Travel

Now is the time to get real about real-time airfares
The Travel Troubleshooter

Now is the time to get real about real-time airfares

August 17, 2013

Instead, she found trouble. Every time the American Airlines website asked her to select a return flight, it came back with an error message saying that the fare she’d selected…

Smokejumper base features parachute corps
Travel

Smokejumper base features parachute corps

August 17, 2013

The smokejumper training base in Missoula gives visitors a look at the preparation and skill required of men and women who work as smokejumpers. Throughout the summer, tours are offered…

Hiking Shi Shi
Travel

Hiking Shi Shi

August 17, 2013

Solitude and sea stacks are the draw at pristine Washington beach

Don’t tempt fate: Confirm your hotel reservation
The Travel Troubleshooter

Don’t tempt fate: Confirm your hotel reservation

August 3, 2013

But it didn’t make sense to the Driftwood Inn, a budget hotel that decorates its rooms with flotsam and other artifacts pulled from the Atlantic. An employee claimed that the…

Are ‘custom’ airfares good for travelers?
The Travel Troubleshooter

Are ‘custom’ airfares good for travelers?

July 20, 2013

That’s the intriguing and somewhat thorny question being raised by the worldwide airline industry through a little-known proposal called Resolution 787 – not to be confused with Boeing’s troubled 787…

Books keep business travelers sane
Travel

Books keep business travelers sane

July 20, 2013

Bowles, a lawyer in Winter Park, is now reading Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander – one of more than 60 books she has read while flying during the last…

Doctors often on planes to deal with emergencies
Travel

Doctors often on planes to deal with emergencies

July 20, 2013

The research is the largest look yet at what happens to people who develop a medical problem on a commercial flight – about 44,000 of the 2.75 billion passengers worldwide…

Legoland Florida expands with World of Chima
Travel

Legoland Florida expands with World of Chima

July 6, 2013

The World of Chima opened last week at Legoland Florida. It’s a lushly landscaped area that immerses visitors in Chima, a swampy world populated by talking animal tribes that battle…

Privacy? There’s no such thing while on the road
The Travel Troubleshooter

Privacy? There’s no such thing while on the road

June 29, 2013

Surrendering your right to privacy is the price you pay to travel anywhere in a post-Sept. 11 world. You fork over your personal information to the airlines, hotels and the…

Giving Guatemala a chance
Travel

Giving Guatemala a chance

June 15, 2013

Stay safe with careful planning, be rewarded with spectacular sites, ancient ruins

When is it OK to hold a plane for a tardy traveler?
The Travel Troubleshooter

When is it OK to hold a plane for a tardy traveler?

June 15, 2013

In a different era of commercial aviation, before on-time arrivals became so important that aircraft doors closed 15 minutes before departure, planes were almost routinely kept at the gate for…

Rev up to these freebies in Black Hills
Travel

Rev up to these freebies in Black Hills

June 1, 2013

Covering about 8,000 square miles, the Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range with a big Native American influence. The Lakota took over the mountains from the Cheyenne in…

Parks, markets, among free options in Portland
Travel

Parks, markets, among free options in Portland

May 18, 2013

Today – earnest, still – the city is making plans to relaunch a version of the bike-share program. In the meantime, you’ll have to shell out as much as $25 per…

Air travelers brace for another summer of fees
The Travel Troubleshooter

Air travelers brace for another summer of fees

May 18, 2013

A few weeks before the traditional start of the busy travel season, United Airlines quietly raised its change fees on most discount fares from $150 to $200, rendering many of…

Want a better airline seat? Website may help
The Travel Troubleshooter

Want a better airline seat? Website may help

May 4, 2013

Vicki Morwitz does. Hers involves a long-haul plane trip, a minuscule economy-class enclosure and a circuitous routing that deposited her at her destination feeling exhausted and irritated. So when a…