(00:00:00) 72 degrees and Mark, that's the latest news. Thank you. Chris Roberts. It's six minutes past eleven o'clock. And this is midday for Saturday, July 17th marks a deck like with you in the Twin Cities will be talking about travel and vacations during this hour with Katherine Watson. She's been the travel editor at the Star Tribune newspaper for 15 years. She's been almost everywhere and seen nearly everything. There's probably not a travel situation. She hasn't encountered. You can call with your questions for Katherine Watson and the Twin Cities called 2276 thousand anywhere else. You can hear this program call us toll-free at 1-800-321-8633 toll-free anywhere. You can hear this broadcast at one eight hundred two, four two 2828. Well first off Catherine, thanks so much for coming in this morning. (00:00:48) Thank you. This is fun. (00:00:50) The first question I have to ask you is what is all this rain doing to the tourism industry around this region. There is a been a very scarcity of Days of Summer and when they are sunny it's not on the weekends. What's it (00:01:02) doing? I think it's Wrecking things. There's no doubt that that occupancies down in the Resort's there. I was just in Brainerd where my family has a cabin and there were vacancy signs all over which is rare in July elsewhere. It's kind of this kind of a spillover effect. I was talking to some people who handle publicity for the Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen the steamships out of out of New Orleans and they're saying that they're they're seeing some fall off in bookings because people assume the whole Mississippi sweated and when you get down into the Lower River, it's not they've only rerouted three trips this summer, but but people's perception is of geographies little bit shaky, you know, if it's wet up here, I'm sure they're there are people who would have come to Minnesota for a vacation who are in Florida and just figure you know, the whole thing is under water. I've had people call me lately from different parts of the country in the first thing they say is is are you dry? Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, sir. If I'm indoors, it's not it's not flooding relations problem. Yeah. Yeah, there's a kind of people's perception when they're concerned about a destination. They seem to Define it a lot more broadly. If Mexico has an earthquake, for example, people will worry about travel and Costa Rica. So there's a sort of regional Connection in people's minds (00:02:20) as far as the water levels in some of these Lakes they were so low a couple of years ago that the water is at the rain actually probably helping some people even though the floodings on the news. Well, let's say I go right to the phones we have the lines are lit up. I want to give those numbers. Once again. If you get a busy signal just try again in a little bit in the Twin Cities, you can call 2276 thousand outside of the metropolitan area. You can call toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 the air with Katherine Watson, what's your question? Good morning. Thank you. I have some disabilities and when I drive a car, I have to have some special adaptive equipment on it and my concern is say I travel someplace and I want to rent a car. What is there a problem with there's a possible to get stuff like this car done a spur of the moment or something to gotta you gotta set up way ahead or (00:03:14) so far sure on the spur of the moment know it's sort of like a special meal on an airline. You can get it but you need to do a little planning ahead. You might be lucky and be able to walk into a large city and have a vehicle that would suit you. But but you need to give him some notice and I would say two weeks if you can do it. If you are working with a travel agent to plan the trip, the agent can give you a sense of what the lead time is with different companies. Some are maybe more likely to have more options than others (00:03:42) one would think to that the Americans with Disabilities Act might affect some of that. Well I had assumed okay, let's go to another call. Good morning. You're on the air. Good morning. We have a daughter and the Peace Corps who's in the Gilbert islands and we're planning to visit her next February as we began to look at booking we run into the problem of we can get to Australia or You can get to Hawaii but it just cost a fortune to get from any of those points to the Gilbert Islands. Do you have any suggestions how to book this? So that it won't kind of break the bank. I'll hang up and listen, it's okay. (00:04:16) Well first up I think it's wonderful that your daughter in the Peace Corps. That was my great dream and my folks had no don't get a job first. I went to the Star Tribune. I think I'll join the Peace Corps my mom about 60, at least. That's my hope the problem with was going to a remote place our place that is off. The Beaten Track anywhere is that they're just plain isn't that much demand to make cheaper airfares worthwhile. If you're if you're going for example from here to Europe. There's a lot more competition. The fares are likely to be held down somewhat also it'll vary seasonally, but when you go from a major routing major route pattern to something obscure and we have to say the Gilbert islands. Are you almost always end up paying more it there is almost no way to cut this down. You might if you have a really Creative Travel Agent, you might just Check and see if there are more flights a out of Japan. The Japanese are Great Pacific Travelers, and there may be a volume coming from Japan that isn't coming from here so you could route that way. But otherwise there isn't really a very good option (00:05:18) unfair Wars right now in airfares, I guess is what I mean to say what what should people be expecting for the balance of the summer and maybe this fall last summer obviously, there were green. I bet I mean, can we expect anything like last summer there? That's obviously the center of litigation right now in the in Texas, but we're going to see more low fares. (00:05:38) I don't know the the Affairs that were just announced in the last couple weeks and it was American that led off with something like a 30% drop and other airline's policy actually doesn't put us back to where we were last summer. So it's sort of it's one of those things where the prices have gone up and then they come down again, but you're still not getting a real a real bargain. I don't know. I know that the Fairly Alors, especially the one last summer that involve Northwest the the fair Wars. Tend to attract lots and lots of trailers at low cost and the airline's can't sustain them for very long. So there may be some if there is if somebody shows up with a really low fare pounce on it because they can't keep it up. (00:06:16) What about destinations right? Now that you're seeing very good fares to are there any spots where the airline's for whatever reason have really dropped their fares. (00:06:24) I don't know. I don't (00:06:26) know what comes to mind. Let's go to the phones again. Good morning. You're on the air. Hello. We're planning to travel to Japan and Southeast Asia next Winter by ourselves. And we're looking for resources on what might be reasonable places to stay. Do you know of any travel guides that contain that kind of information for Japan and Southeast Asia? (00:06:47) Yes start with Lonely Planet. It's a superb series aimed at budget Travelers and it's also good at even if you're going on a more upscale trip. They've got tremendous basic information about visiting a place done by people who have been there. If you're familiar with the Old South American handbook, it's that concept taken worldwide. You should follow that up with another series by Insight Insight guides which are wonderful historical and cultural guides. The combination I think is about the best you can get (00:07:19) I want to ask you a question about some of these travel guides. I was at a book store that sells some of these guys that are a couple of years old and they credibly inexpensive one or two bucks for some of these things. Are they any good if they are a couple of years old oftentimes, that's what's available at the library to you get it may be a 92 addition or (00:07:38) 931 what will be different is pricing the the general material on sites to see in Paris or wherever that won't change unless something burns down and I've had occasion where or closes and write a story and it turns out that the place you would just add is has closed since you came back the catch with with guide books is that they tend to be off on pricing for two reasons one is that it takes about a year to get Book into print and the other is that as soon as a hotel is listed in any guidebook the price goes up. What I used to do still do when I have the time is to follow the guide to the neighborhood of a pro Hotel. It's listed there and then stay next door (00:08:15) because being in the book is a good Adam. Yeah. (00:08:19) It's a good at such a good advertisement that their their business takes off. (00:08:22) Okay coming up on 15 minutes past eleven o'clock. This is Mark zdechlik in the Twin Cities and you're listening to mid-day Katherine Watson the travel editor from the Star Tribune is here this morning. We'll take another call. Good morning. You're on the air. What's your question? Where are you calling from? I'm interested. I have two questions. I'll be traveling to Russia and Ukraine in September. Should I be concerned with personal safety safety or robbery and also as accommodation easy to find Once In Those countries, (00:08:52) I'm out of date on on the Soviet Union because it was the Soviet Union the last time I was there I would check with a travel agent on accommodation and just hear what they're hearing. You can also call the state department call the there's a citizen's emergency number that you can get. If you are if you call the General number for the State Department in terms of personal safety ten years ago or five even I'd have said no that it was about the safest place in the world repressive government's very often produce countries that are safe to travel on. But now what I'm reading is increasing amounts of crime due partly to the lid being off in terms of policing and also because of the incredible economic problems, I would take the same precautions you take traveling anywhere. To take take some kind of wallet or purse that you can hide don't carry large amounts of cash with you if you're going on a budget this gets harder, but if you're staying in a hotel, it has safety deposit boxes use them carry your passport which is still a necessity and generally be fairly street (00:09:55) smart. I would assume that a good many people are interested in going to what was the the Soviet Union. Are there any good resources to read up on this is to find out where you should go and what kind of things you should (00:10:08) expect. Yeah. I think I think Lonely Planet actually has some Eastern European books out. They got on it really quickly many of the other countries still have their their own tourist offices that were the Russian equivalent of Interest. There's still that structure there. I usually start with a travel agency and with guidebooks and kind of work from there. I forget if there was more to that question (00:10:32) are these and also these Republic's fighting for tourism to because I would imagine that Industry not (00:10:39) fighting is quite the right word. Hoping might be better one. That seems to be better placed is Bulgaria and people tend to overlook that that sounds so remote and exotic and communist. I wasn't in the Eastern Block in 89 right before the the government's toppled and Bulgaria was kind of the the grease of the of that area and it's it was fairly expensive and beautiful. (00:11:03) Okay? Well, that's probably a destination that a lot of people are thinking about right now. Let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air. Good morning. I'm sitting here writing an article about our trip that just ended the other day on Tuesdays about Jeeps. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I in fact we found out about it through the Star Tribune what we found out was a good book to get that if anyone's interested in staying in rural France inexpensively, they should get this book. I think it's called French farm and Village holiday. All right. What's this about 1200 of these? How do you translate sheet (00:11:43) Farm lodging is what we've been using. Yeah, what (00:11:45) kind of rural yeah it real home because it's not always a farm but he that's more or less correct? And we just had a fantastic time and we're just a we stayed for two weeks in the door Dunya near Mountain Yak, which is a it's near parents and with we sat on top of a hill with a 300-yard driveway and beautiful views and then we spent another week near Nemo's what you pay. I think the pavé people have to realize this that prices go steeply up beginning of July and August but us season, we paid something like $250 for a week and then High season. I think it jumped another (00:12:30) and how many people would that house of slap that took (00:12:32) seven or eight and here's something that you may not be aware of is that the beds of improved? Mend ously we were expecting to have the usual French bucket bedsore deep valley Ben Garrison Keillor calls it. Yeah, I (00:12:45) think of those as Northern Minnesota cabin beds (00:12:47) myself. They the ones we were ahead brand new mattresses, very comfortable and all in all it was a fantastic trips on I'm hoping more people catch on to the difficulty is actually planning well enough in advance so that the letters and faxes and phone calls can get from the US the there but (00:13:06) and I think it's worth telling people that these are rural by and large and small towns. What seems to work for people is to stay there and get a car and go or a car real eurail pass and go out from there. And I think that the savings is so tremendous it kind of offsets the extra cost of the car. (00:13:24) Okay, let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air. Where are you calling from? And what's your question for Katherine Watson? I'm calling from Minneapolis and I have a question. My husband and I are going to New Orleans at the end of August. We're going to stay for five nights. And I want to know if you have any favorite ins Our Guest Houses. We want to spend about $100 a night. I'll hang up in this and thank you. Okay, I (00:13:41) tend to stay away from her recommending places but one that simply because there's so many and taste varies widely. But my all-time favorite New Orleans is a place called The Maison Nets in the French Quarter. I think it's just called French Quarter Maison ads if they are still operating the proprietor was was fairly elderly. Although she would probably break my neck. If she heard me say that they are listed under that name and you could check with the with the New Orleans tourism office. I would also check with them for any French Quarter bed and breakfasts. There are more of those now than there were even five years ago (00:14:14) in the past five years. We've seen a bun a bed-and-breakfast. Is that still continuing? Is that still on the rise? And (00:14:19) yeah not I don't think quite a steeply as it was from about 85 to 90. It's sort of it started in California. And then the country in a New England had always kind of been there and then it just went crazy in the 80s partly because of to family to family incomes people not being able to get vacations at the same time the sort of to week. We're all going in the car Together Vacation declined and people wanted shorter close to home stays and I thought really being bees were going to be limited to really major cities that Drew tourists from elsewhere and what has happened to make them survive is that people in a community like ours will go to a B&B in the neighborhood in the Twin Cities area for a weekend and that that has kind of put them off the charts everywhere. There are a hundred and fifty in Minnesota hundred fifty plus. I think there are only about fifty three or four years ago (00:15:09) for someone who's never been to a bed-and-breakfast. What should they expect to pay and what kind of service should they (00:15:14) expect it varies pretty widely. There are sort of two kinds of B and Bs the original kind of old-fashioned British style is a house where people usually are The you share a bathroom, you're very often in close contact with either with other guests are with the owners and then they go up from there to the Antique house that has had a bathroom put in every closet. So every room has its own sort of bathroom and sweet and to full-scale ends of 13 or 14 or 15 rooms where you have very little interaction with The Innkeeper the the more upscale you go when you start getting hot tubs in your room, you're gonna pay a hundred fifty and night. You can still get very pleasant B&B lodgings depending on where for anywhere from 35 to 60 double. (00:15:55) You're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. This is Mark's it a click in the Twin Cities along with Katherine Watson the travel editor for the Star Tribune newspaper. We're taking your calls if you're in the Twin Cities and you'd like to ask Kara Catherine a question call us at two to seven six thousand. If you're outside of the metropolitan area anywhere, you can hear this broadcast. In fact, you can call toll-free at 1-800-321-8633 the first time this morning, good morning. You're on the air. What's your question for Cathy? Morning, Miss Watson. We always enjoy your columns. Thank you. Could you tell us please? We're going to be celebrating a special anniversary wedding anniversary and we were thinking about going whitewater rafting. Someone had told us that the Salmon River in Montana is a fantastic place, but I'm not finding any specific information about how to travel there and one last question and that is could you also answer or tell us when the best season to go to Greece. I heard your comments about Bulgaria is Greece now so as a politically safe to go and when would you say is the most economical time to go there? (00:16:59) Let me do the last one first. I don't know on the season in terms of economy. Summer is peak season their spring gets very very windy. Although I was in the Greek Islands a few years ago in April and it was perfectly sunny and Charming as long as you could take the wind and it is cheaper than I would check with the Greece National Tourist office. I think they have a Chicago Branch. If not, they have a New York one and ask them about Seasons a good guide. Buckle break that down for you and remind me of the first one is this this is the Whitewater salmon rafting. (00:17:30) I think that's what a question is. I don't know if she's still on the (00:17:32) line here. Alright, that was the question. All right good. I've rafted the Middle Fork of the salmon and that's a great great rafting River. But if you have a choice and it's a real special when I do the Grand Canyon, I don't think there's a better overall rafting experience. There are probably some that have worst white water and any Whitewater enthusiasts on the line will call in and say which ones but for the total the total sense of being in a place you never going to be again probably to be at the bottom of that Canyon and having gotten there by rafter by Dora is just incredible. There are probably going to be wrong on this but somewhere between a dozen two dozen companies that run trips through the Grand Canyon and I would I would aim for that one more than other rivers because I think there will be a very good chance that that will be the rafting on the Grand County will be limited within a few years. (00:18:21) How safe is this white water rafting? (00:18:24) Well, it depends on how good your boatman is. I've done it all three or four times. I guess. I never had or seen a mishap, but I saw a canoe spill in Minnehaha Creek last weekend just came over about a three foot rise went upside down. It depends you you generally are very very well taken care of the concessionaires know what they're doing. You get these young Boatman who have spent years on the river and they're like young River Rats. They don't last much past about 30. You are required to wear wet suits or wet rain gear over a life jacket and the kitchen out pretty quick if you fall in. (00:19:01) Okay, let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air. What's your question? Good morning. I'm calling from Plymouth. My husband and I will be going to France in September on a business trip for him and we'll have a little bit of time afterwards to spend on vacation. We're going to be in Lyon. We aren't sure how much free time he will. Half but I will have some free time. I'd rather not rent a car myself. I'd rather walk or take the train. Do you know of any specific things we could see in the Lyon area? And then also we'll be going back to Paris for three days and we don't intend to run a car there either. We're going to take the train and bus tours you have some things you would recommend for (00:19:47) Paris. Well first off in Paris, you're better off without a car parking is just awful and you can get terrific passes that will work on all public transportation local trains Subways buses. And if you're only going to be there for three days, I would do that or get a cart. I kind of have Metro tickets about 10 tickets and saved you some money and then just take the Subways all over they're safe. They're reliable that clean and they're so Parisian. I love the French Subways so that that will be wonderful if you haven't been in Paris before see the major sites see the stuff that List of tops and every guidebook if you can if you've got a little bit of time or if you've seen the Louvre on the way in spend time in Parisian neighborhoods. My favorite is the Western section over towards the Bois de Boulogne just find a place where where people are living and walk around the the sense you get from the parisians. If you are away from tourist centers is quite Pleasant the horror stories that Americans tell about the French being rude to them. Usually that is a French waiter who is fed up by the end of the summer with tourists asking the same questions in the heart of town and stay away from from eating or sleeping near the major sites. I stay out of ways and kind of going by train around Leon. What I would do is take take the train someplace terrific and spend a day or so or you can do day trips out very easily do the countryside go down to Provence spend a couple days. Come back the Train the train combined with walking in a couple major cities ought to be one. And the French national tourist office in Chicago can plan a route for you. It's a 900 call rather than 800 but they can plan out what you ought to do based on the number of days you're going to be there (00:21:34) is a train fare still pretty reasonable. That's really the way to go. It seems to me in (00:21:38) Europe. Yeah and and your rail which was the the standard for wandering Americans for 20 years has come up with a lot of different varieties of passes. You can get a three-day kind of pass over a period of time. So you don't you can go to a place and stay a week and then go on so there's a lot more variety. There's some train and car combinations now that make it a little more appealing to people to people who aren't backpacking students. (00:22:05) Okay. Let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air with the question for Katherine Watson from the Star Tribune. Hi. I was just wondering if you could repeat the name of the book that the gentleman was talking about staying in rural France a few minutes ago. (00:22:19) I didn't memorize it. I hate to tell you (00:22:21) that going through the notebook (00:22:23) here. No, all I can tell you is that it's about Jeet it that the word is spelled git es and the best way to get the name is probably to call a French National Tourist office in Chicago and ask them. If you want you can give me a call at work at the Star Tribune office tomorrow tomorrow or Tuesday, and I can look it up for (00:22:42) you. Okay, let's take another question. Good morning. We're planning a trip to Ireland five people this fall and we're wondering about Transportation what type of a car might be available if we can find one that would be large enough to hold us and all of our suitcases or if you might recommend getting two cars. (00:23:05) I would try to go with one just because it's so much harder to coordinate when you're doing a group with two and then you get into things were conversations happen in one car and not the other it. (00:23:16) But I think that she's listening in here. Okay, (00:23:19) good mechanics. Just throw me I would do it with one. You can get a small van. You can get a fairly large sedan and I would talk locally to a travel agent and find out what they can what they can get you that is going to accommodate you and not kill you on gas. You want to also. Was it going to say here? You're going like I guess I covered it. (00:23:44) You know, we had a couple questions about cars. Do you need a special driver's license in certain countries to be driving (00:23:49) in a few you do this an international driver's license that you can get a number of places mainly through AAA. It's really not necessary for Western Europe after have if you have an American drivers license, that'll do it. Be sure to bring that with you. A lot of people who are running cars brand passport and assume that the rentals taken care of you still need that license. (00:24:08) Okay, and people shouldn't should be advised to that depending on what country they're going to know to they may not want to be driving. (00:24:16) Yeah, I (00:24:17) cried in and some of these areas I know that I've had some interesting experiences with the rules of the road in some of these (00:24:23) countries. I've had a few of my own. I'm not comfortable that driving stick shift and I had recommended a an automatic for Spain a few years ago. And when I got there to claim the car it was a stick so I don't drove a stick all over including the Rock of Gibraltar and had to tell people when I got home that I put a taillight out backing into the Rock. Brother, which was with my choice to either hit the rock or go over the edge. That was the other thing. I was going to say make sure if you are not comfortable with the stick and I think whenever you're driving on the left are on the wrong side of the road, you know, which you're going to be doing in the British Isles minimizing the new things you have to deal with is a pretty good idea. So if you don't normally drive a stick shift car, see if you can rent an advanced an automatic since you'll your main energies are going to be going to staying on the proper side of the road. (00:25:08) It's about 11:30 one. You're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio Our Guest this morning is Katherine Watson. She's a travel editor at the Star Tribune newspaper. Let's go again to the phone's. Good morning. You're on the air with a question for Katherine. Yes. You've got me. Yes, we do. Okay. I have a daughter that's going to be over in American Samoa for you're doing some volunteer work and I'm interested in taking advantage of visiting her in that part of the country, which we've never been to wondered if you had any suggestions about the best way to get there. They're through Hawaii or our Australia New Zealand. I hear it's pretty humid and wondered if that was true. Wondered best time in the year to hit that part of the country (00:25:55) in terms of whether yeah, it's tropical. It's going to be hot and humid year-round on whether there's a rainy season or when that is I can't tell you off the top of my head a good guide book would tell you I believe inside guides has one your daughter will get there first and she'll be your best source of information and I would check with the travel agent on what is the the cheapest routing? I think I think that that ought to be your main consideration is price rather than whether there's a whether it takes a couple extra hours to get there one way or the other one. Nice thing about going that far. Is that quite often you can stop over someplace else. (00:26:30) Okay, let's take another Cog morning. You're on the air. We want to go to Great Britain in September and I was wondering if there is such a thing. I would rather I think I would be fun to go with the British group of people. Would there be any travel agent that would arrange (00:26:48) that they could arrange it they would work with a British travel agency and I don't think it will cost you any more. It might be a little bit tricky to arrange. You can also take a look at something called the specialty travel index and I would try the public library on that it lists by type of activity the kinds of kinds of things you can do. There are tons of British walking trips, for example, and those are often done by British companies many Regional travel or specialty travel trips are done locally by local agencies and you can they will have a contact number. And I would go that (00:27:23) route talking to people with travel plans from literally all over the world Catherine. What's the best way to pay for this when you're actually out and about our traveler's checks still the smartest thing to carry around or credit (00:27:34) cards now cash card a cash card credit card cash card, especially for Europe that's changed recently years and it started kind of hard for me to get used to I've been traveling since I was a teenager and it's real hard for me to let go of American Express traveler's checks as a comp as a sort of sort of concept. I carry some with me even when I'm traveling domestically, but what I invariably used as a credit card here and a combination of credit card or cash card oversees, the advantage of the cash card overseas is that you don't have to stand in long lines quite often. If you're if you're cashing American dollar traveler's checks or American currency, if you do it at a bank or even some currency exchanges, you've got a you've got a delay depending on the country. You also have a conversion fee and if you use the cash card, the money comes out of the machine just like it does here already converted and you're on your way. (00:28:21) What are some Other destinations that you cannot use a cash card in I don't know they're everywhere now, huh? (00:28:28) Pretty much. I mean there's a limit but what you can do before you go is to call your bank or whoever holds your card and find out what it is the destination you have in mind one where you can use it and they can tell you in some cases right down to where we're in what town I think even to the address of where you're going to find the machine that will work for you. (00:28:44) Okay, Katherine Watson from the Star Tribune travel page here this morning and midday answering listener questions about travel. Good morning. You're on the air. Hi. I'm calling from Minneapolis. I'm a recent college graduate who enjoys traveling on a relatively limited budget and I'm hoping to spend five or six days in New York later this fall and wondering if you have ideas on lodging that's not too expensive. I've used the YMCA sort of near the the UN before and I'm looking for something new. (00:29:11) I would try bed and breakfast which is in a city like New York. It's kind of amazing that you can actually meet people and stay in homes. I don't picture New York. Is this exactly having home somehow? There's an outfit called New York New Yorkers at home. And there is I think one other one possibly two by now the New York Convention and Visitor's Bureau, which you can get you can get their number through the directory can give you the names of others. You can you can call them directly and you can call I think New York is at home has a booking agency. Will you call and say what your needs are where you want to be and they'll match you up? It's much cheaper than a hotel and it's a lot more interesting. The last time I did that I ended up hanging around in the kitchen with the hostess as she cooked supper talking just talking about New York and what it was like to live there how much it cost a rehabber brownstone that kind of thing. (00:29:58) Hmm Katherine Watson. What's the hottest domestic destination right now in your (00:30:02) opinion? I haven't a clue and I'll tell you why major magazines are forever talking about hot destinations is that if you take Conde Nast or National Geographic hot is a big word. It depends on what that audience is defined at as a Midwestern audience. We pulled the Minneapolis Tribune. Ship a couple of weeks ago and we're running the report tomorrow in the Travel section on where people were going for their summer vacation and a few were going to Europe one person's going to Bulgaria a child's going to Panama and a whole slew of folks are going to the Black Hills and a cabin up North. So what's hot here isn't necessarily hot someplace else and what I've found is that that actually if you if you if you you know, if you want to hobnob with the beautiful people you're already kind of know where you really going but how did so relative I'd go with your own interests and I'd go with if you don't have specific plans. I'd look at prices. You want a Caribbean vacation go to the one you can afford. (00:30:58) Okay listening to Katherine Watson from the Star Tribune. If you would like to ask her a question about travel, she probably knows the answer. You can reach you at 2276 thousand. If you're listening in the Twin Cities outside of the metropolitan area, you can get in touch with the program by calling us toll-free at 1-800-321-8633 and the air Yep, Chester two questions and we're going to take a camping trip out to the Maritime Provinces within the next week or so. And I wondered what highlights shouldn't be missed. And then the other question is when is the best time to go to Australia and get the best prices? I'm thinking more accurate than 94th. Asia Australia trip. Okay (00:31:50) with Australia. It depends on what the airfares are. I would worry a lot more about getting a good airfare to Australia than about the seasonal prices at hotels because that's going to be your single biggest cost it always is on any trip, but but it's going to be enormously so in a Pacific trip and you've got a good year to research that I would I would check with the travel agency. You can also make several calls to Qantas or one of the other carriers that is flying down there but a travel agent will be more up on it than and savior. Amount of time over doing all those calls yourself camping in the maritime. The maritimes are awfully big. So I'm not sure which ones are going to hit. I just got back from Maine and the southern part of New Brunswick and my My Heart Belongs to the to the coast of Maine on into the maritimes. If you have the time, I would try to get to Newfoundland because it looks like main did probably fifty or a hundred years ago. It is not touristed. You're fortunate because you're in the Twin Cities and there is Canadian consulate here with a tourism office. I would call there and ask them for quick tips. All of the provinces have tremendous Publications lodging lists whole booklets on what to see and if you if you have a couple weeks, I'd call a consulate and see how fast you can get those sent to you. (00:33:09) Okay, let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air with the Katherine Watson. Hi. I'm calling from Moorhead. I'm adjoining at or we have a group of joining a tour in London to do the Miles and I want to note two things. I missed the first guide that you suggested just before the inside guides that we could use. What what was the name of that (00:33:34) guy? Oh tell me both questions was did you have more than one? (00:33:39) I'm sorry. I'm not hearing you have two questions. Yes. Okay. (00:33:42) We had asked the other one too. (00:33:44) Okay, and the other one is do you have any suggestions for free time that we can use on a tour anything particular that we could do either and Scott particularly, Scotland and Ireland. (00:33:57) Okay, the two guys I mentioned were in sight for cultural background and that's probably your best bet given that you're going on a tour Lonely Planet is aimed primarily at individual Travelers who are on their own your tour is already going to take care of things like lodging transferring your baggage major sights to see so I don't think you really need Lonely Planet. I would go with insight for background and You might take a look at some of the books out there several in the last maybe three or four years on walking tours in London. Also literary London and literary tours of the British Isles and Scotland. If you are at all interested in British authors, you can go and visit homes. You can you can see where they were with where they wrote about without knowing what your itinerary is. It's real hard to tell you what to do with their free time, but I have one General tip that I give people who are going on tours people tend to think and it's sort of a Minnesota thing maybe that we're so Frugal if you've paid for it and it includes breakfast and dinner you have to eat those meals with the tour you don't if just go ahead and waste a meal I would tell people to get off the Beaten Track and if and go try a restaurant in a place, even if you have already paid for dinner as part of the tour skip dinner and go out for high tea walk around a lot in China, for example, I was on a tour that had three meals a day about an hour and a half apart as near as I can. It was breakfast was literally an hour and a half after we'd finished lunch and boarded the bus and I took finally to just skipping lunch entirely and managed to work in about three extra museums. That would not have been on the tour at all. So you kind of have to judge your own your own pace your own rhythms what you want to do, but I would break away from the tour whenever you're in a place. Skip a site go back on your own. (00:35:43) What's your suggestion for someone who's planning a trip and they don't know if they should sign up for some sort of a structured tour or just basically go themselves and get some books. How do people make that decision so they get the most out of their (00:35:54) trip. I think it depends on two key things one is age. Maybe they're three age the amount of time you've got and the amount of money you're willing to spend most young independent Travelers are broke and that sort of ties in together you have lots and lots of time but not much money. So so people who are true started traveling college for example are a lot more likely to continue traveling on their own because they started out that way if Waited till later in life. And you've never done a trip by yourself, especially to a foreign country and you're thinking I think it's really hard to jump into a foreign culture all by yourself. If you're if you've been working for 20 years and you've never done that sort of thing before I would I would consider at or if there are any health risks if your time is short and another real good reason for it is if the dollar is shaky sometimes locking in on a tour price can save you money because of the dollar weakens and the price in conversion terms goes up you will have prepaid all of your key expenses. The same is true for cruises and cruising vacations are rising in popularity because people can pay one fixed price get their airfare included and only have to unpack once. (00:37:05) Okay. Well as has been the case for much of the our the phone lines are all full. Let's go to them again. Good morning. You're on the air with a question for Katherine Watson. Hi. I'm calling from one of those people was not a lot of money. Montana Idaho Wyoming places that the travel agents don't have fire sales often. I see lots of empty seats on the Plains and my question is when my sister was in college. She flew standby a lot. Why don't the airlines have that anymore for people like me with flexible schedules, but not a lot of money if they're hurting so badly for money. (00:37:41) I thought they still did not trying to really try to remember where I last where I last took advantage of that. I can't answer that. My hunch would be that that they're saving those for frequent fliers or they just plain didn't have them sold at the last minute. You can try to bargain I would check with the travel agent on options. You can also go with with consolidator fairs which more and more travel agents can book for you where where a consolidator has bought a block of tickets guaranteeing the airline income for those tickets, but can sell them at a reduced rate because they've they've bargained for a lower price. You can also try to Charters to the nearest place and Having or taking the (00:38:22) bus. What is the difference between regular service and charter service should people avoid charters in your mind or the basically providing the same service (00:38:30) they get you there? That's and that in my book. That's the main thing the catch with Charters is because they're not regularly scheduled they can have long long delays which are much less frequent with it. That's hard to believe sometimes but that's that's much less likely to happen to you on a regularly scheduled Airline Charters also require incredibly early check-ins anywhere from two to sometimes for hours. So you end up wasting a big chunk of your day, whatever wherever you're going on a chart at the the day getting it in the day coming home. Take takes more time. They tend to be more crowded because they're they're making their money off volume rather than high prices and service tends to be somewhat less. So you get junkie or bathrooms pour drink service. I don't think those things matter if you're saving a couple hundred dollars, okay, but be prepared for the delays. We hear a lot of complaints from people who wanted a charter or wanted a budget hotel and then write to us and say well it wasn't this it wasn't that it didn't look like it's brochure (00:39:20) well, Get what you pay for it to a degree 15 minutes before noon. You're listening to midday and Minnesota Public Radio the guest Katherine Watson from the Star Tribune travel page. Let's take another call or good morning when traveling in Egypt other than the major sites. Do you have any suggestions on what to do in C and the other one is, you know, the travel advisory (00:39:40) number not by heart. I work for the travel. I travel advisory number call the called general information in Washington DC get the state department number and they can tell you they they may have a listing for it separately. It's under the Bureau of Consular Affairs. It's the Citizens emergency center, and it may have its own listing in the directory. But the last time I called it I had to go through the state department itself Egypt is that that's a real general question. I can't help you. But but in sight again inside guides and Lonely Planet would be your best bets. Okay, let's move on to some more calls. Good (00:40:14) morning around the earth. Thanks for your patience and holding here. Hi. I'm calling from Minneapolis. My son and a friend are planning on biking in Portugal and Spain. They want to start in January and are wondering number one. Is it too cold to go there then they want to is there anything cheaper than youth hostels or can they stand Farmers barns are they you know would farmers be amenable to that and our campsites approximately biking distance apart. Also, where can they get information about biking and doing that type of trip in southern Europe? I'll hang up and (00:40:46) listen. Okay, they ought to contact the tourist office of Spain. It's another one that used to have a Chicago office. I'm not sure if they still do the recession killed off a lot of the branch offices, but I would I believe they do and I would try that office and get the number through information. I think youth hostels are about as cheap as you can get and still have a reliable lodging. I know plenty of people who have walked up to the farmers door and said can we sleep in your barn? But the risk there is that they'll say no. So I'd go with the AI H cube root and then if you if you have if they have time or they run across a place, I'd like to stay just try it in terms of how far apart they are. I don't the sense I have is that that these things are not necessarily setups that biking distance. That's kind of an American or British Isles phenomenon. We get tons and tons of little villages with places that are set up for tourists. But again, the tourist office of Spain can tell you Portugal has a tourist office. Also, there are also specific guidebooks for bikers and I would I would check the public library first and follow that if you can't find what you're looking for it go to one of the one of the several very large travel book stores or bookstores with big travel departments and check their sounds like an interesting trip the way to get to (00:41:58) know my children whether (00:42:00) it's I think late, Fall November so is about the rainiest for Spain. But again, the tourist office could tell you whether should be perfectly Pleasant and dry. If I'm remembering my areas, right depends depends on which part of the country they should have it. They should have a very good pretty good time. (00:42:17) Okay, let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air with Katherine Watson from the Star Tribune. Hi, I'm one of those people I just recently started traveling alone. I'm a widow. Hmm and I went to Hawaii last year and we really lucked out. I made all the arrangements myself even booked my hotel myself and I took two hours every day and I just had a wonderful time but really lovely people from all over but what I find is rates that are charged to single people are so much (00:42:51) higher. Yeah, they are it's called the single supplement and it can run 75% of double, which is just astonishing to me the rationale from the The sellers point of view is they have to give you a room and if you're going to have that room by yourself, it's going to cost you more. The catch is quite often. They will charge a single supplement and then you end up in a room with somebody else. I've had that happen. We're both paying the single supplement. There are clubs and that match people up and some tour operators will do that. Now if you specify that you want a roommate they are some some or tour operators will put you with someone and not charge that supplement so I would look for that first. (00:43:33) Okay, let's take another call. Good morning. You're on the air. Hello. I'm calling from Minneapolis and I have two questions. And the first one is is can you talk about travel accommodations or issues that might confront people with disabilities? And if there's any guide books that you know of about that and what countries might have a reasonable smoking policy. I know of some countries is (00:44:01) which way do you mean non-smoking que? (00:44:04) Ya gotta ask a good question. Yeah, and I'll hang up and (00:44:08) listen. Okay. I'm a nonsmoker to and I'm allergic to smoke. So it's a real problem. I would stay away from Eastern Europe. If you're a nonsmoker that I don't know if it's a if it's comes from depression or what but the Communist Bloc smoke more than anything. I have ever seen Latin Americans and Mediterranean countries also smoked heavily for not for kind of guaranteed non-smoking sections. You don't get much better than the u.s. You have a you have it Fighting Chance in some parts of Europe and in better restaurants anywhere, but but there's no guarantee in terms of of travel with disabilities again, the u.s. Is an extremely good place for that also, Canada. Also, Australia and New Zealand and the British Isles. There are a number of guide books in there are more all the time aimed at Travelers with disabilities. I would check their you might also check with Wilderness inquiry in Minneapolis. It runs Wilderness trips for able-bodied and disabled people and would have tremendous resources on on else travel elsewhere with disabilities. (00:45:10) Okay, the hours quickly winding down but we have time for some more calls will go to the phones again now, good morning. You're on the air with a question for Katherine Watson. Yes. I'm calling for Minneapolis and I'm wondering what are the risks if there are any with the booking with a consolidator? I'll hang up and listen. Now we took we should explain what a consolidator does they buy a block of (00:45:32) tickets and Loosely speaking. Yeah, they'll buy up a block of tickets and then resell them. It's Charters do a charges do it somewhat different thing because quite often they have their own their own Airline or their own aircraft, but not always the risks with any real budget ticket, whether it's a consolidator or something you saw in the New York Times or the Chicago Tribune the risk with something that is really really cheap is that you may not be getting what you what you want in a charter. That's just going to be a kind of service, you know, crowdedness issue. Sometimes it can be an absolute ripoff. Sometimes there will be added fees. Generally the the farther you go from from home in terms of booking the trickier it gets to get what you want. If you have a choice between a travel agent who can sell you a Consolidated consolidator ticket a budget ticket here and one who can get you a slightly better price on a New York take the one here, even if it costs more you can get Get that at that organization by and large legitimate consolidators are fine. The risk for people is is not so much the consolidator word as the something for nothing mentality that gets minnesotans and midwesterners, especially into trouble with scams the papers full of the stuff, isn't it? Yeah. There was just a settlement last week. I think on a Case people believe you can you know, you wouldn't believe it if somebody walked up and said here's a brand new car for five hundred dollars, but if somebody says you want to go to Europe or Hawaii for three weeks, it's going to cost you thirty three bucks for the tickets. It isn't going to happen anything that is too good to be true. According to my travel agent is simply too good to be true. It's just not going to materialize the way you want it to and you can lose a lot of money that way (00:47:11) bottom line is common sense needs to be the rule when you're (00:47:13) right check if you're if you're in doubt, err, if you get one of those mailings that says you want to contest and you didn't enter it but it's going to send you to the Bahamas. Don't trust it. If you get any kind of solicitation don't trust it. You can check it out with the Better Business Bureau. The in the town where the offers coming from. You can also call any travel agent locally and say here's the deal. Can you match it and quite often? You can get a better (00:47:37) deal? Okay. Let's see if we can't get to the rest of the people who are waiting patiently on the line. Good morning. You're on the air with a question for Katherine Watson. Yes, I will be traveling to Sweden Norway in the next couple of weeks with limited time in Norway and we are interested in staying in Bergen and I was going to be more helpful and more interesting to stay in some of the smaller towns like Voss or older when we get into that region (00:47:59) as a Norwegian. I'm ashamed to admit it. I have never been there. My grandmother would have turned in her grave I (00:48:06) guess was about probably the only spot in the world you (00:48:08) have I keep saying it's like Alaska it's close. I can get there. I would check with Scandinavian tourist offices. They are they're terrific and they can tell you anything you want to know. I think my own preference is always for smaller towns and going into the larger one. I just think it's it's you get closer to people but that's a bias. All right, let's take (00:48:27) Another call. Good morning. You're on the air with Katherine Watson? on Africa not buying your tickets through the bucket shops, and I'm not really familiar with those are those just in London or (00:48:45) know, there's some in New York as well bucket shop. This is what we were talking about a minute ago with consolidators bucket shops are a little scary there. They can be perfectly. Okay, they can be sort of fly-by-night your sort. You're not taking your life in your hands with those but you might be taking a wall at your hands. I would see if you can what you can find out of New York quite often. They deal with ethnic travel. If there is a large contingency of of people in the u.s. From a particular destination like Ethiopia OTP Ethiopia or Honduras, for example, quite often that group which is going back and forth a lot. We'll have a charter or a single aircraft or something somebody who's catering to that market and that's what the bucket shop would tap you into but be kind of careful. (00:49:29) Okay. Let's take another question. Good morning. You're on the air. Good morning. We're headed to Portugal beginning of October and we'd like to avoid A real tourist ritzy Resort Casino areas would like to spend some time on the coast and we're looking more for the quaint fishing Village area. So after Lisbon should we head north or south? If you're familiar at all with Portugal (00:49:53) that I can't tell you there's been a huge development all along the Iberian coasts of the clientele is primarily British. It's a very and European but but the Brits are in there very big again. I would check with a travel agent and ask them what they know by and large getting Inland is going to take care of it for you is true in Spain and you don't have to go very far inland get out of the side of the Sea and the prices are going to (00:50:16) drop okay time for one more very quick question. Good morning. You're on the air and the last question for Katherine Watson. Yes, we're planning a trip to Egypt and one of the options that were facing is including a cruise down the Nile and stopping at the tourist sites versus staying just on the land if you have any opinion about how effective that is. Or how (00:50:40) I have a friend who's done that twice and adored the trip just loved it. And it has the advantage of any kind of cruise. Your your base is going with you. You don't have to worry about changing hotels all the time or the waste of time that goes into that if you're on an organized trip, she loved it by and large with any kind of cruise. You got to like the boat if you want to spend more time exploring I go the land option. Okay, Katherine Watson, how about (00:51:03) you and where are you off to next? You're just coming back from Maine recently. So you're back from Brainerd this morning at 3. Whirring. Where is your destination? (00:51:11) I don't have anything clearly plan. I'm hoping to do a walking trip in the British Isles yet this summer if what's a walking trip? You are it if you hike but I think it's flat. That's my hope. It's sort of point-to-point Fairly gentle and fair amount of talking and eating along the way works very well in places like New England or England itself. Were there lots of little Villages and I'm going on a I'm trying to do more special interest kinds of things prepared. People have seen the sights but they want to do activities. I'm going to go paint in in New Mexico in October crash course in oil painting. Okay. Well sounds like even on painters. (00:51:47) Well Katherine Watson is always it's a pleasure to have you here thank are ways of Minnesota Public Radio Katherine Watson. Today's midday guest she is a travel editor at the Star Tribune newspaper and a semi frequent guest on midday. Midday on Saturday is supported by the oriental rug company specializing in sales and service of handmade Oriental Rugs rugs and located in Minneapolis at 50th and Bryant. This has been midday for Saturday July 17. Thanks so much for joining us. And once again, thanks again to Katherine Watson from the Star Tribune for taking your calls. The time now is about a minute before 12 noon. This is Mark zdechlik.