Montreal's Irish Pubs

People don't tend to think of Montreal as an Irish city, but the St. Patrick's Day parade has run here every year since 1824. Scratch a French-Canadian (or, more politically correctly, un Quebecois) and you are likely to find an Irishman or Scotsman lurking. Even our seeming Premier for life, Jean Charest, is half Irish. And the city's flag is quartered with the fleur de lyus of France, the rose of England, the thistle of Scotland and the shamrock of Ireland.
Today, of course, the city's flag should include the symbols of Iran, Haiti, Vietnam, China, Lebanon, Mexico and many other countries if it were truly to reflect Montreal's population.
One of the happy results of Irish ehritage is a proliferation of Irish pubs in Montreal, mostly downtown. They are all fine places for a brew and a burger at reasonable cost, and sometimes for live Irish or other music.
Just the other day I enjoyed lunch at the Irish Embassy on lower Bishop Street, where a pint of local beer and a veggie burger with fries and salad came to almost $17. (High taxes push prices for booze and restaurant meals to pretty astronomical levels in Quebec.) Costs are similar at the other pubs I am familiar with, Hurley's and McKibbins. McKibbins is a good place for happy hour snacks, but get there early (shortly after 5 p.m. on weekdays) or the best will be gone. McKibbins original location is right next to the downtown campus of Concordia University, and there is a branch on St. Laurent Boulevard near Prince Arthur and another in the West Island.
Hurley's is on lower Crescent Street, and downtown on Cathcart the Vieux Dublin has re-opened. Now there is even a new Irish pub on St. Denis near the Cafe Cherrier, one of the chief hangouts for members of the separatist Parti Quebecois.
Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade will take place tomorrow, and it is free. Happy Shamrock Day, everyone.

Rental Car Deals

The cost of most travel items has gone up a lot in recent years, but for rental cars the cost can actually be lower than it was even 20 years ago (yes, I do remeember that far back.) However, while advertised rates may be low, add-ons like collision damage waiver can quickly turn a bargain into a costly undertaking.
There are Websites like www.kayak.com and www.priceline.com which allow you to compare rates from various companies. Generally, it is cheaper to rent cars at sites away from an airport than at the airport itself. If you are just flying into a city for a couple of days, though, the difference in price may not be worth it, because you have to add on the cost of getting to the other location by taxi, shuttle etc.
I have had good luck renting cars recently from Enterprise (www.enterprise.com) and from Avis (www.avis.com.) According to one source, who managed to score a Cadillac in Florida from Enterprise for just $13 a day, franchise owners and employees at Enterprise have a lot of leeway to negotiate rates. One possible downside, if you don't own a car and have your own insurance, is that they may not accept the collision damage waiver protection offered by most premium credit cards. At least, that was my experience when renting from them in Florida--fortunately, I had other insurance..
If you rent cars often, the annual fee charged by premium credit cards is usually worth it because of the collision damage waiver alone.
As with most travel products, rental cars and their prices are complex, But at least in North America, you can be assured that prices are usually a good deal compared to what they used to be.

Free E-book on Palestine

Pamela Olson (www.pamolson.org) is a young writer whose work I admire and she is offering a free electronic version of her new book "Fast Times in Palestine" through Amazon (www.amazon.com.) Ms. Olson studied physics at Stanford, but has managed to make a name for herself as a travel writer about Siberia, the Middle East and other relatively exotic places. I want to read her book on Siberia especially, and as soon as I can figure out the Kindle thing I will have a look at the one on Palestine.
The e-book revolution seems to be upon us, with unknown results. For the moment, though, there is a lot of good reading available either free or at very low cost. As far as writers go, this is quite a mixed blessing, but I guess we all have to join the fray sooner or later. My friend and former co-author Susan Lukowski has recently published a mystery book set in Georgetown, one of the posh parts of the District of Columbia, and it is available as an e-book on Amazon for a mere 99 cents. The title is "Death is in the Details" by Alex Winter, Susan's nom de plume for this book.
I'm working on a short travel e-book myself and will let you know as soon as it is published.

Save with Condo Rentals

For stays of more than a few nights in one place, renting a condominium apartment is often less costly than staying in a hotel, and usually has the advantage of being more spacious. You save by being able to make your own meals, and sometimes do your own laundry too.
A Website that offers condo and home rentals in North America, Europe and a few other places is www.vrbo.com, and it has been recommended by several friends. The acronym stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner, so all the offerings are owned by indivuduals, not corporations. I recently checked for rentals in two European cities, London and Berlin. London is notoriously pricey, and vrbo's offerings are not cheap there either. The lowest priced weekly rental I could find listed in West Central London was 665 pounds per week for a very cute studio that appeared to be in a laneway (a converted garage, perhaps?) For not a lot more money, you could stay at the Lancaster Gate Hotel in the same area for a week. In Berlin I couldn't find much in the center for less than 60 euros a night. Last time I stayed in a hotel there, I paid about that for a small room and a big breakfast, but that was several years ago.
I mentioned to one person who recommended vrbo.com that I found the prices somewhat high, but she countered that she had, a few years ago, rented a nice place in Puerta Vuellarta, Mexico for only $500 per month.
For single travellers and couples, the savings with apartment rentals may not be huge, but they can be for big families or groups of friends. This past holiday season I stayed in a beautiful waterfront condo in Clearwater Beach FL that could have slept 10 people, and even had its own laundry room. For 10 people, the cost would have come down to less than $10 per night per person. I arranged that through another Website I have used several times, www.florida-beachrentals.com. This is a very user-friendly site that enables you to check what is available on the dates of your visit. The people who manage the company are also welcoming and professional, and available to fix anything that goes wrong in a rental.

Language Immersion Courses

Probably nothing makes a trip abroad more pleasurable than being able to get along in the language of the country or countries you visit. There are many ways to learn a language (the best being growing up speaking several languages,) but for those of us who don't have that advantage, an immersion course can be second best.
I have written before about the many programs abroad that combine language classes with lodging and sometimes excursions--these are often a very good deal. But another possibility is total immersion before you leave.
A couple of well-known colleges in New England offer such programs in a number of different languages. Shorter and less expensive (but still up there) are the 10-day total immersion courses of Dartmouth College (www.dartmouth.edu) in New Hampshire, the school about which the early American orator Daniel Webster claimed that "it is a small school, but there are those who love it" in a famous speech. These courses go from morning to night with just a short rest period, and are available at beginner, intermediate or advanced levels. Cost is aobut $3600 if you stay on campus, and the program has been used by many groups including the Peace Corps to train workers going abtroad.
Longer courses are available at Middlebury College (www.middlebury.edu) in neighbouring Vermont. I am somewhat tempted by a Russian immersion course that runs from June to August and costs just a little under $10,000. Participants have to sign a pledge that they will speak only Russian during the course, something that would be pretty tough for me.
Obviously these are both expensive options. For the same money, you could probably study abroad and hire private tutors. But if you prefer the pleasures of northern New England and in the case of Dartmouth if you have very limited time, these programs could be worth a look. And the knowledge of a foreign language you gain may pay off in travel savings or even in a new career.

Reduced Fares on a Great Rail Journey

The trip from eastern Canada to or through the Canadian Rockies is near the top of the wish list for most rail buffs. It's a long time since I took it, but it really was spectacular, giving a sense of the vastness of Canada that you totally miss when you fly.
Now you can save on this iconic trip offered by Via Rail Canada (www.viarailcanada.ca) if you book by March 9 for travel by May 31. Fares are reduced in some cases by 75 per cent, and the cost for travel in Sleeper Plus Class with an upper berth is as low as $750 from Toronto to Vancouver, or $562 from Toronto to the charming mountain resort of Jasper, Alberta, The fare includes full service gourmet meals. I haven't travelled on the refurbished Canadian so can't vouch for food quality, but have heard it is good.
If you have always wanted to see central and western Canada by rail, this is probably as good a time as any to book a trip and save some money.

Use your brain in Spain

Looking for an inexpensive Spanish vacation? If you don't mind doing some work in return, consider the program offered by Grupo Vaughan (www.volunteers.grupovaughan.com) for volunteers to help Spaniards learn English. The program lasts six days in several different locations in central Spain, and includes all costs except air fare to Madrid. No teaching experience is required, and there is no upper age limit. Being a native English speaker is a requirement, though.

The schedule is quite full, with conversation classes and various activities where you are expected to interact with your students, most of whom are business people. If you think this sounds easy, think again. One of my early English teaching experiences involved speaking with two men, one from Uzbekistan and one from Afghanistan, who both worked as mechanics. After just a few minutes I ran out of topics--my knowledge of mechanics is very limited. I asked about their families, but knew that it is not considered polite in their cultures to inquire much about their wives. The time passed extremely slowly. A program like the Vaughan program, which requires a lot of interaction most of the day, is probably best for garrulous people.

There are other openings for volunteers to speak English with people trying to learn that language, and many are listed on www.daveseslcafe.com. The Republic of Georgia has been bringing in many volunteers who are willing to commit to a semester or more teaching English to school children, and Chile also has a big push on for English learning at all levels of education.

If you are determined to find some way to teach English abroad, these volunteer programs are a good way to try out the field and see whether you enjoy it, before you commit to an expensive certificate program or sign a long-term contract.