Travel

The list of products and services that award frequent flyer miles is a bit longer today, with the announcement that the online photo-processing service Shutterfly has partnered with Delta. Under the new agreement, Delta SkyMiles members will earn a hefty 10 miles for every $1 spent on Shutterfly services. To promote the relationship, through December 31, SkyMiles members can earn a 1,000-mile bonus by spending $20 or more at Shutterfly. Say cheese!

Deep in the well of a partially hollowed-out limestone island, the glass waters in this “hong” lie undisturbed except, perhaps, by the ripples from our inflatable sea kayak. For a few minutes, it is our private universe - save for the resident macaque monkeys, eyeing us suspiciously from their hidden perches around the walls. Welcome to Panak Island and one of many such hongs (the Thai word for rooms) dotted throughout Phang Nga Bay, a marine reserve in the Andaman Sea nestling between Phuket, Phang Nga and Krabi provinces in the centre of Thailand. Historically, the limestone crags were created after the Indian sub-continent collided with continental Asia around 30 million years ago. Today, the only collisions are likely to be between competing tour company kayaks trying to squeeze in and out of the lagoons through sometimes claustrophobic cave tunnels. Cruising in through one such tunnel, the hong opens up like something out of Jurassic Park or Tarzan, with Asian reticulated
(Read the full post about ‘Sea cave trip reveals Thailand’s lost worlds’…)

Siwa is a small desert oasis some 350 miles west of Cairo, and the best time to go there is between October and April, which is before the mosquitos and the heat arrive. At this time of year the nights can be very cold, even freezing. It isn’t easy to reach Siwa which is the most western of the five major oases of Egypt. A hire car, fully air conditioned can take about eight hours to get to this Sahara Oasis. Most of the tourists who visit Egypt restrict themselves to the Nile Valley, and visit the cities of Aswan, Luxor and Cairo. There they explore the familiar ruins and monuments of ancient Egypt, including the Great Pyramids and the temples of Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel. Sadly they are missing something totally unique in the Siwa Oasis, which after all is one of the great places of history, because of the visit of Alexander the Great seeking confirmation that he was a demi-god from the Temple of Amun.   If you love the desert, and you want to explore well off the
(Read the full post about ‘Siwa Oasis in Western Egypt’…)

ITHACA, New York (AP) — I saw them almost as soon as I walked into the Ithaca Farmers Market: Baskets of apples with odd shapes, strange hues and exotic names like Zabergau Reinette, Red Northern Spy and Calville Blanc d’Hiver. Containers on a shelf offered slices, some from well-known varieties like Jonagold and McIntosh, others the rarer kinds increasingly popular among connoisseurs turned off by the vapid taste of mass-produced fruit. These spectacular-tasting apples, many of them heirloom varieties, were grown on a local farm by Cornell horticulture professor Ian Merwin and his wife, Jackie. Nearby another Cornell scientist and his wife sold their bumper crop of squash and pumpkins in brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow. No more proof was needed of the relationship between Cornell and local farmers in the lush, rolling farmland of the Finger Lakes district in west-central New York. The Cornell brainiacs also lend a nerdy charm to this college town at the southern end of
(Read the full post about ‘In the lush land of the Finger Lakes’…)

Cosmic Chocolate creates little bombshells of chocolate filled with liqueur and all kinds of fantastic ingredients. TasteTV interviews the founder, chocolatier Carly Bauman, at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon for its program Chocolate Television. Cosmic Chocolate is located in the San Francisco Bay Area, but has a national following, and can be found at online.

the drive to the hotel FINALLY!!!!!! 24hrs later. i arrived at 6pm bergen time. it is 9hrs. ahead from the west coast. i had a great flight. LA to chicago to copenhagen to bergen. i slept all the way. SAS(scandinavian airlines) rocks!!! for economy class the seats were comfy. i had my own tv. the food was great. they give you hot bread. a hot towel, a yummy chocolate treat and the best part FIRST ROUND OF LIQUOR IS FREE :)Copenhagen airport is clean. easy to get around. however, if you have 2hr layover. they don’t view it on the monitor til an hour before you board. you are in limbo. you don’t know which terminal to go. that would be a stressful situation if you have never been there before. Bergen airport is organized and clean. the drive to our hotel, radisson SAS was gorgeous. it was a 20mins drvie. bergen reminds me of vancover, canada and anchorage, AK. it is about 60 degrees.  the hotel is located in the middle of the city centre. there is a TGI fridays next
(Read the full post about ‘TROMSO, NORWAY’…)

One of the benefits of global airline alliances, such as the Star Alliance and oneworld, is the deep interlinking of the participating airlines’ mileage programs. And one of the distinguishing characteristics of the depth of those relationships is the ability of members of one alliance carrier’s program to earn elite-qualifying miles when flying on other airlines participating in the same alliance. So, for example, a member of American’s AAdvantage program can earn miles that qualify toward elite status when flying on other oneworld airlines, including British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN, Qantas, and Royal Jordanian. Or so the alliance would like to able to claim. But effective March 1, 2008, members of American’s program will no longer earn elite-qualifying miles on British Airways flights. (At press time, I was still trying to confirm with American that the converse is also true, i.e., that members of British Airways’ Executive Club will no longer earn
(Read the full post about ‘American, British Airways feud will undermine oneworld alliance’…)

Hostels. To many, they conjure up connotations of cheap, loud, and young. But over the years, I’ve come to suspect that the people who get the most out of hostels are often adults traveling as couples, families, or groups. At many hostels, dorms are not the only option. Plenty offer private rooms for two to six people. It’s usually pretty easy to discern the accommodations options online through sites such as Hostelworld.com, Hostels.com, or Hostelling International (HI). Sometimes private rooms even have their own bathrooms, which puts them a step above many pensions and small inns. The absolute best way to witness the joys of hostelling for this demographic? Visit the kitchen or dining room. It’s here you’ll often find enthusiastic adults just returned from the local markets cooking up a storm. I remember staying in the Youth Hostel La Fontasse, situated on a bluff outside Cassis in the south of France, and walking into a boisterous kitchen full of adult Germans, Swedes, and
(Read the full post about ‘Hostelling for adults’…)

When it comes to sandwiches there is a variety to choose from. Some people love Grilled Cheese and others prefer Veggie. Some like Roast Beef and Cheddar, while others LUV the BLT. Some eat up Reubens, or prefer their rhyming counterpart: the Cuban. For the latter lovers, the country of Cuba is to thank. The origin of the Cuban sandwich is somewhat disputed. It was either created in Cuba or in the Cuban community of Ybor City, Florida. In the early 20th century, it appeared in both areas and both claim to have been the inventor. While this seems a little like Al Gore stating he invented the Internet, both Cuba and Ybor City may have valid claims. During this time frame, people traveled frequently and easily between Florida and Cuba. Many Cubans traveled to Florida for employment opportunities and back to Cuba for familial obligations. Thus, when Cuban sandwiches surfaced at sugar mills in Cuba and cigar factories in Ybor City, it was hard to pinpoint the creator. It is most likely
(Read the full post about ‘A Cuban Sandwich: The Best Thing with Sliced Bread’…)

(Tribune Media Services) — I just enjoyed a brainstorming breakfast with a "tour organizer consultant." He’s shrewd because tour organizers across the United States think he’s smart, hire him, and discuss their situation with him. Therefore he knows everyone’s business and can give excellent advice to competing tour companies. Anyone considering booking a tour might enjoy an overview of tour trends and an insight into how organizers sharpen their marketing. Here’s a bit of what I learned between the omelet and the English muffin: Some companies advertise peak-season prices and discount off-season prices. But most tour companies advertise the lower off-season prices and charge a supplement to go during popular times. For European tours, the demand (and, therefore, the price) spikes in late spring and early fall. Recently there has been a huge new influx of Chinese and Indian tourists on the European scene. Imagine 200 million people in India, for instance, with enough
(Read the full post about ‘An inside look at European tours’…)