Tag Archives: volcano

the SUNDAY TRAVEL DIGEST

Leave a reply

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

©Roman Snytsar | Dreamstime.com

Want to be among the first passengers to fly aboard Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner? Then turn toward the Rising Sun.

Welcome to “I’m Black and I Travel,” your Number One online source for absolutely, positively NOTHING having to do with Casey Anthony. It is, however, the ideal site for travel information to help you get as far away as possible from even the mention of Casey Anthony.

Indeed, she has now supplanted Lord Voldemort for the title of “(S)he Who Must Not Be Named.”

Okay, let’s get on with it.

-0-

A DREAM(LINER) OF ASIA
Are you one of those folks who likes to be first with things?

I’m talking about the types who will sit under a blanket overnight in front of an electronics shop to be the first to buy Apple’s newest digital toy or be the first at the dealership to buy that hot new car or be one of the inaugural passengers on a brand-new cruise ship?

It’s not that often that you get the chance to be among the first to fly on a new jet airliner, but your chance is coming soon.

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a ground-breaking new airliner designed to fly farther on a single fuel load than any other before it, just finished a week of operational test flights in Japan with All Nippon Airways after three years’ worth of development snags.

ANA, which was the first airline to commit to buying the 787 from Boeing, will become the first airline to fly the Dreamliner in commercial service, perhaps as early as next month.

(They’re not as well known to Americans as Japan Air Lines, but they have pretty much eclipsed JAL as Japan’s top airline. ANA has been around since the early 1950s as a regional Japanese carrier. They started flying internationally in the mid-1980s.)

Given the troubled birthing process for this jet, however, and the fact that it still must win approval from aviation regulators before accepting paying passengers, I wouldn’t expect to see Dreamliners criss-crossing the skies until sometime in early 2012.

Meanwhile, since ANA will be flying them before any other airline, you now have reason to start planning a trip to Japan.



And now, here’s this week’s Digest:

-0-

AIR
from Christopher Elliott via SFGate.com
Typos can be costly, especially on airline tickets and particularly on international flights. If the name on the ticket doesn’t match the name on your passport exactly, your trip may end at the airport.

LAND
from the New York Times
If you’re willing to volunteer some time and (maybe) some sweat as a volunteer, it can snag you some serious travel discounts around the world. It puts a whole new spin on the term “working vacation.”

from the Los Angeles Times
A burst of investment from cash-rich Asia is creating a wave of new luxury hotels — in Paris.

SEA
from USA Today
X marks the dock. The Celebrity Silhouette, the last of a half-dozen new cruise ships hitting the waves this year, is due to arrive in her winter port in New York in a week and could be available for you to cruise this fall. Meanwhile, here’s a little sneak peek.

-0-

AFRICA
from the Times of Zambia
Zambia re-brands itself with an eye toward more broader, more upscale and domestic tourism. The new theme: “Zambia — Let’s Explore.”

from Lonely Planet
Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gorillas — and live volcanoes — in the mist.

from the Financial Times (London UK)
Since it opened in 1964, the Africa Centre in London’s Covent Garden served as library, resto, pub, meeting house and cultural touchstone for generations of Africans in the United Kingdom who battled apartheid in Southern Africa and ultimately won. Now there’s a new battle underway, to save this piece of modern African history in Britain from the wrecking ball.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
South Africa — and the rest of Africa — by train.

-0-

AMERICAS/CARIBBEAN
from USA Today
Cruise ships are a great there to get to Alaska. But to really see Alaska, you need a train.

from USA Today
Alcatraz, the prison island in San Francisco Bay, makes for a chilling visit during the day, but it’s downright eerie at night.

from Rick Steves via SFGate.com
Amid the great cities, Old World history and ancient art and architecture, don’t forget that Europe also has huge amounts of natural beauty.

from USA Today
Miami turns its graffiti into a tourist attraction.

-0-

ASIA/PACIFIC
from the Los Angeles Times
Five trends to watch in Asian travel.

from the Jakarta Globe
If you love cycling, ever find yourself in Indonesia, you have got to check out these folks. The Komunitas Ontel Batavia (Batavia Bicycle Community) regularly gets together at a traffic circle to show of their bikes. Antique bikes. Sometimes hundreds of them. And the riders dress in period costumes matching the age of their machines.

from the Los Angeles Times
And speaking of bikes, anyone who knows me will tell you that this is my dream ride — a sunrise bike cruise down Mount Haleakala in Hawaii. Twenty-seven miles, all downhill. But it’s not for daredevils.

from the Times of India
Discover Pulau Ubin, the last village in hyper-urbanized Singapore. If you can find it.

-0-

EUROPE
from the Los Angeles Times
New museums sprout up in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome.

from As We Travel
Budget travel…in Switzerland? Is that even possible? These folks swear that it is.

from The Telegraph (London UK)
The twin riverside towns of Deauville and Trouville in France’s Normandy region give the country a second Riviera, not as universally known but no less lively.

from the San Francisco Chronicle
When it comes to Ireland, the charms of Cork just might steal you away from Dublin.

​

Volcano 2: The Wrath of Iceland

Leave a reply

Another round of volcanic eruptions is shutting down airports in Iceland. Western Europe and the UK could be next.

Here we go — or maybe not go — again.

Remember when last’s year’s eruptions in Iceland (from the volcano that no one outside of Iceland can spell or pronounce — Eyjafjallajökull ) all but shut down trans-Atlantic air traffic between North America and Western Europe?

Well, it may be on the verge of happening again. A different volcano is erupting beneath a glacier, sending up a massive ash cloud that is drifting eastward.

While not as calamitous as last year’s eruption, it already forced a curtailment of President Barack Obama’s visit to Ireland and forced airports in Iceland itself to close.

For more information, read this Bloomberg story here.

The good news is that aviation authorities say they’re better prepared to deal with volcano emergencies after their 2010 experience, which means air travel shouldn’t be as severely disrupted, nor for as long, this time around.

All the same, if your travel plans within the next two weeks or so include flights to Europe or the United Kingdom, you’d do well do follow developments and check often with your airline or travel agent.

And if you haven’t bought travel insurance for your trip, now might be a really good time to do it.

Dancing with strikes

2 Replies

How do you travel in countries where work stoppages are practically an Olympic demonstration sport? Be aware, be decisive, be flexible and be willing to roll with the punches.

The continued and worsening labor unrest in France over pension reform is shredding people’s travel plans. Before it’s over, the disruptions could approach the scale of the Iceland volcano eruptions earlier this year.

If you were confronted by something like this, how would you handle it?

The closest I’ve come to facing labor problems was in Paris several years ago with a group of friends. On the day we were supposed to catch a train from Paris to Lyon, there was local buzz about a possible “wildcat” strike.

Most French strikes are usually planned and announced well in advance, designed to inconvenience the public, but not too much. Wildcat strikes are more of an ambush. Get caught up in one of these, and all your carefully laid — and pre-paid — travel plans go down like the Titanic.

We made our way to the Gare de Lyon station early and boarded our TGV for Lyon. As the train pulled out of the station, we looked back down the platform — which was suddenly choked with men carrying large flags and even larger banners, marching toward us.

The strike had started right behind us.

Our escape was not by luck. While in Paris, we’d been keeping up with the local news for anything that might affect our journey. Even on vacation, it’s not a good idea to totally “check out” mentally. BE AWARE of what’s going on.

And ideally, that awareness should start before you leave home. Read up on the happenings in your destination. If you see problems on the horizon that have could play havoc with your trip, plan accordingly.

(NOTE: If you take prescription medicines, have your doctor give your copies of your prescriptions to take with you, so you can refill them in case you run out. Some foreign pharmacies will give you refills if you can show them your prescription bottle(s). Others may not.)

If you see labor trouble coming, you have two choices: Leave as fast as you can or stay and ride it out. Whichever choice you make, you need to make it quickly and then act on it. If you waffle, you’re more likely to get stuck. BE DECISIVE.

Investing in travel insurance that covers trip disruptions or cancellations may be a good idea. Before buying, though, make sure that:

  1. It really is travel insurance, as opposed to “travel protection” or some other nonsense. If it doesn’t say “travel insurance,” it’s NOT travel insurance.
  2. It covers things like strikes, riots and other man-made “mayhem and foolishness.” In general, have a clear idea of what it does and doesn’t cover before you buy.

If you’re traveling on a pre-paid travel package, get in touch with the company and ask what they can do to help you, even if it’s only to provide you with contacts in the country where you are you might be able to lend some assistance.

Travel insurance is a wise move, but not a magic bullet. It may reimburse you for the cost of your disrupted trip, but that’s after you get home. That doesn’t help you when you need it most — right now.

This is why you need to BE FLEXIBLE. Make sure you have a back-up credit card with a healthy limit (and preferably zero balance) to cover expenses that your pre-paid travel package won’t.

If you have an ATM card you can use on this trip, mentally set aside a certain amount of cash for emergencies. How much is enough? Let’s just leave it like this: You can’t have too much.

Figure out how best to take care of the basics in the midst of a work stoppage — food, shelter, transport. If a strike shuts down transportation, you may have to hunker down for a few days until you can get out.

Make friends with the desk clerks, the concierge, the waiter where you have breakfast or lunch. Ask them about what’s going on. Their local knowledge is priceless.

If you’re due to check out of your hotel during a strike that disrupts your travel, ask the management if they will let you stay on, or hold your room long enough long enough to let you come back. Ask too if they will give you a break on their nightly rates, which figure to be a lot higher than your pre-paid package rate.

If that’s not possible, ask them to help steer you a more affordable place to stay, possibly well away from the neighborhood you’d been staying in before. If it’s not as plush or comfy as the lodging you had before, don’t sweat it. As long as you feel safe, just make the best of it until you can either move up or move on. Just ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES.

You might want your backup hotel to be as close as possible to the airport, seaport or train station, the better to get out of Dodge if you have to move fast. If you do, though, nail down that room in a hurry, because you won’t be the only stranded traveler thinking that way!

Last but definitely not least: If any part of the strike — picket lines, marches and so on — are taking place near you, find someplace else to be. What looks like a harmless street happening and a good photo op can turn ugly in a hurry.

If you’re already “out and about” and you see things starting to develop, find some place to duck into (preferably a cool little cafe) and stay there until it all goes by.

If you’re lucky, your unplanned venture into foreign labor relations will just end up being a minor inconvenience and a mild adventure, one you can laugh about when you get back.

VOLCANO? WHAT VOLCANO?

2 Replies

St. Mark's piazza, Venice

Atmospheric and economic conditions across Europe may make this the summer to hook up that trans-Atlantic dream trip.

I’m not big on traveling during peak periods, and summer is about as “peak” as it gets. The weather can be hot a muggy, the crowds are huge, the lines are long and the price on almost everything but the air you breathe is wildly over-inflated.

This especially holds true for über-popular travel destinations like Europe.

But 2010 could be the summer of the exception. If you live anywhere on the East Coast, or can get there cheaply, this may be the summer to head across the Atlantic. You’ll need to stay alert for the right trip at the right price — and be prepared to move fast when you see it — but you need to start looking now. Here’s why.

The Iceland volcano really knocked the pins out from under European air travel for a solid month — and it hasn’t recovered yet. Airlines already struggling with falling sales and rising fuel costs lost even more money when the wandering clouds of volcanic ash prompted travelers by the tens of thousands to cancel their plans.

Result: They’re going to have extra seats to fill this summer. The same can be said for European hotels and vacation rentals, and for the same reasons.

One British low-fare airline, easyJet, is testing an infrared camera mounted on the tails of their planes. These cameras, they believe, can detect an ash cloud at ranges up to 60 miles, enabling pilots to avoid them as easily as they avoid thunderstorms today.

If it works, expect the airlines to head to Europe full-force — and maybe try to lure back their passengers with some uncharacteristically sweet summer fares to Europe.

The other factor — plummeting European currencies. I won’t pretend to be an expert on the whys and wherefores, but the bottom line is this: The euro and the British pound may not yet be in free-fall, but both are standing in the door without a parachute.

As of this writing, each was worth US$1.20. This time in 2008, the euro was worth about US $1.60 and the pound nearly $2. Any American traveler who’s had to count pennies in London or Paris or Rome because the dollar was worth so much less over there can tell you what a difference this makes.

Between these two sets of factors, Europe just became a lot more affordable to American visitors this summer — but only the ones who are prepared to pull the trigger on a good airfare or vacation package.

Because barring the economic equivalent of a BP oil spill, these currencies likely will be going back up some time just before or after Labor Day.

So if you’re lucky enough to be in a position to act on something like this, you need to start scouting right now. Check out your favorite travel sites on the Web, or try some of the ones listed on our Cool Travel Sites page. Talk to travel agents.

Check out travel magazines, both in print and online, for likely-looking hotels or companies offering air/lodging packages and see what they have on offer currently. If they seem open to haggling, haggle. What the hell, the worst they can tell you is “no,” right?

And if they say “yes,” you just might talk your way into one hell of a European summer.

A DISSENTING VIEW: Hilary Potkewitz at Crain’s disagrees with me.

INTO THE FIRE

1 Reply

Volcano tours give you a close-up look at one of Earth’s inner workings — just not TOO close

There are few sights as beautiful — or potentially deadly — as that of a volcano in action. The world was reminded of that by the recent eruption of a powerful volcano in Iceland known as Eyjafjallajökull (and PLEASE don’t ask me to pronounce that!).

Did I say “powerful volcano?” When was the last time you saw a 97-pound weakling volcano?!

When you see one of these things erupt, whether in a steady stream of lava as in Hawaii or a cataclysmic explosion such at Mount St. Helens, you know you’re looking at one of the most primal and fundamental forces on this planet, an almost godlike giver and taker of life.

They help feed us by creating some of the most fertile soil in the world, which explains why so many people around the globe seem perfectly content to spend years farming in the shadow of a mountain that could kill them at any moment.

Geothermal steam, an energy source capable of powering whole cities, is little more than underground water super-heated by volcanic lava beneath the Earth’s crust.

But not that far beneath.

People have long held a fascination with volcanoes, and there are tours that will let you get a good, first-hand and unforgettable look at them.

They just won’t let you get too close, and for good reason. Volcanos are no joke. Vulcanologists risk their lives studying these things up close, a lot closer than you will get in any tour — and some of them have died doing it.

Next time you hear somebody talking how “hard” they are, ask them when was the last time they got within spitting distance of a mountain that churns out a river of liquid rock at temperatures topping 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and toxic clouds the size of nations.

That said, there are plenty of places around the world where you can get a good look at volcanoes and their impact on this Earth. They’re conducted by airplane or helicopter, from boats or overland.

And although safety is a priority in all of them, some, the organizers will tell you straight up, are not for the faint-hearted. When choosing one, decide first just how much adventure and excitement you can stand.

You’ll find volcano tours offered in Hawaii, Costa Rica, as well as Italy, Russia and multiple sites in Central and South America, Asia and Africa.

Websites with listings of these tours can be found on the Cool Travel Sites page.

Mount St. Helens is now a national park.

There are even people in Iceland organizing photo tours for the visitors stuck in their hotels after last week’s eruptions grounded their outbound flights.

The tour groups make a point of not putting you at that kind of risk. They let you get just close enough to give you the thrill of a lifetime, and maybe come away with a little better understanding of how this planet works.

One volcano you won’t be allowed to get anywhere near is called Katla. It also is in Iceland, and it’s due for an eruption that could be ten times more powerful than that other one a week ago. Now that would be something to see, wouldn’t it?

For now, though, just take my word for it, okay?

“B” is for back-up

Leave a reply

Don’t let chance catch you unprepared when you travel

Few teachers are better at getting people’s attention than an erupting volcano. The lesson for today: It pays to have a back-up plan. And the farther, the longer or the more expensive your travel is, the more you may need one.

Anything can happen in life — a natural calamity, an ill-timed employees’ strike, an accident. Several years ago, our tour group caught one of the last flights out of Bangkok before a strike shut down the airport. Years later, we missed a French railroad work stoppage by minutes.

Last week’s eruption of a volcano in Iceland brought transatlantic air travel to a standstill that is ongoing. The total number of travelers around the world who’ve had their plans altered or spiked altogether runs into the millions. Many will need days to get where they’re going, or get home. For some, it may take weeks.

Chances are that nothing this catastrophic will ever befall you in your travels, but it wouldn’t hurt you to be ready, because let’s face it, the local embassy or consulate will NOT be making grilled cheese sandwiches and putting out cots and blankets for you.

1)”B” rhymes with “P”
And that stands for “plastic.”

Bring with a credit card with you that has a nice, healthy limit on it — and zero balance, a card you DON’T plan to use on your trip. If you’ve already checked out of your hotel when Mother Nature or discontented workers find a way to cancel your flight home, that card will help you find another place to stay — or extend your stay in your original hotel — until you can fly home.

Got through the entire trip and didn’t have to break out that emergency plastic even once? Beautiful! When you get home, stash it safely away, still unused, until your next vacation.

Also, make sure you have an ATM card that works where you happen to be. Your bank can tell you those parts of the world in which your card is accepted. Handy in an emergency when hoteliers and others decide to accept nothing but cash.

2) Travel insurance
A very wise idea, if done carefully. Rule of thumb: The more you stand to lose if things go south, the more you need it. A weekender to Cape Cod or Monterey? Probably not. That two-week trip to Europe, Asia or Africa? Well…yeah!

Travel insurance is something you need to check out thoroughly in advance, not the day you depart. You know those policies they sell at the airport? Don’t even waste your time.

Likewise, resist the temptation to include the insurance offered with a travel package, unless the insurance company is one you know well and trust. Otherwise, get your travel insurance separately.

First, determine what coverage you don’t need. Airlines cover lost luggage (how much depends on whether it’s a domestic or an international flight). And your credit card may already cover certain other travel emergencies. Call the airline, call your credit card company, ask.

And make sure it’s really travel insurance. If it says something like “travel protection” or “travel security” or anything else, forget it. If it doesn’t say “insurance,” it’s not insurance!

Make sure you understand exactly what is and isn’t covered, when and how to file a claim, everything. Read the fine print. Read it slowly. Read it twice. And read it before you buy the policy.

If you want to check out a travel insurance company to make sure they’re straight, there are several outfits that can help. You’ll find them on the Cool Travel Sites page.

Preparing this kind of Plan B may take a little more time and cost you a little extra money, but if the unexpected should happen, it’ll be worth every minute and every cent.

And as you’re reading this right now, there are several hundred thousand travelers, stuck on the wrong side of a volcanic cloud, who would probably agree with me.