Chances are you’re hitting the road or taking to the skies this weekend. If you’ve had a summer full of weekend getaways like me, you’re probably having mixed emotions. Labor Day is always good for a little R&R (after all, the holiday is all about honoring workers) but because we travelers have come to associate it with the end of summer and the end of our carefree escapes, it’s a little sad too.

But don’t think of Labor Day as the end of summer – think of it is the beginning of an autumn filled with travel possibilities. The Wall Street Journal reports that the week after Labor Day marks the beginning of the off season (read: deals). That’s just one reason why the end of the summer can be a good thing.

If you still haven’t used your vacation days from work, the coming weeks are, in my opinion, the best time of the year to do just that. September is still warm enough to hit the beach in most parts of the country and, with most families back in school mode, you’re likely to have a little more space to spread out your beach blanket in the sand. You’ll also see prices start to dip; in fact, airfare is down 3 percent for fall travel. Expect lower prices at hotels and on rental cars too.

October brings a chill to the air and, to a few lucky workers, another three-day weekend to take advantage of. Columbus Day weekend (Monday, October 8 in 2007) is prime time for fall foliage and a great time to get outdoors and enjoy nature before the cold weather sets in. The Chicago Tribune has a great guide to leaf-peeping in the Midwest, while Yankee Foliage has great information for those who favor New England in the fall.

I feel much better about the end of the summer, don’t you? Let’s kiss the summer goodbye and welcome an autumn full of adventures!

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Posted in Holiday & Seasonal
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China is a fantastic country. China is also an enormous country, and enormous countries equal enormous guidebooks. Seriously, the Lonely Planet China---which I carried around with me for two weeks last summer---comes in at a whopping 1012 pages and weighs close to two pounds. And since I was only visiting Beijing and Shanghai on that trip, meaning I only really looked at two sections of the book with any frequency, I'm estimating that I carried around about 700 pages and a pound and a half more paper than I actually needed.

But there's good news for travelers with weak upper body strength: Lonely Planet has just come up with a solution to slim down its more portly tomes with a concept it calls the Pick & Mix.

If you've got an Internet connection, a printer, and a severe case of wanderlust, you can select and purchase individual chapters from a range of LP guidebooks, downloading them as PDFs and then printing them out to slip into the top of your suitcase. And if you're the proud owner of, say, a BlackBerry or an iPhone, of course, you can even download the content to the device, nix the printing, and carry around your own Lonely Planet content digitally, negating a need for paper entirely. And not only is the content identical to that in the paper guidebooks, it's often even more current as well, as chapters are available prior to the release of the book.

Most chapters cost somewhere between $2 and $4 each to download, although it's worth noting that you'll get a discount when you purchase a few at once. If you're heading off on a trip soon, you might want to try Pick & Mix for free, which you can do by downloading the Planning chapter from each book, which includes the Getting Started, Snapshots, and Itineraries sections.

Since only Latin America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America are being offered at the moment while Pick & Mix in its trial run, I'll have to wait a little while until I can custom-tailor my next China guidebook experience. One thing's for sure: the very first chapter I download is going to be the one at the back with all the useful phrases in it. Trust me, I've learned the hard way: wild hand gestures can only get you so far.

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Posted in Group & Companion, Guides & Planning
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Through the windows of Ottawa’s Parliament building, senators are likely to see something that you wouldn’t expect on Parliament Hill: a Cobra; a Cat; and a Downward Facing Dog.

If you’re a follower of the ancient tradition of yoga, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Keep in mind, I am no yoga expert, but you don’t have to be an Ashtanga master to know there’s something special about Yoga on Parliament Hill, one of Travelocity.ca's Local Secrets, Big Finds. This free yoga class, sponsored by Lululemon Athletica, lures locals to the lawn of Parliament Hill, just along the banks of the beautiful Ottawa River.

I tromped around Canada last week, visiting some of the Local Secrets, Big Finds, and I have to say that I was so impressed by Yoga on Parliament Hill that this local gem may have convinced me to lift my year long ban of the practice. My only yoga experience has been in a sweltering room (115 degrees to be exact) in a San Francisco yoga studio that reeked of Haight-Ashbury hippies. (You know. The ones who swear that rubbing salt crystals under their arms once a week will keep them, um, powder fresh.) Long story short, Bikram yoga isn’t my thing, but this class gave me an entirely new perspective on the practice – and it made me think about the trend of health and fitness for the traveler.

More and more, we’re seeing that people want to get out and be active when they travel. I tend to search for hotels with nice fitness centers; I walk instead of drive when I can; and I always throw a jump rope in my suitcase for a quick morning workout in my room. Even with these healthy alternatives, I find myself longing for a more normal workout routine while I’m on the road, which is why I was so compelled to experience Yoga on Parliament Hill. It not only gives travelers the chance to do something healthy, but they get to indulge in a truly local Ottawa experience.

Have you stumbled upon any local fitness secrets while on the road?

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Posted in Canada, Health & Wellness, LSBF '07
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For all my gripes about flight delays and airline-service slips this summer, I have to admit that when I book a ticket to Rome, I generally end up in Rome. My suitcase’s final destination, on the other hand, is often quite literally up in the air. And since tighter carry-on restrictions have turned my fellow toiletry fiends and me into reluctant bag checkers, it seems inevitable that we’ll face down empty luggage carousels increasingly often.

The only thing worse than the moment you realize your luggage is lost is the process of retrieving it, especially if you’re traveling abroad. And sometimes, your bag permanently checks out, never to be seen—or stowed—again.

The good news: even if you never see your lost suitcase again, you can do your karmic duty and snatch up items that other travelers have loved and lost at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. Most luggage and cargo that go missing in the U.S. end up for sale here, and the block-long facility is a veritable vacation destination for suitcase mourners and bargain hunters alike. The center’s website offers helpful trip-planning tools, so you can book a plane ticket and start researching right away (just don’t check your bag, unless you want to tempt fate—and irony).

For a more refined grab-bag experience, the U.K. stages dignified unclaimed-item auctions for its lost luggage, with top bidders clinching everything from laptops to wet suits. So should you lose your bag at Heathrow, or simply need a rubber outfit to fend off that London rain, you know where to turn. And if you see any containers that look like they can condense a lot of liquids into a quart-size bag, please pick up a few for me.

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Posted in Air Travel, Packing & Baggage
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When I travel, I tend to book accommodations on a just-somewhere-to-sleep basis. This is for three reasons: first, I’d rather get it over with and spend more time planning things to do or, more importantly, what and where and how often to eat; second, it saves me money; and third, it’s a good way to make myself feel better about not having a single excuse to set foot in a five-star hotel, save visiting the lobby restroom. “Oh, it’s just somewhere to sleep,” I tell myself. And usually, it is.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Jason Elite

But the travel industry is abuzz with news about ultra-luxury hotels, a la Dubai’s seven-star Burj Al Arab, which boasts dancing laser fountains, personal butlers, revolving canopy beds, and an entire beach staff dedicated to spritzing overheated guests with water bottles. The latest? Experience-based hotels. When Forbes Traveler released its Top Oddball Hotels list, it got me thinking: am I missing out?

In Turkey’s mystical Cappadocia, you can stay in a hotel suite carved out of the cave walls, fully immersed in the landscape and in five-star luxury. In Costa Rica, you can elect to sleep in the rainforest canopy in a treehouse built with sustainable materials from the surrounding forest. If you’re yearning for an Out of Africa experience, you can still go the treehouse route, this time overlooking the landscape of Nairobi’s Ngong Hills. And, of course, there’s Sweden’s famous ICEHOTEL, where winter guests sleep on reindeer skins in what amounts to a larger-than-life ice sculpture.

What I love about these hotels is their relevance to the landscape: Sweden’s icy winters, Costa Rica’s lush rainforests, and Turkey’s volcanic panoramas. In these cases, wrapping your hotel stay into your full experience is a way to enrich your travels and escape the whole see-the-sights-and-go-back-to-your-hotel paradigm. Maybe a hotel isn’t always just somewhere to sleep, but a way to center your travel experience and make it even more memorable. I’ll certainly take that over a revolving canopy bed any day.

What’s your most memorable accommodation experience—or your most wished-for hotel stay? Tell us about it!

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Posted in Green Travel, Hotel Travel, International Travel
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It’s an amazing thing to witness: many people undergo complete transformations of personality while on vacation. Ordinarily shy people become chatty. Reserved executives find themselves entering themselves into a cruise ship hairiest chest contest. Dieters indulge in chocolate fantasies and couch potatoes find themselves running with glee from attraction to attraction. Everybody, it seems, has a vacation alter-ego.

Photo courtesty of IgoUgo member Sail Army.

When I’m on vacation, I’ve been known to transform from my usual night-owl self into someone who voluntarily gets up before dawn to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean (to be fair, in some cases it’s because I’m still awake from the night before). And, although I’m not a coffee drinker regularly, if I go to Europe you can bet I’ll have a cup everyday.

I’ve also been known to willingly and even happily confront fears I’d never have fun facing in the day-to-day, like crawling through some very claustrophobic caves in Spain in order to see prehistoric paintings, joining a group of non-English-speaking strangers in Mexico for a wild day of dune-buggying in the rain, or deciding to ignore the signs in Jamaica in favor of taking a rental car off the main road and into the wilds of the Blue Mountains.

There are other stories, of course, although I think I'll keep those to myself for now (wink wink). But what about you? What are some of the most outrageous, most out of character things you’ve ever done while on vacation?

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There is almost nothing more American than a good, old-fashioned road trip. Fill up the tank, call up your friends, and take to the great highways. But if you’re anything like me, before you go, you load up your iPod with a road trip mix that is so well-crafted (and let’s face it, borderline genius) that surely your friends will oohh and aahh all the way to Albuquerque. (That never happens, by the way.)

My only problem when creating these mixes is the embarrassment of riches to choose from. Not only do Americans love riding along in their automobiles, but bands love to sing about it too, making the wealth of road trip songs nearly overwhelming.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member kwasiak.

In May, Rolling Stone magazine tried to tackle the age-old question of what is the greatest road trip song ever by polling readers. They came up with a respectable list, but I beg to differ with some of the entries. “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin beat out “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” by the Beasties?! Gasp! Sputter! That is music blasphemy if I’ve ever heard it.

USA Today tried to be a little more scientific about it and asked some of their travel and music writers to submit their greatest driving hits, but the resulting recommendations are all over the map, if you’ll pardon the pun.

So I thought we’d tackle this question here: What is the greatest road trip song ever? Here are my top five songs for you to scoff at or second.

1) “Country Roads” by John Denver--Take me home, John.
2) “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” by the Beastie Boys--I dare you not to scream it.
3) “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf--Easy Rider created the whole genre.
4) “I Get Around” by the Beach Boys--Flight of the Navigator! Need I say more?
5) “California” by Phantom Planet--This is the theme song to The O.C. It’s a controversial choice, I know, but the song is irresistible.

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Posted in Car Travel, Scenic Drives
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If you read Genevieve’s last post (and I hope you did!), you’ll know the difference between those who feel that summer means vacation and those who don’t. Like Ms. Brown, I am of the former category. Whether it is a hardwired impulse or simply a remnant of schooldays when warm weather and responsibility were inversely proportional, I can’t help but get restless when the days are long and the breeze blows balmier. To be honest, I’m on vacation now! This year, as we’ve done for the last 25 Augusts, my family and I put some time aside, drop just about everything, and go to Nantucket. That’s right, I’m on vacation right now. Of course, I have used just about all my vacation days to do it, so don’t be too jealous (though I just came in from the beach).

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member richardhall99.

Every year, we pack up the car—now more than just one to accommodate various Davidson additions—and make the 2am departure from the city to get on that first ferry across the sound. It’s a bit of a rude awakening, literally, to be on the road so early, but once you catch a glimpse of the island, rising out of the Atlantic, all sense of travel fatigue dissipates under the sun like Nantucket’s signature fog.

Nantucket has changed some over the years. Aside from a considerable increase in the number of people, cars, and boutique shops, the nature of the island is perhaps less friendly than it was when I used to ride my bike around the many then-dirt roads and cars would wave to me as I skidded by. That is not to say that the Grey Lady has lost her charm. People are still much calmer here—I have yet to hear a car horn, for example—and the beaches, though slightly more populated each year, are some of the best in the country. In fact, there remains the handful of small beaches that only a few know. We sat on the beach this afternoon, completely alone save for the occasional kayaker paddling through the rollers, and maybe a dog who ran over the dunes, not knowing the rules.

The constant humidity of New York is non-existent here. At night, the temperature drops, requiring a sweatshirt or layer of some kind. As the wind blows, it carries the sound of buoys in the harbor and foghorns from the lighthouses. Though it’s cool for a New Yorker used to the oppressive August of the City, I relish the temperate evenings; they prepare me for the coming of fall and my return to work. My tan fades and my hair becomes dark again but the sense of relaxation that comes from this place stays with me just long enough to get me through the harsh New York winter until next year when the long days start to hint at my dawn departure.

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Posted in Beaches, Holiday & Seasonal
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With almost two-thirds of all Americans living in a household with a pet, it’s no surprise that our furballs are taking to the roads, skies, and seas in increasing numbers. And since Americans are projected to spend over $40 billion on their four-legged friends in 2007, pet travel is going beyond being just a niche industry.

The appeals of traveling with a pet are many. You don’t have to hire a dog-walker or kennel and worry that they’re getting enough exercise and play time. Bring a dog out on the beach, hiking through the woods, or even on an afternoon kayak excursion, and their spirit of adventure is infectious.

Photo of Hector the Dog courtesy of Eric Eisen.

Flying with a pet can be a whole different story, though. A few years ago, I had to take my cat on a cross-country flight. First, I had to find a regulation carrier that was small enough to fit under the seat in front of me. At security, I had to take my cat out of her carrier, and walk with her through the metal detector. The whole time I was terrified she would jump out of my arms and run across the airport. Instead, she sank her claws into my shoulders and I had to forcibly remove them to wrestle her back into her carrier. We made it through only slightly mauled and got on the plane without incident, but towards the end of the flight my cat let out an unforgettably pathetic meow that flooded me with guilt. I haven’t flown with her since.

Some pets jump into the backseat even before the car is fully packed for that mountain, lake, or beach trip. Others can spend entire drives whimpering and when they arrive in a new destination, they’re scared and out of sorts. When you make the decision about whether to vacation with your pet, be sure to carefully assess his or her personality first, keeping in mind that--like people--some pets can’t wait to get out of the house, and others are perfectly content to be homebodies.

If you’re one of the 63% of Americans with a pet, do you take Fido and Fluffy along with you when you hit the road?

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Posted in Air Travel, Car Travel, Pet Travel
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After pounding several Caribbean islands over the weekend, Hurricane Dean hit Mexico's Caribbean coast Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, according to USA Today. The hurricane was downgraded to Category 2, but is expected to regain strength as it heads towards central Mexico.

Travelers with plans to visit Mexico, especially the Yucatan Peninsula, should check with their hotel for information on rebooking. Most hotels and tour operators in impacted destinations will waive cancellation fees and allow travelers to rebook for a later date, based on availability. Customers with cruise itineraries that include Mexico ports will experience itinerary changes; check with your cruise line for updates and schedule changes. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Carnival Cruise Lines shifted the itineraries of six ships, while Royal Caribbean International changed at least two.

Island by Island Conditions
On Grand Cayman, Owen Roberts International Airport is open and the visitor restriction has been lifted. Visitors should check with individual properties for inofrmation on hotel opening status.

Jamaica was spared a direct hit by the hurricane and hotel damage was limited. Many hotels, particularly in western Jamaica, are fully operational. Montego Bay Airport is now open and ready to receive flights. Norman Manley Airport in Kingston is expected to open on Tuesday.

On Martinique, Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport is open. All island hotels are open, though some have suffered landscaping damage. No structural damage was reported.

On St. Lucia, both airports are open and hurricane damage was minimal.

On St. Kitts, airline service remains normal and all hotels are open. The island suffered very little impact from the storm.

Airlines
Travelocity customers whose plans to visit the Caribbean and Mexico have been impacted by the storm are encouraged to visit the Customer Care page for updates and information. Other travelers should check with their airline carrier on rebooking and refund policies associated with Hurricane Dean. See our list of airlines with flexible policies in place.

Air Jamaica
American Airlines
Caymen Airways
Continental Airlines
Delta
Frontier
Jet Blue
Mexicana
Northwest Airlines
Spirit Airlines
US Airways

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Posted in Air Travel, Caribbean, Travel Alerts
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Welcome to the Window Seat Podcast!
In this episode of the Window Seat Podcast, sponsored by Travelocity, host Amy Ziff takes off to Hawaii.

There are eight islands that make up the Aloha State: Hawaii (also known as "The Big Island"), Oahu, Kauai, Maui -- and the lesser-known islands of Molokai, Lanai, Niihau and Kahoolawe. In this episode we're focusing on the four most popular islands.

You'll learn about the early history of the Big Island, get swept away on a romantic trip to Kauai, hear from a travel expert about the best kid-friendly spots to check out wildlife on Maui, and get a native's tour of Oahu beaches.

Listen to the whole show: [29:54]

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Posted in Beaches, Entertainment, Hawaii, Podcasts
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I just got back to work from a family vacation to Hilton Head Island. The trip was my second this season that involved taking time off of work. Summer, to me, is synonymous with vacation days.

It seems I’m in the minority.

According to the New York Times, roughly 50 percent of working Americans won’t take a warm-weather vacation this year. The article offers several reasons for the decline, but one of the main reasons is fear of losing ground with your employer if you do take a little R&R. This too, is one of the reasons we have such a hard time disconnecting from work; after all, obsessive Blackberry-ing, and voicemail checking are the norm on the beach and by the pool these days. This is not my idea of a vacation (see blog profile), but maybe it’s yours. But is time off really time off if you’re dialing into a conference call or responding to emails – even if you’re doing it with a frosty drink in hand?

A similarly themed piece in The Wall Street Journal hints that we’ve moved away from the days of week-long vacations and into the era of long weekends. It opens with the story of a woman who is flying to Barcelona for a weekend getaway. How silly, I initially thought. But then I remembered I did a similar thing this past winter – a flight to Geneva, two days of skiing nearby in the French Alps, and back to New York. Total time taken off work? One day. Everyone thought I was nuts – but at the time I really couldn’t afford to be out of the office for any length of time. So my choices boiled down to going for the weekend or not going at all.

What about you? Where did you go this summer (or where are you going) and for how long? How connected did you stay to the office while you were away? And what are your reasons for making the decision to take a long trip or a quick weekend getaway?

And even though Labor Day is fast approaching, there’s still time to take a summer vacation – provided you haven’t used up all your days yet. But it seems like that’s pretty unlikely!

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About a year and a half ago, I was obsessed with finding a universal sink plug. I was about to set off on a three-month backpacking jaunt around Southeast Asia, staying in the sorts of places that cost the same per night as my daily Starbucks habit in the States, and apparently a universal sink plug was de rigueur. I mean, honestly, all the guidebooks said so.

So after several weeks--and various forays into many, many stores--I finally found one. Into my backpack it went, along with my mosquito repellent, my sunscreen, my travel detergent, and a hundred pocket-sized packets of tissues. After thrice-daily applications, the mosquito repellent and the sunscreen were gone within a week; the travel detergent was equally as indispensable, given the frequency with which I used the communal laundry facilities in youth hostels (can you imagined carrying a Target-sized container of Tide around Asia? I think not.) And the pocket-sized packets of tissues proved, time and time again, to be as important as you would imagine them to be in a series of third world countries where toilet paper in public restrooms is not exactly high on the list of priorities.

But the universal sink plug? Didn't even use it once.

Ditto the flashlight and the padlock I'd been convinced I needed. If, however, I could somehow have squeezed more hand sanitizing wipes into my backpack or added a few thousand more band-aids to cover my everpresent blisters, I would have done it in a heartbeat. And don't even get me started on how many more travel packs of ibuprofen you're guaranteed to wish you'd packed when you're aching and shivering and rather suspecting you might have contracted Dengue fever in Burma. (All the guidebooks I had with me, by the way, advised not buying any medication in Burma, since it's fairly likely to be either counterfeit or expired. I reckon if I'd skipped the universal sink plug, I could have fit at least another bottle of Advil into my carry-on. But hindsight, of course, is 20-20.)

This got me thinking about the things we convince ourselves we absolutely need to take on vacation and then end up never actually using. I'm fairly certain I can't be the only girl (or boy) who thought it entirely warranted to bring six pairs of shoes on a weekend mini-break. (Oh, alright then, seven.)

So what would you advise a space-conscious packer not to bother bringing with them on a trip, despite what the guidebooks tell you? (And don't you dare say a universal sink plug. I mean, really; you could have told me earlier.)

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Posted in Packing & Baggage, Trip Tips
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Miles. They’re the bread and butter of the frequent traveler. If you’re like me, you hoard miles in every way possible. There’s the miles card; e-shopping; special promotions; and, if you’re an American Airlines AAdvantage member, the Platinum and Gold Challenges -- fast tracks to more miles and elite status.

It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve never heard of the challenges. They're not posted anywhere on the site, so many consumers aren’t aware that they even exist. I recently enrolled in the Platinum Challenge. My goal: to earn 10,000 points through qualifying flights within three months.

Here's the scoop:

• Challenges are based on points, not miles. You must earn 10,000 points in the three-month period to reach Platinum status and 5,000 points for Gold. (You can start the challenge on the 1st or 16th of the month.)
  
• Only points earned on American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection flights (including AA codeshare flights operated by other carriers) count toward Challenges.
  
• Know the point values you’ll earn for the booking codes you select.
  
• Premium fares earn 1.5 points per mile when the purchased fare on your American Airlines ticket is booked in one of these booking codes: A F P D I J B Y
  
• Discount fares earn 1.0 point per mile for these AA booking codes: H K L M V W
  
• Deep discount fares earn .5 points per mile for these AA booking codes: G N O Q S (O -- only eligible domestic fares booked in O will count. Q -- excludes transatlantic fares booked in Q.)
  

To enroll, you must call American Airlines at 1-800-882-8880. If you don’t fly enough to meet the requirements for the Platinum Challenge, go for the Gold! You can always try the Platinum Challenge later, and you'll be racking up additional points from being Gold in the meantime.

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What did I do with a week in China amid worldwide claims that the country serves and exports drug-laced seafood, salmonella shellfish, and cancerous ducks?

I ate. I ate all of it.

In July, while the U.S. media focused on China’s toxic wheat gluten and the execution of the country’s former food and drug chief, I focused on dumplings, pork, chicken, snow frog, duck, hoisin sauce, eggplant, and tofu. I devoured dishes from street stands and swanky restaurants, in styles from Shanghai (oily) to Guizhou (spicy).

Besides avoiding the drinking water (you only have to read the words “sewage” and “arsenic” in your guidebook once for that advice to sink in), I consumed food with abandon—a sound strategy, it turned out, because this sense of culinary adventure led my friends and me to what would become our favorite memory from the trip: dinner at Li’s Family Restaurant in Li’s family hutong. The three-room, in-home establishment was recommended by a friend who’d dined there, although I don’t think it was until we heard that Li had cooked for Bill Clinton that we made our reservation.

It was our last night in Beijing, and, as had become customary, we teamed with a cab driver to find the hidden alleyway and home #11. We were immediately seated in what doubled as the family’s living room: a cozy space with two dining tables, a computer, and bookshelves loaded with magazines from around China, the U.S., and France. Our prix fixe dinner of traditional imperial cuisine arrived, plate by plate, over the next several hours, allowing us to savor sampling dishes in this most intimate of settings. We were tucked into the chef’s world and over the moon, high on Mandarin fish and melon soup.

It was one of those experiences that forever etch themselves into memory—my Definitive Beijing Moment was a reminder that beyond the headlines is a beautiful and ancient cuisine still finding new food fans.

My mouth is watering again, so I’m wondering: Where in the world have others discovered culinary nirvana?

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Posted in Asia, Culinary Travel, International Travel
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Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding travel these days, I hold steadfastly to my wanderlust, insisting that one little summer of record flight delays and security scares isn’t enough to sway me. After all, there are plenty of reasons to keep traveling, from the emotional to the pragmatic. But I’m not going to get all warm and fuzzy here. The travel experiences that really stick with me—the ones I remember long after I’ve forgotten where I had that amazing steak tartare or found that tiny art gallery—are the ones that made me laugh (or just want to run away) the most at the time.

Photo by IgoUgo member Shady Ady

It’s hard to nail down a favorite story. There was the evening I spent sitting around a beach bonfire in the Cook Islands with our hotel’s dive-shop employees, drinking homemade beer (or so they said) out of a 10-gallon bucket and indulging their inexplicable fondness for Merle Haggard. We sang along to the country crooner’s greatest hits for hours, accompanied by the ukulele. (I’m ashamed to admit that despite my Texas upbringing, I had never actually learned any Merle Haggard songs before that trip—and I will therefore always think they sound better against the tinny racket of the ukulele.)

On another trip, I had the opportunity to hike into the steaming crater of the still-active Poas Volcano in Costa Rica with a group of fellow volunteer travelers. We were led down in the early-morning hours and were nearly choked by sulfur fumes along the way. By the time I got to the top, all I could think about was how much I hoped eggs wouldn’t be on the breakfast menu back at the house (they weren’t). But the next day, I was served with quite a bit more food for thought when the group of us decided to explore the park’s visitors’ center and wandered over to the section devoted to research on the crater’s activity. There was a whole wall of photographs depicting researchers hiking down into the crater…all outfitted in full, spacesuit-esque protective gear, complete with gas masks. We could do little else but laugh nervously—and quickly move on to the next exhibit.

But it was my summer trip to Carriacou, a tiny, underdeveloped island in the Grenadines, that yielded the most hilarious stories. The best was centered on the house we rented, situated on a hilltop overlooking the ocean. It was very isolated, not within view of any neighbors, and getting there involved a bone-jarring ride down a dirt road so narrow that we had to duck to avoid being whapped in the face by island foliage, capped off by a short but climactic uphill climb that sent our standard-transmission jeep sliding backward without the proper momentum. So it was especially unsettling when, every Sunday morning, we would awake to bellowing cries of “Daaaaaa-vid?” and look out the shutters to see an entire church congregation, clad in suits, florid hats, and dress shoes, circling our house. We would respond by closing the shutters and hiding until the congregation disappeared down the hill again. Later, we learned that David was the German businessman who owned the house—his local church apparently came calling after him when he didn’t show up for Sunday service. That’s dedication.

It’s stories like these that are the real reasons I travel—the ones you bring home to friends and family, the ones you recall years later with your travel companions to find that they’re still as funny as ever. What are the stories that keep you coming back for more: travel mishaps, comical situations, or just moments when you stopped to think, “Where am I?” I can’t wait for you to put mine to shame.

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Could there be two more dreaded words in the traveler’s vocabulary than “flight delayed”? This week, it’s been all over the news: It’s officially the worst time for flight delays in 13 years. To put that in perspective, the last time we had it this bad, O.J. Simpson was white Bronco-ing it along the Los Angeles freeway.

A few weeks ago, I dealt with a flight delay by taking out my cell phone and calling friends in my contact list who I hadn’t talked to in awhile. It ended up being a really nice way to reconnect. That I could actually enjoy a flight delay definitely freaked me out a little, but it also showed me that the best way to deal with something I had absolutely no control over was to just surrender to it.

Make no mistake--if I could choose somewhere to spend my free time, it wouldn’t be at the airport, but as someone who's not willing to give up her travels, I'm stuck there on a fairly regular basis. I'm willing to bet that as passenger capacity increases, airports can only become better places to spend time in—after all, a captive audience makes for good business. If we're already able to drown our flight-delay sorrows in an airport-bar martini, maybe one day our airports will have movie theatres, yoga studios, speed dating, and bowling alleys.

For now, I guess I'll be waiting out my delays by composing the perfect grievance letter to the airline, catching up on Lindsay Lohan's rehab progress with a lingering visit to the magazine rack, or searching for commonalities in all the people reading the latest Harry Potter book. What else is there to do? Since flight delays are here to stay at least for the near future, do you cope or do you mope?

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Every time I fly I am reminded of my favorite Seinfeld quote:

Elaine: I hate people!
Jerry: They’re the worst.

Hour four is usually my witching hour on a flight. That’s when I morph, Incredible Hulk-like, from a fairly patient being who has been known to go out of her way to hold the door open for others, into a real live George Costanza, ready to snap at annoying strangers.

Hey, I’m not proud of this, but something about the close quarters of an airplane make me meltdown. I’m sure you’ve been there, trapped between a smooth operator and the bubble-brained woman he’s hitting on. Or perhaps you’ve known the true torture of sitting in front of a pint-size Pele, as he sharpens his kicking skills on the back of your seat for hours. Forget the hypothetical--on Tuesday a man in New York made headlines with his own brand of passenger monkey business when he smuggled a marmoset onto a plane under his hat.

And though websites like Seat Guru are trying to help travelers be as comfortable as possible when flying, I find that naughty passengers are just the luck of the draw. My only strategy to keep my cool is a very loud iPod and a glass (or three) of wine. Of course, by doing so I inevitably become a bad passenger myself. I turn into not just the Girl-Who-Must-Go-To-The-Bathroom-Every-Hour but also the person whose music is turned up so loud that everyone in the direct vicinity “gets” to enjoy it with her.

And so for this post, I want you to speak out on who is the worst plane passenger ever.

Here are my top five:

1) The Pint-Size Pele--Someday, kid, you will learn how annoying seat kickers are.
2) The Smooth Operator--Hey, buddy, she ain’t buying what you’re selling.
3) The Gabber--Wait, I didn’t know I was traveling with my new best friend.
4) The Leaning Sleeper--You know that song, “Lean on Me”? It didn’t mean me.
5) The Armrest Thief--If you can’t share, then maybe you need a time out.

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One of the nice things about living in the 21st century is how easy everything is. We tend to take a lot for granted, such as running water, electricity, and the wonders of the Internet, but we are still obsessed—some people more than others—with new devices that make light work of whatever it is we are doing. Gadgets are toys for the adult set and many are made specifically for the traveler. From eye masks and neck pillows to noise-cancelling headphones and travel games, we’re always looking for ways to make our journeys as easy and comfortable as possible.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Rufusni

MSN Travel recently published a list of 20 great travel gadgets. The first one is a clever little telescoping arm to which you affix your digital camera so that when you take a picture of yourself in front of a work of art/famous structure/staggering view, you won’t see your own arm in the picture. Maybe it is because my arms are longer than the average person’s legs and don’t appear in the shot, but I’ll file this one under “extraneous” just behind the travel blender. Sorry, but the arm-b-gone stick can’t make a margarita. That margarita is useless if the ice isn’t clean, so I recommend the Steripen. Just one losing battle with dysentery will make you a believer. Trust me.

Not all travel gadgets make me scoff at the price-to-usefulness ratio. The reversible leather belt with plastic buckle is sensible in that you can use it for all your suits and shoes, and it’s also practical in that you don’t have to remove it for the metal detector in the airport. The airplane seat massager, though indulgent, would do wonders for the long-legged or sciatic passenger. Not on the MSN list is the tie caddy. Like most gadgets, you can’t really imagine using it—until the silk tie you packed for your interview looks like you used it to rope a steer.

There are certain electronics that people “can’t live without,” but what good are they without power? The Solio Portable Hybrid Power Charger fuels your gadgets by harnessing the sun. Compact and utilitarian, this meta-gadget even looks good. Also filed under “cool,” the Trackstick plugs into your computer and links up with Google Earth to show you where you’ve been. There’s no evidence to show that this is any better than a travel journal, but it’s still pretty neat.

For the most part, I need a camera and some sunglasses, and I should be good to go. Despite being the reluctant gizmophile, I admit that it pays to have the headphones handy when the baby starts crying, your neighbor starts snoring, or the drunk guy in the last row starts laughing. And when I want to upload my story here at the Window Seat, this little guy should come in handy.

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Posted in Air Travel, Budget Travel, Guides & Planning, Packing & Baggage
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For a lot of people I know, one of the hardest parts of a vacation is just deciding where to go. After all, the world is a pretty big place. But a new fast growing trend is making the decision more difficult than ever – not only do you have to figure out where to go, but what to do when you get there. And once you have all that lined up, you even have to break a sweat. It sounds complicated, but millions of people are doing it. In fact, not so long ago, it was a challenge to get notoriously sedentary Americans off the couch and burning calories. All of a sudden, we can’t get them to stay home.

I’m talking about active, sports related travel, and for some reason people cannot get enough. In May I signed up to ride the annual Commerce Bank 5-Boro Bike Tour in New York City, a one-of-a-kind event that closes major Big Apple roadways like the FDR Drive and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to traffic and allows bikers to enjoy these highways for one Sunday each year. I did the ride out of a sentimental urge to see my native New York from a perspective usually reserved for bumper-to-bumper drivers stuck in gridlock. Apparently I was not the only one who had the same idea: last year, the event, already the nation’s largest group bike ride, attracted about 30,000 people. This year, 42,000 showed up, a new record by a huge margin. They came from all over the country and as far away as Europe and Australia to ride a 45-mile route through the city that never sleeps.

New York was an example of the trend, not an exception: bike manufacturers have reported double digit sales in road bikes, and more bikes apparently mean more riders. Another event I did this year, the Iron Horse Classic, is an especially unique ride, where bikers race a steam locomotive. The group tries to beat the nation’s most famous antique train, the Silverton-Durango Narrow Gauge Railway, over a 50-mile route from train station to train station in the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The Iron Horse is the nation’s longest running bike event and this was its 36th consecutive running – and the first time it ever sold out.

Bike rides are just the tip of the iceberg, and growth is even greater among runners, tri-athletes and other outdoor sports enthusiasts. Last year a friend of mine from Chicago ran the Windy City’s marathon, the second largest in the world, but despite the field of well over 30,000 runners, he could still sign up right until race day. This year the event sold out 6 months in advance. More people are running than ever, according to non-profit organization Running USA, and in 2006, there were numerous record set for participation. There were more marathons held than ever, more with over 1000 finishers, and a whopping five with over 30,000 finishers, while the ING New York Marathon was the largest in history with about 38,000. 410,000 people completed marathons in the US last year, nearly double the total in 1990 and triple that of 1980. It is a global phenomenon as well: London was the third largest marathon last year, Paris fourth, and the top 15 included races in Japan, Korea, Sweden and three different cities in Germany!

By every conceivable measurement, from sale of running shoes to the amount raised by charities in races to the percentage of college students, Hispanics, men, and even the rich running, the sport is booming. The top 100 running events last year attracted more than 2.3 million participants, many of whom traveled long distances to suffer. The numbers are even more astonishing in shorter races, with the 5K being the most popular (over 3.1 million finishers last year) followed by 10K (over 1.2 million). Records were set for attendance in distances of 5K, 10K, mile, 4mile, 10 mile, marathon, and most of all, half-marathons, which leapt by 7% last year. I run a wonderfully scenic half-marathon in Woodstock, VT each year, a very New England-themed race called the Covered Bridges Half Marathon. Due to its popularity, the race always sells out, usually within a couple of days of registration opening online. This year it took less than 2 hours.

This interest in running and biking events is very much travel related, as passionate participants stray far from home to revel in their accomplishments. I know American recreational tri-athletes who have gone to Italy to race, and I know an Italian to went to China. I ran my first marathon last year, and since this is a pretty big goal for anyone undertaking it for the first time, I decided to reward myself by making a vacation out of it. There are a number of good winter marathon vacation choices and I seriously considered both Las Vegas and Walt Disney World before settling on the Honolulu Marathon, routinely in the world’s top 10 in size, despite almost all the runners coming from outside Hawaii, which as you might notice, means from far away. Marathons from London to Venice to Macau draw international fields, just as the New York bike ride did.

Why fly 4 or 8 or 15 hours to run or bike or paddle or swim? The rationale for traveling to these events is threefold: for something like a marathon, a lot of difficult training is involved, and the promise of a European or Hawaiian vacation is the carrot that keeps you going towards the goal. I looked forward to a trip to Hawaii for months with gleeful anticipation, just as I looked forward to my first marathon with a certain dread. In addition, the festiveness of the event, the fact that thousands of other people have come from all over to do the same thing, gives an emotional lift that helps make the achievement easier. There are also usually festivals around the events, with concerts, pig roasts, shopping, and of course eating. Which brings us to reason number three: if you are like me you love to eat when you travel, and running a marathon or half marathon or riding 50 miles a day is one of the few ways you can still enjoy this benefit of travel while remaining completely guilt free. Just finished 26 miles? Have that gelato. Make it a double.

The new face of active travel is not limited to these one day events. There are also plenty of multi-day tours travelers flock to, from the annual Tour of Colorado (a 7-day bike ride that quickly sold out this year) to the Pan-Mass Challenge, a charity ride across Massachusetts (2 days, also sold out) to several annual charity group rides in Europe, such as London to Amsterdam and London to Paris, (3-5 days). Then there are tours that are not events at all: I have gone on guided bike trips in Italy, self-guided bike tours in The Rocky Mountains, and there are dozens of reputable companies offering hiking, biking, kayaking and multi-sport trips around the US and around the world.

The opportunities and fascination with outdoor sports travel that go way beyond the classic ski or golf trip suddenly seem endless. A friend of mine was looking for something different last year, and she decided to go to surf camp in Mexico, despite never having surfed. Another woman I know did a weeklong sea-kayaking trip along the Baja Peninsula. Several towns and cities like Denver and Vail have built white-water parks for urban kayaking, summer mountain biking at ski resorts is very popular across North America, and specialty camps for everything from cyclo-cross to very long distance ultra-running are popping up. Need anecdotal evidence of the trend? Next time you drive, take a look at how many more cars have fancy sports-gear roof racks than just a few years ago. A lot of people are moving around with boats, bikes and the like. There are more options to combine a vacation with a good-for-you activity than ever before, and less excuses than ever for sitting on the couch. But be warned: these kinds of trips are addictive, and once you travel to run or bike or kayak, you just want to go longer and further next year, which means you can have more gelato.

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Hallelujah! Is help actually on the way for those of us traveling to and through New York? Well it's not like we're all going to fly first class without paying for it – but there does seem to be a silver-lining for passengers in New York's three metro airports (EWR, LGA, and JFK) who get held on the tarmac for more than three hours.

Last week Elliot Spitzer signed into law a New York passenger's bill of rights. It's a start. The law stipulates that on airlines that have been on the tarmac delayed for more than three hours that airlines MUST provide food, water, air, restrooms, and power to their passengers.