Report from New York City

A friend who visited New York last fall reported that it is still entirely possible to visit without spending a fortune, despite the fact that this is a notoriously pricey destination. She travelled by Greyhound bus from Toronto, and returned via West Jet. In New York, she stayed in a shared apartment she found through http://www.airbnb.com, and found it satisfactory.

"The Airbnb site was a little tricky. I didn't notice at first that there were three levels of accommodation, so was only looking at the default which was apartments and houses, where prices were similar to hotels. There were two other levels also--rooms, and shared accommodation. These offered more selections at lower prices. I chose a room in an apartment on the Lower East Side, near the subway and Chinatown. It was sparsely appointed but clean, quiet and secure. However, I could hear trains on the Manhattan Bridge nearby, which I enjoyed. The comments I found for my choice were accurate."

She booked the bus trip through a Website called http://www.wanderu.com. She chose an overnight bus via Buffalo. "The driver verified everyone's border crossing ID with their ticket while boarding. When we got to the border at Fort Erie, there was a short wait at customs and luggage was off-loaded for inspection. I travelled with just a carry-on, so I had very little wait time (smart girl.)

"The culture on the bus is very different now from my last trip. Virtually everyone carries their own entertainment with their smart phones, so there is almost no conversation. I was the lone individual using the light to read. Bus travel is a less annoying experience than it used to be.

"When we arrived, the New York skyline was a soft silhouette backlit by the morning sun. Traffic was already heavy before seven a,m. My few days in New York were wonderful.

"I was very anxious about catching my early flight from La Guardia, but friends said it was easy to reach the airport by public transit and so it proved to be. The subway line near me stopped at Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Avenue, the main hub for buses to La Guardia. There were three bays and transit workers in glowing orange vests to orient you to the correct dock and help with the pay machines. The bus goes to all terminals, and I still managed to get off at the wrong one. Thankfully LaGuardia is not such a large airport, and I was able to find my flight in time. Arriving back in Toronto, I took the Union Pearson line downtown. I got off it at the Bloor West station, where I was able to take a streetcar to within a block of my house."

My friend did not supply price information for her trip, but has promised to do so soon, and I will pass it on when she does..

Digital Nomads in the Balkans

A professional couple (geography, forestry) who love travel and the outdoors have a blog where they write about their experiences around the world, including very recently in the Balkans. They are digital nomads, who manage to combine earning a living with extensive travel abroad.

Their blog is http://www.ourlifeourtravel.com and has some very useful information about costs and conditions in various parts of the world. They recently lived in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Tirana, Albania and enjoyed both locations for different reasons. Their costs ran around $900 per month for lodging in a small apartment with utilities including high-speed internet, food, and local travel by private car. They found places to stay through http://www.airbnb.com.

They praised the food in Albania and the ability of locals to speak English in Sarajevo. However, they also pointed out an unusual risk in Sarajevo--unexploded land mines. Obviously this is something to find out about before extensive hiking.

Earlier in 2016 they spent several months in Vancouver, Canada and liked it for the abundance of nature nearby but noted it was (surprise, surprise) somewhat expensive. They have also ridden the Trans-Siberian Railway all the away to Vladivostok, and are currently based in Finland, one of my favourite countries.

It helps that they are a Polish-Hungarian couple, so are able to get around with Slavic and Finno-Ugric languages.

Visa-Free Travel to Belarus

As of mid-February, citizens of 80 countries will be able to visit Belarus for up to five days without going through a cumbersome visa process. Unfortunately, this provision only applies to those arriving by air at the Minsk airport, not those arriving by road or rail.

Still, Belarus is the second former Soviet country to ease travel restrictions recently, and it is a step in the right direction. I hope others, including Russia, will also make their borders more open to travellers. I don't even mind the cost of visas, it is the hassle that makes me think twice every time I visit Russia. The visa process is no easier than it was in Soviet times.

Belarus is mainly an agricultural region, and is also noted for the persistence of certain aspects of the Soviet system. It is a favourite of those nostalgic for the Soviet Union and its architecture, and also of Jewish travellers in search of their roots. Minsk was one of the major cities of the Pale of Settlement where Jews were required to live in the Czarist era.

News from Siberia

I recently discovered a fresh source of news from Siberia called The Siberian Times http://www.siberiantimes.com. It will be of interest to people contemplating a visit to the region, or just eager for information about this amazing part of the world.

It includes information and reviews of transportation, hotels and restaurants and items of interest about developments in Siberia. I saw one story about an 89 year old woman from Siberia who is travelling the world alone, even though she speaks no English. Another concerns an 86 year old former teacher who has become the oldest person in the world to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya.

Apparently anyone who is strong enough to survive into old age in that difficult region tends to be pretty tough both physically and mentally. There are plenty of other stories about encounters with wildlife, pollution, business and political developments. Below, in honour of Russian Christmas, is a view of a home on the Small Sea of Lake Baikal.

Some U.S. Hotel Deals

It's no secret that winter is low season for travel in many parts of the world, including most of the United States. It is also a good time to score some relatively low prices on upscale hotels.

For example, at the boutique Diva Hotel in downtown San Francisco, on most weekends through June rooms start at just $119 and the facility fee of $15 is waived. In Boston, the Colonnade Hotel downtown charges $289 for a Saturday stay, but if you also stay Friday that night's stay is based on the temperature in Boston at 5 p.m. that day. In other words, you could, if the temperature were 20 degrees Fahrenheit, stay for an average cost per night of just over $150. Even better, free parking is included.

In Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, the Victorian-style Inn at Jim Thorpe has reduced prices during the week, Sunday through Thursday, fron now through April 30. The rate for a mini-suite is just $99. and this includes a $20 dining room credit.

I found the above information on the Budget Travel Website http://www.budgettravel.com, which is a good source for travel bargains.

Visa Free Travel to Uzbekistan

One of the major impediments to travel across the Central Asian countries known as the stans has been the hassle and cost of obtaining visas. Now one of these countries, Uzbekistan, is offering open borders to citizens of 27 countries. The catch is that for some of them, the traveller needs to be 55 years old or more.

Older citizens of the United States, Belgium, France, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Portugal and Vietnam can now tour the wonders of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva without a visa. Citizens of a number of other developed countries of any age can visit Uzbekistan for up to 30 days with no visa. Russia is conspicuously absent from the list.

The new rules come into effect on April 1, 2017, in time for the summer tourist season. I am very glad to see that at least one of the countries in this region is becoming more welcoming to tourists. The fact that it is the stan that probably has the most interesting historical sites to visit is icing on the cake. However, Uzbekistan has also been known for its repressive government and gruesome human rights abuses.

Perhaps the change in visa policy will usher in an era of more openess to the world in this very fascinating part of the world.

Lake Ohrid Region, Albania

Here is the final installment of my friend's very detailed report of a trip she took to Albania last summer.

"Our first lunch near Lake Ohrid was at a beautiful restaurant situated on the bank of a rushing river in a steep gorge. Outside the restaurant, I encountered my first pomegranate tree. These grow wild in the hills.

"We passed along the side of Lake Ohrid, by the city of Pogradici. This is a resort area, and the area around town is another of Albania's curious plateaux, covered with gardens and fields. Everywhere I have ever been, farm fields are laid out in geometric shapes, often irregular, probably with a view to delineating ownership, and fields are adjacent to other fields. In Albania, fields are shaped like irregular spots with fractal edges, as if, 'Oh, here;s a good place, let's plant corn.' Other fields may be about, but there is often waste land or construction among the fields. I think this may have to do with the issue of property rights, which has yet to be settled after years of Communism preceded by warlords and Turks. The gardens around people's homes are carefully tended, I think because the investment is more certain.

"Lake Ohrid is very big and is the deepest lake in the Balkans,and one of the deepest and oldest lakes in the world, in the same category as Lake Baikal in Siberia or Lake Superior. Lake Presba is located just a bit to the east and is similarly deep and old. Both lakes are tectonic, caused by ruptures in the earth's crust, and fed by springs and therefore extremely clear.

"In Korca on the Greek border we stayed in a small bed and breakfast in a lovely old Turkish house with a large stone-flagged courtyard where an ancient grape vine shaded the dining tables, and roses, oleander and nectarine bush grew in clay pots. In the morning, we discovered two turtles wandering among the flowery profusion. The city is lovely, very clean with lots of parks and beautiful private and municipal buildings, many in the Beaux Arts style."

My friend also enjoyed the spectacular scenery en route and a visit to Voskopoja, a tiny town famous for its 20 churches. She predicted that the Lake Ohrid region will be a hot spot for tourism in the near future, particularly given that Turkey is becoming more dangerous for travellers. When she mentions her travels in other countries, she is very widely travelled and has served as a U.S. diplomat in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Many thanks for her contribution, and Merry Christmas to all.

Book Ahead for China Savings

I recently came across an almost unbelievable price for a tour of China--$569 for air fare from the U.S. (Chicago or the West Coast,) eight nights in four star hotels, internal flights, the services of an English speaking guide and most meals. The catch is this price is for dates next November and December. If you wish to travel during the spring and summer, the cost is $230 more.

The package is available from Travelzoo http://www.travelzoo.com, and includes visits to Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. One thing to remember about travelling in China in winter is that winter is the worst season for pollution--I just saw that a city near Beijing had to close its airport because the pollution reduced visibility too much. Also, avoid travelling near Chinese New Year, which is usually in February. That is the time when Chinese themselves are on the road in their millions, going home to visit relatives.

China is one of the countries I have not visited, but at this price it is a tempting idea.

Traveller on a Mission

I've just discovered a very interesting blog by a young woman who enjoys travelling, especially by train, in Russia, the former Soviet Union and other unpopular destinations. It is https://travelleronamission.wordpress.com, and the author is a French woman who now lives in London when she is not on the road. At present she is travelling through Kazakhstan by train. She has also travelled on the Trans-Siberian and the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) trains, and spent a winter in Siberia.

She always travels plaskartny, the lowest level on Russian trains, where you sleep on a well-equipped bunk in an open car. It's not clear what she does for a living or even what her name is, but her stories and pictures are fascinating.

In addition to countries in the former Soviet bloc, she has visited Cuba, Africa, India and some other places. And her mission? It is "to get to know the world to make it a better place." She certainly is doing that at least in a small way by showing that it is possible for a woman (or man) alone to explore widely without spending a lot of money.

I wish she would write more about the logistics of her travels--visas, tickets, and so forth. This is a blog that I will definitely continue reading.

Travel Agent or Do It Yourself?

In recent years many people, including me, have started booking most of their own travel online. For a while, there was a theory that travel agents would become extinct, like the dodo of Madagascar.

Now, though, a lot of people are getting tired of the hassle of deciding on flights or hotels themselves, using multiple prices on various Websites, and reverting to the old-fashioned travel agent. For major vacations, this can be an especially good idea since tours and cruises include the agent's fee in their prices.

Airlines no longer pay agent commissions, so if you book an air ticket only you may have to pay a small fee. But, as I discovered recently, a well-informed agent can save you money because they have access to fares you are not likely to know about. For instance, I found that I could save about 10 per cent on an already low air fare if I didn't mind where I sat on the plane. It's a short flight, so I didn't mind where I sat.

I also booked an airport hotel, and again was able to get a lower price by making the booking non-refundable. I doubt I would have discovered either of these possibilities on my own.

Best of all, if anything goes wrong on a trip booked through a travel agent, you have someone to call and someone who can explain your options, if any, for redress.

$99 to Europe with Wow Air

An Icelandic budget airline called Wow Air http://www.wowair.com is offering one-way flights to Europe from its various North American hubs for as low as $99 one way, from now through June 2017. Europe in this case means Iceland, but for another $30 you can travel via Iceland to larger places including Paris, London, Frankfurt and Stockholm.

For example, on Jan. 16 you can fly from New York to Reykjavik for just $99, and on Jan. 14 a flight from New York to Amsterdam via Iceland costs as little as $129. Remember this is a budget airline, so you are likely to pay a number of additional costs. But with such a low base price, it's probably worth it.

If you don't live at one of the major gateways for European travel, consider taking a bus rather than a plane to your gateway. And for even more savings, make it an overnight bus. I have a flight into JFK from Europe soon that arrives in the evening, and if the weather isn't too bad I may opt for an overnight bus return to Montreal instead of springing for a night at a costly airport hotel and another flight. I did this once a few years ago on arrival in Boston from Moscow, and it worked out all right. Of course, you can expect to be pretty tired when you finally get back home.

Post-Thanksgiving Travel Deals

This is a good weekend to get savings on some travel. In the U.S., a number of companies are offering significant reductions for travel booked from now through Monday.

For instance, Singapore Airlines http://www.singaporeair.com has a return fare of only $671 for return flights from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston to Singapore booked during this period. The flights must take place on certain dates from January 10 through September 30 next year.

Luxury tour operator Abercrombie&Kent http://abercrombiekent.com is slashing prices by up to 50 per cent on some of its premium private trips. For example, a trip to Bologna and Florence that normally costs $4995 per person is as little as $2995.

American Express Travel http://www.amextravel.com offers reduced prices on certain resort and city hotels booked through their Website, with some prices half the usual amount.

For more information on this type of bargain, check out the travel section of the U.S. version of the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com. Their article will be updated all weekend.

Report from Berati

My friend who visited Albania over the past summer sent an interesting account of her visit to Berati, a UNESCO World Heritage site south of Tirana. Below is an edited version of her story.

"The roads we drove from Tirana were smooth, with four lanes near cities, but we occasionally came across donkey carts sharing the highway. Once we nearly ran over one as we curved down from an overpass. Donkey carts have little choice but to travel along the verge of the highway, and people dart across when they detect a break in traffic."

Her party got lost near Durres, but eventually reached Berati "located in the steep-sided valley of the Osumi River, which retreats to a sedate trickle along a rocky bed in the dry summer. The city rises up along both sides of the valley, houses stacked upwards to the top of the cliffs. The commercial centre lies in the flat area along the river...All the houses are white with wood-framed windows and doors, and tiled roofs. The effect is extremely pleasing to the eye, as the houses mount up the hillside, surrounded by greenery and gardens. Berati is known as "The Town of a Thousand Windows" and it might also be the city of a thousand steps, as the minute you leave the area around the river, the climb is straight up...

"We fetched up at a tiny inn, the Onufri. The hotel door opened into a courtyard surrounded by stone walls draped in grapevines. Our rooms were up a set of wooden stairs that wound up to a large balcony overlooking the courtyard, and were equipped with modern bathrooms and comfortable beds. The walls were white plaster while the woodwork around the doors and windows was dark. It was a lovely place to stay."

She writes a lot more about the things to see in Berati, and about the other places she visited. I'll be posting additional notes from her travels in future.

Budget Travel with a Russian

I recently discovered a budget travel blog maintained by a young Russian woman named Liza that contains, in addition to the requisite beautiful pictures, a lot of useful, specific information gleaned from her frequent travels. Check it out at http://www.tripsget.com.

She travels with a boyfriend, Pepe, she met while both were students in the UK. Now they live in different countries, but meet often on trips. She lives in one of my favourite cities, St. Petersburg, and one of the posts is about low cost places to eat in her home town. They were almost all new to me, and sound worth exploring.

Another blog post gives specifics on travelling from Athens to Serbia in a week, with costs of transport, sightseeing and food. She went via Albania, and had quite a different take on Tirana from that of my friend who was there this past summer. She also cautions that parts of Athens have virtually been taken over by refugees.

Other posts give specifics on costs in places as diverse as Rome, Cambodia and Iceland. The writer and her friend usually stay in hostels to keep costs low. If you are looking for ideas on new places to visit with up-to-date information, you could do a lot worse.

Another Long Walk

Walking can be one of the least costly ways to travel, especially if you combine it with camping in the wilderness. But can you imagine walking for three years through Mongolia, China, Laos, Thailand, part of Siberia and Australia? That is the journey adventurer Sarah Marquis writes about in her new book, "Wild by Nature."

Marquis walked alone and carried an impressive array of equipment with her on a cart, which makes her accomplishment all the more admirable. Her trip does not sound like fun--she encountered many obstacles. She was harassed by locals on many occasions, had to be evacuated from a remote part of Mongolia for medical reasons, was deported from China because she strayed into a panda reserve.

She writes very well of her many trials, including exhaustion and near-starvation. But she also is able to convey the joy she felt when she was able to immerse herself in nature, far from civilisation and its discontents. As a woman, she found herself hounded by men frequently, but also helped on other occasions by both men and women. She disguised herself as a man for reasons of safety. I looked her up on Youtube http://www.youtube.com where she has a couple of videos, and she looked to be quite tall.

One thing I found a little disappointing given the subtitle of the book --From Siberia to Australia Three Years Alone in the Wilderness--was how little attention she devoted to Siberia. She was near the end of her journey when she travelled to the southern end of Lake Baikal, and she disliked the region because of an unfortunate experience in one of the small towns on the lake.

In any case, her accomplishments are enormous, and she is now officially one of National Geographic's adventurers. She dedicates the book to her late dog D'Joe, and "to all the women throughout the world who are still fighting for their freedom."

I was under the impression when I started reading the book that Marquis was British, but she actually is from and lives in the French part of Switzerland.

Adventures in Albania

Last July a close friend of mine visited Albania for a family wedding. She is a former writer for Michelin guidebooks, and drafted a marvelous account of her travels there with her family and its new Albanian members --her nephew married a girl from Tirana. This is the first installment of a very long and interesting story about travelling in a little-known country.

Getting to Albania from North America took quite a while, but on arrival in the mountainous country's only airport at Tirana, she was pleased to find the airport was very' modern and managed by Lufthansa. After exchanging money, she and her party "entered Tirana along a four-lane boulevard lined with palm trees and endless shops and office buildings, but with distant views of rugged mountains lit by rays of late afternoon sun. No rain, no fog, no sense of impending Kadare-esque doom. The city itself is on a vast plateau..." Ismail Kadare is one of Albania's best-known writers, and apparently his books paint a grim picture of the country.

The group stayed at a family-owned hotel on a narrow, tree-lined street called the City Hotel. My friend found it "small, modern and comfortable, with air-conditioning but no elevator. The front desk was occupied at all hours by friendly young women speaking excellent English. Although set in a bustling area, the hotel is in a small alley so was surprisingly quiet. It cost about $40 U.S. a night, plus $7 for breakfast."

This is a very good price for a nice hotel in Europe during the summer. Unfortunately it is the only price she noted, but I assume costs outside the capital were probably mostly even lower. To make it more convenient, the Albanian lek traded at about 1,000 to the U.S. dollar.

The day after they arrived her group attended a wedding that included feasting and dancing till dawn. It sounded a lot like the nuptials featured in the film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and indeed Albania has a lot of Greek influence, especially in the southern part of the country.

I'll be relaying more of her adventures later on. Until I read this account, I never had much interest in the country, but now I am fascinated by it.

Out of Eden Walk

Anyone with an interest in slow travel will enjoy the dispatches of Paul Salopek, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who is walking around the world as part of a project sponsored by National Geographic. He stays right on the ground and generally avoids tourists and big cities. The project is designed to trace the steps of early humans from their original home in Africa, and to last seven years.http://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/

Salopek is not travelling alone, but with a substantial amount of equipment, a local guide and sometimes pack animals such as donkeys or camels. His reports are immediate, and through his guide/translators he is able to interview locals he meets en route. At present he is in Uzbekistan.

His reports are quite erudite, with on the ground observations supplemented by a deep knowledge of history and culture. So for example in reporting on Khiva, one of the most famous stops on the Silk Road, he goes into a lot of background on the museums and libraries of early Islamic scholars and scientists who lived there.

His trip is designed to take seven years. It is accompanied by an international learning component, available online to students and educators around the world. This seems to me like a great way to learn about history and foreign cultures.

As for replicating parts of his trip on your own, I suspect it would take an enormous amount of planning, guts and money. But what a trip it could be.

Bargain in the Heartland

It's good to know that some things don't change much. I just got a note from my cousin Pat written on the back of a rate sheet for a hotel in Canistota, South Dakota. There, you can get an economy room for one person for just $28, or for two for $33. That's for room with bath but no shower, no air conditioning and no phone.

Even if you splurge on a room with all the trimmings including a queen bed, fridge and microwave, its own whirlpool bath,cable TV, air conditioning and phone, the charge is only $47 single, $52 double. So, there are still bargains to be found off the beaten track in the centre of North America. It's a part of the continent I have yet to explore, but at these prices the prospect is tempting.

Another part of the world that doesn't get much coverage in terms of tourism is Belarus and the Caucuses Republics that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. I was pleased to see that the Campbells, a couple behind a blog called http://www.seniornomads.blogspot.com, which I have written about before, are now exploring this relatively unknown area.

They are a senior couple who are travelling full time and staying mainly at places they find through AirBnB. Their reports are long on photos and sadly a little short on specifics about prices, but they give you a good feel about what it is like to actually visit the places they stay and explore. They do say that they are finding prices in Eastern Europe a lot cheaper than those farther west, although accommodations are also quirky by their standards. However, they do not fault the hospitality of the people in these countries.

Fall Savings on Lufthansa

If you book by Oct. 31, you may be able to save a lot on flights with Lufthansa http://www.lufthansa.com to Germany and various destinations beyond that country. For example, round-trip flights between either Boston or Denver and Munich start at just $489 U.S., while Washington to Frankfurt is as little as $509 U.S.

Similar savings apply to flights from Canada, such as $789 Canadian for round-trip travel between Montreal and Dubai. Departure must be between Oct. 28 and December 10, but return can be between Oct. 28 and June 10, 2017. There are some blackout dates on the return, for holidays.

Lufthansa is one of my favourite airlines, and I always fly it when I have the opportunity.

Travel Warnings from State

If you are an American citizen planning to travel abroad, you may want to check the travel warnings issued by the State Department http://www.state.gov for 41 countries around the world. This does not include weather-related alerts, or the worldwide travel warning issued by the same government department.

There is a feature where you can sign up to be notified if State issues a warning for a country you intend to visit. Most of the countries with warnings are places that are not high on most tourist's wish lists, but there are also some surprises. While you would have to live in a cave to not know that visiting Syria or Yemen right now can be dangerous (because, in part of carpet bombing of certain areas undertaken or financed by Russia or the U.S.,) you may not be aware that places closer to home such as Mexico also merit a warning, mainly because of crime and kidnapping, not terrorism.

Many countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia merit warnings, as do some in Europe (Ukraine) and Latin America. Diplomatic departments tend to err on the side of caution, so you may be tempted to disregard these warnings. Still, they can contain some useful information about particular things to watch out for.

Other governments issue similar travel warnings for their own citizens. It does make one wonder why the world has, over the last few years, become a much more dangerous place. Could it have anything to do with the foreign policies pursued by the major powers?