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There’s No Such Thing as a Free Shower Cap

Posted on 29 December 2008
Tags: Budget Travel, free toiletries, green, history, hotels, it news, music, news, science, travel

span class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image”a href=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/toiletries.jpg”img alt=”toiletries.jpg” src=”http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/toiletries-thumb-400x266.jpg” class=”mt-image-center” style=”margin: 0pt auto 20px; text-align: center; display: block;” height=”266″ width=”400″ //a/spanI don’t know about you, but for a budget traveler like myself, one of the main perks of staying in a hotel is snagging all the free stuff–like shampoos, shower caps, and ice (hey, it’s free). But with the economy going haywire, a href=”http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20081212/BUSINESS/812120316/1006/NEWS01″Florida Today reports/a, several hotels are starting to rethink the complimentary goodies:br /br /blockquotediv align=”left”pDue to the slumping economy, some hotels are cutting back on guest
amenities…Earlier this month, [two major Florida] hotels stopped stocking rooms with lotion and shower caps. They are available
by request…And coffee is now offered in the lobby only in the morning
and late afternoon, rather than 24 hours a day.br //p/div/blockquotediv align=”left”p”Everything we’re
doing has the primary focus of how can we do the least without
impacting guests, keeping the service level the same and retaining our
people so we don’t lose any jobs,” Jim Ridenour, general manager of two Marriott hotels in Melbourne, Fla., said in the article.br //ppSome hotels have also replaced the buffet breakfast with an à la carte menu. And newspapers are no longer placed outside guests’ rooms. But the news isn’t all bad: Some hotel managers have realized that limiting their freebie supply equates to a reduction in waste. Let’s hope the greening trend continues. The slumping economy: bad for freeloaders like me, good for the environment?br //p/divi/ibWhat do you think? Have you seen coping trends that might have an eco-friendly silver lining?/bbr /br /iPhoto: a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/99766756@N00/”KathyJR1979/a via Flickr/ibr /

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Posted in Budget Travel, Europe, Hotels, Intelligent TravelComments (0)

The RSS feed for this blog has changed

Posted on 01 October 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, environment, Europe, frommer, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, philadelphia, travel-guides

The RSS feed for Arthur’s blog will change from this:

http://www.frommers.com/blog/frommersblog.xml

To:
http://community.frommers.com/ver1.0/Blog/BlogRss?plckBlogId=Blog:3ec3ac40-db8a-4d10-a884-acf9ccad0879

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I’m taking a technology-related break for a few days

Posted on 18 September 2008
Tags: canada, communication, environment, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, paris

Frommers.com is currently undergoing some changes that affect this blog, as well as the Travel Talk forums. In order for everything to hum along smoothly, I’m going to refrain from blogging for a few days. When I return, there will be a slightly different look to this blog, including the long-awaiting addition of your comments directly beneath each blog post. You’re going to get a few more upgrades, too, but I’ll get in trouble if I spill the beans ahead of time. Until I return, happy travels.

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Because no one in Washington, D.C., is overseeing it, the proposed "Visit U.S.A." program is absurdly contradictory and self-defeating

Posted on 18 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, attractions, Budget Travel, communication, deals, Europe, georgia, Intelligent Travel, medical-travel, red tape, river-cruise, travel

You are probably aware that foreign tourism to the United States has plummeted since September 11. While other foreign countries are enjoying regular and substantial increases in their incoming tourism, the U.S.A. is welcoming fewer tourists in 2008 than visited our country in 2000. Recently, a Senior Vice President of the Travel Industry Association testified before a congressional committee that the shortfall in incoming foreign tourism had cost America “46 million visitors, $140 billion in lost visitor spending, $23 billion in lost tax revenue … and 340,000 jobs.”

So what’s being proposed? What’s being proposed is an advertising budget to be funded by fees assessed upon foreign tourists coming to the United States! They — the foreign visitors — are to pay an extra penalty for the right to come here! In Shakespeare’s language, it’s a “comico-tragic” farce.

The legislation before Congress is the “Travel Promotion Act” establishing a fund of $100,000,000 for advertising the attractions of our country overseas. But because Congress has no intention of supplying those monies, the advertising fund is to come from private donations and “a modest fee on foreign travelers.

The idea behind this legislation is that the drop in foreign tourism is coming about because foreigners fail to appreciate the pleasures of visiting the U.S.A. They need to be told, for instance, that America is cheap to visit because of the weakness of the U.S. dollar. They don’t know such things without seeing them in ads. They are unaware of our attractions.

In actual fact, the drop-off in foreign tourism has come about because the process of traveling here has become a grotesque nightmare for most foreigners, who must often wait months for an appointment to apply for a U.S. visa costing $131. Several months ago, I wrote about meeting a young businesswoman in Panama who could not obtain a visa to visit her sister in California because, as a young single woman, she fits the profile of those who overstay their tourist visas. I wrote about other security obstacles discouraging such visits that won’t prevent a single terrorist from coming here.

So what’s the response of our security officials? Without objection from other branches of government, without the slightest input from the State Department or Commerce Department hoping to encourage tourism, the Department of Homeland Security is about to inaugurate an Electronic Authorization Program requiring of foreign visitors that they send us an e-mail several days before their scheduled arrival, outlining their plans and setting forth their reasons for being admitted. They must implore us to be let in. Only if they then get a favorable response can they proceed to make the trip! No one at Homeland Security has yet revealed whether they plan to hire tens of thousands of examiners to read those e-mails and send back their approvals. In actual fact, Michael Chertoff’s associates probably haven’t even thought of who is read the “Electronic Applications” and then issue “Electronic Authorizations.”

It gets worse. The Department of Homeland Security is also proposing to require that foreign tourists submit to “biometric” tests (iris scans, fingerprints) upon leaving the U.S., for reasons too obscure to discuss. The airlines are claiming that this requirement will compel them to spend billions of dollars in administering the tests, which the Department of Homeland Security itself hasn’t the slightest intention of doing.

So while Congress seeks to encourage incoming tourism, the Department of Homeland Security takes steps to discourage it. No one has been given the authority to reconcile those conflicting aims and reach reasonable compromises.

And if you think I am exaggerating the situation, then research these programs on Google and reach your own conclusions. Try the words “Travel Promotion Act” and try “Biometric Exit Procedures.” You will find that I have under-stated the absurdity of what I’ve just described. Until new people come into the federal government to take care of these matters, the United States will never enjoy the healthy tourist industry that our weak dollar should, under normal circumstances, have long ago created.

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Some additional words about the penalty charged by easyJet and Ryanair for the use of credit cards

Posted on 17 September 2008
Tags: Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, deals, Europe, georgia, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, travel, travel-guides

As you’ll note by looking at the responses to my earlier post on the subject, you incur a penalty of at least £4 ($8) per flight, £8 ($16) per round-trip flight, when you use a credit card to pay for a ticket on easyJet or Ryanair, but not if you use a debit card. Since the British airlines were always the first to impose these pesky charges (luggage charges, boarding charges, etc.), and were then copied by our own airlines, I have no doubt that our own U.S. airlines will move quick to impose similar fees on credit card users.

But here’s Catch 22. If you use a debit card to avoid these charges, you are then unprotected if the airline goes belly-up and you lose the advance payment for your flight. Only a credit card payment is protected by the credit card companies, not one done by debit card. So paying the $16 becomes a form of travel insurance against that sad result.

There is, of course, no real possibility that easyJet or Ryanair will go bellyup. Just as there was no real possibility that Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, or AIG would ever encounter financial problems.

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A big U.S. tour operator has resumed operating well-priced packages to Egypt, including trans-Atlantic air and a 3-night Nile cruise

Posted on 17 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, deals, egypt, Europe, operator, river-cruise, tour companies, travel, travel-guides

Colossi of Memnon
Originally uploaded by mharjo

On the late afternoon of the day in 1977 when Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat surprised the world by announcing he was going to Israel to address the Israeli Knesset, the first step in negotiation of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, I went running out to Kennedy Airport without even a suitcase to board a flight to Cairo. I was then a tour operator and it was obvious that tourism to Egypt was about to explode. On arrival in Cairo, I rushed to the Mena House Oberoi Hotel next to the Pyramids, met with its manager, signed a hastily-drafted contract for the use of 80 rooms a night in a modern and just-finished annex to that historic hotel, and left his office with a signed agreement (the key to bringing more tourists to a hotel-jammed city) just minutes before several European tour operators arrived at the Oberoi seeking the same rooms — too late! To someone who was then a tour operator, this was the equivalent of a home run.

My company, Arthur Frommer International, Inc., began within days to operate a “back-to-back” weekly charter program to Cairo, and continued operating that program for nearly three years. On numerous follow-up trips to Egypt, I had an opportunity to experience for myself the wonders of Egypt. It is a destination that comes as close as any other to being an absolutely indispensable visit for any mentally-alive person. The Pyramids and the Sphinx, the Archaeological Museum in downtown Cairo (with relics of Tut), the Nile and the glories of “Upper Egypt” (Luxor and Aswan, Abu Simbel, The Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Nobles) — and the fun of being in a country whose population is well disposed to tourists and has been receiving them for hundreds of years — are all a thrilling travel opportunity.

It is thus with sadness that I saw the drop-off in American tourism to Egypt, starting in the late 1990s in the wake of major terrorist attacks upon tourists. While American tourism came to a halt, European tourism to Egypt continued and grew. Literally millions of European and other Middle Eastern tourists continue to visit Egypt each year, and regard the visit as one of the memorable highlights of their travel life. They also find that the cost of visiting Egypt is extremely reasonable — the price structure is low.

There are growing indications that after several years of improved security within the country, that Americans in large numbers are beginning to return to Egypt — and they definitely should. The biggest proof of that return is the publication this past month of a catalog of reasonably-priced air-and-land packages to Egypt by the long-established Central Holidays (tel. 800/935-5000 or 201/228-5200; www.centralholidays.com), one of the nation’s largest tour companies. And although their average tour (spending seven nights in Egypt) in high-season winter of 2008-09 will cost around $2,400 per person, that price is not only for round-trip air between New York and Cairo, four nights in five-star Cairo hotels (Le Meridien Pyramids for 3 nights and Sonesta Heliopolos for 1 night), air transportation within Egypt from Cairo to Aswan and back from Luxor to Cairo, and a 3-night cruise on the Nile with all-inclusive arrangements (comfortable cabins, all meals, all daily sightseeing), as well as transfers and sightseeing in Cairo.

Considering that this package takes you to Upper Egypt after a thorough exposure to Cairo, and then places you a cruiseship with all the amenities and features of a Nile cruise (including daily shore excursions to the remains of ancient Egypt), and considering as well that it includes round-trip non-stop trans-Atlantic airfare to Egypt, it is fairly priced, affording you a comprehensive visit and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Though you’ll have to scare up $2,000-or-so, you’ll spend very little in addition to that sum.

Egypt is worth it; this is one of the greatest of all travel experiences.

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Were you aware that the two major cut-rate carriers of Europe charge a hefty fee for paying with a credit card?

Posted on 16 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, flight, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, money, philadelphia, river-cruise, vacation

You may think you’ve heard everything about the fees and penalties that cost-cutting airlines in Europe charge their passengers (for checking luggage, for boarding the airplane ahead of others, and so on). But hardly anyone in the U.S. press has revealed that famous easyJet charges 2.5% of the total ticket price to people who pay by credit card (with a minimum charge of £4, about $8, per flight, or $16 round-trip). Ryanair also charges £4 ($8) per flight. (Let’s hope the accountants at United Airlines don’t learn, or we’ll all be paying the same). So how do you take advantage of those low, low fares on easyJet and Ryanair? You show up for the flight with a small backpack, never checking a single piece of luggage, and pay for the flight in cash.

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The owner of China Spree Travel has asked to present arguments for choosing his company for your tour of China. Why not?

Posted on 16 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, china, china-spree, georgia, hotels, massachusetts, philadelphia, tour, tour companies, travel, verdana

Just before I went on stage to deliver a travel lecture at the Adventure Travel Expo this past Saturday in Seattle, I was approached by Wilson Wu, president of China Spree (tel. 866/652-5656; www.chinaspree.com), the Washington-state competitor to such better-known names as China Focus, Pacific Delight, Champion Holidays, and Ritz Tours. And Mr. Wu, in the most engaging manner possible, proceeded to deliver some persuasive recommendations for his company.

Because such up-and-coming, “we-try-harder” companies like China Spree lack the resources to advertise heavily, Mr. Wu asked me whether he could compose a statement of his company’s strengths for appearance in this blog.

And because we’ve had good reactions from readers who have traveled to China with China Spree (and also because it always helps to present the bigger companies with healthy competition), I readily agreed. I don’t endorse the knocks he delivers to some of the others, and I’ve had to heavily condense what turned out to be an impassioned and lengthy screed, but in the firm belief that a vibrant marketplace of competing companies is good for everyone, I’ve allowed China Spree to address you as follows (in a totally free-of-charge statement, like everything else in our text):

It was a great pleasure to meet you in person. Over 60% of China Spree customers come from the references of previous travelers, and at least half of them have learned about China Spree from Frommers.com

Unlike a number of other companies that offer cheap China tours for cheap prices, China Spree offers First Class China Travel at Bargain Prices. We never sacrifice quality for the lowest pricing.

That’s why China Spree Tours feature nice hotels with central location. We all know what the hotel location means for a traveler. I usually travel to China about four time a year to inspect the hotels we use for China Spree tours, to ensure these hotels meet these standard.

Chinese are good at building new hotels but not good at maintain them. Besides China hotel star-rating is very confusing — that is why many tour operators take advantage of that. The fact is that foreign travelers never know what kind of hotel they will end up with until they check in. So, they have to rely largely on the tour company who picks the hotels for them. China Spree avoids substandard hotels at all cost. My principle is that if I don’t want to stay at that hotel myself, I would never put my clients there.

China Spree tours are dynamic trips for active travelers. Our tours have more included features (tours, evening shows, and special meals) than any of my competitors on the market.

China Spree is dedicated to small group travel. Our average group size is between 10-16 people. The maximum size is about 20 people. From a purely practical standpoint, smaller groups can also go to places and enjoy special events that are simply inaccessible to the larger ones.

China Spree Culture Insight Programs particularly focus on cultural exposure and people-to-people interactions. In Beijing, we have Hutong tour on Pedi-cabs that include family hosted lunch. In Xian, we visit the Yao Dong (cave dwellings) and a local primary school. In Tibet, China Spree tours visit a Tibetan family home and a local Tibetan hospital, etc.

I totally agree with you regarding the poor quality of group meals in China [AF: I had complained to him about this]. I had been working in China for over 10 years as a tour manager, escorting American tours for over 250 days a year for multiple U.S. tour companies, so I feel the same way as you do for the group meals. I knew, experienced repeatedly, and therefore determined to make changes if I operate my own tours. So over the years, I have been working on improvement of the quality and variety of group meals for China Spree tours. The real problem of the group meals for foreign visitors is the repetition of the same dishes over and over again. You might still remember how many time the ‘sweet and sour pork’ repeated in your group meals. With China Spree, the restaurants are only allowed to serve the dishes which represent local flavours of the region the tour visits.

Please take a look at our 2009 China tour. Also please refer to our specials here. Our popular 14-Day China’s Best Treasures tour covers not only the must-see sites such as Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Suzhou and Shanghai but also includes an off-the-beaten-path hiking tour to the “Dragon Spine Terraces” in Longsheng.

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Austria, which sparked an international boycott when it brought a neo-Nazi into its government, is on the brink of repeating history

Posted on 15 September 2008
Tags: Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, Europe, hotels, medical-travel, philadelphia, verdana

Ahead of our own election on November 4, Austria will go to the polls on September 28 to elect a new parliament. And none other than Joerg Haider, a near-certified neo-Nazi and noted Austrian racist, will be offering himself as a candidate for Prime Minister of that nation. (He’s the man who congratulated members of the World War II S.S. on their adherence to principle, and talked about the enlightened employment policies of the Third Reich).

When Haider was taken into the Austrian government several years ago by a weak-minded right-wing party, numerous nations of the European Union embarked on a boycott of all things Austrian, including travel to Austria and use of Austrian Airlines. We’ll all be carefully watching that election, and begging our Austrian friends to give us no reason for resumption of a similar travel ban.

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Now we’ve seen everything: a 12-night re-positioning cruise for only $33 a day!

Posted on 15 September 2008
Tags: bahamas, barcelona, cheap-transport, cruise, deals, Europe, georgia, hotels, new-orleans

It’s a one-day sale over at Online Vacation Center (tel. 800/780-9002; www.onlinevacationcenter.com), expiring at 8pm on Tuesday, September 16. But if you’ll call by then, and book by then, you’ll be able to snare an inside cabin on Royal Caribbean’s big Navigator of the Seas, making an ocean-crossing from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale, leaving Barcelona on Monday, November 10, twelve nights in all, for only $339 per person ($33 a day). I can’t remember a lower price ever for an ocean cruise on a top-rated ship.

From Barcelona, the Navigator goes to Cartagena, Spain, then spends two days simply at sea on its way to Ponte Delgada in the Azores, and then sails on for six full days simply on the south Atlantic to Nassau, Bahamas. It then plows on to Ft. Lauderdale, arriving in Florida at 7am on November 22.

Want the most restful interlude of your life? Twelve days of simply lolling about, gazing at the sea, and eating six meals a day? For only $33 a day (plus a one-way airfare to Barcelona)? Call by tomorrow night, and you’ll embark on what may well be the cheapest glamorous cruise ever offered.

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Archive | Budget Travel

Posted on 29 December 2008 Tags: Budget Travel, free toiletries, green, history, hotels, it news, music, news, science, travel

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Posted on 01 October 2008 Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, environment, Europe, frommer, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, philadelphia, travel-guides

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Posted on 18 September 2008 Tags: canada, communication, environment, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, paris

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Posted on 18 September 2008 Tags: arthur-frommer, attractions, Budget Travel, communication, deals, Europe, georgia, Intelligent Travel, medical-travel, red tape, river-cruise, travel

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Posted on 17 September 2008 Tags: Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, deals, Europe, georgia, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, travel, travel-guides

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Posted on 17 September 2008 Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, deals, egypt, Europe, operator, river-cruise, tour companies, travel, travel-guides

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Posted on 16 September 2008 Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, flight, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, money, philadelphia, river-cruise, vacation

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Posted on 16 September 2008 Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, china, china-spree, georgia, hotels, massachusetts, philadelphia, tour, tour companies, travel, verdana

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Posted on 15 September 2008 Tags: Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, Europe, hotels, medical-travel, philadelphia, verdana

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Posted on 15 September 2008 Tags: bahamas, barcelona, cheap-transport, cruise, deals, Europe, georgia, hotels, new-orleans

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Posted on 29 December 2008
Tags: Budget Travel, free toiletries, green, history, hotels, it news, music, news, science, travel

Posted on 01 October 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, environment, Europe, frommer, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, philadelphia, travel-guides

Posted on 18 September 2008
Tags: canada, communication, environment, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, paris

Posted on 18 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, attractions, Budget Travel, communication, deals, Europe, georgia, Intelligent Travel, medical-travel, red tape, river-cruise, travel

Posted on 17 September 2008
Tags: Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, deals, Europe, georgia, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, travel, travel-guides

Posted on 17 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, deals, egypt, Europe, operator, river-cruise, tour companies, travel, travel-guides

Posted on 16 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, flight, georgia, hotels, Intelligent Travel, massachusetts, money, philadelphia, river-cruise, vacation

Posted on 16 September 2008
Tags: arthur-frommer, Budget Travel, cheap-transport, china, china-spree, georgia, hotels, massachusetts, philadelphia, tour, tour companies, travel, verdana

Posted on 15 September 2008
Tags: Budget Travel, cheap-transport, communication, Europe, hotels, medical-travel, philadelphia, verdana

Posted on 15 September 2008
Tags: bahamas, barcelona, cheap-transport, cruise, deals, Europe, georgia, hotels, new-orleans