I know it's hard for many people to think of a vacation when the economy is in such a mess, but if you can refocus for a moment I've got some good news for you.
That vacation you're not thinking about has just gotten less expensive. And it doesn't have anything to do with declining prices because of the Wall Street mess either.
What has happened is that the dollar has been slowly and quietly been gaining strength against some other currencies during the past few months. That gives you a lot more buying power in some overseas vacation spots.
For example, look at the approximate increase in value of the dollar versus some other currencies since June 1. The dollar now buys you 23.4% more Euros, almost 35% more British Pounds, 47% more Aussie dollars, and 33% more South African Rands, It goes 36% further in Norway, about 15% In Switzerland and a whopping 89% in Iceland.
Not all destinations are offering fire-sale prices on their exchange rate, however. Argentina's peso has only changed about 7% in our favor and China has become more expensive, for example.
The dollar hasn't returned to its glory days, of course, but there's more to the picture. Despite air fares staying relatively high -- although you can snag a few good bargains if you look around -- hotel prices are edging downward due to that better exchange rate. Remember that great exchange rate in Iceland? According to Forbes, you can now stay in a four-star hotel in Iceland for $70.00 per night. Basically, the entire country is on sale.
But the really good news is that you can now find hotels that are waving about some good deals to lure you in. Just log onto places such as TravelZoo, Shermans, Orbitz, etc. or Google some of the better-know chains and see what deals you can unearth. You may be surprised.
Jim Ferri
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China is a country of great, if not extreme, contrasts, a place that mesmerizes most western travelers with its daily parade of incongruities.
The first thing that you notice flying into Beijing (which, by the way, on all airlines tickets still has the old PEK designation for Peking) is the incredible amount of air pollution. This changed two days after our arrival as a brief rain and windy morning cleansed the city, but still, after traveling the world for nearly 40 years I have never seen such pollution. Years back some said it was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Today bring a chain saw.
The people, for the most part, are fascinating and gentle. On the other hand, as a traveler you still feel the heavy hand of the state despite all the hoopla surrounding the Olympics...the bureaucracy at the airport, the huge police presence in Tiananmen Square, the censorship of the Internet.
For a while the Internet and my laptop drove me crazy The entire time I was there I couldn't post any blogs despite trying numerous times. Nothing would work. Everything on-screen looked the same and seemed to work the same, but in the end China's internet would never allow you to upload any materials or photos and video.
The second thing that struck me, in addition to being warned three times a day that everything is counterfeit, is that every time you want to buy anything you have to go through the hassle of haggling. Guys hate having to bargain -- just give me a fair price and we'll do business. But here everything is negotiated, with you finally paying about 20-25% of the asking price. Stop in any market and you must run a gauntlet of half the population of Beijing, which in itself is a sideshow. Shop for an hour and you need three to recuperate.
But the real sideshow for me took place whenever I changed money at our hotel, the Regent Beijing. Four times I handed over dollars to the desk clerk and then stood back and watched the show unfold. First, of course, would come the request for my passport. Step two, my money would be very carefully counted twice, even if it's only five 20-dollar bills. Then I would watch as it is put through a machine -- not once, but twice, which seems to be the magic number here -- that quickly flipped it through, counting it, scanning it or doing God-only-knows what to it.
Now the desk clerk would count it still again, probably just to ensure the machine wasn't skimming anything, and would then type the serial number of each bill into a computer. FINALLY, she would hand me a receipt to sign before starting the process of counting out the Chinese Yuan.
Once I made the half-day trip out to and back from the Great Wall in less time than it took to change a couple of bucks for taxi fare.
Jim Ferri
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There are a lot of new things happening in the travel and tourism business around the world these days. There's a new swimming pool in Tokyo, Delta has discovered a new way to make the job of baggage handler more exciting and a new museum has opened in Munich.
In Tokyo, recently, a bald, naked man who said he was a British tourist went swimming in the moat of Japan's Imperial Palace, climbed the palace wall, and threw rocks and splashed water at police before being taken into custody. He also got out of the water at one point, and chased police with a rock and a plastic construction site pole.
He then went back to the murky water and swam across to the other side of the moat, where he climbed up the 8-meter (9-yard) stone wall of the palace. Television showed passers-by gathering around the moat and watching the chase, giggling and taking photos on mobile phones.
"We are checking on his mental condition now," a police spokesman said.
In Atlanta they're checking a baggage handler for cardiac arrest. After opening the cargo hold of a Boeing 757 she found a cheetah running loose amid the luggage.
According to a Delta spokeswoman, one of two cheetahs being flown from Portland, Ore., to Atlanta escaped from its cage. The airline summoned help from Zoo Atlanta, and experts rushed to a closed airport hangar, tranquilized the escaped animal before transporting it to the zoo.
There's nothing worse than an unexciting job, which is why at first we thought this was all part of an effort by Delta's Human Resources Department to make airport jobs more exciting.
On the other side of the world, a bit of excitement is being generated in Munich by a new museum which is housed in an old public toilet.
Originally built in 1894, to serve nearby households which lacked facilities, the toilets were locked up in 1992 because of lack of use.
"On the night we opened, around 800 people came to see our work," initiator of the museum project, Mathias Koehler told Reuters. He said that a toilet was a great place for artistic expression because art is a form of relief in the same way that going to the toilet is.
Herr Koehler has since been nominated for the "Eloquent Spokesperson of the Year" award.
Jim Ferri
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