Tag Archives: hotels

SAFE TRAVEL: Can your hotel room be hacked?

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A security expert claims that with $50 worth of hardware and a few hacking tricks, he can break into almost any hotel room locked with a card key. If true, as many as 5 million hotel rooms worldwide may be at risk.

Some time this evening, a young man named Cody Brocious will step out in front of a large audience at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

At that moment, he will demonstrate how, with about $50 worth of palm-sized hardware and in a matter of seconds, he could break into their hotel rooms.

Or mine.

Or yours.

You know those plastic magnetic card-key locks that have replaced conventional metal keys at thousands of hotels around the world?

Well, according to Mr. Brocious, 24, such locks produced by a certain company have built into them not one but two different vulnerabilities that render them virtually null and void against a hacker with a modicum of skills and access to a Radio Shack store.

For a detailed breakdown on all this, check out the Forbes magazine story here.

Mr. Brocious plans to demonstrate this vulnerability himself this evening at the technical security conference known as Black Hat USA, which began last Saturday in Vegas and runs through Thursday.

The number of card-key locks vulnerable to this particular hacking technique are estimated to be somewhere between 4 million and 5 million worldwide.

Uhh…yikes?

If you’re in the room, there are plenty of old-school defensive measures you can take, not the least of which are deadbolt locks that come standard with most hotel rooms around the globe. Travel suppliers also sell special wedges you can use to stop anyone from entering the room while you’re inside.

You could even prop a chair or a suitcase against the door if you felt like it.

The real worry begins once you leave. At that point, the only thing standing between you and whatever you leave in your room is that card-key lock.

Not all card-key locks contain the twin vulnerabilities being outlined by Mr. Brocious. But enough of them do — and if he’s right, the knowledge of this vulnerability is already sufficiently widespread — to make this a concern.

So far, we haven’t heard anything definitive from the company that makes this particular type of lock. IBIT will let you know what, if anything, they intend to do about it.

Edited by P.A.Rice

IBIT TRAVEL Digest 2.26.12

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media ​

Juffureh, Gambia

Juffureh, Gambia | ©IBIT G. Gross

RETURN OF THE TRAVEL AGENT?
The Internet has given us all the ability to search out the lowest price on all things related to travel, so we really have no need for travel agents anymore, right?

Not necessarily.

An admittedly non-scientific side-by-side test by the New York Times matched the Web and a travel agent to see which produced the best deals — and the live-human travel agent came out on top.

Seasoned travelers know there’s nothing like having a knowledgeable travel agent in your corner when reservations fall through or unforeseen events blow up your travel plans. Now, it looks now as if the old-school travel agent might be able to hold their own when it comes to scoring travel bargains, as well.

FLYING LOW OVER ASIAN WATERS
The only thing I love more than traveling by sea is traveling cheaply by sea, which means I’m naturally drawn to ocean-going ferries, and Tripologist.com has come up with a trip that satisfies on both counts.

As close as Japan and South Korea are to one another, it would only make sense to visit both while you’re traveling in that part of the world. But a round-trip ticket for the two-hour flight between Tokyo and Seoul could cost you $500 and up, which is insane.

For almost $200 less, you could take a three-hour cruise on a high-speed hydrofoil between the two countries, and pass easily and cheaply from the ports to the anywhere in either country via their high-speed rail networks.

Two high-speed train rides, connected by a hydrofoil? That’s me, all right.

Tripologist breaks down the particulars here.

THE (AMAZING) RACE IS ON…AGAIN!
That’s right. CBS is coming back at you with its 20th segment of the world travel contest show, The Amazing Race. The format is the same, 11 teams of two competitors each. The prize is the same, $1 million.

Being the travel addict I am, I’d probably watch this, anyway, despite all the artificial drama and instigated conflict the show’s producers try so hard to generate. But this time around, I have extra incentives.

The first is that, once again, there are contestants from San Diego on the show. Or rather, there were. The two Asian golfing sisters were eliminated the first night. Poor girls, they barely got their passports open and they’re already gone.

The other is that I have reason to believe that the race is returning to Africa. I’d watch for that reason alone. Some may watch this show for the conniving and the cattiness, but for this traveler, it’s all about the destinations.

And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from Smarter Travel
The new rules requiring airlines to fully disclose the cost of a flight have prompted online travel agencies to limit their flexible options — in some cases, drastically. But there are still ways to use flexible search to your advantage.

from TIME
First, they were feeling up old ladies, frisking little girls and looting people’s luggage. Are TSA screeners now using their screening machines to ogle young women’s bodies? One woman says yes, and she’s suing.

from USA Today
The merger with United has caused Continental Airlines to disappear in all but name. Now, even that is going away. ​

from msnbc
Have one of those unbearably long flights coming up in Coach? Would rather not have a seatmate, maybe even prefer having a whole row all to yourself? That can be arranged.

LAND
from Framework Cycle & Fitness
Ready to really challenge your bike and yourself? Head north to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada and ride the Cabot Trail. This ride is no joke.

from The​ Times, London UK
Better driving by motorists would make things a lot safer for cyclists. What makes this statement remarkable is that, in London, at least, it’s the motorists who are saying it.

from the New York Times
The NYT’s Michelle Higgins tells us how to get elite status from the better hotel chains. The way the hotels are adding on surcharges these days, you almost owe it to yourself to do it.

​from Away.com
TV chef Anthony Bourdain shares his five top travel tips. This could cost him his Bad Boy membership card.

SEA
from the San Francisco Chronicle
The Costa Concordia disaster is giving folks in Venice second thoughts about how close they want these massive mega-ships passing by their fragile icon of Italian history.

from USA Today
Talks are underway that could bring a cruise to the capital city of Haiti for the first time in a quarter-century.

from Cruise Critic
Twenty-two passengers from the cruise ship Carnival Splendor robbed at gunpoint in Puerto Vallarta. This probably will trigger a massive response from the authorities to crime in the Mexican port, but it might be too late to save the Mexican Riviera.

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AFRICA
from CP-Africa
Is this the footprint of God?

from The Daily Observer (Gambia) via allAfrica.com
New Fajara Craft Market opens in Kotu, part of an ongoing redevelopment of the Fajara waterfront.

from the Business Daily (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
Tourism figures are up in Kenya despite worries over tourist kidnappings and conflict with Somalia’s al Shabaab religious extremist militia.

from The Citizen (Tanzania) via allAfrica.com
Mafia Island. In more ways than one, it’s not what you think. On land, lush, green, and largely unspoiled tropical landscape. Offshore, world-class diving and snorkeling.

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AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from State.gov
The State Department breaks down its travel warnings on Mexico, going state by state.

from the New York Times
This piece is all about how to spend a weekend in New Orleans. But if you approach this city in the right spirit, a weekend in “the NOLA” can last all year.

from USA Today
A new exhibit at a Phoenix museum shows there’s more to the Apache legacy than the legend of Geronimo.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
Hawaii’s lava flows are equally fascinating to scientists and tourists, but if you plan on taking in this breathtaking sight, a little caution is in order. Actually, make that a lot of caution.
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ASIA/PACIFIC
from Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan)
From giant paper floats to a private train heated in winter by a pot-bellied stove, Aomori prefecture puts Japanese culture on display.

​from the Japan Times
Tokyo’s famed Tsukiji fish market, which feeds this nation’s insatiable appetite for seafood, is a whirlwind of sights, sounds, aromas and characters. It’s also due to close in three years. So if you want to see a historic piece of daily Tokyo life, go soon.

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EUROPE
from the Guardian (London UK)
An interactive map showing the best bargain-priced restaurants around Britain, Scotland and Northern Ireland. You’ll want to keep this one in your “mobile.”

from the Guardian (London UK)
If you’re one of those people who think camping would be great if it weren’t out in the wilderness, Berlin has the hotel you’ve been waiting for. it’s called the Hüttenpalast. AUDIO SLIDESHOW

from the the Guardian (London UK)
Speaking of eateries, here’s one Parisian’s list of the ten best Paris bistros. I wouldn’t call any of these places a bargain, but they’re probably worth every euro.​

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MIDDLE EAST
from France 24
Iraqi town uses history and heritage to turn from terrorism to tourism.

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SITE REVIEW: BackBid

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A new Web site is flipping the script on the Priceline model when it comes to scoring hotel bargains. Instead of you bidding on the hotels, they bid on you.

New travel booking sites come and go so fast nowadays that it’s almost impossible to keep up — and largely pointless to try.

Indeed, if you’ve found certain sites that consistently bring you real bargains on airfare, lodging and the like, you’re probably better off just sticking with them

Unless something truly revolutionary comes along.

Today’s would-be revolutionary: a hotel booking site called BackBid.

These guys are taking the travel auction model made famous by Priceline and turning it on its head. Instead of you submitting a bid for a bargain hotel stay, BackBid has the hotels bidding for your business.

Even better, unlike Priceline, you know exactly which hotels you’re dealing with before your credit card gets charged for your stay, not after the fact. That automatically appeals to me.

You can read about it in this USA Today story here.

Sounds great, but surely there must be a catch, you’re thinking — and you’re right.

First, you have to open an account on BackBid, a fairly quick and straightforword process. Once that’s done, you enter the particulars of your existing reservation into their online form, then forward them the email confirmation of your existing reservation.

After that, it’s a matter of waiting for the competing bids to come in.

Also, you can’t just log onto BackBid, put in your dates and destination city and other particulars as you normally would, and then watch the competing bids come flooding into your email inbox.

It doesn’t work that way.

Before you can use BackBid, you actually have to make a reservation somewhere else, which you then forward to BackBid, along with the confirmation number and that hotel’s cancellation policy — specifically, the date and time by which you can cancel that existing reservation without penalty.

So, as an experiment, I did. And since New York City has some of the highest hotel rates on planet Earth, I figured that would be the logical venue to test out this site.

I made a reservation just after midnight Saturday at a hotel in Harlem I’ve been dying to try out, then followed BackBid’s instructions and started waiting for the bids to roll in.

Hotels have until Feb. 29, the last day I can cancel the original reservation without a penalty, to submit one.

Two weeks later, I had three bids in my email inbox. The first was actually higher than my original reservation, but the second was $54 cheaper over the course of the entire stay — and the third was $114 cheaper than the original bid.

What’s more, BackBid tells you everything you want to know about the place up-front — the name of it, the location, the amenities it does and doesn’t offer. Nice.

You may receive a handful, a lot or none at all. BackBid makes your reservation available to competing hotels and gives them the chance to bid on your business with a lower offer at a hotel of more or less equal quality.

They don’t guarantee that anyone will.

Still, even to create a place online that lets the hotels chase after you with bargains is probably worth trying.

But if BackBid does come up with a better hotel deal for you, just remember to go back and cancel that original reservation before the deadline.

Another big disadvantage to this site, as pointed out in the USA Today piece, is that it’s limited to US hotels only — at least, so far.

If these guys were to go global, the impact on the travel, and the savings they could offer to you, the traveler, could be enormous.

BackBid is still in beta-test mode right now, so it remains to be seen what final form the site will take, but I’d say it definitely shows some promise.

WARNING
BackBid has a few potentially costly boobytraps, especially for those of you who like to use online travel agencies like Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire and so on.

I’m talking about the kinds of sites that bill your credit card the moment you make a reservation.

Hotel booking sites that require you to pay up front aren’t going to cancel your existing reservation for free, just because you found a better price somewhere else. So if you want to try out BackBid, be sure that you make the type of reservation that allows you to cancel within a certain date and time without penalty.

Also, take GREAT care when you manually enter ANY dates on BackBid. Why? Because on their site, BackBid uses the European format for writing dates, in which the month comes BEFORE the day.

Our American eyes interpret 5/3/2012 as May 3, 2012. In most of the rest of the world, it means March 5.

Why BackBid does this, I don’t know, especially since their site only works with American hotels, but it’s something to beware of.

Edited by P.A. Rice

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST 9.18.11

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A roundup of the good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

Liverpool | ©Greg Gross

COOL SAVINGS IN the NOLA
When it comes to travel, summer is the best of times and the worst of times for New Orleans.

A typical summer weather forecast calls for 99 degrees with 99 percent humidity, which will make it feel more like 109 — and you can just about set your watch by the pounding afternoon rain.

That’s the worst.

It seems to work some special hardships on the restaurant business in the NOLA, as this msnbc story points out.

But those same conditions that send rivers of sweat pouring down your face can bring tears of joy to the dedicated bargain hunter, because summer is when New Orleans starts lowering prices at hotels and restos.

The msnbc story makes mention of this, and a quick check of your favorite travel sites (you do have more than one, of course…right?) will lead you to still more bargains.

Meanwhile, how do you handle all that heat and humidity? Stay in the shade. Stay by the water, be it Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River. Dress in cool, light colors.

And always keep some change handy for a big snowball, an ice-cold local soft drink — or an even colder hard one, like a frozen daiquiri.

You will survive, and your travel budget will thrive.

And as long as you’re there, you might as well check one of these daytrips, courtesy of CheapoAir.

PLANES v. TRAINS
A travel story in USA Today compares air travel against train travel for comfort, the check-in process, luggage and food.

The author tries to make it sound like it’s a contest. Those of you who’ve traveled on both already know:

It isn’t. It just isn’t.

At this point, the only thing the airlines really have going for them is speed over long distance — and the fact that American trains are literally a half-century behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to speed.

For anything short of a transcontinental trip, trains are easier, more convenient, more comfortable — and you don’t feel as if you’ve been abused with fuel surcharges and other add-on fees.

Train stations are even easier to use, more fun and classier than most airports. Often, they’re more beautiful than airports, as this BBC Travel slideshow suggests.

And you can enjoy the best ones, like New York’s Grand Central Terminal or Washington DC’s Union Station, without even taking a trip.

Trains v. planes? It’s not even close.

PASS/NO-PASS
And speaking of trains, Europe’s advanced network of high-speed trains and frequent local trains make getting around the continent almost sinfully easy.

Sooner or later, however, one question always comes up when you’re planning a European rail vacation:

“Should I get the Eurailpass or just buy point-to-point tickets for each leg of the trip?”

I’ve struggled with this more than a few times myself, believe me. The closest I could come to a definitive answer is: It depends on your budget and your itinerary.

Which basically is that the folks at Lonely Planet tell you. Only in much more clarity and detail, and with all your options neatly broken down.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

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AIR
from CNN
TSA fires 28 employees in Hawaii for failing to screen luggage for explosives. Let’s see: They’ll feel up women and search babies in their diapers, but can’t be bothered checking the BAGS? Oh, okay…

from CheapoAir
Meanwhle, TSA creates the first express security line in Pittsburgh’s airport.

LAND
from Frommers
Great locales for cooking vacations or to attend cooking schools, SLIDESHOW For my own take on the whole cooking travel thing, click here.

from Good Transportation
Three brothers are walking the route of California’s proposed high-speed passenger rail, from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

from Gadling
Your hotel safe may not be all that safe.

from Mallory on Travel
Travel insurance, yes or no? Iain Mallory breaks it down.

from The Urbane Urbanite
How to wine and dine during a power outage. If you live in hurricane country, tornado country — or anywhere within range of an Arizona electrical worker doing maintenance — you need this info!

SEA
from USA Today
How to pick your perfect cruise.

from Travel+Leisure
Are you one of those folks who turns up their nose at the mention of traveling on a ferry? This list will show you why you shouldn’t. SLIDESHOW

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AFRICA
from The New Vision (Uganda) via allAfrica.com
Northern Uganda ready to replace armies of insurgents with armies of tourists.

from the Maghreb Arabe Presse (Morocco) via allAfrica.com
Morocco is emerging as a medical tourism destination for Europeans.

from​ The Independent (Rwanda) via allAfrica.com
Another sign of Rwanda’s emergence as a serious travel destination: Marriott is building a 254-room, $55 million hotel in the capital city of Kigali.

from the ​Daily Nation (Kenya) via allAfrica.com
Fore…Africa! Plans announced to build a five-star hotel in Kenya’s capital city, Mombasa. The motivation: to encourage the growth of golf tourism in the country.

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AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from the Matador Network
Nine — count ‘em — cool and safe places to visit in Mexico.

from the Wall Street Journal via Zagat
Attention, foodies: Peruvian cuisine looks like it just might be the NBT — the Next Big Thing. Next stop, Lima? Road trip!

from the ​New York Times
Suriname — the most captivating South American destination you never heard of.

from the New York Times
The NYT’s Michelle Higgins says the folks who treat Quito, the capital of Ecuador, as just a jumping off point for the Galapagos Islands are missing something worthwhile.

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ASIA/PACIFIC
from Canada’s Adventure Couple
Cool things to do in Malaysian Borneo.

from Lonely Planet
A tour of China — one tastebud at a time. SLIDESHOW

from Velvet Escape
World traveler Keith Jenkins examines the other Thailand, the one all the tourist hordes haven’t ruined yet. Large. Poor. Beautiful. Endearing. Welcome to Isaan.

from The Guardian
Broome, western Australia. Once, this was where you came to find pearls. Now, Broome is the pearl. The part of the story that deals with Australia’s aborigines, as usual, is anything but pretty.

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EUROPE
​from The Daily Mail (London UK)
London hotels have the worst reputation in Europe? There’s a British-based travel site that says yes. Jolly good…NOT!
​

from Bonjour Paris
The only thing I like more than farmers markets are farmers markets in Paris, and the 7th arrondissement has one of the best. Even if you don’t have access to a kitchen, it’s worth a visit.

from eTurbo News
Portugal is making a comeback as a European travel destination.

from eurotrips
A list of secret spots in Paris, compiled by a small group of former Parisians and mapped.

WARNING: Credit card hackers are targeting hotels!

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While you're enjoying the view, is some hacker enjoying your credit?

Thieves and con artists are taking advantage of vulnerable hotel databases — and lax hotel data security — to get access to your precious credit card info. This is NOT good!

A story in today’s New York Times cites a report from a private computer security outfit called Trustwave, saying that hackers are increasingly raiding hotel databases to mine people’s credit card information.

No one seems to have statistics on how often this is happening or how much the cyber-crooks are getting away with, but if it’s happening often enough for a company like Trustwave to start sounding alarm bells in the mainstream media, then you and I need to pay attention.

There’s not much you can do as a consumer to protect a hotel’s database; that’s their job. But more than ever, you need to make sure you protect yourself:

* Set aside one credit card to use for travel, be it personal or business travel, and make sure you use it for no other purpose.

* Keep EVERY hotel receipt you get during your stay, and check it against your credit card account.

* Don’t wait until you get home to check that credit card account. Sign up for an online account with your credit card company. This will then give you a login and password that lets you check your balances and purchases, whenever and wherever you like.

If you travel with a laptop computer or a smartphone with Web access, check your credit card daily from the time to embark on your trip until you return. Even if you only used your card to hold the reservation and didn’t actually charge your room on it, check, anyway.

* Don’t stop checking after you get home. According to the Times story, thieves will hold credit card data for awhile and charge only small amounts, just to see how diligent YOU are, to see if you’re paying attention to your account. If they catch you “slippin’,” that’s when they’ll hit you with a big unauthorized charge that neither you nor your bank may catch until it’s too late.

Once you’ve returned, keep on checking your account on a regular — and frequent — basis. The moment you see anything that looks funny, contact your bank or credit card company immediately.

A few moments of due diligence could save you from days of grief, not to mention losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

I’ve asked Trustwave for any other advice they can pass along to consumers that might better enable you to protect yourself when staying at hotels. The moment I get an answer, I’ll post it here.

He who hesitates

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Think it’s too late to book a vacation at a decent price this holiday season? Maybe not.

The Louvre, Paris. I.M Pei's signature glass pyramid serves as the canopy from an underground arcade that includes retail, restaurants, and two Metro stops, not to mention the entrance to the Louvre itself!

Labor Day came, and you waited. Halloween passed, but you waited. Thanksgiving came and went, and still you waited. Now Christmas at hand and you figure it’s too late to book a holiday trip for less than extortionary rates, right? Not necessarily.

Under most circumstances, your best bet is to book sooner rather than later. Sometimes, though, it pays to wait, right up to the last possible moment.

Last-minute travel is a gamble. The stakes are your vacation. Play your cards right and you can come away with a great trip at a great savings.

The key is flexibility, and I mean total flexibility.

VACATION or “STAYCATION?”
Can you leave on short notice? Can you leave and/or return in the middle of the week? Are you willing to use a smaller airport a little farther from home? Can you go a couple of days earlier or later than your original plans called for? Willing to go a long way for a short stay?

If the answer to those questions is yes, you could be in line for some jaw-dropping bargains. On the other hand, if things don’t fall exactly your way, your vacation just became a “staycation.”

That’s the risk you take, and clearly, a gamble of this size is not for everyone.

Many of us are tied to work or class schedules that leave no wiggle room when it comes to travel. The airlines, hotel chains and resorts are fully aware of that, which explains why they jack their rates sky-high during the holiday periods.

Still, when it comes to holiday travel, airlines, hotels and the like aren’t much different from your family during Christmas dinner: Everybody wants to be full. And to get that nice, satisfied “full” feeling, many of them are willing to drop prices on remaining seats, rooms or trip packages.

WEEKEND IN PARIS
This is one of the reasons why you can have three people sitting in the same row in the same class on the same plane on the same day — and no two of them paid the same price for their seat.

Here’s an example from one site, lastminute.com. Leaving from Los Angeles (LAX), a weekend in Paris…this weekend…air, hotel, taxes, everything. When I first clicked on it, it was $996. In the time it took me to click on a different window on my computer and come back to it second later, it had dropped to $956. It could go up again just as fast — and two hours later, it did, to $967 — but that’s not really the point.

So what is the point?

Go to Air France and book an LAX-Paris (CDG) flight for those same days — no hotel, only the flight — and you’ll be paying $4,041. That presumes you’re lucky enough to score the last remaining seats on the cheapest available return flight. If you’re not, the price goes up to $4,606.

CRUISING FOR STEALS
And yes, that’s in Coach. I’d tell you what the Business or First Class fares are for those same days, but I can’t give you CPR through the computer.

Last-minute booking also can yield you a bargain just as big or even bigger on cruises, especially if you live in or close to a port like Miami, New York, New Orleans or Long Beach. If you don’t, there’s a monumental catch that can undo the whole thing.

If you have to fly somewhere to meet your ship, and there are no cheap last-minute airfares left to that destination, any savings on your last-minute cruise booking could be wiped out by the cost of the flights.

The same can hold true with land-based resorts in sun-friendly winter locales like the Caribbean and the Pacific islands. If the last-minute bargain rates doesn’t include airfare, odds are it won’t be a bargain at all.

LOOK AROUND…FAST!
So how do you find the last-minute deals? Same way you find anything else in travel: Shop around. You just may have to do it a little faster this time.

There are Web sites that specialize in this form of vacationing, and their very names will tell you pretty much which ones they are. You’ll find some of them listed on the Cool Travel Sites page.

In addition, airlines, cruise lines, hotels and resorts may offer their own last-minute fare sales, as well as reservation sites that don’t necessarily specialize in last-minute bargains.

As always, ask plenty of questions and know exactly where you stand before you put your money down. One of the disadvantages of last-minute travel is that you’ve got virtually zero time to do damage control if something goes wrong with your reservations, so it’s imperative that you get everything right the first time.

Now that you know some of what to look for, why not prowl the Web a little bit and see what kind of last-minute travel deals you can track down, just for the experience, the practice, the fun? So what if you can’t actually go this time?

Paris — and the rest of the world’s great destinations — will still be there next weekend.

One bed…two wings…$500 a night

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An aerial Cold War relic from the former East Germany lands near Amsterdam…as a hotel for capitalists.

Maybe it’s because I’m only recently back from Germany. Maybe it’s because my ventures into the former East Berlin left me feeling as if not all of the Cold War chill has fully thawed, even after 20 years. Or maybe it’s just that I’m a huge fan of karma when it comes to dictators and tyrants like the late (and largely unlamented) Erich Honecker, the man who brought you the Berlin Wall.

Whatever it is, I can’t help but get a monumental kick out the recent story out of the Netherlands about the Dutch entrepreneur who has fashioned his own little luxury hotel…out of Honecker’s former official airplane!

This story in the German news magazine Der Spiegel will give you the 4-1-1. And just in case you think both they and I are making this stuff up, here’s the video, courtesy of Reuters and Yahoo News UK.

Five stars meets four engines.

This is the equivalent of some Russian nouveau-riche type making a Moscow apartment out of Air Force One.

Sorry, this old converted Russian turboprop airliner/transport/antisubmarine bomber — aka the Ilyushin Il-18 — won’t actually be going anywhere, not even so much as a taxi to the end of a runway. But for 350 euros (right around US $500) a night, you can at least pretend to have your own private initiation into the Mile High Club.

VROOM, VROOM!!

After seeing his beloved wall first festooned with graffiti, then mostly torn down and broken into chips to be sold as souvenirs to Western tourists, the old communist codger may well be doing barrel rolls in his grave over this, his winged proletarian chariot given over to such sheer capitalist decadence.

On the other hand, he might be wishing he’d thought of it himself…

COOL — social networking for travelers

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If you travel or are thinking about traveling, connecting with your fellow travelers literally can pay dividends.

A NETWORK OF TRAVELERS
The tips, advice, word-of-mouth praise or warnings you find on travel forums and social networking sites related to travel can save you money, save your trip, and in the most extreme of cases, maybe even your life.

If you’ve ever had the nagging suspicion that some of the info put out by the slick travel press amounts to shilling for — or selling out to — certain big names in the travel industry, this is the best way to go against the corporate grain. Travelers tend to be candid to the point of cutting in their evaluation of airlines, cruise ships, eateries, hotels.

Anyway, here are some good social networking travel sites to get your travel 4-1-1:

Yelp
The site bills itself as “the fun and easy way to find, review and talk about what’s great — and not so great — in your area.” Twenty-two categories, everything from restaurants to pets to religious organizations. If your car breaks down in the midst of your road trip, some Yelper will probably have a recommendation to a good mechanic. For a shot at a unique local experience, pay special attention to the category “Local Flavor.”

Yelp sites exists for cities throughout the United States, and now have taken hold in Britain.

RealTravel
Self-described network of travelers, experts and deal finders. Has won kudos from some of th brahin of the business travel class like BusinessWeek and Forbes. Lets you browse airefares, hotel rates and travel deals like the usual suspects, but also set up for you to explode nine specific vacation ideas.

Gridskipper
Bills itself as “the worldwide travel blog.” Lots of off-the-grid features that can lead you to see some of the world’s great — and familiar — cities in new ways that’ll have you feeling like an adventurer when you get home.

The boost to your ego when you tell your friends about all the things you saw and did that they never read about in the traditional tourist guides is an added bonus. Whether you choose to tell them how this Web site led you to them is up to you.


FlyerTalk
Want to get the best deal on airline frequent flyer programs? Trying to figure out who’s is the best? Do you have an easier time understanding Einstein’s theory of relativity than the way your airline rewards or withholds its free flights, despite all those miles you’ve piled up?

This community of air passengers will share with you their tips on navigating through the frequent flyer maze, and even throw in some general travel tips as a bonus.

The travel networking sites linked by this site represent the opposite end of the travel spectrum from Real Travel. It includes several new travel communities with lots of interactive features that encourage exchanges of ideas and co

Hotel Chatter
Airlines aren’t the only ones subject to info-sharing, bargain-spotting and merciless reviews by online travelers. Hotel Chatter is not necessarily the site on which to book your next stay, but well be the one to tip you to where you might — or perhaps more importantly, might NOT — want to book a room.

Spotted By Locals
Sites like this are why I love the Internet. A collection of “cityblogs” on popular destinations across Europe, 21 cities from Amsterdam to Zurich, put together by actual residents of the places they’re blogging about, “for travelers who like to experience cities ‘the local way’.” Not just a listing of hot spots, but insight into the culture and “feel” of a city.

It was put together by a couple of Amsterdam residents (and travel fanatics) who actually meet and talk to each cityblogger face-to-face before turning them loose on their website.

And then there’s this guy…

JohnnyJet
This guy appears to be something of a perpetual traveler, and he’s been letting us follow along on his various odysseys for more than a decade. Not so much a travelers network as a nearly encyclopedic collection of links to all — and I do mean all — things involving travel.

Where Dreams Would Take You

9 Replies

If you could go anywhere in the world, absolutely, positively anywhere, and time and money were no object, where you you go? Why would you go there? What would you want to do and see when you got there?

I’d like to think that each of us has a destination in the backs of our minds, some place that has taken root in our imaginations and refuses to be uprooted by all the picks and shovels and hammers of daily life.

Maybe it’s a place you studied briefly in school, or caught a taste of in a documentary that hooked your attention. Maybe it’s undying curiosity about an ancestral homeland described to you by wistful elders. Maybe it’s the ultimate peak, the ultimate wave, the ultimate rainforest. Maybe it’s a place steeped in a lovingly preserved past, or one plunging headlong into modernity.

Maybe it’s something else entirely. You’re the only one who knows.

But there’s something about dreams that makes them better when you share them. The only thing better than fascination is a shared fascination.

So share the dream! Given the chance, where would your travel dreams take you, and why?

To Hell with Hotels!

3 Replies

Okay, so maybe that’s a little strong. But when it comes to vacations, especially these days, a hotel may not be your best choice.

The mission of every hotel is to separate you from your wallet. The mere act of checking into one marks you as a tourist, which derives from the Greek word tourip, meaning “he who must be fleeced.”

Nothing personal. Hotels have to treat you this way. The better ones occupy some of the priciest real estate on Earth, and somebody has to pay for that. Don’t hate the hostel, hate the game.

And what do you get for your forced generosity? A sparsely furnished room the size of a large closet, often at a price per night that rivals your airfare.

Thirsty? That bottle of water by your bed, which costs 99 cents back home, will cost you $4 in your little room. Partake of the little goodies in the mini-bar?

(The W hotel chain’s snack set-up and mini-refrigerator are both wired; if you even move one of the goodies, the hotel computer bills you automatically.)

Use your room phone to call home? Better have paramedics on speed dial when you get the bill.

Meals? Dining out all day can, in the words of the rapper Ice–T, “break you with speed!” Eat all your meals in the hotel restaurant? Sure…if your last name is Trump.

Clothes? Since few hotels have washers and dryers, you can:

  1. cast about for a laundry somewhere
  2. pay the hotel’s extortionary laundry fees, or
  3. pack more clothes and become a beast of burden on your own vacation.

This, as the airlines are charging for every bag you even think of checking.

Oh, be joyful…

You don’t have to play this game, however. For a stay of less than a week, a hotel may be best. But for longer stays, you’ve got options.

Europe has long provided hostels where travelers could stay in minimalist surroundings, often at rates low enough to embarrass your local YMCA.

In the young, the word “hostel” conjures up a sense of shared adventure. For those on the other side of the generation gap, it implies suffering in Spartan conditions with a bunch of strangers, some of whom may be out to steal your stuff.

In recent years, hostels have started offering more room, more privacy and living conditions less akin to an army barracks. Still, they aren’t for everyone, especially families with small kids.

Why not a short–stay apartment instead?

Now, if you simply must have someone else making your bed and leaving a mint on your pillow every day, this may not be for you. But consider.

A real kitchen, living and bedrooms. No need to get out so the maid can clean. The kids get their own space, without you paying for adjoining rooms. A refrigerator to raid as you please, without having those obscene charges added to your bill.

And nothing you need is “down the hall.”

Stock up on local “flavor” in neighborhood shops. Have breakfast in your pajamas. Make lunch, always cheaper than dinner, your big meal while you’re out, then a light supper and drinks “at home.”

Having a washer and dryer means you need fewer clothes and less luggage, easier on your back and your wallet.

There are other benefits. Being in a real neighborhood with real people gives you a feel for a different world, one you won’t get from a tour bus.

There’s a whole community of vacationers embracing this philosophy. It’s called SlowTrav.com, dedicated to the idea of being travelers instead of tourists.

Vacation apartments come in every size, comfort level and price range, everything from cottages to villas. Just search terms like “vacation rental” or “short stay apartment” along with the name of your destination — and prepare to be swamped by the sheer volume of choices.

If you don’t feel comfortable going one–on–one with a private property owner, there are rental agencies that will hold your hand through the process. Or enlist the help of a travel agent.

So if you like saving money and feeling more like a traveler than a tourist, consider a short–stay apartment for your next extended trip.

And buy your own damned mints.

Check out these sites to explore the possibilities of vacation rentals. This is just a sampling. There are lots more: