ThereArePlaces

Strikes In France And Germany

France was hit by a 24-hour rail strike that has influenced system wide capacity, although the strike has not affected international traffic. See this source for more information if you will be travelling by train in France today.

On another front, unionized janitors in Germany have gone on strike for higher wages and airports are one of the targets. See this report for more details.

Hurricane Headed For Los Cabos

Hurricane Rick appears to be headed in the direction of Los Cabos, a popular winter resort area on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Rick may become one of the most powerful Pacific Ocean hurricanes in decades and is currently packing 175 MPH winds, although there is some hope that the hurricane will slow when it hits cooler waters in the next day or so. Whether Rick will actually veer towards Los Cabos is speculation, but the early plots of the hurricane’s trajectory take it over the popular resort.

See this article from the AP/Yahoo for more details.

If you are planning a Los Cabos in the next week, consider delaying your vacation. Check with local sources for more accurate information and keep your eye on the weather. If you are planning a cruise, consider cancelling it, as the seas in the area are high and rough.

New Searchable Google Maps at ThereArePlaces

We have added a search bar to the maps on www.ThereArePlaces.com. As you may know, we overlay these detailed maps from Google with the locations of our recommended best places to visit around the world to help you plan your intinerary when traveling abroad. Recently, Google let us know that they had developed code that would allow us to embed a Google Search Box on our maps.

We thought this might be an interesting idea and played with the code until we got it to work just the way we wanted and were stunned by how useful this feature is for travel. Below is a figure showing the search box at the bottom of our map of Edinburgh, Scotland.

When you enter a search term in the box, the results show up in a list that is linked to symbols showing the location of the results on the map. For example, we decided to see where we could find shops offering kilts in Edinburgh - after all what better memento of Scotland?

We think you will find the map search boxes fascinating. We’ve spent hours looking for patisseries in Paris, chocolates in Brussels, Weinerschnitzel in Munich.

We think you will like this feature, but the best way to find is to try it. The search box is particularly useful for finding stores, bars, cafes, restaurants, hotels and other items of interest - or maybe even just looking for fun stuff to do when you are traveling (or to dream about when you are armchair traveling).

Hurricane Jimena Continues to Batter Baja

Today, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory for the Baja Peninsula related to Hurricane Jimena, a storm that just keeps on going. The advice provided by State should be read by anyone considering travel to Baja in the next week.

“September 04, 2009

The Department of State urges American citizens to consider carefully the risks of travel to areas in Mexico that remain affected by Hurricane Jimena and its aftermath. U.S. citizens located in areas impacted by Hurricane Jimena who do not have access to adequate and safe shelter should consider departing as soon as possible. This Travel Alert expires September 11, 2009.

Reduced to a tropical storm, Jimena continues to hover over the Baja Peninsula, centering approximately 35 miles north of Santa Rosalia. The National Hurricane center predicts the storm will begin a slow westward path back over the peninsula, remaining near or over central Baja California through Saturday, September 5, 2009. The northern half of Baja California Sur (from Bahia Magdalena north to San Juanico on the west coast and Loreto north to Santa Rosalia on the east coast) is experiencing heavy rainfall, resulting in flooding with a potential for mudslides. Severe to heavy damage has occurred to buildings and infrastructure throughout the area. Most roads remain impassable and the area is without power and water. The airports in Mulege and Loreto and seaports throughout the affected region remain closed.

The resort areas near Cabo San Lucas and San Jose de los Cabos have resumed normal business activities and their airport has reopened. Travelers are cautioned however, that rough seas and rogue waves continue to be a danger on the beach.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reports are posted at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_ep3.shtml?5-daynl#contents.”

Bats and Bat Caves

As many of you know, ThereArePlaces recently added a new section to its website on the Best National Parks in the American Southwest. One of the parks mentioned is Carlsbad Caverns National Park. In our coverage we noted that there is a Bat Program at Carlsbad Caverns as over a million bats make the caverns their home.

Today we were cruising the news and saw an excellent piece from CNN (video) on the Bracken Bat Cave in Texas. Approximately 20 million Mexican fre-tailed bats make this cave their home and when they exit the cave for their nightly hunting it is an astounding sight. Take a look at the CNN Video of Bracken Bat Cave.

Best National Parks in the American Southwest

This evening we published the latest addition to our ThereArePlaces website. We have always enjoyed traveling the National Parks in the American Southwest and decided to share our wanderings and recommendations on the best parks to visit in this unique area. We cover Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park in Utah. We recommend the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest in Arizona and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. We think that everyone who has a chance should visit Death Valley National Park on the California-Nevada border. In Colorado, we have always been inspired by the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park and, more recently, by the incredible dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

If you think you might like to know more about these parks, we suggest you start here. Our guide includes a one-page overview describing each park and why you might want to visit. In addition, we provide detail pages for each park we cover and these pages include some great photography and handy advice for planning a visit.

ETA Bombs Mallorca (Majorca) Again

The ETA was resonsible for three bombings in Mallorca today. Unlike recent ETA targets, the three Mallorcan locations were in places often visited by tourists, although there were no injuries reported. The bombs were pre-announced by the ETA, perhaps to avoid casualities, but still show the public that their demands for a Basque homeland must be considered.

Two bombs were placed in restaurants and the third was detonated (in a controlled detonation by the police) in Plaza Mayor, the popular central square in Palma. Three of the Balearic Islands, (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza) are very popular tourist destinations with Europeans and the ETA may be trying to show its strength by damaging Spain’s lucrative travel industry.

The ETA is apparently flexing its power during August, the 50th anniversary of its founding. During the last year a number of the terrorist organization’s senior operatives have been arrested and it is thought that a new, brasher group of young basques are responsible for the latest attacks.

Here is a detailed article on the bombings from the New York Times and another from the BBC.

Bring Your Own Entertainment On Flights?

We read an interesting article on Reuters today about airlines considering installing power plugs and internet connections at the expense of in-flight entertainment systems. It appears that so many travelers are now sporting their iPods, iPhones, laptops and DVD players that airlines may be considering adding power plugs and letting passengers bring the entertainment they prefer, rather than supplying in-flight entertainment systems. Apparently, installing and maintaining the in-flight systems is quite expensive, while wiring all of the seats in a plane with power outlets is more economical option.

In some ways this sounds OK, but I have mixed reactions. I am getting tired of all of the electronics that I seem to need to lug on our travels. In addition, I usually rely on in-flight entertainment to keep me up to date on all of the movies that were released but not worth paying to see first-run. On the other hand, if I could power-up my laptop during a long flight, I would likely prefer to see the movies on its quality screen rather than the cumbersome to use, low resolution 5″ seat back monitor found in many planes.

Seems like flying is becoming “do it yourself”. I suppose they will be handing out flapable wings soon. After all, this is the industry seems to be pondering whether people might be interested in standing the entire duration of a flight for a lower cost or paying to pee. Where do they get these ideas?

Discount Airlines Grounded in Mexico

Those of you considering flying on Mexico’s new batch of cut-rate airlines should read this
news item from USA Today. Several of the discount airlines have been “grounded” for safety violations or non-payment of fees. A second article in USA Today lists the airlines that have been grounded and some of the safety infractions involved in their grounding. It also includes a list of Mexico’s discount airlines that are still flying.

We feel obliged to note that several of the grounded airlines believe the actions against them are motivated by political considerations within Mexico’s federal government.

For the meantime, if you need to fly within Mexico and decide that you want to travel a “home-country” airline, Mexicana and Aeromexico, two of the country’s major airlines, are still flying and might be good choices for your transportation.

It’s Time To Travel - And Plan Travel

Sorry for the lack of news lately, but our teams have been…traveling! Yep, we travel summer, winter, spring, and fall. In fact, we’re on the go just about anytime we can arrange it. And right now is a great time to plan a getaway.

While the airlines and cruise industries seem to be having serious problems due to the state of the economy (e.g. airline ticket revenues are down 25 percent for the first half of the year and many of the big boats are sailing with a lower occupancy than last year), sometimes there are silver linings to be found in “dark clouds”. We have noticed that several major airlines are still discounting tickets to Europe and there are some amazing cruise deals to be found for touring Mexico and Alaska. At this point, it looks like discounts on travel fares and accommodations may last into the fall.

While we realize that it is difficult for families to travel once school starts again in September, if you have the opportunity you should consider a vacation this fall to take advantage of the lower levels of leisure travel and the discounts that seems to be resulting from this phenomenon. Autumn is a wonderful time to tour Europe, although the weather can get “iffy” in northern Europe in late November and December. If you are thinking about soaking up the sun, Hawaii is great in the fall, as is coastal Mexico. Of course, the Greek islands can be magnificent in September and October, although you need to make sure that your favorite place to stay has survived this year’s slow summer travel season.

In other words, our advice is “GO”, whenever you have the chance. While travel is our business, it is also our avocation. We find travel educational, relaxing, enjoyable and important to our well-being. There are so many places to go, so many interesting places to discover and so many wonderful people to meet that we are already anticipating our turn to enjoy the world of travel. When will it be your turn?

Yep. We know. You want to wait just a little bit longer. Maybe next year? Maybe the economy will improve? If that is your position, we think someone may be giving you bad advice. We all hope that the economy improves, but we can guarantee you that as the economy improves, the price of travel will rise accordingly. Now is the time that you should be able to find bargains that you may never, ever see again in the world of travel.