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Six reasons to travel now
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I wanted to share Frommer's six reasons to love travel now. Reason number one is my driving force. Nothing motivates me like cheap travel. Enjoy!
Unbeatable Bargains
Will Crockett, who works for a university in Waco, Texas, had a tall order for his recent New York weekend getaway. He wanted a hotel in midtown near a subway stop for less than $150 a night at the last minute. So he clicked on Priceline.com with just two weeks to go before his trip. "I knew I was taking my chances," he says. He scored a room at the Wellington Hotel -- "clean place, outstanding service," he says. Thanks to the recent Wall Street meltdown, a lot of hotels with high service standards are having fire sales. You can find these deals on sites like Priceline and Hotwire. Travelers are routinely finding discounts of 40 percent to 50 percent off the published room rate. Plan your visit to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco now.
Upgrades Without Asking
Tom and Jennifer Leckstrom visited the Four Seasons Resort Nevis in the West Indies earlier this fall for their five-year anniversary. "The hotel package was reasonable since it was the off-season, plus I booked a mountain-view room instead of an ocean-view room," she says. But when they arrived, the couple discovered they had been upgraded to an ocean-view room at no additional charge, and without having to ask. "Couldn't have been happier about it," she says. These upgrades are becoming far more common. During my research, I found many travelers who said hotels, resorts or car rental companies were going out of their way to make guests feel welcome.
Customer Service with a Real Smile
When Anya Clowers rented a car in Las Vegas recently, she was impressed by the way her shuttle driver behaved. She wasn't apathetic and she didn't flash one of those fakey Paula Deen smiles. "She truly enjoyed her job," she says. "From welcoming travelers to Las Vegas, to lifting luggage, to providing small tips about the city, she was a rare gem." What a switch from just a few months ago, when customers were widely regarded as walking dollar bills by rental companies. Now they are just grateful to have them at the counter. Isn't that the way it's supposed to be?
Europe is Cheap Again
Well, almost. The euro isn't at parity with the dollar -- yet. But as podcaster Elyse Weiner observes, it's well on its way. "The weaker euro is a bright spot in this painful economic time," she told me. "It's astonishing after you've trained yourself to convert Euros to $1.65 to find yourself in a $1.30 world." No one knows if a one-to-one parity world will come soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened this year. Nor would I be shocked if the euro went below a dollar, like it did in the '90s. Which would send a tsunami of tourists to Europe next summer, of course.
Going the Extra Mile
Before Sue and Bill Painter checked into the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Lima, Sue e-mailed the property and asked for a bottle of champagne and cake for their room. It was her husband's 60th birthday. "When we arrived at the hotel, we were shown to a large room on the executive floor," she says. "In the room was an exquisite cake covered with very high-quality Peruvian chocolate, with the chocolate made into a large bow on top of the cake." The charge for this elaborate surprise? Nothing. The cake, champagne and upgrade didn't cost a penny extra.
Serenity
When times are tough, and everyone stays home, you get to experience air travel the way it was meant to be experienced. Away from the crowds, with all the attention to detail and pampering you remember from before the days the government recklessly deregulated an entire industry. Barry Maher, a professional speaker, recently boarded a Lufthansa flight and found that the clock had been turned back, in a manner of speaking. "At one point, I had the entire first-class section of a 747 and three flight attendants all to myself," he says. "Even in business class, the food was wonderful, the service excellent, the seats that recline into beds were comfortable and the entertainment selection excellent." This isn't a fluke. As air travelers scale their trips back faster than airlines can cut their flights, a lot of folks are flying on less crowded planes. Enjoy it.
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