Tag Archives: Philippines

the IBIT Travel Digest 12.9.12

Leave a reply

The good, the bad and the bizarre from the world’s best travel media

HI-YO, PINOT GRIGIO!
Touring wineries and sampling their wares is a big business these days, worldwide. There are escorted winery tours by bus or van, and self-driven wine routes you can enjoy at your own pace by car or bicycle (although you definitely want to go easy on the sampling in both cases).

Napa Valley is even world-famous for its Wine Train, featuring world-cass wines and dinners to match.

It was only recently, however, that I learned that you can tour wineries on horseback. Fresh air and gorgeous surroundings, finished off with some equally gorgeous wines. You can do it either as a day trip or as part of a hotel or bed-and-breakfast stay.

In eastern Washington state and Oregon, up and down California wine country, from Mendocino County in the north to the Santa Ynez Valley and Temecula to the south, or as far off as Argentina and Australia, you can saddle up and get your drink on in the same outing.

I myself am not quite ready for this kind of outing; the only horse I ever rode was made of wood and went around in circles. But for those of you possessing both horse skills and a taste for the grape, this might be a vacation worth considering.

If this sounds like something you might like to look into for 2013, drop me an email at greg@imblacknitravel.com and I’ll send you the information directly.

Just remember to go easy on those samples, lest you get caught galloping under the influence.

-0-

YOUR VOICE MATTERS
Have you ever wondered if all those online reviews people write about hotels actually make any difference? A study conducted at New York’s Cornell University suggests that the answer is a resounding “Yes!”

According to an article in Travel Weekly, the Cornell study showed that good or bad hotel reviews could affect not only room demand at that hotel, but could influence room rates by as much as 10 percent, up or down:

“The study found a direct link between the rise or fall of revenue per available room (RevPAR) and improvements or declines in the online reputation of a hotel, driven by ratings on sites such as TripAdvisor and Travelocity.“

To read the entire Travel Weekly story, click here.

Bottom line: Your opinion matters. The Web has given you, the consumer, a more powerful voice than you’ve ever had before. Treat it like the priceless asset it is.

BEST ON A BUDGET
As we know, travel media folks are a bit list-crazy, and never more so than at year’s end. One of the lists you’ll find over at Budget Travel is its 10 Best Budget Destinations for 2013.

Some of their 10 nominees — like Palm Springs, the Bahamas and the Loire Valley in France — are pleasant surprises, because you don’t expect those places to be cheap. Others are a surprise because you’ve never heard of them, like Boracay Island in the Philippines.

And then, there are the ones you’ve heard of, but would never expect to make the list in a million years.

This year’s shocker: Northern Ireland.

To check out the entire Budget Travel list, click here.
-0-

AND FINALLY…
It looks as if Alec Baldwin may get the last laugh, after all.

Remember when the actor/bad boy was famously kicked off an American Airlines flight at LAX last year for refusing the turn off the game he was playing on his cell phone?

Well, almost a year to the day of that incident, the NY Times is reporting that the head of the Federal Communications Commission now says the airlines should allow its passengers freer use of their personal electronics on board aircraft.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said as much in a letter last Thursday to Michael Huerta, acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration:

“I write to urge the FAA to enable greater use of tablets, e-readers, and other portable electronic devices during flight, consistent with public safety.”

The magic words there are “during flight.”

Nothing yet from the FAA, which has the last word on the issue, but even that agency has appeared in the past to be leaning in that direction.

It’s been reported in the past, including here on IBT, how personal electronic devices that use radio signals, such as cellphones, have shown signs of interfering with a plane’s navigation controls. But word processing, gaming and other functions would seem to offer little such threat, if any.

Either way, with the FCC more or less getting behind the traveling consumer on this, it could be that we’ll finally see this issue solved for good in 2013.

Meanwhile, if the next TV commercial for a Capital One airline miles credit card features a grinning Alec Baldwin with what appear to be canary feathers in his mouth, you’ll know why.

-0-

And now, here’s The Digest:

AIR
from USA Today
Wouldn’t you know it: The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has scarcely entered service, but technical issues are already starting to surface. In this case, fuel leaks.

from the New York Times
American Airlines pilots ratify a new contract with the airline. For travelers, that means no worries about Christmas holiday trip disruptions. For AA, it’s one step closer to a merger with US Airways.

from ABC News via Yahoo
How bad is internal airport theft by TSA agents? The feds are planting iPads and other consumer electronic devices with GPS tracking devices to see if any of them get stolen…and they are. DO NOT check your laptops, tablet computers or smartphones.

from the Huffington Post
Kate Hanni of FlyersRights says the airlines are sticking it to travelers this holiday season with deceptive pricing and hidden fees, especially baggage fees. Bah humbug!

from Agence France-Presse
A French court has cleared the former Continental Airlines and one of its engineers of criminal responsibility for a deadly 2000 crash of a Concorde supersonic airliner in Paris. Civil liability is still on the table, though.

LAND
from NBC News
Here we go again…a simple device small enough to hide in a Magic Marker can let thieves open the electronic door locks at several major hotel chains nationwide. We’ve reported this before. Yikes. The hotel chains know about it, but have yet to correct it. Double yikes.

from the New York Times
Do you love skiing so much that you wish you could do it all year round? Have some frequent -flier miles saved up? Because if you’re willing to travel, you could ski 12 months out of the year, including in a few places you might never expect.

from Budget Travel
There are lots of folks who prefer to travel by themselves, and across much of the world, solo travel is perfectly fine. But there are some places where it’s really better to go with a group. Here are eight of them. SLIDESHOW

from Travel Weekly
The Hyatt Regency in Chicago begins the second phase of a $110 million renovation.

from SFGate
Wanna get high? I mean really high, as in “those ants down there are actually people” high. Destinations to take you up, up and away.

SEA
from Travel Weekly
Plans by Royal Caribbean International to build a third Oasis of the Seas-class cruise ship may have run aground in Helsinki. The vessel would be built in Finland, but Finnish government is balking at financing the build.

from Travel Weekly
Apparently, not all the cruise lines are holding their noses at the European market. Norwegian Cruise Lines is hooking up with Gate 1 Travel to offer European combination cruise-land tour packages next year, starting with Italy. If they find a way to work affordable airfare into the package, this could be very interesting.

from USA Today
The luxury small-ship Windstar cruise line is offering some end-of-2012 deals on its Northern European cruises, including two-for-one sales.

from USA Today
The weather doesn’t just pick on the airlines. High winds in Cape Town, South Africa force a cruise ship to stay at the dock…for four days.

-0-

AFRICA
from allAfrica.com
New air services in the works for Mozambique, including flights from the capital Maputo to an island resort.

from T. Rowe Price
Ghana, now in the process of peacefully holding a presiddential election, could be the next rising financial star on the Mother Continent. So say these guys, who see five new economic powerhouses on the African horizon — in the west, east and south.

AMERICAS
from The Guardian (London UK)
Good news for those who’ve traveled to Cuba or are planning to go: Thanks in part to an easing of government restrictions, the food is getting better. Much better.

from SFGate
Arizona has a world-famous wave. But leave the surfboard at home, because this one is solid layers of multicolored sandstone millions of years old in remote southwestern desert. This is one vacation that will make you work.

ASIA/PACIFIC
from CNN Travel
Singaporeans may have an international reputation as being cold fish emotionally, but they’re passionate when it comes to cooking in what some consider the capital of Asian cuisine — and for some remarkably low prices, they’ll show you how Singapore cooks.

from CNN Travel
The best places to shop in Beijing…and some cool places to shop in Shanghai.

EUROPE
from Girls’ Guide to Paris
Ah, Paris, how can I tour thee? Let me count the ways. By foot. By Metro. By tour bus. By bike. By…Segway? Oui, Segway.

from Context Travel
A 3.5-hour tour on foot and by Metro of the immigrant’s Paris.

from The Guardian (London UK)
An agritourism project is saving a fading village on the island of Cyprus — and giving travelers something to do other than party the night away in Larnaca.

from the Washington Post
The Louvre, arguably the world’s greatest art museum, is branching out, opens a satellite museum in an old French mining town. Good way to experience the Louvre’s treasures while avoiding the Paris mobs. You can almost hear the ghost of Louis XVI saying, “Damn, why didn’t I think of that!”

from Travel Weekly
If one of your travel dreams is to see the Colosseum in Rome, you probably shouldn’t put it off a whole lot longer. It’s literally crumbling.

Edited by P.A.Rice

All that JAZZ!

2 Replies

If you love jazz and long to travel, are you ever in luck. Every year, hundreds of the world’s best travel destinations also just happen to host some of the world’s best jazz festivals.

Jazz is one of the few cultural creations America can truly call its own, a lively, soulful, passionately expressive style of music that has spread and is respected the world over.

Why then does it seem that people in other parts of the world have more respect for jazz than we do? These, it’s all about rock, country and hip-hop.

Among black kids in particular, jazz seems to be thought of as old folks’ music. When you consider that it was black America that gave jazz to the world in the first place, there’s something especially sad about that.

These days, you often have to hunt for a good jazz station on commercial radio — and in much of America, you won’t find one. Were it not for Internet radio, a lot of Americans might never hear a jazz broadcast.

In your typical music shop, the jazz section will be among the smallest in the store…and you may have noticed it shrinking over time.

AMERICAN MADE, RESPECTED WORLDWIDE
But jazz was more than just America’s first homegrown cultural artifact. It also was America’s first cultural export, and it has spread just about everywhere.

Outside the United States, there is no generation gap when it comes to jazz. It’s as popular with the young as it is with their parents, and new waves of jazz musicians around the world are pushing it forward.

What does all this mean to you as a traveler?

It means that if you want to pack your bags and see the world while you listen to some of its greatest jazz artists in the world — old and new — at the same time, you have a delightfully dizzying array of destinations from which to choose.

All over the world, virtually any time of the year. Straight ahead jazz, Dixieland jazz, “smooth” jazz, Latin jazz, acid jazz, and everything in between. It’s all out there for you.

TOO MANY TO COUNT
My first plan for this blog entry was to count up all the major jazz festivals around the world so you could have your own list of options. When I got to a hundred with no end in sight, I stopped.

Your best bet is to choose a region and pick a season, then do a Web search on your chosen destination along with the term “jazz festivals.” Unless you’re contemplating a vacation in Antarctica or North Korea, you’ll probably find at least one.

One? Between them, the United Kingdom and France at least 30.

Theoretically, you could easily do a summer jazz fest in Britain one night, then hop the Eurostar train under the English Channel the next morning and catch one somewhere in France the next.

After stopping for a leisurely lunch and a kir in a Paris cafe.

Equally short rail runs could take you to major jazz gatherings in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria.

Denmark? Norway? Sweden? Russia? Ja, ja, ja and da. Finland? Jep! Montreux, Switzerland and island of Malta. Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Europe is awash in jazz.

Not in the mood for Europe? What about Asia or the Pacific? China. Japan. The Philippines. Thailand. India. Indonesia. Hong Kong. Australia. New Zealand.

Prefer to stay a just closer to home? The Caribbean is dotted with gorgeous destinations — and jazz festivals. The Dominican Republic, Aruba, Jamaica, Barbados, Anguilla, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba.

Want to catch a major jazz festival on the Mother Continent? The Cape Town Jazz Festival in South Africa has got you covered.

If you’ve got some favorite jazz artists, and a part of the world you’ve always wanted to see, the odds are pretty good that at least one of them is playing in festival in at least one of those places in any given year.

GO CLUBBING
If the timing of your vacation won’t allow you to hit the big jazz fests — and given the number of options you have on both side of the Equator, that’s frankly hard to believe — the world’s great cities also are home to many of the world’s great jazz clubs. Especially London and Paris.

Paris, in particular, has a love affair with jazz that goes back to the days of World War 1, when black American soldiers and expatriates introduced it to them, along with gospel music (and you’ll find festivals in Paris for that, too).

For black Americans, Paris is as much the City of Sound as it is the City of Light.

At these varied festivals around the planet, you’ll hear the best jazz artists on the planet — not just the established superstars of the music world, but local and regional greats, up-and-comers whom you might never hear if you had to rely strictly on American commercial radio.

The only downside to that is that your monthly budget for music may go drastically up. But really, is that such a bad thing?

So when you’re ready, start packing, pick your destination, and go take a listen to the sound that America gave to the world!

FLY THE FLAGS, Part 1—

4 Replies

Sometimes the national-flag air carriers of your vacation destination might offer not only a better airfare, but a better flying experience.

When traveling outside the United States for the first time, you may reflexively jump on the first U.S.-based airline flying there.

Hold up.

Many countries have their own national-flag airlines that fly from U.S. airports. They’re not necessarily government-owned; they just “represent.” And even in this era of mergers, buyouts and code-sharing alliances, not only do their fares often compare with those of U.S. airlines, but they may offer a much better travel experience, making them a better value for the money.

As a college student, I started hearing from friends who’d flown on JAL, Japan Air Lines, and marveled at the experience. Back then, there was no Travelocity or Priceline, and thus little talk of bargains. But they raved over the service.

Several years later, on my first trip to Asia, I flew on one of JAL’s shiny new Boeing 747s, and everything was exactly as advertised. I felt I’d experienced the pinnacle of air travel.

In reality, I had no idea.

CATHY WHO?
Part of this trip called for a five-hour flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong, and I couldn’t wait to get back on board that JAL 747. No such luck. The flight would be made aboard an old Boeing 707, with some outfit called Cathay Pacific, based in Hong Kong.

Cathy who? Never heard of ‘em. I knew that plane, though. One narrow aisle, six cramped seats across. Misery, here we come.

The surprises begin the moment we board. I knew being a stewardess was hard work, but these women are running up and down the aisle. I overhear someone say the stewardesses have to speak the languages of all the countries the airline serves, which is half of Asia. Pretty impressive.

A few minutes after takeoff from Tokyo Haneda, a steward is dispensing drinks from a cart — mainly Foster’s Lager from Australia and San Miguel beer from the Philippines.

“Complimentary,” he says. That wouldn’t happen on a U.S. airline.

Pretty cool, and this Foster’s not bad, either. When he comes back offering refills, I reach for my wallet. If the first beer was on the house, most likely they want cash for the second, right?

THE MAGIC WORD
“No, no, sir, it’s complimentary.”

Suddenly, I am liking this airline.

Dinner is up next. They give us…a menu? Your choice of entrees, appetizers, desserts? Linen napkins? Silver silverware?

All this, in Sardine Class.

I’m now liking this airline a lot.

Here comes steward again, and he’s packing — a bottle of Australian red wine in one hand, white in the other. Your choice. I didn’t even know Australia made wine.

“Complimentary,” he says. And so are the refills. Had the red wine last time? Care to try the white?

Good God, who are these guys?

A PARTY SEVEN MILES UP
And the food? Before long, perfect strangers are swapping entrees with one another, and marveling over all of it.

When the steward spots a trio of convivial seatmates, he leaves them a bottle of wine, or two. It’s a party, y’all…at 37,000 feet!

And yes, it’s complimentary.

By now, I’m convinced there’s something seriously wrong with the airplane and they’re hoping we won’t notice. But we’re spinning wildly out of control and—

No…wait…that’s just my head.

Everybody’s loosening their seatbelts, waiting for the cabin crew to clear away our trays so we can comfortably settle back into what is now a very contented flight.

Only steward isn’t done with us yet. He’s bringing the after-dinner cognac.

Do I even have to say it now?

I’m now convinced that the wings have fallen off the aircraft and we are plunging at warp speed toward the Pacific—and I really don’t care!

We make a brief refueling stop in Taipei, then take off for the second leg of the flight to Hong Kong. And that whole sequence described above — drinks, dinner, wines, cognac — starts all over again!

AWARD WINNERS
We are a very mellow planeload of tourists when we stroll, roll and occasionally stagger out of Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong and onto the buses taking us all to our hotel.

When the tour guide asks if anybody’s hungry, we look at her like she’s lost her mind!

Poor girl, wasn’t her fault. She’d never flown Cathay Pacific.

All national-flag airlines are not created equal. JAL no longer has the sterling reputation it did back in the 1970s. They recently even had to get bailout help from American Airlines. Talk about a reversal of fortune!

Cathay Pacific, however, has been named Airline of the Year by the British airline research group Skytrax five out of the last ten years. Their other top-rated airlines have names like Singapore Airlines, Asiana, Qatar, Etihad, Thai Airways, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines and Qantas — not just last year, but consistently.

Singapore in particular has built a reputation for efficiency and service that spans decades.

You’ll notice there’s not a single U.S.-based airline in that list. Even European giants like British Airways, Air France, KLM and Lufthansa don’t make the cut.

Surprised?

Not all national-flag carriers measure up to the standards of these airlines, but a common thread runs through all those who do: It’s not just about the money. National pride is involved.

The people who work for these airlines see themselves as ambassadors for their countries, they know how much tourism means to their national economies, and they want to “represent” the best way they can.

So when you’re researching a trip to abroad, look into some of the national-flag airlines of that country. The experience might almost make flying fun again.

In the next segment, we’ll talk about airline safety, including how to check out an airline’s safety record and the red flags that make an airline one to avoid.

Medical tourism

3 Replies

Spanish colonial tax house, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

For many travelers, surgical procedures are becoming an excuse to vacation in distant lands. But if EVER there were a case of “let the buyer beware,” this is it.

Every day, somewhere in the world, some American unpacks their bags in a foreign country to start their vacation — and prepare for surgery. It’s called medical tourism, and Americans by the hundreds of thousands are literally buying into it.

Hospitals around the globe are actively seeking American patients whose bank accounts will never be confused with those of Donald Trump — and they’re exploiting the fact that their countries also happen to be among the world’s more popular tourist destinations.

What places am I talking about? Try:

  • Argentina
  • Canada
  • Costa Rica
  • Cuba
  • Hong Kong
  • India
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
  • Thailand



Surgery and suntans
In some 50 countries around the world, Americans are getting everything from cosmetic surgery to life-saving procedures, all for a fraction of what they would pay back home.

A coronary bypass that might equal the cost of a four-bedroom house in California may set you back only $10,000 in India — and that might well include a post-surgery vacation package and your round-trip airfare.

What’s more, for the money spent, tourist-patients often receive a level of medical care that would leave their hometown hospitals slack-jawed and glassy-eyed. Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are investing millions to create state-of-the-art medical centers. Guest houses and other lodging have sprung up specifically to serve medical tourists.

Then, there are facilities that combine both those functions.

One example is the Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand. You may have to look twice to confirm that you’re even in a hospital. Blue Cross of South Carolina thought enough of Bumrungrad to add it to its network of hospitals.

You think a U.S. insurance company is going to include a malpractice magnet as part of its own network?

Increasingly, there are web sites designed to walk people through the process of finding facilities and physicians overseas, even helping with travel arrangements. One example of such a site is Planet Hospital.

In a sense, medical tourism is as old as recorded history. Centuries before that term was coined, ancient Romans journeyed to “spa towns” in England, France, Italy, Germany and what is now the Czech Republic to drink and soak in their healthful springs.

For many years, until the wait times to cross the border became just too oppressive, my own optometrist was in Tijuana. For decades, Americans have gone down to Mexican border towns — not for trinkets, but for dental work.

Today’s medical tourism has gone far beyond the spa town. The treatments you can buy for yourself cover the entire spectrum of modern medicine, including psychiatry.


THE COMING THING?
There are those who predict that medical tourism will soon be embraced by both government and the health insurance industry in this country.

As with anything else, there are tradeoffs — especially if something goes wrong with your care. The rest of the world isn’t nearly as lawsuit-happy as we are. Lacking the need for hugely expensive malpractice insurance is one reason why medical care is so much cheaper overseas.

The flip side of that means that if Dr. Idun No in the Republic of Idontunderstan reattaches your lip where your ear should’ve been, your prospects for winning a huge malpractice judgment may range from slim to are-you-kidding?

The country’s political stability matters, too. I mean, do you really want to go under general anesthesia when there’s a coup d’etat going on outside?

There also is the potential for some localized resentment. In Thailand, for instance, so many doctors are rushing to cater to foreign patients that locals can have a hard time getting care.

Even so, studies have been done showing that 750,000 Americans left the United States to seek medical care in 2007, a figure that was expected to double last year, and could multiply by a factor of ten over the next decade. A Gallup Poll from earlier this year suggests that nearly 30 percent of Americans are willing to go outside the United States for health care.

Maybe if we had a true national health insurance system, as nearly every developed country in the world does, none of this would be necessary. But, we don’t, so—

WHO SCREENS THESE PLACES?
But how can you be assured of getting quality health care abroad? If ever there were a time for the buyer to beware, this is it.

Luckily, you’ve got some allies there.

There are accrediting agencies that check out these hospitals and give them their stamp of approval…or not. Among the better known and more credible of these are the Joint Commission International in the United States and the Trent International Accreditation Scheme in the United Kingdom. There also is an umbrella group for international accrediting agencies, the International Society for Quality in Health Care, based in Ireland.

Cheryl Clark, good friend, veteran medical writer, and now senior editor for HealthLeaders Media, has some added suggestions:

* Make sure that the doctor who’s going to do your procedure is board-certified in that field (this is something you probably should do anywhere, even at home).

* If your procedure is going to require transfusions, ask lots of questions about the hospital’s blood supply and where it comes from.

* Make sure the anesthesiologist is going to be on hand throughout your procedure.

* Last but not least, be certain that the facility where your procedure is going to be done has a full-fledged emergency room — or has a good working agreement with a hospital that does — just in case something goes wrong.

So, like anything else involving travel, do your homework before you commit your body to something like this. On the other hand, if the choice for your post-surgical recuperation is a condo in Omaha or a beach chair on the Copacabana, well…