Cruises confounded about Haiti – to dock or not to dock?

by Annie Scott on


Private beaches in Haiti like the one in Labadee, above, have long been a stop for cruise lines like Royal Caribbean. In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake, should they stay away?

According to The Guardian, Royal Caribbean “leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to ‘cut loose’ with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk.” A ship like the one above docked in Haiti on Friday, just sixty miles from the earthquake zone. Another is reportedly scheduled to arrive in a few days.

Some passengers are “sickened” by the thought of vacationing on the ravaged island and refuse to leave the ship, despite the fact that the RC is bringing food (to be distributed by Food for the Poor) and donating all proceeds from the visit to Haitian relief efforts.

A statement from John Weis, vice-president of Royal Caribbean says “In the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti’s recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood.” … “We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti. Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most.”

Royal Caribbean employs 230 Haitians and has pledged $1 million to help earthquake victims. So. Could you enjoy a luxury picnic an hour away from where 50,000 – 200,000 were recently killed in a natural disaster and thousands remain homeless and starving?

[via The Guardian]

Update: How you can help Haiti relief efforts

by Melanie Nayer on

Over the past 24 hours, we’ve received more information from airlines, agencies and charities helping to provide relief following the 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti.

While people around the world wait for word from loved ones, the death toll continues to increase – latest reports have heard estimates of up to 50,000 dead. Airlines, agencies and government officials are busy bringing relief workers into Haiti to help out, but there are ways you can help out.

Here’s an updated list (as of Jan. 14) of ways you can lend support to Haiti during its time of crisis.

Donate your money. There are a host of charities on the ground in Haiti and taking your donations. We’ve highlighted a few of them:

  • Oxfam has hundreds of people in Haiti helping with relief efforts. You can donate on the American or UK site, depending on where you’re located.
  • AmeriCares has pledged $5 million to Haitian quake relief, and is soliciting donations to a general emergency disaster relief fund to help it accomplish that.
  • CARE is sending relief workers into the city of Port-au-Prince and needs funds to support its efforts. Suggested donations range from $50 to $1,000, but you can name your own amount if you prefer.
  • MSNBC.com has a great list of charitable organizations that are present in Haiti and in need of contributions.

Text. You can donate $10 to the American Red Cross earthquake relief fund for Haiti by texting the word “Haiti” to 90999

Sing. We just got word that For Darfur, Inc., the teen-run non-profit organization and contributor to Doctors Without Borders, has announced a partnership with major recording artists to promote a “CONCERT FOR HAITI” in Miami. The promoter’s proceeds, including $1 of every ticket sale, will go to Doctor’s Without Borders to aid in the humanitarian efforts for families displaced by the earthquake that recently struck Haiti.

Donate your miles.

  • Delta Air Lines is allowing customers to donate SkyMiles to Red Cross to through SkyWish.
  • United Airlines offers points donations through the Red Cross via its Mileage Plus Charity Miles program.
  • American Airlines has set up a donation page and is giving away 250 bonus miles for a minimum $50 donation, or 500 bonus miles for a donation of $100 or more to the American Red Cross
  • JetBlue has established a donation page on its website allowing travelers to donate to the American Red Cross.


Go to Haiti: Our friends over at the Matador network are working on organizing a volunteer trip to Haiti to help with rebuilding efforts.

If you’re waiting on word from friends and family members, the U.S. State Department Operations Center said Americans seeking information about family members in Haiti should call 1-888-407-4747.

Discount hotel coming to Haiti

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Choice Hotels is headed to Haiti! The discount lodging company will be the first to hit the country in close to a decade. Its first hotel, a Comfort Inn, is expected to open in May. It’ll be located in the city of Jacmel, which is on the Caribbean coast. A 32-room motel is planned, but this is only the start for Choice Hotels’ plans for the unlikely destination. It is also looking at building an upscale 120-room property at the Belle Rive tourism development which is nearby — it’s expected for the fall.

Choice left Haiti a few years ago, and plans for a new Hilton were scrapped because of political instability and an unreliable infrastructure. But, the United Nations is trying to bring tourists back to Haiti, and Choice apparently sees some potential.

Is a trip to Haiti a bit too adventurous for you? Before writing off the possibility, keep in mind that it isn’t as bad as you think. Haiti is probably safer than you have been led to believe.

[Photo by Choice]

Not-so Dangerous Destinations

by Katie Hammel on

“You’re going where?!” my father asked when I told him of my plans to go to Colombia. The Colombia he knows of, the one from the 1980’s, is filled with cocaine, street violence, and Pablo Escobar’s thugs. The country’s days as a dangerous destination are gone, but its stigma still remains.

Colombia isn’t the only now-safe country still considered by the masses to be too dangerous to visit. Forbes Traveler has put together a list of other destinations that aren’t as dangerous as you might assume.

Along with Colombia, the list includes places many experienced travelers wouldn’t think twice about visiting – Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Laos, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia are all included – plus a few a little farther off the beaten path, like Haiti and Tajikistan. The list also includes two spots that become a lot more dangerous if you travel there illegally: Cuba and North Korea.

There’s no such thing as a completely safe destination, but still most of these spots have earned their reputations. At one point, they were lands of famine, war, and strife. Now they’ve become safer, though in some (like Haiti and certain parts of Colombia, for example) problems continue and there are still areas you should not venture.

If you plan on visiting one of these “not-so-dangerous places”, do your research and be sure you know what you are getting into. The bad reputation in some of these places can mean lower travel costs and few tourists, but there may still be an element of risk.

Life Nomadic: The Art of Getting Mugged

by Tynan on

After a safe return from Haiti, universally advertised as too dangerous to visit, my opinion on danger was stronger than ever. Everyone blows danger way out of proportion, and if you walk around confidently without being flashy, no one is going to rob you.

Here in Santo Domingo I eat at the same restaurant, Ananda, every night. It’s an amazing vegetarian restaurant that bears a startling resemblance to my favorite restaurant in Austin, Texas (Casa de Luz). It’s an eleven minute walk away through the main roads, or a ten minute walk with a shortcut.

The shortcut goes through the scariest little alley I’ve ever seen. The buildings on it are crumbling, it’s covered with trash, there are no streetlights, and just to make it a little more spooky, one side of it borders an overcrowded cemetery. Worse, the alley is a series of three sharp angles that make it hidden from nearby streets.

I liked walking through the alley. It made me feel tough, and I was proud to not have the same irrational fears that everyone else seems to have.

As it turned out, those fears weren’t quite so irrational. After the eight hour bus ride from Haiti I was starving, so I started walking towards the restaurant. At this point I’d gone through the alley so much that I didn’t even think about it. Two twenty-something-year-olds were walking towards me. I moved a bit to the right to pass them, but one went to one side of me and the other went on the other side.”Hola,” I said cheerfully.

Just as it started to register in my brain that something might be fishy about them surrounding me, they were on me. Their hands grabbed my shirt, they pushed me back against a wall, and started pulling the rings off of my fingers.

My logical mind kicked in. If I just spoke to them in Spanish they’d see that I’m not a typical gringo tourist.

“Espera! Que paso?”

They couldn’t have cared less, of course. They kept tugging at my rings and sliding their hands into my pockets. I didn’t have my wallet on me, but I did have a wad of cash. They took my passport, both rings, and the keys to my hotel. I glanced down at my expensive GPS watch which one of them was trying to take off, and realized that the longer I stood there, the more stuff they were going to take.

Cash and watch still attached, I started to run away. I figured they’d chase me, but as I looked back I saw them running the other way.

I felt calm during the actual incident, but afterwards I was rattled. I walked around the block a couple times, trying to process what had just happened. I didn’t care so much about what had been taken, but my worldview had just been shattered. I was naively optimistic enough to think that no one would mess with me because I was a nice friendly person who cared about the cultures I was visiting. It hadn’t occurred to me that wannabe thugs with probable drug habits don’t really care about any of that.

When I got home I went on the internet, determined to learn how to fight. I would buy a knife every time I landed, and learn knife fighting. If someone tried to rob me again, they would get stabbed.

Luckily, my first search yielded this site, which describes exactly why my plan was a terrible idea that might end up with me getting killed. Every post on the site links to twenty others, which meant that the following couple hours of my life were dedicated to learning everything I could about personal defense.

Here are the important things I learned, with links to No Nonsense Self Defense, in terms of avoiding getting mugged while traveling:

  • Low level criminals, like muggers, are not logical. Trying to use logic to dissuade them will never work.
  • Criminals are professionally violent. Training to fight them without the same real world experience they have, will lead to you getting hurt.
  • Mugging is a low level crime, which means that it is mostly perpetrated by younger people (18-25) with drug problems.
  • Crimes happen in “fringe areas“, places between isolated areas and highly populated areas. Isolated areas don’t have enough victims, heavily populated areas have too many witnesses.
  • To escape a bad situation, make sure you run towards a heavily populated area. Running “away” is likely to lead you into a less populated area.
  • Criminals are selfish and are obsessed with their status. Challenging them (“You wouldn’t shoot me”), is a good way to make them violent.

What I realized, more than anything, was that I was asking for it. Sure, no one ever has the right to rob me, but I entered an area that I knew was dangerous, and I did it habitually. My original idea that the world is safer than people say is probably correct, as long as I do my part to avoid danger.