Category Archives: Independent Travel

For those who prefer to go on their own than join group tours.

Our national parks: We REALLY need to get out more

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Black families need to get out and enjoy nature — and the rest of America needs to get used to seeing us doing that.

Lately, I’ve had a number of readers write to me with concerns about how they are likely to be received when traveling abroad for the first time. They are especially concerned with the possibility that people might stare at them.
IBIT2013
Let’s handle this right here: If you’re a black American and you’re traveling outside of North America, someone at some point will stare at you. It’s going to happen. And seriously, it’s no big deal.

But you don’t have to go to Eastern Europe, Asia or Latin America to draw stares.

Way back when I was 10, my family made the drive from Oakland, CA to Yosemite National Park. To look down from the highway and see the valley open up before you, with Half Dome on the right and the 100-foot pine trees on the valley floor looking no taller than the whiskers of a closely cropped beard, was magic.

Sleeping in a wood-framed tent. Skipping stones across the clear, icy river. Squirrels, chipmunks, bluejays, deer, a sky clear enough to see every single star — it was all heady stuff for a 10-year-old city kid.

On the morning of the second day, my brother and I were lugging our ice chest back to the car, past a row of other tents. Near the parking lot, a young blonde woman sat on the tent steps with her even more blonde daughter, who couldn’t have been more than four or five.

As we struggled along with our burden, the little girl jumped — no, bounded — off the steps, pointed at us and cried:

“LOOK, Mommy! DARK people!”

We turned to look, frozen in place, not knowing what to expect. Mommy, clearly as much caught off-guard as we were, did her best to limit the damage.

“Yes, and they’re people,” she said with a nervous smile. “Just like us.”

Sorry, Mom, your daughter’s not havin’ it.

“But Mommy! *gasp* They’re…*gasp*hellip;DARRRRRRRRRRR-rrrrk PEEEE-pulllllll!”

We laughed so hard, I scarcely noticed that I’d dropped the ice chest on my foot. Even so, we “got it” instantly. Our family was in a national park, a place where black families were seldom seen. But we sort of expected that.

After all, it was just 1960.

Fast-forward to 2013 and you find that things haven’t changed much. Our faces are still seldom seen in places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Kings Canyon, Denali. Which is what makes this weekend so important.

Because this is the weekend of the African American National Parks Event.

Regular IBIT readers already know all about this. If you’re reading about it for the first time, check it out here.

There are plenty of good reasons for African-Americans to visit our national parks — not just this weekend, but all year round. Breaking away from the 24/7 urban vibe and spending a little time in places where the air is fresh and the water is cool and clean, the places where it’s quiet enough to hear your own soul, is good for our health, both physical and mental.

It’s also a good chance to connect with a piece of our history, because you’ll find that the famed Buffalo Soldiers played a role in creating and protecting our national parks, and that’s a thing to be proud of.

But maybe most of all, the rest of America needs to get used to seeing black Americans out in nice places with our families and friends, doing positive things and having a good time like everyone else.

If “mainstream” America bases its understanding of “us” purely from what it sees on “COPS,” “Lockup,” “Beyond Scared Straight” or “Basketball Wives,” that’s a problem, for both sides.

For more information on the African American National Parks Event, email Teresa Baker.

The IBIT Travel Digest 6.16.13

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The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

Airbus A350

AIRBUS A350 — Airbus Industrie

BOEING v. AIRBUS: IT’S ON
Up next, a heavyweight fight over a pair of new lightweight jets.

When Airbus successfully debuted its new A350 wide-bodied airliner last week, it effectively threw down a multibillion-dollar challenge to Boeing.

Boeing invented the jumbo jet concept with its now-iconic 747, but when Airbus upped the ante with its humongous double-decked A380, the Americans changed the game with their 787 Dreamliner, opting for longer range over greater size.

When the airlines rewarded Boeing with an avalanche of Dreamliner orders, a panic-stricken Airbus scrambled to create the A350.

Both aircraft use lots of carbon-fiber in place of metal to save weight. But the A350 was still on paper while the Dreamliner was already flying. It looked like a first-round knockout for Boeing.

But multiple delays made Dreamliner deliveries three years late, and when the 787 finally did go into service last year, its well-publicized battery problems grounded them all for months. Airbus took full advantage.

Now, the A350 is flying, just in time for the week-long biennial Paris Air Show, where airlines and aircraft builders traditionally do their mega-deals.

And which officially opens…tomorrow.

I’d go to the Paris Air Show just to watch all the flying displays and check out their air museum, but between Boeing and Airbus, there will be enough back-room dealing and drama to create your own reality TV show.

Trust me, it’s on now.

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PARK YOURSELF
Regular readers of IBIT know that next weekend is the first African American National Parks Event. If you haven’t heard about this, read up on it here — then start planning your weekend outing.

Too many have this misguided idea that America’s national parks consist of a handful of giant, scattered wilderness preserves, beautiful but distant to reach, expensive to access and unwelcoming to “us.”

None of that is true.

In reality, our national park system is as diverse as the nation for which it was created — parks, monuments, seashores, lakeshores and recreation areas in virtually all 50 US states. Admission is cheap, and often free.

And the National Park Service is practically dying for more black American visitors.

So consider taking some time next weekend to see what your taxes are paying for — and what you’ve been missing.

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HAVE PASSPORT, WILL WIFI
Need a reason to include Taiwan in your Asia travels? How about free wifi?

Taiwan already offers free wifi to all its citizens. Now it’s making wifi available at no charge to tourists…all tourists. Just show your passport and you’re in.

Check out this story from CNN for more details on how it works.

Taiwan is an underdog in a take-no-prisoners battle with the rest of Asia for a share of the tourism market, but it’s coming out swinging — and it has to. Japan already makes wifi free for foreign visitors and Thailand is making plans to follow suit.

Expect this trend to continue throughout the region.

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CARNIVAL TRIUMPH RETURNS
The cruise ship Carnival Triumph, whose name became synonymous this year with nightmares at sea, is ready to return to sea, according to NBC News.

This was the ship that left some 4,200 passengers and crew adrift for five days earlier this year, with little food and few working bathrooms, the result of an engine-room fire that left the vessel powerless. More problems soon followed aboard Carnival Dream, Carnival Legend and Carnival Elation.

Meanwhile, Travel Weekly is reporting that while this and other mishaps with its ships have given Carnival Cruise Lines a public-relations beatdown, veteran cruise travelers are remaining loyal.

Carnival can brave-face this situation all it likes, but the fact is that such brand loyalty is likely to be of scant comfort in its Miami headquarters. Why? Because Carnival needs a steady stream of new cruise vacationers to fill the tens of thousands of cabins in its large and growing fleet.

And it’s those cruise virgins who are most likely to give cruising the side-eye following the Carnival Triumph and other unfortunate episodes. Some serious confidence building — or in this case, rebuilding — may be in order.

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from NBC News
American Airlines, trying to merge with US Airways to stave off financial demise, has figured out an ingenious way to lure more passengers — reduce the legroom on many of its planes. What will they think of next…and are you sure you want to know?

from NBC News
Another one for the “What will they think of next?” category. A new private air service in California called Surf Air doesn’t want to sell you a ticket. It wants to sell you a subscription.

LAND
from Agence France Presse via France 24
Dubai debuts one of the world’s tallest buildings…and when they say this tower is twisted, they’re not kidding.

from France 24
And speaking of “twisted,” are you ready for a flying bike?

SEA
from the Washington Post
The beleaguered cruise industry has come up with a passengers’ bill of rights. But does it protect you, or the industry?

from SFGate.com
Cruise the New England coast as 19th century seafarers did, aboard a three-masted schooner. SLIDESHOW

FOOD & DRINK
from the Washington Post
Want to see where your food comes from, and maybe bring some of it home, fresh from the source? Do a rolling tour from farm to farm along Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

from The Guardian (London)
Street food, Greek style. Athens is the place.

from The Guardian (London)
A taste of Bolivia, cuisine with as much attitude as altitude. How else can one describe bull’s penis soup? Uhh…

from SFGate.com
Come to picturesque, trendy Monterey, CA for some of America’s finest…moonshine? Yes. And it’s legal, too.

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AFRICA
from The Point (Gambia) via allAfrica.com
The Gambia’s president pushes food self-sufficiency for the country and urges Gambians to “go back to the land.”

from the South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
A museum in Tanzania dedicated to the birthplace of humanity itself…or so they will tell you.

from The Star (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
If you thought the poaching in Kenya couldn’t get any uglier, with entire elephant families being wiped out to the last animal for their tusks, guess again: Conservationists are now being accused of colluding with poachers.

from Reuters via Yahoo!
In the Ivory Coast, the government is trying to reclaim its national park parks from cocoa growers — in some cases, by force.

AMERICAS
from the Los Angeles Times
Drought-stricken Southern California may not much going this summer for river-rafting enthusiasts, but there are plenty of places in Northern California and elsewhere in the West to take your whitewater thrill rides.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Toronto Star
For a stunningly beautiful and spiritual time, hike the Himalayas.

from the New York Times
The other Bangkok — the cool, green, smog-free Bangkok. Hike. Ride your bike. Then retreat to your boutique hotel.

from the Toronto Star
When Americans want to visit a Pacific island paradise, they go to Hawaii. When Chinese tourists want to do the same thing, they head for Hainan.

EUROPE
from the Washington Post
The Santorini that the tourists don’t know, and most won’t find.

from the New York Times
No man is an island, but Stockholm is composed of 14 islands. On one of them, gentrification is grudgingly depriving the Sodermalm neighborhood of its reputation for high crime. Crime…in Sweden? Who knew? SLIDESHOW

BIG LIZARD LOG: Getting reacquainted

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One of an occasional series

After another of those inexcusably long layoffs, man and mountain bike are hooking up again on 10-mile training loops around the local reservoir. Anything to be able to fit into a Coach class airline seat.

IBIT2013
Deciding to follow my own advice and get into“travel shape,” Big Lizard and I are back on the road, putting in miles around our favorite 5-mile loop at San Diego’s Lake Miramar.

For those of you who may be new to IBIT, Big Lizard is my Giant Iguana, an un-technical, no-suspension, old school mountain bike, roughly 15 years old and still rolling with the phat-ness.

Or in my case, the fatness.

As always, the goals are the same:

  • Lose weight
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Ward off the threat of Type 2 diabetes
  • Cheaper clothes (We extra-large guys pay extra for those extra-large sizes. It’s fair, but it still sucks.)

These days, however, there’s an added goal in mind: Fit more comfortably into one of those Sardine Class airline seats.

If you’ve flown at all in the last five or ten years, you know it’s not just about legroom anymore in the back of the airplane. It’s also about hiproom — or more accurately, the lack thereof.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about airlines charging people for two seats because they can’t fit comfortably into one. Never mind that the airlines have spent the last several years installing Economy Class seats narrow enough to make the most anorexic high-fashion model feel claustrophobic.

The airlines, more desperate than ever to lower their fuel bills, are determined to lighten the loads aboard their aircraft, which leaves it up to you and me to lighten ours.

Challenge accepted.

So it’s back to “the res,” Miramar Reservoir and its scenic, gently undulating 5-mile paved loop, complete with its devilish mixture of headwinds, tailwinds and crosswinds.

It didn’t take many laps this week to remind me of what I’d been missing all those weeks away from my bike:

  • Having dragonflies for wingmen, flying escort off my left shoulder like little Tuskegee Airmen.
  • Exchanging greetings with the Partridge Family — a real family of blue-gray partridges, mother, father and chicks. All the years I’ve been walking/riding around this lake, I’d never seen them before. Penguins may be better dressed, but partridges always look as if they’re arriving fashionably late for a party.
  • The ever-ridiculous geese, whose frenetic honking sounds like the world’s largest rusty door hinge.

Some of the human scenery can be pretty intriguing, as well, especially the ladies. But one 20something hiker left me wondering about today’s generation.

I mean, it’s perfectly understandable for him to be rocking a San Antonio Spurs jersey this week. It is NBA Finals week, after all.

But…George Gervin? This kid wasn’t even alive when George was perfecting his patented finger roll.

Oh well, at least the rides are fresh.

Doing two loops around the lake per day, ten miles. The goal is 20 miles a day, five days a week. That’s 100 miles a week, to start. After about six months of that, Coach seats should hold no more terrors for me.

Presuming, of course, that the airlines don’t narrow them again.

ALSO CHECK OUT:
BIG LIZARD LOG: Return to action
CYCLING: Big Lizard and me

A day (or two) in the parks

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Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley / © Thicoz | Dreamstime.com

A young Oakland woman who loves Yosemite is mounting her own campaign to get black Americans to visit America’s national parks.

Have you heard about the African American National Parks Event? If you haven’t, you should. It’s a two-day pledge campaign, June 22-23, but it’s a pledge campaign like none you’ve ever seen before.

This one’s not asking you for money. Instead, it’s asking you to take a road trip.

The idea behind this event is “to gain the attention of African Americans across the United States, so they will see the benefits of being out in nature, which will encourage them to invest in protecting and securing our vital natural resources for future generations.

Teresa Baker

Teresa Baker


“We are organizing 2 days, when African Americans from San Diego to Boston will congregate in one of their local National Parks or National Monuments.”

That’s it. That’s all. Pick a park. Visit. Enjoy. Go home.

America’s national park system just might be the greatest in the world. Visitors come from all over the globe to take in the breathtaking beauty of places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, to name just a few of the best-known sites. There’s a national park, monument or recreation area within a day’s drive of nearly ever American.

Black Americans, by and large, seldom visit these places. The National Park Service has bemoaned that fact for years. So much so that it appointed Mickey Fearn as a deputy communication director, with the specific mission of pulling more black American visitors to visit the national parks.

But it wasn’t the NPS that put together the African American National Parks Event. instead, it was the brainchild of one Teresa Baker.

And who, you ask, is Teresa Baker? She’s a young black woman from Oakland, CA who loves Yosemite — and got tired of feeling like a lone face in the crowd.

“I’ve been going to Yosemite since I was little and I love, but I don’t see faces that looked like me,” she told IBIT. So I started working on this a year ago, trying to get African American youth to our national parks.”

The very reason Teresa felt the need to organize this effort also was the thing making it difficult. “Parents were saying they were reluctant in doing it because they didn’t see any other African American faces out in the parks,” she said.

So, on her own time and her own dime, she starting reaching out, sending letters asking people to commit themselves to visiting Yosemite on a specific date. She also reached out to Shelton Johnson, a black Yosemite park ranger who portrays a Buffalo Soldier and the role the famous all-black US cavalry unit played in protecting the park.

“And it all just kind of took off from there,” she said. “Right now, I have over 600 people committed to participating.”

So far, more than 200 groups in California, Boston, New York, Atlanta and even Canada have responded to Teresa’s request. A hundred people have signed up in the San Francisco Bay area alone for a meetup at the Presidio, a former US Army base in San Francisco, for a presentation on the Buffalo Soldiers.

The Presidio, standing in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, is now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area — and perfect example of how readily accessible our national park system is to just about everyone.

“You don’t have to come to California,” she said. “Go to a park near you. Go to a national monument or near you. We’re asking people to take a picture inside the park and send it in for a collage.”

You would think the NPS headquarters in Washington DC would be delighted by these developments. So far, though, their response to Teresa’s efforts may best be described as lukewarm.

“I do get emails, but it’s from individual national parks, not from NPS headquarters,” she said. “It’s hard to get calls returned.”

Teresa is forging ahead, anyway.

“There’s absolutely nothing that NPS has to do, other than have the parks open. That’s it.”

You won’t have trouble finding a place to visit. Just check out this map of the US National park system or take a look at this list.

Still don’t think you can find a national park site to visit? Try this little experiment: Get a map of the United States, paper or online, and find your hometown on it. Now draw a 400-mile radius around your hometown, roughly a day’s comfortable driving distance.

I can virtually guarantee you that somewhere within that circle will be a park, monument, lakeshore, seashore or recreation area belonging to the National Park Service. One of the most beautiful such networks anywhere. One which your taxes pay for. And one which African Americans have played a part in protecting and preserving.

All you have to do is go, and enjoy.

Teresa has hopes of this becoming an annual event. So does IBIT.

ETHIOPIA — Little-known heritage

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Worshipper in Sof Omar Cave, Ethiopia

Worshipper in Sof Omar Cave, Ethiopia

The East African nation of Ethiopia has nine UNESCO World Heritage sites. But the ones to see first may be the sites that haven’t won World Heritage status…yet. If you crave both culture and adventure in your travels, these could be your perfect destinations.

Of the more than 120 historical and cultural treasures in African designated as World Heritage sites by the United Nations, nine of them are in Ethiopia, more than in any other African country.

Perhaps the best-known of these are the rock churches of Lalibela, 11 churches carved out of living rock by Ethiopian Christians in medieval times.
Ethiopian flag
Others include the Simien National Park, the historic fortified town of Harar Jugol, and the royal compound of castles known as Fasil Ghebbi.

But in the view of Ethiopian cultural and tourism officials, their country actually has another five sites worthy of World Heritage acclaim, and UNESCO — the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — is thinking about adding them to its list.

They are:

If your thing is culture, nature or adventure, at least one of these sites is guaranteed to hook your attention.

For me, I think it’s the Caves of Mystery at Sof Omar. Ten miles of caves…vaulted ceilings…pillars six stories tall…and a river running through it all, underground? Yeah, I could do that.

(Before heading into the caves, though, I’d probably want to stop off at one of those 11 rock churches in Lalibela to pray. Just sayin’.)

World Heritage recognition would bring with it more interest — and more visitors — to these places. It also might attract some outside funding to help protect places like Bales Mountain from the growing encroachment of people looking to exploit the land for profit.

Every year, UNESCO puts out its annual list of new additions to its collection of World Heritage sites. IBIT will let you know if any of these fabulous five make it onto UNESCO’s list in 2013.

But you don’t need to wait for UNESCO’s blessing to visit these sites. That’s especially true of the Dirre Sheik Hussein site, which is located inside the walls of Harar Jugol, which has already made UNESCO’s cut.

If you like the idea of seeing incredible places before the tourist masses get there, these five candidates for UNESCO’s World Heritage list should be candidates for your own to-go list.

ADDENDUM
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is now holding its annual meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. If any decisions are made on Ethiopia five nominated sites, you’ll see it here on IBIT.

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ON MY LIST: Africa’s Camelot

SITE REVIEW: Trivago

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Trivago screenshot 1

This German hotel site scans the Web in ways that US search engines don’t, turning up prices that will make you want to start packing immediately — without making you wade through multiple tabs and open windows on your screen.

SITE: Trivago

TYPE: Search engine/Hotels

LOCATION: Düsseldorf, Germany

OWNER: Expedia

COST: Free

You may have seen this site advertised recently on American television, but Trivago has been around for eight years.

Trivago is a search engine for hotel — only hotels. Like Kayak, once you’ve entered your destination, travel dates and other particulars, it allows you to compare listings of multiple hotels and prices for the same hotel on multiple sites.

After that, though, there are two important differences. The first is that Trivago searches all the sites the Kayak and other US-based search engines use, but also searches non-US travel sites that the others don’t. and sometimes, you can find deals on those other sites that you won’t find with the usual suspects.

The other big difference is that while Kayak opens a fistful of individual windows on your computer for every other site it wants to compare, Trivago shows them to you all at once, right up front, on the same screen. You can see everything you need at a glance, no need to switch back and forth between multiple screens.

You have full control over your selections. Set your dates and price range, then choose the hotel and room facilities that matter to you most.

Wifi a priority? Click it. Not concerned over whether it has a sauna? Leave it blank. A set of five “Top Options” have buttons of their own. Click the ones you want and they turn blue. Ignore the rest.

Other filters include star rating from one through five, and ratings by guest reviews, indicated by a range of smiling (or unsmiling) faces. More on that in a moment.

With each option you select, the total number of hotel choices to the right changes automatically, no waiting for the page to reload.

The home page lets you view a minimum of six different prices for each hotel, each price from a different booking site. In all, there could be two, three or four times that many. If you wish, Trivago will show you all of them simultaneously — again, without ever leaving the home page.

With each hotel it shows you, it offers two handy features. One is a Map button that will let you locate the hotel you’re considering on Google Maps. The other is an “info” button that shows you the address, which credit cards the place accepts and the type of stay for which it’s best suited.

But the “info” button’s greatest value may be for those planning a hotel stay well in advance — a “price calendar” graphic, organized by day, week and month, that shows when the hotel’s rates are higher and when they’re lower.

And again, Trivago does all of this without taking you from the home page. That doesn’t happen until you’re ready to pull the trigger and reserve a room.

Once you’ve found the room at the rate you want, click on the green “View Deal” button. That will take you directly to the booking site where Trivago found the deal. Take out your credit card, book your reservation.

That’s it. You’re done.

Using this site, you will find remarkably low hotel rates year-round, even in some of the world’s priciest cities. You also will find, perhaps to your shock, that a lot of those familiar hotel search sites that claim to track down the lowest room rates available, often don’t.

If you travel a lot or visit expensive cities, this site could save you a ton of money.

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SITE REVIEWS

The IBIT Travel Digest 6.9.13

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The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

Yuyuan Bazaar, Shanghai, China

Yuyuan Bazaar, Shanghai, China — ©IBIT/G. Gross

WINNING ON POINTS
There are travelers who have become so adept at using credit-card points, loyalty points and frequent-flier miles that they almost never pay for trips anymore.

One of those people is Brian Kelly, who calls himself The Points Guy. If you want to see how Brian rolls — and flies — check out his site.

Meanwhile, he also recently talked to USA Today about how he does what he does.

TECHNO-TRAVEL
The New York Times has a fascinating — and perhaps somewhat disturbing — piece on the growing use of technology in our travels, especially biometrics.

We’re talking everything from fingerprint and eye scans at airport security checks to a hotel wristband with an embedded sensor chip that automatically lets you update your Facebook status.

And there’s more coming, being used not only with travelers but with employees of hotels of other establishments that serve travelers, sometimes without even their knowledge.

The day is rapidly coming, if it isn’t here already. when we may need to take a vacation as much from our technology as we do from our jobs. From here, it looks as if getting away from the job will be a lot easier.

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BETTER TRAVEL SMARTPHONE TRAVEL PICS
And speaking of technology, are you among that growing number of travelers leaving their cameras at home when they travel and taking pics and videos with their smartphone instead?

The folks at Condé Nast Traveler have produced a truly useful online slideshow with tips on how to get better travel pics with your phone.

Smartphone cameras have a lot of travelers believing that getting great snaps is now just a matter of pointing and shooting, no need to fiddle with settings as you would with a camera. Others believe their phone has no way to adjust for those differences.

Wrong and wrong.

Even if your camera is built into a phone, you still need to understand its powers and its limits. The slideshow shows the kind of results you can get when you work with both.

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AFRICAN AIRLINES: GOING LONG, GOING BIG
Two of the big dogs among Africa’s national airlines — Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways — appear to be going all-in with the newest ultra-lightweight, long-range jumbo jets.

According to the African Aviation Tribune, Ethiopian, the first African airline to acquire Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, is looking to add more of them to its fleet over next several years.

Its well-reported battery problems notwithstanding, Ethiopian is said to be well pleased with the Dreamliner’s performance and already is planning new routes to take advantage of its added range.

At the tip of the Mother Continent, meanwhile, SAA is eyeing both the Dreamliner and its competitor being developed by Airbus, the A350.

With African airlines having to fly thousands of miles to reach markets in Europe, Asia and the Americas, adding modern aircraft designed to make longer flights without stopping to refuel only makes sense.

While Ethiopian and SAA are going for distance, Zimbabwe, which has been pushing hard to boost its tourism in recent years, is going for size. The country’s national airline, Air Zimbabwe, reportedly is making noises about acquiring the world’s largest civilian airliner, Airbus’ massive double-decked A380.

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And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from CNN
Airline kicks 101 allegedly rowdy high school students off a flight. The school wants to investigate the airline. This is going to get ugly.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
In a moment of apparent sanity, the TSA reverses itself and drops its plans to allow small knives aboard airliners.

LAND
from Budget Travel
If your idea of a cable car is confined to the ones running the streets of San Francisco, you may not be ready for these. No, you definitely aren’t ready for these.

from USA Today
Free things to do in ten of the world’s great cities. SLIDESHOW

from The Guardian (London)
Simon Gandolfi, by his own description, is an out-of-shape Briton who just turned 80. So how does he celebrate eight decades of life? By flying to India and making his way back to London by motorcycle, solo. Rocking chair? What rocking chair?

from The Guardian (London)
Now, this is my idea of a European rail trip — Paris to Sicily, by train. Yes, I know Sicily is an island. And no, it doesn’t matter to the train.

from the New York Times
Bike sharing comes to Manhattan. One user finds it a mixed blessing for tourists.

SEA
from USA Today
Bad news for the cruise industry: A Harris Poll finds that the spate of shipboard fires in the last year is causing travelers to lose confidence in cruising as a travel option.

FOOD & DRINK
from USA Today
Do U know your Q? A regional breakdown of barbecue in the United States. Because unlike men, all BBQ is not created equal.

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AFRICA
from the Times of Zambia
Zambia’s Liuwa Plain National Park may be unique among the world’s land reserves in that it spends the first four months of the year underwater.

from Associated Press via Yahoo!
A UNESCO survey team finds damage to cultural artifacts done by Islamist rebels in the fabled Mali city of Timbuktu to be fare more extensive than first thought.

from the Seattle Times
Beautiful, diverse, edgy Cape Town.

AMERICAS
from the Washington Post
In San Francisco, the neighborhood known as Dogpatch, once a collection of meatpacking plants, is stepping up in class.

from NBC Travel
Tornado tourism? Yes, people actually pay to go out and look at — and pose for pictures with — tornadoes. A potential killer of a trip.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from Agence France Presse via France 24
A Chinese farmer restores a run-down section of the Great Wall of China on his own time and his own dime…about $800,000 worth of his own dimes.

from France 24
About two hours outside of Beijing, a luxury hotel opens in the birthplace of Confucius.

from France 24
Promoting South Korean tourism…Gangnam style.

EUROPE
from the San Francisco Chronicle
Is tourism in Turkey likely to take the same kind of hit from the current spate of street protests that Egyptian tourism did? In Istanbul, they don’t seem to think so.

from the New York Times
Do you love the fluid, vibrant colors of Claude Monet, the godfather of impressionism? Would you like to explore his country garden from which he drew his inspiration? You can, and without fighting your way through mobs of tourists.

from USA Today
In Europe, spending less for a hotel can actually contribute to a better travel experience. So says European travel guru Rick Steves. Been there, done there. It’s true.

from CNN
Want to chill out and kick back in style, and maybe work in a little exercise at the same time? Consider barge cruising in France. SLIDESHOW

Can’t stop the NOLA

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Photo from nola.com

Photo from nola.com

Three weeks after a couple of knuckleheads wounded 19 people shooting up a traditional New Orleans second-line parade on Mothers Day, the organizers re-stage the parade on the same route.

New York and Boston may not be the only American cities that can stand up to terrorists. The people of New Orleans made a statement last weekend, in one of the time-honored ways that folks in this town make statements.

With a celebration.

Every year in the city’s 7th Ward, residents hold a second-line parade on Mothers Day, organized by the Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club. Both the parade and the club represent longstanding traditions in black New Orleans neighborhoods.

Three weeks ago, in the middle of the festivities, a pair of young thugs started shooting into the crowd of paradegoers, wounding 19 people.

Shootings in the NOLA, much of it related to street gangs, are almost as common as second-line parades and this wasn’t the first time gunplay had broken out at one. When rival gangbangers turn up at the same events, too often they bring their rivalries — and their guns — with them.

Even so, the Mothers Day parade shooting was beyond almost anything the city had ever seen before. Around the country, a lot of people looked on in horror, wondering how people in the city would respond to this outrage.

Last Saturday, about 500 people delivered the answer, in person.

Led by the same club that organized the original parade, they staged a “re-do” of the event. On the same route, with the same three bands leading the way.

The same singing and dancing in the streets. The same sidewalk grills turning out hamburgers, hots dogs, pork chops and chicken. The same sodas and beers. Whole families turned out, and everybody had a blast.

Without anyone getting blasted.

It was one of those public displays of joie de vivre that New Orleans has made world-famous. But it also amounted to a giant middle finger to the youthful gangsters who have terrorized black neighborhoods, seemingly at will, for decades.

If you know the NOLA, you knew that was going to happen. Why? Because as much as any American city and more than most, New Orleans holds tight to its traditions.

One such tradition is the second-line parade. Most New Orleanians just call them “second lines.”

A brass band — the first line — leads the procession. Those who fall in behind them constitute the second line. It’s about as informal as you can get. If you want to stand on the sidewalk and watch, you can. If you want to step out into the street and join in, you can.

The organizer of the Mothers Day second line, the Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club, represent another black New Orleans tradition.

SAPCs began as benevolent societies. The dues you paid into them served as a kind of financial safety net if you lost your job or fell into ill health.

When you died, your SAPC dues would cover the cost of your funeral, which often included a jazz funeral, led by a brass band…and a second line.

The Krewe of Zulu, the first officially recognized black Mardi Gras organization, began as a social aid and pleasure club, and retains that title to this day.

But when the Original Big 7 hit “reset” on their Mothers Day second line, they also put on display another, less well-known New Orleans tradition. The NOLA never backs down from a challenge.

Some of the world’s most defiantly obstinate people live here. Tell them they can’t do something, then stand back and watch them do it, anyway.

They may offer you a cold beer while you watch.

That stubbornness hasn’t always been a good thing for the city, but in the end, New Orleans probably couldn’t survive without it. When you live your life several feet below sea level, it’s more than just a personality trait. It’s a survival skill.

In other cities, residents might have felt the city’s gun-toting street thugs were so totally out of hand that re-staging the parade was unthinkable. It would have been the safe, cautious, logical course to take.

The NOLA doesn’t do safe, cautious or logical.

This is a city with a long history of defying the odds. Invading foreign armies, Civil War occupation, bitter conflict over civil rights, chronic poverty and prejudice. The Mississippi River is too high one month, too low the next. And then, there are the hurricanes.

New Orleans just looks at it all, shrugs and lets the bands play on.

Eight years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I summed up New Orleans this way for a California newspaper:

“You can’t kill this place. You can drown it, burn it, lay siege to it, level it, but you cannot drive it under. The willful spirit of the people who live here will not be submerged. Not even by walls and waves of contaminated water.”

Nor, apparently, by random gunfire from neighborhood thugs. It just doesn’t matter. You can’t stop the music. You can’t stop the culture. You can’t stop the NOLA. In a city beset by problems both natural and man-made, that willful spirit just might be its greatest attribute…and its best hope.

The IBIT TRAVEL DIGEST 6.2.13

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The good, the bad and the bizarre in the world of travel

© Mtoumbev | Dreamstime.com

© Mtoumbev | Dreamstime.com

FLY THE CROWDED SKIES
You’re fastening your seat belt when the flight attendant announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a full flight.” If you think you’re hearing those words more often nowadays when you fly, it’s not your imagination.

According to the US Department of Transportation, nearly 737 million of us flew on regularly scheduled airline flights last year, and airliners flew at or close to capacity last year more than they have at any time since 1945.

It’s true that, for all the griping we do about its cost and discomfort, lots of us are flying these days. But it’s also true that that airlines have spent the last couple of years taking planes out of service.

They do that partly to retire older jets with less-efficient gas-guzzling engines, but also to make fewer seats available to the flying public. Fewer seats means greater demand — and less need to lower airfares.

And speaking of flying…

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THE DREAMLINERS ARE BACK
Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, its battery troubles apparently behind it, is returning to the world skies.

Several airlines have already put the 787 back on their established routes, and Ethiopian Airlines is going a big step further, recently committing to opening service next month between Addis Ababa and Brazil’s two biggest cities, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Now, Thomson Air has become the first British airline to accept delivery of a Dreamliner. And the Chinese government has cleared the aircraft for use by airlines in China, giving Boeing a crack at a fast-growing Chinese airline market.

So it looks as if Boeing has its new ultra-light, hi-tech jet back on track — and probably not a moment too soon.

That’s because Airbus Industrie is on the verge of debuting its 787 competitor, the A350.

Both these jets are designed to fly farther on a single load of fuel. That means less money spent on gas for the airlines, and more hours spent in the air by you.

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JETBLUE STEPPING UP
Sticking with the air theme, the word from Travel Weekly is that JetBlue is planning to create some kind of premium air service offering on its transcontinental flights, as well as free basic wi-fi and in-flight streaming of Netflix movies.

JetBlue already is one of only two US-based airlines given a 4-star rating by the British airline review site Skytrax (the other being Virgin America), but felt it was being edged out by its 3-star American competitors on transcontinental flights.

So the airline is looking to step up its game on its long-haul flights. Given th airline’s strong reputation among travelers for good customer service, it’ll be interesting to see what the JetBlue folks come up with…and whether it will be worth the price.

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And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from the Washington Post
Contrary to popular opinion (mine included), the merger between US Airways and American Airlines is not quite yet a done deal — and there are those who don’t believe it should be.

from USA Today
Flying itself may still be a largely miserable experience, but the airlines are starting to put some effort (and money) into making you more comfortable on the ground.

from The Guardian (London)
Looking for the best exchange rates when buying/selling foreign currency? Don’t do it in the airport. Any airport.

LAND
from USA Today
When you rent a car, do you prepay the rental company’s fuel charge? Better yet, should you?

from USA Today
Vital information for summer travelers: Where to find the world’s best ice cream parlors. If you can’t get Berthillon in Paris, these may be good alternatives.

from USA Today
European travel guru Rick Steves talks about how to do Europe by train.

SEA
from USA Today
On Jan. 23, 2015, the Pacific Princess will push back from the dock in Los Angeles harbor. She will return May 15. In the 109 days in between, she literally will have sailed around the world.

FOOD & DRINK
from the NY Times
California already produces some of the world’s best wines. So it’s only fitting that it now is producing the cheese to match.

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AFRICA
from the Washington Post
Say hello to Burkina Faso, a West African country relatively few Americans have heard of.

from Tanzania Daily News (Tanzania)
Can the country generate some “bounce” in its tourism from President Barack Obama’s visit to Dar es Salaam?

from the Washington Post
A look at the joys and struggles of a multi-ethnic neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa.

from IOL Travel (South Africa)
Pardon me, would you like some whale with your salad? Whale watching, that is. You can do that in Cape Town.

from CNNgo
Somalia…tourist hotspot? Apparently, yes.

AMERICAS
from USA Today
Several North American cities are turning their waterfronts into great places to visit. Here are some of the best.

from The Guardian (London)
If you’re fascinated by wildlife, you can hardly find a better place for viewing it than Brazil’s Pantanal said to be the world’s largest swamp. But in a land that literally is constantly shifting, getting there is NOT half the fun.

from the NY Times
How to kill a weekend in Jackson, MS.

from The Guardian (London)
Bar-hopping Austin TX-style.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from CNN Travel
In Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji Fish Market, you truly have to be an “early bird” to catch this sushi.

from CNN Travel
Forget “the ugly American” — now it’s the ugly Chinese. Obnoxious behavior by newly well-off Chinese tourists has the Beijing government issuing instructions to its citizens on how to act abroad.

EUROPE
from the NY Times
How to enjoy the outdoors in Berlin.

from The Guardian (Europe)
Want to live the real “dolce vita” this summer in Italy? Live it like a local. That means skip the hotel scene.

from The Guardian (London)
Looking to save your food budget this month in the very pricey United Kingdom? These two-for-one lunch deals at some English and Welsh pubs might help.

from CNN
Are you a Game of Thrones fan? You can visit the castles in Northern Ireland and Croatia where the HBO series is shot.

Finding your base

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Paris, near Rue Cler

Paris, near Rue Cler | ©IBIT/G.Gross

Using a real neighborhood as your base can be both a less expensive and more rewarding way to see the world.

Once you start traveling, it may not take long before you feel you’ve outgrown guided group tours. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of exploring a new locale on your own. To do that, you’ll need two things.

The first is a plan, which is best made before you leave home. Your travel time and money are both precious. Having a plan on arrivals will help you make the most of both.

The second thing you’ll need is a base, and when it comes to choosing one, the key is that old, undying saying in the real estate business:

“Location, location, location.”

I’m not talking here about your lodging itself. Hotel, vacation rental apartment, bed-and-breakfast, hostel, gîte, your best friend’s living-room sofa — as long as it meets your needs, it’s fine.

What it is matters less than where it is.

If your plan includes saving money, you don’t want to stay in areas designed for tourists. Everything in those areas — food, lodging, entertainment, everything — is more expensive. You’re better off staying in a real neighborhood where locals live.

I learned that on my first visit to London. Friends recommended a short-stay apartment in South Kensington, the Oxbridge.

The apartment turned out to be a not-bad little place, a compact one-bedroom with a living room and full kitchen. But the real gem was South Kensington itself.

The place is an easy three-block walk from the Gloucester Road station on the London Underground, known the world over as “the Tube.” The Piccadilly Line train can pick you up right in Heathrow airport and drop you off at Gloucester Road an hour later at a cost of $4.50 to $7.

One of London’s wonderfully comfortable “black cabs” to take you door-to-door will take about half the time, but you’ll have to cough up $75 and $100. There are plenty of better ways to spend that kind of cash than on a cab ride.

It gets better. The Gloucester Road station turns out to be a hub for three different lines which, between them, cover almost the whole of central London north of the Thames River.

From the station to the apartment is a three-block walk. It’s along those three blocks that you understand what the term “walkable community” means. This is old news to folks who grew up in America’s older cities, but to suburbanites, it comes as a revelation.

Within those three blocks, I found:

  • Two supermarkets, one of which was open 24 hours.A bank with four ATMS (later reduced to two).
  • A post office.
  • A laundromat.
  • An Internet cafe.
  • A newsstand.
  • Multiple restaurants.

There’s also a tiny tourist shop that is crammed — and I do mean crammed — with anything you’re liable to have forgotten to pack at home, or lose or break during your trip. Compact umbrella? Padlock for your bag? Battery for your camera? Phone card to make cheap calls back home?

No problem.

If you’re visiting London, South Kensington is about as strategic as you can get. And it’s not the only such neighborhood in London.

There are neighborhoods like this in virtually all the world’s great cities, where location, lodging, public services and public transportation all come together in one ultra-convenient, livable, affordable package.

The trick is finding them. But there are ways.

Most older cities around the world have commercial corridors, streets lined with shops, cafes, and other businesses. In this country, we sometimes call these “main streets.” In Britain, they call them “high streets.”

Elsewhere in Europe or around the world, they might be known as “market streets.” Paris is equally famous among travelers and residents alike for its market streets, like the Rue Cler.

Whatever residents call it, the larger the city, the more likely it is to have more than one of them.

Another key to watch for, gentrifying neighborhoods, up and coming communities where young residents and families are breathing new life into once-tired, run-down locales. A good example of this would be the Freret Street corridor in uptown New Orleans.

Ask your friends who’ve been to the your chosen destination. Ask their friends. Reach out to travelers on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, as well as travel review sites like these:

Send queries to tourism bureaus. Walk into a travel agency and talk to real, live travel agents. Another good source of information: college students, specifically those who’ve spent any time studying over seas.

Whomever you talk to, whether in person on online, always keep this basic set of questions in mind:

  • Is it safe for visitors?
  • Does it have good public transportation links?
  • Is it relatively close to the things you want to see and/or do?
  • Does it have all the basic conveniences you need?
  • Is it lively?

Once you’ve established your travel base, you’re free to roam your new destination at will, at your own pace and on your own terms. You’ll save money as well as time, and come away with travel memories of your own making.

And when the big tour buses go by, you can smile and wave, or feel free to ignore them completely.

Just like the other locals.