Still Traveling

With the holidays fast approaching, more people will be boarding airplanes to visit family and friends. This is also the season of increased flu outbreaks, and this year we have an additional virus to battle with the swine flu. Airplanes have long been seen as an incubator of all kinds of germs, though studies show the air within the airplane cabin itself is no more germ-laden than other enclosed public areas.

AP Photo/Pat Roque

Still, if the stranger sitting by you on the plane is coughing and sneezing non-stop, it’s hard to not be concerned about your own health.  And a recent survey by TripAdvisor suggests that your flight mate may indeed have the flu. According to the survey, 51 percent of Americans would fly while knowingly sick with the flu rather than pay a flight re-booking fee.

If you were diagnosed with the flu or swine flu before a planned trip this holiday season, would you still fly? Would you take any precautions, such as wearing a mask? How do you feel about …

Continue reading Would you still travel if you had the flu? »

Over the weekend, the biggest cruise ship to set sail arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to prepare for its inaugural cruise next month. Royal Caribbean’s massive, 16-deck Oasis of the Seas is capable of carrying 6,300 passengers and a 2,100 crew on voyages through the Eastern and Western Caribbean.

When it docked, hundreds of onlookers gathered to see what a $1.5 billion passenger ship looks like – jamming traffic in the area of Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades.

In photos, the ship appears much like a floating city block (photo here). If you’re old school and measure cruise ship sizes by the Titanic standard (about 46,000 gross tons), then think of the Oasis as about five Titanics. If you have passenger ship expectations that are a bit more modern, the 225,282-gross ton vessel still dwarfs its closest competition. The next largest cruise liner, another Royal Caribbean, comes in at a mere gross tonnage of 154,407.

This is not your typical Love Boat, where you could sip …

Continue reading Are you wowed by mega-cruise liners like Oasis of the Seas? »

If you have been checking airfares for the Thanksgiving holiday over the past few weeks, you have probably noticed one thing: your turkey dinner with the folks in Tulsa seems to be growing more expensive by the day.

Added fees for baggage, food/drinks service and booking have become standard air travel procedure, but the introduction and then doubling of “holiday surcharges” by several major airlines could make that bite of your Grandma’s pumpkin pie a little hard to swallow.

In September, Delta, Northwest, United and American airlines began charging holiday travelers on a few specific days (i.e. the Sunday following Thanksgiving and January 2-3, 2010) an extra $10 each way. They later expanded the holiday surcharge dates to include more travel days around Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring Break and Memorial Day of 2010. Then, last week, some holiday surcharges jumped to $20 each way. That’s before the baggage or any other fees are added. (If you’re shopping around for …

Continue reading Will travel surcharges cost you Thanksgiving dinner with the fam? »

Just a short drive north of Atlanta sits the town of Dahlonega. Once the center of our country’s first gold rush, it’s now the heart of Georgia’s burgeoning wine industry. With five wineries (and another expected to open next summer) on the outskirts of town, many Atlantans flock to sample Dahlonega’s new “gold” – the Chardonnays, Pinot Grigios and Viogniers – against an autumnal backdrop of gold and red foliage.  

Georgia’s Wine Country didn’t really begin to take shape until the late 1970s. Prior to that, “Georgia Wine” usually referred to wine made from the state’s native Muscadine grapes. Even though north Georgia’s climate and landscape created prime grape-growing conditions, fine wines didn’t flourish here until Prohibition ended and agricultural technologies allowed farmers to better grow European wine grape varieties.

Whether you’re a viticulturist or just a visitor to Dahlonega, you can tour the wineries and participate in tastings …

Continue reading “Cheers” to the heart of Georgia’s Wine Country »

As I trudged through the rain recently, a friend diverted me from cold, wet thoughts with news that she was planning a trip to Aruba in a few weeks. I’ve never been to this small island just off the coast of South America, but the idea of white beach sand and warm Caribbean breezes were enough to push soaked clothes and flash flood warnings to the recesses of my mind – at least temporarily.

While my friend is traveling to this Dutch-governed island mainly to do a bit of scuba diving over the winter, she appears to be headed to Paradise at just the right time. Her early December departure will put her there at the tail end of the “off season”, when hotel rates are still reduced. By mid-to-late December, hotel rates typically rise throughout the Caribbean. (Of course, bargain-hunters who are flexible about the island or resort they’re staying in may find some great “peak season” deals in the coming months because of the recession.)

Temperatures on the island …

Continue reading Do you have a favorite Caribbean getaway? »

Lately I have noticed an increase in themed travel packages, specifically in the cruise industry. I’m not talking about extreme sports expeditions or singles-only tours, which draw adventure-seekers to challenging locations or ensure that single travelers can mix and mingle with other adults on their vacations. While those have become popular, I’m thinking more of the mile-long lists of “theme cruises” out there catering to just about any interest you could imagine.

A theme cruise is generally defined as a “normal” cruise with additional activities or programs centered on a particular topic of interest. Typically, when I hear “theme cruise”, I immediately think of the Disney Cruise Line. Disney cruises allow families to eat with Mickey and Co.; offer parents and children Disney-themed activities; and spend the day on Disney’s own private island. But DCL isn’t the only game in town when it comes to theme cruising.

Over the past few months, I have seen …

Continue reading Have you ever sailed on a theme cruise? »

For two weeks every October, the Sirens’ call of the Cumming Country Fair draws our family, friends and neighbors up Georgia 400 to the gates of the Cumming Fairgrounds for a few hours of good, old-fashioned fun.  But with all of the recent rain and our jam-packed schedules, I’m afraid time is running out for us to make it there this year.

The fair will pack up and move on after its grand finale on Sunday, October 18th, and we have yet to find a rain-free, softball/tennis/gymnastics/scouts-free day to go. (Fingers crossed this weekend turns out sunny.)

My entire family loves a good fair. My husband and kids are all about the carnival rides and the games. I’m all about the caramel apples and funnel cakes. But in the end, the agricultural and historical exhibits are what really make country and state fairs special to me. Not only do they remind me of a simpler – but much more difficult – time, they also never fail to make me appreciate the lives we enjoy today.

And …

Continue reading FAIR thee well at the South’s festivals »

Enjoying the crisp air, colorful leaves and harvest festivals is an annual rite of autumn; and people have come up with many fall activities over the years to help get out and make the most of the season.

Folks used to simply gather together and go for a hayride as part of their autumnal celebrations. As kids, we would throw a bunch of hay in the back of a pickup truck and ride around the farm before topping the evening off with s’mores around a campfire. More recently, hayrides continued to be popular, but they were something you did with the kids in addition to spending a day at the pumpkin patch or picking apples in an orchard.

The 21st century fall festivity of choice seems to be the corn mazes that have grown wildly popular over the past few years — so popular that many of those pumpkin farms and orchards have added a maze to give tourists added incentive to visit.

Today, you can find more than 600 corn mazes popping up along the North American landscape, from Edmonton, …

Continue reading Want to get lost in the corn maze craze this autumn? »

If you’re trying to scare up a fun Halloween-themed trip next month, you don’t need to look too far. Our state and region has more than its share of haunts and haints — from Civil War soldiers wandering the battlefields to scorned lovers looking for revenge and lonely old-timers not quite ready to move on. 

In fact, it seems that just about any Southern town or city with any trace of history has its own ghost or haunted home. I grew up in a town with two such “haunted” houses, both of which dated back to antebellum years. Over the years, terrifying yarns were spun about events that happened within those walls. Whether any real tragedy occurred there didn’t matter. The houses were set back from the street, darkened and overgrown by inattention and decrepit enough to make any spooky tale seem plausible. As kids, we were simultaneously drawn to and scared to death of these decaying homesteads. We occasionally tested our mettle by attempting to pass by the creepiest …

Continue reading Halloween’s a-comin…are you up for ghostly travels? »

We see it everywhere. We’ve talked about it here. Travelers looking for a bargain have not been disappointed by 2009’s plethora of good travel deals.  Now, some experts are saying 2010 could be even better.

With forecasts that air travel and hotel sales could fall by another two percent, bargain hunters next year may see hotels offer additional free nights and other discounts as incentives to get travelers to come and stay for a little while longer. Deloitte and Touche analysts say travelers might also benefit from airline incentives like a monthly travel pass, which could help entice more leisure travelers to take to the skies.

The reason? Despite the many deals we have enjoyed this year, Americans are still planning shorter stays on future vacations. Those shorter stays could could force hotels to lower their nightly rates, so many may begin offering goodies to help fill their rooms.

So where should you look and how do you get the best deals next year? According to …

Continue reading Will more deals to come in 2010 get you traveling? »