Space Shuttle Atlantis Move Scheduled, Public Invited

by Chris Owen on

Space Shuttle Atlantis will make one more trip in November. No engines will fire. No astronauts will be on board. No visit to the International Space Station will be made. Still, the last voyage of Atlantis will a memorable one and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (KSC) is inviting us along for the ride.

A series of events, open to the public, are centered around the 10 miles rolling trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the Visitor Complex atop the Orbiter Transporter System (OTS). It all begins on Friday, November 2, 2012, with “Atlantis – Celebrate the Journey” events that will mark Atlantis’ last voyage.

A variety of packages include admission to KSC (a $50 value) and round-trip transportation to Exploration Park. There, visitors will enjoy astronaut appearances, interactive exhibits, displays of spaceflight hardware from past, current and future programs. Exhibitors scheduled to attend include Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX and XCOR Aerospace.

Atlantis Adventure Package: features the opportunity to view and photograph Atlantis in 360 degrees from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., an opportunity to see Atlantis travel along the roadway and enter the orbiter home from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. and a KSC Up-Close: Launch Pad tour, which takes visitors a quarter-mile within the perimeter security fence of Launch Pad 39-A to enjoy close-up views of the 350-foot-high launch pad.
Cost: $115 adult/$105 child (ages 3-11) plus tax.

Explorer Package: features the opportunity to view and photograph Atlantis in 360 degrees from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and an opportunity to see Atlantis travel along the roadway and enter the orbiter home from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Cost: $90 adult/$80 child (ages 3-11) plus tax.

Lift-off Package: features an opportunity to see Atlantis travel along the roadway and enter the orbiter home from 5 to 6 p.m. along with the KSC Up-Close: Launch Pad tour
Cost: $75 adult/$59 child (ages 3-11) plus tax.

Rollover Package: features special exhibits as well as the Kennedy Space Center Tour, Shuttle Launch Experience, 3D IMAX® space films, Astronaut Encounter, Exploration Space: Explorers Wanted, U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® and all exhibits during the day. Later, visitors get the opportunity to see Atlantis travel along the roadway and enter the orbiter home from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Cost: $50 adult/$40 child (ages 3-11) plus tax.

At the end of the day, Atlantis will arrive at her new $100 million permanent home, set to open in summer 2013. For more information, call 877-313-2610 or KennedySpaceCenter.com.



NASA photo

Space Attractions Down To Earth In California

by Chris Owen on


Space Shuttle Endeavor arrives at the California Science Center soon and space exploration is on the minds of local and visiting space travel fans. Visitors to Los Angeles can see a variety of historical and futuristic space exhibitions and attractions within driving distance from LAX. California residents and visitors alike are rediscovering the state’s rich space-oriented past along with current places of interest that are helping charge the U.S. space program of tomorrow.

Let’s take a look at what California has to offer travelers interested in space-themed points of interest:

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (Pasadena) has played a major role in U.S. space exploration achievements and offers free two-hour tours of its Pasadena facility. Right now, NASA’s Mars Curiosity team is performing robotic arm tests in preparation for the rover to touch and examine its first Martian rock.

Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles) reopened in 2007 after a four-year, $93 million renovation. The 9,000-pound Zeiss Telescope can accommodate as many as 600 viewings per night, giving visitors an unmatched view of the moon and stars on a clear Los Angeles night.

Columbia Memorial Space Center (Downey) is the national memorial for the Space Shuttle Columbia’s seven crew members, lost in 2003 but also a hands-on learning center, dedicated to bringing the wonder and excitement of space science to children of all ages.

Discovery Museum Science & Space Center (Sacramento) is home to the Challenger Learning Center and houses an animal discovery room, nature trails, wildlife pond and Sacramento’s only public planetarium. Weekend activities include animal presentations for all ages, make and take crafts, and planetarium shows.Kidspace Children’s Museum (Pasadena) has more than two-dozen interactive exhibits designed for children from ages 1 to 10. At the Museum’s Gavin Physics Forest, kids can learn first hand about what it takes to get an object into space by creating mini-bottle rockets and study gravitational acceleration with the Ball Bounce exhibit.

Space Mountain– No list of California space attractions would be complete without Disneyland’s Space Mountain, the high-speed thrill ride that has hurtled visitors into the final fun frontier since 1977.


Flickr photo by Lance Cheung

Where To Find Wi-Fi While Traveling

by Elizabeth Seward on

We all know the definition of ‘Wi-Fi’ these days, and that’s a start. The more nonchalantly we all refer to this wireless Internet connection we all seek fervently, both while traveling and not, the more likely it is that we’ll find it. Finding Wi-Fi today is easier than it has ever been before, but the search can still be tricky. In the future, every square foot of U.S. land will have lightning speed Wi-Fi access, but until then, here are some tips for finding Wi-Fi while traveling.

1. Transportation

The one thing every traveler does is physically travel, so the easiest way to find Wi-Fi while traveling is to utilize a network hosted by your transporter. Airports and even airplanes usually have access to Wi-Fi. You’ll have to pay for Internet on the actual plane these days, but before you cough up money for the wireless you use in the airport, make sure to do a check for free networks. You can also find Wi-Fi now on trains, buses and boats.

2. Lodging

Your lodging while traveling is often a good resource for finding Wi-Fi. Not only do most hotels, motels, inns, lodges and resorts have Wi-Fi these days, but even more surprising accommodation choices offer Internet access. You can often find Wi-Fi now at campgrounds, truck stops, hotels, vacation rentals, airbnb rentals and RV parks.

3. Work Space

If you need Wi-Fi while working on the road (which is when most of us actually need it, right?), you shouldn’t have too hard of a time tracking it down. Offices are naturally equipped with Internet access and usually Wi-Fi, but you can also find a connection in other places of work. I do most of my work while on the road in coffee shops and 75% of them seem to have Wi-Fi access. Also check for Wi-Fi at convention centers, shared workspaces and libraries.

4. Leisure Spaces

If you want to find Wi-Fi in everyday places, seek and you will find. Wi-Fi connections are available in many restaurants, bars, gyms and other fitness centers, malls and regular public businesses. I’ve found Wi-Fi in spas, bike shops and certainly computer/phone stores.

5. Everywhere Else

One of the easiest things you can do is what I do: pay a little extra every month to transform your phone into a hotspot. I usually do this before I travel so I can work no matter where I am, even if I’m in a car’s passenger seat all day long.

High-speed godspeed.

[flickr image via raneko]

Woman Pays Ryanair $390 To Print Boarding Passes, CEO Calls Her ‘Stupid’

by Kyle Ellison on

Travelers taking issue with budget airline Ryanair is nothing new. In fact, it now seems to simply be commonplace.

First, there was the Norwegian man who was arrested after complaining that the in-flight sandwich he purchased tasted like rubber. Then, of course, there were the passengers who staged a sit down strike in Belgium after being told they must take a bus 225 miles to their
final destination after being rerouted. The list really does go on from here.

The ire doesn’t stop with the passengers, however, as there was also the Ryanair pilot who was coincidentally transferred to Lithuania after publicly making remarks against the company, a move, which ultimately caused the veteran pilot to quit. Recently, there has even been talk of Ryanair making customers pay to use the lavatory.

As usual, this can all be traced back to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary who also wants to do away with co-pilots and has suggested that long-haul flights offer free oral sex.

Oftentimes, such stunts are attributed to extreme marketing moves meant to gather attention, and it has seemed that recently Ryanair has backed off a bit from their ludicrous outcries.

Or, maybe not.

According to a recent Time Business article, when a passenger traveling from Alicante, Spain, back home to England complained of Ryanair charging her a fee of €60/person to print boarding passes for her family of five (a total of $390), Time reports that O’Leary branded the woman as “stupid” and called the rest of Ryanair passengers “idiots.”While this definitely seems extreme, it’s not exactly a new policy; it’s well known by many European budget travelers that you must print your boarding pass prior to arriving at the airport lest Ryanair levy a hefty fee.

When the woman complained on her Facebook page (and subsequently received over half a million ‘likes’ from those agreeing with her), O’Leary is reported by the article to have responded by saying:

“We think Mrs McLeod should pay 60 euros for being so stupid,”…”She wasn’t able to print her boarding card because, as you know, there are no internet cafes in Alicante, no hotels where they could print them out for you, and you couldn’t get to a fax machine so some friend at home can print them and fax them to you… She wrote to me last week asking for compensation and a gesture of goodwill. To which we have replied, politely but firmly, thank you Mrs McLeod but it was your ****-up.”


What do you think? Does CEO O’Leary have justifiable reason to be angry, is he at it again with his old marketing stunts, or is the woman completely in the right for being so upset over the hefty charge?

[Image courtesy of aromano on Flickr]

New Study Reveals Cities With The Highest And Lowest Taxes For Travelers

by Dave Seminara on

On a recent road trip, I stopped for the night in suburban Indianapolis and was happy to find a nice hotel room for just $91 per night. But in the morning, when I saw the receipt that was slipped under the door and noticed a total bill of $106.47, I thought that there was some mistake.

In huge cities like New York and Chicago you expect punitive taxes on travel related expenses, but could the hotel tax rate really be 17% in the Hoosier State? A stroll down to the front desk confirmed that there was no mistake and according to a newly released report from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), Indy has one of the highest hotel tax rates in the country.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m planning a trip, I don’t think much about taxes, but I probably should because in some places they can really drive up the cost. I tend to look at the room rate or the rental car rate itself, and by the time I get to the confirm page where you see the taxes, I’ve more or less already made my decision and somehow I think I’m paying $91 for the room in Indy, rather than the $106.47 it will come to with taxes.Since the start of the Global Recession, politicians in cash strapped municipalities all over the country have been looking for ways to make up for budget shortfalls and hitting out-of-towners is a convenient way to escape the wrath of local voters. According to the GBTA’s fifth annual report, “discriminatory travel taxes and fees enacted on travel-related services impose an average increased cost on visitors of 57% over general sales tax.”

So what are the most and least taxing cities for travelers? It should come as no surprise to see New York and Chicago on the taxing list, but why are Portland, Oregon, and a few places in California in the least taxing column? Portland actually shows up in the top ten least taxing list because Oregon has no sales tax, but it also shows up in the top most discriminatory taxes list (which doesn’t count taxes that apply to everyone, just those that apply to travelers) because it has a very high rental car tax rate.

A number of municipalities in California lowered their sales tax rate in 2011 and made the least taxing list based on that. The biggest surprise for me is the fact that Honolulu made the least taxing list.

Highest Overall Tax Burden for Travelers

The following figures reveal how much a traveler would pay in taxes for one day of travel, including a $103.45 hotel room, a $55.99 rental car and $91.22 in meals at restaurants. Chicago hits the trifecta with crippling taxes on hotels and rental cars plus a high sales tax rate, giving it the overall tax crown.

Chicago- $40.33
New York- $37.98
Boston- $34.83
Kansas City- $34.58
Seattle- $34.43
Minneapolis- $34.32
Cleveland- $34.22
Indianapolis- $34.19
Nashville- $34.13
Houston- $33.51

Lowest Overall Tax Burden for Travelers

Ft. Lauderdale, FL- $22.21
Ft. Myers, FL- $22.21
West Palm Beach, FL- $22.21
Detroit, MI- $22.37
Portland, OR- $22.45
Orange County, CA- 22.79
Burbank, CA- $23.74
Ontario, CA- $24.08
Honolulu, HI- $24.38
Orlando, FL- $24.50

New York City has the highest hotel tax rate, followed by Nashville, Indianapolis and Houston. Chicago has the highest rental car tax rate, followed by Boston, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis.

One might ask what these cities are doing with the tax revenues they collect from travelers. Are they using the money to promote their destination or to enhance the tourism infrastructure? The answer varies from place to place, but looking at Chicago, for example, just 1% of the 16% hotel tax goes toward tourism promotion, according to the study.

In most European countries, prices for hotels, rental cars, meals and almost everything else already include the applicable taxes. As a consumer, I find this very straightforward in that you know exactly what you’ll pay, but it also masks where your money is going. You might think that 100€ you’re paying for a hotel room is pricey, but you may not be aware that the hotel is losing a large chunk of that revenue to the tax collector.

Do you pay attention to the tax rates when planning travel, or are they just an afterthought? If the city has a high hotel tax rate, will you choose a less expensive hotel or go to a different city altogether? Would you like to see hotels and rental car companies display or explain the tax rates in a more transparent way when you book through the Internet or over the phone?

[Photo by 401K 2012 on Flickr]