Travel

Last month, we asked you, our readers, about your favorite lesser-known Mexican hideaways: those resorts, inns, B&Bs, and hotels you love and look forward to revisiting. Readers answered the call with great suggestions such as a $58-per-night gem in Manzanillo, $300-a-week vacation homes in Progreso, and the ultimate splurge in Cancun.ManzanilloManzanillo, known as one of the prettiest beach destinations in all of Mexico, has a reputation as an upscale resort area, rich in golf courses, sport fishing, and dive sites. But reader Phyllis P. has found a hotel that offers all the elegant charm of the destination at a price that can’t be beat: “Our favorite place to stay in Manzanillo is the Hotel La Posada. It’s a small pink inn with about 25 rooms, and is clean, quiet, reasonable, and fun. It is within walking distance of some restaurants and easy to catch the bus to get around Manzanillo. We love being right on the beach with the pool right there and watching the ships and boats
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From its large-scale beach resorts and bustling cities to its beautiful forests and tiny villages, Mexico is one of the most popular travel destinations around. However, this vast country is not known for being one of the safest options for vacationers. Despite this reputation, travelers can still have a fun-filled holiday! Sticking with these simple tips will help you have an enjoyable and safe vacation. Do Your ResearchResearching your destination prior to departure is a good way to learn about the history of Mexico and which places to visit. It can also warn you of any current travel precautions or health warnings. Websites such as the U.S. Department of State, WorldTravelWatch, and Visit Mexico have information about the country and provide a plethora of emergency numbers and addresses. Travelers can also check international news sites to learn about any relevant happenings such as riots or protests. Do Not Travel AloneWhile many people love to go on solo vacations, in Mexico,
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Sometimes, the stars all seem to align—you arrive at your hotel, weary from your travels, and check in at the front desk. The smiling clerk announces you’ve been upgraded, and you make your way up to your newly assigned suite, enjoying its luxuries for the cost of a standard double. What, this has never happened to you? It’s not mere fantasy—read on to find tried-and-true recommendations for getting upgraded for your next hotel stay. Don’t Be a Stranger. If there’s a hotel you visit frequently, make sure the staff knows you’re there and that you plan on returning again in the future. Be courteous and get to know the manager, front-desk clerks, and concierge. When you next make a reservation, contact the hotel directly, not a central reservations line. Before your arrival, get in touch with the property staff and let them know you’re arriving (offering a compliment on the property, service, etc., couldn’t hurt, either). Then, once you get there, politely mention your
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Big changes in the world of air travel are coming in 2009. From merger mania to airport security adjustments, here’s what’s on our shortlist of important changes in the year ahead.Merger ManiaLate in October, Delta’s proposed merger with Northwest was approved by the Department of Justice, and the airlines will enter full-blown merger mode in early 2009. The tie-up may not be fully complete until 2010, but you can expect Northwest’s name and brand to be phased out in 2009. The SkyMiles and WorldPerks frequent flyer programs will be merged towards the end of this year. For up-to-date information, visit Delta’s FAQ page. Of course, there’s always the possibility that the Delta/Northwest merger will spark other mergers. As a recent Reuters report predicted, “The answer is likely to be yes in an industry that clearly has excess capacity, is adding surcharges despite a retreat in fuel prices, and is facing international competitors that are expected to consolidate in the coming
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Travel can be more than schlepping around on a tour bus checking museums and cathedrals off a list. Whether it’s to the next-door state or halfway around the world, a trip can be a lot more rewarding if you focus on learning something. And although much of the focus on educational and volunteer travel is on students or retired seniors, travelers of any age can find plenty of opportunity, too. Moreover, if you’re looking for an educational trip, you can do it either through a group tour or on your own. Lots of tour operators focus on educational and self-improvement travel. Here are just a few examples, which I’ve chosen to illustrate the wide range of possibilities: A good place to start is Special Group Tours, an online agency representing special interest tours with a wide range of itineraries. Among its specialties: tours concentrating on gardens, art and wine, rock ‘n’ roll, and World War I and II battlefield sites. Of course, lots of operators feature literary tours, especially
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Airports are a hacker’s dream come true: loads of people, especially business travelers, using laptops containing valuable information to connect to the Internet. One common scheme hackers use to catch unsuspecting airport Internet users is to create free ad-hoc wireless networks that look legit, but are actually traps that allow hackers to view what travelers are doing online and steal any information sent, including passwords and credit card numbers. Hackers can also plant spyware on a computer and turn it into a “slave” that sends spam to other computers. Here are few steps you can take to avoid these scammers: Before you leave for the airport, check your computer’s network connections settings and make sure it is set up to not automatically connect to any available network. If it is, your computer could connect to a hacker network on its own, before you even notice. Turn off any file-sharing features, too. Once you’re at the airport and have your computer turned on, go to your
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‘Tis the season for great car rental promotions, especially if you’re heading to warmer climates. In late autumn, many car rental companies need to move some of their fleet from colder areas (where tourism drops for the winter) to sunny destinations, where demand picks up for the season. In the past, one-way trips to Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas have yielded the most deals. Here’s a roundup of current offerings for snowbirds. Visit your preferred car rental company’s website for the latest deals.Alamo’s deal provides a coupon that gets you $20 off your one-way rental of three days or more. Most car classes are eligible, and this deal runs through the end of March. Hertz’ Florida Drive In promotion runs through December (through January for minivans). Pick up your car at participating locations in five states and drive it to any Hertz location in Florida. Rates vary by location and car class. One-upping Alamo, National Car Rental offers $25 off one-way rentals, through the
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If you’re anything like a typical frequent flyer, trying to find a free award seat on a flight you want is frustrating at best, impossible at worst. Recognizing that millions of travelers like you face the same problems, Yapta—the innovative online fare-tracking search site—just added a new frequent flyer feature. Enter a flight you want to take and Yapta will notify you if and when an award seat becomes available. And this service doesn’t cost anything—Yapta makes its money out of links and advertising. The process is simple. Log onto Yapta, enter your personal information, and search for a flight itinerary you want to take. Yapta notifies you if either the fare goes down or a frequent flyer seat becomes available at the lowest mileage requirement for an award. You can track awards in coach/economy, business, or first class. You can track one-way or round-trip itineraries, including itineraries that require connections. If you wish, you can also have Yapta link
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Long Trip With Stopovers: One Ticket or Two? If you’re planning a very long trip, a single ticket on one airline is usually your best bet. But if you want to break the trip for a brief stopover somewhere in the middle, you have to explore the option of buying two separate tickets. A reader recently posed the question this way:”I am thinking about traveling from Houston to Namibia in September 2009. I prefer to fly via London and possibly break the trip for a day or two there in both directions. Is it better to book my flight from Houston to London on a U.S. website and my flight from London to Windhoek on a separate ticket through a European website or buy a single ticket from the U. S.?” The short answer is that there is no short answer. The only way to find your best option is to check out the alternatives.In general, as I noted, a single ticket on one airline is usually less expensive. In some cases, the best price is directly from an airline; in others, from a discounter. But
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Want a Deal? Just Look! In case you hadn’t noticed, the travel market is in the middle of a sea change. Instead of worrying about how to raise prices to cover fuel costs, suppliers are figuring out how to cut prices to stimulate demand. Airlines, especially, are facing that change, but you see it in other parts of the market, too. The net result: lots of deals—especially if you have some flexibility. The extent of the turnaround is astounding, especially for airlines. Just a month or so ago, the lines were all wringing their hands about how to get enough additional revenue to cover skyrocketing fuel costs. Suddenly, the marketplace did a 180. Fuel costs dropped more than 50 percent, relieving much of the cost pressure. Instead, the weak economy suddenly applied the brakes to the demand side, with both the high-revenue business travel and fill-up leisure travel slumping. Although other segments of the travel industry were not hit as hard as the airlines by fuel costs, many of
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