Gift article from Wall Street Journal travel section. Yes, we too agree that hotels could have better lighting. @showmom858 - The Strand Palace (London hotel I think you recommended to us) is mentioned a few times… first about showerwater on the floor, but also good stuff.
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My wish list is more storage space. We tend to take longer trips and like to fully unpack. But even when we’ve been upgraded to a nice spacious suite they seem to skimp on usable drawers or shelves. And often one drawer is full of crockery we don’t want to use. Also, whatever happened to putting hooks on walls? So useful for makeup bags, hats, backpacks etc but they seem to no longer be favored by hotel room designers.
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I just checked in for my JFK-San Diego flight. Friend and I will stay 2 days with a family friend of mine, then off to San Diego-LA/LA to Oakland on Amtrak for two more days with a college friend. Now to make sure I am awake at 3:00 or so; car to JFK arriving at 5am.
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Enjoy your time in San Diego. Looks like we may have some clouds while you are here, but weather should be in the low 70’s.
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We are in the Amtrak waiting room in Portland. We’ve had a great time visiting my friends plus niece and family who dropped us off at Amtrak so we could each check a bag. We explored Portland all day including a trolley ride. We’ll be on the train overnight. Next stop: Whitefish, Montana.
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As of this morning Spirit Airlines has officially ceased operations. All flights cancelled - just like that. Anyone affected?? Airports are telling their passengers to not come to the airport.
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Not spirit but so many people I know fly cheap to Florida. Allegiant or Frontier.
You wonder with the price of fuel oil what this will signal for these low cost airlines. You can fly to Florida for less than the cost of gas.
I paid $5 a gallon yesterday for gas, that is crazy!
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Well, it’s been on the news for 2 weeks and at least 2 days that it would probably end on Sat. I wouldn’t have relied on a Spirit ticket recently. I read some stories of people flying to weddings TODAY (flying today, wedding today) that they ‘probably couldn’t get to’ on time. Really?
Duffy did say SW,Delta, United, and JetBlue were trying to help with one way tickets for ticketed Spirit travelers, and that those tickets would be about $200, which is more than they paid on Spirit but maybe less than customers on those airlines had paid.
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Tonight I flew from O’Hare to LaGuardia on United after my Amtrak trip and there was a link on my phone boarding pass related to Spirit passengers.
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Sounds like you’ve had a great Amtrak & plane journey!
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Two merger attempts were blocked so instead they shut down and lots of people lose their jobs and people have flight interruptions and other airfares will surely go up? How does this help (it doesn’t).
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I think the merger attempts were blocked because Spirit was a disaster that wasn’t sustainable. They ran at a loss for years. They had a lot of disruptions in flights and a lot of disruptive passengers who thought they were flying first class and were mad when things went wrong. Some of those things weren’t Spirit’s fault (weather) but many were (over booking, drunk passengers, enforcing luggage fees for some but not all).
If you’ve ever flown in or out of Fort Lauderdale, you’ll know what I mean. Their gates were a nightmare, and if you happened to fly into a gate near Spirit? Ugly.
Spirit had already tried bankruptcy (twice I think) and the business plan wasn’t sustainable. Merging with Jet Blue may have brought Jet Blue down too. Spirit wasn’t charging enough so yes, prices will go up for those who were getting a bargain at Spirit as they’ll have to pay the fare at another airline that sustains the true costs.
Did you think the government should have bailed them out, again, so that employees could keep their jobs and people could pay less to go on vacation? Then the government would be bailing out Big Lots, JCPenny, a lot of Mom and Pop stores, and a lot of other private businesses like hotels, resorts, florists, farmers because they all have employees and people want cheaper products.
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I am considering a solo vacation to an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean. Mexico looks interesting and cheaper than most, and I can use my español. Any ideas?
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No suggestions except that you might want to focus on ones that are adult only or don’t really cater to families. You won’t be paying for services and facilities (children’s programs, etc) you’re not using, and you may find more travelers like you.
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It’s been awhile, but we really enjoyed staying at this place:
Not beachfront, but it has a shuttle to a dedicated beach. The building are surrounded by forest, and the place felt very peaceful and relaxing.
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Two of my sisters and one of my nieces and her fiancé (all at different times) went to The Vine, a Secrets resort. They’ve all enjoyed it.
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I’ve really enjoyed going to Mexican all-inclusives with my husband. (It is a bit of a splurge. Not sure if I’d like it as much on my own.)
We’ve been twice to the Rio Palace in Neuvo Vallerta, near Puerto Vallarta. The second time was booked just a week ahead, on a decent air/hotel deal from United. We really like the hotel and food, and entertainment is pretty good too. We arranged tours with hotel pickup. One time we took taxi to small nearby town and other times to Puerto Vallerta, but I’d likely not do that by myself.
Another year we went to Iberostar outside of Cancun. That had nice an interesting jungle like area. But the food, though fine, had more buffets - I think only about half the nights were allowed for sit down dinner with waiters… and they needed to be reserved ahead. It was nice to take bus trip to Chintzanitza - it was very sunny, was glad they provided umbrellas for shade.
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Do you belong to Costco? Have you checked their travel site for ideas?? What would you like to spend your time doing???
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We stayed here too, though it was several years back now. Xmas 2017-New Years 2018. We also took the bus to Chichen Itza! But we also did a viator tour where we went horseback riding through the jungle, upside down (and regular) zip-lining through the jungle and then swam in a cenote. I was nervous for the latter trip, since it only had 1 review when I booked. Then the communication wasn’t great, but we were told to be ready at 6am at our hotel. At 6am this rickety old van drove up and picked us up. We kept looking at each other like… uh… But then we went to other hotels and soon our van was packed. Thank god it was pre-covid. Still though, we drove for maybe 2 hours in this little van through the jungle and I was hoping it was legit, otherwise we would all be screwed. It was. The reason it only had 1 review was because there were various activities you could combine, and I guess not many did our actual combination. It wound up being really fun!
P.S. I prefer buffets! I hated the Japanese place there. I didn’t know what to do, and the server/cook guy kept making fun of me. I almost walked out of dinner without eating anything.
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Thank you all! I will look for a travel companion but not sure I will find the right person. My Amtrak trip was fabulous but by the middle of 12 days, we planned a lot of alone time. I love the idea of a great beach plus a warm pool when it’s cool or cold in Brooklyn, and I could see myself on the rickety van! My Spanish English group is taking me up on the idea of going to Mexico City some time within the next year–maybe I can do it before or after.
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