Spa treatments are increasingly popular aboard cruise ships.

While spas have been installed on brand-name ships for quite some time now, they have evolved, expanded and become more important to cruisers in general, and particularly in attracting spa-goers to the cruising experience.

Recently cruise lines have realized that the spa experience is not just about getting a massage, but also about surrounding oneself in a cocoon of well-being that extends into one’s home as well.

And since home at sea is a stateroom, the latest development for spa lovers is the introduction of the “spa cabin.”

These special accommodations are located near the spa, with close or private access that means you can scoot between your room and the spa facility in your robe and slippers without having to traipse through public areas of the ship. Most spa-category staterooms allow unlimited access to the spa facility (although treatments are additional), so you can relax in a meditation room or solarium and soak in the atmosphere of the spa whenever you like.

The ambiance extends to your personal space as well. In your stateroom, you’ll find upgraded robe and slippers, a spa-style shower with multiple heads; and healthy alternatives in the stateroom mini-bar.

Of course, these luxuries are not part of the advertised lead price; spa staterooms are in the upper echelon of categories and are usually veranda-style accommodations or suites. If the whole idea is pampering body and soul, it makes sense to include the more gracious, spacious “home” that goes with it.

More on this topic in our next post.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
020110

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal will open its own travel agency, WSJ Travel. Reportedly, the new venture will offer trips to about 50 destinations per year, coinciding with the topics of travel articles that will appear in the paper. Itʼs an effort to bring additional revenue into the newspaper.

There are questions yet to be answered, of course.

1. Is it possible for any newspaper to write objectively about something itʼs trying to persuade readers to buy?
2. Does a newspaper really have the behind-the-scenes expertise to be successful in a totally different retail business?
3. If it makes sense to sell travel today, then why not diamonds, power tools, or laptops tomorrow? What business is the company really in?

Glamorous as it is, the retail travel business is struggling in this economy every bit as much as the advertising-based publishing industry. Itʼs unexpected to see a company enter the travel industry right now. The new venture might seem more logical on its surface if travel were a principal thrust of the Wall Street Journal; but itʼs actually the lighter fare offered to offset weightier topics in deeper areas of expertise.

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. We certainly want the Wall Street Journal to succeed as a business enterprise; but we think it will take more than competing against travel agents to do so. Travel planning for the affluent is a high-touch customer service business with a complex back end; and even for those who have decades of experience in the field, it is still a high-wire act.

With luck, they’re subcontracting the business to those who know a lot about it. That would make sense for the travel part of the business, but what direction will be given to the editorial part of the business? How will readers be able to tell what is reporting, and what is sales?

We’ll all know more after the big unveiling on Thursday, and after a year of early adopters give it a try. If those travelers are happy, then weʼre pretty sure youʼll read about it in the Wall Street Journal. And if they are not, well then, there is still time for the newspaper to gear up its sales engines for home improvement products, fishing gear, and cell phones.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
012510

P.S. Letʼs not forget those in need. Please visit our Haiti Relief blog to learn how you can give immediate help.

Map courtesy of Wikipedia

Even Haiti, the poorest and most beset nation in the western hemisphere, is deeply reliant on travelers in the best of times.

So, we join the many other voices to call upon travelers of every economic status to help Haitians in their time of immediate need. Relief agencies need cash urgently to buy the essential water, food, medicine, shelter and transportation that will save lives.

Please make a contribution today, whether tiny or tremendous. Immediacy is the most important thing. Here are some links to non-profit relief agencies that make giving quick and easy.

Click on a Link to Donate Online:

• The American Red Cross
• The Salvation Army
• United Nations World Food Program
• Doctors Without Borders

Use Text Messaging to Donate by Phone:
(Donation amount will be added to your phone bill)

• Red Cross — Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10
• Direct Relief — Text “GIVE10″ to 20222 to donate $10
• Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief — Text “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5

Whether you are contributing for the first time today, or giving a second or third time, thank you for your compassion and support.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
011810

With good timing, your beach can be this uncrowded.

Low prices can be a double-edged sword, though; the opposite side of the blade being that very low prices can attract customers from a different economic echelon (those who are not the usual customers of your favorite resort). That has the power to change the character of the place.

For instance, if your ideal Caribbean retreat has a low-key, piano-at-sunset atmosphere with a quiet beach catering to those over 50, this year you may find it filled with younger families, louder music, more horseplay, less refined dress for dinner, etc. Nothing wrong with any of this, of course … unless it makes you feel like a third wheel on someone else’s vacation.

Here are three ways to improve your 2010 travel:

First, Separate Yourself from the Mass of Summer Vacationers

To avoid traveling with masses of ultra-bargain hunters, be selective about your approach. Our chief advice: buy early and choose places not likely to attract what was once known as the hoi polloi…. Choose the Ritz-Carlton instead of the Marriott for resorts (although the former is owned by the latter); choose Seabourn instead of Carnival for cruising (although again, the former is owned by the latter); choose Travcoa instead of Trafalgar for tours, etc. You get the idea.

If you can, travel in May or October, avoiding school vacation periods which always mean more crowds.

Although travel savings are likely to be promoted throughout the year, the most desirable resort accommodations, tour dates or cruise staterooms will probably sell out sooner rather than later. If you prefer suites or junior suites, verandas, private cottages, ocean-front rooms, Paris apartments or Tuscan villas in the best locations, or if you are tied to specific summer travel dates, start making inquiries now.

Second, Find an Insider

Instead of making reservations yourself, use a travel agent with some clout; that is, one who has a reputation for bringing commerce to the place youʼve selected. This way if something should happen later ‒ and in this economy, one can never be sure what that might be ‒ youʼll have an advocate with the power to negotiate on your behalf.

There are a several ways to locate a travel agent who specializes in a particular destination:

1. Google for ‟Bora Bora travel specialist” and take a look through the results to find a travel planner you like.

2. Look through the specialist listings provided annually in Condé Nast Traveler’s Top Travel Agent issue or on the websites of influential travel agent networks such as Virtuoso, Signature Travel Network or Ensemble Travel. It’s normal for a travel agent with years of experience to claim deep knowledge about multiple places, but avoid agents who list everything imaginable.

3. If youʼve decided on a specific tour operator, resort or cruise line, contact that company before you make a reservation and ask to be referred to the top two or three travel agents who sell their line, or to the best handful of deluxe travel agents they know. You may be referred to a travel consultant who is not in your local area, but if youʼre comfortable being counseled by phone, youʼll benefit from their expertise as well as their ability to reach the executive suite if itʼs necessary to lodge a complaint.

Third, Protect Your Purchase

The only thing one can guarantee about 2010 is … that nothing about 2010 can be guaranteed. So, protect your travel investment with at least a modest travel insurance policy (contact your travel agent or auto club). If you need to change your plans for covered reasons, you won’t lose the principal part of your investment. (Note, cruise lines offer waivers that mitigate against loss, although they are not the same as insurance; American Express offers coverage at low fees for travel that is charged to the card.)

Lower your cash risk by using mileage points for air travel; if you’re short on points, remember that in many cases you can transfer your qualifying American Express credit card miles to your airline mileage plan.

Use these ideas to plan your 2010 travel now and enjoy the anticipation of your trip without the anxiety that will be visited upon those who wait too long.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
011210

President Obama announces plans for tightening airport security.

Just as the “twelfth man” can help a football team achieve a victorious season, so too can the public help with security. And these days, it’s more and more important that we are watchful as travelers, particularly when we fly.

There is no doubt that FBI agents and others have successfully foiled the attempts of bad guys in cases we’ll probably never learn about. But in the case of the tennis shoe bomber, the underpants bomber, and the hijackers aboard the United flight that landed in a Pennsylvania field on September 11, travelers were the final line of defense.

In each of those cases, passengers swung into action after the plane was aloft. However, it’s much more in our interests to sniff out potential trouble and contain it before take-off. To do so, we can be proactive in these ways:

1. Pay attention early. Lift your head from the newspaper/laptop/text message in the check-in and boarding areas and look around at those who will be getting on the plane with you, particularly if you are traveling to a major U.S. city.

2. Speak up. If someone seems to have erratic or unnatural behavior in the waiting area, quickly and quietly alert the gate agents and ask them to call security. If the agents at your gate are too busy to approach, find an agent at a nearby gate, or ask a newsstand vendor to call security for you.

3. Trust your instincts. If security fails to act on your request, and you’re still uncomfortable about the person who has caught your attention, politely insist on changing flights and tell the gate agent why. Your concern will protect you and also raise the attention level of those in charge.

4. Gather proof. Your phone can grab a helpful, quick image of a suspicious individual or an abandoned package, which you can show to security officials to help them identify and follow-up on the subject of your concern. (No need to get too close, though.)

5. Be sociable and observant. Engage your seat-mate in a friendly little chat as soon as you are seated, before the plane pulls away from the gate. Ask where they’re from, what they’ll be doing in your destination, where they started their journey … the usual traveler questions. If you feel something is abnormal — someone is too jittery, evasive or uncomfortable — then alert the flight attendant, especially if others also seem wary of your seat-mate’s irregularities. Remember, the plane will not leave the gate until all passengers are seated so as a last resort, simply stand up until you are satisfied that flight attendants have solved the problem.

As travelers we can’t become airborne vigilantes, but we must realize that in a complex and fluid situation such as air travel, the authorities simply cannot see everything ….

… even if they do capture the naked images of every passenger with those invasive, full-body scanners.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
010810

Ahh.

After the holidays ‒ with all their logistical complications and seasonal angst ‒ it’s particularly sweet to arrive at the one destination we each know better than any other ‒ home.

Many of our readers, friends and correspondents have traveled great distances for the holidays, lived out of suitcases, supped with relatives, kissed the kiddies, held steady through the annual tirade of He Who Cannot Hold His Liquor, negotiated the traffic at terminals or turnpikes, been too cold or too warm for at least a day, praised burnt dinner rolls and quirky gifts with equal enthusiasm, exchanged knowing looks with those we love best, and finally, with a great sigh of relief, returned to our own front door, were greeted by our own pile of mail, and collapsed on our own couch with complete satisfaction at having arrived at exactly the right place.

It’s a good year to appreciate the joy of coming home, and to count our good fortune in a year when it’s difficult not to think of the great number of people who no longer have those homes to which they once returned, or the other many blessings of better times.

I’m delighted to have 2009 behind us and look forward to this brand new 2010 when, through the positive efforts of each of us in our own right places, we might collectively forge a Happy New Year all around us.

All the best for 2010.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
010510

The infinity pool at the Ritz-Carlton Reserve resort at Phulay Bay overlooks the Andaman Sea

But for those with a more plebeian orientation, itʼs hard not to recall Fantasy Island. I mean that in a good way.

In Thailand, just 54 rooms will be supported by close to 300 staff; each guest will have a personal concierge; and nearly anything you wish can be accommodated at any hour you choose.

In the spa, there are 11 treatment rooms ‒ it would be normal to find this quantity at a 400-room hotel ‒ and beyond the resort itself there are opportunities to explore pristine neighboring islets ‒ uncommon at a hotel of any size.

Originally, plans for Ritz-Carlton Reserve were made at a time of vibrant economic development and the timetable for their development ‒ perhaps 15 locations in all ‒ has slowed, but not been derailed. Among its many distinctions, Ritz-Carltonʼs management team is known for taking the long view, thus avoiding knee-jerk changes to a brand that is renown for its graciousness and constancy.

The Reserve resort at Phulay Bay, reached via the airports at Krabi (40 minutesʼ distance) or Phuket (2 hours away), will open for business on December 22, 2009.

Other Ritz-Carlton Reserve properties are anticipated as well: Molasses Reef, a Turks and Caicos project that was 75 percent complete when partner Lehman Brothers collapsed, will be resumed when another financing partner steps into the role. Guacamaya in Costa Rica is expected to open in 2011, and Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico is slated for a 2012 opening. Beyond those, Ritz-Carlton is actively considering Abu Dhabi, South Africa, India, and a ski resort location for additional Reserve locations.

Our choices for extracurricular activities at Phulay Bay: a seaplane tour with a private picnic on an outlying island; a candlelit massage within view of the sunset; and at least one lazy day with absolutely no advance plans whatsoever.

Peg Prideaux, CTC
111109

When should government employees be able to see naked images of your family?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from television shows such as
Law & Order and CSI, it’s that once something exists on a hard drive, it can never really be erased.

This is the first thought I have whenever the topic of full-body X-ray scan comes up. It’s the new-new thing in airport security, designed to thwart the latest danger to air travelers, which is, among other threats, your 16-year-old daughter.

To protect the traveling public, airport security is going to take pictures of her, naked, to make sure she has no weapons.

She won’t “feel” naked because the camera will look right through her clothes to record her image.

“Don’t worry,” officials say, because after the security team studies the photos, the digital images will be immediately destroyed. That’s because
(a) guys always tell the truth about deleting photographs of naked girls,
(b) no one will try to hack into the hard drive containing all the pictures, and
(c) stolen material never gets posted to the Internet.

Obviously, airport scanner security will have to be stronger than other systems that have leaked social security numbers, bank passwords, and confidential memos from secret Congressional investigations. Because if it’s not, your daughter’s picture will be out there for everyone to see, for the rest of her life.

Look, security is certainly a good thing, but so is common sense. Are X-ray images a benefit to travelers, or are they a public accident waiting to happen? What do you think?

Peg Prideaux, CTC
110409

P.S. If you’d like to see a sample of an airport X-ray image, brace yourself and then click here.

Maiko Girl, by Kuroda Seiki, Maiji Period, 1893, courtesy of the Tokyo National Museum

North American travelers started cutting back on travel to Japan more than a decade ago when the yen seemed expensive against the dollar, measured by travelers using what I call the Coca-Cola index (as in, “A Coke costs $10 at the Narita Airport!” ‒ that spoken by a fellow traveler in 1995 at the yen’s peak).

Since then, many world currencies have gained against the dollar, while the dollar has recently done well against the yen. Foreign currency exchange is an odd soup and doesn’t hold still, of course; yet its weird math puts Japan back on the travel list again. My seat companion of 15 years ago would say, “Coca-Cola is expensive here, but it’s not as bad as in (fill in the blank) …”

So, Japan is back on the traveler’s agenda. As it should be. For many westerners, a visit to Japan means the unraveling of cultural mystery, and of such things great trips are made. Lest you fear Japan’s past might not capture your interest, remember James Clavell’s novel Shogun, which stayed on the best-seller list almost infinitely and became the second-highest-watched television epic of all time. In fact, a re-read of Shogun is an enormously satisfying preview to any first trip to Japan.

Another lens through which to view Japan’s history and culture is its numerous museums and non-commercial galleries, of which there are well over 100 in Tokyo alone. There is so much to view that exhibits change frequently, so don’t worry if you visited a few years ago ‒ what’s on display now will likely be a fresh grouping.

It has been awhile since we published our secret list of favorite Tokyo museums in Passport Newsletter. Here is another look in a somewhat shorter and abridged form:

Tokyo National Museum, Japan’s largest and most comprehensive repository of antiquities and traditional art. The huge collection of about 90,000 items is spread over several buildings, and it takes days to see everything. 13-9 Ueno Koen, Taito-ku. Tel: 81-3-3822-1111.

National Museum of Western Art. In a building designed by Le Corbusier, the museum has significant holdings of 19th-century French paintings as well as Matisse, Picasso, Pollack, Ernst, Miro, and Dubuffet; old masters including Tintoretto, El Greco, Rubens. 7-7 Ueno Koen, Taito-ku. Tel. 81-3-3828-5131.

Japan Folk Crafts Museum. Contains the most important collection of early Japanese paintings, porcelain, textiles, pottery, lacquerware, furniture, toys, metalwork, costumes, and masks. 4-3-33 Komaba, Meguro-ku. Tel: 81-3-3467-4527.

Ota Memorial Ukiyoe Museum. Rare masterpieces of Japan’s major ukiyoe woodblock artists. 1-10-10 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 81-3-3822-1111.

Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art. Every important Japanese artist from Meiji to contemporary times is included in this collection of paintings, prints, calligraphy, sculpture, and handicrafts. 3 Kitanomaru Koen, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 81-3-5777-8600.

Japanese Sword Museum. A permanent display of swords and fittings by famous Japanese sword makers, ancient and modern. 4-25-10 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 81-3-3379-1386.

Nezu Art Museum. An outstanding display of Japanese paintings, calligraphy, sculpture, china, lacquerware, metalwork. Japanese garden with teahouses. Reopened three weeks ago after having been closed for two years for renovations. 6-5-1 Minami Aoyama, Minato-ku. Tel: 81-3-3400-2536.

Kite Museum. Kites of all kinds and shapes from Japan and other nations. Fifth floor, Taimeiken Building, 1-12-10 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku. Tel: 81-3-3271-2465.

Sumo Museum. Items concerned with the history of Japanese wrestling, starting from the 18th century. 1-3-28 Yoko-ami, Sumida-ku. Tel: 81-3-3622-0366.

Mori Art Museum. One of the city’s most exciting showcases for contemporary art as well as offering superbly presented exhibitions on design, media art, fashion and architecture. Museum admission includes entry to Tokyo City View, a 52nd-floor observatory. Mori Tower, Roppongi 6-chome, Minato-ku. Tel: 81-3-5777-8600.

National Art Center, Tokyo. Housed in a spectacular building that itself almost qualifies as a work of art, the National Art Center, Tokyo, opened in 2007, is the country’s largest exhibition space. It lacks a permanent collection, but presents exhibitions that cover both classical and contemporary art. 7-22-2 Roppongi, Minato-ku. Tel: 81-3-6812-9900.

– Peg Prideaux, CTC
102709

Grapes line the Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne, Australia

Australia may be climbing out from under the Global Economic Crisis rock sooner than its English-speaking cousins. The Aussie dollar is now worth about 90 US cents, up considerably from just a few years ago.

Still, that’s an excellent value for American travelers compared, for example, to the euro or the pound.

If you’re headed to Australia to enjoy the remaining extra stretch your US or Canadian dollar may still hold, you’ll want to ensure Melbourne is on your sightseeing agenda. For the past two years the city has outpaced Sydney in tourism ‒ or so says the Victoria state tourism board.

Something about Melbourne makes one want to set down roots. To get that “planted here for awhile” sensation while visiting, the Lyall Hotel in South Yarra is definitely worth consideration. Small, high-end, and well-run, it’s a masterful blend of hotel and home, right down to the full kitchen and washer/dryer in most suites. Our review from last year still stands. Read it now.

While there is much to do in Melbourne ‒ more than can be spelled out here ‒ our correspondent frequently recommends getting outside of the city for Epicurean Tours’ Yarra Valley wine country program. The upscale day-tour includes two vineyard wine tastings and time at a local cheese farm, plus lunch at a third winery followed by a visit to the contemporary art collection at the TarraWarra Museum. It’s a full day, well spent.

– Peg Prideaux, CTC
101309