combined miles sooner rather than later, that's unlikely to be the case, says Petersen.

"Most people are not very good at managing their miles"

"For people that have a few miles in each program, it would be nice to merge those together," he says. "Everybody would like to have more miles to use to book reward travel, and that's the plus that comes out of a merger. But we probably won't see anything happening till fall."

But worrying about losing your miles with any of the involved airlines, he says, is unfounded.

"The good news is no one will lose any mileage credits or points. But everyone will have to get used to something new with the mergers," he says. "And we'll find antagonism among the members of the different programs, even if it's not warranted."

The first passengers who'll be adjusting to new mileage rules are frequent fliers with Southwest Airlines. While the airline's new Rapid Rewards program still honors all rewards previously earned by members, new rules dictate points accrual to be based on the ticket price and booking class of the fare (with more points earned for passengers who book 'Business Select' and 'Anytime' fares) .

Not surprisingly, travelers used to traveling short distances -- and being rewarded with the same points as those flying longer and more expensive flights -- have voiced concern about the new program.

"Some people are unhappy about it," says Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance. "But even for people buying the lowest fare tickets, it's only a small increase in the amount of mileage credit that they'll need to get a free ticket."

Leocha says that not only will Southwest's acquisition of AirTran vastly increase the airline's route coverage, he expects that the enlarged Southwest airline "will start to keep some of the legacy carriers' prices down because it will have a national footprint, which Southwest has never had."

Petersen says the for all the concern from Southwest's frequent fliers about the new program, it's AirTran's A+ members who will have the greater adjustment.

"AirTran has two-class service, and Southwest doesn't," he says, "So AirTran's elite members will miss upgrades." As for the frequent flier programs merging, Petersen says he "[doesn't] think there'll be that big of a challenge for members understanding Southwest's program, but we have to wait for the deal to close and actually see the integration."

And while frequent traveler John DiScala of Johnny Jet says that current mileage members with AirTran and Southwest have "no need to panic by trying to burn their miles before it (the acquisition) happens," he says that one thing is for sure: "Miles are becoming more and more devalued as time passes by. So instead of banking them, start spending them. I know I will."

Leocha agrees: "No one's going to lose miles -- that much the airlines have told us over and over. But what will happen is the amount of miles you need for a ticket will increase."

But that's not to say that you'll need more miles for a basic coach fare, says Leocha. While it's likely still to be 25,000 miles for a roundtrip coach flight on United, availability is likely to be going down, he says, forcing passengers to use more miles to find open seats in the next booking class.

And Leocha says that one of the things that has already happened to frequent fliers of late is that legacy carriers did not have as many double mileage bonus programs at the end of 2010. As a result, the number of elite flyers has dropped. "I don't expect as many people fighting for elite seats in the coming year," says Leocha. "So if you're currently an elite flier, your chance of upgrades may be better, depending on load factors."

It's not time to hoard miles however, he says.

"The advice I've given people for years is still the same," says Leocha, "Miles shouldn't be saved like putting money in the bank." And while he says it can be a good idea to stash away 50,000 miles to use in case of a last-minute emergency, "the number of miles needed to take a flight is not going to go down, it's going to keep going up. And the restrictions are only going to become tighter. Don't save them, use them."

Leocha also predicts that in the future other airlines, including the legacy carriers, are likely to follow Southwest's lead in doling out reward points based on ticket price.

"The airlines are moving away from providing mileage based only on numbers of trips or miles flown. They're starting to look at providing mileage based on the amount of money you spend," he says. "And that will change the way mileage is doled out in this coming year."

And there's good and bad in such a system, says Leocha.

"The guy taking a full-fare short flight for business travel will be better off," when it comes to earning reward travel, he says. "And the leisure traveler looking for shorter flights will still get that, but won't get as many miles as the business traveler who's paying five times as much for the ticket."

For all the ambiguity of how everything will pan out, things look fairly positive for frequent fliers, says Petersen.

"I think, going forward, frequent fliers are in the best shape of any mergers I've seen over the past ten years," he says.

"But this fall period is going to be a busy time to complete mergers, so until then, fly any way you want to, and sooner or later this confusion will go away."

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A Guide to Valentine's Day for Travelers

Terry Ward — 2011-02-03T13:31:00+00:00

Filed under: Romantic, Best Of, Holiday Travel

Concorde Hotels & Resorts

Not sure what to do this Valentine's Day? We've got you covered. Looking for a private escape or a big-city splurge? Want to kick back and do, well, pretty much nothing? Or are you adrenalin-junkies in search of the next big downhill thrill? We've got Valentine's Day for travelers covered. Read on for where to spread the love this February 14.

For Privacy Seekers: Fisher Island, Florida

There are couples who flaunt their love all over the place -- and others who prefer not to be noticed at all. For the latter pairs, few places are as close to a major metropolis, yet so far away from prying eyes as Fisher Island. Accessed by a seven-minute private auto ferry ride from a dock just off the causeway between downtown Miami and South Beach, this is a private residential community with just one facility open to the public -- the Fisher Island Hotel & Resort. Book one of the courtyard villas in the former Vanderbilt Estate and you can open the door from your bedroom into a super-private garden area with its own hot tub, surrounded by tropical palms and flowers.

For Foodie Couples: Palm Beach, Florida

Pair a caviar and foie gras connoisseur with someone who can't stand the stuff and chances are there'll be some relationship issues. But if you both think there's nothing quite like sharing a fabulous meal with the one you love, head to Palm Beach. Book one of the intimate banquette-style tables at L'Escalier at the Breakers Palm Beach, where three-course dinners inject classic French fare with molecular gastronomy (bonus: some of the vegetables and herbs on your plate are grown in the hotel's organic garden). A few miles south, at the Omphoy Ocean Resort, famed Miami chef Michelle Bernstein's gourmet Latin-inspired dishes include stone crab with charred avocado and shrimp tiradito with soy and cilantro.

Terry Ward

For Watersport Enthusiasts: The Bahamas

If you can't stand lazing on the beach when there are jet skis, banana boats and scuba diving excursions to be had offshore, then set your sights on the Bahamas. Stay oceanfront but away from the cruise ship crowds at the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort and book the hotel's shark diving package with Stuart Cove. Scores of sharks will swim within inches of your mask during one of diving's biggest adrenalin experiences. Or head to Andros in the Out Islands for bonefishing in the mangrove flats, sea kayaking and snorkeling trips around the world's third largest barrier reef.

For Adrenalin Junkies: Vail, Colorado

If spending Valentine's Day carving your skis through pristine powder before retreating to a rooftop hot tub to soak your muscles sounds like perfection to you, then Vail is the spot. Valid for Valentine's Day stays, the Arrabelle at Vail Square is offering a Ski Free Stay Free deal that gets you a three-night stay and three days of skiing or riding for the price of two. Use your savings at the spa, which has an extensive menu of massages and a steam room for post-ski relaxation.

For Hopeless Romantics: Paris

Cliché, but true: The City of Lights is about as romantic as it gets. Picture starting the day with café au lait and croissants, strolling hand-in-hand along the Seine and popping into a romantic restaurant like the Latin Quarter's Lapérouse for dinner a deux. With several properties in Paris' most scenic neighborhoods, Concorde Hotels and Resorts has some enticing Valentine's Day deals. Stay at the Belle Époque Hotel Lutetia (above) on the Left Bank for $306 per night (two-night minimum), which includes breakfast for two and Champagne or chocolate upon arrival. The rest of the ingredients for a starry eyed escape, naturally, can be left to the city itself.

Seven Stars Resort

For Do Nothing Couples: Turks & Caicos

For some, there's no better way to spend a holiday than simply lounging about in a place that looks as unruffled and pulse-calming as a postcard. And with 40 islands and cays, countless immaculate white sand beaches and only 30,000 residents to enjoy them, the Turks & Caicos is the kind of place that makes perching poolside or on the beach a full time vacation occupation. Let the turquoise waters on the horizon lull the two of you into a laconic state. Book a room at the Seven Stars Resort on the island of Providenciales, where you can cabanas where you can lay all day in a cabana or take a dip in the heated salt water pool.

For Soon-to-be-Engaged Couples: Savannah, Georgia

This quaint Southern town is full of romantic places for popping the question. Link arms and stroll streets lined with historic homes and shaded by giant live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. Snuggle under a blanket during a nighttime horse drawn carriage tour, picnic in one of the town's beautiful parks or book a romantic sunset cruise along the river. Or consider dropping to one knee during a stroll along the riverfront.

For Serious Splurgers: New York

When money's no object, there's no place quite like New York for bringing out the big bucks. And leave it to the Donald to bring this ridiculously decadent deal to the table -- the $29,000 Diamond Indulgence package at the Trump Soho New York gets you two nights in the hotel's new duplex terrace penthouse suite with sweeping city views, Champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries upon arrival, couples massages with diamond-infused oils, breakfast daily in your room, and -- where the real bucks come in -- a pair of 18k white gold diamond earrings. If you can live without the jewels, the hotel's Romance Restored package is $1,400 per night for a smaller one-bedroom suite. Wondering where else to splurge in NYC? Book the five-course Valentine's dinner at Charlie Palmer's Aureole.

Cruceros Australis

For Outdoorsy Types: Argentina

If romance for you is long hikes in warm weather, you need to go south -- way south. It's summer in Argentina, where you can camp, hike, white water raft, and more in the wild terrain of Patagonia. Take a two-day mountain climbing tour of Lanín volcano or a cruise aboard Cruceros Australis. Cruising not sounding adventurous enough? Keep in mind that shore excursions include hikes to lookout points with glacier views, walks through subpolar forests to spot beaver dams, and scouting for elephant seals on the beach.

For Party Couples: New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans' laissez les bons temps rouler mantra is perfect for couples who would rather be out on the town than sitting quietly at home. Start with dinner in really fun surrounds at Jacques-Imo's and tuck into classic Crescent City dishes like barbecued shrimp and blackened redfish. The party on Bourbon Street and around the French Quarter this February 14 promises to be as rollicking as any other night, but be sure to venture into the more eclectic Garden District, too (for a local vibe, head to The Saint). The go-to cure for too much partying the night prior? Coffee and beignets the next day at Café du Monde, of course.

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Travel Myths Debunked

Terry Ward — 2011-01-12T17:36:00+00:00

Filed under: Weird, Best Of

chispita_666,flickr

Ever heard the story of the guy whose identity was stolen after his personal information was swiped from his electronic room key? Or the one about thieves drugging passengers with sleeping gas on trains in Eastern Europe? What about money hidden in hotel bibles? These are just a few of the myths that make the rounds on the travelers' circuit that make good stories -- but, for the most part, simply aren't true.

1. Hotel Key Cards Contain Personal Information
With so many hotels using key cards for room access these days, a widely circulated rumor persists that there's a chance of guests having personal information -- even their identities -- stolen off these cards. Not true, according to the rumor-busting website Snopes, which traced the legend to a 2003 email sent out by Detective Sergeant Kathryn Jorge of the Pasadena Police Department. The e-mail followed a presentation she saw about fraud techniques indicating there was a possibility of such a tactic being used. In the end, the police department was forced to issue a retraction to quell the rumors that exploded throughout cyberspace, saying that "the one incident referred to (in the detective's email warning) appears to be several years old, and with today's newer technology, it would appear that no hotels engage in the practice of storing personal information on key cards."

2. Gideon Bibles have $100 Bills Tucked Inside
Once a fixture in hotel rooms, those Gideon Bibles in the bedside table may not be as common a sight as they once were. "Legend has it that evangelical Christians often tuck $100 in the pages as a reward for the devout or desperate soul who next flips through the Good Book," said marketing specialist Amy Bradley-Hole of Little Rock, Arkansas, adding that it's most likely a legend, as she has never heard of anyone finding bucks in a hotel bible. "I do know plenty of people who have admitted to tucking their cash in the Bible, thinking that it's a great place to hide their valuables," she said -- and that might be reason enough to take a look.

HighlandBlade,flickr
3. Penguins Go Missing from Aquariums
Just about every zoo and aquarium in the country has had the "penguin in a backpack" travel myth pop up at least once. While the details vary, the story usually involves a little boy or girl getting separated from his or her parents during a visit to an aquarium or zoo. Once reunited, the family travels home and soon after finds the child playing in the bathtub with a stolen penguin. Senior Aviculturist Amy Graves at the Tennessee Aquarium has this to say about the pervasiveness of the myth: "It seems to come in waves. One year I don't hear anything, however the next year I get questions about it everywhere -- even while at the grocery store," she said. "When I do hear the 'penguin in a backpack' story it usually is about other institutions -- even some zoos that don't even have penguins," she says. In 2005, the New England Aquarium in Boston actually had to call a news conference to dispel a rampant rumor that one of its penguin chicks had been taken home by an autistic boy. It was simply not true.

4. You Won't Feel the Rocking on Mega Ships
For the most part, cruise ships are very stable. But if you think booking a berth on one of the largest ships out there -- like the Oasis of the Seas or the Allure of the Seas -- means you won't feel any rocking at all, think again. "It doesn't matter what size ship you're on. At some point you're going to feel some movement," said John Deiner, managing editor at CruiseCritic.com. "Stabilizers help the situation greatly, of course, but if you want to avoid the rocking altogether, the best thing you can do is stay on land and watch the ship from shore," he said. But if you are onboard, "to minimize the sensation, head to the center of the ship on a middle deck," said Deiner.

5. Electronic Devices Interfere with a Plane's Navigational System
Arguing with a flight attendant over shutting off your cell phone or other electronic device is never a good idea. But Patrick Smith writes on his AskThePilot blog that "few rules are more confounding to airline passengers than those regarding the use of cell phones and portable electronic devices." According to Smith, the main reason laptops need to be put away for takeoff and landing is that they risk becoming projectiles in the event of an impact or sudden deceleration. The problem with passengers using iPods and other mp3 devices during takeoff and landing is the headphones, he says, since you need to be able to hear flight attendants' announcements in case of an emergency. Regarding cell phones and the possibility of them interfering with the plane's navigational system, said Smith: the answer is "potentially yes, but probably not," adding that "although cellular phones are unlikely to screw anything up, regulators are erring on the better-safe-than-sorry side."

schoschie,flickr
6. You Always Need an International Driving Permit Abroad
Every country has the right to determine the rules of its roads. But many newbie travelers not used to travel outside the U.S. are under the false impression that they'll need an International Driving Permit to rent a car in countries like France, Germany, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. The truth is that in those countries -- and many others -- your valid U.S. driver's license works just fine for renting a car. In fact, an international driving permit is really just the same information contained on your U.S. driver's license, translated into multiple languages (and it's most often only valid when used in conjunction with your U.S. driver's license). And while the United States Department of State does recommend travelers get international driving permits for travel abroad, only in a few countries--including India--is it actually necessary.

7. Traveler's Checks Are Easy to Use
American Express won't like to hear it, but ATM machines are so pervasive these days that you hardly need traveler's checks to get money. In fact, in many cases, traveler's checks can be pretty unpractical compared to cash. Michael Shepherd, who arranges hotels for visitors to Paros, Greece, says that whenever guests write him in advance to inquire about the best method to carry money, he advises against traveler's checks. "About once per year I have guests show up with traveler's checks who hadn't asked (in advance)," he said. "What this means is they have to plan their activities around a trip into the main town during banking hours on a weekday to get their checks cashed. In one case, a couple had to miss an excursion boat to a neighboring island with their friends and go to the bank instead."

8. The Suction on Airplane Toilets is Strong Enough to Trap You
Of all the lavatory legends, this seems to have the most...traction. Reuters once reported that a female passenger filed a complaint against Scandinavian Airlines about being stuck to the seat; this was later discovered to be fictitious. Since the flush mechanism is a vacuum, you'd have to make a perfect seal with your backside to even approach the possibility of being stuck to the seat through suction. Still, Sara Keagle, a flight attendant for a major U.S. airline who keeps the blog The Flying Pinto says she won't be trying it anytime soon. "I do know that it (the vacuum) will suction a whole roll of toilet paper stretched from the flight deck all the way back to the toilet when flushed," she said. "I have seen that!"

shannonkringen,flickr
9. Sleeping Gas is Used by Thieves on Eastern European Trains
There's a widespread urban legend on the traveler's circuit in Eastern Europe that thieves will insert a tube into train cabins and pump in sleeping gas to knock out travelers. And then they rob them. Jordan Harbinger, co-founder of the The Art of Charm, and a frequent traveler, said he heard the rumors from other travelers (who were passing on rumors they had heard) when he was traveling in Serbia and the Czech Republic. "I even called the embassies to ask if any Americans abroad had reported this happening," says Harbinger. "And they were like,'No, that never happened, it's never been reported.' So it all seems to be the rumor mill, hearsay." Besides, says Harbinger, if someone wants to rob you, no matter the country, there are more straightforward ways of going about it. "It's a hell of a lot easier to get a knife at 3 a.m. and say, 'Give me your backpack,'" he said.

10. You can be Arrested for Joining the Mile High Club
Well, yes and no. According to the Civil Aviation Authority, no specific laws govern the matter, though Britain's 2004 Sexual Offences Act includes sex in a public lavatory. "Actually you could get arrested for joining the mile high club, but you'd have to join it out in the open, which I have seen people do," said Keagle. "My most famous was a guy who decided to join 'solo mission' - in first class, no less," she says. "Needless to say, he was arrested." Keagle said her airline doesn't have specific procedures for dealing with people who attempt to join the mile high club in the lavatories. "We usually get a kick out of it, as long as they're discreet about it," she said.

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One Year After the Quake: Rebuilding Haiti

Terry Ward — 2011-01-12T11:02:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Alistair Bremnath

A year after the earthquake in Haiti, vast destruction largely remains, particularly in Port au Prince and the areas closest to the epicenter. But amidst the piles of rubble, pancaked homes and shaken lives, Haitians and international volunteers are working together to slowly rebuild communities. One Boston-based non-profit organization, All Hands Volunteers, was asked by the mayor of Leogane -- the city closest to the quake's epicenter -- to design and build a commemorative space around the mass grave just outside the cemetery gates where thousands of quake victims are buried. With two weeks to complete the project, the plan for a memorial enclosure came together in time for today's one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. And true to a famous Haitian proverb, ÒMen anpil chay pa lou,Ó, many hands -- from all around the world -- are helping to lighten the load.

Site leader Chris Mewes from New Orleans and local volunteer Leopold Junior Andre remove the old sign at the site of the mass grave and prepare to install a new one; Alistair Bremnath

Local volunteer Leopold Garcia Jean mans the power saw to cut pickets down to size for the memorial enclosure; Terry Ward

The need for international aid and assistance remains immense in Leogane, where rubble is still piled in the city streets and families continue to live in tent camps; Terry Ward

Local volunteer Emmanuel Jean mans the bobcat to clear a walkway at the cemetery memorial enclosure for the victims of the Haiti earthquake; Alistair Bremnath

All Hands local volunteer Leopold Junior Andre paints pickets on the feathered fence of the enclosure. The pickets were donated to Project Leogane by the Canadian Army; Alistair Bremnath

All Hands volunteer Katie Taibi from Bel Air, MD. and local volunteers Ramone Thermidor and Jacquerson Paul plant greenery around the posts of the memorial enclosure; Alistair Bremnath

Site leader Chris Mewes greets Leogane's adjunct mayor during a visit to the site the day before the quake's one year anniversary; Alistair Bremnath

Alexandra Fontus from Leogane paints the window opening at the front of the memorial enclosure; Terry Ward

The front of the memorial enclosure was designed as a window of sorts, to offer views onto an existing cross that was placed on the mass grave site after the earthquake; Alistair Bremnath

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The Biggest Openings of 2011

Terry Ward — 2011-01-07T12:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Best Of

Disney Cruise Line

Even though 2011 is just getting started, the year is already promising to keep things exciting with a slew of new openings. And there's something for everyone, whether you are looking to sail on the world's largest cruise ship, spend the night in a revitalized historic hotel or take a ride on North America's longest, fastest and highest zipline. Mark your calendar for the biggest openings of 2011.

Disney's Aulani Resort; Disney

Aulani Resort, Oahu

Long in the business of telling tales, Disney brings its magic across the Pacific in 2011 to open the Aulani Disney Resort & Spa on Oahu. Slated to open on August 29, the resort will tell the "story of Hawaii," with some 70 native Hawaiian artists hired to design authentic art works for the resort (check out AOL's sneak peek). The resort has also employed the advice of island elders and spiritual advisors, and the 2008 groundbreaking started with a traditional Hawaiian blessing. Count on Hidden Mickeys to be camouflaged into the decor as well as wooden Menehunes (traditional statues) stashed throughout the property. The oceanfront resort will sprawl across 21 acres, with 359 hotel rooms and an additional 481 Disney Vacation Club Villas. There will also be a manmade lagoon for snorkeling and a conservation pool for close encounters with stingrays and other marine life. One thing's certain -- you're not in Orlando anymore.

Artist Rendering, The National September 11 Memorial and Museum

The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, New York City

New York has a place on nearly every list of the world's top places to visit in 2011 -- and part of that surely has to do with the upcoming ten-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. It's still very much a work in progress, but the National September 11 Memorial (defined by two reflecting pools on the site of the buildings' footprints) is slated to open in time to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy. The memorial's design will feature the two largest manmade waterfalls in North America, with 52,000 gallons of water flowing over the granite walls of the reflecting pools every minute.

alancleaver,Flickr

St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London

As if we needed another reason to head to London in 2011. Wills and Kate Middleton's impending nuptials aside, springtime will be lovelier -- and more romantic than ever -- with the March opening of the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London. For years, the Victorian Gothic structure, which opened as a hotel next to St. Pancras railway station in 1873, was in a rundown state complete with resident rats and bats. But a facelift to the tune of more than 150 million pounds has restored former details -- think Gothic Revival metalwork, gold leaf ceilings and wide stone staircases for a truly grand entrance -- to their former glory. The golden age of railway travel and grand arrivals in London has never felt nearer.

Disney Cruise Line

Disney Dream

The Aulani may be big on land, but the Mouse is set to up the ante on the high seas with its largest cruise, the Disney Dream. With the first sailing inked for January 26 from Port Canaveral, Florida, the Dream will wow the family-set with some fun cruise ship firsts, including the first water coaster at sea (a rollicking ride that wraps around one deck and even loops over the side of the ship). Other highlights will include Magical Portholes -- virtual windows inside the staterooms that use high-definition cameras to provide a real time view of the sights outside. The Disney Dream's itinerary will cover three-, four- and five-night cruises from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas.

Artist Rendering, Yotel New York

Yotel New York

After wildly successful openings in London and Amsterdam, the trendy and refreshingly affordable hotel chain that calls itself the "iPod of the hotel industry" will open its fourth property in 2011 in Times Square. With a whopping 669 rooms (or cabins, as Yotel prefers to call your quarters, since they're inspired by first class airline cabins), the debut will be Manhattan's largest hotel opening of the year. And while rooms only give you about 170 square feet to move around, clever design and traveler-friendly touches like monsoon rain showers and free wireless internet have a big impact -- especially when paired with the affordable rates, which will reportedly be between roughly $200 and $250 per night.

LEGOLAND Florida

LEGOLAND Florida

As if families needed one more reason to put a trip to Central Florida on the radar, Legoland is opening October 2011. The 150-acre theme park will be located at the site of the old Cypress Gardens theme park in Winter Haven, Florida. It will also be the world's largest Legoland, with 50 attractions, shows, and rides geared, in particular, toward children ages 2 to 12. But Builder Bob types of all ages will surely find something to admire here in the jaw-dropping sculptures pieced together from thousands of tiny plastic parts.

Efrem Lukatsky, AP

Chernobyl, Ukraine

With disaster tourism gaining more traction in 2011, the Ukrainian government announced that Chernobyl, site of the worst nuclear catastrophe in the history of the planet when a reactor exploded here in 1986, will be open as an official tourist site in 2011. This includes the "exclusion zone," an area with a radius of some 19 miles around the reactor, according to reports (other areas that still have relatively high radiation levels will remain strictly closed to tourists). The attractions of visiting? How about the chance to feed catfish living in the nuclear power plant's cooling pond and a visit to the town of Pripyat, an abandoned village where gas masks can be seen littering the grounds of a school. Sobering, to be sure.

Royal Caribbean International

Allure of the Seas

It's been a massive couple of years for Royal Caribbean. The second half of the world's-largest-cruise-ships equation (an honor shared with sister ship Oasis of the Seas, which measures five centimeters shorter) the Allure of the Seasdebuted in December 2010. But 2011 is really the time for the 225,282-ton, 5,400 passenger ship to shine. Onboard, entertainment spins into overdrive with Broadway's "Chicago" headlining in the ship's main theater, an acrobatic extravaganza called "Ocean Aria" and a 3-D movie theater. Oh yeah, there's a sapphire blue ocean to look at, too. The ship sails the eastern and western Caribbean from its homeport in Fort Lauderdale, with calls in sultry locales such as Jamaica, Cozumel, St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

New York Zipline Adventure Tours

SkyRider Tour, Catskill Mountains

Who says you have to go to Costa Rica for the thrill of an adrenaline-charged zipline ride over pristine terrain? The longest, highest and fastest zipline course in North America opens in 2011 in the Catskill Mountains. The SkyRider Tour will take riders as high as 600 feet above the ground to fly across ziplines that stretch up to 3,200 feet long, high above the forest canopy at Hunter Mountain (about two hours from New York City). There are over 4.6 miles of zipline in total and you'll reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour while cruising along. Catch your breath between rides at platforms and bridges between the lines, and be sure to dress for what promises to be some serious wind chill.

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The True Cost of Travel

Terry Ward — 2010-12-23T14:43:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel

Getty Images

If you've ever paid for your luggage to have a spot in the cargo hold or agreed to a surcharge for the pleasure of booking a window seat, the question has certainly come to mind: What exactly are you paying for when you purchase an airplane ticket?

According to Bureau of Transportation data and an AOL report, the airlines nabbed nearly $2.6 billion in revenue in the form of baggage fees in the first three quarters of 2010.

And while it's not as obvious what you're paying for when you buy a ticket (other than getting from point A to point B, of course), industry experts can help shed some light on the pieces that make up the true cost of travel.

Jeffrey Breen, president of Cambridge Aviation Research, a Massachusetts-based company that provides custom research and analysis to select industry clients, says that roughly half of an airline's operating costs -- and in turn, half of your ticket price -- go toward fuel and labor, the latter of which includes the pay for flight personnel, maintenance labor, traffic-handling personnel, etc.

With this in mind, says Breen -- and operating under the assumption that a Los Angeles to New York flight (one way) is about 85 percent full these days -- passengers can expect that the price of their individual ticket covers roughly 30 gallons of jet fuel for the cross-country trip aboard an Airbus 320. At a rate of about $2.30 per gallon, that comes to roughly $70 of your ticket price going toward the gas to get you there, says Breen. "Either bring seventy bucks or thirty gallons to the gate," he quips.

Where food and beverages are offered on a flight, he says, associated operating costs were only 1.5 percent in the second quarter of 2010, "so no airline is saving itself by getting rid of cans of soda."

But it's clear to see where airlines are making much of their money these days.

The megatrend for the last few years, says Breen -- and a place where airline customers are feeling hardest hit -- has been the addition of ancillary fees covering everything from baggage and food to more comfortable seats.

"In aggregate, the revenues collected through these ancillary fees are eerily similar to the total industry profit," he says. US Airways, which charged $500 million this year in fees for everything from ticket changes and baggage fees to onboard sales, is expected to rake in profits of between $450 and $475 million, according to Wall Street analysts.

Seeing how -- and where -- these fees add up is rarely an easy task.

Charlie Leocha, director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, is dedicated to pressuring airlines to make these fees more transparent.

"Especially dealing with airlines, the fees that passengers are being charged basically have nothing to do with what it actually costs the airline to provide the service." says Leocha, "The airlines get away with these fees because there's no effective way to fight them. All the airlines do it together and move in a monolithic sort of way, so passengers are basically at the mercy of the airlines."

The bulk of what passengers pay for an airplane ticket goes towards fuel; Dave Heuts. flickr

Leocha uses the arbitrariness of baggage fees as an example.

"Everyone knows that to ship a bag from New York to L.A. costs more than to ship it from New York to Chicago, because it's a longer distance," he says. "But airlines tell us it costs the same amount of money (by charging the same fee regardless of distance flown). It just makes no sense, because they are charging one single price across the country."

And the fact that we don't get charged at all to check a piece of luggage for a flight from New York to Paris, he says, makes "all their economic arguments go out the window."

"I think most passengers feel that airline fees are the new normal," says Leocha. "And while we feel like we have to live in the real world where airline fees are the new normal, we don't have to live in a real world where the airlines can hide the fees from us and surprise us at the airport with these fees."

And while nobody argues that the airlines, like any business, deserve to make a profit, part of being an educated consumer is realizing how they make that profit.

"Airlines operate on only a few percentage points of profit, and the addition of even small high-margin services like food, WiFi, or a few people upgrading their seats can have a disproportionately large impact on the profitability of an actual flight," says Matt Johnson, a partner with Simon-Kucher & Partners, a strategy and marketing consultant firm in Mount View, California.

Johnson references Bureau of Transportation statistics to determine how much of a company's cost of leasing or purchasing its airplanes goes toward operating costs -- the number comes out to roughly 31 percent for low cost carriers and 41 percent for legacy carriers, he says.

"For airline passengers, the bulk of what you are paying for on an airplane is for the fuel, the crew salaries and the plane, whether the airline bought it or leased it," says Johnson. And the operating cost structure for hotels and cruise lines, he says, are similar.

"For hotels and cruise lines it's the same thing -- buying the boat or the building is really expensive," he says. "They have to pay fixed costs, but they are constantly adding to those assets. That's a big chunk of the costs."

"The cost to clean a room and fluff a pillow each night is not nearly as high as heating the room, insuring it, buying it -- everything to do with a building," he says.

Leocha advises consumers to be aware of the "slow creep of resort fees," which he calls one of the "really big, growing problems in the hotel industry."

"These are fees that you don't see when you go onto any of the hotel sites. You don't see them on the actual hotel site, don't see them on the travel agency site, on Expedia or Priceline," he says. "Most people find out about the resort fees when they get to the hotel."

"And while hotels present resort fees -- which often cover things like Internet, pool towels and a daily newspaper -- as a convenience to the customer," says Leocha, "the only problem is that if you don't want to include any of those items, you still have to pay the resort fee."

"Consumers need to ask whether there is a resort fee, look for it. It's normally written somewhere in the fine print on the website, it's something else consumers need to look for," he says, adding that resort fees are now moving from where they originated, in luxury hotels, into more mainstream properties, too.

Like Loecha, Breen places much importance on making fees more transparent. But he has this advice for the price-conscious traveler.

"You can drive yourself crazy, going shopping online, and trying to figure out how much everything costs," he says. "You can't cover everything -- how much things are manufactured for, how much it costs to ship it to you, how much goes into packaging and advertising."

And overall, when you take into account inflation over the years, flying is still an amazingly affordable form of transport, Breen says. "Anyone who for any reason refers to the good old days of regulation really needs to spend some time with some old airfares, inflation and a calculator," he says.

All those extra charges can really add up. Check out our table of airline fees, arranged by carrier.

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Have Passport, Will Eat: Meet the Foodie International

Terry Ward — 2010-12-13T11:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Weird, Real Life Stories, Food + Drink

Elyse Pasquale

Beef hearts on a stick on the streets of Lima. Crispy skinned guinea pig in an Ecuadorian restaurant. Fried scorpion proffered at a Beijing night market stall.

It sounds like a menu Andrew Zimmern would tuck into on an episode of Bizarre Foods. But to Elyse Pasquale, 34, a theater producer in New York City, these exotic eats are the cornerstone of a personal travel and tasting quest in which she's aiming to fly 100,000 air miles and eat 100 meals around the world by the end of 2010.

Pasquale, who's been blogging about her experience as the self-dubbed Foodie International since early 2010 when she set out on her quest, first got the idea for her tasting world tour when she took part in pig slaughter in a Tuscan village in January. Pasquale spends summers at her family's home in Italy, where their Tuscan neighbors welcomed them into the community fold. She was intrigued by the hands-on approach to food. "Our neighbors make fantastic cured meats, prosciutto and sausage," says Pasquale. "They kill their own animals, all their veggies come from their garden. I can't even tell you how amazing the food there is."

Amazing enough to inspire Pasquale to hit the road in search of more fabulous food experiences, it seems.

While in Tuscany, it occurred to Pasquale that men are most often the hosts of shows involving bizarre and exotic food themes -- while women are usually relegated to cooking shows staged in a show kitchen.

"It's really rare that you see a woman going out there to far-flung destinations and eating crazy things like guinea pig." she says. "And I thought, why can't it be a woman?"

So Pasquale, who says she "will eat literally almost anything on the planet," decided to embark on a quest to discover the world's cultures by taking a seat at as many foreign tables as possible.

Her travels, at the roughly 76,000 mile mark so far. And Pasquale, who usually travels solo, says that taking a different approach to tourism has been key to serendipitous foodie experiences along the way.

"When I go to a new place, I say, 'Take me where you like to eat,'" says Pasquale. "Their faces totally change. It's a great way to meet people."

She recalls a Peruvian friend of a friend she met in New York and later reconnected with in Lima: "He brought me to the most local street corner in Miraflores, where a little lady was selling beef hearts on a stick, anticuchos de corazon," says Pasquale. "He told me she's been there so many years. And as popular as she is, she prefers to cook on the street corner."

And that's just one of many authentic food experiences Pasquale would have been unlikely to find without the help of a local.

During recent travels to China, she used the website Asmallworld.net, which calls itself "a private community of internationally minded people around the world," to connect with Shanghai locals in the food industry for possible dining companions and advice on the best places to eat. Through the website, Pasquale met the manager of a hotel restaurant who helped her secure a table at Jesse Restaurant, one of the city's most exclusive destinations for Shanghainese cuisine. "It's super casual, but it's so famous for being so delicious and you have to know someone to get a reservation," says Pasquale.

There, Pasquale had one of her braver food moments when she tried drunken shrimp -- shrimp drenched in rice wine that arrived at the table wriggling, still alive.

"They were still moving, and I'm apologizing to every shrimp I ate," says Pasquale, who describes the taste as "very, very fresh sashimi."

"I bit off at the tail-end, which is nice and crunchy," she explains, "and the inside is sweet."

During her travels, Pasquale says she aims for a mix of street food and restaurant food, opting to splurge on one high-end meal during her trips.

"I'd never been to Russia, and it was one of my dreams to go there," says Pasquale, who is of Ukrainian descent and has fond memories of foods like borscht from her childhood. "So I wanted to go the best restaurant in Moscow, but then I also went to a place where I could get my food on a cafeteria tray. Restaurants don't have to be Michelin-starred, they just have to be known for spectacular local cuisine."

When it comes to funding her travels and meals, Pasquale does a lot of research in advance of trips to get the best airfare deals. Since she's trying to rack up as many miles with the same airline as possible, Pasquale flies exclusively with Continental Airlines.

In deciding where to go, "I get out their route map for inspiration," she says. "I also look at their specials, weekend specials, last minute deals." And searching fares for flexible dates, says Pasquale, is a good way to find an inexpensive ticket. "You can look for a three night stay over the next six months," she says, adding that she recently found a $510 roundtrip fare to Istanbul from New York.

Eating guinea pig in Lima, Peru:

And if you're wondering how Pasquale stays healthy with all that eating on the road in exotic locales (she says she hasn't fallen ill once), she's got a few rules she follows.

"Eat local yogurts, the bacteria helps your system," she says. "I don't [eat] Western food in places that don't serve it. Looking for food you miss from home is often where you get in trouble."

Eating spicy foods helps kill bacteria, too, she says. "And wash it all down with the local alcohol."

Before year's end, Pasquale's travels will take her back to Tuscany for the annual olive harvest and to one of her all-time dream destinations for eating -- Japan.

"I am really looking forward to sushi and going to Kyoto, as it's apparently the seat of all Japanese cuisine," she says. "I'll go up there to have Imperial-style meals, all home made."

But for all her exotic desires, Pasquale's last meal request, she says, is as All-American as it gets.

"Basically a pound of some good farmer's bacon. I like American style bacon over the flatter, wider European variety with a side of ketchup," she says.

After the year's travels wrap up, says Pasquale, she's considering writing a book that shares more stories about the people she's met in all the fabulous places she's been (her blog focuses more on the food aspect of things) .

"This journey feels very much like The Wizard of Oz," says Pasquale, "I've been meeting people and keeping in touch with them." She's even met back up with a few new friends in different places, too.

"It's amazing what kind of luck you can have in really experiencing a culture through the food."

You're probably wondering at this point if there's any food that Pasquale won't eat. The answer: cake.

Still hungry? Check out our list of the 10 Strangest Foods in the World.

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Tribal Tourism: Ethical Or Exploitative?

Terry Ward — 2010-12-08T15:51:00+00:00

Filed under: Real Life Stories, Arts & Culture, EcoTravel

tarotastic, flickr

There are few countries on earth where you can come face to face with cultural traditions nearly as ancient as culture itself, but Papua New Guinea, home to some 850 different tribes speaking 800 languages, is one of them.

So it's no surprise that this exotic land (the world's second largest island, located just north of Australia) -- and many other destinations including Peru, Kenya and even the Pacific Northwest -- draw a fair amount of tribal tourism despite their far-flung locales.

Unfamiliar with the concept?

"It [tribal tourism] is the opposite of going on a cruise ship -- that's experiencing a cruise ship, not another culture," says Tom Wright, a healer in Asheville, N.C. who experienced tribal tourism during a trip to Peru where he took part in an Ayahuasca cleansing ritual with a local shaman -- an experience he refers to as "life-affirming."

Indeed, tribal tourism is about being exposed to a culture completely different from your own, sometimes even being changed by it -- and often being exposed to all the twitching feather headdresses, jangling seed necklaces and, yes, bare breasts that appear straight from the pages of a National Geographic magazine.

But the concept of being exposed to a culture completely different from your own doesn't apply only to foreigners who are thrust into an indigenous environment.

Terry Ward

And as the concept of tribal tourism becomes more mainstream, it raises the question: Is the practice ethical or exploitative?

Dean Cycon -- an indigenous rights lawyer and founder of Dean's Beans, an organic and fair trade coffee company in Orange, Mass. -- recalls a recent trip to Guatemala that put the spotlight on tribal tourism's detrimental effects. "Near Lake Atitlan, there is a spiritual tradition around Maximon, a pre-Christian deity who still survives," Cycon explains.

Traditionally, Maximon was to come out only once a year, during Semana Santa, or Holy Week, when the mannequin-like figure sporting a Cowboy hat and a cigar dangling from his mouth is paraded around the streets of the lakeside village of Santiago Atitlan. During the rest of the year, the figure resides in the homes of his appointed guardians.

"What's happened in the last 15 years is people have started to come and want to see him, even though he only comes out during ceremonies," says Cycon. "But by paying money to the guardians of the image, which is like a mannequin, they get access to Maximon. And by bringing alcohol to the people watching him, they get more access."

Groups of drunk locals are often seen outside the door of wherever Maximon is, says Cycon. And the tourists bring other things, too. Last year, when Cycon was in Santiago Atitlan, he says that he noticed a Mickey Mouse tie jauntily wrapped around Maximon's neck. He was told that Japanese tourists had brought the tie as an offering.

Tell us what you think! Tribal tourism is:
Ethical. It's a great way to learn about and help sustain other cultures.	331 (8.9%)
Exploitative. It turns cultural heritage into a show for tourists.	2354 (63.0%)
It depends on the tour organizer.	1053 (28.2%)

"In one sense there's some humor in it," says Cycon. "But to many people in the community, [Maximon] has been devalued into more of a spectacle than a true religious or spiritual element." "It's a cheapening of the experience that's occurred around Maximon, and his authority in the community has lessened," Cycon says. "The ties people had to him have lessened, and consequently the ties to the traditional ways and ceremonies."

So is it possible, as a well-intentioned traveler, to experience the richness of an exotic culture without cheapening that culture in the process? Samantha Chen, the creator and director of San Francisco-based Ethical Journeys, an offshoot of Ethical Traveler, says yes. "We define ethical travel as simply being mindful of our impact while we travel and maximizing all the positive impacts and minimizing the negative," she says.

"Travel is such a big industry all over the world that a lot of developing countries use it as a way to generate income," says Chen. "And it's important, when choosing a tour operator, to understand how much of their tour costs benefit the local villagers or tribe," she says. It's also important to have a local guide who speaks the native dialect, she says, "not only as a language translator, but as a cultural translator as well."

While it seems like a basic rule for cultural sensitivity, it's worth repeating since so many tourists get caught up in the excitement of a travel moment and forget: "Always ask before taking a picture of homes, native dress, those kinds of things," says Chen. "These people are welcoming you and showing you their culture; show them some respect."

With tribal tourism to exotic destinations often comes a level of comfort below what you might be used to at home. It's all part of the experience, says Wright, recalling his tribal tourism tour in Peru. "We were staying in the same wooden huts that everyone was living in, with open floorboards and open walls. No running water, no electricity, nothing but a bed," he says. "But why else would I want to go to Peru -- to live like an American? I already know how to do that."

Terry Ward

And attempting to live the same way as the locals do is an inherently ethical way to travel, he says. "For the comfy deals, it often takes more supplies -- cleaning fluids and electricity," he says. "It makes more of an environmental impact." Community involvement is another way that tour operators can make a positive impact on tribal villages.

When Travis Marshall, a freelance writer in Savannah, Ga., recently traveled to Papua New Guinea with Trans Niugini Tours, he was impressed by the infrastructure that had risen around the Karawiri Lodge, a rustic hotel built from native materials in the form of a traditional spirit house that sits along the Sepik River in one of the country's more remote interior regions.

"The hotel was on solar power, there was an onsite water purification system, and there was a clinic there that was the only place for who knows how many miles where villagers (and guests) could be treated in case of emergencies," says Marshall. "It was providing a symbiotic relationship for the people who live around there by treating malaria cases."

In addition to offering packages with stays in its purpose-built hotels, Trans Niugini Tours also offers homestays in villages along the Sepik River, with proceeds benefitting the community directly. Villagers also benefit from the tourist presence by selling traditional crafts and performing sing-sings at the Karawiri Lodge and holding cultural presentations in their villages.

"In these cases most of the village participates, and the money is shared among everyone in the village," says Australian Bob Bates, owner of Trans Niugini Tours. "We do no choreography on this, and the traditional performance that they do is left entirely up to them," he adds. And while it was obvious that some of the cultural traditions -- warrior dances, for example -- that Marshall witnessed in villages along the Sepik River were purposely being enacted for the benefit of tourists (and tourist dollars), Marshall says it was a remarkable travel experience for him and one that felt like a responsible approach, too.

"I think Papua New Guinea does a good job of presenting, in the scope of the world, a very unique cultural resource," he says. "They [villagers and tour operators] have taken what they perceive as the most interesting part of their culture to show."

So impressed was Beth Whitman, founder of female-focused travel blog and tour operator Wanderlust and Lipstick, during her first trip to Papua New Guinea earlier this year that she decided to return next year with her own tour group to witness the 50th anniversary of the Mt. Hagen Festival -- a multi-day cultural event that showcases the songs, dance and colorful costumes of the country's myriad tribes.

Whitman says she's been very selective about who will participate in the tour -- a two-week trip that will cost just under $5,000 per person (including most meals, transport, lodging and tours). Whitman is working homestays into the itinerary wherever possible, as she feels "there's a huge benefit to being that close to the locals." She also wants to give back to local communities, she says, and will hire local guides to act as liaisons for her group.

Whitman plans to offer reading recommendations to participants so they can study up on Papua New Guinea prior to the tour. "I really want them to know what they're getting into in advance," says Whitman. "It's not the safest place to visit." But the rewards of a trip to this country, she says, are immeasurable. "Papua New Guinea far exceeded my expectations," she says. "It was beyond anything I could have imagined."

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Real Life Stories: I Built My Own Plane

Terry Ward — 2010-11-29T13:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Real Life Stories

Bob Jackson

Bob Jackson was still five years away from retiring from his career as an electrical engineering at Lockheed Martin when he began dreaming of the day he would head off into the sunset. But rather than sailing into the proverbial golden years of retirement, Jackson decided to fly instead.

Together with former colleague and longtime friend Ron Marini, the Windermere, Florida resident embarked on what would become a decade-long project to build -- by hand -- a futuristic-looking experimental airplane called a Velocity that can carry four people with a range of over 1,000 nautical miles.

Both men had developed their passion for flying through military experience. Jackson flew as a Navy pilot in the 1970s and Marini was in the Air Force.

"After flying in the Navy, you've pretty well done all the best stuff and in the best planes -- acrobatics, formation and military operations," says Jackson. So when Marini came to Jackson with the idea to team up and build a Velocity airplane together back in 1998, Jackson was ready to launch.

Jackson and Marini

"All engineers like to build things," says Jackson. "So it appealed to us to build our own plane."

While their careers as engineers were much more on the theoretical side of things, Jackson says building a plane offered a very hands-on process that required him and Marini to do almost everything on their own.

"When you build your own plane you may still do some theoretical design, but the emphasis is on the construction," he says. "You have to do everything, from finding the parts on the internet or at the local Army-Navy store, to extensive fiberglass shaping work and crimping and soldering every individual wire connection. There's no one else to hand that stuff off to like when you're working for the big aerospace companies."

What the partners did not count on, however, was how labor-intensive and lengthy the building process would turn out to be. The original one or two years they expected to invest in building the airplane slowly grew to more than ten years.

For the first seven years, they met every weekend at Marini's house to work on the plane, which was initially stored inside the garage. But as the plane took shape, it quickly outgrew its space. The three car garage was extended first with one full-length, tarp-covered lean-to outside, and then another beyond that when it was time to paint the plane.

Jackson calls Marini's wife, Diana, a "saint." Not only had the airplane taken over the family's garage, but zip-locked bags of half-used epoxy had migrated into the freezer, fiberglass cloth was stretched across the foyer floor, and at one point, the plane's wings and canard were spread throughout the living room.

The partnership, says Jackson, ultimately created a much better final product. And knowing the other would be there each Saturday also provided the additional motivation to complete such a massive undertaking. And Marini and Jackson were determined to finish what they started.

"At the time, when we were building, things could be stressful, but it did create in every case a better airplane," he says, "We always came up with a third solution that wasn't just a compromise -- but a slightly different, and measurably better approach neither of us had thought of originally."

Among the projects that took serious brainstorming from Marini and Jackson was the pair's decision to turbo charge the Velocity's engine, using a custom configuration that allows the plane to fly at twice the cruising altitude and with fuel economy similar to a car, even though the plane travels about 285 miles per hour (around five times faster than a car).

Ultimately, says Jackson, having the same goals for the airplane, which had a successful first test flight in 2008 was vital to the completion of such an intensive project.

"Most homebuilders just want to be able to pop over to the beach and get a hamburger with the wife in their planes," he says, "It's more like a Sunday drive, or classic car thing for them. But both Ron and I wanted to use our plane for very long cross country trips, and as an economic and time competitive alternative to the airlines."

Flying over the Grand Canyon at sunrise
Jackson made his coast-to-coast dreams a reality in summer 2010, setting off for a nearly six-week adventure from the plane's home hangar at Orlando Apopka Airport. His trip around the country covered more than 12,000 miles and 75 hours of flight time.

"It wasn't a test of the airplane other than durability," says Jackson, adding that the trip was less about proving the airplane's abilities than it was about proving a thing or two to family and friends.

"In our family holiday cards and emails, for years, I'd send a picture to show the progress of the plane's construction," he says, "But after a few years, I had to stop even talking about it because it was embarrassing that after so many years we still weren't flying yet."

For his cross-country trip, Jackson put together an itinerary that would allow him to visit family, friends and old Navy buddies who happened to be located in some of the most scenic flying stretches of the country -- places like Kansas City, Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Mount St. Helens, the Pacific Northwest, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons.

"A satisfaction from the trip was getting to see all those great places from my own airplane, circle around a few times if I wanted to, and not just look down from high above if the airliner happened to go overhead," says Jackson, "It was beneficial to show both family and friends that we actually finished the airplane and that it was performing like a dream come true."

Watch highlights from the six-week journey:

He recalls an unexpected detour that led to one of the prettiest flights of the trip: "I was in Phoenix, visiting a Navy friend, and we wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. However heavy thunderstorms nixed that, so we diverted instead to Flagstaff and Sedona. I'd never seen Sedona before, and it turned out to be one of the best sights of the entire trip."

When he finally made it to the Grand Canyon several days later during a sunrise solo flight from Las Vegas, Jackson was treated to a glorious early morning view from the Henderson flight line looking out toward one of the most iconic landscapes in the world.

"Over the course of the six week adventure, what was most striking to me from an aviation point of view were the scenic wonders that are tucked in every corner of the nation," he says, "It was striking and rewarding to see so many of them in such a short amount of time from the air."

A particularly poignant milestone came during a stop in San Francisco, where Jackson and Marini met for a two-hour flight that took them from Napa Valley to Lake Tahoe, along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, through the Yosemite Valley and back to Santa Rosa.

"Ron is still working full time, so there was no way he could take off for the full trip" says Jackson. "That he was able to share in the trip out in a part of the country he knows so well was great for both of us."

The men, it seems, are living up to the logo painted onto the tail fin of their plane and stitched into the leather seatbacks -- a laid-back surfer-type figure with a glowing sun as a backdrop that was designed by Jackson's son, Mike, who loves to surf.

"To Mike, the logo was somebody hanging ten on a surfboard, leaning back and riding the perfect wave," says Jackson, "To us, instead of hanging ten surfing the sea, we were riding the air waves off toward the sunset of our lives -- old guys with pot bellies, still catching the big waves in the sky!"

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Holiday Travel Horror Stories

Terry Ward — 2010-11-29T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Real Life Stories, Holiday Travel

miamism, flickr

The holiday travel season is about to swing into high gear, which means a record number of people will soon be hitting the road and taking to the skies. And the trip doesn't always go so smoothly. Read on for real stories of holiday travel nightmares from seasons past. Think presents flying off the top of the family station wagon, and an airline that decided to take Christmas Day off.

Julia Simens

Julia Simens, an expat currently living in Bangkok, Thailand, recalls her family's strangest holiday ever -- the year they booked a Christmas Day flight only to find out that the airline was closed for the holiday when they arrived at the airport.
As an expat family, we've lived all around the world. In 2006, my husband and I were living in Lagos, Nigeria with our two kids. We lived in a compound there, so you can imagine that when the holidays came around we were ready for a change of scenery. We couldn't wait to leave. We decided to book a trip to Cape Town to spend the holidays with family. They would be coming from San Francisco so we decided to meet in Cape Town, as they did not see the need to stop off in Lagos. The plan was to go on safari, do some wine tasting, generally just have some real good vacation time. So we closed up our home in Lagos and gave away all of our fresh food to the maid so it wouldn't rot while we were gone. When I'd booked the tickets back in September, I was told flights didn't leave every day. So we had the option of flying on a Friday or on Wednesday, which was Christmas morning. Christmas morning turned out to be the best option for us. So I booked the tickets in September and picked them up from South African Airways' head office in Lagos in November.

On Christmas morning, we all piled into the car and set off for the airport in Lagos, ready to head to Cape Town for our adventure. Our driver took us to the airport, about a two-hour ride. When we arrived to check in, we realized there were no cars around. We knew something must be going on, so we asked our driver to hold tight while we went in search of information about our flight. There was no one at the check in area, no one at the main counters, not a soul manning the VIP lounge either. Finally, we found a cleaning person who was tidying up behind the airline counter. He reluctantly took us to the internal flight control area of the airport, where four men were just sitting around, all dressed in company logo uniforms. Clearly they were not expecting to see a family of four in their office. After a long conversation it was explained to us that the airline had decided not to fly on Christmas from Lagos because it was a holiday. We showed them our paid tickets for travel on that day and numerous emails about the itinerary, and they assured us that the airline would resume flights in a day or two. When we tried calling the airline's hotline, a recording told us that they were closed for the holiday.

Realizing there was no chance of getting to Cape Town that day, we packed up the car and made the two-hour journey back home. So there we were, back at our house on Christmas, with no food to give the children since we'd given it all away in anticipation of our trip. We called our relatives visiting in South Africa to let them know what was going on and to see about rescheduling the safari. All we had in the house to eat was plain white rice, so that was our meal for Christmas dinner. The kids love rice since they had spent seven years already in Indonesia but we couldn't even have fried rice. So the only one of us enjoying Christmas dinner in Lagos that year was our dog, who had a feast (of dog food) compared to what we were eating. But I think the rice dinner was the least of the kids' worries -- they were just so disappointed not to be getting on a plane after traveling four hours in a car to get nowhere. Eventually, we went to bed.

The next day, we managed to get through to the airline by phone and were told that operations were back to normal. So we made the two-hour trip back to the airport only to find that the airline would not honor our original tickets from Christmas Day, and we were forced to buy new tickets just to get out of Lagos. In the end, we arrived only one day late for our family Christmas reunion and ended up having a great time in Cape Town with the safari, camping with the lions and going wine tasting on horseback. Cape Town is the most beautiful city in the world, and we even did a champagne boat trip in the harbor at sunset -- we were definitely not in Lagos anymore!

When I did get back to Nigeria, I spent the next six months trying to get my initial tickets refunded. Eventually, they were fully refunded. But the local money had gone to hell in a hand basket by that time, so my original investment for four tickets was not the same value that I originally paid. The funniest thing? The airline officials kept asking "Why did you buy tickets on a day we didn't fly?"

Jennifer Jedow

Jennifer Jedow, 39, who owns a website design and marketing company, still remembers a family road trip when the luggage -- hard-earned Christmas gifts included -- flew off the roof rack of the family wagon into a stream of holiday traffic.
It was a dark night, two days before Christmas, and my entire family -- my parents, three younger siblings and the family dog -- were all piled into our Caprice Classic station wagon. I was 12 years old, my sisters were 8 and 5, and my brother was only 2 years old. I still remember that wagon -- yellow, with wood paneling and one of those reversible seats in the back so you can face looking out the back window. That's where I was seated, watching the world go past behind us. The rest of the kids were piled in the other seats and our pillows were everywhere -- seatbelts and booster seats weren't mandatory back then. We were just spread out wherever there was room. And the dog was in there, too, who knows where.

My father had painstakingly piled all the luggage on the roof. Whenever we went on road trips, he often put a suitcase or two up there to save room in the car. But since it was the holidays and we were bringing all the presents for our family as well as all the presents we were giving to our Vermont family along, the wagon was extraordinarily packed. Stuff was tied to the rooftop two or three feet high. There was even a computer up there, a gift for our family from my parents. All of a sudden, from my seat in the back, I saw stuff from the roof flying into the highway behind us. I'm not sure, but I think other drivers were beeping and motioning to us about what was happening. It took a few moments for my dad to find somewhere safe to pull over -- not an easy task at 55 miles per hour on a road busy with holiday traffic. And there wasn't a streetlight in sight.

So dad got out of the car and went to salvage what he could. It was mostly the suitcases that had fallen off. Thankfully, the computer had stayed strapped to the top. Dad kept returning with bits of clothing and presents that had been tossed from the roof and run over by other cars. He was out there for what seemed like hours, and we were more scared for his safety than about getting our clothes back. I just remember all the kids screaming and crying, mom trying to keep all four of us calm and everyone praying for Dad's safety. Dad would disappear for a few minutes then throw open the door, toss in some random items and go back into the darkness, running between cars, to look for more. My mom was yelling for him to just let it go, but he wanted to save as much as he could. It was absolute chaos. At one point he returned with a nightgown of mine that had large burn holes and tears in it. He also found some of the small gifts I purchased with my own money that year for everyone, including cheesy dollar store gifts like statues that said "#1 Mom" and "#1 Dad" that had been damaged on the road.

Eventually he secured the rest of the stuff on the roof, and we continued to Grandma's. When we returned home after the holidays, my parents gave me some money to replace the presents that had been damaged. They wanted to kind of save the holiday. To this day, they still have those #1 statues, and for a long time after that Christmas, I held onto the torn nightgown as a memory. It was certainly a holiday adventure, but it also brought perspective to be thankful for what we did have.

Elizabeth Ford

Elizabeth Ford, 28, who lives in New York City and works as a manager of sales operations, swore off Delta Airlines after a runaround delay, baggage snafus, and more.
It was the Saturday before Christmas, December 20, 2008. I was booked to fly home to Houston from JFK airport in New York, where I live. I'd booked my ticket several months prior, in October, and was prepared for holiday travel madness. Since my flight was projected on time all day, I arrived at JFK at 6PM for my 7:20PM flight on Delta. I checked my two bags, paying an additional $50 for the second one, went through quite a security line and arrived at the gate at around 6:30PM. That's when I saw that my flight was delayed until 8:55PM.

I was dismayed that there was no Delta agent -- or anyone for that matter -- at the counter for information, but proceeded to relax in the packed terminal for a bit and checked the status on my flight every half hour or so.

At around 8PM, I saw that the flight was further delayed, this time until 11:55PM. So I waited in line to discuss the situation with the now present gate agents and learned that the plane was delayed due to the incoming flight being delayed in Chicago. The flight, we were told, was now leaving Chicago. So I became hopeful that an 11:55PM departure for my holidays in Houston seemed possible.

An hour or so later, the departure was moved up to 11PM -- surely a sign of progress, I thought. Finally, at 10PM, I checked gate 18 one more time and was surprised to find no mention of my flight. Other flights listed on the screens had been moved to different gates but mine seemed to have fallen completely off the radar. Again, there were no gate agents on hand to answer any questions. I was already on the phone with my travel expert brother, who looked my flight up online and told me it had been moved to gate 19A, which happened to be in a different wing. So I hauled it to 19A, but didn't see my flight listed there either.

A few minutes later, I heard a boarding announcement for my flight to Houston and rushed to the gate. I thought it was odd that the flight was boarding 50 minutes early, but I wanted to double check since the communication had been so terrible up to this point. I checked with the ticket agents and was turned away, told that the Houston flight was closed and that I could join the long line at gate 19 to find out what was going on.

A few moments later, a Delta agent called out for Houston passengers and escorted us away from the crowd. She informed us that our plane had a weight issue due to too much fuel and that they could only take 22 of the 75 passengers scheduled to travel. After a near-riot from the crowd, she then informed us that the plane had already taken off with those 22 passengers and that we should wait in line at gate 20 to be re-booked.

All 53 of us got into a line where only one agent was working on re-bookings. I was fourth in line and waited over 45 minutes to talk to the agent. While waiting, I spoke to my brother again, who looked up alternate flights and Delta's Contract of Carriage. He instructed me to absolutely not take the $200 credit they were giving out because according to their Contract of Carriage, I was owed 200% of the ticket value in cash. In addition, he found an alternative flight on Continental for Monday night to get me to Houston. But when I finally spoke to the agent, I was told there were no confirmed seats available until Tuesday morning -- more than 48 hours later. They refused to book me on the Continental flight because the only available seats were first class. This also eliminated a United flight and another Delta flight on Monday. I ended up getting re-booked on a 6AM flight Tuesday morning connecting in Cincinnati.

When I mentioned Rule 245 in their Contract of Carriage to the agent, I was told I could talk to a manager, but they didn't know where I was going to get cash at that time of night. As if that were my fault! I sat patiently and waited for a manager. It took over two hours and a lot of attitude, but I left JFK that night with a check for over $400 -- and it was only because I stood my ground and knew the rules. So in the end I was compensated $454, which was twice the worth of my original one-way ticket. It paid for my Christmas trip home that year, but the fact that I had to sit there for three hours and argue for the money that was legally mine made it not worth the trouble. I felt intentionally misled.

My re-booked flight on Tuesday was a relative success and I made it to Houston. What was less successful, however, was the arrival of my luggage. When I'd been re-booked the night of my original flight, I'd been told my bags were already on their way to Houston. On Sunday morning, my mother headed to Houston to pick them up. She was surprised to learn that my bags were still at JFK.

Over the next five days, I spent five hours on the phone with Delta's 800-number for luggage. I called the number 68 times and only got through three times. I was on hold for over 30 minutes each time, to be told they could not help me or answer anything, to be told I should go to the nearest airport and file a delayed baggage complaint in person so I could check the status online, to be told it was the holidays and they were very busy. My bags eventually arrived in Houston on the afternoon of the 23rd but weren't delivered to me until a full two days later, on the night of the 25th. Of course I'd had presents packed in the bag, too, and my father was particularly unhappy that his gift was missing. Add to that, Christmas happens to be my birthday. Needless to say, it could have been a merrier one.

In addition to the money spent on this trip ($450 for the ticket, $50 on the checked bag they lost, $40 on trips to the drugstore to get necessities from my lost luggage, $30 in an extra cab to the airport for a trip I wasn't anticipating making), and aside from the time wasted concerning myself with this (nine hours in JFK that fateful night, a total of four hours on hold with Delta's customer service and baggage numbers), the biggest frustration with this entire charade was the fact that I was repeatedly lied to and misled by unhelpful Delta employees. They moved our flight to a different, unposted gate and called for it to board an hour early. They took the first 22 people and never asked for volunteers to be bumped (a direct violation of their rules). They sent the plane to Houston before we could find out what was going on. And they offered a $200 credit as a consolation. Then they had us wait in a multi-hour line. When I asked for the cash as clearly stated in their Code of Carriage, they treated me as a nuisance. And then they put me through five days of lost baggage hell.

I swore off Delta after the incident but ended up flying them once this year with no other viable option. But I don't think I'll fly them ever again.

Do you have a holiday horror story? Tell us at your tale of travel terror at TravelSubmit@aol.com!

Editor's Note: Attempts to get comments from South African Airways and Delta Airlines prior to the publication of this article were unsuccesful.

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Most Unexpected Flight Delays

Terry Ward — 2010-11-23T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Weird

Wm Jas, flickr

We've all been there. You dutifully arrive at the airport two hours before your flight, slog through security and finally reach your gate just to find out that the flight is delayed. It's a crazy world out there and you never know what's going to get in the way of taking off on time. Maybe it's stormy skies, maybe it's a delayed crew, or maybe it's...a fishy stench in the cabin? This might seem far-fetched, but just ask one American passenger who was traveling in Germany how real that scenario can be.

Not to mention the agitated horses and amorous turtles that have thrown a wrench in the works (humans are just as culpable of causing delays as animals, by the way). Here's our list of some of the wackiest -- and scariest -- flight delays.

10. Fishy Situation
Hannah Greve was scheduled to fly on one of Germany's major carriers from Munich to Hamburg in August 2010 when she, her boyfriend, and their fellow passengers were told they could not board the plane. Why? An official got on the airport PA system to inform passengers that their flight would not be able to depart because it had been overcome by a very fishy smell. "I think most of the passengers thought that first announcement was a joke," says Greve. "But it was followed by a mix of annoyance and relief when we realized the plane actually did smell like fish." Word quickly spread in the departure lounge that someone who'd been onboard the plane had been so overwhelmed by the smell that they had vomited, further intensifying the odor issues. "We were delayed by two and a half hours waiting for a new plane to come before we could board," says Greve, who recalls that passengers were never given an explanation for the stench. The plane had arrived in Munich from Hamburg, a city known for fish dishes, which include eel and herring. "My theory is that a passenger bought some local fish specialty, then proceeded to leave it under his or her seat," says Greve.

9. Canine Conundrum
Call him the mystery mutt. As a result of a dashing doggy, the air traffic control tower at Burbank Airport in California had to delay the departure of at least one commercial jet in October 2010. An overhead video broadcasted by KTLA news station shows a dark-colored dog sprinting across two taxiways and a runway at the airport. It was never determined where the dog had come from, but the animal was definitely on a high-speed mission, as airport officials in trucks followed in hot pursuit. In the video, the dog can be seen running down a runway and over grassy areas before exiting the airport through a gap in a gate, outfoxing the airport operations personnel who were hot on its trail. Helicopter Reporter Alex Calder, commentating on the live action, was obviously impressed by the maneuver: "This little guy does not want to go back to doggy jail here, so he is running like crazy."

8. No Wheelchair, No Go
Stephen J. Dubner, an author and New York Times blogger wrote in a Freakonomics column from October 2010 that he has "heard a lot of reasons for planes being delayed." But a broken handle on a wheel chair? That was the excuse the captain of a Delta flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport gave passengers, including Dubner, during a recent flight delay. "It didn't seem to matter that no passengers on the flight had needed a wheelchair to board: the plane couldn't take off, he said, until a replacement was brought on board," Dubner writes. He added that the captain kept passengers continually informed about the status of their departure. But it took two and a half hours before a replacement wheelchair was located, and the flight was finally able to take off.

7. Horse Frenzy
When you're a Saudi Arabian prince, apparently, traveling with your six prized Arabian horses in the cargo hold is just another ride in the skies. But things didn't go quite as planned on a June 2010 flight bound from Egypt to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The pilot of an EgyptAir flight was forced to return the taxiing plane to the gate when the horses became agitated in the hold. The pilot deemed the situation a safety risk, and an airport veterinarian was called to tranquilize the equines. Once the animals were safely asleep -- and a flight delay of 80 minutes later -- the jet took off for Saudi Arabia as planned.

6. The B Word
We all know that one of the last words you should ever utter at an airport or around perked TSA ears is "bomb." One recent SkyWest Airlines passenger at Denver International Airport, however, seemingly could not resist. His actions not only delayed the flight's departure for an hour, but landed him with a layover in jail as a result. The individual, a business executive named Sergei Berejnoi, had missed his October 2010 flight from Denver to Salt Lake City and grew angry -- by the time he arrived at the gate, boarding had already closed. Berejnoi falsely claimed that his checked bag had a bomb inside. As a result, Flight 6694, with 50 people on board, was forced to return to the gate, where bomb-sniffing dogs were used to search the plane (no explosives were found). Bail was set at $15,000, and Berejnoi was charged with endangering public transportation -- a felony.

5. Bug Bungle
Florida has the reputation of being a creepy, crawly kind of state, but passengers aboard an American Airlines flight bound from Miami to Washington, DC, in March 2010 were still surprised to learn that their plane was delayed due to a cockroach infestation in the cabin. A colony of the much-maligned insects had taken up residence on the curtain hung between the first class cabin and the cockpit. It took 90 minutes to contain the cockroach problem and for the plane to be cleared to leave.

4. Turtle Love
Passengers at JFK airport are no strangers to delays. The air space around New York is among the most congested in the country according to FAA spokesperson Paul Takemoto, with three major airports (including LaGuardia and Newark) in very close proximity. But in July 2009, something far less predictable than flight congestion caused a runway snafu when scores of diamondback terrapins from nearby Jamaica Bay plodded onto the runway in search of a place to breed. Port Authority workers hustled to remove some 78 amorous turtles from the runway, piling them into a truck and returning them to the bay. The operation caused flights to be pushed back as long as 90 minutes at JFK and affected planes taking off from LaGuardia as well as air traffic control tried to get everyone back on schedule.

3. Fight Attendants
Passengers aren't the only ones who get a little testy when an unforeseen delay hits. Two female flight attendants on a Delta Connection flight in February 2010 bound from Rochester to Atlanta were removed from duty pending an internal investigation after a fight between them compounded a flight delay. A sick passenger had already caused the plane to return to the gate before take-off, when the fight between the airline's employees broke out. The passengers were asked to deplane from the aircraft and were forced to take other flights to reach their destinations.

2. MIA Baby Pythons
Like something straight from a horror movie, a Qantas airplane missed two scheduled flights in April 2009 after it was discovered that four baby Stimson's pythons were unaccounted for following a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne, Australia. The non-venomous snakes were being transported in the plane's cargo hold and were thought to be safely packed inside a bag that was secured in a foam box. The plane was fumigated and returned to service, but passengers' minds were not exactly put at ease since the snakes were never found.

1. Toilet Trouble
Some wily passengers decided to test the suction ability of the toilets on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight from Dhaka to London in August 2009, causing the trip to be delayed ten hours. Solid materials including bottles, cups and sanitary pads were tossed into all five of the airplane's toilets, causing a serious snag in the pneumatic system. The clogged toilets were fixed in just two hours, but the more than 200 passengers aboard the flight had to wait an additional eight more hours for takeoff due to a night flight ban at Heathrow airport.

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Crazy Items Confiscated at Customs

Terry Ward — 2010-11-22T13:57:00+00:00

Filed under: Weird

Sakchai Lalit, AP

Your palms may sweat a bit when you get to the front of the customs line, knowing you have one bottle of wine too many in your luggage. But that's nothing compared to what some travelers try to get away with. Think bear paws, live snakes, exotic animals, and some creatively packaged drugs.

Read on for a list of the craziest contraband confiscated by customs agents around the world.

10. Shoes Stuffed with Heroin
Drug smugglers might be a scheming bunch, but that doesn't mean they always use their brains. In October 2010, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen and her younger brother were busted with some serious contraband when disembarking from Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas cruise ship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Custom agents pegged the duo for a secondary screening process as they were leaving the boat, and when the woman's luggage was opened they found some pretty unlikely contents -- 15 pairs of 1980s-style men's shoes. The fact that such unusual items were being carried by a woman raised suspicions that led to the discovery of over six kilograms of heroin, worth $324,000, which had been duct taped inside the shoes.

9. Human Skulls
They would have made for some very creepy Halloween decorations, but the six human skulls confiscated in September 2010 from the luggage of two American tourists at the Athens International Airport in Greece never left their country of origin. Greek police charged the tourists, who had purchased the skulls at a souvenir shop on the island of Mykonos and thought they were fake, with desecrating the dead. The skulls were found during an airport scanner check when the Americans were on a layover at the Athens airport. A police official speaking anonymously said that a coroner had confirmed that the skulls were human.

8. Tiger Cub
He was even cuter and fuzzier than his poly fill brethren. The roughly three-month-old tiger cub that was found sedated and hidden among stuffed animal tigers inside a woman's luggage at Bangkok International Airport was discovered when the oversize suitcase went through an X-ray machine. Airport officials saw what appeared to be a live animal inside the bag and took it aside for further inspection, according to wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC. The suitcase's owner was bound for Iran where, according to officials, the tiger cub could have brought in more than $3,000 on the black market. The cub was sent to a wildlife conservation center instead, and the woman faces wildlife smuggling charges and fines.

7. Fake $100,000 Bills
In 2009, a passenger arriving at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport from Seoul, South Korea, had two counterfeit $100,000 bills confiscated from him before he could embark on what could have been one very ambitious shopping spree. Back in 1934, rare $100,000 bills were produced to be circulated between the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Banks. But the bills never made it into general circulation. Agents discovered the man's faux money during a luggage screening -- the passenger had marked on his customs form that he was entering the country with more than $10,000. He claimed to have found the bills in an old book belonging to his father. They were deemed to be counterfeit and turned over to the Secret Service.

6. Cocaine Cast
Rolling up to a security line with a cast on your leg can win you some sympathy and a spot at the front of the queue in some airports -- but it can also raise suspicions. In 2009, a Chilean passenger arriving from Santiago was busted at the airport in Barcelona, Spain when it was determined that the cast on his leg was made from cocaine instead of plaster. While the man really did have bone fractures, officials were investigating if his injuries had been done intentionally to ease trafficking through checkpoints. The proof was in the pudding when they decided to spray the cast with a chemical that turns bright blue when in contact with cocaine (it did). In addition to the illicit cast, the passenger also had on him six cans of beer and hollowed-out stools containing cocaine.

5. Bear Paws
Forget images of delicious bakery pastries studded with almonds. The bear paws that were confiscated in October 2010 from a man's luggage at Ho Chi Minh City Airport in Vietnam were the real furry deal. A scanner detected the paws (a dozen in total) inside the checked luggage of a Vietnamese man arriving from Hong Kong, according to reports. Bear paws are stewed as part of Vietnamese bear paw soup, which is also considered a delicacy dish in Cambodia, China and elsewhere in Asia.

4. Snakes and Lizards
And you thought snakes on planes were bad? Imagine being the bold would-be smuggler who taped some 14 snakes and ten lizards onto his body in an attempt to sneak the reptiles into Norway in 2009, after arriving in the country by ferry from Denmark. Granted, the snakes were non-venomous king pythons -- and the creatures were rolled up in socks and taped onto the man's torso. The lizards (albino leopard geckos) were hidden in boxes that were strapped to the man's legs. Perhaps the wackiest part of the whole thing is that it wasn't the snakes that betrayed the man's intentions to officials -- a tarantula spotted in his luggage is what led to the full body search that revealed the whole slithering affair. A customs official was quoted as saying that they "quickly realized the man was smuggling animals, because his whole body was in constant motion." Creepy crawly, indeed.

3. Bonytongue Fish
An airline losing your luggage is never a good thing. But for one would-be wildlife smuggler, it was definitely a worst-case scenario. Chee Thye Chaw from Queens was arrested in 2009 after officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York determined that he was trying to bring 16 bonytongues (an endangered fish species) into the country. Chaw was returning from Malaysia, but his baggage did not show up at the claim in New York. The next day, a customs agent performing random checks on lost baggage discovered 16 fish packed in individual plastic bags cushioned with Styrofoam inside the luggage. Chaw claimed to have no intention of selling the fish, which are considered good luck charms in Asian cultures and sell for between $5,000 and $10,000 apiece.

2. Rhinoceros Horns
Ireland is one of the last places you'd expect to find bits of safari animals. But over the course of several weeks in late 2009 and 2010, three Irish passengers were busted at Shannon Airport when ten rhinoceros horns, including six from the endangered white rhino and four from black rhinos, also considered critically endangered, were discovered in their suitcases. The value of the horns was placed at roughly 500,000 Euros, or close to $678,000. Rhino horns are often ground down and used as a prized ingredient in Chinese medicine. According to a report on a National Geographic blog, the illegal rhino horn trade "is responsible for decimating the world's rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years."

1. Snake Wine
For many oenophiles, a glass of snake wine might not have quite the appeal of, say, Sauvignon Blanc. But in Southeast Asian countries, a whole snake soaking in alcohol is a specialty unto itself -- which isn't to say that it's welcome across international borders. For Miami customs officials, it was just another day at the office in May 2009 when a routine inspection revealed a cobra and other poisonous snakes packed into a jar of liquid that had arrived inside an express mail package from Thailand. The package was bound for an address in the Southeastern United States. In certain cultures, poisonous snakes are dissolved in alcohol to bring the poison out. The liquid is then used for medicinal purposes.

Up Next: Our list of some of the wackiest -- and scariest -- flight delays

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How to Find Last Minute Travel Deals

Terry Ward — 2010-11-05T16:24:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Tips & Tricks, Budget, Seasonal, Holiday Travel

joiseyshowaa, flickr

If you've been on a commercial airliner lately, chances are it was a pretty full flight. The airlines are operating at their highest capacity in a long time. And with the holidays right around the corner, things look set to get more hectic and overbooked than ever.

According to American Express Travel's consumer booking data from September, holiday travel is up 11 percent for domestic flights and 16 percent for international flights over the same period last year. Additional data from the company shows that some 40 percent of consumers plan to travel this holiday season (during Thanksgiving and Christmas season), with 88 percent of them staying within the U.S.

Still thinking about booking a flight somewhere or planning a last-minute hotel stay or cruise? The good and somewhat amazing news, considering the circumstances, is that with a little insider knowledge and foresight, there are still deals to be had -- even over the crazy holiday travel period.

Have you booked your holiday travel yet?
Yes, I've had my tickets for months.	1023 (32.9%)
It's next on my to-do list.	561 (18.0%)
No, I'm going to wait until the last minute.	527 (16.9%)
I'm not traveling over the holidays.	999 (32.1%)

Being as flexible as possible with your travel dates, says Jaime Samuels, publisher of Travelzoo's Weekly Top 20 and Newsflash, is key to getting the best airfare over the holidays. She recommends looking for fares on metasearch engines (which send requests to numerous search engines) like Fly.com, where you can use a calendar function to view various travel date options to find the lowest possible fare.

"You're seeing what the final out-the-door roundtrip pricing will be as well as unadvertised fares," says Samuels of Fly.com's format. "These are going to be the lower fares on the market."

But Samuels does not advise waiting until the last minute to book holiday travel. "I'm not seeing any reason to expect that at the last minute prices will drop," she says.

For the best fares leading up to Thanksgiving, she says the best days to travel are the Monday and Tuesday before the holiday and the best day to return is Thanksgiving itself or the Friday and Saturday after. "Everyone is going to be flying home that Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving," she says, "The stress of the airport is reason enough to wait."

Samuels advises that for the best prices on Christmas travel, travelers should plan to travel the Tuesday and Wednesday before Christmas, or even Christmas day itself. "For the return, Tuesday or Wednesday after Christmas is where you'll find the lower fares," she says.

Charles Leocha, Director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, an advocacy group in Washington that works on consumer issues, agrees that waiting until the last minute to book holiday airfare is not a good idea. "The airlines have really cut back on capacity and planes are now flying at higher load factors than probably any other time in airline history," says Leocha, "This means the airlines have control of their pricing. The advice I give is to make sure you reserve your tickets as soon as you can; don't wait till the last minute. There just aren't going to be deals at the last minute."

And in a move that might seem counter-intuitive, Leocha advises travelers that the low-cost carriers might not always have the lowest fares for holiday travel, so it's important to check all your options.

"A lot of the low cost carriers with point-to-point service are actually selling tickets at a higher price than legacy carriers since they offer nonstop service to destinations where the legacy carriers have to funnel flights through a hub," he says. "Even the low cost carriers are fairly confident they are going to fill their planes for the holiday season, so they aren't starting out at low prices. They are starting at moderate prices because people are willing to pay extra money to go nonstop."

If flying nonstop isn't a priority for you, says John DiScala of JohnnyJet.com, there are often substantial savings to be had -- even during the busy holiday travel dates. A recent search DiScala made on travel with Delta Airlines for a Christmas Eve flight from Los Angeles to New York was nearly $60 cheaper with a stopover as opposed to going nonstop.

Another tip that DiScala has for finding cheaper fares over the holidays is to consider flying on New Year's Eve. "To me, New Year's Eve is overrated," he says, "I'd rather save my money and fly that day and spend my money on travel.

"Fly New Year's Eve on a redeye cross-country or across the Atlantic or Pacific," he says. "No one wants to fly on New Year's Eve, so those tickets will be cheap."

Travel writer Kristin Luna found that to be true when she and her husband were booking return flights from Tennessee to San Francisco on American Airlines after the holidays. "Scott and I were going to fly back to San Francisco from Memphis after the holidays on December 29 or 30 and had just about booked our tickets, but then he had the epiphany to check airfare for New Year's Eve," she says.

"A 6 p.m. flight that gets us in at 11 p.m. was over $100 cheaper than the days before. We're not the type to go out big on New Year's Eve anyway, so why not save money? Plus, that gives us a little more time back home with the family."

Luna also advises looking at all airport options when searching for the cheapest holiday airfares. "We had planned to drive four hours back to Nashville from Memphis to catch a flight, as we assumed it would be cheaper given that it's a much bigger airport," she says. "But surprisingly the better deal came from Memphis, so from now on I'll be checking flights from smaller, nearby airports before I book."

Great Hotel Deals

While snagging the cheapest possible airfare over the holidays definitely involves some finagling and research, for people looking for cheap hotel stays over Thanksgiving and Christmas the news is more encouraging -- even if you've waited until now to think about where to go.

"Everyone wants to go to the resorts for Christmas, but if you look at the business hotels they will have deals," says DiScala. "Places in financial districts, downtown areas..."

Samuels from Travelzoo agrees: "On the hotel side of this, major cities in the U.S. are majorly discounted over the holidays. Getting a really great deal in New York in the fall or in between the holidays can be really hard to find. But over Thanksgiving Day and Christmas week we're seeing really great deals at hotels in New York, Chicago, San Francisco; even Orlando has some great deals over Thanksgiving."

Among the deals listed on Travelzoo's Thanksgiving site are: $119 per night at the oceanfront Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach in Florida over Thanksgiving weekend and other dates; $220 per night over Thanksgiving at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge (regularly $409 per night) and $89 per night at the AAA 4-Diamond Fairmont Dallas on dates that include Thanksgiving and Christmas.

While Samuels says Thanksgiving and the month of November in general show the best deals for escaping to warm weather destinations, the good deals should continue through mid-December. "If you're trying to decide which holiday to get away, Thanksgiving is really the better option for hotel deals," she says. "I've seen really good deals to Jamaica, Cancun, the Riviera Maya...and Thanksgiving has not been blocked out, so it's a good option."

Cruise bargains can also still be found for holiday travel. Travelzoo's Thanksgiving deals site posted a special on seven-night cruises to the Eastern Caribbean over Thanksgiving from $524 per person, with kids sailing for free. And American Express's cruise site shows a five night Western Caribbean cruise over Thanksgiving on Celebrity Cruises from $329.

Charles White, an American Express Travel Consultant, urges that flexibility in all things -- from flights to hotels stays and cruises -- is key to getting a deal over the holidays. "If you're cruising, be open to different cabin types," he says. "This is also true for hotels -- be open to booking a different room category than you typically would."

American Express offers a Last Minute Deals website with travel options offered from three weeks to three hours before departure.

Involving a travel agent in your plans will go a long way in helping you get a last minute deal, says White. "Travel agents often have access to airfare deals that aren't available on the internet," he says. "Travel agents also have first notice when seats become available on a full flight. However, deals can be hard to come by because limited availability typically means higher pricing."

Paying with points accrued on your credit cards can also help offset costs associated with last-minute travel, says White.

Leocha, the consumer advocate, agrees that involving a travel agent is a good thing to think about if you hope to land a last minute travel deal this holiday season. "You never know until the time comes. But if you're going to find any deals, it would be from people who are booking airlines and hotels together," says Leocha,. "When it comes to putting together a dynamic package like that, the online travel agencies and mom-and-pop agencies have more leeway in terms of price than when you're dealing with only the airlines."

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Ten Off-the-Beaten-Path European Travel Destinations

Terry Ward — 2010-10-20T15:02:00+00:00

Filed under: Best Of

Terry Ward

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Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

The U.S. State Department's Oct. 3 travel alert announcing the "potential for terrorist attacks in Europe" in popular tourism destinations such as Germany and France sparked fear in many Americans, and frustrated many people, too, with its vagueness.

Touristic sights in cities like Paris and transportation hubs, such as airports and railway stations across the Continent, were singled out as places for Americans to remain vigilant. Sure, you could cancel your trip to Europe-or you could consider the warning as a good reason to get creative with your travel plans. Head off the beaten tourist path in Europe; bypass the major attractions and big urban centers and leave the hectic airports and train stations in a hurry to make for these delightful, off-the-radar destinations instead.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

During the high season, you can fly nonstop from Boston (five hours) and Oakland, CA (summer only) on charter flights with SATA International airline to the Azores -- a cluster of nine exotic islands in the Atlantic Ocean belonging to Portugal and located roughly 900 miles from the mainland.

Alternatively, it's a short two-hour hop from Lisbon to Azorean destinations like Pico and Faial, two serene islands where volcanoes dominate the landscape, sperm whales spout just off shore, and an underwater world of volcanic lava flows and fumaroles delights divers who make the journey.

The island of Sço Jorge is reminiscent of Kauai's famed Na Pali Coast, with Technicolor green cliffs plunging sheer and steep into this lonely stretch of the Atlantic. Picturesque Portuguese villages throughout the islands usually center on a church and plaza lined with a few cafes.

You'll eat incredibly well in the Azores, too, with everything from mahi mahi to clams plucked from pristine coastal rocks of São Jorge on local menus. Wine lovers shouldn't miss the red wines from the slopes of Pico's volcano.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

If Norman Rockwell had envisioned a town to paint in the Swiss Alps, chances are it would have looked a lot like Bergün -- a village of roughly 550 inhabitants that abuts a high mountain pass in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. During the snowy winter months, locals transport everything from groceries to their kids atop old-fashioned wooden sleds that they pull through town.

While few American tourists know the place, Swiss visitors descend from Zürich (2.5 hours away by train) and beyond for some of the most atmospheric sled runs imaginable. You ride a train up the mountain along a UNESCO World Heritage -- designated route that rolls over vaulted stone viaducts to the top of the sled run, then warm up with some mulled wine or a hot chocolate before sledding your way back to town under moonlight or a sky filled with stars.

There's a small station in Bergün, and world-class resorts like St. Moritz and Davos are about an hour away by train.

Outside of ski season, there's hiking and mountain biking -- not to mention just wandering the cute village streets past traditionally painted houses -- to while away your perfect Alpine moments.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

One of Europe's most stunning waterways, the UNESCO World Heritage -- designated Canal du Midi in the South of France, stretches for roughly 150 miles between the towns of Sète and Toulouse. Through a series of waterways that spring from it, the canal, which was built in the 17th century, ultimately connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

A visit here -- whether aboard a luxury river barge such as the Tango or while pedaling a bike through medieval towns like Carcassone and Narbonne-takes you past impossibly beautiful village scenery, local markets and iconic French landscapes.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

Situated between Venice and Milan in Northern Italy, the Garda Lake is Italy's largest lake and a popular tourist destination, especially for northern Europeans. Few American tourists make it here, however, as they're more likely to be drawn to larger Italian cities and the country's south.

In fact, you're more likely to find shop owners along the Garda Lake fluent in German than in English -- but it's easy enough to make yourself understood.

The crystal clear lake is dotted with swans and the odd ferry transporting people to points along the lakeshore. Rugged mountains make for a beautiful backdrop to the shimmering blue water.

As appealing as the natural beauty of this place is the charm of lakeside towns such as Lazise, on the eastern shore, where you can linger over a gelato while watching boats bob in the pretty port or grab a cappuccino on a sun-splashed terrace.

The peak months of summer are very busy with tourists, but autumn is an especially appealing time to visit this part of Italy, with the sunshine still in full effect and interesting local festivals celebrating things like olive oil and regional wines on the calendar.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

Named one of France's most beautiful villages (and in a country like France, that's saying a lot), the hilltop town of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie (about an hour and a half northeast of Marseilles and the Côte d'Azur) appears to be plucked straight from a Middle Ages fairy tale.

The town's tiled homes and shops tumble down a steep mountain wall with a stream gurgling through its heart.

Stop for a crepe in a cute café, have a sip of water directly from the town's bubbling fountain, then head off to explore the nearby Gorges du Verdon, where water the color of a blue daiquiri flows from a gorge of narrow red cliffs and gaping caves into beautiful Lake Sainte Croix.

Nearby, acre upon acre of lavender fields and olive groves make for many a perfect Provence photo moment.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

Drawn by the promise of perfectly peeling waves, surfers tend to hone in on some of the most beautiful places in the world in their pursuit of the Endless Summer. The small village of Mundaka in Northern Spain's Basque country is one such corner of paradise.

Billabong hosts a world surfing championship here every year, in October. But even if riding and watching waves is not your thing, there's plenty of reason to visit Mundaka as part of your authentic travel itinerary. Traditional Basque architecture-white buildings with red roofs-dominate the townscape.

There's a small, very scenic port. And the town's narrow cobbled alleyways are the perfect place to find a traditional restaurant serving Basque specialties, including seafood dishes inspired by the fruits of the Bay of Biscay.

The town hosts festivals throughout the year, too, so you might be lucky enough to be here when traditional dances or performances of the Basque flute take place.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

About two hours south of Munich, Oberstdorf, Germany -- a popular place for skiing and hiking in Southern Bavaria -- is a quaint town in the Allgäu region of the Alps where you can hear the clinking of cattle bells and find farmers selling fresh dairy products from their barns, right in the middle of town.

Apart from its skiing and snowboarding draws during the winter months, Oberstdorf is known as a destination for wellness vacations year round, with most hotels offering sauna and spa facilities and an emphasis on hydrotherapy and fresh mountain air as part of any wellness routine.

And while you won't find many American tourists here, you can count on plenty of German visitors, as well as the odd Austrian (the border is very near).

For local food, you can't go wrong with the cured meats and cheeses served at every Oberstdorf hotel breakfast buffet.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

Many visitors to Germany aren't aware of the country's hundreds of miles of beautiful dune-fringed coastline along the Baltic and North Seas. It's safe to say that nearly all Germans, however, have heard of Sylt -- during the summertime, the North Sea island is the German equivalent of the Hamptons, and celebrities descend to bunk in the pretty, straw-roofed traditional houses and linger in cafes in the posh town of Kampen.

During the off-season months, the island's appeal comes in a quiet rural vibe and miles of windswept beaches backed by towering dunes. Germany's only oyster farm is found here, too, and sampling the delicious bivalves is a must during your visit.

When you're not walking on the beach or traipsing along trails in the dunes, you can shelter in a gemütlich café with a hot drink while watching squalls whip their way across the North Sea.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

Fewer than 50 miles north of Amsterdam's busy city center, in the town of Den Helder, you can hop the ferry to Texel, one of Holland's pretty North Sea islands. The landscape is flat as a ribbon, for the most part, and criss-crossed with canals that sometimes freeze in the winter months, drawing locals outside to enjoy their country's national winter pastime-ice skating.

During the warmer months, you can go wadlopen, walking on the wadden-areas offshore that are usually underwater but become exposed during low tide, revealing a fascinating walk-through experience during which you'll find interesting crustaceans and other sea critters.

Throughout the year, the weekly market held on Mondays in the island's main town, Den Burg, is a fun chance to sample favorite Dutch foods including kibbeling -- delicious fish bits fried in batter and served with a tangy remoulade sauce for dipping. Pick up a bottle of the local tipple, Juttertje, to bring home.

Ten Off the Beaten Path European Travel Destinations

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Emergency in the Sky

Terry Ward — 2010-10-13T14:21:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Tips & Tricks, Real Life Stories

Jupiterimages

What happens when a passenger gets sick at 30,000 feet?

Think being seasick is a nightmare? Consider falling ill while you're on a plane several hours from landing, with no doctor onboard.

Late last month, it was a famous passenger -- former President Jimmy Carter -- who made headlines after he got "airsick" on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Cleveland. But every day, passengers from all walks of life are struck with illnesses while traveling on commercial flights -- with issues ranging from intoxication-related symptoms to viruses, anxiety attacks, heart attacks and everything in between.

The good news?

Airline crews are trained to deal with these situations. "You actually have more access to medical attention onboard an airplane than you do on a bus or any other means of public transport," says David Castelveter, a spokesman with the Washington D.C.-based Air Transport Association. "Every flight attendant goes through basic training for CPR as part of their hiring training and recurrent training," he explains, "But their protocol is always to ask if a medical professional is onboard."

Castelveter says that first aid kits of a basic and advanced variety are available on all planes (the only official FAA medical requirement, according to agency spokeswoman Alison Duquette). Basic kits contain things like bandages and aspirin that flight attendants can readily administer. But captains also have access to advanced medical kits, says Castelveter, with items like insulin injections and allergy medications that can be released to medical professionals onboard (doctors, nurses, EMTs, etc.) for treating passengers in flight.

And thanks to contracts that airlines have with medical professionals on the ground, says Castelveter, pilots can be in constant contact during the flight to get advice when dealing with an ill passenger.

"One thing people might feel better knowing is that the airlines do have physicians that are always on call," explains Gailen David, the Sky Steward, a lead purser with a major American airline and longtime flight attendant with 23 years of experience. "So even if there's not a doctor actually on the airplane, the captain can be in constant contact with them to relay symptoms." Gailen says that in addition to being trained in CPR, flight attendants are trained in the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), too.

JoshuaDavisPhotography, flickr

Standard on US commercial jets and present on most regional carriers, too, AEDs can be used to check an unresponsive passenger or crewmember for a heartbeat, diagnose the situation and advise whether CPR or electric shock should be employed.

"If someone is unconscious or they don't respond, we go to the defibrillators," says Gailen, who has dealt with many in-flight emergencies and sicknesses but never an in-flight death. "I've mostly dealt with people fainting or being sick because of intoxication," he says.

And fainting, it turns out, is a fairly common occurrence at altitudes where oxygen levels are lower than on the ground. Diana Lambdin Meyer, an author from Kansas City, Mo., can testify to that firsthand. During an Air Canada flight in 2002 to Toronto, Lambdin Meyer, who has always had "very low blood pressure," suddenly felt sick.

I'd fallen asleep in my seat and then woke up with this odd feeling," she says. " I couldn't breathe, and wanted to get some water to splash on my face. I stood up in the aisle and went right down, flat in the aisle."

Lambdin Meyer's husband and son, who were seated a few rows behind her, saw a commotion and realized she was passed out in the aisle. "My husband said he thought I was dead. He said I had no color in my face, I was totally grey and my blouse was soaked in perspiration," she recalls.

The flight attendants called to see if there was a doctor on board and stretched her out on the ground, as protocol dictates, bringing water and cold towels. "They brought a little oxygen tank, and I came to really quickly and had everyone looking at me," Lambdin Meyer says. Though she felt better, the pilot had declared a medical emergency and cleared the plane for an immediate landing.

"My husband said they had made an announcement earlier that the Pope was coming in and was going to be landing in Toronto, too, so they were holding air traffic," says Lambdin Meyer. "We were supposed to circle for an hour or so. Well, instead they declared a medical emergency, bumped the Pope from landing and we landed."

Upon landing, EMTs boarded the plane with a stretcher and carried Lambdin Meyer out. "By this point I was totally functioning, feeling fine, but just absolutely embarrassed," says Lambdin Meyer. How the situation unfolded, it turns out, is pretty much standard operating procedure when someone passes out on a plane (although it's not every day that the Pope is delayed!).

"If a passenger gets ill to the point of needing immediate medical attention, we contact a medical doctor who advises us on the radio of what they assess the situation to be," confirms a pilot for a major US airline. "Or, if it's an actual emergency, like a heart attack, we'll get priority handling from air traffic control, get the aircraft on the ground and get an ambulance to meet us."

The pilot, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that he, too, has fallen ill while flying. "I came down with some kind of flu on the way into our hub one night," he says. "I starting feeling it about 10 minutes after taking off on a two-hour flight. By the time we landed, I was in a cold sweat and had chills."

As they pulled off the runway after landing, says the pilot, "I tried to speak on the radio but had to grab the trash bag instead to throw up." The protocol in this case, he says, is "to notify the company en route that you aren't feeling well and that they need a replacement." And that's just what he did, canceling his next leg and heading home instead.

Of course, the worst-case in-flight scenario is when someone dies -- and it has happened in the past to both pilots and passengers (and has happened as recently as October 13th, when a Qatar Airways flight was diverted after a pilot died onboard).

Peter Rothholz, a travel writer and frequent flier, has been on two flights when passengers have passed away. The first instance happened in the 1970s, on a flight from St. Thomas to New York City. The passenger, who Rothholz knew, was seated a few rows in front of him and had a heart attack.

"They moved him up to first class and stretched him out on the floor and tried to give him CPR," Rothholz recalls. "The crew asked if there was a doctor on board, I don't think there was." The passenger died, and when the flight landed several hours later at JFK, the airplane was diverted to a remote area where an ambulance was waiting to collect the body. "A couple of EMTs came aboard, they took him on the stretcher, covered him in a blanket and took him off," says Rothholz, adding that the man's wife also exited the plane to accompany his body.

Another time, a decade later, Rothholz was en route to Amsterdam when a woman several rows behind him died fairly early into the flight. "I was not aware of what was going on until it was all over," he says. "She was left in a seat and they put a blanket over her. It was a pretty full flight -- I don't know what could have been done. It was an overnight flight, so they put the lights out and everyone tried to go to sleep."

Making sure a dead passenger remains secured in a seat, according to David, the lead purser, is also standard operating procedure. With space so limited on airliners these days, he says, there isn't usually a cabinet onboard used to store bodies in the event of a death. (If it were procedure to store a deceased passenger in a compartment or closet, he says, it wouldn't even be possible these days, as most planes are short of this type of space since airlines have made room for more seats.)

And when a passenger dies, he says, there are clear procedures to follow. "If they don't respond, we move them to the floor for possible CPR," he says. "If after 30 minutes, there's still no sign of improvement and they're dead, then we have to go ahead and put them into a seat." Standard airline procedures dictate the person is to be secured in the seat, says Gailen, "so we move the person to a seat -- preferably where few customers are nearby -- and ask for volunteers to assist in moving the person, if necessary."

Directives also require that the deceased not block an exit row, that the eyes are closed, that a blanket is placed under the body, and that the body is also covered with a blanket.

Have you ever been sick on a plane or been on a flight when a fellow passenger died? Share your experiences in the comments below.

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How to Leverage the Timeshare System

Terry Ward — 2010-10-08T15:56:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel, Tips & Tricks, Budget, Weekend Getaways

GGtimeshares, flickr

When Barbilee Hemmings, a family success coach in Edmonton, Canada, moved to California in 2001, she found an interesting -- and economical -- way to get to know her new home.

"We didn't know the area, other than Disneyland, of course," Hemmings recalls, "so we decided to take up companies on their free offers."

Hemmings is referring to timeshare companies that promise free hotel stays and other services in exchange for a block of your time, during which they deliver their sales pitch. Over the course of her first 10 months in California, says Hemmings, she and her family were able to explore the state while staying free at numerous places offering timeshare pitch vacations.

Have you ever sat through a timeshare pitch for a free vacation?
Yes, and it was worth it!	2426 (37.5%)
Yes, but I wouldn't do it again.	1895 (29.3%)
No, but I think I might now.	1292 (20.0%)
No, I like my vacations to be hassle-free.	857 (13.2%)

The travels included two weekends at a dude ranch, a weekend on the beach at a private campground, two weekends in San Diego that included tickets to SeaWorld, and a weekend near the Mexican border at another private campground with "free gas, free turkey and lots of family fun," Hemmings says. "As a family of four, it was great to get some free vacations," she adds, "and for 90 minutes of our time, it was worth it for the other perks that came along with it."

Ninety minutes seems to be the magic number when it comes to the amount of time that timeshare companies expect guests staying on their dime to invest in listening to their sales pitch -- and that pitch is often a hard sell process that can be hard to walk away from.

According to Howard Nusbaum of the American Real Estate Developers Association -- a Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization that represents vacation ownership and resort development industries -- studies have shown that timeshare purchasers generally go through three tours before they buy in. And even people who are admittedly just in it for the cheap or free vacation are welcome to take part, says Nusbaum. "We are pretty bullish on the idea that once people try the product, they won't want to go back to a traditional hotel room," he says. "If some people think, 'I am going to take advantage of an opportunity and not buy,' I don't have a problem with that. Anytime we can educate our consumers, it's good for the timeshare industry."

Jackie Lantry of Rehoboth, Mass., remembers well a family trip to Disney World in Florida several years ago that came at the price of sitting through a pitch. "We were required to sit through a 90-minute presentation, which included a 30- to 45- minute 'drive around' to see what units were available," she recalls. "The salesperson did use some hard sell techniques, but we just kept telling him: 'We have to talk to our accountant before signing anything.' We took the information packet, and that was the last we heard from them."

Jackie Lantry and her family took a trip to Disney World for
the price of sitting through a pitch; Darren Wittko, flickr

For their time, Lantry's family enjoyed staying in a two-bedroom apartment near the Disney attractions, complete with a washer and dryer, full kitchen and sunny terrace. During the five-day trip, Lantry estimates her family of five spent about $500 on entertainment and food. "It was well worth it from our perspective," she says. "In the middle of winter we got a few inexpensive days in the sun and the kids had a great time. The sell was not really that hard, and they stuck to the timeline they'd given us.

"In the end, we chose not to buy the timeshare, but the vacation was worth it," she says. "It was a good experience, a great bargain and I would do it again."

Not everyone, however, has such a pain-free experience with the pitch part of the vacation. Dan Nainan, a comedian from New York City, remembers a particularly unpleasant experience that happened during the sales pitch of a timeshare vacation he went on to Palm Coast, Florida. "We had three free nights in a wonderful hotel, then had to listen to the pitch for a couple of hours one morning," Nainan recalls. Everything was fine, he says, until he began to indicate that he was not interested in buying a timeshare property.

Then the salesman said something he'll never forget, says Nainan. "He said, 'In all my years of working here, I've never had anyone of your race buy anything here,'" recalls Nainan, who considers himself "ethnically ambiguous."

"I felt like I had been slapped in the face, and needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable," says Nainan. "Quite obviously, I had absolutely no guilt about getting a free vacation from that company."

So what can be done if things start to get stressful during a hard sell pitch? Victoria Munro, who co-owns Make-It-Fly, a small business advisory group, says she has taken several mini-vacations for under $100 over the years, and has some advice for dealing with the sell that comes along with a cheap getaway.

"Always set limits at the start (of the sales presentation)," she says, adding that letting the salesperson know from the get-go that you have scheduled something to do 90 minutes later gives you can automatic out. "This never fails," she says, "and if you miss this step, they could keep you there all day!"

If you're attending the presentation with someone else (ie. a spouse or a partner), Munro advises that you agree from the beginning that only one of you will do the talking with the salesperson. And if you know that you have no intentions of buying, she says, "never express any inkling that you might give in." An expression of interest is an invitation for the sell to get even harder, making it all the more difficult to extract yourself from the situation.

Nusbaum agrees that the pitch's duration depends a lot on how responsive the potential buyer is. "How long a presentation takes depends on how many questions you ask," he says. "The consumer has a lot of control over how long it takes. No timeshare developer wants to make someone stay for a presentation they don't want to be at."

Indeed, there is a fine line between being polite and being firm when it's time to put the kibosh on the timeshare pitch and get back to the vacationing part of things. Randi Minetor, a travel writer in Rochester, New York, recalls the time she and her husband stayed at a Westgate Resorts timeshare, the River Terrace Resort in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. "When our name was finally called (for the presentation), we went into a fairly spacious cubicle with a jovial middle-aged saleswoman, who began asking us questions about our vacations," says Minetor, who answered that she and her husband rarely spend more than $65 per night when they vacation.

"At that point, we had the opening to explain that we rarely go to the same place twice, that we cover the national parks professionally (for guidebooks) and that a timeshare would be entirely inappropriate for us," says Minetor. The woman's pitch continued, and Minetor admits that certain elements -- especially the part about exchanging your timeshare week for other locations around the country -- sounded reasonable. Other advantages that timeshare salespeople tout are the fact that timeshares often afford lots of space for groups (with multiple bedrooms) and that they have amenities like full kitchens and washers and dryers.

"At no point did we feel like we were being pressured into a purchase, but she did an excellent job of making the timeshare idea sound palatable," says Minetor. "At the end, she turned to us and said, 'Look, if you really don't want this, when I ask the closing question, just say 'no' and we'll be done, okay?'" she says.

"We did as she asked, and we were free to go after a brief exit interview." And while Minetor says the pitch experience was fairly painless, the 90 minutes did turn into two and a half hours by the time all was said and done.

But for everyone who leaves a sales pitch without buying a timeshare, of course, there are others who end up signing. "I talk to people who bought this product with the idea that they were getting an inexpensive vacation and ended up buying and being very happy," says Nusbaum.

Liora Farkovitz, from New York City, is one such timeshare sales pitch veteran-turned-owner. During a free stay last December at the Holiday Inn Orange Lake Resort near Orlando, Florida, Farkovitz attended the requisite pitch meeting. "I will say the pressure was extreme, intense, and it took up the better part of a day. And I did end up buying the timeshare," she says, adding that in the end, she sees buying in as having been a good thing for her.

Farkovitz lives in a small New York City apartment that she says gets very cramped when her three children come to visit, so the affordability of vacationing that the timeshare has allowed her and her kids has been worth it. "Over the summer we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Ocean City, Maryland, and it was wonderful," says Farkovitz. "The time share gives us a place to stay that is two to three times bigger than my place in the city -- and (a place) that's warm!"

Being firm is essential if you plan not to buy, says Angela Mackey of Fort Smith, Alaska, another veteran of free timeshare vacations. It's important to know what you're getting in advance, too, she says. Ten years ago, Mackey and her husband enjoyed a free honeymoon on a timeshare pitch trip that included two nights in Orlando, two nights on a Bahamas cruise and two nights in Fort Lauderdale. "My husband did not check the accommodations for the cruise, and we had two twin beds bolted to the wall. I laughed so hard," she recalls. The couple had a good time, and the two pitches they endured were not too long, says Mackey, but "they were not fun."

"If there is no other way to pay for a trip and you are willing to put up with a sales pitch, and if you know your answer is a resounding no, it may work very well for you," she says.

In the end, it's your precious vacation time -- and it's up to you to decide if a free holiday is worth the time commitment of a sales pitch to make it happen.

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Do Chains Help (or Hurt) the Travel Experience?

Terry Ward — 2010-10-08T13:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Hotel

zmtomako, flickr

In the age of Anywhere, USA, the strip mall, hotel chains and box-store-induced phenomena that make one town nearly indistinguishable from the next make it seem as if the authentic travel experience is going the way of the dinosaurs.

More and more, hitting the road for a vacation in a distant location means being faced with the same hotel chains and familiar restaurants that you find in your own backyard half a country -- even half a world -- away.

"I call the phenomenon the 'stripmalling' of the world," says Michael Bociurkiw, editor of MySavvyTraveller.com. "Main streets in cities and towns are starting to look the same, and that is very sad."

And while the spread of nationwide chains into towns that previously lacked them is seen by many as economic development, says Bob Billington, president of the Rhode Island-based Sustainable Tourism Planning and Development Laboratory, the phenomenon "may provide a service, but it does nothing for the long-term sustainability of the community.

"It just brings sameness, and sameness is the opposite of what tourism is about," says Billington, "Tourism is about discovering new places, cultures, people and communities, and when you strive to make everything the same, there is no differentiating point."

That sameness is precisely what the town of Springdale, Utah -- a community of roughly 500 people surrounded by the stunning landscape of Zion National Park -- was intent on avoiding when a 2006 ordinance was put in place to ban 'formula restaurants' from setting up shop within city limits. The town is currently involved in a lawsuit for not allowing Subway, the national sandwich chain, to open here.

Springdale, Utah; bossco, flickr

"There are some concerns that once a chain of any type starts entering the town, it opens it up to more and more chains, and all of the sudden it completely takes away the feel that the community has always wanted to maintain," says Dean Cook, president of the Zion Canyon Visitors Bureau.

"The community that has lived here for years has wanted to maintain a certain aura, as a small-town, cozy, friendly place to come and visit," he says, "and there's some paranoia about what a chain could do. It starts to detract from the Mayberry R.F.D. feel."

Cannon Beach, Oregon is another tourism-centric small town dead set on keeping chains away to preserve the unique quality that makes it an authentic travel experience. "Like most communities, people here have varying opinions, " says Jeff Jewel, Executive Director of the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce, "but one thing most everyone in our community is in agreement on is that we don't want chain restaurants and shops in our town."

Jewel says that as a result of fostering the growth and success of local business owners, such as independent hotels, restaurants and shops, Cannon Beach has developed impressive and unique amenities for a town of just 1,600 residents. "We literally have dozens of fantastic restaurants," he says, citing where to get the best Reuben (Seasons Café and Deli). "Whereas in towns with a Chili's and Applebee's and restaurants like that, people tend to support those big chains."

And while there's no Starbucks in Cannon Beach, says Jewel, coffee culture is alive and well, with three independent coffee shops.

In a time when travel isn't always the relaxing endeavor it's meant to be, however, many people prefer the reliability of chain hotels and nationally-known restaurants to take the insecurity and guesswork out of their travel plans.

"For me, it's stressful to travel, and when you're in a certain situation you want what you know and like," says Lauren Bailey, a government employee who lives in Washington D.C., but travels several times a month to meet up with her West Coast-based husband.

Bailey said she and her husband often choose to stay at Hampton Inns and Holidays Inns because "they are inexpensive and have customer loyalty programs." But when Bailey and her husband are visiting a destination for purely touristic purposes, she says, a boutique hotel with a sense of place is her first choice because it provides an authentic travel experience. "Staying at a chain in those types of situations can take away the flavor of the experience."

For travelers who frequent the same hotel chain time and again, there are clear benefits to becoming loyal patrons -- from racking up reward points to knowing what sort of bed you'll be sleeping on (the major chains pride themselves on uniformity) and being assured of the presence of perks that smaller establishments tend to lack, such as late-night dining options and 24-hour security.

Anna Maria, Florida; BenjaminThompson, flickr

But for visitors to Anna Maria -- a white sand enclave near Sarasota, Florida with nary a skyscraper in sight -- the fact that there are no hotel chains and restaurants is a lure for visitors.

"The little town itself is very manageable, it's a very human scale, " says Lizzie Thrasher, who, with her husband, owns Pineapplefish, a collection of seven beautiful vacation villas decorated with artwork by local artists. "There are no big industries and businesses -- it's very much people who want to set up small businesses and live and work in the same place." The couple, originally from England, chose Anna Maria over other places in Florida for the town's individual character and independent spirit. And she says she hears the same thing from guests who opt to stay in her villas over a chain hotel in one of the larger beach communities nearby.

But does frequenting hotel chains and popular formula restaurants necessarily detract from the authentic travel experience?

To answer this question, take a look at a prime tourism destination, Orlando, Florida, where chains run rampant. Yet, according to the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the chains have supported the smaller businesses in town, too.

IHOP, Roy's Restaurant, The Capital Grille, Taco Bell -- from highbrow to cheap and quick, nearly every brand of national restaurant and hotel chain can be found in Orlando's tourist corridors.

Do you seek out chain restaurants or hotels when traveling?
Yes. I belong to loyalty programs and like to earn points whenever I can.	1 (5.9%)
Yes. I like that I know what to expect when I go to a chain.	1 (5.9%)
No. I intentionally seek out places that are reflective of my destination.	15 (88.2%)

"Chain restaurants have benefited our destination in two ways," says Susan Lomax, spokesperson for the CVB. "For certain travelers looking for familiarity, it provides them with a lot of known options. They know the cost, the value, what they are going to get."

Another way the rise of chain restaurants has benefited the area, says Lomax, comes with the relatively recent arrival of high-end chain restaurants -- places like Capital Grille, Ocean Prime and Oceanaire -- that have deemed Orlando a worthy market, and thus sent a message to other businesses to take a look, too.

"It makes other independent chefs and restaurants take a closer look at the destinations and attracts small business owners to offer other high-end things," says Lomax. "We now offer a really well rounded dining experience to all visitors, whether they're looking for a chain or non-chain."

Indeed, even in chain-heavy locales like International Drive and Lake Buena Vista, visitors will find everything from independent Brazilian steakhouses to Vietnamese noodle shops in the mix. A few high-end hotel chains have also been attracted to Orlando of late, with the Waldorf-Astoria Orlando opening its first location outside of its Manhattan flagship near Downtown Disney in 2009 and a Four Seasons hotel expected to open in 2012.

Moving from a behemoth tourist destination to the relatively small northwest Alabama town of Florence, population 38,000 -- which draws tourism primarily for the fishing opportunities in the lakes and river here -- an influx of chain hotels has largely been seen as positive thing for the community. Florence attracted its first Hampton Inn in 1999 (there are now two in town), and later courted the Marriott, which ended up building a conference center hotel in town.

"After we got one [chain hotel], they started coming after us," says Debbie Wilson, director of Florence/Lauderdale Tourism. "It really started snowballing after the Hampton." In the past year alone, three hotel chains opened here, including a Holiday Inn Express and Comfort Inn and Suites. "Now we're in a great position of having newer properties," says Wilson. "While a lot of other areas have aging product, we're in the great position of having lots of new rooms."

And while Wilson says that authentic travel to the region has not suffered with the rise of hotel chains, pointing out that the river and nearby lakes are still the draws they always were, she does concede that the location of most of the new hotel chains -- on the outer loop of the city -- does "lend itself to generica."

If you think the generic chain phenomenon is limited to the U.S., think again. From London to Cancun, American chains and their foreign cousins (think Tesco in England, a major supermarket chain around which entire communities are being built) breed a sameness in urban areas that is comforting to some travelers and off-putting for others.

The fact remains that where you find one town forbidding chains in the U.S., chances are that not very far away there's another town neon-lit with every familiar name in the restaurant and hotel chain yellow pages.

In a world where everything is starting to look all too strikingly similar, those holdouts of individuality are worth celebrating for the authentic travel experiences they strive to preserve.

"Cannon Beach people want something special," says Jewel, admitting in the same breath that the town isn't for every type of traveler. "We don't even have lighted signs -- all the signs are carved wood. It gives our town a very different feel."

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Close Calls in Air Traffic Control

Terry Ward — 2010-10-06T11:08:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel

Alamy

As you read this sentence (perhaps even on your laptop via in-flight WiFi), as many as 5,000 airplanes are soaring over U.S. territory. And directing them all are air traffic controllers who are essentially pulling the strings in a choreographed ballet designed to get passengers and pilots to and from their destinations as safely as possible.

Pilots certainly play vital roles in the process, but it is the nation's roughly 15,000 air traffic controllers who are responsible for overseeing the constant ebb and flow of air traffic that carries roughly 660 million passengers around the country during any given year.

Despite the rigorous training procedures, a recent story in The Washington Post reported that the number of errors made by air traffic controllers has risen dramatically this year across the country. And as a result, the National Transportation Safety Board is taking a closer look at near-collisions that have taken place in recent months.

On September 16, a US Airways jet and a small cargo plane narrowly missed a mid-air collision. The two aircraft reportedly took off from parallel runways at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, but the pilot of the cargo plane did not follow orders to turn. The collision avoidance system was activated in the US Airways jet, and it was reported that the airplanes came within 50 to 100 feet of colliding. One of the captains was heard over the radio saying, "We just heard the guy go by," referring to the other plane.

Words like those are the stuff that chills air traffic controllers -- a famously calm, cool and collected bunch.

And such incidents happen more often than you'd think. Take it from one controller himself.

Wikimedia Commons

"I almost had Aerogal (Aerolineas Galapagos) land on top of JetBlue on September 19," said Steve Abraham, NATCA (National Air Traffic Controllers Association) president at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Abraham, an air traffic controller for 20 years.

Abraham said that the JetBlue pilot had been cleared for takeoff and was rolling down the runway when the Ecuadorian passenger jet lined up to land on the wrong runway. Abraham estimated that the Aerogal pilot was roughly 300 feet from the runway when he corrected his mistake after Abraham instructed him to do so (listen to the full recording of the incident by looking for "767 almost lands on wrong runway at JFK Sunday 9/19.")

"You are lining up for the wrong runway, you need to start an immediate right turn," Abraham can be heard saying to the pilot in the recording. After this statement, the pilot can be heard telling the tower that he will "go around" (pilot speak for aborting a landing on approach), and Abraham reiterates, with increasing urgency in his voice, "You need to turn right, there's somebody rolling underneath you," referring to the JetBlue plane.

"It's as close as I ever want to see two planes,"" said Abraham about witnessing the event. .

And while pilots certainly make their share of errors, air traffic controllers are also often responsible for "proximity events," when airplanes are allowed to come closer together than the mandated distances (which vary depending on the type of jet).

The reason behind the rise in operational errors may have nothing to do with their frequency, though. It's worth noting that a new voluntary reporting system recently instituted by the FAA and its largest labor unions, called ATSAP (Air Traffic Safety Action Program), likely has something to do with more errors being reported.

"ATSAP is a non-punitive reporting system for controllers," explained FAA Spokesperson Tammy L. Jones in a statement emailed to AOL Travel . "It allows controllers and other employees to report safety problems without fear of punishment, unless the incident is deliberate or criminal in nature."

The goal, Jones said, is to learn from incidents before they become accidents. "We expect ATSAP and other efforts will result in more reporting of incidents, which will help us spot problems or trends so we can address them before an accident occurs," she said. "Voluntary reporting is a key element of our safety culture and something we will continue to promote at all levels of aviation to keep our system safe."

NATCA's Dale Wright, a controller for 32 years and the current director of safety and technology for NATCA, says that how dangerous an operational error is depends on the closeness of a proximity event.

Control Tower; IanMuttoo, flickr

"A lot of these errors are barely breaking the minimum separation [distances]," he says, "Instead of having three miles [of separation between airplanes], it's 2.95. There are a lot more of those kind of errors being reported."

And errors like the aforementioned, says Wright, wouldn't be that unsafe. "The ones you have to worry about are less than a mile horizontally and less than a thousand feet vertically apart -- that would be pretty unsafe."

"The main thing is when they're reported you look at them and try to learn from them," Wright said about errors.

And while Wright says that one error is too many, the nation's air traffic controllers strive for no errors. "It takes a lot of work when it comes to error investigation, training for controllers and follow-up to ensure actions are being taken. If you look at the overall system, we're still the safest system in the world."

Steve Abraham, the seasoned controller from John F. Kennedy International Airport said that he advises everyone he instructs to use ATSAP all the time to report errors and thinks the system has "absolutely created an environment where more errors are reported."

"I don't want to say that, historically, operational errors were covered up," he says. "But there are so many avenues now for controllers to report errors."

And while Abraham says that it's "absolutely normal" for air traffic controllers to have at least one error during their careers, "you could have an error that's completely safe. If you drive 58 in a 55 have you broken the law? If my airplanes are 2.95 miles versus 3 miles apart, are they ever going to hit? No."

"I think the FAA has recently started looking at operational errors in a completely different way and I think that's great," said Abraham, "It's no longer a punitive environment. Now it's 'let's find out why and try to fix it.'"

Regarding the question of whether less experienced air traffic controllers who have recently entered the ranks are contributing to more error reports, Abraham says he still sees inexperience as a factor in errors.

"The problem with inexperience that I see in my facility is that unforeseen events trigger reactive decisions that may not always be the best, because they're just not used to it. They've never seen it before," he says.

Whether a major disaster will happen is anyone's guess. But when pressed on the question, Abraham says this:

"I think statistical averages dictate that airplanes are going to hit each other. The system is not perfect. Humans aren't perfect. You get a confluence of events, and stuff happens."

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Beating Jet Lag

Terry Ward — 2010-09-30T17:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Air Travel, Tips & Tricks

Getty Images

Jet lag can be a serious problem for both leisure and business travelers. But there are ways to remedy -- and avoid -- the symptoms when you travel to another time zone.

By the time he was in his early 20s, Chris Jackson, a builder from Orlando, Fla., had done his fair share of traveling -- Costa Rica, the Virgin Islands, Baja California. So when he left on his first trip to Europe several years ago, he saw the jaunt to Holland as another exciting foray someplace new -- and spent the whole of the roughly eight-hour flight watching the movies playing in the seatback in front of him.

He never considered that traveling to another time zone would bring on the symptoms of jet lag. "I didn't sleep for the entire flight and arrived at some ungodly morning hour. Some Dutch friends picked me up at the airport," he remembers, "They were so excited to show me their city, Utrecht, so we hit the ground running.

"At first it was really exciting being somewhere I had never been -- everyone was tall, beautiful and well dressed," he recalls. "But later, as were climbing a clock tower for some city views, it was like I hit a wall. I felt like my eyes were being forced open, people wanted my opinion on what I was seeing -- did I like Europe so far? -- and I couldn't even think straight."
Jackson was jet lagged. And anyone who has traveled between more than a few time zones certainly knows those feelings of disorientation that come when your body's natural rhythm is knocked completely out of whack.

"All organisms have internal rhythms based on day and night activity," explains Dr. Ronald A. Primas, M.D., a travel medicine expert with New York City-based TravelMD.com. "If your body is used to one time zone, then going through two-plus time zones alters its rhythms." The symptoms of jet lag, says Primas, can range from not feeling alert, having a decreased appetite and difficulty concentrating to headaches and nausea. "It's more of a comfort thing than a true health problem," he says.

.faramarz, flickr

According to Lynne W. Scanlon, who co-authored the book "The Cure for Jet Lag" along with the late esteemed circadian rhythms scientist Charles F. Ehret, Ph.D., the technical term for jet lag is circadian dischronism. "What that means is that you're in a state of cellular chaos," she says. "Within the first 24 hours, you begin to feel fatigued, you get disoriented, you have changes in your appetite, you begin the onset of memory loss."

And woe to honeymooners when jet lag sets in, warns Scanlon: "That's when the real problem sets in -- lack of sexual interest."

While Primas says that jet lag's effects can already be felt with time changes of two hours, four hours is when it really starts to be a problem. "Especially for business travelers or athletes competing internationally, jet lag can potentially decrease performance," he says. And there is proof that traveling from east to west makes jet lag more pronounced, says Primas: "Because of time differentials, it's a bit easier to resynchronize (your body) going from west to east."

Frequent traveler Tanya G. Burnett, a photographer for Island Exposure Inc. who frequently travels from her home in Florida to destinations like Indonesia for assignments, agrees. "For whatever reason, the flight home to the U.S. East Coast always takes its toll for several days afterward," she says.

Burnett's personal program for staving off the symptoms of jet lag? Staying up for as long as she can before embarking on a flight of 10 hours or more, then trying to catch as much sleep as possible on the plane. And when she gets to her destination, Burnett says she avoids sleeping until it's nighttime, wherever she is.

On the way back east, she takes extra measures to avoid jet lag. "In addition to my usual routine," says Burnett, "I supplement my return flight and recovery with various kinds of herbal relaxing aids such as kava root, valerian root, and a little melatonin and magnesium supplements."

Though Primas sees no reason to discourage the use of natural remedies as a jet lag antidote for people who wish to take them, he says that many of his patients request pharmaceutical drug prescriptions to help with sleeping and staying awake when jet lag is the cause.

"Melatonin is still recommended in literature as treatment for jet lag," he says, "But my patients usually tell me melatonin doesn't work. "

Staying hydrated is the number one rule for fighting jet lag; Nexeus Fatale, flickr

Staying hydrated, he says, is the number one rule for diminishing the effects of jet lag, as dehydration can lead to myriad problems. Avoiding alcohol also helps prevent dehydration, he adds.

"As a general rule, your body needs about one day per time zone that you travel through to reclaim its natural rhythm," says Primas. With that in mind, after traveling by plane from New York to Paris, your body would need about six days to feel like it's operating on the correct time zone.

But there are some things travelers can do before traveling to start adjusting to a new time zone. "The way I deal with jet lag is to try to go to bed early a night or two before I leave, so I can get a head start," says John DiScala of JohnnyJet.com, "I set my watch to local time as soon as we take off and try to sleep during normal rest hours."

Experts agree that trying to get on the time zone of your destination when you get there is important. "If it's nighttime where you've come from, but you're landing in the daytime at your destination, stay up, even if you have to make an effort. It will help you get adjusted more quickly," says Primas. While DiScala says that's always his goal, sometimes he can't avoid some quick shuteye. "If you can't cope, just take a short 10- to 20-minute nap," he says. "I do it outdoors if it's warm -- or set my alarm if I'm inside, and I don't get under the covers."

Scanlon's "The Cure For Jet Lag," which she updated in 2009, takes things even further by outlining a three-step program that promises to eliminate jet lag in one to four time zone changes, and vastly reduce its effects for greater time zone differences.

The program varies depending on where you are traveling and the duration of your stay, says Scanlon. It includes preparing for your trip four days before traveling, if possible, with a diet that alternates between "feasting like it's Thanksgiving" (on the even days) and eating only about 500 to 600 calories (on the odd days, including the day of your flight). "It confuses your body, disrupting your system slightly but not enough to make you feel ill," says Scanlon.

Plan coffee breaks; phillyreconstructed, flickr

The program in her book outlines steps to take during the flight that include drinking coffee at specific times. "It's very important because it has naturally occurring chemicals," she says. She advises passing on that Danish in your breakfast meal and opting to eat only the protein-rich foods like eggs instead. Sugary foods like pastries cause you to crash.

The book's program continues after you reach your destination. "One of the smartest things you can do is get into the action going on. Do not nap. That's the worse thing you can do," says Scanlon. "Don't wear sunglasses. You want daylight to hit your pineal glands to let you know it's daytime, and time to get going." (DiScala agrees on the need for sunlight, calling it "jet lag's kryptonite.")

Once you've landed, Scanlon says it's important to make your meals follow a "protein, protein, carbohydrates" schedule. Eating protein-heavy foods for breakfast and lunch gives you sustained energy to be productive (and stay awake) during the day, while carbo-loading at dinnertime (think pasta with no meat) can help you sleep and get on the time zone of your destination country. "Why would you want to finish the day with steak?" she says. "That means four or five hours of sustained energy when you want to go to sleep."

So does Scanlon follow her own advice against jet lag when she travels? Yes, she says -- after learning the hard way what happens when she veers off course.

"A few years ago I was with a friend flying business class to the UK for some castle hopping, and I threw caution to the wind," she says. "I had the champagne they were serving during the flight, I didn't follow the program." "We arrived and rented a car. And 24 hours later, I was doing my share of the driving. Suddenly I said: 'I can't drive.' I was so ill with jet lag, I didn't want to see a castle. I wanted to crawl into the backseat and fall asleep."

Since then, Scanlon takes all the necessary steps to beat jet lag.

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