THE GLAMOUR OF AIR TRAVEL

It's always fun to get away somewhere, and I had a good time in D.C. and Virginia last week. But it's the getting home that's usually a drag. And I made the mistake of trying to save money by getting a flight from Dulles International that stopped over in Philadelphia.

The flight to Philly was supposed to leave D.C. at 5:19 p.m. but they said it was delayed a half hour when I got to the gate. No big deal. Then about 6 p.m. they told us to move en masse to another gate. We had to catch one of the funky shuttle "buses" but got to the new terminal just fine.

Then we waited. The guy from United Airlines who was announcing flights didn't have a very good grasp on English pronunciation, and a bunch of us sitting in the lounge had no idea what destinations he was announcing. They were using the same gate at Dulles for United flights to Altoona, Pennsylvania, State College ,Pennsylvania, Parkersburg (I think it's West Virginia) and LaGuardia, but we weren't quite sure. 

Then the pilot came by and said the flight was being delayed but he didn't know why as the plane looked fine to him. And that doesn't exactly boost your confidence.

The guy working the gate (and he was working hard in his defence, with flights seemingly to all points leaving every five to ten minutes) came on the p.a. at 5:55 and said the flight would leave at 6:10. Which we all knew was insane but we just smiled.

We finally boarded around 6:30 for what was supposed to be a half hour flight to Philly. That would've given me plenty of time to catch my 7:50 p.m. connection to Toronto. But, of course, the plane had to circle Philadelphia and that took another ten minutes. Then we landed but there wasn't an open gate (how does this happen, by the way? Planes are scheduled to land and take off all the time; don't they have dedicated gates waiting for them?). So we sat on the runway for 10 minutes. By now it was 7:35 and I'm thinking I don't have time for a long haul to get my Air Canada flight, if it's leaving on time and I have no clue if it is.

So I push the flight attendant button. In the old days, it was common for flight attendants to ask folks to stay seated while people trying to make tight connections got off the plane first. You hardly ever hear that anymore, which I find curious. Anyway, I decided to ask about it.

"Excuse me, but I have a 7:50 flight to catch and I'm at the back of the plane and I'm worried I won't make it. Can you see if people can let me off the plane first?"

The flight attendant looked at me with a quizzical expression.

"We have to wait until we're at the gate until you can get off."

No kidding, that's what she said.

I looked at her.

"I wasn't going to try to make a run for it across the tarmac," I said. "I just want to get off first when we get to the gate as I might miss my flight to Toronto."

"I don't know if we can do that," she said.

"Of course you can. Just ask."

She agreed, then kindly suggested I move up to an empty seat five rows up to hasten my departure. We finally got a gate, and as we pulled up I could see that, miracle of miracles, the Air Canada jet was RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the gate. She made the announcement and I got to the front of the plane, only to find the guy who lowers the ramp to connect the jetway to the plane was having troubles. It took him three tries to get it done right.

I dashed down the jetway to the terminal and turned a hard right, only to see a nice guy from Air Canada. "Are you Mr. Byers," he asked. "The plane's still here."

He told me not to rush, so I slowed down a bit and made it by a few minutes. My bags made it too, which is great (they even did a fast job of unloading at Pearson, which is unusual in my experience).

Of course, I had missed a chance to have a slice of pizza or something for dinner. So I thought I'd at least get some free pretzels, but Air Canada doesn't even give out the tiniest of snacks out for free anymore, at least not on short-haul flights.

It all worked out, and there are people with REAL horror stories out there. But it does make you think about maybe staying closer to home next time and taking the car.

CURIOUS COMBINATION

The eastern shore of Virginia is a delightful place with a very relaxed vibe and lovely, country scenery along the Atlantic and on the shore of Chesapeake Bay. You leave the busy-ness of Norfolk and take a bridge and tunnel for 20 minutes across the bay, then land in a lovely place with fun, warm people. I loved driving along Highway 13, which bisects the peninsula that separates the bay from the ocean, and seeing signs like "Fireworks, Ham for sale."

Great crab cakes and other seafood, reasonable prices, nice people and a couple very demanding golf courses at Bay Creek near Cape Charles, all in a very quiet setting. I took a short kayak ride and the shop that organizes the trips had t-shirts for sale reading, "Slow down ... this isn't the mainland."

WHAT'S IN A NAME, AND AMERICANS LOVE HOCKEY FIGHTS

Spent the last few days in eastern Virginia, out on the eastern shore and down around Williamsburg and Norfolk-Hampton Roads-Newport. Some weird stuff down here. They've got a street named Rip Rap Road and another named Jack Frost Road (probably near "Nipping at Your Nose" Boulevard, but I didn't see that one). There also was a Robin Hood Drive.

In Richmond, they have a street called Boulevard. Not Richmond Boulevard or Robert E. Lee Boulevard or "The South really won the Civil War but y'all don't know it Boulevard," but Boulevard. Okay, technically there's a north and a south Boulevard, but still funky. Not that anyone who lives in a city with a street called Avenue Road should talk.

Richmond also has a Cary Street, which is quite a nice stretch of shops. But a woman who works at a store there called Murphie's says that west of her shop it becomes "Cary Street Road."

"That really bothers me," she said.

She's a lovely young lady, actually, name of Courtney La Fond. Her grandparents were French Canadian and she LOVES hockey.

"I shouldn't say this but I rooted for Canada to beat the U.S. at the Olympics in 2002," she said with a smile. "I love hockey. But I don't like it as much on TV."

La Fond was asked if she believes it when Americans are quoted as saying they don't like the sport because of the fighting.

"Not at all," she said. "They LOVE the fights. Are you kidding? My brother always wants to see a hockey fight. He used to be a goalie."

So there you go.

More later but gotta run and have dinner with a tourism person from Richmond, which is a pretty funky city and seems to rising up the charts of relatively undiscovered American towns.

D.C. SECURITY

WASHINGTON D.C. - I guess you'd get used to it.

Security, of course, is a worldwide concern. And we have our share in Canada. But when you take a picture of the White House it seems weird to look and see secret service types on the roof.

Had lunch on the weekend in Georgetown, and at least four times a series of three military copters came roaring down the Potomac, just a few feet over the heads of folks lounging on their boats next to the short boardwalk along the river (kind of a river version of Harbourfront). Nobody seemed to pay much attention, but it was a little startling.

There apparently was an International Monetary Fund meeting near the White House, so the streets just west of the White House were a mess. But folks seem to adapt pretty well, and we ultimately went on with our business.

Still, you wonder how it must feel to live in a house where there are dozens of trained killers all around you and standing on your roof all the time. I'd feel funny just getting undressed.

Not to get too silly, but I was thinking as I was stuck in traffic, "I wonder if President Obama ever gets to drive a car?" I wouldn't miss not driving in gridlock, but you'd think he'd want to at least occasionally let loose a bit on the highway. I'm sure it's not allowed, but maybe at Camp David they give him a go-kart.

SHOPPING FOR SHORTS

Pulled into a WalMart in northern Virginia after realizing I'd forgotten to pack a bathing suit and finding it's around 30 degrees or more down in this part of the U.S.

Yeah, it's not the most fashionable spot to shop for swim trunks but I figured the price would be right. And it was - $10 for the trunks and $7 for a pair of shorts.

You gotta love America.

As I was leaving the store, the alarm went off. There was a woman of about 60 standing near the door, so I opened the bag to show her my shorts and trunks and my receipt.

"That danged alarm shouldn't be going off," she said. "Anyway, this looks fine, don't worry about it."

Then she paused for a minute.

"Those shorts are gonna look good on you, darlin'," she said.

Blush.

NOT SO RURAL ANYMORE

Time was when northern Virginia was pretty quiet. But there was a fair bit of traffic on I-95 heading from Washington DC to Richmond and Williamsburg early Sunday.

An army of SUV's whizzed by at one point, six or eight of them all hell-bent on getting to the Kings Dominion amusement park or to Busch Gardens near Williamsburg or somewhere.

I asked a local if it's always like this.

"It is these days," she said with a sigh.

COOL TRAVEL SITES

In case you hadn't noticed, this world wide web thing seems to be catching on.

Just this week, within, oh, 24 hours, I was made aware of several cool web sites; one of which I'd heard of but hadn't had time to check out and two others that were brand, spanking new to me. A lot of you probably know about Hotwire, where you go on line and pick a class of hotel in a certain area of a city for a discounted price but don't get to find out the name of the hotel (or airline if you're choosing that or car rental agency if you're arranging transportation) until you hand over your dough.

It's not for folks who are planning a wedding or who maybe have invested years of savings and aren't willing to take a chance. In fact, Hotwire president Clem Bason tells me only about one in five people are willing to buy without knowing all the details. But that's still a lot of customers, especially in a country like Canada where value and tech-savviness are particularly high.

"We can get 50 to 60 per cent off because we have access to inventory. If there are seats on an airplane or hotel rooms or cars, we get the excess. For a hotel, all they have to do is cover the costs of cleaning the room and electricity and that's about it"

But they don't want to announce to the world that you can get the same room for half the price of someone else, so the purchases are "opaque," meaning you don't know what hotel you're getting until you figuratively sign on the dotted line. Bason claims his customers can get rooms for $75, when other, better-known sites list them for double that price. And he says Toronto has been offering higher hotel discounts than any major city in North America, usually 40 to 50 per cent.

A friend I work with says he recently went on Hotwire and got a room at a four-star hotel in Manhattan for $170 U.S. a night. It turned out to be the Benjamin, which he said usually goes for $350 a night.

A look at the hotwire site on Thursday found an unknown (I tried but couldn't quite tell what it was) in "Toronto Downtown West" for $68 U.S. for three nights starting May 14. Pretty damned good. At worst, it's a very nice hotel. At best, it's probably terrific.

A look at their sale site for Vancouver found a five-star hotel in downtown for $89 U.S. a night in late April; pretty stunning.

Bason says Hotwire is stepping up its ad campaigns in Canada.

"Canadians like to head to Florida and Arizona in winter. If you take Orlando, Phoenix and Las Vegas, those might be the three most overbuilt cities fo hotels in the U.S., so the deals you can get probably get in the two or three years are going to be outstanding."

AND TWO MORE

Another site brought to my attention is called tvtrip.com, and it allows you to watch a video of a hotel before you make your booking. They don't have a ton of Canadian content just yet but there's a bit and it's a fun way to see a place where you might be sleeping for several nights. You also can book your room directly from the site.

Finally, there are a couple sites that allow you to check out a variety of destinations in Toronto and in Vancouver. The toronto one is www.streets.to, and it's kinda fun. You click on, say, a restaurant on the Danforth and a cartoon pops up of a taxicab dropping you off in front. You then click "enter" and get a tour of the place with real photos, plus links to the website, menus and other stuff. They also have one started for Vancouver at www.vanstreets.com.

I just wonder why I never think of these things.

CENTRAL AMERICAN GOLF

Gotta admit I have a hard time thinking of central America as a golf destination, but I guess that's changing in a very big hurry. The latest project brought to my attention is in, of all places, Honduras.

The Pristine Bay Resort is billed as "home of The Black Pearl Golf Course designed by Perry and Pete Dye," and that's a pretty good team. It's Dye's first project in Honduras and will be a par-72 measuring a solid 7,257 yards from the back tees. It's got one of Dye's signature island greens and 14 of the 18 holes have ocean views.

They're releasing custom home lots and luxury villas and condos and advertising themselves as a "tropical paradise" close to major U.S. and Canadian centres, with many homes offering views of the ocean, the "world's second largest barrier reef" and, naturally, the golf course.

One more reason, perhaps, for folks to check out some lesser-known destinations in central America, where it's no longer just Costa Rica grabbing the attention.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME TRIPS ... AND BEIJING OLYMPIC TOURS

One of the pleasures of being Travel Editor here at the Star is getting copies of cool travel books. Some are pretty goofy ("How I Crossed the Atlantic on a Zamboni" sort of things) and some are pretty localized "Great Hotels of East York" (okay, maybe not). But some make for interesting blog fodder, and I'm all for that.

Earlier this week, I received something by author Chris Santella called "Once in a Lifetime Trips - the world's 50 most extraordinary and memorable travel experiences."

He's divided his 50 trips into several cities: On the Ocean, On an Island, In the Jungle, In the Mountains and Desert, In the Country, In the City and In the Sky.

There are three Canadian spots out of 50, just to get our parochial interests out of the way. They are diving to the Titanic off Newfoundland, Hiking the Canadian Rockies (pretty obvious) and Polar Bear Safari in Manitoba, which is a nice geographic blend. The Titanic dive looks interesting, as you join a research ship and check out the ocean floor 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland. But he doesn't seemto tell readers how they would go about registering for the submersible diving trip. Or, uh, what it might cost. Interesting reading but isn't that a significant flaw?

On the other hand, he's got wonderful things to say about hiking near Lake Louise (who doesn't?) and the "Tundra Buggy" you can take to go out on the ice to see the polar bears looks kinda funky.

I don't quite understand entry number 44: visiting the world's greatest opera houses by private jet. You just as easily could make it visiting the world's best wineries or world's best brothels. But he makes up for it with item 31, playing the courses of the British Open. I've yet to play any of them, and I'm not at all bitter about it.

BIRDS NEST VISIT ... FOR A SONG

Associated Press reports that folks in charge of the iconic Birds Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing have "slashed the cost of visiting the winners’ podium, underscoring the iconic venue’s difficulties attracting post-Games business."

For about $22 Canadian (120 Chinese yuan), visitors can put on a Chinese Olympic uniform and climb to the top of the podium, according to the official China Daily newspaper. Folks will be given a flower bouquet and have a picture taken of them "clamping a fake gold medal between their teeth," the paper said.

 “Our job is to make the Bird’s Nest profitable, therefore we have to give the customers what they want,” Zhang Hengli, manager of CITIC Consortium Stadium Operation Company, was quoted as saying.

 The price of the experience has halved since January. CITIC Consortium said no one was available to explain ticket prices or sales figures.

Canadian Press reports that "the 91,000-seat National Stadium has not hosted an event since the Olympics, functioning instead as a cavernous museum visited each day by thousands of Chinese tourists eager to view the site of Zhang Yimou's dazzling opening ceremony and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's three world records."

Sad, really. But that's often the case with the giant stadiums people build for mega-sporting events. Vancouver is lucky that they haven't gone too crazy. The curling facility should get used for community events after the Winter Olympics finish. Ditto for the Richmond Oval, although the city of Richmond spent an awful lot of money to make it fancier, perhaps, than it needs to be. And since the ice itself is proving a little slow, it's probably never going to be as attractive as the speedskating oval in Calgary.

Up in Whistler, the big item in my mind is the ski jump. They already had one for the Calgary Games, and I don't know what the long-term plans are for Canadian ski jumpers. I can't see how we need two such facilities in a country with very little ski jumping history, Horst Bulau not withstanding.

Just to complicate things, female ski jumpers this week launched a last-ditch attempt to get admitted to the Vancouver Games.

Vancouver organizers are correct in suggesting it's the International Olympic Committee's call and that the stodgy (my words, not theirs - not trying to get you into trouble, Mr. Furlong) IOC has resisted having women added to the program. The IOC has done a lot to get women into the Olympics, in fairness, but they seem to feel women's ski jumping isn't developed enough around the world to justify a place on the 2010 agenda. Hard to say; women's hockey is probably played in more countries, but it's hardly competitive. Neither was softball until the Japanese beat the U.S. last year in Beijing.

The IOC can probably be faulted for not working with women ski jumpers. But it seems from here that Vancouver organizers didn't exactly go to war on their behalf. I certainly don't remember any stirring VANOC speeches insisting that the IOC give it a sober, second thought.

 

 

DELTA BAGGAGE FEES ... TICO UNDER FIRE ... AND PAUL McCARTNEY

Hey, we specialize in weird headlines around here. But maybe I got your attention. Of course, if you're reading this I have your attention, at least for a split second. So here goes...

Canadians and other international travellers who take Delta Air Lines will soon have to cough up $50 for a second bag. The fee, the first on overseas flights by a major U.S. airline, was announced as the Atlanta-based carrier reported that it lost $794 million American bucks in the first quarter, mostly because of losses from hedging on fuel prices, says the L.A. Times.

Maybe it's time to pack a little lighter. Some packing specialists say they try to wear their heaviest or bulkiest clothes on board the plane to avoid stuffing a big jacket into a suitcase and thereby necessitating a second checked bag. I try to wear my heavier, dress shoes on the plane and then take them off for comfort once we get moving.

TICO REVIEW

Good news from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty that he's ordered a review of TICO, the Travel Industry Council of Ontario. TICO officials say they were fully aware that Conquest was having problems but they've suggested they don't want to harm a company that's in danger by alerting customers to potential problems.

But isn't that the point of having a Travel Council? I mean, it's great that they've stepped in to help folks get home and that they'll probably cover most people's credit card bills, but if they have information that nobody else has that shows a company is teetering on the edge and that folks might get stranded away from home isn't it their obligation to let us know? Who comes first - taxpayers or businesses?

McGuinty on Tuesday said TICO must be examined to "make sure they have the necessary authority to intervene at the appropriate times," and amen to that.

If nothing else, TICO should be able to make a company stay in business long enough to bring customers home to Canada. If they want to cease OUTBOUND flights, that's one thing. But any company that flies someone out of Canada should have to fly them back with no penalty to the customer.

FORGET YOSEMITE; GIMME SOMETHING NEW

It's about that time when Americans pack up the kids and head off to the nearest - or furthest if you're like some parents - national park they can find. Yellowstone gets a lot of visitors, and the Great Smoky Mountains. But Family Circle magazine (remember them?) went out and found five U.S. parks that are "off the beaten path."

(Those are their words, there's almost no such place at a time when a Polish company has launched tours of Afghanistan. People love to say "off the beaten path" and then write about a place you can find in Fodor's travel guides. If you're in a national park somewhere, you're just about automatically on a beaten path, folks.)

Anyway, now that my medication is adjusted, here are Family Circle's suggestions for national parks in America:

1. Crater Lake National Park, Oregon - one of the deepest lakes in the world, with "bluer than blue water."

2. Isle Royale, Michigan - In the northwest corner of Lake Superior, home to loons, foxes, wolves and moose and accessible only by ferry or seaplane. Close to Ontario, too!

3. Badlands, South Dakota: It has "breathtaking expanses of grass prairie that are home to bison, bighorn sheep, endangered black-footed ferrets, swift foxes and more."

4. Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico: There are a billion cars in California with "I visited Carlsbad Caverns" bumperstickers, or there used to be, but it's still an impressive underground system with more than 300 grottoes (the magazine said "more than 300 grottoes" instead of "over," and for that I'm extremely grateful).

5. Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia: I haven't been but I loved the couple days I had on Jekyll Island, Georgia two years ago. The magazine says the "windswept barrier island is never crowded, save for the island's famous wild horses and the alligators and sea turtles that also call the island home." Only 300 visitors a day are allowed.

What about underrated Canadian parks? Alberta gets all the glory with Jasper and Banff, and we know about the islands in British Columbia.

I haven't seen nearly as much as Canada as I'd like but I have to say that the freshwater "fjords" at Gros Morne in Newfoundland don't get nearly as much attention as they deserve. Ditto for our very own provincial parks up and around Muskoka. A friend of mine who's lived in Toronto for decades says he's never been to Muskoka, which is quite something.

By the way, the Canadian Parks website - http://www.pc.gc.ca/ - says there are 42 such creatures in our great nation; five in Ontario. Those would be Bruce Peninsula, Georgian Bay Islands, Pukaskwa, Point Pelee and, drumroll please, St. Lawrence Islands.

I AM GORILLA, HEAR ME ROAR

Few things say New York like King Kong on top of the Empire State Building. Now, a short item that caught my eye in The Sunday Times Travel Magazine talked about how the famous roar that the big ape makes when he's battling the airplanes on top of the tower.
 
It turns out, the magazine says, that the movie producers took a tiger's roar and the roar of a lion and played them backwards to get Kong's tone. The magazine didn't write this, but apparently if you play the recording at 78 speed it says, "Paul is dead."

 
 

"BUT WE HAVE REALLY NICE WHISTLES"

My first reaction to the news that the security guards at Montego Bay airport don't carry guns was utter shock. Gobsmacked, my British friends might say.

After I thought about it, I figured, okay, the private security folks don't carry weapons and maybe that's not bad. I mean, you can almost imagine the scene: "Hey, buddy, that bottle of skin lotion is 105 ml - put it in your suitcase or it's lights out."

But isn't there ANYONE at one of the busiest tourist hubs in Jamaica who's prepared to respond properly to a terrorist attack? It seems hard to believe the local or national police don't have an office or a detachment at the main airports. So perhaps the comment about private security folks not being armed is a red herring.

Here in Toronto, the Peel Regional Police have a detachment at Pearson Airport. Their website says the airport division "consists of uniform, tactical, and plain clothes officers." It also notes that the unit "in consultation with the G.T.A.A., Transport Canada, the R.C.M.P. and other law enforcement agencies, continually monitors threat assessments and available intelligence information and as a result may from time to time deploy personnel to counter known threats.

"If necessary, police resources may be deployed to prevent crime, keep the peace and protect the public during events attracting large crowds and media attention; such as: the travel of celebrities and professional sporting teams, visits by internationally protected persons, public rallies and labour disputes."

Just thought you'd like to know.

WEST JET "CARE-ANTEE"

We could've done without the bad pun, and that's saying something from a guy who used to work in the sports department here at the Star. But good on the folks at West Jet for seizing the opportunity to publish large ads in today's papers that tout their service promises.

The ads talk about their two free bag policy, freee snacks and refreshments, "the youngest all-jet fleet in North America" and, of course, "smiles and thank you's."

Air Canada tried to rustle up some friendly chat with its employees a few months back, with the head honcho sending out an "everyone smile at the customer" memo. Not sure it ever went anywhere, although I've never had a major problem with any Air Canada attendants myself.

ISTAN-BULLISH

Okay, now it's my turn for the bad pun. But it's interesting to note how many good stories are being written these days out of Istanbul, which has for centuries sat at a real crossroads and has an amazing mix of cultures.

I was there briefly in 1988 or so, when Toronto Olympic bidders went to an International Olympic Committee meeting to lobby for the 1996 Summer Games. As I recall, that didn't work out so well, but it was cool to see the Blue Mosque and take a ferry ride from Europe to Asia.

Check my monthly travel magazine review at thestar.com/travel for more details on what folks are saying about Istanbul these days. There's also information on the highest point in Ontario (not on top of Stephen Harper's ego, all rumours to the contrary) and several notes of praise for the new Shangri-La Hotel out in Vancouver. Not to mention a weird note that links King Kong to Paul McCartney.

 

CARRY YOUR WIFE & THROW YOUR PHONE & BAKE YOUR BUTT OFF

Those crazy Finns. We know they drink more than they should in winter, and given the long days of darkness you can't blame them.

But what's up with their crazy summer festivals? I got a note the other day from visitfinland.com that was filled with goofy stuff.

Wife-carrying takes place in many spots of the world, but the Finns have had a contest in Sonkajarvi (it's said to be Finnish for "my back's killing me") since 1992. They also have the 11th annual sauna championships coming up, and that sounds like something for a real athlete like myself. Apparently, you have to sit naked in a hot chamber "with buttocks and thighs on the seat," and with an erect posture (I said posture; get your mind out of the gutter), as well as elbows on the knees. The winner is the one who can hold out the longest and who can leave the sauna without outside help.

That might be the best one, but I also like the cell phone throwing contest (Finland is the home of Nokia, you recall), air guitar-playing, table drumming, team berry-picking (another manly sport) and (I think they're making this up) sitting on an ant's nest.

2010 OLYMPIC TROUBLES?

It's one thing to get a poor review from community activists, but there's something wrong with Vancouver 2010 organizers' public efforts if Americans don't know the Olympics are coming to town.

We missed it, and mea culpa for that, but my friends at the website Around the Rings report that a Visa Tourism study on Canada that I referred to last week found that only 39 per cent of U.S. respondents to an online survey knew the next Olympic Games are being held in Vancouver.

Folks in Japan and Korea, at least their VISA card holders, were much more aware, with 60 per cent saying they knew the Games were headed to B.C. China was at 55 per cent.

Mind you, with prices being what they are perhaps it's not to worry if Americans don't know about the Olympics. A press release that landed in my email basket this morning says that a group called GLP World Expedition Travel and Tours (guess all the snappy names were taken) is offering hotel packages at around $500 a night.

The Ramada Inn and Suites is the cheapest of the four they mentioned today, at $2,700 U.S. per person for six nights. A check of the old abacus reveals that's $450 U.S. per night per person; or about $540 in Canadian dineros. Yikes. The Crowne Plaza is $3,750 U.S. per person for six nights, or $740 per night in Canadian funds.

You have to pay for your way out there on top of that and for your tickets, should you somehow manage some. But the hotel package includes "private airport transfer to and from the hotel," "lounge hospitality with snacks and drinks), "a banquet dinner with big screen TV's to watch the opening and closing ceremonies, a downtown Vancouver pub crawl and "access to a ticket concierge," who no doubt will have some real bargains up his or her sleeve.

Wow.

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS

The sinking pound is good news for Canadians who want to visit the U.K. But there's another side, of course.

Canadian Press reports the latest Global Tourism Watch report from the Canadian Tourism Commission notes that "the pound is continuing to slip lower in currency markets and as a result, (UK) visits to Canada declined by two per cent during the first seven months of 2008. That compares with a five per cent increase in 2007."

On the other hand, a survey found 16 million-plus Britons remain interested in visiting Canada, partly because of personal connections. CP notes that one out of every two U.K. visitors to Canada has close friends and relatives living here; almost double the international average.

EXTRA CHARGES FOR OVERWEIGHT TRAVELLERS?

United Airlines this week was floating the idea of charging overweight passengers who take up more than one seat. Now, it's Ryanair (no kidding) who's taking up the idea.

Ryanair has never met a user-fee it didn't like, and it sparked headlines earlier when they floated, but then said it was a joke, the idea of charging folks to pee on board their planes. This time, they appear to be serious.

In his blog at usatoday.com, Ben Mutzabaugh writes that "Ryanair’s controversial proposals often turn out to be simple public relations stunts." But he noted that a poll of Ryanair customers found that, of 45,000 votes cast so far, nearly half are in favour of charging excess fees for overweight passengers.

The Times is doing an on-line poll of its own and is finding folks favour the extra charge.

What do you think? Drop me a line at jbyers@thestar.ca and I'll print a few of your thoughts next week, either in this space or in the Thursday Travel section.

HOTEL RATES DROPPING FAST

Think hotel prices are down? How about an average of, oh, 17.4 per cent?

A study by Ovation Travel Group surveyed hotel prices in 30 global cities in the first quarter of this year and found rates (for three-to-five-star properties) had dropped by an average of 17.4 per cent compared to last year.

Hardest hit of the cities surveyed was Singapore at 35 per cent. Delhi rates were down 32 per cent, New York 30 per cent and London 30 per cent. Toronto was down 21 per cent, with the average room in the first three months of this year set at $187 U.S.

That's not cheap but it's an incredible bargain compared to Abu Dhabi, where rates in the first three months of 2009 jumped 33.7 per cent to $543, the company said. Dublin rates were up 6.2 per cent, Milan rates up 5.1 per cent and Tokyo rooms were 3.2 per cent more expensive.

Down in the U.S., Smith Travel Research reports that American hotel occupancy last week was just 52.6 per cent; down from 64.1 per cent in the same period last year. The average daily rate was $96.60 last week, a 12.5 per cent drop from last year.

YEAH, AND YOU CAN WALK TO MONTREAL FOR LUNCH

Conde Nast Traveller's latest issue has a small insert called Canada Now, complete with a giant, red maple leaf on the front. It's got stories and graphics on Calgary, Vancouver, Quebec City, Montreal, Halifax and Toronto.

It's mostly a review of hot hotels and restaurants and has some nice things to say. Quebec is described as a place "where the ancien regime meets a cool, new scene," while Toronto is cited for "its thrilling new architecture" that "flirts with danger."

The magazine recommends checking out the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario College of Art and Design and the ROM, as well as the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on University Avenue. But it also mentions the Four Seasons hotel in Yorkville and says it's just two blocks from the Four Seasons Arts Centre.

Man, no wonder it always takes me so long to get to work; a look at mapquest.com reveals it's actually about three kilometers from one to the other.

Still, the magazine had kind words for both facilities, as well as the Park Hyatt, the Hazelton Hotel and the Windsor Arms. They also sugested dining at C5 at the ROM, Lai Toh Heen on Mount Pleasant, Bright Pearl Seafood on Spadina, the Jamie Kennedy Gardiner, the Gladstone Hotel's Melody Bar and the Harbord Room on Harbord Street, which has quietly become a real go-to spot in the city.

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AIRLINE FOR PETS - YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING

This sounds like a joke. But I got a press release today from a company that calls itself Pet Airways.

They claim they're going to be the only pets-only airline and will start operating pets-only flights in various U.S. cities in July.

Really.

The press release, and I'm trying to type this with a straight face, says the airline is "specifically designed for the safe and comfortable transportation of pets, with the first pet flights scheduled for July 14. On Pet Airways, all pets travel in the main cabin, not in the cargo hold."

Pet Airways president/CEO Dan Wiesel is quoted as saying that pets nowadays are handled as baggage.

"The experience is frightening to the pets, and can cause severe emotional and physical harm, even death. This is not what most pet owners want to subject their pets to, but they have had no other choice until now."

Wiesel apparently came up with the idea when he and his wife, Alysa Binder, had problems shipping their Jack Russell terrier, Zoe, across the U.S.

The company says some 76 million cats and dogs travel with their owners each year.

They're claiming that Pet Airways will allow owners to drop their dog or cat or capybara (okay, I'm making that up) at special Pet Lounges (I kid you not), where they will be cared for by Pet Attendants. The animals will fly in climate-controlled planes with fresh air (yeah, right; how come people never get any).

The company says their "pawsengers," (please, Lord, tell me they didn't use that phrase) will be put on board and taken off planes quickly so they don't suffer through cold or heat and will have, if time permits, toilet facilities, food and water.

Do they get in-flight entertainment? I'd vote for The Incredible Journey, myself. Or perhaps Must Love Dogs, 101 Dalmatians or even The Owl and the Pussycat. They didn't say anything about a business class where Fido can dine on fine china, but you can bet some stupid Hollywood starlet with one of those annoying yappy dogs they carry inside their Coach purse would pay for it.

Plans call for flights between five cities; New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. They hope to expand to other major metropolitan areas but there was no word on a Canadian port.

The press release didn't refer to costs but the website, petairways.com, was showing $149 U.S. one-way fares between New York and L.A.

Personally, I find this absolutely ridiculous. A poor dog or cat is gonna be traumatized by rough treatment in the cargo department? They should try coach on United.

HEY, BIG SPENDERS

If you work in a hotel, try to get the visitors from Hong Kong, Russia or Saudi Arabia. Actually, we don't know if they're big tippers. But a study by VISA International that was released today found that visitors from the U.S., no surprise, are the largest contributors to tourism revenues in Canada.
 
The Visa tourism study found that 60 per cent of Visa holders surveyed have visited Canada at least once, compared to 19 per cent of all respondents. U.S. visitors in 2008 lavished $5.47 billion on Visa card spending in Canadian hotels, restaurants, shops and other spots, compared to $603 million by visitors from the UK, $351 million from France (come on, you can do better than that), $223 million from Australia and $204 million from Japan.
 
My favourite stat was the amount of the average Visa transaction on a country-by-country basis. Paul Wilke, senior business leader for Visa Inc., said residents of Hong Kong spent an average of $247 per transaction last year. Second was Russia (oil money, doncha know) at $234, followed by Saudi Arabia; relative paupers at $216 (just kidding, guys, don't cut off our oil).

Brits averaged only $144 per transaction (thanks so very much for supporting the Commonwealth, dudes) while Americans came in at just $113 per transaction, perhaps reflective of quick stays for a night or two.
 
With Visa being an Olympic sponsor, officials naturally asked about the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. One in four respondents said they're likely to attend the Vancouver Games in February of next year, and the majority said they'll visit other parts of Canada. The good news, potentially, for T.O. tourism is that the place most mentioned by Visa holders as the place they'd like to go after or before the Olympics was Toronto, with a 51 per cent mark. Next came Montreal, understandably, at 48 per cent. Ottawa had 34 per cent, followed by Niagara Falls at 31, Calgary at 24 and a three-way tie between Winnipeg, Banff and Jasper at 13 per cent. Halifax was mentioned by 10 per cent, many of whom probably have no idea how damned far Nova Scotia really is from B.C. Still, it was interesting to see Toronto ranked ahead of the Rockies.

Also interesting was that 68 per cent of respondents plan multiple international trips over the next 24 months. Likely destinations were the U.S. (65 per cent), Caribbean (30 per cent), UK (21 per cent), Mexico (21 per cent) and France (12 per cent, and it serves the French right for not spending more money here if you ask me).
 
 
SUNQUEST TO THE RESCUE

In a very smart public relations move, Sunquest Vacations has announced it's coming to aid of passengers stranded by Wednesday's sudden demise of Conquest Vacations.

“We’ve put extra people on the phone lines in our call centres, and we have extended our call centre hours to 8:00 pm ET tonight to accommodate as many travellers and travel agents as possible," said Michael Friisdahl, CEO of Thomas Cook Canada, the second largest leisure company in Canada and owners of Sunquest. "We are placing a contact form on our web site, www.sunquest.ca, so people can request assistance outside of the extended operating hours and we will call those people back as soon as possible. People can also contact their travel agents to make alternate arrangements with Sunquest for their trips.

“As a gesture of goodwill we are offering travelers, who are rebooking their vacations with Sunquest over the next ten days, $100 off the lowest current Sunquest rates — with proof of their Conquest Vacations purchase”

 To contact Sunquest directly, phone 1-416-485-6060 or toll-free at 1-877-485-6060. Travellers can also contact their travel agent or visit the web site at www.sunquest.ca.

THE NAKED TRUTH

A group called Hideaways International did a recent poll on their web site, www.hideaways.com, and asked 271 "high-end" travellers about their inhibitions. They found that 81 per cent said they'd drop their drawers on vacation. Sixty one per cent said they'd join in at a clothing-optional beach and 20 per cent said they'd work on their all-over tans in private.

Only four per cent said they avoid clothes-optional beaches, and won't even skinny dip in private, which is pretty pathetic when you think about it.

Lighten up, people!