Beyond a shot and a beer for friendly drinks in K.C.

What do you mean, you haven't been to Kansas City? Haven't you heard that it's one of the next great cocktail cities?

This cocktail snob didn't believe it either at first. Yet Kansas City has a broad range of bartending excellence, delivered sans attitude.

"The drinking culture here is relatively laid back," said Ryan Maybee, owner of craft bar Manifesto (theriegerkc.com/mani

festo), which reopened last March within the Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange. (Technically, Manifesto is housed within the Rieger but has a separate address and back-alley entrance.)

Although the growing community of bartenders certainly takes pride in, say, brewing up grenadine from scratch for high-end cocktails, they don't look down on anyone ordering a shot of whiskey or a beer either. Indeed, bar-hoppers laud K.C. for its friendly, approachable vibe.

In addition to his own bar, Maybee recommends that visitors try out Westport Cafe and Bar (west

portcafeandbar.com), a small bistro with streamlined signatures such as the Whiskey Smash (bourbon, peaches and honey-lavender syrup).

Other stops include the Viennese restaurant Grunauer (grunauerkc.com) and its Wunderbar, which has offbeat drinks such as a Dark Rum Flip made with "strudel juice." Extra Virgin (extravirginkc.com), a colorful Spanish spot run by James Beard award-winning chef Michael Smith, is prime real estate for long business lunches and tapas-fueled happy hours.

Whiskey — preferably bourbon or rye — tends to be the drink of choice, and it is no coincidence that both pair with Kansas City's renowned barbecue.

In particular, Maybee recommends ordering The Pendergast, a riff on the classic whiskey-based Bobby Burns cocktail. It's named for Thomas Pendergast, a Kansas City politician famed for his populist touch and Mafia connections during the Prohibition speak-easy years. Among other things, his policies are credited with giving rise to the golden era of Kansas City jazz.

"Kansas City was the wildest in the country back then," Maybee explained. Surely, a legacy like that is worth a drink or two.

Try this cocktail

Here is a recipe for The Pendergast, courtesy of Ryan Maybee of Manifesto in Kansas City.

1 1/2 ounces

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

1/2 ounce Benedictine

3-4 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir together all ingredients and strain into a rocks glass with no ice. Garnish with lemon twist.

Kara Newman is the author of "Spice & Ice: 60 Tongue-tingling Cocktails."

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Alaska cruise lite

Glaciers, mountains, whales and fresh fish — scads of fresh fish — all await visitors to southeast Alaska. But if you come by cruise ship, scads of tacky dockside shops and huge crowds also await.

Last summer, cruise liners disgorged 876,000 passengers at Juneau, Alaska's beautiful capital. On the busiest day, with five cruise ships in port simultaneously, 17,000 tourists descended on this town, whose population is just 31,000.

Most boarded buses for trips to popular and worthwhile sights such as Mendenhall Glacier and the peak of Mount Roberts, reached by an aerial tramway. But some folks would argue that snapping a photo of a black bear snagging a sockeye from a mountain creek is hardly a Kodak moment when you're squeezed onto a viewing platform like pickled herring into a jar.

For independent-minded souls, adventurous alternatives await throughout the panhandle of our 49th state, using comfortably sized ferry boats, instead of sprawling cruise ships, to reach various communities, some of which aren't among the big ships' ports of call.

The fishing village of Petersburg, its compact downtown full of rosemaling-adorned businesses representative of its Norwegian heritage, is a destination inaccessible to large cruise ships by design. Local residents voted against building a deep-water port.

"We did not want to change the flavor of the community," said the chamber of commerce's Sally Dwyer.

"We get about 50 people a week that come to our visitor center and say, 'We were on the ferry and decided to stop here.'"

Having made the stop, independent travelers find plenty to enjoy, sans crowds, in this town deep in the Tongass rain forest.

"You go to LeConte Glacier, and you're going to go in a boat with a maximum of six passengers in it," said Dave Berg, owner of Viking Travel.

"You can walk the docks and see the different types of fishing boats. You can enjoy local seafood at the restaurants," he continued. "Whale watching is really good out of here. We can connect people to places to go bear viewing."

Fishing charters, from day trips aboard small boats to weeklong stays on luxurious yachts, also are available. And visitors are welcome to stop in at Tonka Seafood to watch as wild salmon is cooked — in steam, not boiling water — and packaged.

A vital arm of state government, the ferry system provides affordable, year-round transportation to 15 southeast Alaska communities, plus Prince Rupert, British Columbia. "Outsiders," a nickname for folks from the lower 48, can visit as many as five of these towns using the See Alaska Pass. Valid May through September, the pass costs $160.

Aboard the ferries, there's a bohemian feel.

"This isn't a cruise ship. We're the bus," observed Mike Queen, the M/V Taku's chief purser.

Small but functional staterooms can be booked at an extra charge. But backpackers often opt to pitch their tents for free on the ferries' open rear decks.

"We tell people to tape them down. We won't go back for a tent overboard," Queen said.

The purser described the sheltered waters of the Inside Passage as the "whale freeway." At times, hundreds of whales can be seen surfacing to breathe while feeding on large schools of herring.

In Juneau, ferries arrive at Auke Bay instead of the downtown docks reserved for cruise liners. A right turn from the ferry terminal leads passengers 12 miles into town (and Mendenhall Glacier beyond), but more intrepid travelers may wish to turn left at the sign that reads, simply, "End of Road 24."

Heading west, or left, from the ferry port, visitors are treated to breathtaking vistas of other glaciers and the shoreline. And the cruise lines' tour buses don't ply this route.

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The I-70 reality behind Missouri's TV darlin'

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Truck-stop reality might not strike a lot of people as having TV potential, but when the Travel Channel happened upon a place off Exit 121 along the Interstate Highway 70 corridor just west of here, lightning struck.

TV crews came calling, and everything naturally got amped up. That reality set in over the last several months for Joe Bechtold, general manager of the Midway Travel Plaza, which was made even more famous in "Truck Stop Missouri."

The well-visited stop offers a slice of life — heck, make it two slices — with an interesting cast of characters, the ones visiting and the ones working there.

"You know, it's been a lot of fun and a lot of work," Bechtold said. "It's time-consuming but really cool. ... For us and our customers, it's been great. People come in and they're kind of excited to see people who they've seen on TV."

In its first season, "Truck Stop Missouri" focused on the family-owned travel plaza and became one of the Travel Channel's brightest gems. Thirteen episodes aired, and it will be back again this year as "Truck Stop USA." Run dates have yet to be determined, but you can stop in and see the real reality.

The difference here is that in addition to food, you can buy boots, fireworks and antiques, and even upgrade your body-art portfolio with a new tattoo at Under the Gun Tattoo — you know, all the stuff you need for the road.

Then there are the special events that make the little screen: cow-patty bingo, lawn-mower racing, battle re-enactments.

Sailing down I-70, you really can't miss the cluster of 15 businesses and one church nestled in the quiet countryside about a seven-hour drive southwest of Chicago.

In the restaurant, you get a welcome as if you're part of the family: "How ya doing, baby?" followed by later checkups with "You doing OK, dear?" and "You're welcome, honey." Warm and welcoming without a trace of plastic.

The waitresses know their stuff, such as with 18-year veteran Ruth Marie Roe, who suggests starting a meal with dessert. Here, indulging in a piece of homemade German chocolate pie will set you back only $2.49. It's the same for fresh-baked fruit pies (pronounced "pahz").

All that TV exposure hasn't run up prices yet. A char-grilled hamburger with a choice of mashed potatoes, slaw or the "daily veggie" runs $6.79. And reports are that the biscuits and gravy are second to none. Homemade sausage gravy on two fresh-baked biscuits is $3.99.

The Backdoor Lounge fills to the brim on Friday and Saturday nights, when country music bands take the stage and kick up the energy at 9 p.m. And pretty much by that time 100 or so trucks, lined up neatly like toys, have parked for the night so the drivers can get some R&R.

No doubt those truckers can't wait to finish dinner and get some shut-eye so they can make haste into the Midway Antique Mall and Flea Market the next morning. Its massive inventory arrayed over 60,000 square feet includes vintage toys, glassware and china, quilts and coins, and plenty of Americana, all with seemingly reasonable prices. Currently, 235 dealers offer their wares in 325 booths. It's laid out nicely; no mazes or dark corners to get lost in. The only way to get lost is in time. Some people reportedly breeze in for a break from the road and emerge from the aisles three or four hours later.

If your trunk's full, you can stash that new old dresser you just bought over at Midway Mini Storage. Then go pick up the kids at Cannery Row Daycare or at the Fearfest Haunted House and haul them all to the Gateway to the High Country Cowboy Church, a spiritual font for "cowboys, cowgirls and horse lovers of all brands," for a quick prayer.

Then it's back to the road and all those high hopes for the new TV season.

If you go

The Midway Travel Plaza covers 200 acres off Exit 121, just west of Columbia, Mo., on I-70 almost smack between St. Louis and Kansas City. The Midway Travel Plaza sits about midway between the interstate's terminal points just outside Baltimore and in Cove Fort, Utah, a span of 2,153 miles.

For more details on the Midway Travel Plaza, visit midwayexpo.com/travelplaza, call 573-445-1211, or, of course, watch the Travel Channel.

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Third Party Commissions

Third party commissions are essential for travel agencies to plan for. The additional commissions can really add up.

For example, an agent use to make quite a bit more for a cruise than they do now. With all the taxes and fees that are part of the price, and is not including in the commission percentage, plus the airfare that use to be part of the cruise package with commissions, it just does not pay like it use to.

What do you do? Sell optional tours from a third party company, like Shoretrips and Port Promotions. They pay commissions that you would not get with a cruise line. If customers are sure they want a particular shore excursion, take the time and book it for them and make extra money. Or book them a hotel before or after the cruise.

This also applies for extra side trips when a client is taking a tour. There are many additions travel agents can add on. Maybe even airport transfers or a limousine can be added for more commission.

This not only helps the travel agent's bottom line, but is also beneficial to the customer. It saves them the time to book it on their own, and can often save them money, which both brings return business.

If a travel agent is organized with phone numbers and website information is handy, then it should not take much time to add these beneficial extras for the customer and the agent.

What extras, as travel agents do you book for customers? Do the extra commissions add up?

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New DOT Rules-The Effect on Travel Agents

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has implemented new and upgraded rules to help consumers with airline issues. These include rules for protecting airfares for consumers, rules for delayed flight at the gate and on the tarmac, and lost and misplaced luggage rules.

These have been necessary changes waiting to be made. They went into effect on or before January 26, 2012. For travel agents, this means that airfares quoted must include all taxes and fees, including one way airfares. Links to the airline information must be provided for clients on the e-ticket confirmation to access free and paid baggage information, and plenty more.

When advertising airfares, travel agents must post from what city the airfare is from, plus a segment stating that flights from other cities may be higher.

These changes and others may have to be noted on ticket confirmations, and may include adjustments to agent training, including what they need to quote to the customer, and what needs to be put in writing. Some changes may need to be added to computer programming so the proper information is shown in the computer programs for the customer.

Once again, travel agents are called on to help the consumer understand new laws, and pass on significant information. This time, travel agents can be held responsible if they do not update and inform clients correctly.

Agents, what do you think about the new rules, and what changes will you need to make in the office to handle these?

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Refunding a nonrefundable

"$150 to retain the value of a $300 ticket I had to cancel," complains a reader "Is a complete rip-off." I agree. What started as a reasonable policy -- charging $25 to allow you to retain the value of a nonrefundable ticket you had to cancel -- has morphed into still another gouge. The big lines now typically charge $150 to retain the value of a canceled domestic ticket and up to $250 for an international ticket. You still don't get your money back; you just get to use what value is left after the fee toward a future ticket. Clearly, those fees bear no relation to an airline's costs; they're punitive and so high as to make a mockery of the "reusability" claim. My reader went on to ask, "Why can't you pay a small fee up front to guarantee reusability?" The answer might surprise you: You can, but the fee is truly "small" on only one airline.

Southwest is unique in that it assesses no charge to exchange a ticket -- an advantage it is pushing in the marketplace. Other big airlines routinely offer travel insurance from a leading independent travel insurance company on an opt-out basis when you buy a ticket online:

-- Alaska, American, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, United, and US Airways use Access America.

-- Hawaiian, Frontier, and Virgin America use Travel Guard.

Both sets of policies are about the same. What you buy is a bundled travel insurance policy that includes conventional trip-cancellation insurance (TCI). As a side benefit, these policies also include trip-interruption, emergency medical and medical evacuation, and some delay/baggage coverages. And you get your money back, not just a credit. But TCI in conventional bundled packages has several downsides:

-- Conventional TCI pays only if you cancel for a "covered" reason or in the event of a "named peril." Those reasons normally include accident or sickness afflicting you, a travel companion, or non-traveling close relatives, as well as many (but not all) unforeseen problems in your destination area.

-- Conventional TCI does not cover you if you cancel because of changed personal or business plans.

Conventional TCI, in a bundle, isn't cheap. For example, to refund a $400 nonrefundable ticket, the insurance would cost around $35 (based on a quote from the Delta website for a four-day domestic trip). Optional policies for frequent-flyer award trips provide the same medical and delay coverages, but the TCI and interruption figures are much lower -- enough to cover a mileage redeposit fee but too low to cover the cost of buying a return ticket if you can't get an award seat.

Allegiant -- an airline I frequently criticize for its fee policies -- actually offers the best deal. "Trip Flex" allows you unlimited date, schedule, and itinerary changes with no fees. The cost is $11.50 for a flight or flight/car package, $37 for a flight/hotel package. You don't get a cash refund, but you get to retain the ticket value. And there are no "covered reasons" limitations.

Rather than accept the airline's deals, you have two other options:

-- You can buy "cancel for any reason" TCI through an independent travel insurance agency starting at around $45 for my test $400 trip (prices vary by age and trip duration). Clearly, this is the surest way to protect your ticket "investment." You can change your plans without worrying about having to fuss with an insurance company bean counter about the reason for your cancellation. But, even for a middle-age person, the cost is pretty stiff: more than 10 percent of the ticket value, and higher for a senior.

-- Depending on your age and itinerary, buying a third-party conventional bundled policy with TCI from an independent agency can often duplicate the coverage and beat the price of an airline site's policy, but probably not by much. You have to compare each trip.

Why don't other lines copy Allegiant? Probably because they're afraid they'd sell far fewer of their very expensive refundable tickets. So for now, if you're likely to want to cancel, buying a cancel-for-any-reason TCI policy is probably a better bet than risking those huge cancellation fees.

(Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins(at)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)

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Hollywood finds romance in travel

Love is always lovelier some place other than home. Well, at least in the celluloid universe.

Traveling by boat, train or even bus can lead to romantic entanglements in the movies, as does visiting uber-romantic locales such as Rome, Paris and Venice. Of course, these romances may not last, or they may even end tragically — just think of poor Jack and Rose in "Titanic" — but it doesn't matter. Movie audiences crave these idealistic, sexy trysts.

Here's a look at some of the best films in the romantic travel genre:

All aboard!

Trains are great locations for love and romance. And we're not just talking Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic"North by Northwest."

In 1932, hearts beat a little faster with Josef von Sternberg's lush romance "Shanghai Express," set in 1931 during the Chinese Civil War. The film was one of the more successful collaborations between Von Sternberg and his muse, Marlene Dietrich. She's in fine form as the mysterious woman of ill repute Shanghai Lily — "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily" — who boards the Shanghai Express only to discover her former lover is also a passenger. The two rekindle their romance in the midst of the war and intrigue.

Even more erotic is Cary Grant's encounter with Eva Marie Saint on a train in Hitch's sophisticated and funny romantic thriller "North by Northwest." Hitchcock enjoyed trains in such films as 1938's "The Lady Vanishes" and 1951's"Strangers on a Train." In "North by Northwest," Grant's Roger Thornhill meets the sultry and mysterious blond Eve Kendall on the 20th Century Limited from New York to Chicago. Their dialogue over lunch is priceless:

Eve: "I tipped the steward $5 to seat you here if you should come in."

Roger: "Is that a proposition?"

Eve: "I never discuss love on an empty stomach."

Roger: "You've already eaten."

Eve Kendall: "But you haven't."

The final frame of the two on the train chugging to their honeymoon is about as Freudian as the censors allowed at the time.

One doesn't think of "Out of Africa" as a train movie, but it is on a train that Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) meets the love of her life, the dashing Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) while traveling to meet her boorish husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) at his Kenyan coffee plantation. The sexiest scene in the epic romance, directed by Sydney Pollack, is when Denys washes Karen's hair by the river while lions roar in the background.

Ship ahoy!

Leo McCarey wrote and directed the 1939 romantic drama "Love Affair" with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne as two passengers on a cruise liner who meet, fall in love and agree to reunite six months later at the Empire State Building. Although the film earned six Academy Award nominations, it's nearly forgotten today. It is McCarey's nearly frame-by-frame remake, 1957's "An Affair to Remember," with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, that touched the hearts of moviegoers. Grant and Kerr are beautiful together and exude such chemistry, it is hard not to burst into tears when these lovers are finally reunited. In 2005, the American Film Institute named it the fifth-greatest movie love story of all time.

It happened on a bus

A cramped, bumpy bus doesn't sound like the recipe for romance, but that's exactly what happens in the 1934 comedy classic "It Happened One Night."Claudette Colbert plays a runaway heiress who thinks traveling by bus will be the safest way to travel from Miami to New York. Clark Gable is a down-on-his-luck reporter who recognizes her at the bus station and decides to go along for the ride. Initially, they lock horns, but love will find a way. There are many indelible sexy scenes in the film, including when Gable begins to strip down in the motel room they are sharing and their efforts to attract a hitchhiker.

Location, location, location

Can't find love in the U.S.A.? Head to Rome, Venice or Paris, where — at least in movies — one will always find love and romance.

Audrey Hepburn became an overnight sensation in William Wyler's 1953 romance "Roman Holiday" as a bored princess who decides to slip away incognito while in Rome. She also finds love with American newspaper reporter Gregory Peck, who first befriends the princess because he thinks she will make a great story but then becomes smitten with her. Though it doesn't end happily ever after, there's no doubt that many female members of the audience traveled to the Eternal City to find their own Gregory Peck.

The other Hepburn — Katharine — earned an Oscar nomination for 1955's "Summertime," David Lean's sumptuous romantic drama set in Venice based on Arthur Laurents' play "The Time of the Cuckoo." Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, a middle-aged single secretary who goes to the Italian city for her first vacation abroad and ends up falling in love for the first time with a handsome Italian named Renato (Rossano Brazzi). She is completely head over heels when she learns he is married with children. Sigh.

Though Woody Allen has long been considered the quintessential New York director, his recent movies have been set in London, Barcelona, Spain and Paris. The City of Light has given the 76-year-old filmmaker the biggest hit of his long career with 2011's acclaimed "Midnight in Paris." Owen Wilson plays a screenwriter and Rachel McAdams is his fiancee who have two vastly different experiences when they travel to Paris. He wants to stay in Paris to finish his first novel; she wants to live in Malibu. His life changes one midnight while roaming the city when he is invited to join the passengers in an antique car that pulls up next to him. Soon, he is swept up in the romance of Paris of the 1920s.

Bright lights, big Tokyo

Bill Murray gives a funny and heartfelt performance in 2003's quirky "Lost in Translation." Murray's Bob Harris is in Tokyo to do a whiskey commercial for which he'll earn $2 million. Though he's been long married, Bob is having marital issues and is alone at a swank hotel in Tokyo. But he's not alone for long when he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), who finds most of her days and even nights free at the same hotel because her husband (Giovanni Ribisi), a celebrity photographer, is on assignment in Tokyo. Though these two never develop a romantic relationship on screen, they do fall in love as they talk and talk and traverse the unusual neon-lighted metropolis. And get the hankie ready for that open-ended final scene.

Food and Bardem

Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir "Eat, Pray, Love" has a huge following. But the 2010 film based on her memoir doesn't exactly come together. What does work are the exotic locales and Javier Bardem in a romantic role. Julia Roberts plays Gilbert, a recent divorcee who decides to go on a journey of self-discovery. She eats up a storm in Italy, learns the power of prayer and the beauty of elephants in India and finds love with a hunk (Bardem) in Bali.

susan.king@latimes.com

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