Travel News You Can Use
By Judy Newell

Mexico Travel News Did you know that?

Every Sunday the historic Reforma Avenue in Mexico City—constructed by Emperor Maximilian after the Champs Elysees in Paris—is closed to automobile traffic so that people can ride their bicycles.

At the base of the column of the Angel de la Independencia (Independence Angel)—which fell down during an earthquake in 1957—lie the remains of Miguel Hidalgo, Vicente Guerrero and Ignacio Allende, heroes of Mexican Independence.

In Náhuatl, the language of the Aztecs, México means “place at the center of the lake” (metztli=lake, xitli=center, co=place). 

Investors lose millions 

Those who purchased yet-to-be-built condominium units in the Trump Ocean Resort on the Pacific Coast of Baja California have lost a total of US$32 million. The project, south of Tijuana, was to include 526 suites and buyers were asked to put up a 30-percent deposit.

Murderous narcotics wars, which have taken thousands of lives—none of them belonging to tourists—were blamed for the failure of the project, along with the worldwide recession. Purchasers now are learning that they should have read the fine print in their contracts. No provision was included for returning money if the project never was built. The Trump name, it appears, was merely rented from The Donald by the developers, a California company called Irongate.



New Museums: The Art of the Matter

Mexico City 

Mexican Modernist painters Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo are already well known. Now, the National Autonomous University of Mexico has opened the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, devoted to contemporary art.

Architect Teodoro González de León has designed the building’s nine expansive galleries that house the country’s largest public collection of contemporary art and are set on a reflecting pool. Exhibitions feature a range of Mexican artists, including installation artist Gabriel Orozco and post-minimalist Damián Ortega, as well as work by Icelandic-Norwegian conceptual artist Olafur Eliasson and Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist.

Amsterdam 

As recently as 1999, the Amstelhof, on the Amstel River, was a nursing home. In a daring example of adaptive reuse, the seventeenth-century building complex is being transformed into the Hermitage Amsterdam, the latest satellite of the St. Petersburg Hermitage.

Set to open in June 2009, the museum will open with an exhibition re-creating a day at the opulent nineteenth-century Russian court, incorporating more than 1,800 historical objects, from brocaded costumes to elaborate china sets. 



International News

Slow Travel

Have you ever thought about slow travel? The Slow Food movement is well established and there are now slow cities. But what about slow travel?

Robert Louis Stevenson and Freya Stark both traveled with donkeys. They were attentive to every turn of the road on their journeys through France and Arabia, respectively. But us? We pack ourselves like sardines into fragile aluminum tubes and speed through the sky at hundreds of miles per hour. Come now! That is not real travel.

The anticipation of arrival all too often undermines the pleasure of the journey as we make haste to get to this or that resort or meeting. But it need not be so. For slow travelers, the journey becomes a moment to relax, rather than being a stressful interlude between home and destination.

Of course, slow travel is much more than just that. It is a whole way of looking at the world. Slow travelers explore communities along the way, dawdle and pause as the mood takes them, and check out spots recommended by the locals. Slow travel is downbeat, eco-friendly and above all fun. Travel like it used to be, but without the donkeys.

“The art of living,” says Carlo Petrini, the charismatic founder of the Slow Food Movement, “is about learning to give time to each and every thing.” And that, most surely, should include travel—everywhere from Mauritania to Mexico, and from the Maldives to Mongolia.

New travel rules for Cuban-Americans

According to The Miami Herald, Cuban-Americans can now visit relatives in Cuba once a year under new US rules and such travelers may stay abroad with no time limit. The report says the new travel rules take effect immediately, while a general license for Americans selling medical or agricultural goods to the government is still being formalized.



Airline News

Two words for a frugal flier: Patience. Wednesday.

Want to fly cheap? Time to break some bad habits. Like buying the first cheap ticket you see—or waiting until the last minute to book a fare.

As the economic slump continues and both business and leisure travel declines, fares are getting cheaper as airlines try to fill seats. Even with such bargains, however, travelers need to know a few tricks to get the very best prices. First, don’t hurry.

You can spend hours researching fares online. Knowing what a ticket usually sells for allows you to spot cheap fares almost immediately. Having a price in mind is good advice. A sense of timing helps, too.

If you tend to make travel plans during weekend downtime, reconsider. The best time to shop is late Monday or early Tuesday, some fare experts say. Airlines often start fare sales on Sunday night or Monday morning. Those sales alone are fine if they include the flight you want, but other carriers generally match the fare sale by Monday evening or Tuesday morning, giving you more choices.

Wednesdays are generally the cheapest day to fly. Tuesdays and Saturdays are also good days to fly because demand is low and the airlines are trying to fill seats.

It’s natural for travelers to book their flight when the workday is done or the kids are asleep, but the airlines are posting fares on their own schedule. They file fares to the computer system that shares them among websites and travel agents three times each weekday—10am, 12:30pm and 8pm Eastern time. It’s 5pm Eastern on Saturdays and Sundays. That means fares can change at those times, so when you do see a fare at the price you’re looking for, grab it.

Shoppers beware. Fares start to rise again 7 to 10 days before a flight—sometimes as long as 14 days or more—depending on the airline and sale offer. Airlines raise fares closer to the departure date because last-minute seats tend to be bought by business travelers and others who must fly at certain times.

It can be risky for a flier to delay buying a ticket in hopes it will be even cheaper. There's no good way for customers to know whether a fare sale will show up in their market.

Another piece of advice—learn to love St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago O’Hare, and other hub airports where you can connect to your final destination. Nonstops are convenient, desirable and sometimes more expensive. That’s not always the case, though, so always compare.

Keep watching and watching and watching—or call your trusted travel agent, like me, to do the watching for you.

Airline passenger’s rights

Know your rights as a flier and what you should (and shouldn’t) expect from the airlines.

Most US airline contracts of carriage (the agreement you enter into with the airline when you fly) contain oblique language and frustrating loopholes. Canada introduced Flight Rights Canada in September 2008, and Europe has had a formalized set of passenger rights since 2005.

At Canadian airports, for example, airlines must announce schedule changes, give meal vouchers for delays of more than four hours and hotel accommodations for those of more than eight hours. Passengers now must be given the option to disembark if they’ve been stuck on the tarmac for more than 90 minutes.

The European Commission’s rules specify that delays or cancellations that prevent you from completing your trip entitle you to a refund of the unused portions within seven days, even on nonrefundable tickets. Hotel accommodations and meals must be provided for delays of 24 hours or more.

In the absence of a US nationwide Passenger Bill of Rights (the Department of Transportation approved a set of voluntary guidelines in November), some states have taken it on individually—with little luck. In 2007, New York passed a bill after delays on the tarmac at JFK Airport stranded JetBlue travelers for more than 10 hours, but the bill was knocked down by a federal appellate court.

Until similar measures are in place in the States—no sign of that happening soon—here’s what you can do now:

Every airline posts a contract of carriage on its website. Each is different. Familiarizing yourself with—or even printing out—your airline’s current rules before you fly may save you angst later. Flying with companies that voluntarily abide by some rules is a good idea.

JetBlue has developed its own customer bill of rights, promising you will never be stuck on a plane for longer than five hours and that you’ll be compensated with vouchers for future travel if you experience delays of more than one hour.

You don’t have to take your lack of rights sitting down (unless, of course, you’re stuck on a tarmac right now). Learn more about bills in legislation, or join the efforts of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights.



Cruise News

Want a cheap vacation? Try a short cruise

Though vacations are disposable when money gets tight, the cruise industry has kept ships full with deep discounts and some itinerary changes to shorter, cheaper voyages. Norwegian Cruise Line is sailing three-and four-day swings for the first time since 2004. Carnival Corp. is offering free stateroom upgrades and more Caribbean choices in 2009 to accommodate demand.

Consumers are looking for more value for their vacation dollar and shorter, less expensive Caribbean cruise products are performing much better than premium and luxury, longer cruise products. There’s a consumer trade-down to value.

The good news is that consumers are still taking their vacations, but the vacation decision is for next month, rather than next year. The major cruise lines are seeing vacationers wait longer to commit. Before the downturn, bookings averaged about six months in advance, maybe eight months for luxury trips. But now people are deferring their purchases to the last minute.

Long considered a good vacation value, the cruise industry is holding up better than some competitors. For consumers, the cruise lines’ push to fill big ships can mean big savings.

Carnival is offering three- and four- day trips to Mexico and the Bahamas starting at US$209 for the lowest-level rooms at the last minute, a nearly 50-percent discount in some cases. Norwegian’s short Bahamas cruises were starting at $229 through mid-April.

Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean have suspended stock dividends, a sign of some distress, and last month Carnival lowered its revenue predictions for 2009. It also rolled out a new pricing scheme to entice further advance commitments. The “Early Saver” program offers 25-percent discounts for certain trips booked up to three months before departure, plus a guarantee those passengers will get the same savings if rates drop.



Sources: Mexican Tourism Board, Mexico Tourism News, Hidden Europe, Travel Agent Central, Travel & Leisure, Associated Press. 



Judy Newell heads the travel company Perfect Journeys that specializes in discounted rates for airfare, hotels, tours and cruises worldwide, as well as luxury and adventure travel. Contact her with comments or suggestions at JudyNewell_03@msn.com  or go to her website www.PerfectJourneys.net.