Tag Archives: Travel Blog

What’s Up with Airline Regulations??

So after the recent debacles with United and American, the government is getting heavy.  Finally, we are seeing the government recognizing that consolidation is creating an arrogance in service and in amenities.  After deregulation in 1978, industry charges like baggage fees and bumping passengers have been pretty much left to the airlines.  And 80% of USA domestic business is now in the frightening hands of four airlines. Power to the few and less power to the consumer.

Airlines claim that overbooking helps keep fares low and provides less risk so more choice for consumers.  Understood, but you have to be nice too!  Honestly, whoever comes off a plane and says that they had a fab and fun experience?  Now United are going to have to put their money where their mouth is.  Dragging a guy down the aisle sounds like a bad wedding arrangement.  It nearly cost them their business.  CEO Munoz stated that he is committed to making things better and now overbooking as a policy is going to be phased out.  Southwest, the darling of consumers, actually has the highest overbooking of any airline. They were just smarter and nicer about it.

We all get that overbooking creates more flexibility for airlines and lots take advantage of the compensation.  It doesn’t take much but being nice and being smart makes the difference.  Having a positive attitude and being customer friendly is key.  That’s all we ask for.  We are not cattle.

AirBnB Magazine…lovely…

Here’s a shocker.  High-tech, super slick Airbnb have teamed up with the Hearst Corporation to produce a travel magazine; essentially Airbnb Magazine.  The rationale is that nobody knows better where people want to go than Airbnb does.  They see it in demand and deals and have it resourced from billions of data points.  As such, they can provide stories for people and places that are hot and can write about places that are trending.  Savannah, for example, is one of Airbnb’s biggest sourced destinations, Porvoo in Finland is another.  Go figure!

The first launch will be this May.  It’s going to provide competition for mags like Afar and Conde Nast Traveler but Airbnb is different by basing stories and articles on where people want to go.  In other words, they’re putting the power into the hands of the consumer instead of the usual fantasy articles that occupy most chapters of a travel mag.  Incidentally, one of the best travel mags for me is British Airways High Life.  Of course, the only problem there is that British Airways has to fly there and it’s only available on the airplane.  I always steal a copy!

Airbnb mag is an experiment but like travel books, people still love travel in print form.  Look at the success of Rick Steves.  Regular monthly mailings will be forthcoming if this finds success.

Travel Briefs 1: Airport Technology. Are You Using It?

Now airports are moving into food and drink technology.  Many airports have iPad ordering systems set up around bars and themed food restaurants.  The deal is that you sit down, swipe your credit card, choose items from the iPad menu, and then food or drinks come flying out at you from places that you had no idea.  Meanwhile, there are bartenders that you cannot order from and wait staff that appear randomly with your food in no apparent order.  The basic problem with that system is that it’s not that good.  Somebody has to keep coming in to manually assist and more often than not, the timing is all screwed up.  Sometimes you get wine when you should’ve received coffee, or pizza when you were looking for dessert.  It helps to pass the time and the idea is to simply centralize the operation center, but the problem is that it doesn’t work that well.

Having Your Uber Account Hacked IS As Bad As You Think.

I have never not had access to my Uber account.  It goes with me everywhere and is sort of like a travel companion.  However, it doesn’t get to go to Italy with me and I hate that.  The cab company lobby there is just too powerful.  So apart from not being able to see the sights of Ancient Rome and renaissance Florence, Uber does pretty well with me.

Then the horror of all unthinkable horrors happened – my Uber account was hacked!

I didn’t spot it at first.  I kept getting messages from an unknown source in Russian but I kept on deleting them.  I figured that it was a Russian wedding inquiry.  Then one day, my Uber driver asked me if my name was “Dinrat.”  No, that’s not me.  And then I realized I had been hacked!  Ok, no issues.  I check my credit cards and reboot Uber but for three days I couldn’t log back on.  I used the help button that Uber indicated I should use, restarted it, resubmitted it, but for three miserable days, I was Uber-less.  Nobody to talk to help you, just dependent on their technology to resurface.  It was not easy, believe me.  Friends would have to pay for my transportation and I started to do the unthinkable…take taxis!  It was a pretty grim experience.

It was tough and I felt lost.  I didn’t know who to turn to.  That’s what I realized that I was an Uber addict.  Take Lyft, friends told me, but I couldn’t give up on Uber.  So after 20 back and forth messages, we were able to make amends and I got back into a relationship again.  Life without Uber.  Honestly, I feel really bad for the Italians!

Oh, The Airport Woes

If you are going to get stuck at an airport and your flight is going to be endlessly delayed and possibly canceled, one word of advice, pray to God that you are not stuck at LaGuardia Airport.  It sucks.  Watching delays unfold and getting bad updates and then inevitable cancellations are frustrating and bring out the worst in all of us.  Airline staff is not helpful and nobody has a clue.  Usually, they point to a gate complaint line that is a mile long and have you wait there.  If you are really lucky, you get a snack voucher.  As for a hotel, dream on!     

What I never understand is why the airlines do not better prepare their staff for dealing with these situations.  At the airport, I saw queues and queues of people trying to get out and I thought how bad airlines deal with this stuff and yet this is where they should shine.  Stranded passengers, helpless passengers, simply giving soothing words and realistic directions and expectations on how to get out of the mess would be helpful.  It is always a drag to watch this debacle.  It could be so much better.  It’s as if they have no training on what happens when stuff goes wrong.  That’s the only time they have to worry and that’s when they can really overperform.  We know the airline food is bad, the seats are cramped, and the service in general on the plane is very average, so how about excelling at this?  Help passengers who are trying to figure out what to do, concentrate on the pre-boarding service, calm people, assure people, and take a genuine interest in getting people into a good frame of mind.  Maybe they should have yoga attendants at the gates helping passengers breath.  It’s a shame. This is an area where you don’t have to do much.  Just be service-oriented and kind.  Is that too much to ask?

 

Visiting Germany’s Baden Baden

All I knew about the German city of Baden Baden was that it was a famous spa town.  But I also recall the English football team had boot camped there with their WAGS one infamous tournament of which there have been so many.  So I equated it with failure, inevitability, and the hopelessness of England to ever be successful at soccer again after one great and surreal moment in 1966.  Off I went to visit Baden Baden and try to heal the memories and expunge the dreadfulness of overpaid footie players.

Baden Baden is really quite a short drive from Strasbourg.  The border between the two
countries, France and Germany, is evident and comes upon you quickly.  It’s dull and ironically is marked by a mosque at what was the checkpoint. One brief autobahn ride and within an hour we found ourselves in this very beautiful and well-manicured town.  There were tons of fancy hotels with spa facilities advertised everywhere.  There is an elegant long ascent up a wide series of well-kept gardens.  There was a delightful clay court tennis club that looked like it had been there for years, it had a turn of the 19th century fell about it and its doors were open to whoever fancied a game.  A rushing river cut through the center of the gardens and people were strolling along its banks as if they were in a French impressionist painting.  It was so damn civilized.

There were lots of Range Rovers and Audis but nothing too flashy.  It was very much a Sunday place.  In fact, every day, I imagine, seems like Sunday here.  Women with hats and couples arm in arm.  We grabbed a good lunch at a belle époque restaurant.  The food was a welcome relief from the heavy meat meal of its neighbor over the border.  All I could think about was how this region had been tossed around like a tennis ball in that clay court for 50 years.  I didn’t get to go to a spa.  It seemed complicated and difficult to figure out how to gain entrance. You knew the spas were somewhere but it just didn’t seem that if you wanted to go for a spa holiday, you would
choose this place.  Maybe it wasn’t sexy enough or accessible enough.  Or maybe I just missed it!  Baden Baden is absolutely worth a visit.  It’s beautiful and it even had a couple of Sequoia trees towering in the gardens.  How strange that at the top end of the town, beyond the hotels, something that seemed so terribly northern Californian was front and center.  Redwoods.  California, Germany.  Go figure.

 

What Do You Love About Telluride?

I had a credit from the Hotel Madeline in Telluride, CO.  They were kind enough to roll the credit from a canceled reservation a year ago over to a new reservation this year.  So my son and I hit Telluride.  I had never been before although I had heard lots about it.  We both love to ski so this seemed like a perfect storm.

Getting to Telluride is not easy.  It’s more or less impossible to drive from Denver (6 hours) so a flight to Montrose Airport is the usual way in and that’s what we did.  Montrose is a strange place.  One hour and a half drive from Telluride, it couldn’t be farther.  There is a great diner there, Starvin Arvins, where the eggs and corn beef hash are exceptional.  The waitresses all wear pumps and the clientele can look very different to us folks from the eastern territories.  Not more than 20 minutes from Montrose is Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  The canyon is as deep as the Grand Canyon but not as wide.  It was spectacular in the early morning mist to see this giant chasm in a national park right next door to a very bland, modern town like Montrose.

An hour and a half later we arrived in Telluride. The town is really two towns. Mountain Village is essentially the new town.  It’s built along the lines of all American ski resorts with plenty of large fire pits, bars, and fake old new buildings.  However, it was functional and had great access to the lifts.  The Hotel Madeleine was right there – literally just a hop to the lifts.  We were taking advantage of my credit.  Actually, the hotel itself was a bit of a standout.  It had a nice pool, although not big enough to do lengths in, fabulous twin outside jacuzzis, a great steam room, and a slightly overpriced breakfast buffet.

There is a gondola that serves the new town and the old town.  It runs from early in the morning to midnight.  You can ski off at the midpoint or simply use it as public transportation between the two towns.  I loved this facility.  It’s also free and paid for by the state of Colorado as a form of public transportation.  I always think of great moments in travel like the Venice motor launch in from the airport.  This was one of those moments.  At the end of the day just before sunset, we would ride the gondola down to the old town.  Telluride is high up at 13,000 feet so these trips were spectacular and the ride down was thrilling every night.

I really loved this place.  Loved the old clipper mining town and the restaurants down there.  We ate well every night and the tacos at Taco Del Gnar are cheap and amazing.  There was an Italian restaurant close to the gondola that was good but not standout.  But everything was amazing every night especially Rustico and 221 South Oak.  At the top of Telluride, there is a fabulous place to break up the day called Alpino Vino.  It’s the highest restaurant in North America at 13,000 feet.  On a sunny day in the right place and a great table, you can see forever.  Telluride has a population of 2,000 people, seven dispensaries, and some of the best skiing in the Rocky Mountains with great restaurants.  Something for everyone.

 

Where oh Where is Strasbourg?

The territory of Alsace-Lorraine is not quite France but very much a part of it.  We were headed to Strasbourg, the capital of the territory, to see this beautiful city that sits on the Rhine and its tributaries.  It has fabulous wines and is the center of power for the European Parliament.  Who knows, this would potentially be for me a last look at what it was like to see a Union Jack outside the Parliament building after Brexit.

Strasbourg is foremost a beautiful town – it’s very German in feel and therefore very organized.  There are great restaurants and the pedestrian zone around the massive cathedral is worth the visit.  It has this very Euro feeling to it and houses the second largest university in France.  The constantly circulating river boats do sightseeing tours and allow you to see the beautiful old buildings adorning the river.  There is lots of sightseeing activity on the river boats and at night, a walk to the main square to see the cathedral is an absolutely spectacular stroll.  We ate in a couple of good Alsace restaurants and likely had way too much meat but greatly enjoyed the Rieslings and Pinot Blancs.  It’s one of the few times that I allow myself to indulge in sautéed foie gras.

What is cool about this city is that it’s a base to visit two other spectacular nearby places – Baden Baden and Colmar.  For a French teacher, Colmar is a must and Baden Baden is a fabulous add-on across the border.  We even got to see a baseball game outside the EU parliament.  How strange, especially since baseball, so they say, is on the decline and soccer is on the rise.  It seems here in the heart of Europe a flicker of faith was keeping the old ball game alive.  Meanwhile, the Union Jack was flying high; a last flutter of the flag to denote that the great European experiment, alive and well everywhere, and created after the disaster of the second world war, was getting red carded in the U.K.  Go on Scotland, declare independence and leave Auntie Britain and go live with your less superior relatives, The Euros.  Ireland seems much happier living with its European neighbors since its divorce in 1922!

 

Positano Pietro Place Peter Jones

Positano and the Island of Capri

So if you had to choose a place in all of Italy to hang out for a few days in super-luxury, relatively car-free, and using a boat to access restaurants and islands nearby, where would you choose?

I would choose Positano in late September.

Positano is one of those rare places that you find that has just about everything with some gorgeous hotels (Le Sirenuse and Hotel Covo dei Saraceni) and some very cool restaurants that you either have to walk along the cliffs to or rent a private boat to access.  Positano has a constant flow of ferry traffic as it serves all the way through the end of September as a main jumping off point for tourists from Sorrento and a jumping on point for tourists to get to the island of Capri.  The beach is typical of this area – stony with plenty of stabilimenti. The water is clear although it is good to stay inside of the swimming lanes because of the boat traffic.

I had not been to Capri for more than 30 years so we rented a boat and sailed clear around the island.  We landed at the Marina Grande and went to the Marina Piccola for a swim.

Capri is good for a day; no more, and maybe a bit less.

It was good to go but it was crowded and the wait on the funicular was not worth it.  The cab drivers all seemed to be satiated for business.  To make it worse, the water was choppy so the famous Blue Grotto was not available.  One thing’s for sure, Capri is beautiful but no Greek island.

Positano is spectacular and has almost the enchantment of a Greek island.

The colorful houses as they sit along the horseshoe cliff face are like no other in the world.  The smell of lemons in the lemon groves pervade this place.  The fact that you can buy fresh mozzarella di bufala makes this one of the great wonderlands of Italian cuisine.  It’s expensive, it’s trendy, it’s glitzy, and it’s a bit of a hassle to get to, but honestly, for three or four days at least once in your life, you should give yourself up to Positano.  Tom Brady did while he was sitting out his four games for Deflategate.  My only regret was that I didn’t bump into Gisele while taking my morning cappuccino.  We were there at the same time!

Capri Positano Pietro Place Peter JonesCapri Positano Pietro Place Peter Jones Capri Positano Pietro Place Peter Jones

 

Flying over London Pietro Place Peter Jones

Flying High Over London

I’m originally from London so I know the city pretty much back to front.

Nowadays though I tend to see it more as a tourist and probably enjoy a lot more of the sights than I ever would if I lived there.  Usually when I fly transatlantic to London, the flight pattern follows the western parts of the city and picks up the Thames just around the airport area close to Windsor, Eton, and Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.  Sometimes, if you sit in a holding pattern low enough, you get a wonderful tour of the city center before making final landing.

But the other day the flight pattern coming from another European city was decidedly different.

This time, flying over London took us full along the Thames from the eastern stretches of outer London all the way through the center.

It was a sight to behold.  We passed over the mouth of the Thames where Dover sole fish farms ply their trade and eels are caught for the English delicacy of…horror upon horrors, jellied eels.

Literally we seemed to trace the old docklands which had been replaced by brand new developments around Canary Wharf, past The O2, and over the Emirates gondola before we started to get into the new city development – the skyscrapers with funky names like the Gherkin, the Shard, and the Walkie Talkie.  This was the new London and we were flying above it at around 20,000 feet.  The pilot seemed to be enjoying the view as much as we did and he made a couple of announcements pointing to the developments on the river below.

It was strange to see old London squeezed in between the skyscrapers and the ancient river below.  There was the tiny-looking Tower of London and the omnipresent Tower Bridge, London’s iconic and still used drawbridge.  Everybody in the plane, whatever side you were looking at, had a treat to behold.  St. Paul’s Cathedral was on the right, the Tate Modern on the left, and the London Eye straight ahead…did I miss 12th century Southwark Cathedral in the middle of it all?  We passed Westminster, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Lambeth Palace, just a stone’s throw from where I grew up, and still we kept on following the Thames.

As we started to run out of sights, the plane banked slightly and we caught a glimpse of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace.

I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a better or more impressive city to fly into than London.  I don’t think so.

 

Corsica Pietro Place Peter Jones

Getting Lost in Corsica

It’s tough to find a place in the Mediterranean that is not overrun by tourists, especially the hordes from the north who populate and destroy the character of places in Spain and Portugal.

But there are times to visit the Mediterranean and there are places during those times that remain relatively untouched by the scourge of modern tourism.

Corsica is one of them.

One hour from Paris by plane or a slow boat from Marseilles will get you to this magical island that sits just off of the coast of southern France, west of the Italian peninsula, and north of the island of Sardinia.  I made the most delightful wrong turn upon arrival in the airport and what should have been a 35-minute drive to the picturesque town of Saint-Florent, turned out with my GPS to be a two-and-a-half-hour journey through the hinterland, climbing mountain tops, and going through several weather changes, on my way back to, as it turns out, the airport!

As I discovered, Google Maps has bouts of unreliability nevermore than when you need it most.

But we covered mountain passes, pig farms, delightful stone villages, and oodles of bougainvillea that acted as hedge rose.

Driving was a little dicey but with my stick shift knowledge I was able to navigate some treacherous climbs and take a few stops to grab some time to take in the scenery.  The scenery in this mountainous island was spectacular.  Even in June there were 8,500 foot peaks of snowcapped mountains peering down across the turquoise Mediterranean Sea.

I had been to Sardinia some 30 years ago but this landscape was altogether different.

Eventually we picked up the road that we had ought to have picked up on the drive from the airport and started all over again.  As it turns out, the confusion was because the sign for Saint-Florent had been crossed out by some angry Corsican separatists which left only the sign in Corsican that looked completely different.

A combination of Corsican separatists and Google Maps had conspired to give me an incredible introduction to this magical island!

Corsica Pietro Place Peter Jones Corsica Pietro Place Peter Jones Corsica Pietro Place Peter Jones

Renting a Car in Europe

Things to Beware of When Renting a Car in Europe

Renting a car in Europe can be not quite as easy as you think.

First of all – the insurance.  Call your credit card company and make sure what you think is insured is insured.  The cost of a rental car can literally double per day if you take the rental car’s suggested insurance options.  Your credit card should cover you for all of the insurance that you need.  But there is a catch – the credit card company is simply going to back up your own insurance if there is a problem.  Thus, if you have an accident overseas, the credit card company will first go to your USA auto insurance policy and look for the coverage there.  If they cannot find it, then they will back you up.  But it’s not certain, it’s complicated, it’s time consuming, and as always, it is simply designed as a way for insurance companies to avoid the risk of something happening.  It’s sort of like the ad, they cover for zombie invasion but an accident in a car may not be covered by your insurance!  So when travelling overseas, just make sure that that is sealed tight.

Second, it also goes without saying that you should fill the tank before you drop the car off.

It’s another way for rental car companies to screw the living daylights out of you.

Lastly, and through no fault of the rental agencies, Europe is a lot hipper and sneakier than the USA in terms of speeding tickets or general fines.

To begin with, do not be fooled because you never see a cop parked in a hidden driveway or somebody staring at you with the speed gun.  In Europe it is all done with cameras and as soon as the camera catches you speeding and flashes, you’re done.  What that means is that there is no 10 mph forgiveness zone that most of the time is granted in the USA.  If you are traveling at 66 km/h in a 60 km/h limit, the speed camera will go off.  You’ve been caught on camera.  Eventually that fine will make its way to the rental company and the rental company eventually will hit you with that ticket with extra surcharges because obviously it’s late in payment.  Fines can be high and rental car companies do not provide information about this.  Europeans are very aware of the cameras and in France, the UK, and Italy there are cameras everywhere.

Good news is that the speed cameras have lowered the average speed of drivers and have saved thousands of lives.  The bad news is that it is a source of revenue for the local authorities.  Same with parking tickets.  What used to be easy with a rental car is not so easy anymore.  The fine will eventually get back to you with late surcharges and you could end up with a bill on your credit card from the rental agencies up to one year later (which they are allowed to do).  Just because the Europeans have a higher speed limit than the USA, it doesn’t mean you can speed like the old days.  You will pay for it one way or another.

Image courtesy of http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/.

Day Flight

The BA Day Flight

How I love that day flight.

You can work through the day on the plane, arrive looking roughly the same as when you left, and get to enjoy a great meal in London before you begin your journey.  Or better still, grab a hotel night at the incredibly convenient Sofitel that is situated at Terminal 5 at Heathrow.  This hotel is a dream especially if your onward connection the following day is on British Airways and therefore in Terminal 5.

British Airways operates day flights from New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Boston.

The flight time from Boston is 5 hours and 50 minutes and while it is not recommendable for people who are trying to save a hotel night by sleeping on an airplane seat, the difference in a healthy travel experience and a somewhat acceptable looking human being emerging from the plane is well worth it.  The great news is that during the summer months you can connect all the way through to Paris (if you are a BA fan) or to more exotic places like Palma in Mallorca (I’m a big fan).

Imagine – you depart Boston at 8:10 am, do some work, watch a movie, connect through to Paris, and by midnight you can be sitting down in a restaurant on the Boulevard Saint Germain, as I did in the Café Louise.

At that point it is still only 7pm in the evening on Boston time.  True confession: I am a secret addict of the day flight.

Soccer

The Barbarian Invasion – The Dark Side of Soccer

It’s the start of soccer mania.

The greatest game in the world is everywhere this summer. There is the Copa America in the USA, the European Nations Cup in France, and not to mention soccer at the Olympics in Brazil.  This is definitely a summer for los fanáticos.  Carried live on TV in the USA, there is not a day that goes by when some important game is not catching the eye of the devotees.

But there is a dark side to soccer as demonstrated recently in the beautiful port city of southern France, Marseille.

The ugly side of ultra-nationalist thugs fighting against an opposing teams’ army of thugs or tearing apart local restaurants and bars and fighting with the police.  It should not be this way but soccer quite often has a dark side.  This summer it has again reared its ugly head.

When we choose to travel, we travel to open our minds, embrace different cultures, take a chance on speaking a language that we are unfamiliar with, and get close to the sights and sounds of a place that is unfamiliar.

In brief, learn and enrich yourself with the tools of the trade – tolerance, openness, and kindness.  With this, and a guide book or willingness to get lost, one can take a chance with a phrase or two, and get to meet people from different places with different languages, different religions, and different perspectives.  When I see the dark side of soccer, I see such a misconnect between the beautiful game and what this ultra-minority of racist hooligans take from the sport.

Here’s the deal – it’s not their sport, it’s our sport.  Prejudice in any form is a terrible waste of life.

I will sit back, watch the games, marvel at the moves, enjoy the backdrop of beautiful cities, and know that there is nothing wrong with supporting your nation. But that has nothing to do with being an ultra-nationalist.  No wonder they banned alcohol in the cities where the hooligans are heading.  What right do these guys have to paint the Russian or English fan on their drunken bodies?  Shout out against all forms of racism and fanaticism.  You never know, it could be happening at a place near you!  See you out there somewhere.

Soccer

Leonardo Da Vinci and Armani

A Tale of Two Museums – Leonardo Da Vinci and Armani

What to do on a beautiful spring morning in Milan?

In light of the fact that we had a long day ahead of us with a soccer game that would stretch until midnight, what better compliment to il calcio than a bit of culture and fashion.

I had never seen The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci.  We had figured out a way to jump onto a sightseeing tour without doing the sightseeing (always handy to avoid mediocre guides) and thus gain entrance to the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie.  In an airtight salon, with strict procedures by group, I got to see something that had been on my to-do list for years.  The room that The Last Supper is in is austere and simple.  At the far end of the chapel is a crucifixion scene by Giovanni Donato. It faces Leonardo’s Last Supper where Jesus announces his betrayer.  Someone always lets the team down!  This is one of his greatest works, badly deteriorated and suffering the ravages of time and vandalism, but it still provides an experience unique and spiritual.

What better way to compliment a 15th century mural by one of the world’s greatest ever painters than a visit to the ultra-chic Giorgio Armani’s Armani/Silos that was opened in 2015?

Housed in what was a granary, Armani captures his passion for fashion in a place whose central force was all about the beginnings of food.  There are more than 600 outfits and around 200 handbags and accessories from 1980 to the present.  There is a fabulous little café outside with great sandwiches and incredible olive oil for dipping.  The whole experience capped with an espresso and an Armani sugar cube.  Made me want to rush out, grab an Armani jacket somewhere, and wear it for a day.

If only to know that Armani’s designs are as timeless as the painting that preceded it in the morning.

Artists are artists.  Lucky to get a glimpse into a Renaissance mind in the year 2016.

Leonardo Da Vinci and ArmaniLeonardo Da Vinci and ArmaniLeonardo Da Vinci and Armani Leonardo Da Vinci and Armani Leonardo Da Vinci and Armani