March 2009 Archives

The way you spend your money on vacation says a lot about your travel style.

I'm the type who:

*Will suffer a few hours of an airport layover for a cheaper flight. I look at it as time to catch up on reading, journaling and browsing in the bookstores.

*Seeks out lodging that is basic and clean with only the things I need (hot water, decent water pressure, doors that lock, private bathroom, decent mattress) After all, the only time I plan to spend there is bathing and sleeping.

*Usually prefers public transportation over pricey tours and cab rides because it's cheaper and gives you a window into the local culture. (Although there are definitely cases when I think it's better to ditch this philosophy -- such as when traveling long distances rather than within a single city)

*Tends to splurge on food and activities. When else but on vacation can you walk on hanging bridges through a rainforest canopy, soak your weary bones in hot springs or stuff your face with fresh seabass and passionfruit juice?

Here's the spending breakdown for my week in Costa Rica:

My name is Jen, and I'm addicted to artesanias, which is the Spanish term for "locally-made handicrafts."

When I travel, I have no problem walking right past kitschy T-shirt-and-keychain souvenir stands selling snow globes and goofy pens, but I cave when it comes to beautifully painted ceramic pots, plates or canvases.

I can't withstand the pull of a Mayan calendar made from beautiful bits of wood or a polished jar with the most beautiful swirls of natural wood grain.

I know I don't need a leather purse or the funky jewelry made by the woman at the street stand in Buenos Aires. But I have a hard time stopping to appreciate and admire someone's handiwork and then not following through on my comments by purchasing. Somehow, I feel obligated.

Strangely enough, I don't feel buyer's remorse or guilt at these purchases, even as it becomes more difficult to find a place for them in my house. (I don't like clutter.)

Instead, I feel proud for supporting the local artists wherever I'm visiting.

Does anyone else have this problem? What is your weakness when traveling?

Steve Smith of Spring Garden Township visited Davis, W.V., and the Canaan Valley in October. They watched rock climbers scale the 900-foot face of Seneca Rock, visited Blackwater Falls State Park and Canaan Valley State Park, where they saw many deer.

His travel tip: Beware mountain weather in October. Temperatures went from the 60s on Sunday to the 20s with snow on Tuesday. By Friday, the snow was gone and temperatures were back near 60.

Dave & Carol Brady of York sent in this picture from a 10-day trip to Egypt they took earlier this month with seven other York County residents. They toured ancient pyramids and tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens, as well as more modern marvels such as the Aswan Dam.

The trip, sponsored by the Smithsonian, also included a four-day excursion on the Nile River from Luxor to Aswan.

In this photo, eight members of the group stand on the deck of the MV Mirage: (from left) Dave Brady, Judy Skouras,Pat Kurz, Sally Thompson, Carol Brady, Beth Updegrove, Tamara & Ben Leas.

Their travel tip: Temperatures in Egypt in early March were in the 80s and 90s...but high winds stirred up lots of sand and dust. Sunscreen and moist towelettes are a must!

Geppi's Entertainment Museum (GEM) at Camden Yards will offer dollar admission on days that the Orioles and Ravens play home games this year. Hours of operation will be extended on game days as well.

A tour guide, at a dollar per person, will be required for those who visit using the Game Day Special, bringing the total price to $2 per person. Regular adult admission is $10.

Other discounts available at GEM include; half-price Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last year, GEM introduced half-price Tuesdays, and it proved so popular, a second half-price day - Thursday - was added.

GEM also offers $2 off admission to those who "go green" with transportation and show a public transportation ticket when entering GEM (not valid with any other offers or discounts).

Geppi's Entertainment Museum at Camden Yards is located on the second floor at 301 W. Camden St., Baltimore. For details, call 410-625-7060, or visit www.geppismuseum.com.

Here's another one that plays off the model of the vehicle. Clever, huh?

Have you seen any other plates that play off a vehicle's model name?

At first glance, you might be wondering why I snapped this picture of the ground and branches and leaves. Look closer and you'll see why.

Anyone know what kind of animal this is? It's much larger than iguanas I've seen while traveling in Mexico. Looked a bit meaner, too.

From left, Don and Doris Myers of Fresno, Calif., and Irene and Lynn Dietz of Springettsbury Township enjoyed three days on Catalina Island near Long Beach, Calif.

They write that it was a "beautiful, quaint, friendly island" with golf carts and bicycles the only means of transportation: "We took a golf cart up the hill to the Wrigley Mansion (which is now a bed and breakfast). Wrigley is the chewing gum magnet and also owner of the Chicago Cubs. Cubs would come to the island for spring training. A must-see if ever in California."

Don and Lynn have known each other since they were boys in Hellam Township.

Her travel tip: You need to take a ferry to the island, so if you're prone to seasickness, take a pill first.

I was reading this story and wondered how baggage can be "irretrievably lost"?

Is it like when you put your socks in the laundry?

One of the best things about travel is discovering new foods.

I love fresh fruit, fish and seafood, but all three are hard to come by in Pennsylvania. (Well, inexpensively, at least.)

Costa Rica -- and much of Latin America, actually -- have plenty of each.

During past travels, I've discovered the wonders of arepas and mamones (Venezuela), maduros (Ecuador), pernil with rice (Puerto Rico), jicama, queso blanco and real pico de gallo (Mexico).

In Costa Rica, I discovered palm hearts, or palmito, as they're called there.

During a five-hour layover in the Houston airport on the way home Costa Rica, I began to wonder why airports offer some things, but not others.

First, I walked past Best Buy vending machines selling everything from Playstations to iPhones (are these really the kind of thing people will buy on a whim, in an airport?) and ProActiv vending machines peddling skincare products.

On my way out of a restroom, I overheard a girl asking her traveling companion why airports didn't have hair salons in them. She thought there would be plenty of people willing to pay someone to get their hair back in order after hours on a plane.

It got me thinking: Wouldn't a five-hour layover be the perfect time to finally get the haircut you've been meaning to make an appointment for? Or grab a manicure or massage to make all that travel stress melt away?

Apparently, they do have such things. Now that I'm back home and looking into such things (see Things to Google), I discovered XpresSpa has plenty of airport locations, including one at the Houston airport.

What have you been surprised to see in an airport? What's missing? Have you ever used an airport vending machine to buy electronics? Gotten a pampering service an an airport spa or salon? Post a comment and share your experience.

Cruised by this one in the parking lot of the LA Fitness in Camp Hill. The car does kind of look like a pod, no?

WITF's Explore PA travel series is looking for families, couples and friends with diverse backgrounds and lifestyles to star in the next season of the statewide TV program. The idea is to take Pennsylvania residents and introduce them to a region of the state they've never visited before.

Travelers will be sent on a 3-to-5 day getaway to one of Pennsylvania's travel destinations.

If interested, send a short description of yourself, your family or friends, with photos and telephone number to: explorepa@witf.org. Entries can also be mailed to Explore PA, P.O. Box 2954, Harrisburg, PA 17105.

The show highlights Pennsylvania's unique small towns, exciting big cities, beautiful landscapes and thrilling outdoor fun. It lets viewers explore the state through the eyes of fellow residents.

For details, visit www.explorepatv.com.

American Historic Inns Inc., publisher of more than 2.7 million guidebooks, recently named a Lancaster County inn one of the 10 most romantic in the country.

The Inn & Spa at Intercourse Village, 3542 Old Philadelphia Pike, Intercourse, is the only Pennsylvania inn so honored.

The country manor is an all-suite inn housed in an updated Victorian home built in 1909. Each room has a private in-room bath with fine linens and Victorian accessories.

The Inn & Spa offers a variety of room layouts in the original Victorian House and in the adjacent Country Homestead Suites. The Grand Suites feature sitting rooms, fireplaces and vaulted beamed ceilings. The Country Homestead Suites feature beamed-ceilings, handcrafted woodwork, quilted bedding, and a gas-burning fireplace.

The chef prepares a five-course, gourmet, candlelit breakfast served on fine English china in the formal Victorian dining room. The French Country-inspired spa next door offers massages, body treatment, facials, manicures and pedicures.

Anyone been here? Have anything to share?

My jaw dropped when I read this story from USA Today.

I know plenty of folks who blindly go where the box on the dashboard tells them. And while I can see the appeal of freeing yourself to the wisdom of technology -- throwing your worries of wrong turns to the wind -- I would never feel comfortable driving unknown territory without the map books in my seat back pocket. See this post, my ode to maps.

Have you ditched your maps in favor of GPS? Are you a die-hard map lover? A combination? Post a comment and share your thoughts.

Lots of travelers just think in terms of things they want to see during their trip.

I'd encourage you to expand that to include the other four senses.

It can help you experience a place more fully if you also think about what you want to hear, feel, smell and taste.

For instance, while in Costa Rica, I saw the beauty of an unspoiled night sky with more stars than I'll ever see here at home. I marveled at the way the "golden hour" of sunset bathed everything in a true golden light unlike anything I've seen here. I sat in awe of the majesty of the mountains, making cows and humans mere fly specks on their sides.

I listened to the songs of unfamiliar tropical birds, the soothing hum of crickets, the white noise of a waterfall and the rustle of the wind in the rainforest canopy at night.

I tasted flavors and textures I wasn't accustomed to at home. Fruits I didn't recognize and dishes I want to try to reproduce.

I felt the smooth and ribbed leaves of tropical plants, the warmth of hot springs, the film of dust and salt that covered me during travel to the beach. The silky blue bath that was the Gulf of Nicoya.

On different bus rides, I got whiffs of lemon, cocoa, soap and other less-pleasant things that I didn't try to hard to identify because I didn't want to mar my already-upset stomach.

What are some of your most memorable sensory experiences while traveling? Post a comment and share.

Whenever I'm traveling, I run across things I just want to know more about. But I don't want to waste precious vacation time in an Internet cafe looking them up. So I make a list called "Things to Google" when I get home.

Of course, by the time I get home, I'm usually overwhelmed by the demands of daily life and don't get around to doing this. (I still haven't bought books from amazon.com about Tulum and Chichen Itza that I swore I would after my April 2007 trip to Mexico).

Here was my "To Google" list from Costa Rica:

This is what my kitchen floor looks like right now. This is the part that used to have cabinets and appliances and running water.

I know this has nothing to do with the subject of this blog, but every now and then, it's good to add something totally random to the mix, right?

Actually, the real reason I need to interrupt the travel-and-outdoors theme of this blog to write this brief post about my kitchen renovation is so I don't go crazy. When you're a writer, writing is how you make sense of the chaos around you.

And believe me, it's chaos.

Calling it an adventure would be a bit of an understatement -- anyone who has trodden this path before me I think would agree.

Here are a few things I did not realize before I embarked upon this "adventure":

I thought this story about how the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority printed the wrong city skyline (they used NYC's skyline!) on passes for folks attending this weekend's second annual Beer Week, was kind of funny.

Can you tell if the skyline on the pass posted here is the wrong one or the corrected one? Let us know in the comments.

I haven't dedicated a post to travel gear in a while, so I thought it would be good to share some of the things that helped me survive my recent trip to Costa Rica.

Some of these would be good for any trip -- but others were especially useful this time since I hurt my back right before the trip and the medicine the doctor gave me messed with my stomach big time.

Here's the list:

The travel industry is taking steps to reassure people who avoid booking a vacation for fear of losing their jobs.

In recent weeks, more than one travel provider has announced they will offer "job-loss insurance plans."

Norwegian Cruise Lines will give a cash refund of its typical cancellation fee if passengers who have been employed at the same company for at least a year need to cancel a cruise because they've been laid off.

Jet Blue goes one step further, promising to refund the full cost of tickets.

As you might imagine, the travel industry, like the rest of the global economy, is a mess.

Have you changed your vacation plans or cut back on travel for fear of losing your job?