America’s Meanest Airlines

by Grant Martin on

2011’s Airline Quality Report came out this month, which means that it’s time to distill out the industry leaders in a variety of categories, from on-time departures to lost bags to general happiness among passengers. Reporting on the best of the best is only half as fun as vilifying the worst though, so Yahoo and US News took the liberty of sorting out the worst performers in each category and hanging their decapitated bodies in the public square for everyone to shame. Among the losers this year:

Meanest major carrier: United Airlines
Meanest regional carrier: American Eagle
Most complained about airline: Delta Air Lines
Most likely to be unsafe: Jetblue
Most likely to overcharge for bags: Delta / US Airways / Continental
Most likely to bump you: American Eagle
Most likely to be late: Comair
Most likely to mishandle your bag: American Eagle

Daunting stuff, right? Maybe. Bear in mind, that the AQR samples a limited data set over a limited market, and that the term “worst” doesn’t necessarily mean that service is bad. American Eagle, for example, mishandles 7.15 bags for every thousand that go through its hands. The best carrier? Air Tran at 1.63 per thousand. That’s 1 drop in the bucket versus 1.0002 drops in the bucket.

Our suggestion? If you really want to figure out why each airline performed the worst in its own category then download the AQR yourself and flip through the data. It’s the only way you can get an accurate gauge of quality.

Budget Copenhagen: How to survive a trip to Denmark

by Grant Martin on

Scandinavia has the reputation as being the most expensive corner of the world, but the true reality of day to day expenses don’t really kick you in the shin until you’re on the ground in Copenhagen. Bus fare on many routes costs more than cab fare across some developing countries. A double espresso can set a weary traveler back $6, $7 or even $8 in the most trafficked areas, while fine dining is almost comically expensive.

Budget travel just isn’t a well served market in Copenhagen. It’s traditionally a place where you go to have the best seafood of your life or stay in the nicest hotel that you’ve ever conceived, not a destination for wayward backpackers or travelers looking to save a penny.

It’s there though, in the thin small cracks between double-lacquered facades and woven into the threads of the ubiquitous Lyle and Scott sweaters. A small seam of budget centric activities weaves through the town of Copenhagen, and exploited correctly, it can even yield a fair amount of fun. Gadling Labs spent a long weekend sifting through the streets of the city and filed this report:

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Dining
Don’t even think about spending time down town or near the hallowed grounds of Noma if you want to survive the night with the contents of your pocketbook. Instead, consider spending time in the more residential, popular neighborhoods of Nørrebro and Vesterbro. Each of these districts has its own charm; Vesterbro used to be the heart of the red light district, and there are still a few shops and related “activities” in the area. Nørrebro, on the other hand, is home to a much more cross-cultural community, and has the cuisine and nightlife that goes in hand.

In our time in the city, recommendations for one particular budget restaurant came to us over and over: The Laundromat Cafe (Elmegade, 15). Perched on a welcoming corner in Nørrebro, the Laundromat is half burger bar and half (you guessed it) laundromat, though at this point, its clientele is there primarily for the good cheap eats and the community. Stop by here any time after seven in the evening and it’ll be packed, but stick around — turnover is high and space almost always opens up within a few minutes.

If you absolutely must stay near the city center, however, consider stopping by Madklubben (Kongensgade, 66) for the affordable gastrofare with a Danish spin. Their downtown bistro, is a subterranean low-lit, mecca for great food and community. Just make sure you call in for a reservation a week in advance — there’s little room for passers-by here.

Another great spot downtown is Paludan (Fiolstræde 10), a multi-level cafe and restaurant nestled inside shelves and floors of books. If you want atmosphere, this place has it — it’s a sprawling, mood-lit meeting place where one can go to be surrounded by books and to grab either a quick coffee or a make larger plans for dinner, drinks, friends and people watching.

When we stopped by Paludan last month there was a Banksy themed art exhibit on display on the upper floor, and the British proprietor personally offered to take us out into the city to show us the town. That’s a sort of class that we appreciate.

In the worst of cases, there’s always the street food. Like in the scenes in Stockholm and Helsinki, hot dogs take the throne for quick street munchies, especially after a night out at the bar. And like its Swedish neighbor, the Danish hot dog comes flush with toppings — most outstandingly, the crunchy onions. One can pick up a simple hot dog on the street for about 4USD.

Accommodations and getting around
With an unfavorable exchange rate and the hotel market fairly pricey, booking rooms is one of the most important tasks that one can resolve before planning too deeply for Copenhagen. Luckily, the budget options are fairly widespread. Airbnb yields over 160 results for vacation rooms, flats or homes in the Copenhagen area, while hostelworld lists over two dozen properties.

The key, however, is making sure that your location is ideal. The city center has the majority of tourist attractions, public transit hubs and activities for the visiting traveler, but can be more expensively. Our preference? Stay in Nørrebro for the Brooklyn style experience. It’s close. It’s full of bars and restaurants. It’s quaint. And it won’t nosedive your budget to the bottom of the ocean.

If you do end up staying outside of the city center, you’ll most definitely save a few dollars but on the flipside you’ll also have to deal with public transportation. Copenhagen’s bus system is surprisingly clean and well run (converse to its subway system which was littered with trash and broke down on the way to the airport) and a visitor should have no difficulty in navigating it’s simple system. If in doubt, a nearby Dane can give you directions on which bus to take, and they’re almost always willing to talk.

The problem, however, is that public transportation is astonishingly expensive. Fares can run as high as $4-$5 in each direction and with a few trips over a day that can really add up.

Your best bet is probably to get a tourist, weekend or multi punch card. All of those can be purchased at the airport on the way in or at numerous kiosks around the city. Copenhagen’s transportation website has more info for planning purposes.

Tourist Attractions
In a similar vein to bulk, public transport for tourists, there’s also a great way to explore some of the better sites in the city with one, massive tourist pass. It’s called the cOPENhagen Card, and it gives one free access to over sixty museums, ALL public transportation and several public attractions as well as discounts at a nice range of shops and restaurants. In short: it’s worth every penny. One can pick up a cOPENhagen Card at the airport upon arrival or at a few other spots in the city at about $45USD for a 24 hour pass or $90 for a 72 hour pass. Kids passes cost slightly less.

Without a cOPENhagen Card or a strong budget, however, there are still a few interesting spots to see in the city on a shoestring.

Freetown Christiania is probably the most surreal tourist experience than one can have in this city. Christiania is an autonomous neighborhood on the eastern edge of Copenhagen with a completely different infrastructure, building plan and residential profile. Visitors can navigate the network of misaligned and oft-unpaved streets to find residents milling about in groups, some gathered around flaming barrels keeping warm and others setting up shop and selling mixed goods, including no small amount of hash and hash-related paraphernalia. Restaurants, bars and cafes are set up in this strange ecosystem, and the residents are surprisingly friendly despite their contentious relationship with the Danish government. Christiana is definitely worth walking through for at least the contrast from everyday Copenhagen.

On nicer days, a visit to the Tivoli Gardens is also a great way to experience the city and not spend too much cash. Just south of Copenhagen University and smack dab in the center of the city, the gardens host hectares and hectares of beautiful local and foreign fauna, and a stroll through these grounds can set any mind at ease.

And if it’s rainy? As in most cities, Copehnagen has its fair share of museums — a fairly high density of them at that. There’s the design museum. There’s the history museum. There’s the pirate museum. In the city center, anywhere you look there’s a good museum, and in the cold winter months that dominate the year these are the places to which a budget traveler should flock for warmth. Us your cOPENhagen Card if you want to get good cheap access to a broad range of the museums, but if you want to hand select a few we’d suggest going with the DesignMuseum Danmark. Showcasing the best of Danish design in a well-lit, circular building, the DesignMuseum delivers a concise, appealing package of exhibits in an easy to digest, friendly manner.

Another great rainy day activity can be found in the Lego store (Vimmelskaftet 37). Originally created in Denmark, there’s still a fair volume of pride in ownership of the Lego brand here in Copenhagen, and one of the best places to see this is in one of their flagship stores. Here you can take part in all of the new brands and products that the company is unveiling, marvel at a few massive Lego creations and even build your own mix-n-match packet of Legos to bring back to your nephew (though we know its for you).

[Editor’s note: Some of this content was researched under the supervision of Tourism Copenhagen, though their support had no effect on our experiences]

Sabich: Israeli fast food

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Sabich, an Israeli fast food with origins among Iraqi immigrants to Israel, is the most insanely delicious street food you probably haven’t discovered yet. A great introduction to the emergence of sabich as a popular fast food item in Israel, several years old now, can be found on Yael Zisling’s Gems in Israel site. According to Zisling, there was originally no name for this fast food among Iraqi Jews in Israel. It was simply the typical food eaten on Shabbat morning.

Residents of Tel Aviv are quite passionate about their sabich. I enlisted Israeli journalist and travel writer Yuval Ben-Ami for navigational assistance. A friend of Yuval’s had recently talked up the stand at 2 Tchernichovsky Street sufficiently to prompt him to switch his allegiance. The Tchernichovsky Street sabich takeout joint, called rather literally Sabich, was packed at lunchtime. Common to a number of other sabich stalls, its owner has a sense of humor. Yuval translated a sign on the wall clarifying that orders of sabich without eggplant would not be entertained.

Firmly in the high-quality budget eats camp at around 15 shekels (about $4.35) apiece, a sabich lunch is a real meal. The main ingredient is fried eggplant. There are variations, of course, but other components include tahini, hummus, crumbled hard-boiled egg, salad, pickled mango, hot sauce, and pickled cucumbers.

Sabich is vegetarian. With the subtraction of the egg, it becomes fully vegan. Some enjoy sabich without the egg, while others love the egg for how it transforms in combination with the other flavors and gives the meal a real solidity.

It is easy to imagine sabich joining falafel and the burrito as a globally popular fast food. It’s just as easy to imagine the lack of quality and ingredient control that would come with a mass adoption. For now at least, this fast food sandwich, quite difficult to find outside of Israel, has not yet achieved globalized status. This is a situation ripe for entrepreneurial action.

New website helps travelers find their next adventure

by Kraig Becker on

A new website promises to help adventure travelers find their next getaway, as well as discover new destinations they weren’t even aware of. The goal is to connect consumers with tour operators and guide services from around the globe, in an effort to make booking an adventurous holiday all the easier.

The recently launched Kumutu is the brainchild of CEO Ryan Off, who came up with the idea of an adventure travel aggregator after growing frustrated with other online options. The site already has more than 900 adventure travel companies already signed up, and they’re targeting to build that number to 20,000 by the year’s end. That means that consumers will have a wealth of options at their fingertips when it comes to booking their next trip, and online ratings and reviews will help us to decide if the option we are interested in is right for us.

As you would expect with similar websites, Kumutu offers you the option to search by activity, such as cycling, kayaking, mountaineering or by country, with nearly 60 destinations, including Antarctica, currently available. The approach is very straight forward, and easy to understand, with your options being presented in a quick, clean manner.

Perhaps the best way to search is by using the Kumutu map however. When this option is selected, you’re presented with a Google powered view of the world, with specific operators represented with a push-pin on the map. Clicking on a pin in the location of interest gives you a pop-up with a very brief description of the tours on offer. Clicking on the tour operators name will take you to a page that is specific to that company, with far more information about what they do and exactly what kinds of adventures they offer.

Kumutu is a nicely laid out and very easy to use travel aggregator, but we have seen a number of these types of sites pop up over the past year or two, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to stand out in the crowd. If they hit their goal of 20,000 tour operators by the end of the year however, Kumutu could become your one-stop shop for booking all of your future adventures.

Latin America on a budget: Antigua, Guatemala

by Alex Robertson Textor on

My first Latin America budget adventure, to Antigua, Guatemala, got off to a bad start. My flight from New York to Atlanta was cancelled due to bad weather and I was rebooked via Los Angeles. I finally arrived in Guatemala City a day late, and two days of activities suddenly needed to be compressed into one. In the spirit of the assignment, however, I didn’t inflate my budget. $75 was my limit for accommodations, transportation from the airport, all food, and all activities.

Antigua is Guatemala’s top tourist draw. Famous for its language schools, its new age aura, and its nightlife, Antigua is a major tourist center, and it is undeniably cute. The town is a very pleasant place to loll about, with its particular hybrid of colonial, expat, new age, and contemporary Guatemalan influences, though it’s also easy for more action-oriented travelers to fill days here visiting the town’s churches, museums, and convents.

Antigua is also known as a jumping-off point for adventure activities, especially volcano climbing. One of these excursions would have made for a perfect second day’s activity.



Antigua is chock-full of visit-worthy spots. Some essential stops that also happen to be free include the Church of San Francisco, the Santa Catarina Arch, La Merced Church, and Antigua’s central park.

The Church of San Francisco dates back to the 16th century, though it has been rebuilt many times. A service was underway when I visited. The Arco de Santa Catarina is probably the most iconic sight in all of Antigua. It’s an arch across 5 Avenida North, one of the town’s busiest blocks. Its golden yellow hue is matched by the exterior of La Merced church one block away.

La Merced itself boasts a beautifully ornate stucco exterior of golden yellow and snaking white symmetrical vines that look from a distance like icing on a big yellow cake. Next to La Merced is a fountain which can be visited for 5 quetzales (65 cents.) The fountain was not running during my visit; apparently this is the normal state of affairs. Rounding out the town’s top free sights is Antigua’s Parque Central, located at the nerve center of Antigua. The fountain in the center of the park dates to the 18th century.Also not to be missed are a number of sights that have very reasonable admission costs. There is the Museo de Arte Colonial, which includes paintings, largely religious, of the colonial era. The collection is frankly a bit thin, though it is certainly of interest. Admission is 50 quetzales, or about $6.55.

There is a worthwhile exhibit on colonial religious life in the small museum area of the Capuchinas Convent, though the real treat here is the convent’s rambling compound. It features a glorious patio around a fountain and a still, echoey cellar. This was probably my favorite place in Antigua. Admission is 40 quetzales, or $5.25.

Also absolutely worth a visit are the ruins behind San Jose Cathedral, just off the Parque Central. Admission is 3 quetzales, or just under 40 cents. These ruins date from the late 18th century. There are underground storage spaces and at least one quaint and very popular underground chapel.

Eating and sleeping, of course, occupied the lion’s share of my remaining costs.

I had a delicious breakfast of eggs and beans at Fernando’s Kaffee, a lunchtime sandwich at Doña Maria Xicotencatl, and a chicken dinner–no shame!– at Pollo Campero, the enormous Guatemalan fried chicken chain restaurant. Pollo Campero has taken off across Central America and beyond. Table service sets the experience apart from US fast food chains.

At Doña Maria Gordillo Dulces Típicos, a famous traditional candy shop, I obtained a solid shot of sugar in the form of a delicious little dulce de leche puck for 5 quetzales, or about 65 cents.

Here’s my grub costs breakdown: Breakfast came to 34 quetzales ($4.40). Lunch was the most expensive meal at 46 quetzales ($6). Dinner was mine for 40 quetzales ($5.25). Three meals plus my caramel delight totaled $16.30.

My head hit the pillow at Hotel Casa Cristina, a cute guesthouse close to La Merced, where I paid $27 for a small, simple, and attractive room. Casa Cristina is a budget traveler’s dream spot–cheap, friendly, super clean, and without question a good value. Single rooms on the first floor at Casa Cristina begin at an even more affordable $22 per night in high season. There are cheaper places to bed down in Antigua, but I wanted charm and personable proprietors. I found both at Casa Cristina.

So how did I do in respect to my budget? I miscalculated slightly and ended up spending $76 on my action-packed day, once the shuttle from the airport was added into the total. Still, I came awfully close to spending under $75 even with a compressed schedule and the $20 cost of the shuttle from the airport into Antigua.

For anyone wanting to stay in Antigua for longer than a weekend, these costs should flatten out quickly. Those days that don’t require a shuttle to and from the airport, for example, will be much less expensive, and days spent visiting churches and other sights that don’t charge admission could easily translate into expenditures as low as $40 per day, assuming a baseline of $22 for accommodations and around $15 for food.

Hungry for more budget travel ideas? Be sure to check out Gadling’s budget travel archive.