Travel -: Why do I have to pay a $477 cancellation fee?

Travel - Headlines from

Why do I have to pay a $477 cancellation fee? Jul 26th 2011, 07:00 Q: My husband and I were planning a weekend trip to New York to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I have mobility problems and we always book a hotel as close as possible to Broadway in the theater district. For the trip in question, I searched Cheaptickets.com and found the W Hotel right off Broadway. We thought we booked the room, but when reviewing the confirming email, we found that we had accidentally booked the W Hotel on Lexington Avenue -- not the W Broadway hotel. Within less than 24 hours, we canceled the reservation and tried to rebook the correct W hotel. I did not notice the cancellation notice on the screen and the original booking confirmation disappeared from my files. I did not retain a printed copy of it. We were stunned when we were billed $477 for the cancellation. After many phone calls and emails to both Cheaptickets.com and to the W Hotel, Cheaptickets.com told us that billing one night's charge for a cancellation was a policy of the hotel. The hotel told us it was not their policy. After much correspondence with Cheaptickets.com and our credit card company, we were told that we had to pay the charge, which we did. However, we still feel that a $477 charge for a cancellation made in less than 24 hours after the reservation is very excessive and unconscionable. Can you help? -- Beulah Saideman, Philadelphia A: If the W wasn't charging you a cancellation penalty, then it must have been Cheaptickets.com. But since you didn't keep your records, it's difficult to say exactly what was going on. Your case underscores the importance of keeping good records when you act as your own travel agent. But let's take one more step back. Given your situation, I think you might have benefited from using a travel agent. If you have mobility problems, an agent won't just ensure that you're staying at the right hotel, but also in the right room. Hotels often have larger, handicapped-accessible rooms that are available at no extra charge. You can find a competent agent through the American Society of Travel Agents site (http://www.astanet.com). Although your case was resolved a while back, I've decided to write about it now because I've notice more travelers keeping lax records and self-booking when they probably shouldn't. Using a site like Cheaptickets.com is perfectly fine when you're comfortable booking online and you don't have any special requests. But I've dealt with guests who've tried to request adjoining rooms, nonsmoking rooms and even specific rooms, online. That's not what these sites were designed to do. They're meant for the "average" guest with no special requirements. Likewise, if you're liable to lose documents or delete emails or type in the wrong name of the hotel (happens to all of us) then you may want to use an agent. Bottom line: I think this could have been avoided. I asked Cheaptickets.com to look into the $477 charge. It contacted you and offered a full refund. (Christopher Elliott is the author of the upcoming book "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals" (Wiley). He's also the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for travelers. You can read more tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at chris@elliott.org).

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Park service to thin out Yosemite's growing crowds — of trees

Travel - Headlines from

Park service to thin out Yosemite's growing crowds — of trees Jul 30th 2011, 02:22 Reporting from Yosemite National Park -- National parks tend to be a tree hugger's paradise. Layers of federal laws, strict park service rules and even the disapproving scowls from some visitors prohibit so much as driving a nail into a tree, much less cutting one down. But it's getting a bit crowded in Yosemite, where more than a hundred years of prompt firefighting have allowed towering pines and cedars to clog the park's meadows and valleys. These days, you can barely see the granite for the trees. That's about to change. Yosemite National Park officials say thousands of trees will be felled to preserve the iconic views of the park's waterfalls and the craggy faces of El Capitan and Half Dome. For the Record: This article incorrectly refers to Yosemite as the country's first national park. Yellowstone was the first national park. The project is part of Yosemite's Scenic Vista Management Plan, approved by the park service's regional office this week. Photos: Four seasons in Yosemite Chain saws will be fired up in the fall, said Supt. Don Neubacher, aimed mainly at ponderosa pines and incense cedars. Rare or ecologically sensitive trees such as California black oaks, sugar pines and white bark pines will be spared. None of the park's thousand-year-old sequoias will be cut, nor will any trees more than 130 years old. In public meetings and in person, park officials and rangers have been making the case that their tree-cutting plan is biologically sound and aims to improve visitor enjoyment of the park's natural features. To that end, much of the thinning will be done along the park's roads and turnouts, where carloads of tourists pile out to snap pictures of Bridalveil or Yosemite falls. Still, the public has let park officials know that there is something unseemly about the image of lumberjacks hewing mighty trees in the country's oldest national park. Neubacher understands visitors' concerns about cutting trees in Yosemite, but says "this will create views for visitors, views that were here before." Yosemite was set aside as the nation's first national park in part because of the magnificent, wall-to-wall vistas afforded by its open meadows. Painters and early landscape photographers captured what are now emblematic images of the West: broad valleys rimmed by granite cliffs with spilling waterfalls. Those open valley floors were maintained first by Native Americans who regularly set fires to clear trees, or by blazes sparked by lightning. Travelers in the 19th century grazed their livestock in the Yosemite Valley and planted crops, relegating trees to the edges of the meadows. When landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted prepared a report on the Yosemite region in 1865, he singled out the deep-cleft valleys for particular praise, calling the sight "the greatest glory of nature." But the park service moves quickly to stamp out fires that might otherwise thin the stands of trees that spread their seedlings into meadows. Some of those saplings are now towering to 100 feet, spoiling the party for tourists seeking to immortalize their vacation with a postcard backdrop. Officials here have been thinking about the sightline issue for some time. In 2009, the park analyzed 181 scenic views around Yosemite, excluding wilderness areas. The survey revealed that encroaching vegetation obscured the view at 28% of the sites and partially blocked it at 54% of them. "We are managing the park for people," said Kevin McCardle, a park service historical architect who headed up the scenic vista team. "We have to create roads, we have to create parking lots, we have to create space for people. We are creating space for visitors to see the park." Visitors on a recent day seemed mostly unaware of the park's plans to fell trees near meadows, roads and along some lakes â€" 93 sites in all. Gary Lockhart was striding briskly along a Yosemite Valley trail, carrying a tree limb as a walking stick. He said he hadn't heard of the new policy, but thought it was a good idea. "I've been coming here since the '50s and I know what this used to look like. You used to be able to see from there," he said, waving his stick to one end of the valley, "to there." "This valley was wide open," said Lockhart, who lives in Bakersfield. "This place is honeycombed with trails, but you'd never know because of the trees." Of course, Half Dome, at 8,800 feet, is difficult to miss. But stands of pines gather at one end of a meadow along the Merced River, and at the far end trees clog the view of Yosemite Falls. And in some cases, a full view other well-known scenes may elude amateur photographers, especially as fast-growing conifers continue to fill in. John Rienzie was resting on log bench, gazing across two lanes of a Yosemite summer traffic jam, enjoying the sight of the late-afternoon sun lingering on the crest of Half Dome. He pondered the policy for some time before saying he would agree "if there is a purpose to it." After a moment, the New Yorker asked again why it was necessary. To improve the views for visitors, he was told. He looked up quizzically, "If you can't see that mountain, " he said, stabbing a finger at the distant granite wall, "you need to have your glasses checked." julie.cart@latimes.com

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Lances raised, Italian town prepares to joust

Travel - Headlines from

Lances raised, Italian town prepares to joust Jul 29th 2011, 20:36 SULMONA, Italy (Reuters) - It is time for the butcher to polish up his battle-axe and the schoolmistress to stitch fresh silks on her noblewoman's gown as the hired horseman hones his lance and primes his mount for combat. Jousting season in Sulmona, and the people of this ancient town, nestled in Italy's central mountains, are making fevered preparations for the biggest festival of their year, when Renaissance pageantry and feasting set the tone for local rivalries fought out in knightly contests on the main square. The piazza, a natural hippodrome of tall, stone buildings with the high peaks of the Abruzzi soaring up behind, has been laid with hundreds of tonnes of sand and planted with greenery to mark out a track round which 'cavaliere' -- the knights -- will race with lances raised at breakneck speeds. As important for the Sulmonese is the pageantry surrounding the joust, the Giostra Cavallaresca, which begins on Saturday; months of hard work behind the scenes in sewing elaborate 16th-century costumes and rehearsing bands of trumpeters and drummers finally see the light of day in parades and banquets. "Hundreds of people, all over the town, have been cooking and sewing and practicing. We're dead tired, been up till 3 in the morning stitching beautiful robes," said pensioner Tilde Carugno, whose routine goes into overdrive for jousting season. "It's worth it, though. We live the Giostra in our hearts." Festivities are marked by intense though, mostly, good-humored rivalry among the seven districts into which the town is divided for the Giostra, an event which traces its heritage to the city's mediaeval heyday, was codified in Sulmona in 1583 and resurrected in 1995 to bolster both tourism and civic pride. Much of Sulmona's 25,000 population turns out to watch. Summer theatrics are common across Italy's picturesque small towns. Some also stage equestrian events, notably Siena's centuries-old Palio horse race round that city's square. But Sulmona claims a uniqueness for the skill and daring of its jousting, which now attracts television sports audiences. SPEED AND SKILL The medieval combats, where knights sought to knock each other flying, were long gone by the time Renaissance Sulmonese set down their own rules for a test of knightly prowess. Today, the riders, mostly professional jockeys hired by the competing town districts, race apart, though in the same arena. In each head-to-head contest, two riders set off in opposite directions from the center of a figure-of-eight track. With their lances, they pick off rings hung from manikin knights set around the piazza. Each half-minute contest ends with the pair racing toward each other to the finish line and a final ring. The winner will have scored more points -- smaller rings count for more -- but speed counts too, deciding the outcome in about half the jousts, where points are even, and contributing to calculations of who contests Sunday's semifinals and final. Falls, mishaps and controversial umpiring are not uncommon and spectators packing stands around the piazza, hundreds of them in elaborate costume, are guaranteed thrills and drama as local passions flare as rowdily as in any soccer stadium. The coming week will see a surge in tourism for a place best known to Italians for its 'confetti' -- the sugared almonds ubiquitous at weddings -- and to classical scholars as the home town of the Roman poet Ovid. But for most locals, the main aim is to celebrate community in a town which, like many in Italy, faces uncertain times as ever more local factories close down. This year sees an expanded program around the Giostra after cutbacks last year that followed the devastation of the provincial capital L'Aquila in a 2009 earthquake. Government austerity plans remain a worry, though, for the organizers. Before and after each session of jousting, and during the subsequent week of related tournaments and exhibitions bringing in teams from Italy and abroad, squads of people from each of the seven districts will have paraded through Sulmona dressed as nobles, soldiers and pages, accompanied by the waving of flags. The sound of drums and trumpets echoes for days around town; banners line the narrow, cobbled streets marking off the rival districts; and each night brings neighbors together under the stars for feasting and, for the fortunate on Sunday, celebration round the palio, or banner, awarded to the victorious cavaliere. The talk this year is of whether 2010 champion Francesco Scattolini, riding for the Porta Bonomini sestiere, or district, can fend off the challenge of the veteran Massimo Conficconi of Porta Filiamabili, who is bidding for a record seventh palio. For more details, go to http://www.giostrasulmona.it (Editing by Louise Ireland)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Statue for rock and roll's Chuck Berry erected in St. Louis

Travel - Headlines from

Statue for rock and roll's Chuck Berry erected in St. Louis Jul 29th 2011, 20:14 1 2 next |   single page Bruce Olson Reuters 3:14 p.m. CDT, July 29, 2011 ST. LOUIS, June 27 (Reuters) - Rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry, spry and smiling at 84 years old, gave a wave of approval dedicating an eight-foot bronze statue of himself on Friday before a cheering crowd of about 500 people. The statue was erected in the Delmar Loop entertainment district of St. Louis despite opponents who objected to the monument, citing Berry's legal troubles during his long career. "I won't keep you long," Berry, wearing his trademark boating cap, told a crowd that gathered despite heat surpassing 90 degrees. "I don't know how to speak, I just sing a little bit. I'm going to say thank you again, and I love you all." Berry's rapid fire lyrics and revolutionary guitar riffs landed him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and earned the lifelong St. Louis resident a Presidential medal of honor. He is listed by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the five top all-time rock acts along the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley. Berry, who first played in 1941, still performs every month Statue for rock and roll's Chuck Berry erected in St. Louis

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Boston kicks off first bike share program in the state

Travel - Headlines from

Boston kicks off first bike share program in the state Jul 28th 2011, 13:50 By Associated Press 8:50 a.m. CDT, July 28, 2011 BOSTON (AP) â€" Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is set to lead a caravan of bicycle riders through the city to launch the state's first bike share program. The Hubway bike share program allows people to rent bicycles from one of 61 sidewalk vending stations spread across the city. Menino and 200 bikers are scheduled to ride through the city Thursday to formally launch the program. The initiative is one of the first in the country and the only in the state. An aide to Menino says the city hopes the program expands to surrounding communities. Users can sign up for yearly membership or use short term deals lasting one or three days to ride one of the program's 600 bicycles. User fees and corporate sponsors will pay for the program.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: You can still go for the brass ring at 100-year-old carousel on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Travel - Headlines from

You can still go for the brass ring at 100-year-old carousel on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Jul 28th 2011, 18:59 SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) â€" Click, thump, riiiiing! That's the sound of something you often hear about but rarely see: A carousel rider going for the brass ring. It happens on a daily basis on the Looff Carousel at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, where painted ponies have been spinning for a century, a triumph of tradition in a field dominated by the pursuit of new thrills. "I love it," says 57-year-old Gerry Watt of Sacramento, who has been visiting the Boardwalk for decades and was "never too cool for the carousel, even in my teens." The Boardwalk, set beside the long, golden sweep of Santa Cruz Main Beach, goes back to 1865 when a man named John Leibrandt opened a public bathhouse nearby. Others followed and soon Santa Cruz was drawing people who wanted to enjoy the allegedly curative properties of bathing in salt water. Restaurants and curio shops, followed and at the turn of the 20th century, promoter Fred W. Swanton decided to open a casino and boardwalk that would be the "Coney Island of the West." The carousel made its debut in August 1911, built by Charles I.D. Looff, a master woodcarver from Denmark. Looff had already made his name with his first complete carousel placed at Coney Island in New York. Back then, rides cost a nickel. Today, the carousel, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark, costs $3 a spin. Looff apparently had a puckish sense of humor. The story is that he chose the middle initials "I.D." after Ellis Island immigration officials told him he had to have a middle name "for his I.D." You can see that humorous vein in the carousel horses, several of which boast toothy smiles. The horses have real horsehair tails and details ranging from swords to flashing jewels. Some have items strapped behind the saddles, including a sheep and a pheasant. There are 73 horses â€" 71 jumpers plus two stationary horses that are good for parents with unsteady young riders â€" as well as two chariots decorated with the heads of rams and cherubs. The big draw of the carousel is its ring dispenser. Rings were once handed out by "ring boys," but since 1950, the process has been mechanized. The rings â€" mostly steel these days except on special occasions when brass-plated ones are used â€" are dispensed by a long arm that riders on outside horses can reach. You grab a ring, throw it toward the gaping mouth of a large clown painted on a backdrop near the carousel and, if successful, are rewarded by bells and flashing lights. Scoring a hit is a kick, one that often is denied the left-handed Watts, although that doesn't stop him from rushing to secure an outside horse. "It's really difficult. There's something about the trajectory," he says. The music has a vintage sound, provided for 100 years by a 342-pipe Ruth und Sohn band organ built in 1894. In 2007, the Boardwalk acquired a Wurlitzer band organ from the closed Playland-at-the-Beach amusement park in San Francisco, and there is a third small Wurlitzer organ. The carousel has had its moment in the spotlight, being featured in films including "The Lost Boys," ''The King of Love," and 'Sudden Impact." Along with rides that range from kiddie to fairly thrilling, the Boardwalk has the usual games of chance, arcades and tempting goodies, including deep-fried Twinkies and Oreos. If you're up for a brief walk, the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf is less than half a mile away, featuring several restaurants and curio shops. A fun choice is the take-away window at The Dolphin at the end of the wharf which serves up a tasty clam chowder in a bread bowl. Fenced holes in the wharf's planking allows you to get a look at sea lions that may be basking below while you wait for lunch. Watch out for the seagulls; they'll steal your food if you leave it unattended.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Watch sport and tone up: With bikes, London 2012 kills two birds with one stone

Travel - Headlines from

Watch sport and tone up: With bikes, London 2012 kills two birds with one stone Jul 28th 2011, 15:56 LONDON (AP) â€" Having sprinted, jumped and thrown, and then having collected their medals, the athletes who compete in the Olympic Stadium next summer would be wise to do a Forrest Gump and keep on running. Because just a few hundred yards (meters) south of the arena, little more than a javelin throw away from the 80,000 spectators, is a historical and technological marvel of London that no Olympic visitor should miss: a merrily sludging river of raw sewage. About 1 million tons per day of the stuff, from hundreds of thousands of toilets and storm drains across North London, flowing right there in huge tunnels under your feet. Sniff the air â€" aahhh! â€" and, with the right wind, the eggy odor will make your nose crinkle. Granted, the Northern Outfall Sewer isn't the most aesthetic of London's sights. But it is among the most fascinating. It was hurriedly but thoughtfully built with 318 million bricks after the "Great Stink" of 1858, when the sewage-polluted River Thames grew so putrid in hot weather as to make London unbearable. In Parliament, the curtains were soaked with chemicals to try to ward off the noxious stench and there was even talk of it decamping from the capital entirely. A measure of the severity of the stink was the rapidity with which lawmakers acted to solve it. Engineer Joseph Bazalgette was quickly commissioned to build a sewage network that would help purify the Thames. He did such a good job that his system still forms the basis for London's sewers a century and a half later. Thanks, in part, to the 2012 games, this stupendous feat of Victorian engineering and other landmarks that speak to London's rich history but which are off the tourist trail are now easier to explore and to see â€" if, as Olympic organizers hope, you travel by bike or on foot. Which you should. Having meat-packed myself into sweaty London Underground trains that risk being even more crowded next summer and, now, having lately explored some of the newly renovated sections of London's ever-expanding network of cycle paths, I'd recommend two wheels everytime. And not merely for that feeling of wind through your hair. A sorry truism of the Olympic Games and other sporting extravaganzas is that they are performances by extremely fit and healthy people for spectators who are often very unfit, unhealthy and overweight. Newham, home to the Olympic Park, and neighboring Barking have the lowest physical activity rates of any London boroughs, with only 14-15 percent of adults doing sport or strenuous exercise three times a week for at least 30 minutes each time. London is hoping its Olympics help to change some of this. Organizers are encouraging spectators to walk and cycle to events by making it easier for them to do so. The idea is that people get the walking-cycling bug and keep it long after the Olympics have moved on. To be green, London wants all spectators to leave their cars at home. The vast majority will travel on London public transport, which carries 12 million travelers on a normal day but will be even busier at games-time. Olympic planners expect at least 4 percent will cycle and walk and are aiming for more, not least to ease strain on trains. Walking and cycling paths leading to venues have been spruced up and connected up. There's a lovely one, for example, that runs the length of the west side of the Olympic Park, beside a very pleasant canal with ducks and houseboats. The path has a fresh gravel top and, at one point, dips under four massive metal pipes that form part of Bazalgette's sewer system. There's a plaque there with his name and the construction date: 1862-63. Olympic organizers say more than 25 million pounds (€28 million;$40 million) has been spent upgrading cycling and walking routes to all venues. You see far more of a city by bike. London's transport authority offers free cycle maps; I picked up a bunch at Euston station before I explored. One canal path took me from the Olympic Park south to Limehouse Basin on the Thames in 30 minutes of easy riding. From there, it was another absorbing cycle along quaint and mostly empty backstreets to the Tower of London that was thick with tourists. The cycle maps show that, aside from occasional breaks here and there where cyclists would need to travel on roads, another path along Grand Union Canal, then Regent's Canal and finally Hertford Union Canal to the Olympic Park snakes right across North London. I rode the last few miles (kilometers) of this picturesque route, past brick houses with lush lawns abutting the canal. The city's cycle hire scheme is also being expanded from central London eastward closer to the Olympic Park. Anyone aged 14 and over and with the right brand of credit card (not all cards are accepted) can take one of the 6,000 bicycles from any of 400 hire points. They could be a smart way to explore Hyde Park that will host triathlon and marathon swimming next summer. There also are hire points around Lord's Cricket Ground that will host archery and Horse Guards Parade where there'll be beach volleyball. The bikes could also suit Londoners or any visitor simply trying to move around the Olympic-congested city. "By 2012, we'll be able to invite the entire world to join London's cycling revolution," Mayor Boris Johnson declared last November. Organizers say cyclists won't be allowed to take bikes into the Olympic Park but there will be free and secure parking at all venues. Lobbying groups welcome London's cycling and walking improvements but would like even more and say the city still lags behind cycle-friendly Amsterdam or Copenhagen. But cyclists also say the city is much safer to ride around than it used to be and that the 2005 terror attacks on public transport and London's tax on vehicles that drive in the city center have prompted more people to ride bikes.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Dependent on post offices, long-distance hikers fret that treks will get more pricey

Travel - Headlines from

Dependent on post offices, long-distance hikers fret that treks will get more pricey Jul 28th 2011, 21:33 RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) â€" Hiking the nearly 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail already is grueling, and the U.S. Postal Service may make it even tougher. A plan to close rural post offices could shutter several outposts long used by hikers to receive food and gear as they walk the trail from Georgia to Maine. Closing the post offices in Fontana Dam, N.C.; Glencliff, N.H.; and Caratunk, Maine, would leave hikers without an easy way to get food and switch out equipment at critical points during their treks, which usually take between four and six months. Those key locations and some others near the trail are being reviewed for closure, though no final decision has been made. "I'm trying to do this without spending much money. Getting supplied at the post office is a big part of that. It's like a lifeline," said Mike Healy, a 26-year-old Chicago resident who is hiking the trail with friends. In mid-March, he tore into a package mailed to the western North Carolina post office before he headed into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. "The night before we reached Fontana, four of us split a small box of dried cereal because that was all the food we had left," Healy said in a phone interview from Maine. "We were glad to know we'd be able to get our package the following day." More than 3,600 local offices, branches and stations could be on the chopping block as the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service considers closing 1 in 10 of its retail outlets to save money. Each place will be studied, and people served by the location will be able to make a case for keeping it open. About 3 million people spend time on the trail every year and some 2,000 set out to "thru-hike" â€" or complete the trek in one season, according to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Most travel north from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The threat of closures along the Appalachian Trail is mirrored in the West for thousands who traverse sections of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada. At least three rural post offices along the route are being considered for closure in California and Washington, including the last stop before Canada: Stehekin, Wash. The wilderness community reachable only by boat, floatplane or on foot. Backpackers would have to carry many more pounds of food between stops, which would make the trip more difficult and less enjoyable, said Heather Tilert, a 28-year-old from New York who hiked the trail last year. The Appalachian Trail hikers typically walk or hitchhike into nearby towns for supplies every week or so, and many are on tight budgets. In some spots, discount stores provide the ramen noodles and peanut butter used to replace the thousands of calories hikers burn each day. But in others, stores are harder to find and hikers ship supplies in advance to post offices that will hold the packages for them. Also common is the use of "bounce boxes" filled with extra food, batteries or books, which hikers mail to themselves between the 121 post offices near the trail. At the Fontana Dam office, the last resupply stop before the Smokeys, employee Brenda Williams said it's not unusual for her to give out 30 to 40 packages daily during peak hiking season. It's the busiest time of year for the post office in the town of about 30 full-time residents. "Our post office is a little bitty thing with two teller windows," she said. In Caratunk, hikers can pick up parcels at the post office less than half a mile from the trail. If that site closes, the nearest post office will be 7½ miles up the road in West Forks, but that one's also slated for possible closure. The next-nearest is about 15 miles away. Hikers toting walking sticks and lugging packs stream in and out of the post office during the hiking season, said Liz Caruso, a Caratunk selectwoman. Last year, 374 packages were mailed to the post office for hikers. "They're always sitting outside the post office," Caruso said. "When you go into the post offices, the shelves are full of boxes for hikers." The same holds at the post office in Glencliff, N.H., which is used by hundreds of hikers each year to receive food and heavier clothing as the seasons change from summer to autumn in the colder northern states, said William Reilly, the caretaker at the nearby Hikers Welcome Hostel. "The most important thing for them is this is the last post office before the White Mountains, and they need their cold-weather gear," Reilly said. On Thursday in Caratunk, Madelyn Hoagland-Hanson said hikers were signing a petition at a hostel in New Hampshire aimed at keeping the Glencliff post office open. "It's a shame that the local post offices are closing," said the Philadelphia resident who has adopted the nickname "Trail Mix" on her trek from Connecticut to Mount Katahdin. Thru-hiker Greg Brown, of Pleasantville, N.Y, said the towns along the trail in Maine are spaced far apart. "I don't think there's much in the way of a grocery store. Otherwise you're going to have to carry everything you need from Stratton to Monson, which is like 80 miles," he said. ___ Canfield reported from Portland, Maine. Shannon Dininny in Yakima, Wash., and Harry Weber in Odd, W.Va., contributed to this report.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Toronto offers height-loving daredevils new thrills

Travel - Headlines from

Toronto offers height-loving daredevils new thrills Jul 27th 2011, 21:48 TORONTO (Reuters) - Daredevils in red jumpsuits can teeter around the outside edge of Canada's tallest structure next month as the CN Tower opens a new attraction for thrill-seekers and those wanting to overcome fear. Modeled on similar attractions in Auckland, New Zealand, and Macau, China, the C$3.5 million ($3.7 million) EdgeWalk is an adrenaline filled excursion around an open-mesh metal walkway almost a quarter of a mile above the ground. There's no guard rail and no hand holds, just an uninterrupted view of the Toronto skyline and a through-the-mesh view of the ground, 1,168 feet beneath your feet. Tourists are tethered to an overhead guide rail, but encouraged to tiptoe to the very edge of the platform, balance over its rim or peer through the mesh at the pinhead people below. On a clear day the view is stunning. "We want to get every adventurous thrill-seeker, and then we want to get everybody who wants to overcome fears and dig down real deep and do something that they never thought in their wildest dreams that they would ever want to do," said Jack Robinson, the tower's chief operating officer. Overcoming his own fears, Robinson has done the walk three times as the tower ramped up a visitor program that formally starts on August 1. "I'm not an adventure seeker," he said. "But each time it's different, and each time it's exhilarating." The tour starts with ground-level tests for explosives and alcohol, followed by safety talks and quadruple checks on safety equipment. There's no jewelry, no cameras, no open-toed shoes and a waiver that includes the disconcerting line that "the activities involve risks and dangers that may cause serious personal injury and even death." The outside portion of the tour lasts 20 to 30 all-too-short minutes, from the moment that glass doors open and the tourists venture, tentatively at first, onto the platform. So far nobody has chickened out of the tour, which costs C$175 ($184) a go. The 1,815-foot (553.33 meter) CN Tower, built in 1976, already boasted a glass floor on part of its viewing platform, prompting a how-much-do-you-dare game among its millions of visitors. The brave run to the center of the glass and jump up and down as if to test its strength, while the timid venture cautiously on to the first few feet. The nervous never make it onto the glass at all, preferring a horizontal view of the skyline from floor-to-ceiling picture windows. The tower expects to recoup the money it spent installing the EdgeWalk adventure within four years. (Editing by Frank McGurty)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Airlines announce new credit cards

Travel - Headlines from

Airlines announce new credit cards Jul 26th 2011, 07:00 American and United both announced new credit cards that earn mileage in the sponsoring line's frequent flyer program. Both add a bunch of additional benefits, as well, and both will be welcome additions to the smorgasbord of card options available to frequent flyers. The new American "Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard" from Citi is the more up-market card. It includes a waiver of the first-bag checking fee for the cardholder and up to eight traveling companions, priority check-in and security screening, "concierge" service, and no-fee unlimited access to American's Admirals Club airport lounges. Also, as is now typical, it adds big mileage bonuses for new enrollments and heavy use. The annual fee is a stiff $450. Although several cards these days include waived baggage check fees, American's new card offers three features that are still rare: -- The really big deal here is access to Admirals Club. Unless you're a very high-ranking frequent flyer, the card's annual fee is less than the regular membership fees for the Club. -- Also big -- no surcharge on foreign charges. -- And -- a first among airline cards -- later this year, you'll be able to get a card with chip-and-pin capability that avoids severe problems with some foreign purchase transactions. Clearly, this card is aimed to match the similar premium-level United and Continental cards offered by Chase that provide access to those lines' lounge club systems. It also takes on the AmEx Platinum Card, which offers more limited access to lounge club systems on several airlines. Currently, the Platinum Card list includes American, but I'd expect that to disappear soon. All these cards are priced in the range of $375 to $450 a year. And the choice among them would obviously depend on which of the airlines you use most frequently. The new United "Mileage Plus Explorer Card" from Chase is a bit more mainstream, but its annual fee of $95, waived for the first year, is a lot less than American's card. Still, its benefits are significant when you use the card: -- The first-bag checking fee is waived for you and one traveling companion. -- You get two one-day passes to United's Red Carpet Room airport lounge club each year. -- You have access to priority boarding. -- Your miles will never expire. -- And you get a similar laundry list of enrollment and heavy-use "bonuses." The Continental "OnePass Plus Card" provides essentially the same benefit set. Sometime next year, after the complete merger of the two lines' frequent flyer programs, separate Continental cards will disappear, but travelers with those card will retain all the accrued mileage and other benefits. Meanwhile, Continental and United are rapidly rationalizing various program details. Unlike the new American card, however, the new United card does not waive foreign transaction fees and, at least so far, has not announced plans to issue chip-and-pin cards. I find these omissions a bit puzzling: Clearly travelers who get airline cards are much more likely to travel overseas than the general population, and you'd think that those features would be a big draw. If you already have an older United card but like the new card's features, notify Chase that you'd like to switch. If you're an ordinary day-to-day traveler, probably the most useful benefit is no fee for checking in your first bag. That benefit is already available on Delta through its several American Express cards and, I suspect, will be adopted by other airlines within a year or so. It's worth about $50 on each round trip you take with checked baggage, so you'll offset the annual fee with just two round trips each year. As to chip-and-pin, Chase seems to be moving a bit less glacially than other banks; its JP Morgan Select card, annual fee $95, currently offers that capability, as do a very few cards from other banks. I still don't get why a simple-to-implement chip-and-pin option has remained so elusive, but presumably the big U.S. banks will slowly get with the program. (Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net. Perkins' new book for small business and independent professionals, "Business Travel When It's Your Money," is now available through www.mybusinesstravel.com or www.amazon.com)

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Police: 2 brothers arrested at Miami airport after attacking pilot who kicked them off plane

Travel - Headlines from

Police: 2 brothers arrested at Miami airport after attacking pilot who kicked them off plane Jul 28th 2011, 15:37 MIAMI (AP) â€" A man punched an American Airlines pilot who kicked him off a flight from Miami, and he and his brother then attacked the pilot again before bystanders tackled the brothers in the terminal, officials said Thursday. Jonathan and Luis Baez, both of Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, were arrested at Miami International Airport. They had been aboard American Airlines Flight 1755 bound for San Francisco on Wednesday night, according to an arrest affidavit. While the plane taxied away from the gate, a flight attendant noticed 27-year-old Jonathan Baez was sleeping and had not buckled his seat belt, police said. She tried to wake him, but she told police that Baez was unresponsive and appeared to be intoxicated or on drugs. The pilot turned the plane around and returned to gate D51. "As we always do with these things, we'd much rather deal with it on the ground than in the air," American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said Thursday. The pilot and flight attendant then woke up Baez and told him to get off the plane, police said. "He was apparently barely compliant at that point," Smith said. "He was exhibiting symptoms of intoxication. He was not walking well when he went up the aisle." Luis Baez, 29, decided to join his brother as he was being escorted off the plane. As the brothers walked toward the aircraft's exit door, they became belligerent, and Luis Baez told the pilot, "When you fly to San Juan I will have you killed," according to the arrest report. The brothers walked off the plane, but then Jonathan Baez returned and punched the pilot in the face and hit the flight attendant in the shoulder when she tried to intervene, police said. Both brothers attacked the pilot again in the jet bridge and chased him in the terminal, according to the arrest report. Other flight crew members and passengers held down the brothers until police arrived. "There was a scuffle that took place, so about three or four of us went out there and tackled the guys. There were two of them and I guess the pilot ended up with some contusions on his face. So we just did what we needed to do to help out," Ken Venting of Scotts Valley, Calif., told KGO-TV in San Francisco. The Miami-based pilot suffered cuts and bruises to his face and blurred vision, and he told police he was afraid Luis Baez would follow through on his death threat, according to the police report. Another pilot filled in and flew the plane carrying 176 passengers and six crew members to San Francisco International Airport. Jonathan Baez was held Thursday on $9,000 bond on charges of battery and aggravated battery. Luis Baez was held on $12,500 bond on charges of aggravated assault and aggravated battery. Miami-Dade County jail records did not show if either brother was represented by an attorney. "I think it's fair to say that both these gentlemen won't be flying with us again," Smith said.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Chicago fliers see bigger airfare increases

Travel - Headlines from

Chicago fliers see bigger airfare increases Jul 27th 2011, 18:53 Travelers make their way through the United Airlines terminal at O'Hare. (William DeShazer/ Chicago Tribune) From Crain's Chicago Business 1:53 p.m. CDT, July 27, 2011 Chicago travelers saw the second-biggest jump in domestic airfares earlier this year, according to federal data published Wednesday. The average domestic fare out of Chicago rose 11.8 percent to $360 in the first quarter from $322 in the year-earlier period, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics data.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Continental cancels 24 flights over crew issue

Travel - Headlines from

Continental cancels 24 flights over crew issue Jul 27th 2011, 17:28 Associated Press 12:28 p.m. CDT, July 27, 2011 Continental Airlines canceled 24 flights Wednesday, most of them out of Newark Liberty International Airport, due to “crew availability” problems. Continental operates a large hub out of Newark and has about 3,000 daily flights system-wide. It was working to get customers on alternate flights. Airline spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said that the cancellations were “due to lack of crew availability” but declined to elaborate. Air Line Pilots Association spokeswoman Amy Flanagan declined to comment. United Airlines bought Continental last year and has been trying to combine them into a single airline. The process has been slower than expected, partly because of contentious labor negotiations. Jeff Smisek, the CEO of United Continental Holdings Inc., said last week that it was unlikely the company could agree to labor contracts with all its unions this year. The company said it has more pilots this summer than last summer. Company spokeswoman Julie King said the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at both airlines, “participates in our monthly review to set staffing levels.”

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Niagara Falls considers a return to its daredevil past

Travel - Headlines from

Niagara Falls considers a return to its daredevil past Jul 27th 2011, 07:00 Reporting from Niagara Falls, N.Y.â€" There is no shortage of legends surrounding the cat that went over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Some say it survived, proving the barrel was sturdy enough to carry humans down the falls. Some say it died. Some say it rode shotgun with Annie Edson Taylor when she became the first person to survive a barrel roll over the falls in 1901. Mark DiFrancesco of Niagara Falls' Daredevil Museum offers another twist on the tale. "Legend has it the cat was black going over the falls but came out of the barrel white" from fright, he said, straight-faced, as Independence Day visitors eyed the museum's yellowed newspaper clippings, old photographs, bashed-up barrels, tattered life vests and a dented jet ski. That the legend of the cat lives on 110 years later says something about Niagara Falls' passion for its daredevil past, which seemed as dead as its economy until state lawmakers latched onto the idea of using that death-defying spirit to try to boost the city's finances. High-wire artist Nik Wallenda approached officials recently with a plan to cross the cataract on a wire the width of a nickel. The performance would be featured in "Life on a Wire," a Discovery Channel show expected to begin airing later this year. To clear the way for the spectacle, legislators last month approved a one-time exemption from a 50-year-old ban on daredevil acts at the falls. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not indicated whether he will sign the bill, which has won support from local tourism officials and most city leaders. Backers say that even though the city wouldn't profit directly, visitors who come to watch Wallenda would spend money in its restaurants and other businesses, and the television show could trigger a long-term surge in tourism. But not everyone is sold on a made-for-reality-TV event as the solution to the city's economic problems, especially one that could end in tragedy. "Are we that desperate?" local historian Paul Gromosiak asked the Niagara Falls City Council this month. Some think so. Council members voted 4-1 to endorse the wire walk. Once synonymous with romantic honeymoons, burgeoning industry (Nabisco made Shredded Wheat here) and Hollywood glamour (Marilyn Monroe played a murderous wife in the 1953 hit "Niagara"), the Rust Belt city has struggled for decades. A few blocks from the shady parkland surrounding the falls, dilapidated neighborhoods speak to the city's decline. Crumbling brick and boarded-up windows mar streets lined with once-gracious homes. Derelict storefronts haunt Main Street. Low-slung motels and vacant lots stand in sharp contrast to the high-rises, colorful cafes and manicured gardens across the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls' Canadian sister city. There, officials spent decades building a bustling tourist industry while their New York counterparts banked on factories and plants â€" now gone â€" to pay the bills. Since 1960, the city's population has fallen by more than half, to 50,000. Though tourism officials say more than 8 million people visit each year, they don't necessarily stay the night. The city's hotel occupancy rate this year is 51.7%, its best in years but still lagging behind the national average of 59%, according to Smith Travel Research. Hotel revenue last year was about $76 million, compared with $420 million for hotels on the Canadian side. Last month, the city's school district announced a halt to night games for varsity sports teams, to save money on stadium lighting. "We're very depressed here," said tour guide Michele Brundidge as she led visitors through the Daredevil Museum â€" actually a convenience store whose heat-and-serve burritos, ice cream bars and cold drinks share space with artifacts left by those who tried to conquer the falls. When tourists glimpse the Canadian skyline with its giant Ferris wheel and hotels overlooking the falls, they ask, "Can't we go over there?" Brundidge said. If the prohibition against daredevil acts is eased, Wallenda would have one year to perform his feat, which would take him across the Niagara River in front of Horseshoe Falls. At more than 170 feet high and 2,200 feet wide, it is the biggest and most spectacular of the three cataracts that make up Niagara Falls. The wire would be attached to cranes on either side of the gorge; Wallenda's representatives say there would be no bolts or other damage to the environment. Some key players â€" including parks commissions in New York and Ontario, Canada â€" have yet to embrace the idea. Skeptics such as Mayor Paul Dyster of Niagara Falls, N.Y., worry about copycats.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions

Travel -: Anderson Japanese Gardens emphasize balance, tranquility, visual delight

Travel - Headlines from

Anderson Japanese Gardens emphasize balance, tranquility, visual delight Jul 26th 2011, 20:46 ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) â€" Japanese gardens are about inspiring and soothing the soul. And you don't have to be a gardening expert or Zen Buddhist to appreciate all they have to offer â€" the beauty, the tranquility, even the Zen. Anderson Japanese Gardens, a 12-acre wonderland of landscaping and design, is regarded as one of the top Japanese gardens in North America, along with ones in Portland, Ore., and Delray Beach, Fla. Most every day, diverse groups of visitors can be seen strolling through the site: hospice patients, cancer survivors, people practicing yoga and tai chi, brush painting classes, Red Hat women, grief counselors, church congregations holding services and just plain tourists. Reflecting a design that originated in 12th-century Japan, the gardens contain a large pond, a five-story waterfall, a granite pagoda, curving bridges over boulder-strewn streams, and well-manicured plants and trees leaning toward the water. They attract about 40,000 visitors a year in this city 80 miles northwest of Chicago. "It's a great space to cast away a lot of the baggage of the modern world and tune back into something more elemental," says curator Tim Gruner. The gardens were the inspiration of industrialist John Anderson (no relation to the 1980 independent presidential candidate from Rockford with the same name). During a business trip to Oregon in 1977, Anderson visited the Portland Japanese Garden on a cab driver's recommendation, and was so impressed by its calm and serenity that he decided to create his own version. He invited the garden's highly regarded Japanese landscape architect, Hoichi Kurisu, to Rockford and asked him to design a garden around a swampy pond next to his new hillside house. Construction began the following year, with Kurisu remaining faithful to the style and methods used in Japan's Kamakura period, for manmade structures as well as the dozens of natural features. An authentic Japanese guesthouse, tea house and gazebo were built by a traditional craftsman using just files, chisels and hammers. The gardens were opened to the public in 1998 when the Andersons turned them over to a foundation. John Anderson, 69, recently handed off the chief executive's duties to his son, David, but remains actively involved. Kurisu, too, still visits periodically to provide guidance. David Anderson, 40, first got to know the gardens as a "pretty cool" place to grow up next to, riding his bike, playing hockey and fishing there. Now his goals are to add a children's garden, carry out a shoreline restoration and overcome patrons' disappointment at the closure of the popular onsite restaurant, which he says had become a distraction. The gardens are costly to maintain and unprofitable, he says, breaking even only with several hundred thousand dollars in annual contributions from his father. This landscaping marvel shows no outward sign of financial challenges, however. The site is pristine, and reflects a devotion to daily pruning and upkeep â€" woe to the renegade pine branch that tries to grow upward rather than outward. And discoveries await visitors who take the time to examine nooks and crannies: the bamboo "deer chaser" fountain in the woods that periodically makes a knocking sound as it hits a rock; the coin basin; the detailed craftsmanship in the gazebo by the waterfall. "There's a lot of little detail," says Anderson. "If you fly through, you miss it." The gardens embody three essential elements of Japanese gardening: the permanence of stone; plants for texture and color; and the soothing, reflective qualities of water. Even the most basic of backyard gardeners can take home ideas on how to use those elements themselves. With input from curator Gruner, here are some tips to help create the feel of a Japanese garden: â€" PRUNE HEAVILY. Pruning keeps plants in proper scale for their space. It also makes your garden more interesting if you can see through to the other side. Prune in a way that creates a sense of mystery â€" a little added texture and depth. â€" LEAN YOUR PLANTS. Lean plants in to a focal point, whether it's a waterfall or your front door. Plants leaning in toward the sidewalk make for an inviting, comforting feeling. â€" INCORPORATE WATER FEATURES. The sound of running water creates interest in a garden. It also attracts frogs, dragonflies, and birds bathing and preening. â€" USE BIG ROCKS. Go with the biggest rocks you can afford, handle and move. "You don't have to have boulders, they're just really great," says Gruner. You can also use rocks to change the flow if you have a water feature. â€" THINK CHARACTER AND COLOR. Restrained use of unusual plants and trees, or those of contrasting color, will enhance a garden. One good option is dwarf white pines, which have great character, few disease problems and grow in small spaces. â€" APPLY WHIMSY CAREFULLY. Whimsical features such as wind chimes, stone frogs or humorous sculptures can spice up a garden, but don't overdo it. If the oddities play off nature (no gnomes, please) and are carefully integrated, whimsy can work. â€" VISIT MODEL GARDENS. Take a look at some other gardens that "really pop," says Gruner, and adapt the features you think work best. ___ If You Go... ANDERSON JAPANESE GARDENS: 318 Spring Creek Road, Rockford, Ill.; http://andersongardens.org or 815-229-9390. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Adults, $7; seniors, 62 and over, $6; students, $5; children 4 and under, free.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions