Iceland Express will offer low-cost flights from Newark to Reykjavik

by Katie Hammel on

I’m kind of obsessed with Iceland. Ask me about the country and get ready to endure my lengthy soliloquy on why I love it so much. It’s one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and I’d feel pretty comfortable saying that even as I travel to more destinations, I’ll always consider it so.

Drive a few minutes away from Reykjavik and you’ll see mountains topped with snow, former lava fields covered in moss, volcanic ash beaches, and waterfalls in every shape and size. At Thingvellir National Park, the earth is shifting and dozens of little earthquakes happen every day. At the Blue Lagoon, people soak in steaming neon blue waters even as fat snowflakes land in their hair, and in random fields all over the country, horses will literally come running up to you to socialize. Horsies! Plus: Best. Hot dog. Ever.

Ever since I visited in March, I’ve been plotting my return. Trouble is, the tickets are just so expensive. Because Icelandair is the only carrier that goes from the US to Iceland, they can charge pretty much whatever they want. While they do have sales often, tickets from JFK to Reykjavik regularly range from $500 (in winter) to as much as $1200-$1500 during peak times.

But perhaps finding a cheaper fare may get easier. Iceland Express, a low-cost carrier that already operates flights from several European cities to Reykjavik (often for as low as $200 round trip) will begin flying from Newark to Reykjavik in June. Flights are available for purchase now and seem to be slightly cheaper than Icelandair. For dates I checked in August, flights on Iceland Express were $534 compared to $730 round trip on Icelandair.

Travel Channel to find new home

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The network for wanderers seems to be doing a bit of that itself these days. Cox Communications, which owns the Travel Channel, is shopping it around, with several companies expressing interest. So, will it wind up with Scripps Networks, which has the Food Network and HGTV? Or, could it wind up part of Rupert Murdoch‘s empire over at News Corp?

So far, Scripps seems to be in the lead, with Rupert’s folks not crazy about the climbing price of the channel. The latest bids, word is, are north of $1 billion. Back in June, when Cox first put it on the block, industry watchers figured it would fetch between $600 million and $700 million. Last week, the $900 million mark was pierced and has since been left in the rearview mirror.

The Travel Channel hasn’t landed yet, and it could take a while for the dust to settle. We’ll keep watching … the action, that is.

Foreigners are still spending less in the U.S.

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Visitors from outside the United States came in and spent $9.9 billion in August … which sounds like a lot. Unfortunately, it’s down 21 percent from what they spent in August 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, as the travel slump continues to clamp wallets shut. The good news, though, is that spending by foreign visitors to the United States edged 1 percent higher from July.

Spending by visitors to the United States has fallen every month since 2008, but the really severe declines began in May. Year-over-year drops have been 20 percent or worse every month since then: -23 percent in May, -22 percent in June and July and -21 percent in August.

Most of the money came from “travel receipts,” which the Commerce Department defines as just about everything except the planes, trains, boats and so on that take travelers into and out of the country. This was good for $7.8 billion in August and includes food, lodging, gives and entertainment, among other categories. “Passenger fare receipts,” the travel money, brought $2.1 billion into the U.S. economy in August — off $700 million from the previous August.

So far this year, foreign visitors have poured $79.4 billion into the U.S. travel and tourism industry, which is $16.4 billion less than we saw at this point in 2008 (a decline of 17 percent).

In an unsurprising application of the “golden rule” — screw unto others, as they screw unto you — American travelers haven’t been spending as much abroad, either. Those of us heading out of the country this year have only spent $65.9 billion so far, down 12 percent ($9.3 billion) from last year. The result is a $13.5 billion trade surplus, which is $7.1 billion less favorable than it was at this time last year.

With the next monthly report from the Commerce Department, the numbers should start to change a bit — in fact, they should start to look better. Don’t be deceived by this subtle shift, which will gain momentum next year. After Septmeber, and the worldwide financial crisis, the travel industry was battered. So, as we cross the September threshold, we’ll be comparing current results to lower benchmarks. But, it will be nice to see something that at least looks positive.

The Oasis of the Seas: designed to keep your dollars captive (and “dumb down” the travel experience)

by Jason Cochran on

Royal Caribbean’s $1.4 billion new ship, the Oasis of the Seas, is notable not just because of its measurements. They’re extraordinarily impressive measurements, to be sure: 20 stories high, 1,180 feet long, 2,700 staterooms, 225,282 tons. But for its guests, the even bigger story is what those measurements do to the traveling experience.

Arthur Frommer is one of the last great travel muckrackers in an industry crowded with fawning types, and his latest consumer reporting nugget comes from plain sight: the summer 2010 itineraries of the Oasis. The ship, which will depart from Fort Lauderdale‘s Port Everglades, will be crowding its trips with at-sea days.

On many week-long trips, he finds, the Oasis will spend as many as three whole days, or half its time away from port, out at sea with no contact with any port or culture. On many itineraries, one of the only days spent on land will be passed on the cruise line’s private beach of Labadee, on the coast of Haiti. That makes four out of six days, or two-thirds of the trip, that all 6,300 passengers on a full ship will be Royal Caribbean’s captive audience, only spending their dollars with the company.

On many runs, a fifth day will be spent at Costa Maya, a remote beach location that was largely built and maintained exclusively for cruise ship passengers. The only day on those week-long trips spent at an actual, authentic port of call will be the one passed at Cozumel, which Frommer proclaims “the world’s dullest port visit.”

%Gallery-77295%Which brings us back to those colossal numbers. The term “floating city” has been bandied around to describe many cruise ships, including the Freedom-class ships that are two-thirds the size of the Oasis. But in this case, it seems to fit: The new ship has its own park, carousel, tattoo parlor, two rock climbing walls, a Broadway-size theatre, an outdoor amphitheatre, an ice rink, and a cocktail bar that can travel from deck to deck.

With the aptly named Oasis, you don’t need to leave the ship at all. Up to now, there’s been one vacation company that has mastered the art of monopolizing its customers’ time and money, and that’s Disney. Royal Caribbean’s out-sized shipbuilding brings that sort of business model to the high seas.

The bigger ships get, the more the cruise experience becomes nearly entirely inward-looking, and the old distinction between “traveling” and “vacationing” becomes more pronounced. As the Oasis passes by port after port, please pardon the passengers if they’re not gathered at the rail watching the world pass by. There’s every on-board enticement not to.

“In a recent interview,” Frommer wrote on his blog, “I used the words “a dumbing down of the travel experience” to characterize Oasis of the Seas. I was being generous.”

This isn’t the end of this story. Gadling will be on board for the inaugural cruise of the Oasis of the Seas, and we’ll tell you what it’s like to set sail on this engineering marvel.

Denver to Singapore (and back) visualized in a five minute time lapse video

by Scott Carmichael on

Denver to Singapore (in 5 minutes) from David DAngelo on Vimeo.

Check out this cool video showing a trip from Denver to Singapore via Chicago, Los Angeles and Tokyo (and back). The creator put a ton of effort into filming as much of his trip as possible, and included some highlights like the automatic beer machine at the Tokyo lounge (at 3 minutes 50 seconds).

The whole thing is quite dizzying, but it is a great way to show a long trip in just five minutes!