Five hot weekend travel media stories

by Alex Robertson Textor on

In today’s round-up of the weekend’s newspaper media travel stories: delicious pork, among other edibles, in the French Basque Country; American summer road trips; the Italian border city of Ventimiglia; biking along the Danube; and a guide to the world’s waterfalls. These five stories inspire fantasies of several types, and hit on less popular spots (like the French Basque Country and Ventimiglia) as well as some of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, including Niagara Falls.

1. In the Guardian, Andy Pietrasik goes on a fishing trip in Basque France and gets seriously sidetracked by small-scale local culinary specialties.

2. Also in the Guardian, Jamie Jensen and Max Grinnell offer seven road trip itineraries across the United States. These include a Lake Superior North Shore drive and Highway 61 from Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

3. In the Globe and Mail, Shawna Wagman explores the Italian city of Ventimiglia, which she hilariously refers to as “the Windsor-Detroit corridor of the Riviera.” Wagman is especially taken by Ventimiglia’s Friday open-air market.

4. In South Africa’s Sunday Times, Marilynn Berrington narrates her bike journey with Rad & Reisen from Passau to Vienna.

5. In the Independent, Harriet O’Brien provides a snappy guide to some of the world’s best known waterfalls.

(Image: Flickr/Alberto Mari)

Exciting Repositioning Cruises for the Fall

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Repositioning cruises are the leftovers of cruising. When cruise ships need to move from one port to another at seasonal cusps, they take less conventional itineraries to get from one home port to another. Repositioning cruises can often be booked for less than more conventional cruises on a per-night basis.

Repositioning cruises are also, somewhat ironically, a good option for independent (even round-the-world) travelers. A well-priced repositioning cruise can deliver travelers from one continent to another, sometimes for not much more than an airline ticket, and also permit visits (however short) to many ports in-between. While RTW travelers seldom look to repositioning cruises for inspiration, they should.

One of the more exciting repositioning cruises on the schedule this fall is Holland America’s 43-day Vancouver-Sydney crossing on the Volendam, which will take in Seattle, four ports in Hawaii, American Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, several ports in New Zealand, and several ports in Australia. It leaves September 22. The least expensive stateroom on offer comes to $3899 per person.

Holland America is also selling the above cruise with a termination in Auckland (29 days in total) for $2399.

For less ambitious prospective repositioning cruisers, Cruise Critic has published a useful list of some of the more intriguing shorter repositioning itineraries for the fall: 17 nights between Copenhagen and New York on Costa, leaving September 4; 18 nights between Vancouver and Fort Lauderdale on Holland America, leaving September 25; and 16 nights between Rome and Rio de Janeiro on Princess, leaving December 4.

(Image: Flickr/pmarkham)

Top Caribbean bolthole to offer iPads to guests

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Lighthouse Bay Resort, an exquisite Barbuda resort recently tipped by Vanity Fair’s George Wayne as an appropriately majestic honeymoon location for Prince William and Kate Middleton, already cocoons its guests in utter bliss.

It offers isolation along a miles-long stretch of insanely stunning beach; a skilled chef who produces wonderfully personalized meals; an appealing list of activities, all gently on offer; and free long-distance telephone and use of laptops-and, as of this coming week, use of iPads on the property.

In stocking its rooms with iPads, Lighthouse Bay will advance a luxury hotel micro-trend. Back in April, Gridskipper noted that several hotels had begun to incorporate the iPad tablet into their amenity tallies. One of the hotels mentioned in that round-up, Rhode Island’s Ocean House, at the time planned to offer iPads as a basic amenity for guests; the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Berkeley in London (the latter reported in Gadling) both provide iPad in selected suites.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s Ale House Inn ups the ante by providing iPads to guests in all its “Deluxe” rooms. By providing four iPads for its nine suites, Lighthouse Bay provides similarly broad guest access to iPads. Next season, Lighthouse Bay plans to roll out iPads in all of its nine suites.

The iPad is still very new and it’s unclear how broad its adoption will be. But if this micro-trend continues and luxury hotels will soon be providing the magic tablet for guests in greater numbers, the iPad may progress from amenity to utility fairly quickly.

Remembering the magic of domestic travel

by Mike Barish on

Sometime during last week’s trip to Yellowstone National Park, it hit me. It was a simple realization but also one of those kicks in the ass that only a place as massive and magical as Yellowstone can give you. With rolling hills and snow-capped peaks lining the horizon and bison mingling with antelope on either side of the road, I remembered just how diverse, majestic and wonderful the United States really is. After spending the last six years focusing extensively on international travel, I realized that the stigma that we often attach to domestic travel is nothing more than snobbery. That stigma often keeps people from exploring the vast beauty that awaits in our own backyard.

Many travelers take great pride in being able to announce the exact number of nations and territories that they have visited without a moment of thought. These passport stamp collectors and country counters often exude a special kind of pretentiousness that is meant to intimidate lesser-traveled individuals. These are the people who turn travel into a contest. These are the people who insist on engaging in the traveler versus tourist debates, mock of cruises and further other nonsense arguments that attach judgment to travel. These are the people who ignore domestic travel.

This is not to say that we should all eschew international travel. I am as guilty as anyone of ignoring domestic travel to explore the world. I do not regret those trips and learned a tremendous amount about the world and myself by leaving the friendly confines of the United States. However, I have come to realize that there’s a balance that can be struck between setting off to far away lands and introducing yourself to your own country. There’s as much to see from Anchorage to Miami as there is from Reykjavik to Ushuaia.

The sheer magnitude of the United States means that its landscapes run the gamut from mountains to prairies to pristine beaches. We have major cities and small towns, industrial centers and sprawling farms and created the concept of national parks. It’s those national parks that provided me with this epiphany. An epiphany that so many Americans had long before I did. As I spoke with strangers in Yellowstone and heard their stories of driving from California, the Dakotas and even Florida, I was embarrassed that I had neglected the wonders of domestic travel for so long.

While I may be late to the party, I found that I was welcomed with open arms. Unlike the country counters, the people who are driving around America exploring our national parks and enjoying the diversity of our massive nation seemed genuinely interested about exchanging stories rather than boasting. They offered tips, shared memories and displayed none of the arrogance of the people who ceaselessly find reason to mention how often they need to order more pages for their passports.

There’s room for domestic and international travel in all of our lives. We can mix excursions to Bali in with road trips through Texas. There’s a great big world out there, but we also have a massive backyard. You can safari in Wyoming. You can hike through a rainforest in the Pacific Northwest. We have deserts and Great Lakes. We have ethnic enclaves and regional cuisines.

Let the passport stamp collectors pass judgment. I’ll be in the backyard.

5 reasons why you should try a Bed & Breakfast

by Darren Murph on

We’ll just come right out and say it: far too many travelers and vacationers give far too little thought to where they’re staying. Maybe we’ve just been trained to assume a nondescript hotel is the only option when it comes to spending a night away from home, but whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, things get a lot more interesting when you deviate from the norm. Not that we’ve any particular issues with hotels — in fact, we’re downright in love with some of them — but if you’ve never given consideration to a bed & breakfast, you should. Immediately. If you’re the type who prefers to get more ingrained in the culture of wherever you’re staying, personal service, homemade breakfasts and travel tips from locals who know the ins and outs of wherever you are, a B&B may be perfect for you and yours. Join us past the break as we seek to show you what you’ve been missing out on.
Cultural beauty

Okay, so maybe it’s more like culture and beauty, but either way, you get a good helping of both when you select a Bed & Breakfast. Way more than at your average hotel, that’s for sure. In our experience, most B&Bs are somewhat off of the beaten path, which means you’ll be surrounded by fewer stoplights, automobile horns and stray Segways. All the while, you’ll likely be surrounded by more natural beauty, trees, streams, etc. We recently had a chance to stay at the magnificent Hisega Lodge in South Dakota, and while it was only ten minutes or so from Rapid City, it was completely enveloped in the Black Hills, sat next to a babbling brook and miles away from our nearest care in the world. Our stay at the Arrowhead Head in Durham, North Carolina has a similar story; it’s just minutes from the rigors of town, but once you’re on the property, you’re whisked away into a world that knows only rose gardens, tree-hung swings and private walking paths through the forest. There’s just something special about residing in a place that you’d visit anyway just to see the surrounding beauty, and the vast majority of B&Bs offer this very perk.

Personal service and expert tips

If you’re lucky, your local corporate hotel chain will have a bookshelf stacked with pamphlets about local attractions, which you’re free to take and investigate yourself with all that free time you’ve surely got. Some hotels have a staff that’s willing and able to help you plan a day or three worth of activities in the local area, but that’s definitely the exception rather than the rule. Hotels are designed to run as well-oiled machines, and you asking for half a hour of someone’s help to book activities isn’t part of said plan. A B&B, however, is there to do exactly that — cater to your every curiosity, and to get you headed in the right direction once you finish up a hearty breakfast. Most B&Bs and inns are owned by a couple (plus a few extra helpers if necessary) who genuinely love their guests; they love the company, the love to see others traveling, and they obviously love whatever part of the country that they’ve chosen to set up shop. At a B&B, you aren’t apt to feel as if you’re a nuisance for asking about awesome Italian eateries, the best horseback riding tour in town or the best ice cream shop within a half-hour’s drive. Oftentimes, these suggestions from seasoned locals can turn you onto things you would’ve never found on your own, and hey, who can say no to service with a smile?

Fellowship

Argue all you want, but hotels are lonely. Even if you’re there with a raft of kids, no other guests go out of their way to mingle with whomever else is staying during the same time. Ever noticed that? At a B&B, fellowship amongst the guests isn’t just encouraged, it almost comes naturally. Most venues have all of their guests down at around the same time for breakfast, and for budding extroverts (or the outgoing among us), the setup is primed for enjoyment. Meeting someone from Asia enjoying America for the first time, seeing a honeymooning couple from Barrow, Alaska and toasting coffee mugs with a foursome of newly graduated college kids from NC State? It’s all possible at a B&B, and even if you don’t make a lifelong pal, chances are you won’t soon forget the shared travel stories from those who have ended up in the same inn at the same time as you. When’s the last time you met Mr. Interesting at the Hotel John Doe down by the airport?

Exquisite breakfasts

Speaking of joining the group for a morning meal, we should probably mention just how important breakfasts are to bed & breakfast facilities. As you may expect, it’s a pretty vital part of the experience, and every owner we’ve ever encountered takes it very seriously. To say that B&B meals are likely to be some of the best you get on the road is a severe understatement; during a stay at the charming Rose Cottage B&B in Portland, Oregon, we were treated to a four-course breakfast that was prepared by hand in front of our eyes by one of the most spunky grandmothers we’d ever seen. Every bite was better than the last, and a year later, I’m still talking about it. To boot, getting the opportunity to converse with the B&B owner as they serve you is a truly rewarding and enriching experience, particularly for curious travelers who can never hear enough tales. Seriously — those gratis cereal and fruit buffets at Holiday Inn Express, and particularly those $30 room service pancakes, can’t hold a candle to the grub shown above.

B&Bs represent a fantastic value

It’s a common misconception that a lodging venue that provides personal service, a homemade breakfast, a relaxing atmosphere and more surrounding beauty than most hotels could dream of providing is markedly more expensive than the more traditional options. Fact is, most folks don’t even do the research and compare the prices. In Portland, Oregon our B&B stay was just over $150 (including tax) per night; the room was comparatively huge, the breakfast would’ve cost at least $40 – $50 if sourced from an upscale restaurant, and the fellowship / relaxing atmosphere was simply priceless. Try finding a decent hotel in the Portland area for less, with a comparable level of service, room amenities and breakfast. Chances are, 4- and 5-star hotels will cost you just as much as a stellar B&B, and oftentimes much, much more. In markets saturated with hotel options, the delta may be greater, but many owners are willing to work with you on pricing — particularly if you inquire about rates during the off season. Still, if you’re looking to splurge on a stay, there’s no better way to do than at a B&B; in our many experiences, it has always been money well spent.

[Images provided by Dana Jo Photography]