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Prague's Kafka Intl Airport Named "Most Alienating" by Biz Week; Flyers Check in But Never Check Out

The TV arm of the satirical weekly publication (and website) sums up with humor what many passengers feel like when they arrive at major airports  New York's John F. Kennedy's airport comes to mind, in fact.

Take a look and have a laugh!

Paul Theroux On Africa: An Ex-Peace Corps Volunteer On Revisiting Africa

One of my favorite travel writers and novelists is Paul Theroux, a friend with whom I've traveled and whom I've interviewed several times in different venues.  Today I came across this terrific Q&A with Theroux posted on a web site dedicated to former Peace Corps volunteers who write.  And with dozens of books to his credit, Theroux, who served in the Peace Corps in Malawi, certainly does write. 

Theroux has stirred up his share of controversy on the subject of Africa, the role of international aid organizations there, and the commitment of Africans themselves to reform.  But his observations in this interview, formed from not only by his past but a solo trip he took through Africa for his book Dark Star Safari, are worth the read.  

In addition to his work as a great chronicler of travel (The Great Railway Bazaar, published in 1975 made him famous), Theroux is an accomplished novelist.  The Mosquito Coast is familiar to moviegoers, but my favorite is My Secret History, published in 21 years ago and still instructive for middle-aged men who are beginning to examine their lives closely. 

The Funniest Holiday Card of 2009? iPhone Apps For Parents With Young Kids!

My Minnesota-born friend, Doug Lansky, lives with his wife, Signe, and three young children in Stockholm, Sweden, where he's a widely-published author and travel journalist--he's the guy behind the "Signspotting" feature you may find in your local paper once a week.  For years, he's been distributing the funniest signs that mangle English that travelers send him from points around the world, and his third edition of the book, Signspotting III, was published this summer.

For Christmas this week, the Lansky family's holiday card (from Doug, his wife and their three children, Belieze, Sienna, and India) is a parody of those ubiquitous iPhone magazine ads, the ones that tout popular apps.  Except Doug and his wife played off the household havoc three kids can create by imagining some useful apps such as iScream: "Never thought you'd turn into a yeller, did you?  Keep calm and let this app amplify everything you say by 100X-, and it comes with safety earphones for user."

Or there's the Who Started It? app: "India did it. No, it was Belize's fault.  Sienna started it.  On one hand, who the f---- cares.  On the other, you need to be fair and make sure you're lecturing the right kid. Finally, a simple lie detector app that can help."

Then there's the Stop Hitting Your Sister app that allows you with the touch of a button to have your iTouch or iPhone repeat that question over and over while you pursue more leisurely and pleasant activities.

I thought his parody was so clever, I asked Doug for permission to reproduce it here.  He agreed, and while I  admit having young children around the house really helps make a holiday a great holiday, there isn't a parent among us who, every once in a while, wouldn't long for some of the handy apps the Lanskys imagined in this, their Christmas plea to Stephen Jobs and his programmers. 

Watch Dusk Fall on Hong Kong's Skyline by Dragging Your Cursor Over This Photo

The talent of programmers never ceases to amaze me.

Here's a photo of Hong Kong's incredible skyline.  You can watch as night comes to the city and the lights in the skyscrapers emerge.

Entirely too cool!

Subway Chic: NYC Offers Collectible Subway Memorabilia For Sale

Want to hang or display a bit of the Big Apple's transit history on your wall?

New York City is selling off transit station signs, fare boxes, vintage tokens, lighting fixtures, and even entire subway doors ($175 for a set) to the public, a most interesting way to make some money by selling  old stuff that's being replaced by new stuff. 

You can pick up a framed subway map for $150 while black-and-white terminal signs go for $175.  Care to do a bit of pole dancing? Gleaming silver stanchion poles go for a bargain $25 each. Really hard subway seats are available for $500, and vintage tokens sell for between $2 and $5 each. 

There's a processing fee of $50 (waived if you buy more than $300 worth of items) plus shipping, handling, and insurance are extra.  Buy $1,000 worth of stuff and receive a $1,000 discount.  Because New Yorkers know how to bargain.  Details here or call Vivian Ng at 646-252-4530.

From This Sunday's NYT . . . Helpful Account of iPhone Travel Apps

The iPhone is a marvelous device, though phones with Android platforms are starting to catch up with the useful applications iPhone has been able to offer for a couple of years now.

I think travel apps are still in their infancy, though Google does a good job of mapping routes and reporting on real-time traffic situations in large cities. 

Writing in this Sunday's New York Times, Michelle Higgins offers a review of more than a dozen apps that travelers might find useful. 

I'm surprised she didn't add Layar, which will become increasingly more important as users are able to add more and more things to the program that lets you explore the immediate neighborhood you're in.  You can "layer" Wikipedia and learn about points of interest that might be a block away from where you're standing.  Or if you're curious about what folks in the neighborhood are tweeting about, just layer Twitter over it and click on the little balloons floating in front of you.  This should be a reminder that anything you Tweet can be read this way--I've been privy to juicy (if brief) details of someone's previous night's date as well as helpful information on local restaurants.  

Southwest Flight Attendant As Rapper Delivers Standard Safety Announcement

I write on this, the busiest travel day of the year when it comes to commercial flying. 

If there's anything that will help get you through the airport and flying on this Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it's a sense of humor.  And maybe you'll be lucky enough to be on a Southwest flight with David Holmes, a flight attendant who sometimes delivers the obligatory, you've-heard-it-a-hundred-times, pre-flight safety announcement as a short rap song.

In an interview with National Geographic Traveler, LasVegas-based Holmes said his is "an evolving performance" that began when he was training as a flight attendant and delivered the standard announcement for his flight attendant's graduation class.  Realizing many passengers tuned out the routine instructions, he thought he'd try it on board a real flight, and a Southwest flight attendant supervisor happened to be on board.

"Nice job," she said, and he's been rapping off and on ever since.

A passenger caught his performance with a cell phone and told him she intended to post it on YouTube.  So far, says Holmes, no recording contract has come his way.  But 80,000 folks have caught him on YouTube, and Holmes continues the Southwest tradition of letting its employees make flying a bit more fun.

 

British Airways/Chase VISA Card: 100,000 Miles Sign-Up Bonus

Sign up for most credit cards linked to an airline's frequent flyer program, and you'll usually receive 25,000 bonus miles.  Sometimes, for a premium card such as Delta's American Express "premium" card (that comes with a hefty $450 annual fee), you can receive more; I applied for the Delta card because it delivered 20,000 bonus miles plus 20,000 miles that were counted as elite-qualifying miles.

But Chase and British Airways are offering, apparently for a limited time, a VISA card with a $75 annual fee that can put 100,000 miles into your British Airways frequent-flyer account.  Sign up for the card and receive 50,000 miles when you first use it.  Then, if you spend $2,000 in the first three months of having the card, you receive another 50,000 miles.  

That's a VERY impressive offer if you're working British Airways' frequent flyer program.  You'll also receive $50 off any BA ticket you purchase by year's end at a special web page.  And 2.5 points for every dollar you spend on BA tickets using the card plus 1.25 points per dollar spent on other purchases.  You'll also receive a free companion ticket if you spend $30,000 on the card the first year you carry it.  While this may be difficult for most individuals, businesses might be able to meet that threshold easily. 

And remember that BA allows households to pool their miles.  So if two of you apply for the card (cost: $150) and each spend $2,000 in three months, you'll collect a whopping 200,000 miles. Considering the fact British Airways has a stingier point-collection scheme (as the Brits would word it) than most other airlines (mileage earned is dependent on category of ticket purchased, and the cheapest tickets earn precious few miles), this is an excellent offer. 

At Four Seasons Hotel in DC, You Can't Fold Your Newspaper At Breakfast

Well, you may not be able to fold your morning paper, but the hotel is offering guests at breakfast in its restaurant something even better and more high tech.

Each guest at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC, receives a Kindle with which they can access newspapers from around the globe. So if you're visiting from Chicago, and you want to read every word in your hometown newspaper about the Bears or Bulls, the Kindle can deliver the paper right next to your orange juice.

And if there's some foreign paper that requires a fee for you to access it, the hotel will cover the cost.

As an aside, I will tell you that as a former newspaper guy (I was an investigative reporter and columnist at The Washington Post for 13 years out of college), I and my friends who are also in the print business have been lamenting for years now the decline in newspapers.  Both from a financial perspective as well as from the viewpoint of quality. With the mass migration of classified ads and other advertising (remember those big ads airlines used to run in major and not-so-major newspaper?) to the Internet, newspapers have had to lay off reporters, editors, and photographers.

I sometimes wonder what they're teaching journalism students at colleges these days, since it appeared the demise of the newspaper is drawing near.  But it's technology that is giving me some hope.  After all, if someday we all receive our news via reading devices like the Kindle, that frees news-gathering organizations from having to invest in expensive paper, trucks, and printing presses.  And the Kindle and new, competing devices are conditioning Americans to pay for subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.  At prices much cheaper than having a physical product delivered to your door each day.

And my buddy, Robert Stephens, who founded Geek Squad and sold to Best Buy, tells me, we're not far from a color Kindle and all kinds of additional, even more snazzy devices hitting the market.  We're not far from having Kindle-like devices that will be able to be rolled up just like a New York Post under your arm in a Manhattan subway.

So maybe good journalism will survive after all.  Much as I like blogs (and I'm writing one, obviously), I fear the loss of news-gathering organizations that have the time and money to do investigative reporting while attempting to be unbiased.  New technology that has so affected traditional newspaper and magazines (have you seen how thin Time and Newsweek are these days?) may wind up saving journalism.

United Drops Last-Minute Award Ticket Booking Fee

Few things airlines do in the fee department gall me more than charging $50 or $75 because I request an award ticket less than three weeks before I want to fly.  It costs an airline nothing more to book an award ticket for four days from now than it does for four weeks from now.

Yesterday, United Airlines became the first major airline to eliminate that fee. 

And so it's time to give a thumbs up to United while keeping our other fingers crossed that United's rivals can see their way clear to doing the same.  In a time when airlines(well, 'cept for Southwest) are slapping fees on everything they can, it's nice to see the good guys win.  After all, those award tickets were supposed to be free, not "free except for a $75 booking fee."

Gianni Versace's South Beach Mansion Takes Visitors 'til Sept. 30

Normally you have to peer through an iron gate to see where the late fashion designer Gianni Versace used to party in South Beach.  His mansion with its frescoes and lavish interior design right on Ocean Drive in the heart of the Art Deco neighborhood has never been open to the public.

Until now.

Through Sept. 30, you can tour the inside of the mansion courtesy of its owner, Peter Loftin.  (Versace, of course, was shot to death at the front gate of the home he called Casa Casuarina in 1997.)  Admission is $50 and tours are daily.  Details: 305-672-6604.

Got a Sec? Take a Stroll Down Commercial Aviation's Memory Lane

If you're old enough to remember TWA, the original Pan Am, BOAC, Eastern, and a cavalcade of other legendary legends--along with the mini-skirts worn by PSA flight attendants--you'll enjoy this snappy slide show set to Andreas Bocelli's version of "Time To Say Goodbye."

Just click here. 

The Survivor In the NYC-London, Low-Fare, Biz-Class Catgegory

Now that both MaxJet and Eos--two pioneers in the low-fare, all-business-class airline category—have shut down, how can anyone on a budget avoid flying coach between New York and London?

Try the last discount, all-business-class airline in town: Silverjet. The airline operates two flights daily between Newark airport and London’s Luton airport, flying Boeing 767s that are configured so there are no middle seats. And all seats are six-feet, three-inch, lie-flat seats. Required check in time? Only 30 minutes before a flight. Silverjet offers its passengers access to a private airport lounge with showers, Champagne breakfasts and wi-fi. In-flight meals are designed by the venerable London restaurant, Le Caprice.

Round-trip fares between Newark and London’s Luton airport begin around $2,700 including all taxes and a fee to offset carbon emissions. That’s about half what the major competition charges for a round-trip, business class ticket. The airline’s web site will quote a fare on the day you want to travel but tells you if there’s a day before or after that might offer a savings. Oh, and each aircraft has a women’s-only lavatory.

Hooray! Heathrow Drops One-Carry-On-Bag-Only Rule Jan. 7

Frequent travelers have been trying to avoid British airports for months now, ever since a one-carry-on-bag rule was promulgated.  And infrequent travelers have stammered in frustration when they reached the airport with a carry on bag and large purse and were told one of those items had to be checked or both combined into one bag. 

As of Jan. 7th, that rule is dropped at Heathrow and other airports, so the UK joins the rest of the world in permitting two bags.  However, and this is a big "however," two other London airports, Gatwick and Luton, are still suffering under the one-bag rule until authorities decide its security system is up to snuff and able to handle two carry-on bags.  Be sure you know what airport you're flying into and out of.  Even if you're simply switching flights, the one-bag rule still applies at Gatwick and Luton.

Why Nordstrom Service is Legendary; Thanks, Steve!

Recently, while hurrying to pack for a trip out of town to give a speech, I tried on two of my dress shirts and found that somehow the collars had shrunk while hanging in the closet.

Which is to say, my neck grew larger.

What to do?

I had to attend a black tie event, but I didn’t have time to pick up a shirt—my flight overseas was due to depart in three hours. And I didn’t want to pay European prices for a new shirt—especially given the muscular euro.

On a hunch, I called the Nordstrom store at the Mall of America, just about four miles from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport where I was to catch my flight. 

Asked for the men’s department.

Got a guy named Steve Slivken.

“Steve,” I said, “I’m a big fan of Nordstrom’s. I know how famous Nordstrom’s is when it comes to service, but tonight I’m really going to put Nordstrom to the test.”

“If it can be done,” he replied without missing a beat, “I’m your man.”

And, sure enough, Mr. Slivken was my man. About 90 minutes later, as I pulled up to the departure level around 8 p.m. at the airport, there he was standing by his car at Door Number Four, a men’s dress shirt in my size at the ready, my credit card already charged (at half what a similar shirt would have cost me in Monaco).

If you’re ever in the Mall of America and need some men’s clothing, ask for Steve Slivken. If it can be done, he’s your man.

Four Minutes of Fun: Lufthansa Tests Your Knowledge With a Geography Quiz

Lufthansa has posted a fun little quiz that tests your knowledge of European geography.  You're a pilot who has to land his or her aircraft in the right city.  The name of your destination is flashed on the screen, and you have five seconds to click your cursor over its location on a map of Europe.  In the first round, the countries on the map are identified by name; in the last rounds, there are just borders indicated, and you have to place the city as best you can.

You're told immediately how many miles off course you are with each selection, and your total points are based on how close you come to the target city.  You can then compare your final score with others who have performed the exercise to see if you're a geographical genius or if you're merely a lost pilot in the skies.

Miles For Savings: Instead Of Spending, Save for That Next Free Ticket; Capital One Announces Innovative Money Market Option

Here's a new concept in the never-ending chase for more miles, points, and credits that so many of us  collect in pursuit of free travel: Earn reward miles for saving money rather than spending it.  And then cash in those miles for airline tickets without annoying blackout dates or other restrictions.

That's the premise of a new program just unveiled by Capital One, who you may know best as the credit card company with the clever television ads starring David Spade as the guy who says "no" a dozen  different ways when folks call to redeem award points.  (The point, of course, is that most companies have all kinds of fine print and blackout dates on their rewards while Capital One's "no hassle" card doesn't.)

Turns out Capital One isn't just a credit card company--it's also a bank.  And to encourage customers to begin a money-market account--which is really just a savings account that allows you to write checks--the new Capital One Rewards Money Market account pays an annual interest rate of 4.66% while also giving you one mile for every $20 you keep on deposit each month.  While you can open an account with as little as $1, if you can make your first deposit $500 or more, you'll receive a 2,500-mile bonus to start.

Simply fill out a savings account application on line, and you're in the program.  You can withdraw your money via online transfers, checks, wire transfers and via ATMs.  Award levels begin at 5,000 miles, but the number of miles you need to cash in for travel depends on the retail cost of the itinerary you choose.  Cash in 12,500 miles for tickets valued up to $150; 25,000 miles buys you a ticket up to $350 in value; 50,000 miles earns a ticket worth up to $600.  For tickets that cost more than $600, multiply the price of the ticket by 100 to determine how many miles you have to cash in.  (So an $800 ticket would require redemption of 80,000 miles.)

How many miles can you earn?

It depends on how much money you keep on deposit and for how long.  Park $10,000 in a money-market account for a year and you'll earn $466 in interest (based an an annual percentage rate of 4.66%) as well as 8,653 miles.  Save $100,000 and you'll pocket $4,375 in interest and collect 86,530 miles at the end of a year.  You may redeem awards anytime, and there are no blackout dates or other nagging rules that so often trip us up when we try to cash in miles directly with airlines. 

Footnote: You can cash in the miles you earn on your money market account for merchandise, gift cards, charity and other awards than miles.  Oh, and your miles never expire.

The UK Goes Smoke Free Next Month; Will Portable Ashtrays Fly?

I never thought Italy would ban smoking in restaurants, but it did.  Then I figured most Italians would flaunt the rules.  However, a recent stay in Rome and the Amalfi Coast proved me wrong, I'm happy to say--Italian diners are doing their smoking outside only.

Now, on July 1, smoking in English pubs, restaurants, stores, and workplaces will be banned.  In fact, the only indoor place where people in the United Kingdom will be able to smoke will be their homes and cars.  Given that 25 per cent of Britons smoke, the new ban will have a big impact. 

Footnote: Most central downtown London streets don't have trash cans--part of an effort to eliminate places for terrorist to stash explosives--so anti-smoking advertisements will urge smokers to carry portable ashtrays to minimize cigarette butts on streets.  It'll be interesting to see how well that idea goes over.

'Smart Money' Weighs In With Final Word On Battery Life

Thanks to the several readers who wrote to confirm that a cell phone, PDA, or laptop that's constantly searching for a signal is a device whose battery will drain faster than otherwise. 

I just came across an authoritative overview on how to coax a longer battery life out of, among other devices, wireless gadgets.  The article is titled "Out of Juice," and it was published in Smart Money magazine's March 2007 issue.  Click on the link in the previous sentence and you may read the article and check out the handy sidebar that accompanies it that rates the best and worst laptop, MP3 player, smart phone and PDA, as well as digital cameras and camcorders when it comes to battery life.

In the case of one laptop, an Acer TravelMate 8200, the company claims it has a battery life of 3.5 hours, but even under the least demanding conditions, Smart Money could only operate the computer for two hours and 20 minutes without it shutting down. 

Best MP3 player when it comes to battery life?  Creative Zen Vision: M, according to the magazine.

Letter from Ocean Drive: You May Ask, 'What? Is That All There Is?' But Include Lots of Art Deco In Your Trip, And It's Worth the Flight

A Sunday afternoon stroll not long ago down South Beach’s iconic Ocean Drive reminded me of Mark Twain’s crack, “If it’s tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?”

Not that I should joke about shootings along the eight or nine mostly commercial blocks of Ocean Drive--there have been too many incidents of violence late at night, when alcohol-fueled fights at the outdoor bars have gotten ugly.  And, of course, ten years ago fashion designer Gianni Versace was gunned down on the doorstep of his mansion on Ocean Drive, Casa Causarina.

But my point is this: If you remember the Ocean Drive of 12 or 13 years ago, when it was something of an outdoor catwalk for buff male models sans shirts and pouty, curvy women in impossibly tiny bikinis, well, that was yesterday.

And yesterday’s gone.

Today on Ocean Drive, you’re more likely to find Mr. and Mrs. Front Porch America tying on the feedbag at TGI Fridays (yes!) or visitors looking for a place to park so then can lift suitcases out of their cars--bellman are almost nonexistent at Ocean Drive hotels.  That lack of service is a great introduction to the guest experience at many of those hostelries, where the main attribute is their great, neon signs at night, not their shopworn guestrooms with barely enough space for a fat guy and a laptop.  (Which is not why I inserted my shot of The Clifton here--I just love that deco sign.) 

Listen, I know the tune: Nothing is ever the way it used to be.  Everything changes.  Stretches of the fabled French Riviera have all the charm (and summer traffic) of the condo-lined beachfront of an American beach town gone to hell.  Tour busses hold up traffic in July and August along Italy’s Amalfi Coast as they try to maneuver hairpin turns on its single coastal road.  Starbucks passes for the local café in dozens of countries around the world.  And there are Cartier, Tiffany and H&M stores just across the street from Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

But the myth of Ocean Drive lives thanks to television shows and glossy, oversized magazines such as, well, Ocean Drive, the thick bible of club life and double-truck ads for men’s watches the size of Big Ben, Italian sports cars, and high-rise condos whose computer-generated images always portray unaccompanied women lounging provocatively poolside.  (I’ve always believed sex sells, but are there really that many women available by Miami pools for men who can afford thin-walled condos with floor-to-ceiling windows and stainless-steel kitchens?)

I’ve watched the transformation of South Beach’s Art Deco district as an accidental tourist.  For five years, beginning 15 years ago with the first issue of Ocean Drive, I wrote a monthly Washington, DC, gossip column for the magazine and took every opportunity to visit the neighborhood when the weather in DC turned chilly.  I even co-hosted the pilot of a weekly lifestyle television show that Post-Newsweek Television proposed with a home base of South Beach.  The show, which never made it to the air, was titled, “Cool People, Hot Places.”  Or was it “Hot Places, Cool People”?

No matter--you get the idea.  Hipsters everywhere aspired to the South Beach life.

And many still do.  I called several days ahead of time to secure a reservation at Prime 112 for Sunday night but could only score a 5:30 table.  By Miami standards, 5:30 p.m. is considered brunch.

Prime 112 is the scenester steak house where valet parking is $15 on weekends (before the $5 tip to the valet), a side of Brussels sprouts costs $12, and a bottle of bubbly water adds $9.50 to your bill.  The lobsters started at four-and-a-half pounds Sunday night, at $25 a pound.  I like Prime 112 because the people-watching is first rate, and the food is very good in that over-the-top, American steakhouse kind of way.  As a dinner party pulled up to the valet parking just behind me in a sleek Maybach, I was well aware I was out of my league in my Grand Am from Avis.

It was a gorgeous, warm night, so my two business associates and I asked to be seated outside.  Prime 112 is located at the southern end of Ocean Drive, just a couple blocks around the corner from the legendary Joe’s Stone Crab, and life in these parts used to be much quieter than the street’s more northern blocks with their hotels and bars.

But the ‘hood is about to shift from second gear directly to fifth gear very soon.  A couple of low-rise, faded residential buildings across the street from Prime 112 are now empty and fenced off; a banner announces that a new development will soon replace them.  Prices for the new, 28 oceanfront condos begin at . . . six million dollars.

Oh, my. 

“All anyone can talk about in Miami is real estate,” said my friend Alex Gordon over lunch.  She’s in public relations, which is a good thing, as the real estate business in Miami is only limping along after several years of a buying frenzy.

And simply driving along the edge of downtown Miami from the airport to South Beach explains why: Too much product.  Glass towers of condos are everywhere, and cranes promise more to come.  But no longer do lines form before dawn on the day a new project’s sales office opens.  In fact, a developer who intended to convert the Royal Palm hotel--up Collins Avenue in the neighborhood of the Delano and The National--into interval home ownership recently defaulted on the mortgage.  Converting hotel rooms into suites that building owners can sell (and continue to rent out when not occupied) has been all the rage in Miami the last couple of years.

Today, that's so over.  One of Miami’s premier developers, Jorge Perez, CEO of Related Group, saw the sales of condo units drop so alarmingly between 2005 and 20006 that he’s now looking for other opportunities in Mexico and the country of his birth, Argentina.

But still the conversions and tear downs and building continues--beware the slick ads with the women in bikinis.  Alex says too much money goes into the glossy exteriors and stunning lobbies of marble and glass and sculptures and fountains, while the walls between units allow owners to listen to their neighbors’ breathing.   

Of course, few owners in the million-dollar-plus aeries live in Miami year around; the heat and the humidity during the summer is so oppressive that those who can afford it escape to the mountains of Colorado or south to Argentina or Chile to ski. 

I did walk across Ocean Drive after my lunch with Alex and was pleased to see the wide beach on the Atlantic Ocean was well populated.  There were more women sunbathing topless than I recall, but that same turquoise sea beckoned, and to turn around and look back on the pastel colors of the Art Deco buildings of Ocean Drive against an azure sky brought a feeling of pleasure. 

The celebs--the Hiltons and Trumps--still come to South Beach.  But they know which clubs are hot, and they're often paid to show up, the better to fuel the paparazzi photos that will lure paying customers to clubs where a private table the size of a waiter’s tray can cost $1,000 to rent for a night.  It’s the celeb set who gets the white suites at the Delano and, at least until recently, signed deals with developers to lend their names to new high-rise developments. 

But I don’t think it was just because I was in South Beach during spring break that I felt the place had grown uncomfortably less authentic.  Sure, there are still a couple of model agency offices along Ocean Drive.  But the News Café, where the early adaptors talked deals 24/7, is huge now, its tiny outdoor tables filled with folks who don’t look the least bit local.  Real business is done elsewhere now, and Ocean Drive is more a Disney World set than the historic neighborhood it is. Which is, of course, what happens when magazines and television shows and movies glorify few blocks.

Should you avoid Miami and South Beach?  No.  But don’t feel that you’re missing much except for bumper-to-bumper traffic if you stay at the lovely Four Seasons or Mandarin Oriental in Miami proper.
 
Stroll Ocean Drive early on a weekday morning when you’ll be able to admire the buildings without the crowds.  By all means spend half a day at my favorite design musuem in the world, the Wolfsonian on Washington Ave.  (But keep in mind it’s closed, oddly enough, on Wednesdays.)  For good deli, there’s still the durable LA-transplant, Jerry’s, on Collins Avenue.

Walk through the lobby of The National day or night and admire the impossibly long swimming pool lined with palms that suggests Humphrey Bogart might emerge at any moment in a white suit.  In the hotels around The National, there are lots of hard-to-get-into restaurants, such as Ago at The Shore Club, and the food is even edible in some.  But book early for Prime 112 and go for lunch or an early dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab to avoid the lines.

Top-drawer hotels such as the Ritz Carlton South Beach and The Setai succeed in creating an oasis of quiet and luxury even when South Beach is a pulsating, non-stop party scene, as it was two years ago on Memorial Day when my girlfriend and I unwittingly arrived during a hip-hop convention.

For Northerners in the winter, stepping off a plane and into the sunshine of Miami is a marvelous balm, an abrupt change of channels that sets everyone to wondering, “What would it be like if I lived here?” 

And there’s still just enough beautiful people, enough energy and, of course, enough beach to entertain.  But like the ill-timed downpour during January’s SuperBowl, sometimes the realities of paradise intrude--the drunk kids on Ocean Drive after midnight, the mediocre food and high-priced hotel rooms, the crowded sidewalks and assembly-line feel of some eateries. 

And like a planeload of gamblers on an early morning flight from Vegas--the city I think closest to Technicolor Miami in sex appeal and style--you’ll probably have no difficulty returning to your own life, even if there’s no beach outside your door. 

Here's An Idea: Marriott Financial Center Puts Desktop in Lobby; For Biz Travelers, It's An Easy Way To Print Out A Boarding Pass

Why are some of the most simple things often obvious?  If you're a frequent business traveler as I am, you may often find yourself at midnight typing on your laptop in your hotel room when you remember you ought to print out your boarding pass for the next day's flight.  Except you probably don't have a printer available at the moment.  And you don't want to go in search of the hotel's business center--even if it is open late. 

During a recent trip to New York City, I was delighted to stay at the Marriott Financial Center--just a block from Ground Zero.  The Marriott was used as a staging area for rescue workers following 9/11, but it's now renovated, and its nearly 500 rooms are nicely outfitted with Marriott's crisp, classy "Revue" bed linens.  In addition, there's a Roy's downstairs, and I don't mean a Roy Roger's.  (Although I do recall having a great Middle Eastern lunch at a Roy Roger's in the Cairo Marriott years ago, when young Cairene men and women attired in Western wear served platters of humus and falfallel .)  This Roy is Hawaiian fusion chef Roy Yamaguchi, and his outpost in Manhattan's financial district is a great retreat for dinner after a long day of work (or sightseeing) in New York City. 

But the detail that caught my eye at this Marriott was the computer terminal on a small desk in the  lobby.  A discrete sign invited guests to use it to print out boarding passes.  And I did--saving me a step at the airport and making me wonder: Why doesn't every business hotel in the world offer such a logical, helpful service?  And now that I think about it, why limit this to business hotels?  Leisure travelers, too, ought to have their boarding passes in hand before going to the airport. Thumbs up to the Marriott employee who came up with the idea.

They May Look Like Paintings, But These Are Actual Photos; Welcome to Trey Ratcliff's Stunning World of HDR Photography

The artwork below may look like a computer-generated graphic from a "Star Wars" movie, but it's actually a night shot of downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, made beautifully dramatic by the photographer, Trey Ratcliff, an Austin-based head of a video game company whose photographs have caught the eye of both art directors and fans of his young web site.  Ratcliff has married a love of travel with a keen interest in photography and already has an impressive gallery of shots from around the world.

He's a practitioner of HDR, or "high dynamic range" photography, a photo-enhancing technique that allows a photographer to oversaturate colors and manipulate lighting to create stunning digital photos.  Using a sophisticated single-lens reflex camera, Ratcliff takes several pictures of the same scene in rapid succession at different apertures, giving him a dark, light, and normal version of that scene.  Then, using a program called Adobe Lightroom, he groups his photos together and processes them with Photomatrix Pro.  Using Photoshop, he can adjust brightness, crop the photos, and fine-tune specific parts of a photograph.  He uploads his photos to Flickr.com, where he has thousands of fans, and posts many on his blog with the catchy name, stuckincustoms.com. 

Photographers are welcome to access his tutorial.  While Ratcliff uses a very expensive Nikon, he says almost any SLR camera now that sells in the $400+ range can capture the large amount of lighting data needed to create high resolution photos. 

I met Ratcliff last week for dessert in Brooklyn--he'd met my daughter the night before when she was buying rice pudding after her meditation class.  (I know that sounds a lot more like an LA experience than a NYC one, but there you go.)  Turns out Ratcliff runs a gaming company based in Austin, TX, as well as Malaysia, but nine months ago, he started experimenting with photography and HDR techniques.  Since then, his blog has been a big hit, receiving more than 250,000 visitors and 3 million page views in February.  Kodak and ad agencies looking for startling images for clients have used his pictures.  A couple of his photos just won a Smithsonian photo competition--look for two of them in a future issue of Smithsonian magazine. 

Meanwhile, here's one more of his shots--this one from Iceland.  And you'll find three more on the continuation of this post as well as a whole, new visual world at his web site.

From cathedrals to Dutch windmills . . . Ratcliff does not use the HDR technique on portraits of people, saying that faces do not lend themselves to such sharp changes in lighting.  I'm a fan not just because of his ability to use the HDR software, but because even without the manipulation of light, it's obvious he has an photographer's eye for composition and subjects.  Don't miss his portraits, as well.  All photos are posted here courtesy of Trey Ratcliff.  To see many, many more, check out www.stuckincustoms.com.

And, finally, here's Ratcliff's take on New York City's Times Square . . .

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Better-Designed Airport Bathrooms--And Idea Whose Time Is Now

A big thumbs up to the thinkers at the Raleigh-Durham airport who plan to redesign bathrooms in at least one terminal (that would be the C terminal, home to American, United Express and Air Canada) with bathrooms that acknowledge most travelers now travel with carry-on luggage.

Stalls will be wider and longer so you don't have to park your bags in the open area of the lavatory and hope no one takes them.  Tilted mirrors will be placed above the urinals so men can keep an eye on computer cases even as they're going about their business.  And restrooms will be brighter thanks to floor-to-ceiling translucent glass, allowing soft, natural light.  Construction will be completed next year.

Some of the best design follows function, but it's amazing how few airports are designed with the traveler in mind.  There are too few workstations in public areas.  Too few horizontal resting places where travelers can set things down while accessing an ATM , phone, or bathroom sink.  Charging stations for cell phones and PDAs are too few and far between.  And don't get me started about airports that charge a fee for Wi-Fi.  (My tip is, hang around outside an airline's members-only lounge, and you should be able to piggyback on the free Wi-Fi often offered inside.)

Other airports--please copy Raleigh-Durham's lead on this, won't you? 

Don't Get Sick On the Road! Here Are My Basic, Best Tips

As spring break season begins and families begin making plans for summer travel, don't forget to protect yourself when you hit the road.

My tips:

• Diarrhea is the traveler's most common malady.  Take medication with you to address that should you come down with it.
• If you already have health issues, know before you go how to deal with it in new places.  Know where to find medical assistance on the road.  Be sure you take your medication in your carry-on luggage.  Make sure all prescriptions are well marked.  A doctor's declaration stating the medication your on is a good idea, especially if you're traveling abroad.  It can help with customs.
• Wash your hands frequently.  And well.
• If you have a specific affliction, such as diabetes, know how to express your needs in the language of the country you're visiting.  Diabetes patients should visit a handy web site that will provide a doctor's declaration form, a phrase book with key words in different languages, and other important tips.
• Make sure you have medical evacuation insurance.  Your premium credit card will generally only provide cab fare to the nearest hospital.  Several companies, however, will provide a medically equipped private jet to pick you up anywhere in the world (if you're away from home) should you require hospitalization; you'll be flown to the hospital of your choice.  You can purchase a protection plan for an individual or family for as little as seven days or as long as a year.  My television crew, as well as I and my family, use MedjetAssist.com.  Mention the promotion code "MAXA" if you call MedjetAssist (800-5-ASSIST) and save $10 on an individual annual membership, $20 on a family annual membership.  You'll also find those savings built into the link to the company's web site as above. 

OK, So Now That You Know To Avoid That Hotel Ice Bucket . . .

Now that I've left you in mortal fear of that ice bucket in your hotel room, here are a couple of other interesting stats for the germaphobe traveler, of which I have a hunch there are many.

• A University of Virginia study wanted to learn if viruses could survive for more than four days on hotel room surfaces.  So researchers had 15 people with colds stay overnight in different hotel rooms.  Then they tested the rooms' surfaces . . . and found about one-third of the objects in the room were contaminated with rhinoviruses.  Cold viruses were found on about half of all door handles, light switches, TV remotes, phones and faucets.  Other cuprits: shower curtains, coffeemakers and alarm clocks. 
• From a report in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research last June comes news of another study.  Researchers gathered 1,061 surface samples and analyzed them from 1999 to 2003 looking for the presence of biomarkers including alpha-amylase (indicating mucus, saliva, sweat and urine), hemoglobin (blood marker), and urea (urine marker).  Playground equipment was the leading culprit of the places checked, testing postive for one or more of those markers in 44% of all cases.  In descending order, these other public places fared thusly: Bus armrests and rails (35%), public restroom surfaces (25%), shopping card handles (21%), chair armrests (21%), escalator handrails (19%), customer-shared pens (16%), vending machine buttons (14%), public phones (13%), and elevator buttons  (10%).

Checking into a hotel and nervous?  Bring along your sanitizing wipes.  And don't forget that remote control for the television.

Take a Breath: Puerto Rico Goes Smoke-Free (Mainly) Tomorrow

Not only don't US citizens need a passport to visit Puerto Rico, but a new, anti-smoking ban goes into affect tomorrow, making the destination even more attractive to visitors.  The ban isn't one of those annoying ones with much wriggle room, I'm happy to report.  It will prohibit smoking at all food establishments, cultural centers (museums and theaters), casinos, bars and nightclubs, shopping centers and other retail stores, convention and recreation centers, public and government buildings, courts, schools, retirement homes, hospitals, public transportation vehicles, funeral homes and--get this one--PRIVATE vehicles in which a child under 13 years of age is a passenger.

Terrific, and thumbs up to Puerto Rico for having the courage to take this step. 

Exclusions to the ban are hotel rooms designated as smoking rooms and businesses that sell exclusively tobacco products. 

Lamb's Eyeball? Beating Frog Heart? All In a Day's Meal For Andrew Zimmern On His New Travel Channel Series

You gotta love this guy, Andrew Zimmern.  (And I can tell you he IS lovable because I've gotten to know him and his lovely wife, Rishia, since moving to Saint Paul, MN. That's the happy couple below and to the right at a debut party for the series at Morton's in Minneapolis last night .) 

Anyway, you should love Andrew Zimmern because he's willing to eat the beating heart of a frog, slimy worms extracted from inside trees, and other exotic foods that are considered delicacies in some parts of the world so you don't have to.  It's all a part of his new, one-hour Travel Channel series called "Bizarre Foods."   

"Bizarre Foods" made its debut last night, and 11 more episodes will air on subsequent Monday nights at 8 p.m. East Coast time on the Travel Channel, although I note by looking at my local cable schedule that the network is repeating his shows frequently.  The series is also being shown on Discovery Asia and Discovery Europe, and the shows are so well done, I expect Andrew and his production company, Tremendous Entertainment, will be signed up for a second series soon.

That's because Andrew has a warm and witty television personality that allows viewers to share his curiosity about different cultures and cuisines even as they go, "Ewwww!"  Andrew's first season's shooting schedule has included destinations as far afield as Mongolia, the United Kingdom, and the Gulf Coast of the US.  His list of the top ten most bizarre foods he's consumed includes soup made from the back and testicles of cow, goose intestines (served with bean sprouts), coconut grubs and mangrove worms. 

A big Maxa thumb's up for "Bizarre Foods."  Catch it if you can, and bon appetit.

 

From the Twin Cities, Here's a Talented Restaurant Reviewer With a Sense of Humor as Sharp As Her Taste Buds

I sometimes write about food, so I know how difficult it can be to describe meals and ingredients in a way that allows a reader to share your experience via the written word.  Which is why I so enjoy the writing of a Minneapolis-based food writer and restaurant critic, Dara Moskowitz of City Pages, the Twin Cities' free weekly tabloid. 

On a weekly basis, Moskowitz manages to make the dining scene in and around Saint Paul and Minneapolis come alive, even if that dining scene doesn't always deserve her talented attention.  She is tough, fair, and I will confess in my limited experience, right on target.  (Which means I generally agree with her reviews about restaurants I've experienced.) 

I just had to share a great paragraph from her review last week of a new Italian restaurant in Saint Paul called Il Vesco Vino.  While Moskowitz loved the restaurant's appetizers, she had complaints about several main courses.  And I laughed outloud when she described the restaurant's gnocchi. 

Moskowitz said on her first visit to Il Vesco Vino, she was told the chef didn't liked the way his gnocchi was turning out that night, so he'd taken it off the menu.  On her next visit, she ordered the gnocchi again, and this time the pasta was available.  Moskowitz said the dish was "a white swamp of glue with bits of veal struggling to escape to the top, like prehistoric beasts trying to flee the LeBrea tar pits." 

And that led Moscowitz to wonder what the gnocchi must have been like the night the chef declined to serve it.  Here's the sentence that cracked me up:

"Later, I woke up in the night, trying to imagine how the gnocchi that the chef didn't like the look of could have been worse: Perhaps they arrived at the table, raced from the bowl, performed an IRS audit and a colonoscopy, and then tore off down the street on fire?"

Moskowitz's writing talent hasn't gone unnoticed.  Her byline has begun to appear in USA Today and other national publications.

Bravo, and a big thumbs up. 

Rudy's Favorite Travel Links

CellularAbroad: Cell Phones & Chips For Overseas - One of the most frequent questions I get asked is: Should I buy a cell phone to use overseas? Rent one? Rent a chip for my US phone? The answer depends on how much you need a cell phone while on the road. Do you go abroad for only a week or two a year? Or do you travel overseas more often? Do you expect to receive a lot of incoming calls when you're out of the US or do you just need to make a few calls a week? No matter your answer, the folks at Cellular Abroad can outfit you with the right phone or chip depending on your needs. know, because my public television crew and I use the company for all our cellular needsin Europe and Asia. Whether you need a country-specific chip (which makes all incoming calls free) or one of the new (as of the summer of '05) "Talk Abroad" chips that work all over Europe and other countries, talk to Cellular Abroad and get the right equipment for your needs at an attractive price. Use the code "MAXA" if you make a purchase at www.cellularabroad.com or tell them Rudy Maxa sent you if you order by phone at 800-287-3020 and receive $10 off a tri-band phone or a "Talk Abroad" chip.

MedjetAssist - Many travelers think a perk of "premium" credit cards is medical evacuation in the event of a serious injury or illness while traveling. They're right--up to a point. You're usually covered for evacuation to the nearest hospital. But what if you don't want to stay in the nearest hospital? Consider paying $215 for an annual membership (or $330 to cover a family) with MedjetAssist. The company will provide a medically equipped private jet to take you to the hospital of your choice if you require hospitalization while traveling more than 150 miles from home. If you only travel once or twice a year, the MedjetAssist also offers short-term memberships for seven, 14, 21 or 30 days beginning at $85 for an individual. I always carry a MedjetAssist card when I travel, and I insist that the crew that travels with me when we're filming.

Dream of Italy, The Travel Newsletter - Kathy McCabe, a former USA Today travel writer, loves Italy. If you do, as well, consider subscribing to her 10-times-a-year, very personal newsletter, Dream of Italy--the Insider's Guide to Undiscovered Italy. For luxury travelers, the newsletter covers all things Italian. That means art, cooking schools, cultural events, destinations, hotels, museums, restaurants, shopping, and villa rentals. National Geographic Traveler and American Airines' magazine, American Way, both recommend the publication. And all subscribers receive on-line access to more than two years of back issues--a great resource for planning a trip. A mail subscription is $79 per year, while an e-mail subscription is $69 annually. Visit www.dreamofitaly.com or call 877-OF-ITALY to subscribe.

Europe By Car - When we shoot our Europe series for public television each summer, we often obtain our cars from europebycar.com. The reason is simple: great cars at a great price. Of particular use for anyone traveling in Europe 17 days or longer is the lease option that allows you to avoid paying the high Value Added Tax that normally applies to rental cars. Not only that, but when you opt for the lease option, you'll be driving brand new Peugeot and Renault cars that can be picked up and dropped off at hundreds of sites in Western Europe. Europe By Car calls the longer-term rentals the "purchase/re-purchase" or "buy-back" option, but it's no more complicated than a standard rental. The company also has very competitive prices for standard, short-term rentals. Details: wwww.europebycar.com or 800-223-1516.

French Culinary Adventures - Les Liaisons Délicieuses is a culinary tour company that offers extraordinary, in-depth, one-of-a-kind gastronomic adventures in France, Morocco, and Quebec Province. In addition to dining at Michelin-starred restaurants with deluxe accommodations, guests enjoy cooking alongside master chefs, accompanying the chefs to local markets and wineries, and meals arranged by the chefs in private homes. Intimate groups of eight to ten like-minded travelers experience the history, art, and culture in a way that is unavailable to the typical tourist. All levels of cooking ability are welcome, and custom trips are available.

www.gayot.com - When was the last time you read a guidebook that you really trusted, especially when it comes to the highly personal subject of restaurants?  Check out the Gayot guides for restaurant advice in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC.  Or for general travel advice, as well, the company's "Best Of" series includes more cities, including London and Paris.  Andre Gayot is the paterfamilias of the series, as well as the inventor, along with his foodie friends Henri Gault and Christian Millau, of the term "nouvelle cuisine" in the 1970s.  Check this website for reviews and information on ordering books.

joesentme.com - For years, Joe Brancatelli has been one of the country's smartest travel columnists and observers. If you fly commercially or stay in hotels frequently, visit this site every week to learn the nuts and bolts of the travel business. In addition, Joe has several colleagues whose columns are worth a peek, as well. You'll find those on his home page. Tell him Rudy sent you.

asta.org - If you receive an offer for a travel deal that seems just too good to be true, check out the web site of the American Society of Travel Agents at asta.org. There you'll find information on how to reach ASTA -- you can then ask if the travel company soliciting you is a member.

johnnyjet.com - Want a link to just about every newspaper, magazine (and any other kind of) travel web site in North America? Click on our friend Johnny Jet's eclectic home page.

maxa.tv - For information and to order tapes of Rudy's PBS-TV series, this is the place to go. This series, rich in history, culture, and stunning photography, is 78 shows on destinations ranging from Paris to Rajasthan and Stockholm to Shanghai.

transitionsabroad.com - If you're looking for something beyond mass tourism this is the place to find it. You can read past articles from their bimonthly Transitions Abroad magazine, order a copy of Work Abroad, The Complete Guide to Finding a Job Overseas, or follow links to a whole world of information on working, living and learning overseas.

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Boston's Logan Told: "Set My Wi-Fi Free"

The folks who operate Boston's airport lost a battle with Continental Airlines, which wanted to offer free, high-speed Internet service in its freqeunt-flyer club there.  The airport, which charges for access to a wireless signal elsewhere in the airport, argued the Continental system would interfere with its network, raise safety concerns and violate lease agreements.

In a triumph for the business traveler weary of paying for Wi-Fi, the Federal Communications Commission ruled Continental could go ahead and offer its free service.  I have a solution for the Massachusetts Port Authority: Take a page from Detroit and other airports and offer access to a high-speed Internet signal for free everywhere at Boston Logan International Airport. 

All Good: NYC Parks Boast Free Wi-Fi

sBy the end of this month, if all is on schedule, wireless networks will be operating at 18 locations in 10 New York City Parks, including Central, Prospect, and Riverside parks.  And because the service is free, you can spend the end of summer as well as upcoming autumn days sitting outside tapping away on a laptop with nary a cubicle or flourescent light in sight.

And it's not just Manhattan that's receiving the wired treatment at such popular gathering spots as Union and Washington Squares.  In Brooklyn, parts of Prospect Park will be wired; in Queens, it's the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park; and in the Bronx, Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks as well as Orchard Beach will be user friendly.

Eight of New York's 18 planned hot spots will be in Central Park.  This is not an entirely new phenomenon in Manhattan--for the last four years, web surfers have been able to pick up a free wi-fi signal in Bryant Park.  And downtown, City Hall Park, Bowling Green and the new Wall Street Park have offered free service.  Other cities, including Saint Paul, San Francisco and Philadelphia, are trying to figure out how to best structure free wi-fi zones around town. 

All good, in my opinion.

The Secret World of Valet Parkers

To promote its luxury line of sedans, Lexus recently produced a fascinating little handbook on the secret world of valet parkers.  Hiring a writer to work as a valet parker at a  Los Angeles shopping center and commissioning a survey of folks who regularly use valet parking, Lexus discovered, among other things:

• The average tip to a valet in the US is $3 per car.  Which just happens to be about a buck more than I would have guessed.
• A valet's "friendliness and politeness" are the biggest factors in influencing the size a driver tips.
• About 75% of drivers tip more in inclement weather.
• Most drivers are willing to wait nine minutes for their car before becoming impatient, though nearly half of younger adults (between the ages of 18 and 34) begin getting cranky after one to five minutes.
• About 65% of parkers suspect valets take fancy cars out for joyrides.  (The truth is, most valets are much too busy to do that, a sure way to lose what can be a lucrative job.)
• Women are twice as likely as men to worry that a valet is quietly judging one's car.
• The median daily parking rate in the US is approaching $15 a day, $150 a month.  (Though in New York City, that monthly rate can reach as high as $1,000.)
• Most expensive cities for valet parking after New York City?  Honolulu and San Francisco.
• The inventor of the modern valet parker--the one with the uniform and bow tie with good manners--is said to be Herb Citron, 83, of Los Angeles.  He began running valet parkers for Lawry's The Prime Rib restaurant in LA in 1946 and went on to begin Valet Parking Services with 1,500 employees in a dozen American cities.
• In 2004, a Manhattan valet won $149 million in the Mega Millions lottery; he had 78 cents in his bank account at the time.
• Wanna knock the socks off a regular valet who you apprciate?  Slip him or her a "Benji," a $100 bill now and then.

For more on the secret world of valets, check out "The Lexus ES Insider's Guide to Valet Parking."

A Movie Tour of Santa Barbara

One of the best ways to see the world is to have a quest when you visit a destination.  Here's a quest involving a glorious part of the US as well as movies that have been filmed there. 

The Santa Barbara Conference & Visitor's Bureau and Film Commission teamed up with Lonely Planet guides to produce a concise, palm-sized booklet detailing sites you'll recognize from classic and recent movies filmed in and around Santa Barbara.  It's free by calling 800-676-1266 or visiting the CVB's web site. 

Santa Barbara, about a 90-minute drive north from Los Angeles up the coast of California, was home to the state's first major movie studio, Flying A Studios, opened in 1910.  And between 1912 and 1921, according to the Santa Barbara folks, more than 1,000 movies were filmed in the area where the topography lent itself to backgrounds suggesting the sandscapes of Morocco, the coastline of France, and the dunes of Guadalupe. 

Everyone knows much of the action in "Sideways," the movie that made merlot yesterday's wine and pinot noir today's hot grape, was filmed in and around Santa Barbara.  But I didn't know "Of Mice and Men," "The Ten Commandments," "Postman Always Rings Twice," and dozens of other films owed much of their scenery to this Pacific Coast region.

If you don't want to explore on your own, Personal Tours Ltd. (805-685-0552) will provide custom tours with a catered picnic and wine tasting.  Bikers should consider a "Biking on Location" tour put together by the Santa Barbara Adventure Company (888-773-3239).  For a luxe tour, Spencer's Limousine Location Tours (805-884-9700) will wheel you around so you don't have to worry about overindulging when sampling the local wines.

And don't overlook the local wines if you are visiting Santa Barbara and the surrounding countryside.  There's ample mention of local wineries in the free guidebook.

Buenos Aires Bound? Here's What You Need To Know to Eat and Drink Well

Dereck Foster has been the Buenos Aires Herald's food and wine columnist for nearly 40 years.  Richard Tripp, a former US Navy officer, was stationed in Argentina.  Together, the two have teamed up to produce Food and Drink in Argentina, a handsome, passport-sized book that will allow you to order food and drink in Argentina like a local. 

You may know "leche" means "milk" in Spanish, but you may not know how to order skim milk ("descremada") or that "leche asada" is a milk-based dessert that ought not be missed.  While restaurant reviews in this guide are brief and, in my opinion, too few, the book shines as a compass that can point you to the right things to order on any menu.  (Author Foster' got burned when his last guide to restaurants was published and many of those mentioned closed down in the last recession; he didn't want it to happen again.)

Of special interest is the section on Argentina's two main wine-producing regions.  More and more visitors are discovering Argentina, the world's fifth-largest producer of wine, is a great place to taste wine and get to know vineyards.

You may order the book for $14.95 at the publisher's web site.

Restaurant Critic Mariani Nails Those Little, Annoying Things Restaurants Do

One of my favorite food and restaurant newsletters is produced by my friend John Mariani at his free web site.  You may know him from his restaurant articles in Esquire magazine.  Or you may be familiar with some of his authoritative books, including The Great American Italian Cookbook that he co-authored with his wife, Galina.

His weekly newsletter is free--sign up at his site--and always contains plenty of fun observations on dining as well as John's meticulous reviews of restaurants around the world.  In this week's issue, I got a kick out of a piece he wrote titled "Stupid Restaurants' Tricks."  In it, John listed his pet peeves, most of them concerning how restaurants "build the check" by such things as pouring bottle after bottle of pricey mineral water without asking once you've requested a first bottle. 

Some of his other gripes:

• Those enormous pepper grinders some waiters wield like samuri swords
• Restaurants that insist on having multiple waiters raise silver serving domes which are then clanged in diners' ears. 
• I join John in detesting "palate cleansing" sorbets served between courses.  Pretentious.  Plus, there's nothing palate cleansing about cold, sweet sugar before a main course.  John tells you how that practice began.

You may read John's other complaints in his April, 9, 2006 newsletter on line.   

Fairmont Announces Free High Speed

There's nothing business travelers like to hear more than the news that a hotel chain has decided to offer hassle-free, complimentary high-speed Internet service in their rooms.  For the past couple of years, it's been the mid-price chains--Courtyard by Marriott and others--who have offered free high-speed connections or wireless connections in their hotels.  The pricey hotels--the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons of the world--have stubbornly charged a daily or weekly fee. 

Now, Fairmont says it's going the free way.  Will luxury competitors follow?  I hope so.  Fairmont was just acquired by two companies, including one owned by the Saudi prince who also owns a big piece of Four Seasons; along with that purchase came news that the Raffles chain will be folded into the Fairmont family.  That will give the brand 120 hotels in 24 companies.  Quietly, without much notice, Fairmont has become a major player in the luxury hotel division.  Its hotels have been renovated and upgraded, and I've been consistenly surprised when I've checked in. (I'm old enough to remember when Fairmont meant stuffy, aging, huge hotels in Canada.)

I ask all travelers who carry laptops to join me a round of applause for Fairmont for eliminating the charge to go on line at high speed.  And I ask its competitors to do the same.

The Good, the Bad, and . . .

GOOD: The European Union and US agree to re-open negotiations on "open skies" treaty. For more than 10 years, the European Union and the US have tried to negotiate an "open skies" treaty that would allow American and European airlines to fly without restrictions in each other's backyards.  In other words, an Air France flight could take you from Chicago to, say, Dallas. And an American Airlines flight could pick up passengers in London and drop them off in another European city.  That's good for consumers.  But access to Heathrow has always been the deal breaker.  Only four airlines can fly from Heathrow to the US: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United Airlines.  Heathrow is Europe's largest gateway for trans-Atlantic flights, and other airlines have tried for years to obtain slots that would allow them to fly in and out of the airport.  New negotiations would presumably open the door a crack to that possibility.  In fact, these talks will probably end in failure if there's no deal on opening Heathrow.  If the talks DO produce results, look for possible mergers between airlines.  Earlier this week, British Airways and American have reportedly begun exploring a closer relationship.  They are already alliance members in the OneWorld scheme, but they apparently want to do even more cross marketing. 

BAD: Delta brings back Saturday-night stayover requirements.  When Delta announced its simplified fare structure last year, it eliminated those annoying Saturday-night stayover requirements on even its cheapest tickets.  Now, in Chapter 11 and trying to figure out how to keep flying, Delta brings back not only that detail but also the three-day minimum stay requirement on some tickets.  A big thumbs down to Delta, who must do battle against AirTran, JetBlue, and (as long as it's still in business) Independence Air.  Those low-fare airlines don't have the Saturday-night and three-day rules.

GOOD: Continental creates first gift registry for airline tickets.  So you're getting married and would really like to honeymoon on the beaches of Thailand.  But that's an expensive ticket.  Sure, you can register on hundreds of web sites that allow well-wishers to buy you salt shakers, wine glasses, and blenders.  Now Continental has come up with a way that you can post your travel wishes on line, as well, so friends and family can chip in to turn your travel dreams into realities.  And why not?  You don't have to be betrothed to take advantage of this, of course.  Anyone can register and hope for the best.

Thumbs Up: Radisson SAS Hotels Eliminate Wi-Fi Charge

About 200 Radisson SAS hotels just eliminated the charge for guests using high-speed Internet access.  Now, could the rest of the world's luxury hotels do the same?  It's always been a mystery to me why the first hotels to offer free Internet connections were the lower and mid-priced chains while the expensive Big Boys, such as the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons, continue to charge more than $10 a day to customers paying $300 or more per night. 

Delta Cuts Us a Break: 24 Hours, No-Penalty Cancellation Fee for On-Line Buys

There should be dancing in the streets, though I’m not sure many travelers know about the new, passenger-friendly rule just announced by Delta Air Lines. Delta is now the only domestic airline to allow anyone who books a ticket on Delta.com to cancel that reservation without penalty within 24 hours.

Cancellation requests must be made by midnight of the date after a ticket is purchased or midnight of the departure  date of the first flight, whichever comes first.   

This is great news for passengers who, having hit the “enter” button on their computer after pricing a ticket realize that maybe they should have considered a different travel date. Or checked with their travel companion first. Or shopped around a bit longer. Delta says customers can cancel without paying a fee if they find a cheaper fare elsewhere or if their travel plans change. Sounds to me like you can cancel, then, for just about any reason. And that’s all good.

Thumbs UP: Free Hotel Wi-Fi Creep Continues

Imagine my delight when I checked out yesterday after a four-night stay at the Morrison House, a very classy hotel in the Old Town section of the DC suburb of Alexandria, VA, and found no charge for the wi-fi service. 

Someday, all hotels (and airports and coffee shops and even cities, for that matter) will offer free wi-fi.  But, still, high-end hotels (such as Four Seasons and Ritz-Carltons) and others (such as Raddisons and Marriotts) stick guests with a daily charge that usually starts around $10 and can go upward to double that amount.  A couple of years ago, Wyndham offered members of its WyndhamByRequest frequent guest program (it's free to join) high-speed, wi-fi access at no charge.  That's an idea that the competition ought to emulate.  And more individually owned and operated hotels should copy the example set by the Morrison House--none of us like to be nickel and dimed when we check into and out of a hotel.  FYI, see the "Hotel Reviews" section of this blog for a more detailed description of the Morrison House. 

Cingular Votes 'No' on Cellphones Aloft

No less a personage than an executive vice president of the country's largest cellphone company, Cingular Wireless, has sent a letter to the head of the FAA saying maybe, in the interest of peace and quiet as well as "basic courtesy," allowing the use of cellphones in airplanes isn't a great idea.

Federal regulators have sugggested they might lift a ban on cellphone usage on planes before the end of the year, a move that has sparked a lively debate on talk radio stations and newspaper opinion pages.

New York Times business travel columnist Joe Sharkey writes today that Paul Roth, Cingular's EVP for external affairs, notes that on a crowded plane, folks jabbering on cellphones could be very annoying.  This is not to say that Cingular is shooting itself in the foot too badly; presumably, text and data messaging will eventually be commonplace aboard commercial flights, and Cingular stands to profit from that.

But I'm delighted to hear a cellphone industry executive vote for tranquility over immediate profits.  Joe ends his column with a sensible suggestion from a reader who calls for the revival of the phone booth--a place on board a plane into which anyone wishing to make a call can closet himself, thereby sparing the rest of us details of his personal and business life.

Lost Bag=Free Flight

Now here's an airline that's not afraid to put its money where its mouth is.  (Of course, there's the question of how much money the airline actually has, but more about that in a minute.)  Independence Air, based at Washington's Dulles airport, announced today that if your bag doesn't arrive with you on your flight, you'll be credited with the amount of your one-way flight, and that credit can be put toward another flight anytime in the next year.  I like that.  The low-fare airline currently serves 46 destinations and is trying to manage its money in order to stay in business.  Meanwhile, this pledge to deliver your bag on time is a great way for Indepedence to stand out from the crowd, and it'll be interesting to see if anyone else in the crowd matches this guarantee.

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