Smartphone apps from Rick Steves

http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-advice/travel-smarter-with-smartphone.html?id=9134134 I found this article on using smartphone apps while traveling to be EXTREMELY helpful. I constantly warn my clients to find out exactly what their phone plan coverage is so they are not surprised (read - shocked) when the bill comes in. I just returned from South Africa and was amazed at the number of places I found free WiFi so I could use my iPad.

How to find the right travel agent by Ed Hewitt

Back before I became a diehard fan of travel agents, I was a diehard fan of doing it myself. But a few bad trips, many of which I've written about in this column, resulted in numerous comments from travel agents that they could have saved me the agony, not to mention quite possibly some money. Here's the story of my quest to find the perfect travel agent.

With the advent of the Web, airlines figure they can sell directly to the customer. The travel agent is a classic middleman, and the death of the middleman was predicted even in the early days of the Web. Time was you had to call every airline yourself, or use a travel agent. Now, not only can you comparison shop over the Web, but you can book the flights yourself while downloading pictures of your grandkids in the background.

Companies and reservations services offer airfares, hotel rooms, car rentals, online vacation package deals, online B&B reservations, even bidding. With so much information right here on my laptop screen, why do I need to call anyone? And why do I need a travel agent?

There's something to this notion, and to tell the truth, for most routine travel I'm an unrepentant do-it-myselfer. But on the rare occasion I complain about one trip or another, I often get mail from travel agents who tell me "Get a good travel agent, and you won't have these problems." To my ear, the emphasis is on the word "good."

I suspected that travel agents still have their place in the world, and wanted to find out where that place might be.

What makes a 'good' travel agent?
Full disclosure: I'm in the market for a holiday trip to a popular destination (a Hawaiian island) for a friend's wedding. I figured I'd mix business and pleasure, and turn this article into a quest for an affordable airfare.

As a result, I had three agendas:
1) To find a "good travel agent." What is this elusive creature?
2) To experience this creature's purported magic first-hand.
3) To (somehow!) find a great airfare in a sold-out market.

A recent Monday afternoon's calls to some local travel agents went thusly:

First call: No answer, left message, no returned call within 48 hours, still haven't heard from them.

Second call: Spoke to an agent, gave her my itinerary, then had this exchange:

"We'll see what we can do, and give you a call." I had to ask when that call might come.

"Hopefully by the end of the week."

Remember, this was on Monday.

Third call: Receptionist answers, asks my name, then tells me (and I swear these were his exact words): "All our agents are currently busy with other customers. Please call back in 15 to 20 minutes."

Aside from the fact that he sounded like a computer-generated on-hold operator, he made no offer to take my name or my number to have someone call me. Call us, we won't call you ...

Fourth call: The folks at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) are always trumpeting their agents, so I chose an agent who sported the ASTA logo in his Yellow Pages ad. Pay dirt.

Gene was funny, happily swapped war stories with me, called back promptly after investigating my itinerary, and explored other options at length when I wasn't entirely happy with prices or the airline. In short order, by using some alternative airports, he found a fare that was $200 cheaper than I had seen online.

He placed the reservation but asked if I could wait until the morning, as he was going to a party that night with some colleagues, and wanted to see if he could find anything interesting.

At 9:15 a.m., Gene called with some news: he had found a package deal with a three-night "throwaway hotel" (when you don't even have to show up if you don't want to) for almost $2,000 less than either of us could find anywhere else. He had nailed down our preferred dates of travel, if not our preferred airline, but beggars can't be choosers, as the saying goes. As I said before: pay dirt.

Finding a 'good travel agent'
Needless to say, I'm sold that a "good travel agent" can do some things no search engine will ever do. (I'll still use online booking sites, nonetheless, for speed and convenience, but will call my new travel agent much more frequently.)

Unfortunately, commission cuts could make finding a good travel agent that much tougher, as the best of the profession might move on, and potential future stars will choose other work.

A few guidelines for choosing your travel agent:

1) I have to trumpet the ASTA connection; go with an ASTA agency. ASTA has a code of conduct, a Consumer Affairs Department where you can register complaints against members, and a reputation to uphold. You can search for ASTA-affiliated agents on the organization's consumer site, TravelSense.org.

(Note that, on further inspection, I discovered that at least one of the agencies I didn't use was an ASTA shop. ASTA affiliation isn't a guarantee, but it's a good start.)

2) Does the agent tell you everything you need to know? When you don't like a certain airline, departure times or dates, or connection, does he shift gears immediately to find alternatives, or try to force the issue? If your agent responds well in these situations, stick by him.

3) Is the agent local? This is a personal preference, but one I think can pay off.

On occasion, you're going to want to drive by the agent's office to pick up tickets at the last minute, get passport photos taken or get reticketed in the event of changes. When flights are canceled, airlines go bankrupt or trips disappoint, you want to be able to stop in the office to straighten everything out, rather than write a half-dozen irate e-mails and or make a half-dozen angry phone calls.

4) Do the agent's fares and itineraries stack up well against the online booking services? Even when I call the airlines directly, I check an online reservations site to investigate my options ahead of time; I do the same with travel agents. The more information you have as a consumer of any product, the more likely you are to find what you really want.

When to use a travel agent
Strongly consider using a travel agent instead of doing it yourself in the following cases:

Group trips/sales.
Getting 25 people on the same plane with seats together at an affordable price is no job for a dilettante. Call a travel agent or outfitter immediately when traveling with a large group. Be firm and clear in your instructions on your budget, time and date restrictions, and other preferences or requirements.

Family travel.
I consider our family travel just a smaller subset of a group trip — we want sensible flight times, the fewest connections and shortest overall travel time possible, seats together throughout, hotel rooms with enough sleeping space, a car that can accept a child's seat, etc. A good travel agent understands all of this intuitively, and can save you the headaches of sorting through all of this yourself.

When looking for a package deal.
There are so many package deals out there, at hotels you've never heard of, with itineraries so vague you're not sure what country you're visiting, that you may need some assistance. (Our story on "Unpacking your vacation package deal" can also help.)

When you fly frequently.
When you fly frequently, and especially when it's SEM (Someone Else's Money), having a good travel agent can be essential. No hours on hold, no endless Web surfing, no hassles; just a quick phone call, and your e-tickets arrive in your inbox.

When traveling to an exotic locale or new "resort" area.
I once took a trip to a new resort that hadn't completed its plumbing installation, overlooked a beach at an oil drilling site and was plagued with thefts. I rented a car and disappeared for the rest of the trip, swallowing the cost of the hotel.

A good travel agent has an ear to the ground and will know whether a new hotel in an exotic location is safe and ready to welcome travelers. Many travel agents routinely visit hot new locations (often on the tab of the resort — see potential conflicts of interest below).

Additionally, if any components of your itinerary collapse, your travel agent is accountable to help try to set things right. If you made all your reservations yourself, you're up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

When you don't have time.
You might save a few dollars in fees, while you lose two hours in research. What is your time worth? Travel agents earn their keep by doing work you don't have time to do.

When you have all the time in the world.
If you have a relationship with your travel agent, you can ask them to keep an eye out for good deals to your favorite locations. Sure, e-mail notification services can do the same, but your travel agent might catch something a "bot" might not.

You have the itinerary from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.
If you have a particularly sticky itinerary — one with stopovers, rented cars in every city, several hotels and the like — you might want to get a pro on the job.

When you have a great travel agent.
If you've found the world's best travel agent right in your neighborhood, throw them all your business. You won't do better anywhere else. She can see everything the booking engines can see, and sometimes more. She'll make a living, you'll become a preferred customer and the world will be a better place. (Well, maybe not, but we can try.)

When to do it yourself
I do believe there are times when you can just make your bookings yourself:

Routine travel.
If you're booking your routine flight, you can probably do it yourself online with your preferred airline. This way, there's no third party "monkey in the middle" if you have to make quick, simple decisions about departure times, prices or other factors. You make a few clicks and it's done. No travel agent is going to make this process simpler or likely even cheaper.

When you're working on word of mouth, or with Mom and Pop operations.
Many small hotels, B&B's, local car rental joints or similar outfits don't register on the average travel agent's radar screen. When a friend tells you about this great and affordable little cabin that you can get by calling the local bait shop, make the call yourself.

What to look for, what to watch out for
A good travel agent will answer the following questions honestly and without resistance.

Do you apply a surcharge to my purchase? How big is it?
I think it is unfortunate that travel agents have been forced to apply a surcharge to get paid for the valuable work they do. And usually they're worth the admittedly small fee. I have no sympathy, however, for agents and agencies that institute a surcharge and don't tell their customers until after the fact.

Does the price quote include all taxes and other charges?
The odd travel agent will quote you the base price on a flight or hotel stay; then when you try to pay, it's much higher. Even online booking engines quote final prices; expect your travel agent to do so as well.

What about incentive programs?
Are agents getting paid to steer you to a specific airline, cruise companies, hotels, or car rental agencies? You want to know.

Are there airlines that do not appear in their computers?
Some airlines are more equal than others. Some airlines, such as Southwest and other smaller discounters, may not participate in the central reservations system. Good agents will know to check those airlines' sites when appropriate.

Do they routinely work with vacation package companies?
The truly creative agent might not just offer you an airfare, but might find a vacation package that could even come in cheaper than the flight.

Potential conflicts of interest
An agent who is paid to find the best airfare, but is simultaneously paid by airlines to steer customers to their flights, encounters a clear conflict of interest. While most agents should be assumed honest, you want to know about these arrangements, as the agent is put in a tough position of saving you a few bucks or making a few more bucks for himself.

It's a conflict of interest, a little like when a real estate agent represents both the buyer and the seller. Whose interests are they protecting? Besides their own, of course. Please understand that I'm not attacking travel agents' right to make a living. But when an agent sells out the customer on the other end of the phone to the airline on the other end of an incentive program, we have a problem.

Familiarization trips
Often called "fam" trips, these are partly educational trips for travel agents, and partly favors from travel companies, who often expect to be "paid back" with sales to that destination. Probably a necessary evil, but when someone recommends a new locale she's just visited and loved, remember that she didn't pay as much as you will to visit there. Again, ask the tough questions.

Overrides
An "override" refers to an incentive program where agents are rewarded, in commission increase or other perks, when they sell a minimum number or dollar amount of reservations for a particular airline, hotel, car rental company, cruise line or the like. The temptation to steer passengers to that company can be overwhelming, even if it's not entirely in the best interests of the traveler.

Overrides are primarily an issue at large companies; your average local company can't get anywhere near the numbers required for most overrides.

Not slamming agents
I'm not slamming agents by highlighting these issues; remember, one just saved me $2,000. I'm merely reinforcing my eternal credo: caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Do your homework to find that "good travel agent," and you won't regret it.

More from IndependentTraveler.com

Why you still need a travel agent
9 tips for insanely busy travelers
The 5 worst trip planning mistakes (and how to avoid them)

The Most Expensive US cities to visit

By Tom Van Riper

updated 4/12/2011 9:33:51 AM ET

If you vacationed in New York or Honolulu in 2010, chances are you got a pretty good deal on a hotel room. Room rates in North America's priciest cities declined for a second straight year in 2010. The bad news for tourists (or good news for the industry): Price declines slowed markedly last year from the freefall of 2009, and they're swinging back up in many spots this year.
Forbes.com slideshow: The most expensive U.S. cities to visit
Hotel prices in most of North America's most expensive cities — New York, Honolulu, Boston, and Chicago, among others — declined by an average of 2 percent in 2010, according to the latest Hotel Price Index from hotels.com. A soft year, but a big improvement from 2009, when prices in most of the same cities fell 10 percent or more from 2008. New York, which had to absorb the added capacity of about 4,000 new rooms in 2009 while dealing with the recession, saw its average room rate drop more than 20 percent, to $199. Big Apple prices dipped again in 2010 to $194 a night, making it the most expensive city to spend a night in the U.S.

America's Musical Cities
Forbes Guide To Worldwide Travel: Midsummer
America's Great Fourth Of July Celebrations
Yahoo! BuzzPrices ended 2010 at roughly 2004 levels, says Hotels.com Vice President Victor Owens, the net result of a two-year slump cancelling out the four years of growth that preceded it. "There is still value (for consumers) in the marketplace, but we seem to be slowly climbing out of the ditch," says Owens. Prices outside the major markets rose a bit, he notes, especially in high-income niche areas. California tells the tale: Two pricey spots, Monterey and Santa Barbara, replaced San Diego and San Francisco in the top 10. "The first wave of leisure travelers that comes back is the affluent one," says Owens.
Others making the top 10 for 2010: Washington, D.C., ($140 a night, down a few dollars from 2009) and Miami ($139.58, virtually unchanged). Both are perennial placeholders on the list — Washington thanks to its trove of landmarks and drivable distance from many population centers, Miami thanks to its status as an international hub that attracts travelers from south of the border.
A peek at 2011 shows an early surge in demand and prices. According to Expedia.com, average prices during January, February and early March were up from last year, as much as 20 percent or so in Honolulu, Boston, Miami and Washington, D.C.
And what might be the story of the year in the hotel business: the recovery of New Orleans some five years after Hurricane Katrina. Hotel prices in the Big Easy rose to an average of $132.27 in 2010, from $118 in 2009, according to Hotels.com data. And Expedia's numbers show they've shot up even further in early 2011, to about $150 a night.
Both leisure travelers and conventions are making their way back to New Orleans. The Saints' Super Bowl win last year didn't hurt. What better advertisement for your city than thousands partying in the French Quarter in front of millions on national television? City officials took that ball and parlayed it into a strong promotional message, according to Owens. "It's a good growth story; they're just doing a very good job of getting out there and promoting themselves," he says.

Carnival Fantasy

On a recent trip to Charleston, I had the opportunity to tour and have lunch on board the Carnival Fantasy while she was docked there between cruises. I have done several of these type tours and lunches in the past, both with Carnival and other cruise lines and have had mixed reactions to the product being offered.
I have always loved the idea that I could board a cruise in Charleston, just 3 hours from home, and avoid the hassles that air travel involves these days but I always felt that Charleston was being fed the “leftovers” of the various cruise lines: the ships that no one really wanted to sail on because they were old and tired and dated.
Not so with the Fantasy. She just had a “makeover” in December (and previously in 2008) and, though some small bits of neon from the era of her birth in 1990 remain, overall she is a delight. The ship feels very warm and comfortable and I felt at home as soon as I walked on board. While there are no rock-climbing walls or ice skating rinks, there is the new Carnival Water Works area with its 300-foot-long water slide; an 82-foot-long dual racing slide; fountains and splash pools; a resort-style pool area; an adults-only Serenity sunning and relaxation area with whirlpools; a gift shop where everything in it is $10 and cruise rates that often allow the entire family to cruise for what one person’s fare might be on a mega ship.
As far as onboard activities, the schedule is overflowing with such fun things as laser tag, three-minute makeovers, karaoke – including a live band backup for qualified singers, dance lessons, casino game tournaments, top-notch entertainment and Carnival’s famous singing and dancing dining room waiters, and, of course, the 12000-square-foot Spa Carnival including a spacious workout center. Spa Carnival has 10 treatment massage rooms, 2 saunas, 2 steam rooms and a Hair Salon for men and women. European-style treatments and services are offered. Generally, hours are 8:00am -8:00pm but may vary depending upon area of service
In talking with past passengers, food had been an issue on the Fantasy. Not so today. There are two formal dining rooms, the Jubilee and the Celebration, and there is no skimping on either the quality or variety of offerings from them. The entrees of lobster, prime rib, chateaubriand and the like are very popular, as is the lobster bisque. We were treated to Carnival’s signature dessert, molten chocolate cake with a choice of ice creams.
The Windows on the Sea buffet provides a more casual setting without giving up the quality of the food. We were told that the rotisserie chicken there is to die for! There is a pizzeria area where you can get pizza 24 hours a day. Your teen will love you for this, let alone the multiple self-serve ice cream machines. Oh, did I mention the 24-hour free room service yet??
Outside on the pool deck you will also find a Mongolian Grill where you can “build your own entrée” with a choice from dozens of ingredients then have the Mongolian Chef prepare it for you. There is also a station serving hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken fingers, fries and the like.
The ship features 3 basic types of cabins: inside, ocean view and suites. It was built before the Balcony era so only the 28 Grand Suites and 26 Ocean Suites have balconies. For larger families, a Grand Suite with an adjoining ocean view cabin can comfortably house up to 8 (four in the suite and four in the ocean view room). The ocean view rooms have a good sized window, not just a porthole. The interior rooms are just as spacious as the ocean view, they just have no window.
One of the upgrades done in late 2010 was to the cabin interiors. The linens and bedding have all been upgraded. There is plenty of storage space and a nice vanity area. Other upgrades include new carpeting and upholstered furniture.
The bathrooms are among the largest I’ve seen on a cruise ship. No need to worry about injuring yourself if you drop the soap in the shower and bend over to pick it up.
All of the crew that we encountered were friendly and courteous and seemed really glad to be working on the Fantasy. The bar service was good without being pushy and was available even in the more secluded areas, such as the Serenity area and the decks above the main pool.
Bar areas include the Cleopatra Bar, the Cats Lounge, the 21st Century Bar, the Majestic Bar where smoking is permitted, and the Forum Bar. And then there is The Promenade, a wonderful open area for meeting friends or just relaxing. The Bistro on the Boulevard there is a specialty shop where cakes, cookies, pastries, milkshakes and specialty coffees are served at nominal cost. The huge slices of carrot or deep chocolate cake go for around $2.25.
If you are traveling with kids, they will love Camp Carnival, and so will you. There are programs designed for varying age groups. Kids 2-5 will have a blast with toys and arts and crafts. Those aged 6-8 make spin art and play games. And ages 9-11 can chill at pool parties and go on scavenger hunts. Camp is in session from 9am-12pm, 2pm – 5pm and 7pm-10pm on sea days and from 2pm – 5pm and 7pm- 10pm on days in port.
There are special programs for teens, as well. Circle “C” is a place where young teens hang out together for late-night movies, nighttime swims, sports, the latest video games and dance parties. Club O₂ is where teens 15-17 gather in their own lounge area to play the latest video games, relax in comfy seats, dance on the state-of-the-art dance floor and hang at the non-alcoholic drink bar. All activities are supervised by Carnival’s Youth Staff who have college degrees in related fields or professional childcare experience.
The Carnival Fantasy sails out of Charleston year round on 5, 6 or 7 day cruises to the Bahamas, Key West and Bermuda.

10 great places to savor Chinese food

According to USA Today, here are the top 10 outside of Beijing!
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/10great/2011-01-27-chinese-restaurants_N.htm

Visiting Italy

What's new in Italy: Less chaos, smoother visits
Online museum reservations and new renovations and transport make Italy less chaotic for tourists.

By Rick Steves
Tribune Media Services

Read the article:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/ricksteveseurope/2013840592_websteves04.html

Top 10 Travel articles for 2010 - courtesy of the New York Times

"If our traffic is any guide, readers in 2010 were as interested in articles that gave advice as they were in articles that focused on a destination. Stories on 31 Places to Go in 2010, a Practical Traveler column on 10 ways to cut travel costs and a Frugal Traveler guide to San Francisco were among the most viewed articles last year."

Read the article at
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/travel/05topstories.html?ref=travel