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Seasonal Offerings from CLIF Bars
Travel as much as I do and it’s always wise to have several Clif Bars in your backpack. I munch on them as a snack during outdoor adventures or as a meal when I take flights that don’t serve food. Last week, out on my last bike ride of the fall foliage season here in New England, I went to my local supermarket and was happy to find Clif Bars that fit the season, Spice Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, and Iced Gingerbread. Yes, just like my favorite brewers concoct an Oktoberfest or pumpkin ale this time of year, Clif Bars is putting out some intriguing offerings that fit the season. I loved the Spiced Pumpkin Pie, perfect for an autumn outing. My son, Jake, wouldn’t share the Pecan Pie bar. All he said was that “it was sweet and crunchy and that they should sell it year round.”
Take Time to Savor the Present
VBT To Feature Culinary-Based Biking Trips in 2012
Call me nostalgic, but I’ve always been partial to VBT. In 1995, while researching my book, Outside Magazine’s Adventure Guide to New England, VBT took me on my first organized bike trip along the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. They have since expanded to all four corners of the Globe. Just ask my mother-in-law, who’s traveled with VBT to South Africa, Germany, and the Netherlands and raves about all those trips. This year, VBT will feature four culinary tours that sound very tasty. In April, they’ll travel to Puglia to bike along Italy’s Adriatic Coast and explore olive groves, sample local wines, and dive into dinners of fresh seafood and locally grown vegetables. In September and October, VBT will visit Provence to bike backcountry roads through the French countryside, enjoy a home-cooked meal, and stop at fromageries and wine bars. Last but certainly not least is their trip to Vietnam in November to bike past the verdant rice terraces and sample the indigenous fare at markets, family-run food shops, and your own Vietnamese cooking class. Also take a peek at their new destinations in 2012 like a sweet ride along Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.
Vienna Celebrates the 150th Birthday of Klimt
Despite the flagging economy and increasing concern over Eurozone debt, Vienna’s tourism industry is booming. Overnight hotel stays in Austria’s capital city in 2011 reached 11.4 million, a 5% increase from 2010, which was already a record-breaking year. Increased traffic from Russia, Spain, and Switzerland spurred on the high numbers, but the US still remains a vital market. The numbers of travelers to Vienna should only increase in 2012, with the city hosting a 150th birthday party for artist Gustav Klimt. Ten Viennese museums are offering special exhibitions in 2012 to display the paintings, drawings, and designs by Klimt. First stop should be the Belvedere, which owns the world’s largest collection of paintings by Klimt, including The Kiss. A show at the Albertina will delve into Klimt’s versatility as an artist, displaying 170 of his drawings.
How a Travel Advisor Helps With Hotel Bookings
In a story I wrote for The Boston Globe on "The Key to Getting a Better Hotel Room," I interviewed Jacob Tomsky, author of the best-selling Heads in Beds (Doubleday). Tomsky, 35, spent a decade in the hotel industry, seven of those years manning the front desk at an upscale midtown Manhattan hotel. I asked him is it better to book a room via a travel agent than to reserve through websites like Hotels.com or Priceline? His response: "From a business standpoint, people who book through third-party travel sites are looking for a discount. The likelihood that they’ll return to your hotel is close to nil. So discount reservations are our last priority. They’re the ones we put next to the elevator." It also doesn’t help that these online travel agents or OTAs are reaping exorbitant finder fees from lodgings, up to 25 percent of cost per room from independent properties, compared to the average 10 percent commission for travel agents.
Another Ridiculous Assignment from an Editor
Yesterday, I received a call from an editor of an auto magazine in Detroit, wanting me to rent a Chevy Malibu in Boston and drive to Washington, DC. A photographer will be joining me to take shots. She wants me to describe the drive. Okay, not exactly the most scenic stretch of highway in America, especially when you’re passing the chemical plants in northern New Jersey. I’ve been a travel writer for 20 years, so I’ve had my fair share of absurd assignments. The worst was a request from Men’s Journal to backpack along a stretch of the Mojave Desert with a guy who was designing a long-distance Desert Trail though the Western states. I had to backpack in with over 30 pounds of water and my own blend of dehydrated food. The heat was brutal and the only signs of civilization I saw were deflated balloons hanging from the cacti. You want to know where your kid’s helium balloons go when they lose them? This forgotten hellhole. By the third day, my feet were covered with blisters, my supply of water was sucked dry, and the tape in my trusty microcassette recorder had melted. The editor ended up cutting my 1500-word story to 500 words due to space limitations. But I did better than the photographer I was traveling with, who had to schlep in his heavy camera equipment on top of the water. They didn’t accept any of his work. Must have been that glaring sun.