Celebrate national train day with free companion tickets (on May 10th) from Amtrak

by Grant Martin on

Oh how festive. In honor of the “national train day” that Amtrak has arbitrarily chosen as May 10th, the ailing national rail carrier is offering up free companion tickets for passengers. That’s a Saturday, in case you’re wondering.

You have to book your ticket today, April 4th though, for travel only on May 10th, so if you’re planning on booking a round trip with a return on a different day, you may have to book a separate ticket. But if you’re just heading out for a quick Saturday jaunt to New York City or Chicago, or want to take your mother up the coast real quick for Mother’s Day, this might work well for you.

Use coupon code H768 only on April 4th to cash in on the deal.

Still, it does seem to be a bit difficult to participate in and take advantage of this offer. You would figure that for a seriously ailing industry who can’t seem to manage competing with Chinatown Buses let alone even operate in the black that you would have a more wily or aggressive marketing crew. But hey, what do I know?

Interested in other coupon codes that you might be able to use on the way back or instead? Try out this thread on Flyertalk.

Outbreak of dengue hits Brazil

by Iva Skoch on

Seriously, are mosquitoes good for anything? I am a believer in the ecosystem and all that, but I could easily support a plan in which mosquitoes would be replaced with some nicer insects.

CNN reports today that Brazil has reported more than 55,000 cases of dengue, which can be a deadly mosquito-borne disease, in the past four months. Dengue has killed 67 people this year in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state. Slightly less than half of the deaths were children under the age of 13.

We don’t know whether the deaths were attributed to the more severe form of dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can be fatal if unrecognized and not properly treated. With treatment, fatalities due to dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is characterized by abnormal internal or external bleeding, can be less than 1 percent.

Dengue fever, the more common form of dengue, is apparently caused by four closely related viruses. All of them are carried by infected mosquitoes, mainly the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, also known as yellow fever mosquito. Mosquitoes carrying dengue viruses breed in stored, exposed water, including places as shallow as jars, discarded bottles and plant saucers. There are 10 million cases of dengue around the world each year, so this is actually quite common.

Prevention? You have heard it a million times. Wear long sleeves, loose, baggy pants and make sure you’re using good insect repellent. Symptoms? High fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains and eye pain, nausea, vomiting and a rash.

Mosquitoes suck.

California: Get to Puerto Rico this spring for under 300$

by Grant Martin on

I’ve been putting off sending an alert about this fare for the past few days because it wasn’t really excellent enough — but today it got excellent. Earlier prices from Los Angeles and San Francisco to San Juan, Puerto Rico, were about 275-300$ for dates in April and May, which, even though is a pretty competitive price, isn’t fall-off-your-chair outstanding.

Today however, I’m picking up prices of about 225$ round trip from San Francisco for dates through May. That’s a pretty killer steal for a 3600 mile trip into the Caribbean.

Ever been to Old San Juan? I’m going for the second time next weekend and it’s a ton of fun. A wealth of casinos, restaurants and bars stuff the colonial streets of Old San Juan, where you can wander between hedonistic drinking, quaint shopping and a relaxing afternoon on the beach in just a few steps.

Get bored? Cross the bay to the Bacardi Rum Factory or drive an hour west to the Arecibo Observatory where they shot parts of the Brosnan Bond films.

Use a flexible search on Orbitz or Travelocity to nail down dates but book ASAP if you want to take advantage of these fares — there’s no telling when these are going to get yanked.

And be sure to check out Jaunted’s guides to San Juan for some ideas on where to eat and sleep in the Old City.

Colbert Report: Travel edition

by Jerry Guo on

Last night’s Colbert Report on Comedy Central featured a recurring segment, Threatdown, on the dangers of flying. Colbert labels, among others, pilots and nipples as threats to our national security. Here’s a preview:

“It’s a fine line between a nipple ring and detonation pin on a boob grenade.”

How to survive your next bumpy bus ride

by Catherine Bodry on

Bumpy bus rides are never fun. But bumpy, winding, crowded, cross-country bus rides with a driver who might need Ritalin can rattle even the most sedated nerves. And what do you do when the bus breaks down?

One such ride across Laos was scheduled to take my husband and me 8-10 hours. After about 11 hours of braking across muddy turns tighter than my great aunt’s hatpin on Easter, the driver stopped and motioned for us to get off. We filed off into the night and stood around in the muck while the driver put chains on the tires in an attempt to get us through some seriously muddy patches. The jungle hovered over us and it was unusually cold; a few women built sad little fires out of green twigs that did little more than smoke. After about an hour and a half of shivering around on the road, we all filed back on the bus. We traveled about 100 feet before getting stuck again, so we all filed back off the bus. Again came the smoky fires, which we pathetically huddled around. After a good hour we obediently got back on the bus and took our seats. This time we didn’t go far at all, and from what I could understand there was now a mechanical problem. Off the bus. Huddle around fire.

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By now it was after midnight, we were out of water, and the lunch we had 10 hours earlier was long gone from our stomachs. Our backpacks were on top of the bus, along with warmer clothes. At some point in the middle of the night we all filed back on, and we knew it was to sleep. It was so cold that another traveler, in desperation, ripped the pages from his magazine and tried to cover his arms and legs with them. At one point I asked Lael to reach under our seat and grab my purse, and when he did so a shrill SQWWWWAK jolted everyone from their meager slumbers. We had a chicken under our seat, which we lovingly named H5N1.

In the morning, we were still stuck (see photo, and note the sad little fire on the bottom left), and Lael and I contemplated walking the remaining 25 kilometers to Luang Nam Tha, our destination. We got our packs down and readied ourselves to walk a good 20 miles with no food or water, but just as we were ready to go, the bus began working. We all piled on, stepping over the sacks of rice in the aisle, and took our seats. This time, we traveled a good hour before we had to pull over again and when we did, it was to take the chains off.

We were unprepared for this kind of traveling unknown, but we could’ve been. Here’s what I learned (and I had about 29 hours to think about it on that trip):

  • Bring a snack, water, and toilet paper. You’ll be happy you brought all three, even if your bus doesn’t break down.
  • Bring a warm shirt — even if you don’t wear it, it makes a good pillow or backrest.
  • Bring a light, even if you can’t read while in motion. It’ll come in handy for reading maps, checking a guidebook, or helping your driver put chains on in the pitch dark.
  • I’m not advocating sedatives here, but those pills you popped to get through that transatlantic flight? They’ll calm those same nerves that might get a bit ruffled in the face of a driver who continually taunts death.
  • Bring reading material — again, even if you can’t read in a moving vehicle, you’ll be happy you brought it if you find yourself standing around for 13.2 hours.
  • Make friends. The local travelers were our best source of information (only one Laotian spoke English, but he was able to communicate what was happening).

Any tips I’m forgetting? Leave a a comment and share it with us!

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