Spring is my favorite season. I realize that I say this about every season when it's upon us as I'm always so ready for it – but with spring I mean it. It's my favorite. I love the smell of spring and the beautiful flowers a well earned prize after enduring the dull gray of winter. Which is why this business about vanishing bees has me stressed.
We need the bees to pollenate to make the pretty spring flowers which make me so happy each and every spring. I do understand that we need them for a whole lot more than just spring flowers – I read somewhere that Albert Einstein predicted if we lost our bees humans days would be numbered.

Doesn't this suspected bee colony collapse syndrome seem like something out of a Michael Crichton novel rather than my backyard? I was so relieved to see big fuzzy bumble bees buzzing around my garden this weekend. Perhaps they love the azaleas more than I do. This year I promise to enjoy every buzz I hear and not swat at any pesky bees as I do love the job they do.

This spring I'm going to make a point of stopping to smell and appreciate each and every flower. I hope you'll do the same.

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Posted in Holiday & Seasonal
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I’m all about taking surveys. I can’t get enough of answering questions. I actually arrive at the doctor’s office embarrassingly early so that I can devote as much time as I want to filling all the forms out. And so when Travel + Leisure magazine and CNN Headline News launch their America Favorite Cities survey on April 30, you can bet I’ll be at the head of the line waiting to take it.

Last conducted in 2004--when Washington, D.C. was voted the best city for sightseeing, Honolulu the best city for romance, and New York the best city for family trips--the survey asks participants to dish on the cities they’re familiar with, ranking the restaurant scene, shopping options, and historical and cultural sights. You can even, if you like, give your opinion on your fellow residents, answering questions on their friendliness, their intelligence, and--gulp!--even their attractiveness and fashion sense.

It’ll be interesting, I think, to see how this year’s results stack up to those from 2004--have Detroit’s efforts at restoration, for instance, had any impact on its reputation? Have visitors to Las Vegas realized that there’s more to do there than just gamble? And will L.A. again be voted the unfriendliest city in the country, or can New York take back its crown?

Good news, as well, for those familiar with Atlanta, Charleston, and Dallas/Fort Worth, which have all been added to the 25 places featured in the 2007 survey. Wherever you live, though, make sure you sign up, take the survey when it launches on April 30, and do your favorite city proud. I, for one, will be waiting anxiously on the results.

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Posted in California, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York City, Polls & Studies
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Truth be told, there’s no way I’d travel with my two, big, drooling basset hounds, but pet travel is on the rise and has been for the past several years. Even pet travel to Hawaii, with its strict entrance policies, has risen 30 percent, according to an article this week in the Honolulu Advertiser.

Maybe pooch-toting celebs such as Paris with her teacup Chihuahua contributed to the craze. Whatever the reason, hotels have jumped on board with pet-pampering programs to lure guests. A couple of my favorite programs include: Kimpton’s VIP (Very Important Pet) program, which welcomes your pet with gourmet dog treats, bottled water, a dog bowl and chew toys. Also, W Hotels’ PAW program features doggie happy hour and a 4-legger menu.

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Posted in Hotel Travel, Pet Travel
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Since today is Equal Pay Day, I thought it’d be a great chance to write about women’s travel, which has gone way beyond weekend-at-the-spa, shopping-extravaganza, sit-around-and-have-tea kind of travel (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things). But more and more, we women are spending our hard-earned pay on some “me time” without the “he.” Do a Google search on “women’s adventure travel” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I discovered the pleasures of traveling solo a few years ago when I went to Alaska. Part of the trip was guided, but I arranged to arrive a few days early so I could spend some time exploring on my own. I rented a car and drove from Anchorage to Seward--probably the most stunning drive of my life--and then used a “women-friendly” B&B as my base for explorations of Kenai Fjords National Park. Other than that it was run by a woman, nothing about this B&B particularly screamed women, by the way. There were even a few men staying there, but it did make me wonder, do women travelers have an entirely separate set of travel needs from men? What makes a hotel “women friendly”?

While the debate swirls around this topic, there’s no denying that some hotels are adding women’s only floors, more minibars are offering—ahem—feminine products, and more adventure outfitters are waiving the single supplement fee for solo female travelers.

According to the Travel Industry Association, 47% of all solo travelers these days are women, and I would place my bet that as the travel industry grows more women-friendly, that percentage might even exceed 50% within a few years.

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Posted in Group & Companion
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This morning I heard some disturbing news on the radio. The Coney Island amusement park (AKA the Astroland Amusment park) has been sold to a real estate developer, at least according to the NPR story I woke up to. Everything save the cyclone, an official landmark, will be torn down and made into…What exactly? That is the question.

When I first heard the news I was blurry with sleep but this got my blood pumping. It's sacrilege to tear down Coney Island! After all, I have yet to go on all the rides! I'm thinking what – more luxury rentals by the sea? Is there no one else who wants to see some things remain the same? Ugh, I feel old. It's an ugly thought this early in the morning. But what about preservation of an icon?

And that's really it. It's not so much that I want to preserve a slice of my own experience because I don't have memories of family outings to Coney Island. My family, with roots in Brooklyn, never went there. It wasn't until I went to Brighton Beach as an adult that I got to witness The Cyclone up close with my own eyes. And I must admit I was afraid to go on it because it seemed, well, a tad rickety. However these rides are a piece of New York history! They're a classic. I want Coney Island and all the wacky wanderers who abound from clowns to mermaids to creeps to be there always – to have a place to shine. After all, it's why Coney Island's amusement park and boardwalk has been the colorful backdrop for many a movie, book, video, commercial and parade for years.

I depresses me to think how the world is changing. It's getting so cleaned up. Everything with any grit, any true personality –originality–is being taken down in favor of what I'm calling the bland branding-down of America. I love how unsafe Coney Island is from fashion to freaks. Do they know what they are taking apart when they tear this slice of Americana down?

And then in my semi sleepy state – I thought I heard something hopeful. Something odd about wanting to make Coney Island like Dubai. A multi-million dollar entertainment resort. There was brief talk of making a snow mountain. And while I have no idea if that's true or even possible in a place that gets pretty hot during the summer months – it definitely seemed like the best case scenario. If you have to go out with the old and in with the new – at least ushering in something as wild and far-fetched as Dubai seems like a suitable modern day replacement for Astroland and all that goes with it.

While the plans have yet to be approved I remain dubious. And also determined to ride the rides at Coney Island this summer for the first and last time.

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Posted in New York City
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There has been a lot of talk about global warming lately – most of it focused on the shift from questioning greenhouse gases as the cause of global warming, to the acceptance that it's at our very doorstep. This year on Earth Day, the Earth Day network is launching a three-year plan to find global solutions for climate change, which may leave some of you thinking, Just what do greenhouse gases and climate change have to do with travel? The answer is a lot.

The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 to set mandates and CO2 limitations for participating nations. Although the United States is a majority contributor of these gases, the U.S. government has not abided by the regulations set forth in the Kyoto Protocol. Of the many factors listed as contributors to greenhouse gases, air traffic is a major one. According to the Better World club, the average domestic U.S. airline flight releases more than 1,700 pounds per person of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Now, I'm hardly one to recommend against traveling. On the contrary; I say travel away--just do so responsibly. There are actions we can take on the road, even when traveling in our own towns, to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are being released into the environment. These reductions, while seemingly small, can add up to make a major difference.

When it comes to flying, one of the first things you can do is offset the amount of toxic emissions produced by airplanes by purchasing what is called a "carbon offset." There are several companies that now provide this service, and it's not terribly expensive. (I found that the cost to offset a roundtrip flight from NY to LA was under $20.) You can now "Go Zero on Travelocity through our program with the Conservation Fund or visit them at www.gocarbonzero.org. Or you can try Climate Care (www.climatecare.org), NativeEnergy (www.nativeenergy.com), or Trees for Travel (www.treesfortravel.nl). Most often carbon offsets allow you to buy trees (the planting and sustaining thereof for a year's time). Trees go a long way in decreasing the amount of CO2 that exists in the environment, which is literally the path to a greener world.

As for road travel, the Better World's auto club membership serves as an alternative to the more well known AAA and provides many of the same services such as roadside assistance, maps, and discounts while promoting environmentally friendly practices. (For more information, visit www.betterworldclub.com.) Additionally, by only renting the size car you need, you may be able to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Larger vehicles, such as SUVs require much more gasoline.

There are also ways to support the environment while you're at home. For example, group your errands together to save time, energy and gasoline. Consider riding your bike to run an errand or walking instead of driving.

Whether at home or on the road, eating locally is another great way to support the local economy and minimize your environmental impact. The shorter the distance food has to travel to your plate, the fewer greenhouse gases are emitted. Besides, eating locally is a great way to experience a place by learning more about its culture and its people! I love low-country cuisine in Charleston and Texas barbeque in Austin, and nowhere are the artichokes better than in California.

When staying at a hotel, remember to shut off the TV and turn out the lights when you leave the room to conserve energy usage. (You can do this at home too!) Also take part in their green-friendly programs such as recycling sheets and towels if they aren't in need of daily washing. Recycling and supporting recycled products is always encouraged.

Experts say that if a third of the U.S. population were to take concentrated steps (many as simple as the ones I've mentioned in this column), we could collectively reduce the U.S. emissions targets to the levels that were established by the Kyoto Protocol.

Since I love traveling, I want to preserve all the precious places around the globe for generations to come. I'm already putting this plan into action and doing my best to make everyday Earth Day. This Earth Day, if you haven't already, why not consider how you're going to make the world a better place too?

To learn more about how you can conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions visit www.earthday.net.

Happy and green travels!

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I’m just back from a trip to the Czech Republic and still suffering from some serious jetlag, so I’ll keep this short and sweet. On the way across the pond I read a stat in Vanity Fair’s Green issue that seriously bummed me out: the U.S. will likely emit 19% more greenhouse gases by 2020 than it did in 2000. Meanwhile, our friends over in the European Union have committed to cut those emissions by 20% by 2020 from 1990 levels. Ouch! I’m pretty sure I winced visibly at that one.

The staggering difference in priorities reflected by those numbers made me wonder if I would see a major difference in the day-to-day eco-consciousness in Europe in comparison to the U.S. To be fair, I was coming from one of our country’s greenest cities to a country led by a man who recently said that government spending on global warming studies were a waste of money and who has compared environmentalism to communism (which, if you know anything about the anti-communist sentiment that pervades the Czech Republic, is a pretty brawny statement). So perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me when recycling bins were nearly impossible to find, or that there was a shocking number of massive SUVs bumping over the cobblestones despite the tiny streets upon which they have to maneuver. I can only hope that a country which loves beer as much as this one does might find the effects that the current multi-year drought are having on their barley crops at least mildly concerning enough to consider that climate change might have something to do with it.

Clearly not all of Europe has boarded the green bandwagon just yet. But there’s no question that eco-consciousness on the continent as a whole is greater there than it is here. Beyond the EU’s emissions reduction commitment, anecdotally I was heartened by the only other country I had a very brief brush with on my trip -- the Netherlands, by way of the Amsterdam airport. There, I found about five recycling bins at every gate (of course the complicated instructions about which recyclable should go in which bin and how to open the darn things were all in Dutch so I had to watch someone else throw a newspaper in before I could appropriately chuck my International Herald Tribune and water bottle), and innovative energy saving measures being taken in all the public restrooms. But my favorite stat to illustrate Europe’s enlightenment when it comes to the environment is -- surprise, surprise-- a travel stat: on our sister site in the UK, www.lastminute.com, the rate of customers adding carbon offsets to the trips they book on the site is 10%. That number is a big one, and true testament to the awareness of the issues and willingness of travelers to take personal responsibility for their individual impact on the environment.

I hope that level of accountability catches on in the U.S. soon. Travelocity offers a similar option for travelers to offset their trip’s carbon footprint through the planting of native trees on protected lands. The best part about the Go Zero initiative is that you can purchase the offsets as part of your vacation package or as a stand-alone product. In fact, I was starting to feel a little hypocritical writing this rant so I just retroactively offset my European vacation (literally after typing the comma after “In fact” I did it!). Afterall, until that 2020 projection gets revisited by the powers that be, the responsibility to reduce the harmful effects of global warming in this country appears to be falling on you and me, and our personal travel is as good a place as any to start.

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Posted in Europe, Green Travel, International Travel
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When I was traveling around Southeast Asia last fall, there was a t-shirt making the rounds in the markets of Bangkok. It featured a tree with a speech bubble over its branches reading “hug me,” and a man standing next to it saying “no.” I’m not sure exactly what it signified--for all I know, it could just have been poorly translated from the Thai--but I chose to believe that it had something to do with the fact that sometimes we just don’t make the right ethical, environmental, and moral choices when it comes to looking after the world.

With Earth Day upon us, it’s important, I think, to highlight the amazing natural wonders of the planet, whether it’s the ones we use up our vacation days going to visit, or the ones we pass by every day. And so it was with great delight that I stumbled across Neatorama’s list of the Top 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World.

There’s the General Sherman giant sequoia, of course, weighing in at an impressive 275 feet and 6,000 tons, and the drive-thru Redwood, both of which are in California. But there’s also the enormous Tule Tree, a Montezuma Cypress near Oaxaca, Mexico, with a trunk 10 meters in diameter. And then there are the amazing baobab--or “monkey bread”--trees in Madagascar and Africa, one of which even has, ahem, a toilet in its trunk!

So this Earth Day, embrace your inner tree-hugger. Book a trip to Asia to see the banyan trees! Marvel at the Trembling Giant in Utah! And don’t forget to offset your carbon emissions when you book your trip. These fantastic natural attractions were there long before online check-in, e-tickets, and astronomical gas prices, and they’ll be there long afterwards. As long as we look after them, that is.

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Posted in Green Travel, Nature & Outdoors, Scenic Drives
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In an era where global warming is a hot topic, eco-conscious humans from Capitol Hill to the Bay Area encourage the use of energy efficient light bulbs, hybrid cars and recyclable materials. But an equally disturbing environmental threat (and one that doesn’t seem to get the press it deserves) is that of extinction. One endangered species is the leatherback turtle, and environmentalists are staging what is being called the Great Turtle Race to raise awareness and save these ocean dwellers before it’s too late.

Photo: Leatherback hatchling Copyright Noelle Rucinski.

Satellite trackers will follow 11 female turtles on their annual 1,200 mile journey from Costa Rica to the Galapagos Islands (These destinations not only serve as natural habitats to the turtles, but they're also dedicated to the preservation of wildlife and true leaders in global efforts to save these creatures.) You, too, can be a supporter and track the turtles as they travel over the next two weeks. (The current leader is Windy, an injured turtle sponsored by West Marine.)

Like the turtles, travelers are drawn to the sandy beaches along the Pacific coast of Mexico, Costa Rica and Caribbean islands such as the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Croix. While illegal poaching of their eggs is the main killer of the turtles, ocean contamination and development near the turtles’ native habitats (two problems often aggravated by the tourism industry) are also key contributors.

According to National Geographic’s The Green Guide, 23 percent of mammals, 12 percent of birds and 32 percent of amphibians are on the World Conservation Union's 2006 Red List of species threatened with extinction. As travelers, we are responsible for keeping the land, including the wildlife, safe from our mark. Here's how Convservation International says you can help:

• Make responsible seafood consumption choices by avoiding the more depleted or endangered species.
• Support tourism developments that take care not to destroy beaches, sand dunes, and mangroves, as well as those that turn off lights in the evening to avoid discouraging sea turtles from nesting.
• Avoid tortoiseshell trinkets or products made from turtle leather.
• Dispose of your trash properly to keep rivers, streams, and oceans clean.
• Reduce your carbon emissions to help minimize the effects of global warming on oceans.

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Posted in Green Travel
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Unlike Jack Nicholson’s character in As Good As It Gets, I don’t need a new bar of soap every time I wash my hands. Yet, over the course of my travels, I’ve probably abandoned hundreds of half-used hotel soaps and shampoo bottles, which is why I’m all for the new, more environmentally friendly trend of liquid shampoo and soap dispensers.

More and more, I’m seeing hotels asking guests to opt in to towel reuse programs, and I’m starting to see car rental companies add hybrid vehicles to their fleets. Some travel companies are greener than others, but it’s a refreshing new trend that many are incorporating green practices and technologies into their repertoire.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car, for example, is adding Saturn VUE Green Line Hybrid vehicles to its rental car fleet in California, and they’re adding alternative fuel choices in other markets across the country. While it might cost more to rent one of these cars, the cost to the environment is less. Enterprise has also instituted the 50 million tree pledge with the goal of planting 50 million trees over the next 50 years.

Nature Air, in Costa Rica, plans to be the first carbon neutral airline in the world. Founded by two Alaskan bush pilots wishing to preserve Central America’s ecologically fragile environment, Nature Air’s planes emit low noise and pollution levels, and the company offsets its emissions through the support of wind and solar farms.

As for the lodging industry, the green touchscreen at Gaia Napa Valley Hotel lets you see exactly what the building’s CO2 emissions, water use, and electricity use are in real time. The hotel is certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for using biodegradable and recycled material in construction and furnishings, chemical-free landscaping, energy efficient heating and cooling systems, and wide usage of natural light.

Have you noticed any new environmentally friendly practices on airlines, car rentals, or hotels recently?

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Earth Day is this coming Sunday, April 22nd and this blogging team thinks it's pretty important. Why? Because everything feels different this year since the US Government is finally recognizing what some have long argued: that everything we humans do indeed has an impact on the environment. As a result, we've decided to honor earth day by devoting an entire week of our blog topics to green travel stories.

A good introduction to this topic is my column on this topic.

Even though I rarely talk about Travelocity here on this blog, I wanted to break form this week and highlight a few projects that I'm particularly proud to be involved here. Things that as a traveler I hope you'll be interested in. The first is a program I was instrumental in launching, and which is very near and dear to my heart, it's Travelocity's Travel for Good program. Among other things it was constructed to enable people to travel in a way that is both ethical and responsible. As part of the travel for good initiative we are offering travelers the opportunity to offset their travel through our Go Zero program. If you don't know what I mean by "off-setting" your travel you need to pay particular attention to the eco-bunnies on this page who help to explain the importance of zeroing out your carbon.

Travelocity was the first online travel agency in the industry to offer this program and we have successfully fostered a trend. Customers have written to us commending our efforts. (Keep telling us your thoughts!) And so far we've planted over 4,500 hundred trees in the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge, which was largely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

But all of this is only a start. Beyond zeroing out our carbon, we can all live more green more lives by paying attention to our energy usage. These tips will help you tread more lightly when you're on the road:

• Don't leave the lights on in your hotel room, or the TV or the AC for that matter.
  
• Don't leave your cell phone, computer, PDA, and the like plugged in. Remove all the plugs from outlets when you're not using them and you'll save energy.
  
• When you're in a new place try and buy local items and eat local foods.
  
• Walk or take public transport wherever possible.
  
• Don't buy any endangered species items
  
• Oh, and if you leave a light on at home while you are away. Be sure to make it an energy saving bulb and put it on a timer.

For more tips on how to live a greener life check out the website lime or plenty magazine.

All of these small reductions can yield big differences in your footprint every year. So this earth day start implementing your own changes. We can all take part in changing the world – one trip at a time.

Enjoy our green travel week.

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Okay, so being tired at work isn’t exactly a brilliant career move--it might mean that you make a few mistakes in that report, of course, or call a co-worker by the wrong name in a meeting, but skipping a little shut-eye before work is hardly likely to cause you to kill a few hundred people the next day, is it?

Not so for air traffic controllers who, investigators revealed recently, are understaffed, overworked, and overtired--a (no pun intended) deadly combination that contributed to four aviation mishaps in recent years, and may even have been one of the reasons for last August’s Comair crash, in which 49 people died after the pilot turned down the wrong runway.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there are around a thousand fewer air traffic controllers than there were in late 2003--meaning many workers have to pull double shifts, take overtime, or come back to work after nothing more than a catnap. The controller working during the Comair crash even revealed to authorities that he’d only had time for two hours of sleep between finishing his first shift and starting a new one.

No-one likes to think that the person in charge of their safety and well-being is, ahem, dozing on the job. But while the National Transport Safety Board is recommending that the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association revise the work schedules of controllers and develop fatigue awareness programs, there’s little else that you, as a passenger, can do at the moment. Aside from crossing your fingers on your next flight, of course, and hoping that the air traffic controller has had his rest.

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Posted in Air Travel, Security & Safety, Travel News
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In the April issue of Condé Nast Traveler, Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, spoke about his personal travels; his humanitarian work efforts; and the perception of Americans around the world. During the interview, he was asked if travel was the best form of diplomacy. His answer, in my opinion, couldn’t have been a better one. Holbrooke’s response: “If you don't travel, you can forget that people in other parts of the world are human beings, too.”
Via World Hum.

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I just read about an airline pilot who, reportedly, was screaming obscenities into his cell phone for all to hear just as passengers were boarding the plane. So many of the passengers found this experience unnerving that the airline actually removed the pilot from the plane and canceled the entire flight.

Was this an overreaction or the responsible thing to do?

While rules are supposed to regulate pilot fatigue, it’s still a factor of the job. Now I don’t know if that’s what contributed to the pilot locking himself into the bathroom and yelling four-letter words so loud that he could still be heard through the closed door. Maybe he was drunk. Maybe he was just having a really lousy day. But the airline took responsibility. The passengers were accommodated on other flights and given meal and hotel vouchers for their troubles, and an investigation has been launched.

As much as I hate having my flights canceled, I shudder even more to think that a flight might go forward with the pilot in a clearly agitated state. What do you think? Would you want your flight to continue as scheduled if you saw or heard your captain speaking less like a pilot and more like a sailor?

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Posted in Air Travel, Security & Safety, Travel News
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So here's the thing, this whole notion of "slow travel" it's not new. There have been home stays and house swaps happening around the globe for years. In fact I lived like a local for the first time when I was 16. And I agree that living la vita local is a great way to immerse yourself in a different culture – in fact it's one of the very best. But I'm kind of peeved at claiming that this whole notion is new.

Let me be clear: I do not have anything against the concept of slow travel itself. It's just that it only has a catchy new name. But I suppose I should blame that on the marketers. And they are probably really psyched because this new name has garnered slow travel a fair amount of press. It took homestays and rentals and put them on the google search map. And thus travel's latest trend has been born.

Maybe this should all be credited to the makers of the movie The Holiday with Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslett and Jack Black. Now they definitely made slow travel look good. But believe, sometimes staying in a home you've never seen before in a place you've never been can be nothing less than miserable. Pictures aren't always what they seem…. You know what I mean? A bathroom to one might be a teeny hole in the ground outside the house to another…. But if you do your research well and you get a bit lucky you can have a fantastic experience. Check out slowtrav.com and read more for yourself. Or ease yourself into it and look for a hotel or condo with a kitchenette where you can also get the best of both worlds.

Tell me about your experience living like a local or, as they saying goes, spill all on your slow travel times.

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One of the things I like best about flying is that I don’t have to talk to anyone if I don’t want to. I’ve spent 28-hour flights completely silent, aside from the requisite “chicken, please,” murmured in the direction of the flight attendant. Although I may panic about packing and planning before a trip, I give myself complete carte blanche once I’m on the plane to sit back and relax. And for me, that means snuggling into my sweater, getting stuck into a book, and eating as many Skittles as possible. I don’t want to be bothered. I don’t want to chat. I just want to sit in silence.

That’s why I was so relieved to read that the FCC had decided not to lift their ban on cellphone use on airplanes after all. For a while, there had been talk of overturning the rule requiring passengers to switch their phones off while the plane was in the air, which would give every Loquacious Lulu in the seat next to you license to call their mom and catch up. You’d also be privy to the sound of one obnoxious ringtone after another, and would probably find yourself listening in on any number of work-related conversations when you were trying to enjoy the first segment of your vacation. Worst of all? That fail-safe excuse for not returning a call because you were 30,000 feet in the air would be taken out of commission forever. (Come on, you know you’ve used that one too.)

While technical reasons were given for the decision--mainly that "insufficient technical information" was available on whether cell phone calls made from the air could jam the networks below--the FCC was apparently inundated with complaints from outraged passengers, fearful that their last defense against an uncomfortable flight was about to be taken away. And quite right, too--after all, a chatty seatmate can be silenced with a polite smile and a subtle “oh, I must get back to my book.” If, however, that same chatty seatmate had a cellphone she could turn to--well, then you’d never hear the end of it. Quite literally, in fact.

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Posted in Air Travel, Travel News
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I’ve been to Las Vegas several times and for several different reasons: to celebrate my 21st birthday; to (unintentionally) gamble my life savings away; to sit in a conference room listening to various speakers talk tourism; and, of course, to experience the rockin’ Las Vegas shows and nightlife. It never occurred to me, however, to visit Sin City for its food.

Chef Wolfgang Puck started the trend (so they say), when he brought his famous food to the city, and big names have been following his lead ever since. During my most recent visit, I checked out a few places on the must-try Vegas foodie list. L'Atelier and Café Martorano were among my personal favorites, but as more and more celebrity chefs open kitchens, I may just have to make another trip to get more of this delicious destination!

Photo: La Ventreche (Lightly seared tuna belly with crispy onion rings) at L'Atelier.

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Take a look around your home or work area, and how many vacation souvenirs do you see? Just glancing around my desk, I see a moose-head pencil, a bottle of Alaskan gold dust, a wooden box containing a cigar, butterfly wind chimes, a teensy stuffed koala bear holding the Australian flag, a magnet depicting tango dancers with what looks like the Washington Monument in the background, and a cruise-ship picture frame, just to name a few.

The souvenir is such a beloved staple of the travel experience.

There’s the token snow globe, even from destinations that haven’t seen snow since the last Ice Age. There’s the requisite t-shirt, with such messages as “my parents went to [blank] and all I got was this lousy t-shirt,” “I survived the [insert treacherous-but-beautiful road name here],” and the simple “I Heart [destination name].” There are the ornaments and shot glasses, the key chains and paperweights.

Each place has its own must-haves. In Scotland, it’s the tartan garment. In Japan, it’s the folding fan. In Egypt, it’s the fake papyrus. When I was in Italy, I went to the “lace-making island” of Burano, where everyone, it seemed, was selling toilet paper holders. It never occurred to me to have a white frilly lace enclosure for my utilitarian generic-brand toilet paper, but walking from stall to stall, I started thinking I just might really need one. Then, reason prevailed.

In the Peruvian mountain city of Cusco, there was bin after bin of finger puppets, in every shop, on every street corner. And even though there’s no arguing that these were very cute finger puppets--darling actually--how many does a person need?

Need clearly has nothing to do with it, which is the genius of the souvenir. A good souvenir is a keeper because it reminds you of places you’ve been, supports the local economy, and only requires a quick glance to conjure up nostalgia and wanderlust.

What are some of your favorite, or most unusual, souvenirs?

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The 2007 Airline Quality Report is out and the verdict is not really a surprise – wanna guess? Things aren't looking exactly rosy. The study found more lost baggage and an increase in passengers getting bumped and delayed. You've heard all of it before and if you've been flying you've experienced it. But this is the factual proof. And yet, we're all still waiting for the airlines to take some responsibility. Maybe this will make them change?

Probably not. It seems the airlines want Congress, the FAA –someone, anyone!—to fix this rather than them taking full responsibility. Frankly I don't think it should require governmental intervention to get service back into the skies and personally, I'm willing to pay for it. A few more bucks a ticket to guarantee my bags will make it, my flight will be relatively on time, maybe to have the offer of a little nibble at 30,000 feet…Seriously those are things I would pay for. This used to be the difference between the low-cost carriers and the majors. But not so much anymore. The lines are blurring. And can we talk about the airports themselves? They could use an overhaul too. Bring them into the modern age with services that would make it fun to be delayed. There are a few things happening here and there: wine tastings in DFW, internet café's in Detroit, healthy-food at JFK – but there's not enough of it.

I remember the good old days when Eastern airlines gave out peanuts – honey roasted peanuts – they gave out cards and the flight attendants were smartly dressed, attentive and smiling. Back then, I'd go on a family trip just a few times a year and flying was a treat! Kind of like going to the amusement park – it was a thrilling ride from start to finish. Is it because I travel so much for business and pleasure and that the novelty has so worn off and my patience all but run out?

I have to say, I think it has to do with the service. And to give good service you have to have a happy staff. To have a happy staff you have to be a good company. To be a good company you have to take care of your people… Oh boy, I hope things can get better soon. I want to look forward to my flights again. Until then, I'll just have to put the AQR out of my mind and remember the good old days.

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Posted in Air Travel, Travel News
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