Intelligent Travel

A Sting More Painful than the Bad Exchange Rate

Just as we’re getting antsy to squish our bare feet into sunkissed, silky sand for some carefree lazing on the beach (anywhere! and soon!), the Economist had to go and dampen our summer pinings. Apparently, the painful sting of the euro’s exchange rate isn’t all you have to dread in the Mediterranean: An “unprecedented swarm of jellyfish” is heading to Europe.

We’ll let the Economist be the painful messenger:

The mauve stingers (also known as Pelagia noctiluca) have been breeding in the water throughout the winter, and are now ready for an assault on the beaches of Spain and the Mediterranean.

Masses of jellyfish are an increasingly common nuisance, not just in Spain, but all around the world. Spectacular blooms have been reported in Japan, Namibia, Alaska, Venezuela, Peru and Australia. And since 2000, the Gulf of Mexico has been suffering from an invasion of monster Australian spotted jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata), which are fouling fishing nets and upsetting the shrimpers.

Lucas Brotz, an oceanography graduate student at the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre, says the increase in jellyfish populations means human encounters with the painful little blobs are bound to be more prevalent. Of course, this is hardly news. The Mediterranean has been on “jellyfish alert” for the past couple of years. Beaches on some of the region’s most popular resorts have even been forced to close. Most scientists blame higher sea temperatures brought on by global warming, as well as overfishing, for the jellyfish influx.

NYC with Teens

Traveling with tweens and teens to New York? Senior editor Norie Quintos shares some tips and tricks from a recent trip to the Big Apple with her 12- and 14-year-old sons.

Limit the number of museums and choose them carefully. Just because there are dozens of world-class museums in the city doesn’t mean you have to see them all. Whiny teens are worse than whiny toddlers. I’d read about a temporary exhibit at the Guggenheim by the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, who worked with exploding gunpowder and cars hanging from the ceilings. Bingo. We hit the museum on Friday evening, when admission was pay what you want (I noticed most New Yorkers weren’t paying anything, so we didn’t either.)

Central Park is good for any age. Try to go with a plan, say, to catch the remote-controlled sailboats in the Conservatory Water or skate dancers in the Bandshell. Because my kids are Beatles fans, we went on a John Lennon pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields and the Imagine mosaic, then walked over to the Dakota building where the singer was shot. Plan your visit with the interactive map of Central Park.

Do something active. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, a leisurely 45-minute stroll. It’s one of the world’s most iconic spans and there is a separate path for walkers and bikers, so you aren’t inhaling car fumes. You can view the Statue of Liberty from here. Tips: To avoid constantly craning your neck looking back at the incomparable Manhattan skyline, take the subway to Brooklyn and walk towards Manhattan. Also, be sure to stay off the bikers’ lane, lest you get clipped or cursed at by speeding cyclists.

A Social Networking Site for Travelers

When it comes to taking a journey, half the fun can often be planning the trip: daydreaming about where you'll stay, the people, foods, and culture you'll encounter, and getting recommendations from everyone you know about the inside secrets.

That's why we're glad to have found Travbuddy, a new social networking site based exclusively around travel. As the name suggests, Travbuddy aims to put you in touch with fellow globetrotters to swap stories through photographs, forums, blogs, and interactive maps.

Hotel Confidential: Early Bird Special

Welcome to Traveler's newest column, Hotel Confidential. Traveler's Hotel Central editor, Susan O'Keefe, is just back from St. Petersburg, Fla., where she attended the Historic Hotels of America annual meeting at the salmon-colored Don CeSar Beach Resort on St. Pete's beach. You'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat the deal she found while she was there.

The Don has a wonderful incentive program to get people to check out of their hotel room early, especially great when you have to make those early morning flights anyway. The "Back to the Beach" program asks guests to vacate their room before 10 a.m. on the day of departure so housekeeping can get in there and clean it for the next guest (and who doesn't hate waiting around the hotel lobby for their room to be ready?).

Guests who depart before 10:00 a.m. can enter into a weekly contest to win a return two-night complimentary stay at the oceanfront resort. If you're a morning person, there's even more incentive to be an early riser: Early birds who check out before 8 a.m. receive three entries, before 9:00 a.m. receive two entries, by 10 and you receive one entry. One stay per week is given away. The return stay certificate is valid for two nights in a standard room (based on availability, valid Sunday through Thursday).

And while IT loves to sleep in, knowing that getting up early means you could be back for a return visit is enough incentive to set the alarm.

The Future of Travel

Lately, it seems everyone has been thinking about what travel will be like in the future. The lovable blokes behind the book (and phenomenon) Freakonomics posed the question about how things would look ten years from now to a series of industry bigwigs on their New York Times blog, and got some interesting responses:

• Brookings fellow Clifford Winston proposed charging airlines fees for every flight that is delayed, and suggested a "satellite-based air traffic control system that, among other things, would give pilots the freedom to choose the most efficient routing."

• Gary Topping, CEO of Topping Travel, foresaw the end of First Class, a renewed focus on happy airline employees (phew!), and the fabulous suggestion that "baggage will be electronically tagged, never to be lost again."

• Josh Marks, founder of MAXjet, spoke of increasing specialization for airlines based on traveler's spending preferences (evoking a 'there's room in the market for both Wal-Mart and Saks' theory); and warned that GPS and "data communications between aircraft and controllers must replace the antiquated radar-and-radio infrastructure that we have now outgrown."

Meanwhile over at Forbes, which just put out their very cool Future package, reporter Elizabeth Eaves makes some interesting predictions. Here's a quick sample:

Sustain and Entertain

Travel isn't just about taking in museums and historic sites, it's as much about mixing it up with the locals in their natural habitat. So what does that often entail? Nightlife. But it's hard to be thinking "green" when you're a few drinks in (which might explain the popularity of phrases like "trashed" or "wasted," no?). Thankfully, there is a nightclub that's already thought things through. Writer Matt Bloom reports from San Francisco that the new club Temple is working not only to sustain the party, but the planet:

A trip to San Francisco calls for two things: eating and drinking. Throw some hot sounds and a dance floor in the mix, and you've got the Zen Compound, where for the last two months, hungry ravers have been gathering for late-night eats and beats. It's a tough title to claim in a town that outlawed plastic bags, but the SoMa compound, comprised of Prana Restaurant and Temple nightclub, might be the most progressive testing ground for renewable energy in the city. For starters, the facility holds no-waste events: They don't use plastic (except water bottles), the cups are made of corn, every food scrap (and napkin) is composted, and every bottle is recycled. The Pan-Asian cuisine at Prana is almost exclusively local and organic. And the light displays, powered by energy-efficient LED and CFL bulbs, are projected to save the club thousands of dollars in resources each year.

Solar Decathlon Heats up D.C.

Today kicks off the third Solar Decathlon in D.C., where students from 20 universities swing into town and transform the National Mall into a solar village. Sponsored by the Department of Energy, the competition involves ten events which must "power all the home energy needs of a typical family using only the power of the sun." From their rulebook:

The homes must be attractive and easy to live in. They must maintain a comfortable temperature, provide attractive and adequate lighting, power household appliances for cooking and cleaning, power home electronics, and provide hot water. These houses must also power an electric vehicle to meet household transportation needs.

The homes will be on display on the National Mall from October 12 - 20. Tours of the team houses are available every day, except Wednesday, October 17, when they will close in order to measure their temperature  (see the full schedule here). Visit our friends over at Inhabitat for more photos of last year's event.

Photo: Stefano Paltera / Solar Decathlon

Exploring Queens

IT loves New York, but knows that there's a lot more to see of the city beyond the boundaries of Times Square. Negotiating the streets and subways can be tough, especially in the outer boroughs, where there aren't as many recognizable landmarks to help with navigation. That's when the knowledge of a neighborhood tour guide can be invaluable. IT editor Janelle Nanos recently wandered through Queens with Jack Eichenbaum, an urban geographer and tour guide, as he planned out an upcoming tour of Astoria. Dr. Eichenbaum, a professor at Hunter College, has been giving tours of Queens for 27 years, and his unique knowledge of geography influences the way he gives his tours.

In a piece in the New York Times, Janelle described his style:

There are no double-decker buses on Dr. Eichenbaum’s tours, no visits to Times Square. “This isn’t about tourists,” he said.

Buyer Beware: Carbon Offsets

A recent front page article in the Washington Post caught our eye because it tackled the sticky and oh-so-trendy issue of the carbon offset, calling it "among the most unusual of commodities":

Its substance is intangible, the absence of something. Some pollution would have existed, somewhere, sometime, the seller says, but now it won't.

This booming, unregulated market trades in outcomes that are hard to measure and, in some cases,  generates profits for companies while providing no real benefit to the environment. IT was troubled to learn that some consumers who purchased offsets were paying for nothing other than a "renewable energy certificate": i.e. a piece of paper claiming that their purchase led to the creation of clean energy. IT would condone this practice (especially if the certificate were delivered as a paper-saving PDF) if the certificate actually reflected positive change. However, since many such certificates are purchased after the energy is produced, many environmentalists fear the consumer is buying something that would have been produced anyway.

So, what's a traveler to do? The Post hints that more FTC regulation is coming. But for now, when offsetting your lifestyle or your next trip, think twice before investing in a company. Don't get out your checkbook for the first hit that comes up on a Google search. Ask the company if their results have been scientifically proven to create quality renewable energy, and make sure you know exactly where your money is going. It also helps if the company is certified by an independent organization. According to the folks at Sustainable Travel International, two of the most respected carbon offset certification groups include Green-e for domestic offsets and the CDM Gold Standard for international offset projects. Happy shopping!

Buy by Chapter

Nothing screams “seasoned traveler” louder than pulling a tattered guidebook out of your messenger bag. Even so, who hasn’t bemoaned shelling out $20 (at least) and dragging around an extra few pounds of wasted paper for a guidebook to South America when really you just needed the section on the Southern elephant seals that inhabit the islands off East Falkland?

Enter Lonely Planet’s new service, Pick & Mix. The Australian-based guidebook publisher is digitally chopping apart its books, giving consumers the chance to save paper (not to mention cash) by purchasing separate chapters as PDFs. So far, you can mix-and-match chapters from guidebooks on South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Starting at $2 a crack, the tree-saving stunt appeals to IT’s wallet and eco-conscience.