"Cookies!" Elaine on Seinfeld famously announced on trying to fly first class. "They have cookies up here!"

But that was the '90s. Now they have celebrity chefs. Charlie Trotter has teamed with United, and Miami's Michelle Bernstein with American, to produce gourmet meals for first class passengers on international flights.

This is wonderful news to - what - 5% of the population? We sad sacks back in coach are left with whatever scraps the airlines deem suitable for our miserable existence.

But there's a bright side to this injustice. Flying coach - hungry, constricted, painfully aware of economic divides - we experience for perhaps the only time in our lives how much of the world lives vis a vis the United States. It is an invaluable lesson in global realities - our sole chance to approximate what it's like to live in a developing country.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Blogging's been great, but I think if I really want to bring in the BIG bucks I need to come out with a video game. Something along the lines of Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Travel Writer will feature a travel writer, Swicko Peregrino, who arrives in a country hoping to learn its innermost secrets. The streets are steamy, the sights exotic (think Leonardo DiCaprio at the beginning of The Beach), the locals laconic.

Suddenly, gunshots rip through the humid air. Cars swerve up onto the sidewalk, sending pedestrians fleeing. A man who bears a striking resemblance to Christopher Walken lunges at Swicko's shoulder, grabbing his bookbag - which contains his notebook with all of his contacts - and flees down teeming alleyways.

Swicko chases after him, running into a voluptuous temptress ...

Sorry, but for more you'll have to wait till I sign with Rockstar Games.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

On Wednesday, May 7th - the eve of the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel - cities throughout the country, not just Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, will celebrate with fireworks, laser-light displays, and music.

Last year saw more Americans visit Israel than ever, and tourism is up 51% this year. Nothing like a birthday party to bring in guests.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Photo by Jennifer Fondo-Cohen
I didn't get to watch too much of the festival on Book-TV - C-Span 2's indispensible 48 hours of nonfiction book coverage every weekend - but I have friends in interesting places. Clink on "comments" for one woman's report of her day at the fair.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

As you've probably gathered, I'm a big fan of Miami, but until this past Saturday I had never been to a University of Miami baseball game.

"It's hard to imagine doing anything else on an evening like this," said my friend Toby, a long-time supporter of the team.

And it was. From the first base line we had a beautiful view down to the two spreading ficus trees shading the bleachers at the terminus of the third base line. If you moved your eye from the pitcher on the mound to those leafy twins you could imagine yourself watching a game played in a pasture - in a field of dreams.

A student with the made-for-baseball name of Yonder Alonso hit a home run to give Miami the lead. There was music between innings, but it wasn't blasted the way it is at Marlins games. At 9 o'clock Billy Joel sang, "It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday."

"That's what's so great about baseball," said Toby's daughter Jane, a student at U of M law school. "You can just break out in song and it's OK. Nobody looks at you funny."

There was also a between-innings quiz. "In what country is the Nobel Peace Prize given?" (Norway.)

After Miami won it in the bottom of the 10th, we walked to the parking garage, our way scented by the flowers of an orange jasmine hedge.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Speaking of Miami, one of the unpublicized glories of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami is how accessible it is making those arts.

A couple Fridays ago, my wife and I enjoyed Carmina Burana from $15 seats. Yes, we were in the top balcony, a few rows from the back, but it's not a piece of music you have to sit next to the stage to enjoy.

This morning I just bought a ticket for $10 for Handel's Julius Caesar this Wednesday. (Tickets are a bit more expensive on the weekends.)

At a time of soaring prices, this is an unexpected bargain.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

"They should have put out more chairs," Rosemary Jones said at the funeral home, which, by 6 pm yesterday, was standing room only. A fitting tribute to a passionate historian, a fine writer and a true Southern gentleman.

Stuart, and his widow Joan, sometimes graced the pages of my Travel section, writing not just about Florida but about long car trips, their minds as open as the road.

Addressing the large crowd of friends and family, Joan told of their drive to Jupiter, Florida, after they had decided to move from Maryland. It was getting late, the kids were tired and cranky, and Stuart, sitting at the wheel, asked, "Do you want to take the scenic route?"

"He took," she said smiling, "the scenic route in life's journey."

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

The Friday tradition continues...

If you've ever wanted to be a lighthouse keeper (and live by the side of the bay), Traverse City, Michigan, is offering you the chance. The "tiny" 138-year-old lighthouse is at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula (in the northwest part of the state) and is available for $800 a month.

Somewhat related, the vacation rental company Untours (love that name) is offering an enticing package - 14 nights in a cottage in Provence, round-trip airfare from New York, car rental and on-site support for $2,289 per person.

Sea Kayak Adventures has a 6-day trip (by kayak wouldn't you know) around the island archipelago off Port Hardy, British Columbia, an area rich in whales, seals, sea otters and porpoises. The cost of $1,195 includes water taxi from Port Hardy, guides, meals, camping and kayaking gear.

A few festivals of note: The Palo de Mayo (Maypole Festival) takes place throughout the month of - you guessed it - May in - here's the surprise - Nicaragua. Lots of costumes, beauty pageants, reggae dancing, etc.

The fourth annual "Taste Trinidad & Tobago" will take place in Port-of-Spain May 24-25 and focus on the relationship between tradition and food. Restaurant week follows May 26-31.

Jen reminded me that this weekend is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, so if you're in Southern California you can hear, among others, Pico Iyer talking about his new book on the Dalai Lama.

And if you're in Washington, DC, from May 3-17 many embassies and cultural centers will be opening their doors to visitors.

The Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan has come up with a "The Girls Are Back in Town" package (in honor of the release of the Sex And The City movie) which includes a room at the Roosevelt, cosmos at the new Mad-46 Rooftop Lounge, a Sex And The City Tour, a milk and cookies midnight snack and breakfast in bed. Cost is $521 for two, based on double occupancy and a minimum stay of two nights.

Not to be outdone, out on the west coast Esotouric (another wonderfully named company) and City Lights Books are offering "Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's 'LA' Bus Tour" on May 31 (appropriately, during BookExpo) from 5 pm - 9 pm. The tour will include visits to Skid Row, Crown Hill and favorite bars and liquor stores. There will be no milk and coookies.

Now friends - as the Republican candidate for president likes to say - what interesting things are happening in your backyards?

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

I wasn't going to comment on - and thus give more publicity to - the guidebook writer who wrote a tell-all book about the business of guidebook writing and then gave an interview flaunting his bad boy antics followed by a damage-control interview downplaying his misdeeds in what was an impressive effort - sort of like an attempted double play off a slow grounder - to keep both readers AND reputation.

But he got me thinking about the proverbial iceberg tip, and wondering if eventually we're going to hear that:

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, is still happily married to her first husband.

Rory Stewart walked across Andorra, and just pretended it was Afghanistan.

Paul Theroux has never actually met V.S. Naipaul.

In her heart of hearts, Patricia Schultz thinks there are only 34 places you ought to see before you die.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Born on this day in London in 1815.

The prolific novelist also wrote travel books, one of which inspired Paul Theroux to write one of the wisest things I've ever read about the genre.

In an essay in Granta magazine in 1989, Theroux quoted a passage from Trollope's The West Indies and the Spanish Main and at the end of it wrote: "Something human had happened, and Trollope recorded it: that, it seemed to me, was the essence of good travel writing."

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on this day in 1899.

Lolita, the book that made him famous, is the account of a road trip (among other things) in which the commonplaces of American life are exquisitely rendered through a European (Nabokovian) sensibility.

"We passed and repassed," begins a paragraph on page 157, "through the whole gamut of American roadside restaurants, from the lowly Eat with its deer head ... impaled guest checks, life savers, sunglasses, adman visions of celestial sundaes..."

In 1969, in preparation for the greatest journey of the 20th century, Esquire magazine asked famous writers what they would like the first man on the moon to say. Nabokov responded: "I want a lump in his throat to obstruct the wisecrack."


photo: Library of Congress

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

And the winner was: Rosa Mexicano. (I keep meaning to ask why it's not "Mexicana." Anybody know?)

Jim and Joyce had been to Grillfish the night before, and I thought a little trip off the Beach would do them good. We arrived at 7:30 and were told there would be a 30 minute wait, so we walked over to Perricone's and had a drink at the outside bar. (It's like sitting on the shaded Southern porch of an Italian restaurant in a Latin city.)

Once seated at Rosa, we ordered margaritas and guacamole. After it arrived, they said, as people tend to do there, "This is the best guacamole I've ever had."

Since they make it at your table, there's no secret to it. You can watch carefully and then repeat the process in your own kitchen. But then you miss out on the wall studded with tiny white statues of men in mid-swan dive.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Last week, Royal Caribbean announced that its newest ship Project Genesis, to be delivered in 2009, will feature a replica of New York's Central Park.

And I thought: Uh oh! I mean, you know how cruise lines all try to outdo each other.

Here are some other announcements we may soon be hearing:

Holland America's new ship, the Neverdam, will feature a replica of the Grand Canyon. Sure, other ships give you rock climbing, we give you mule riding.

Disney Cruise Line's new ship, the Apotheosis, will come complete with a to-scale model of the Amazonian rain forest.

And Carnival's new ship, the Satisfaction, will give passengers the thrill of trekking through a 10,000 acre facsimile of the Australian Outback.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Blogs are great, we know, but they tend to lack an element of suspense. Let me see what I can do.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with my brother and his fiancee, who are vacationing in Miami Beach. Nothing too expensive (he's a lawyer, but I'm not).

I'm going to suggest: A La Folie (simple crepes and cider) or Grillfish if they want to stay on the beach. Otherwise, Sheba (Ethopian, in the Design District), Rosa Mexicano (Brickell Village), Miss Saigon (Coral Gables), Garcia's (Miami River) or Versailles (Calle Ocho).

Check in tomorrow to see which one they chose. And, in the meantime, vote for your favorite. (Or add some places I missed.)

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

World Hum - that invaluable online magazine of travel news and travel writing - alerted me to a recent review by Paul Theroux of a new biography of V.S. Naipaul.

The two men are closely linked, not only because they are about the last in a long line of novelists who also write travel books, but because of their literary friendship gone bad.

Theroux chronicled it in his book Sir Vidia's Shadow, starting with their meeting in Africa - when the older Naipaul took the young writer under his wing - and ending with Naipaul's abrupt and unexplained break with his prolific and successful disciple.

In the review, which appeared in the London Times, Theroux lists instances of Naipaul's cruelty and selfishness with great gusto, almost glee, as if to say: "See, it's not just me! He really is despicable." You get the feeling that, because of this new biography, he feels vindicated for writing his memoir.

But the review raises the question (in a way that the memoir didn't): If Naipaul really is such a horrible man - which I don't doubt he is - why was Theroux his friend for so long?

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Thank God it's ... that day when we look at the best press releases.

First off, if you're in Fort Lauderdale tonight you can hear in person one of the most recorded voices in musical history as the great Indian singer Asha Bhosle (left) performs at the Broward Center. As of yesterday afternoon, $35 tickets (the cheapest) were still available. (I know because I bought two.) More expensive seats are probably available too. Call 954-462-0222 or contact the Rhythm Foundation.

Experiencing a place like a local is always one of the most rewarding but also one of the most difficult parts of travel. The folks at Visit Britain are making it a lot easier with something called British Friends. Located all over England, Scotland and Wales, these people are ready to help tourists by telling them things only the locals know, like what's the best pub in town and where a good band is playing. And you can contact them through the website.

If you're still feeling a little upset about the QE2 being taken out of service, you might want to cheer yourself up with some ocean liner mementos. Swann Galleries in New York City is holding a Maritime Memorabilia Auction May 22, which will include, among many other things, "letters, photographs and postcards" from the Titanic. Call 212-254-4710 or write to ggarland@swanngalleries.com.

A press release arrived announcing a new biannual magazine, Girlfriend Getaways, and its editor Erik Torkells. Yes, the editor of Girlfriend Getaways is a man.

A note to readers: You're not only well-informed, you're well-dispersed. What's coming up in your parts of the world? Drop in a "comment" and let us know. Like the Brits, we can create our own network of locals.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Karen Blixen, better known by her pen name Isak Dinesen, was born on this day in 1885 in Rungsted, Denmark. Her most famous book, Out of Africa, is a beautiful evocation of her life on a coffee plantation in Kenya between the two world wars.

In Bonaire last year I saw a tourist wearing a T-shirt printed with a quote from Dinesen: "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea."

Two other quotes of hers that I like are:

"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever."

And:

"God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road."

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

AP photo/David Zalubowski

I finally got a response to my call for suggestions on attracting more foreign visitors to the U.S. - and it's a good one.

Get rid of car rental agents, writes Mitch.

He says, quite rightly, that the pressure they put on people - to upgrade, to go for extras - is a very rude welcome to our country.

We've all experienced this here, where we speak the language; imagine what it's like arriving from overseas, jet-lagged, disoriented, perhaps searching for words.

And I would add this: Most foreign visitors are used to driving small cars, which often aren't available from rental companies. Numerous times I've reserved a compact car only to be told that none is in the lot, and I'll get a free upgrade.

But I don't want a free upgrade, I want a nice small car that's easy to maneuver and easy to park and easy on gas. So do, I suppose, lots of foreigners.

It's gotten so I dread the walk from the carousel to the rental car desk. Because I know there's going to be a fight.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Went to my first Marlins game of the season last night (Fish shut out the Braves 4-0) with my friend David, whose wife is from Kazakhstan and doesn't like baseball.

Around the fifth inning, he told me that when the movie Borat came out his wife refused to see it. So he went by himself.

Later I wondered which of the two - Borat or the Marlins - would be the more disagreeable for her to watch?

What do you think? (Imagine yourself - as you've probably never done - a young Kazakh woman living in America.)

AP Photo/Twentieth Century Fox/Alexandra Lambrinidis

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

I don't know about you, but I can't get too excited about the proposed merger of Delta and Northwest.

I mean, they're both American airlines.

Last week I had lunch with a well-traveled acquaintance and we talked about that letdown you feel whenever you come back into the U.S. on a foreign carrier and then have to board a domestic for the connecting flight home. It's not just goodbye exotic flavors, it's goodbye food. Goodbye good manners. Goodbye smiles.

Normally, I'm not crazy about foreigners buying American companies, but I'd happily make an exception for airlines.

Singapore Airlines taking over American. Thai Airways taking over United. Qantas taking over Delta. Emirates taking over Continental. Cathay Pacific taking over US Airways

Oh, baby, let the mergers begin!

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

I was a little preoccupied last week, so didn't have time to comment on the reported banning of Naomi Campbell from all future British Airways flights.

You may recall that the supermodel allegedly spit at a police officer after one of her bags failed to make it onto her plane at Heathrow's new terminal 5.

Of course, nobody takes the side of a spitting supermodel.

I don't condone spitting (except in baseball) but aren't we ALL fed up with the treatment we get when we travel these days? But who among us has had the courage to stand up and show the world that something's not right? Naomi Campbell - that's who!

Do you think it's a coincidence that one week after her blow-up American Airlines cancelled thousands of flights? Yes, it was a huge inconvenience, but consider how much safer flying is today. I think we have Naomi to thank for that.

So let's try to show a little more understanding the next time an incredibly rich, beautiful, pampered, self-centered person tries to do what she can for the little guy.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

It wouldn't be Friday without ... the best of the week's press releases.

There are a lot of bike trips through countrysides, but not a lot through cities. Fat Tire Bike Tours takes cyclists around London and Paris (where you ride during the day and at night).

While in London, you could stop by the Imperial War Museum and check out For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond. The exhibit is on through next March, as this year marks the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth.

If a bike is a little too fast for you, the Wayfarers are offering a number of walks through delightful regions of France and Italy (like Provence and Cinque Terre).

Divers love Bonaire and vice versa, as evidenced by something the Dutch Island calls "Bonaire Dive Into Summer 2008." Among the events are International Year of the Reef Week, June 21-28 and Scuba Diving Magazine Week, July 19-26.

And if you're in Fort Lauderdale next Friday (April 18) you can pretend you're in India, and see one of that country's most popular singers, the ageless Asha Bhosle, at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The event is sponsored by the Broward Center and the wonderful Rhythm Foundation.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

I was very moved watching her sail away yesterday.

Because I took her to France when I was 23, she has always been for me the embodiment of youthful adventure, yearning, enterprise, hope.

As I talked to people on the beach yesterday, I would sometimes mention that I had sailed her in '75. "Congratulations," one woman said, as if she knew the whole story.

In France I learned a new language and, as sometimes happens, acquired a new identity. I also penetrated a culture, working on a 500-year-old farm in Alsace. (Months later I would make a joke of a job application at the Trenton Times - "Why did you leave your last employment?" "I was tired of stepping in cow pies." - which would so amuse the editor he would hire me as a feature writer.)

Because the voyage to France had been so memorable, I booked passage home on a Russian ship that sailed out of England. (In those years, two Russian ships and a Polish ship joined the QE2 in trans-Atlantic crossings.) Arriving in London a few days early, I met a Polish woman working in my hotel and, four years later, I was a married man in Warsaw, teaching English, learning another language, gathering material for my first book.

Most of what I value most dearly in my career and my personal life can be linked to the QE2. So yes, yesterday I was a little misty-eyed.

Photo by Michael Laughlin, Sun-Sentinel

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

"If you're flying American Airlines today," the announcer on NPR said this morning, "you have a lot of time to listen to this program."

After cancelling 1,094 flights yesterday, stranding over 100,000 people, American cancelled over 900 flights today.

The reason: to conduct proper safety inspections of wiring on the wing.

The disruption is tremendous, as is the financial hit to American, which is covering the costs incurred by inconvenienced travelers.

Nothing seems to be going right for airlines today except this: We are experiencing, according to the Secretary of Transportation, "the safest five-year period in aviation history."

Something to keep in mind whille you wait for your flight.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Yesterday, Lawrence R. Samuel spoke at the Broward Main Library about the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. (I told you he would.)

Even though I attended the fair five times, I learned a lot yesterday. (Hey, I was a pre-teen in the mid-60s!)

The Ford Mustang and the Belgian waffle were both introduced at the fair. The Mustang actually was from Ford, but the waffle wasn't from Belgium; it was from a company called Bel-Gem. (That it became known as a Belgian waffle is, when you think about it, fitting culinary justice for the country that invented the French fry.)

The Unisphere, which still stands, is the largest representation of Earth.

The IBM pavilion, which I recall as a kind of giant egg into which a rising bleacher would regularly disappear, was actually a representation of the ball of a Selectric typewriter, which IBM had recently introduced. For their pavilion, the company decided to replace all the letters of the alphabet with three - IBM - repeated over and over again. (I still remember vividly waiting in line for a seat on the bleacher and listening to a guitarist play The Girl from Ipanema. Ah, the '60s.)

The most visited exhibit was General Motor's Futurama. The second most visited was the Italy pavilion, which contained Michelangelo's The Pieta.

The creator, Robert Moses, broke with World's Fair protocol and charged countries rent. As a result, only 66 participated.

Walt Disney did four of the pavilions: General Electric, Ford, Illinois (an audioanimatron of Abe Lincoln) and Pepsi-Cola, which featured the now-famous "it's a small world" (no capital letters) exhibit. He wanted to build Disney World on the site after the fair closed, but Moses wouldn't allow it. So he moved it to a small town in Florida.

Many more interesting facts can be found in Samuel's The End of Innocence: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair (published by Syracuse University Press).

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

You know those little lists magazines do, often made-up stuff purporting to show how on top of things they are? Green is the new orange, beer is the new wine, Hallandale is the new Aventura.

I've never put much stock in them. But the New York Times special Travel magazine the other Sunday had a list that I not only enjoyed, I agreed with. It was not about places, but the people who visit them.

The Chinese, it said, are the new Japanese. And anyone who's traveled abroad lately - or even in some parts of the U.S. - has noticed camera-happy people from the People's Republic.

The Brits are the new Americans, loud and flush, seeing the world as their personal playground - and shopping mall. And again, if you've been in Riga on a summer weekend you know what they mean.

And the Americans? We're the new Germans, traveling far and wide, keeping a low profile (for political reasons), showing sensitivity to the culture, volunteering, adopting, wanting to do good.

This, too, has generally been my impression of compatriots met on the road of late. The conscientious American tourist won't undo a failed foreign policy, but at least she's one positive offshoot of it.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

The annual survey of airline quality just came out and the conclusion is that things are a mess. This is no surprise.

We've all experienced, or at least heard of, the increase in costs, delays, discomfort, and dissatisfaction. And we've seen a troubling decrease in options, as airlines pull planes that don't meet safety standards, discontinue routes, or simply go out of business - as ATA, Aloha and Skybus did last week.

What IS surprising is that during all of this nobody has brought up the idea of travel by train. This is partly because of our sorry excuse for a train system, Amtrak, whose monumental delays sometimes make airlines look like, well, Swiss trains. And it is also because of the great distances in this country, and the amount of time it takes to go by land.

Way to go?

But now we have not only a broken air travel system, but growing concerns about the environment. If you're worried about your carbon footprint, shouldn't you at least consider the train? It would seem to be the perfect time to start talking about improving Amtrak, and increasing Americans' vacation time, so we'd be able to travel more leisurely (not to mention join most of the rest of the industrialized world).

Candidates?


photo: AP

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

If, like me, you're fond of things Brazilian, South Florida is about the second best place to be right now.

There is a retrospective of Brazilian cinema - Fome de Film - going on now through May 3. It is sponsored by Florida Atlantic University and the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

And, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Bossa Nova, Books & Books in Coral Gables is featuring concerts, lectures, and workshops every Monday evening this month, beginning tonight.

It's a blue, yellow and green April.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

It took place, appropriately perhaps, in New York City from 1964-1965, and over 52 million people attended. Though that figure may be a bit high, since many people went more than once. I made the trek from New Jersey five times.

Last year a book about the great fair appeared, The End of the Innocence: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, by Lawrence R. Samuel. And the author will be speaking at the Broward County Main Library, Gallery 6, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 8.

A footnote: One of the things the book probably doesn't discuss is the fair's influence on a generation of American travel writers.

Last year at the annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, CA, the conference organizer, Don George, mentioned the fair, as he had grown up in Connecticut during the '60s.

Immediately, John Flinn, travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and former Philly boy, said he'd been there too, as did Jeff Greenwald (Long Island), author of Shopping for Buddhas.

I wasn't surprised. As I write in my book, A Way to See the World:

"That doomed city in Queens was the first one I learned by heart, and it was there that I acquired a taste for maps, streets, buildings, and mingling with, what seemed to me then, all the conceivable races of the world."

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

And now for that beloved Friday tradition: the best from the week's press releases.

People often tell me they like to travel but not alone. Well, a few days ago I got a release about a travel companion matching site called Travel Chums (www.travelchums.com). The organization is eight years old and has over 40,000 members.

Then there are people who have partners but the partners are addicted to ESPN. For them, the Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino has created a "Sports Widow Weekend." This release arrived in the middle of March Madness, but the package is available through Dec. 21. Because, what weekend in the U.S. doesn't involve some sort of sporting madness?

Then there are people who've always wanted to go to Ethiopia but found the prospect a little daunting. Ethiopian Airlines is starting "Ethiopian Journeys," a group of three tour packages including the "Queen of Sheba Tour" which takes in the Blue Nile Falls. There is also a package to Tanzania.

And lastly, there are people with teenagers. For them, Loews Hotels has created what they're calling "Edu-cations." These include a tour of the financial markets in New York City, a songwriting trip to Nashville, and immersion into the culinary arts in Miami Beach. Less educational but possibly more fun are golfing tours in Las Vegas and surfing tours in San Diego.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

The QE2, on farewell tour, leaves Sydney on Feb. 25
AP photo

Having debuted in 1969, she is the last of the ocean liners with elegant lines. And, sadly, she's headed to Dubai to become a floating hotel.

She's scheduled to arrive at 7 am and depart at 5 pm. (Though I know from experience that the Cunard ships are notoriously late leavers.) A good place to wait for her departure is the Point of the Americas beach. You can stand on the jetty and shout "Bon voyage!" just like Murray in A Thousand Clowns.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

When I'm feeling low (yes, even travel editors get the blues) there are two places in South Florida that can instantly cheer me up: the MacArthur Causeway, especially on a weekend when the ships are in port, and the Hollywood Broadwalk.

The Broadwalk is like a safe house away from all the posturing and pretension of South Florida. The faces you see are not sophisticated but they're real. They often have a toughness that speaks of hard lives, hard winters. And this makes the smiles all the more precious.

So if you're in need of a lift, take a stroll on the Broadwalk this Saturday. And when you're done, head over to Young Circle, where something called "an eco-diversity event" will be taking place. I'm not sure what that is, but I do know that it will include music and dance from Latin America, West Africa, Turkey and India. So you can feel uplifted AND transported.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

One of the wonderful things about the Sony Ericsson Open, apart from the great tennis, is being among people from other countries, hearing different languages.

It's a very American thing, ours being a nation of immigrants. But lately tourists - at least those who don't play tennis - haven't been so eager to come here. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce noted that we had two million fewer overseas visitors last year than we had in 2000. And this at a time when the dollar's as attractive as George Clooney.

There are a number of explanations, stricter visa and immigration policies being among them. But there is also the inescapable fact that a lot of people are upset at the United States and no amount of bargains will convince them to visit.

A warmer welcome?

It's a start. But it's not enough. Please help by sending me your ideas - serious or ridiculous - on how we can get more people to visit the U.S.


photo: Mary Jane Watson / http://www.flickr.com/photos/avigon/

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0) | Share:

Interior of Havana's Hotel Florida
Now Cubans can see it (staff photo)

This new ruling reminded me of my first and only visit to the island in 2001. I was on a so-called "educational exchange" - still allowed by OUR government at that time - and by the second day one naive young man in our group was already complaining about being taken only to tourist restaurants. Someone had to explain to him that there wasn't much choice, as most Cubans couldn't afford to eat out.

Now, Cubans who can't afford restaurants are free to stay in hotels.

> Discuss this entry

Permalink | TrackBacks (0) | Share: