The Week's Top Travel News

For updates in real-ish time, follow TravelPost on Twitter.

• The best reason yet to avoid hotel buffets: Terrorists are said to be planning a poison attack. (CBS News)

• A slideshow of the winter-storm chaos in Europe. (USA Today) 

• Right: Check out the Obamas’ Hawaiian vacation rental! (Tnooz)

• National Pinball Museum opens in Washington D.C. Yes, you can play the machines. (Jaunted)

•Paris will introduce fleets of self-serve electric cars in 2011. (Jaunted)

• There will be no parades at Disney’s Calif Adventure for most of 2011. (Gadling)

• Does new app HotelTonight offer deals? Eh. (HotelChatter)

• An interesting list of new airline amenities. Airline amenities, for those who've never seen one, are ways that airlines make flying easier and/or more comfortable. (MSNBC)

• A rare chance to ride a 1940s NYC subway car. (Jaunted)

• How well do online travel agencies’ disclose whether you’ll actually be flying a regional airline? (Tnooz)

• New site CruiseCompare allows cruise buyers to comparison shop. (Tnooz)

• Would you go out of your way to visit the real Mel’s Diner? If you don't know why you should care about Mel's Diner, then the answer is probably no. (USA Today)

Happy holidays to one and all! We'll be back January 3.

32 Good Things That Happened in Travel in 2010

It's time for year-in-travel recaps, but I can't bear to read one more word about bedbugs, patdowns, or Steven Slater. So let's look back at only the good and the cool of 2010, in no particular order:

1. The Harry Potter theme park opened. (Yeah, that's Brendan Fraser.)

2. The Obama administration forced airlines to change their ways to avoid long tarmac delays—and it appears to be working.

3. The new Hotel Elysian in Chicago instituted a no-tipping policy.

4. Cruise lines are warming to the idea of cabins for solo passengers.

5. Continental is testing passengers' self-swiping of boarding passes.

6. A high-speed train now connects Madrid and Valencia in just 95 minutes.

7. The World Lens app can translate words it sees through your phone's camera.

Read more »

Inspiring Travellers: An Interview with John & Andrea Spirov

Inspiring Traveller's John & Andrea Spirov

John and Andrea Spirov are the nomadic thirty-something couple behind InspiringTravellers.com. Our blog features not only our own stories but also those of the people we meet along the way. For the last few years we've been living in Australia, but on 25 December, we’re heading off on another round the world adventure for at least a year. After that the plan is to do a long-term expat stint in Asia or the Middle East (but who really knows?)
1. How would you define your travel “style”?

Go with the flow. We’re pretty laid back when travelling. We make a rough sketch of what we want to do and then the plan is usually altered at the last minute. It also depends on the trip. When we’re living in one place and just going here and there on shorter trips, we plan a lot more meticulously. Next year we’re pretty flexible.

Read more »

Continental's Check-in by Phone

I just got robocalled by Continental for my flight tomorrow. The robot was offering to check me in, "and I can send you your boarding pass, even if you're checking a bag," it said. "Would you like me to check you in now?" I don't trust that airlines have worked out the kinks on anything cutting-edge, but I hadn't heard of phone check-in, and I figured I should go ahead and say yes, just to try it out. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Yes.
Robot: OK, great. [beeping noise] You're on [flight info]. Will you be carrying an infant in your lap?
Me: No.
Robot: OK. [beeping noise] I'm sorry, I can't check you in right now. You can always check in online, though.

I don't want the airline calling me unless my flight is delayed or canceled, let alone to waste my time. How did it not know in advance whether it could check me in or not?

P.S. I forgot my favorite part: The robot called me Erika, because my middle initial is A.

The Coolest New Hotel Amenity: Ice Rinks

Back in mid October, public-relations rep Jenn Myres of Glodow Nead emailed me (and presumably many other folks) about a "new holiday trend"—hotels with seasonal ice rinks. She listed four, including the one at her client, the St. Regis Atlanta. That's one more than the number of examples required to officially be labeled a trend, according to a longstanding joke in the magazine world. But I couldn't imagine simply posting her list, so I trashed archived it. Well, the trend has now become unignorable: Two hotels in Manhattan have opened ice rinks, making at least six U.S. hotels total! That's enough for two trends! While I've never been a big fan of ice skating—the first loop is sort of interesting, but then what?—I do enjoy watching people fall.

A few notes about these rinks: 1) You don't have to be a hotel guest to skate on them. 2) They're not always large; in fact, they can be tiny. 3) Some have adjacent bars. 4) Some take—and recommend—reservations. 5) Many won't be around much past New Year's. 6) You might actually be skating on a synthetic ice-like material.

Astor Holiday Rink at the St. Regis Atlanta

CHILL at the W Los Angeles–Westwood

Skating by the Sea at the Hotel del Coronado, San Diego

Monterey on Ice at Portola Hotel & Spa, Monterey Bay, Calif.

The Standard New York (photo by Tara Kyle, courtesy DNAinfo)

Skating in the Sky at the W New York Downtown 

The Week's Top Travel News

For updates in real-ish time, follow TravelPost on Twitter.

• Continental introduced FareLock, a new way to milk travelers which allows travelers to lock in a fare for 72 hours ($5) or seven days ($9). (Tnooz)
• If you're tempted to try FareLock, always double-check to see if that fare you locked didn't go down in the interim. (BootsnAll)

• Word Lens (above) is a very cool new visual-translation app that translates in real time words seen via the phone's camera. (Tnooz; photo courtesy Gadling)

• Bounce, bounce, bounce: A trampoline park—with 43 wall-to-wall trampolines—in San Francisco. (National Geographic Traveler)

• Here’s a day-brightener: Highly infectious travelers flew even though they were on a do-not-fly list. (USA Today)

• New images of and details about the Art of Animation resort under construction at Walt Disney World. (Gadling)

• A luxury hotel is coming to the Palace of Versailles. Pinkies up, everyone! (HotelChatter)

Read more »

Top Ten Travel Destinations For Christmas

Chicago, by Photofillius

What are the most popular destinations for Americans to travel to during the Christmas holiday?  You might be surprised by some of these destinations that make up the Top Ten Destination list, as compiled from booking data by Orbitz. 

If you could travel anywhere over the holidays, if family obligations and personal finances permitted, where would you go?  A tropical destination?  Perhaps a week of skiing?  Join the discussion here.

Check out our snow-inspired photo essay from last week here.

Read more »

Tricky Travel Thursdays #5 - Check, please?

I find the variety of cultural norms when it comes to service in dining establishments in different parts of the world to be fascinating. For example, while traveling in South America, it was pretty typical that my drink order would arrive after my companions had almost finished their main courses.  Sometimes, you'd literally have to stand up and wave to get a waiter's attention so that you could order your meal.  But what about wait staff that disappear after you've finished eating?

After breakfast in a train cafe car at 7am heading to Chiang Mai in Thailand, you notice that the staff have disappeared, you can't find anyone to pay, and you have no idea how much you owe. Do you just walk out and go back to your seat, wait, or estimate your check and leave cash?

What would you do? Join the Discussion here.  

Previous Tricky Travel Thursdays:
#1: When only one of you gets upgraded...
#2: To tell the whole truth (or not!) on the customs declaration...
#3: Restaurant Dilemna
#4: The Language Barrier

Hey, Look Me Over! A Few Thoughts on Hotel Exhibitionism

Since I've already shared that I don't mind looking at naked people, I might as well admit that I'm not averse to a bit of hotel exhibitionism, either. Apologies to anyone who knows me and is now imagining me unclothed.

Hotels bring out the exhibitionist in a lot of people, celebrities in particular. Celebs do it for the PR, obviously, while the rest of us are presumably inclined because no one we know will see us. (In contrast, I don't walk around naked in front of my apartment's windows because I know the people who live across the street. Also, my apartment is often chilly. It's my hunch that people act friskier than usual when in hotels because (a) hotels are intrinsically sexy, and (b) people staying in hotels tend to get bored.

At a hotel, I never bother to shut the draperies unless I'm sleeping, and I've even been known to stroll naked onto a balcony or terrace. First, I'm not packing anything no one has seen before, and second, if you don't want to see it, you can always look away. Mind you, I don't stand out there and display for hours (or even minutes) on end. I just don't worry about things the way I would at home. And I'd never do it in, say, the Middle East—the truly awful Sex & the City 2 comes to mind—or most of the American South.

After the jump: Your opportunity to make me feel less like a dirty bird—or shame me into behaving more appropriately.

Read more »

Finding Her Center: An Interview With Solo Travel Author Barbara Weibel of Hole in The Donut



Barbara Weibel, Author

 After years of working 70-80 hours per week at jobs that paid the bills but brought no joy, a serious illness made Barbara Weibel realize she felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside but empty on the inside. After recovering her health, she walked away from her successful but unfulfilling career, sold or gave away most of her material possessions, donned a backpack and traveled around the world for six months to pursue the only things that had ever made her happy: travel, photography and writing.

Because Weibel believes that the better we know one another, the less likely we are to want to kill one another, she immerses into the local culture wherever she travels. Four years later she is still on the road, more convinced than ever that we are all more alike than we are different and that travel is one of the most effective tools in the quest for world peace.  You can check out her site, holeinthedonut.com, here.

1. How would you define your travel ‘style’?

In a word: unstructured. I travel perpetually, returning to the U.S. once or twice each year for brief stays with family and friends. With each new long-term journey, I set out with a vague notion of the countries I might like to visit, but I never make concrete plans because they always change. I usually arrive without reservations (or with only the first couple of nights booked) and then find my way around a country. Then, when I learn about undiscovered, must-see places from in-the-know locals and other intrepid travelers, I am free to pick up and go on a moment's notice.

Read more »

Ooh, Look at That! A Few Thoughts on Hotel Voyeurism

The new-ish Standard Hotel in New York straddles the High Line, a park converted from old elevated railroad tracks, and the hotel has become locally famous for voyeuristic opportunities. If you were walking along the High Line and you saw something risqué going on in the Standard, would you stop and watch? Keep your head down and move along? Or would it depend what the person in the window looks like?

I'll admit it: I would watch, and it probably doesn't even matter what the person looks like. I enjoy seeing naked people! Not as a hobby, mind you, but if an opportunity presents itself, sure, I'll take a gander. It's human nature! And I'm not sure I believe anybody who says he wouldn't.

Read more »

The Week's Top Travel News

For updates in real-ish time, follow TravelPost on Twitter.

• Delta is adding two electronic-device-charging areas per gate at 19 airports. (Travel Weekly)

• Oprah’s Australia junket has begun. From the looks of the photo—courtesy Business Review Australia—she may have actually put a shrimp on the barbie. (Gadling)

• A Four Seasons hotel in Hawaii is opening a private pen lounge at the Kona airport. If this turns out to be a trend, it could be annoying. (HotelChatter)

• Pompei's new theme song: "Crumblin' Down" by John Mellencamp. (Gadling) 

• A New York City museum is embracing scent as an art form. (MSNBC)

• Reality TV producers are looking for Norwegian Americans interested in their ancestry. That show is going to be huge in Minnesota. (USA Today)

• Read about the repercussions of one canceled flight. (Wall Street Journal)

• 10 ski resorts for families. (MSNBC)

• British chain City Inn Hotels is now Mint Hotels. Sounds fresh! (HotelChatter)

• A cruise ship in the Antarctic got tossed around by waves (and caught on video). Huuuuurrrrrrrllllll. (MSNBC)

• Cool new hotel in Chicago. (HotelChatter)

• Is filmmaker Kevin Smith the most entitled traveler on earth? Yes. (Gadling)

• The 12 cruise ships set to launch by 2014. (Gadling)

• New routes on Frontier, AirTran, Cathay Pacific, Alaska, and Condor Airlines. That last one is not made up. (Jaunted)

• A small dog got loose on a US Airways flight and bit two people, so the captain diverted the flight. (AOL)

• Many more U.S. travelers went to Cuba in 2010 than in 2009. (MSNBC)

• Neat footage of New York City from a camera attached to a remote-controlled airplane. (Gadling)

• Cancún's beach has gone AWOL again. (USA Today)

• Fourteen extreme rides for a possible new Orlando theme park. (Gadling)

Winter Wonderland: 20 Snow-Inspired Photographs For The Holiday Season

Araphahoe Basin, Colorado by SHayhaas

Living in Seattle at this time of year, it's easy to start dreaming about azure waters and sun-kissed beaches.  However, the Holiday Season also awakens in me my obsession for travel to snowy mountains and all of the fun and adventurous ways the winter lets us get up and down them. Skiing, sledding, snow-shoeing, ice-skating, snowboarding, and alpine climbing gets us to bundle up, breathe in that fresh cold air, and go play in snow; and it gets us into the holiday spirit - at least those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.  So grab a mug of cocoa, and enjoy these photos that will get you yearning for more of the white fluffy stuff.

What are your favorite winter activities? What is your favorite Ski Resort?  What gets you in the holiday spirit?  Join the discussion here.

Read more »

Tricky Travel Thursdays #4 - The Language Barrier

While traveling in Mexico, your vegetarian traveling companion (who's relying on your Spanish - which you've convinced her is adequate) wants you to ask the waiter what's in her pasta sauce because it's so delicious. You'd ordered it for her, explaining her dietary requirements, with apparent inadequacy. He tells you that among the ingredients, there's bacon in the sauce....do you tell her or keep quiet?

What would you do?  Join the discussion here.

Previous Tricky Travel Thursdays:
#1: When only one of you gets upgraded...
#2: To tell the whole truth (or not!) on the customs declaration...
#3: Restaurant Dilemna

Solving the European Credit-Card Problem

While I don't have a lot of the concerns regarding foreign currency that many people do, I am wary of the "chip and pin" technology that's becoming more prevalent in Europe. Some merchants and many automated points-of-purchase only take the cards, which aren't available to Americans. In our increasingly self-service world, this will definitely become more of a problem. Last time I was in Italy, for instance, we tried to buy gas on a Sunday, and we had to visit three gas stations before we located a pump that would accept our cards.

Well, there was an interesting item in Sunday's New York Times Travel section. (Naturally, it's the one item from that section that didn't make it online.) "Travelers headed to Europe finally have a payment option for parking kiosks, tollbooths and railroad ticketing machines that do not accept magnetic stripe debit or credit cards," wrote Susan Stellin. "Travelex, a currency exchange company, last week began selling a preloaded debit card that uses the 'chip and pin' technology that is becoming the standard in Europe." The article goes on to say that Travelex is introducing the technology to its Cash Passport cards (which function like traveler's checks), you can buy them in pounds or euros at Travelex airport and retail outposts (and eventually online), and the cards are accepted wherever MasterCard is.

I'm intrigued by the idea of putting a small amount of money on such a card, just for those situations—such as Paris's bike-rental program—where the technology is necessary. But I'm also suspicious: Travel cards like these have traditionally been a bum deal for consumers. The two main questions that come to mind are....

Read more »

Traveling As a Couple Through South America: An Interview With TwoBackpackers

In San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

TwoBackpackers.com documents the travels of Jason and Aracely Castellani, while they travel around the world.  This is not your typical gap year after college, it's the story of two successful corporate Americans feeling the need to escape the rat race to begin living a more personally satisfying life.  They share their experiences through HD adventure videos, travel photos and travel stories.  Follow their journey for travel tips, insights, adventure, inspiration and entertainment.

1. How would you define your travel 'style'?

Budget independent adventure travel with a partner.  That means we do it cheaply avoiding package vacations and seek out adventure together as a couple.  We seek out the best a place has to offer and we usually do it.  Steak in Buenos Aires, sushi in Lima, multi-day hiking in Patagonia, city tours in Colombia and the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia.  We typically enjoy it all.

Read more »

Has a Hotel Ever Crossed a Line With You?

I fell hard for a hotel while in Brazil. It was the Fasano in São Paulo, and although my better other half, who had stayed there before, led me to expect a lot from it, my high expectations didn't end up being a problem. I thought the Fasano was perfect, from the discreet side-street entrance, to the sunken bar in the lobby, to the sumptuous materials throughout (including lots of wood and casement windows), to the timelessly stylish room. On top of all that, the hotel leaves flip-flops in the marble bathroom that you can take with you—they used to be Havaianas, but now they're sturdier Ipanemas. I put them on and went to the pool (above), up on the second-from-the-top floor. It was how I imagine a Batman villain bathes.

And then I returned to the room to find this note....

Read more »

The Week's Top Travel News

For updates in real-ish time, follow TravelPost on Twitter.

• Korean Air will check your coat at the airport while you fly off to somewhere warm. (Jaunted)

• Patents for Apple's iTravel product show how you might one day use your iPhone while cruising. (Tnooz) 

• Expedia's new hotel product, ASAP—A Sudden Amazing Price, brings to mind Gilt and Groupon. (Kayak) 

• More airports are getting special permission to sell liquor at all hours, or at least early morning. (USA Today)

• Speaking of which, Jay-Z (above) is interested in getting into the airport-bar business. Won't Beyoncé give him a ride on her private jet? (Jaunted) 

• Amtrak will begin allowing guns on trains that take checked baggage—relax, they'll be in weapon-storage lockers, so you're safe until you enter the station. (MSNBC)

• Midrange hotels are taking over lower Manhattan: good for travelers, bad for the skyline. (Budget Travel)

Read more »

Better Luck Next Time!

A friend spotted this at a Newark airport lost-luggage office....

America The Beautiful: A Photo Journey through The United States

Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., by RHigson

It is my sincere opinion that the country I call home is the most beautiful and diverse of all that I've seen.  Having been to all 50 states, it was no easy task picking photographs that truly capture all that is magical about this land.  These photos represent my own bias, they are my favorite spots.  What is your favorite place to visit in the USA? What would you have liked to see included in this collection?  Join the discussion here.

   

Read more »

Tricky Travel Thursdays #3 - Restaurant Dilemna

Waiting in line to get a table at a busy restaurant, with no reservation, the waiter (who doesn't speak much English) misunderstands you and thinks you're someone who's on the reservation list.  Do you skip the wait, and take the table he's mistakenly offering to you?
What would you do?  Join the discussion here.

Previous Tricky Travel Thursdays:

#1: When only one of you gets upgraded...
#2: To tell the whole truth (or not!) on the customs declaration...

Smart Packing Starts With Smart Shopping

Packing so little that you don't have to check a bag—because of the fee and/or the wait at the bag drop and baggage claim—is harder at Christmas, at least if you're the kind of person who gives gifts. (Scrooge and the Grinch needn't worry.) I've been flying at Christmas for 22 years now, and I've learned that you have to think about packing from the moment you start shopping.

• Shop online when possible, and have items shipped to the destination.

• I don't feel comfortable paying to have stuff gift-wrapped, so I plan on doing it once I get there. (It can be nice to have a reason to lock yourself in a room for an hour or two.) Naturally, you want to make sure no one opens the boxes as they arrive. If the gift is for my dad, I have it shipped to my mom, and I email her to watch for a box from Amazon. Another option is to come up with a fake first name (such as Rudolph or Blitzen?) and then warn the recipient that any boxes for Rudolph are not to be opened. If you're going to a hotel, let the hotel know you'll be having items shipped to them, find out to whose attention they should go, and include your name and "Guest checking in [date]" in the shipping address. 

• Gifts that I buy in stores that aren't breakable or valuable—such as stocking stuffers—I send in the U.S. Postal Service’s Priority Mail flat-rate boxes (above). They're a good deal, particularly for packages traveling long distances, and they're small enough that I can use the automated postal machines. Where I live, the post office is like something out of the Soviet era.

Read more »