September 7, 2008
Alicudi, Italy: interesting travel story
Neat story here about how one woman almost bought a house in Italy. Ever heard of Alicudi?
If not, don't feel bad. This remote Italian island has about 100 residents and one hotel. Boats to the island are extremely unreliable (since no one goes there they often decide to cancel). The house itself is probably not what most of us dream of when we think vacation house:
Electricity is provided by a generator shared by five houses, and water is collected in two wells. The ultimate "green" island, Alicudi has not squandered its resources. But how easily could city-bred people adapt to these extremes? Just running down to the port and back would involve preparations on the level of climbing Mount Everest. And imagine forgetting something in mid-climb? Plus, furniture could only be hauled up by mules. Talk about an incentive for purging oneself of earthly possessionsBut for the handful of people who do dream about remote desert islands...
September 6, 2008
Anyone here flown on Sun Country Airlines?
I've got a friend who is flying from New York to Minnesota. Sun Country Airlines had by far the cheapest flights around compared to the "major" airlines. Even though he had never heard of them, he booked the flight. Now he's looking from some reassurance from people who have flown with them.
After asking around, I have heard good things about Sun Country. Their airplanes, 737-800s, are relatively new (late 1990s/early 2000s) and they do a decent job in terms of customer service.
At least that's what I heard. But no investigation is thorough until I post the question here...
Here you can see their route map. Their hub is Minneapolis / St. Paul so if that's where you're going, there's a good chance Sun Country will be the cheapest.
I'm interested in this not only for my friend, but also since one day I plan to head to Minneapolis / St. Paul and the International Wolf Center.
Position Announcement: California University of Pennsylvania
California University of Pennsylvania, A proud member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education
College of Science and Technology
For full details please see: www.cup.edu/employment
Position: Tourism Studies Specialization in tourism geography with an emphasis on tourism planning and development. Online teaching experience is an asset.
Rank and Salary: This is a tenure track faculty appointment. Salary is competitive and commensurate with academic preparation and experience. An excellent fringe benefits package is included.
Application: To be considered, applicants must submit hardcopy all of the following before an on-campus interview is granted: full curriculum vitae; official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended (unofficial transcripts are acceptable for review purposes); letter of application highlighting the applicant’s qualifications and teaching interests; names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three professional references who have current knowledge of the applicant's abilities. Veterans should forward a copy of form DD 214 to the Office of Social Equity, 250 University Ave, Box 9, California, PA 15419.
Application Deadline November 21, 2008.
Send complete application except DD214 (if veteran) to:
Dr. Susan Ryan, Chair, Search Committee
Department of Earth Sciences
250 University Avenue, Box 55
California University of Pennsylvania
California, PA
15419
Phone: 724-938-4531
Fax: 724-938-5780
Email: ryan@cup.edu
Integrity, Civility, and Responsibility are the official core values of California University of Pennsylvania, an affirmative action/ equal opportunity employer. Women, minorities, veterans and the physically challenged are encouraged to apply.
September 4, 2008
What does it mean to be well traveled?
So when a language teacher meets a class for the first time we usually do a getting to know you activity. Last semester I did one where students wrote interview questions, interviewed someone else in the class, and then reported what they found to everyone. My students told me that every teacher used the exact same activity.
This semester I wanted to do something different. I don't want to be the same as all the other teachers. So I invented an 'awards game' where students choose an award and then interview classmates to see who deserves it.
Some awards were hardest studying, heaviest sleeper, most likely to succeed, and biggest traveler.
When I talked to the biggest traveler people I asked them what interview questions they would use to give the award. The only one they had was "How many countries have you been to?"
I told them that I thought they needed more. I mean someone can visit a bunch of countries but that alone does not make them well traveled. I told them they could ask how many countries someone has been to but they would also need to ask questions that dug deeper.
They said they would add how long the person spent in each place but for me that is still not enough.
So I thought that this would be an interesting question to discuss here. What makes someone well-traveled?
September 3, 2008
Anyone looking to rent a bus in Sydney?
The following is a paid review.
I've been asked to review this website by a minibus hire company in Sydney.
A lot of times when I do a review (well all 4 or so times), I'm asking questions like 'would I use this site to make a hotel reservation?' or whathaveyou. Reviewing this site presents a bit of a challenge because it's in a specialized niche that I have no real experience in or knowledge of.
But I guess my review has to focus on 'would you use this company if you needed a minibus in Sydney?'
Sure I would. Like I said, I'm not minibus expert but I do know that when a company specializes in one niche product or service they have a good shot at succeeding if they know their business well. And it's more likely that everyone will know their business well in a specialized company.
I mean if I go to a normal rental place, they might know that a Chevy Aveo is a compact (or is it subcompact?) and that a Cadillac is luxury, but your average counter person at a rental agency doesn't know too much about the different cars.
Then you take this company. The have 8, 12, and 21 person minibuses. These are available with or without a driver. That's what they do. It's not hard to imagine they'd be good at it. You can kind of see what I mean here: tourist attractions in Sydney bought to you by a bus hire company. Leave the travel guides to the professionals (and me) and stick with bus rental information....
My complaint about the website is that they don't tell you their rates online. I don't like it when companies make you call instead of just giving you the information you want on the website but it happens.
And that's about all I can say about that.
Running a travel agency, running a hotel, Bermuda vacation package
Let me leave you with a short entry today since it's hard to think about travel when a new semester begins tomorrow. I'm thinking instead of all the impressionable young minds I have to help lead in the right direction...
So here I give you a "Girls just wanna have fun" vacation package in Bermuda. Only $12,000 for 4 people.
Speaking of Bermuda, here's an article about a woman who used to be a pharmacist but is now the boss of a Bermuda travel agency. This article mentions yesterday's topic:
One of the more controversial travel websites to hit the market of late was Your TravelBiz.com, against which California Attorney General Edmund Brown filed a lawsuit to shut it down last month. He alleged YTB was a "gigantic pyramid scheme" that recruited tens of thousands of members with deceptive claims that members could earn huge sums of money through its online travel agencies.It's true, to succeed in network marketing is extremely difficult. They say anyone can do it in order to recruit you, but most people can't do it.Ms Hayward-Chew admitted that while she is not against people wanting to become travel agents, the real agent is the website and those recruited to it rarely win financially.
And one last article, also on the topic of travel business and jobs. Patrick Elsmie talks about running a hotel.
September 1, 2008
YTB network marketing (MLM) - can regular folks make money?
I still have a travel plan in the works but for now, an article on YTB. One statistic that stood out was that YTB has gotten "130,000 people to pay money to YTB for the ability to sell airline tickets and cruises."
Most of those people don't make any money. They pay $450 = $50/month. This allows a few people to make fortunes but for most people there is no money:
YTB's 45,000 entry-level sales reps — the people who sell new travel agencies — on average earned $90.32 last year. And of the more than 200,000 people who paid the company as much as $1,000 to run a travel website in 2007, nearly 125,000 didn't earn a penny in commissions, according to Brown's lawsuit. Half of the rest earned less than $39. And while YTB took in $103 million last year from selling and maintaining websites, it paid out just $13.4 million in commissions for selling travel.Clearly the company is making money - 100 million in income and 13 million in commission? Someone is getting screwed.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown says YTB is a scam. The fact that so few people make money means it must be a pyramid scheme. I don't think it proves this at all. It proves that some people don't understand network marketing. The whole point is that it allows you to start a business with a minimum investment. $450 + $50/month is more than other network marketing companies (at least the few I've heard of).
It also shows that joining YTB doesn't make someone a travel agent so it's still very difficult for YTB people to sell travel. Most of them don't make money because they don't sell travel and they don't recruit more 'agents'.
I'm not here to tell you what to do, but I will offer some advice. Unless you're confident that you can sell travel and recruit more people into YTB then it is not the business for you. You would need to be convinced that the YTB website is the best place to buy or sell travel. And that makes no sense because there are thousands of identical YTB 'travel agency' websites online... I have thousands of people who want to travel reading this blog, but I am not joining YTB. I don't want to try to sell you all travel.
It's been a while, but some of you will remember that we've talked about YTB and other 'card mills' before. Here, if you read the comments some YTB tool repeated calls me a liar - you still in business Earl? Here I mention another problem with GTI and YTB - since anyone can join you'll end up being in business with some real losers. In the comments Earl claimed that bad travel agents wouldn't last a day in YTB. I think he's full of crap. Here's the October, 2007 post when I first became aware of the issue.
A related post is that untrained travel agents are less likely to provide the kind of consulting many of us expect.
August 31, 2008
Kurt Cobain map for Nirvana themed travel plans
I think what we have here is a map of some important places in the life of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana. This was probably the most popular band when I was in high school in the early 1990s. Even today, Nirvana Unplugged is one of the albums my wife and I listen to most.
So I was working on a travel plan that involved Seattle and Portland when I figured it might be nice to stop somewhere in between if you're driving. I looked at Tacoma, Mt. Rainier National Park, and then Aberdeen.
As I was looking for info on Aberdeen (and Seattle to some extent) I kept coming across information on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Kurt was born and raised in Aberdeen. Bassist Krist Novoselic was raised in Aberdeen as well. One of the things I found was this map. It has things like where Kurt was born, where he got married, etc.
I give you this map for 2 reasons. First if you're a huge Nirvana fan, you might want to make a Kurt Cobain travel itinerary and this map ought to help. I don't think you'd want to try to hit every location in one trip, but you could do the "Kurt in Europe tour" or whatever. And obviously you could simply work one or two of these locations into another travel plan - no need to make your vacation Nirvana history only. The map can be discussed here.
The other reason for posting the map today is that making this Seattle - Aberdeen - Portland travel plan is taking me a while and I'm too busy reading all the angry comments on yesterday's blog entry to finish today. Maybe I'll have that travel plan for you tomorrow. And if anyone has some ideas on the best place to stop between Portland and Seattle, please leave me a comment below.
August 30, 2008
Should airline passengers pay by weight?
I never seriously thought that it would be cheaper to fly a little 140 pound guy like me around compared to someone heavier.
However, it seems that times are so tough for airlines that every pound counts. This article talks about how one airline is removing life vests from the planes - they will make each flight about 50 pounds lighter...
They won't want to pay for storage, so if you need an airline style life vest, I'd start checking Ebay.
Anyway, it's a topic we've covered this before but the cost of flying will increase. And although Continental made a nice gesture by not charging travelers who are affected by Tropical Storm Gustav for itinerary changes, the airlines are charging for just about everything these days.
And apparently they have to. Alitalia is in trouble again. Spanair should be in trouble if they aren't already. Zook failed (screwing hundreds of people in the process). The workers for American Airlines are making noise.
The extra charges trend has been devloping for a while. Recently we talked about pillows. One of the only things they don't charge you for is your body weight...
Modern and antique vacation experiences
This article talks about a multi-sports Yellowstone family vacation that includes off-road biking, hiking, horseback riding, rock climbing, and white water rafting. Sounds pretty cool to me.
These destinations also sound cool although one of them has been buried in volcanic ash for over 1900 years. And I thought talking about grandparents' travel habits was going back in time...
And it turns out that Staycations were not as popular as many people thought they would be this summer. I suppose I paid too much attention to the hype as well.
That article does argue that the travel industry is hurting a bit - but that does not mean everyone is staying home...
Finally, I'm thinking of starting a new thing where with each blog entry I point out an old one. Today I happen to be wondering what happened to Bobby Fischer who I wrote about back in February, 2005. Did he get out of jail? Did he get his new passport from Finland (apparently the 3 year old link on that old blog entry is no longer good)?