It has become chic to be cheap. It is now stupid to maintain former free-spending habits. It has never been more important to use public transportation, hostels, apartments and guesthouses, inside cabins, sightseeing passes, cut-rate carriers, and all the other paraphernalia of unpretentious travel. Those are the lessons ... Read More »
The Internet is currently crammed with special discount cruise offers from a dozen major discount companies. But for the next five days (ending midnight on Monday), the offerings of Online Vacation Center (a major company operated by the man who created Alamo Rent-a-Car and Renaissance Cruises) are unusually attractive. OVC ... Read More »
If you've never been to Maho Bay on the tiny island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, you probably won't understand why so many thoughtful people are frantic about Maho Bay's imminent demise. Maho Bay's lease for the land on which it sits will expire in almost exactly two years from now. Maho Bay is one of the two ... Read More »
Periodically, I weigh in on the validity of the reviews in TripAdvisor ( www.tripadvisor.com ) and other user-generated sites, expressing grave doubts about the usefulness of those heavily-popular services. Instantly, various defenders of TripAdvisor, Yelp ( www.yelp.com ) and the like post responses, claiming that my ... Read More »
The one-price-and-eat-all-you-want-all-day has become the latest lure created by near-desperate Las Vegas hotels. A commentator in Las Vegas Advisor ( www.lasvegasadvisor.com ) recently published the rates that major, buffet-featuring hotels were now offering to guests and non-guests equally: Excalibur $25 Luxor ... Read More »
Its name is Oyster Hotel Reviews ( www.oyster.com ). Aided by allegations that the popular TripAdvisor ( www.tripadvisor.com ) has been manipulated and distorted by less-than-objective opinions sent to it by hoteliers and others, Oyster has hired "professionals" -- full-time inspectors chosen from journalism students -- to ... Read More »
I returned last weekend from a European cruise to find an e-mail for a rather remarkable autumn offer, which you might want to consider. It's on one of the newest (five months old) ships afloat, and certainly one of the most glamorous of them, the Celebrity Solstice (and Celebrity is a cut above the normal cruise liner). ... Read More »
Given the fact that its 150-some-odd tented bungalows are usually full throughout the winter, people have always wondered why Maho Bay, on the idyllic St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, was not expanded to accommodate more discerning guests. After all, the resort occupies one of the most breathtaking locations in all the ... Read More »
The first salvo in what will undoubtedly be a ferocious trans-Atlantic price war in late summer and autumn has been fired by the cut-rate Italian carrier, Eurofly. Go to its website ( www.euroflyusa.com ) and you'll discover that this obviously hungry airline will be charging only $399 for a round-trip flight on its most ... Read More »
I was still on the high seas of the Mediterranean last week when these two news developments occurred; and they are probably already known to you. But they are so important they need to be re-announced: 1.) Southwest is now offering low-cost air service between New York City and Chicago five times a day and to Baltimore ... Read More »
