Travel, Cruise

Unlike the tourist-tainted landscapes of neighboring Greek Islands; Santorini, Greece provides a seemingly untouched backdrop of
white hills, red beaches and blue seas.A gem of Santorini, the Ikies Traditional Houses (http://www.ikies.com/),
sits high atop the archipelago of islands in the village of Oia
(pronounced E-ah). Ikies houses are divided into studios (one bedroom),
maisonettes (loft bedroom), and suites. Each […]

In the US, when you complain and send back food in restaurant, you can expect (at best) a meal discount, or (at worst) a disgruntled waitress spitting in your replacement entree. In Shanghai, it can lead to a shouting match.
On our last night in Shanghai, my boyfriend and I stopped in restaurant near the train […]

The One World website has a handy tool that lets you create a journey guide. Information can be included on some or all of terminal maps, flight transfers, lounges, transfers to/from the city (note some options are not available at some airports - hopefully this will be rectified soon). It is easy to […]

Southwest Airlines is now the nation’s largest airline based on passengers boarded. Which is why it’s crazy that other fare comparison sites don’t include them. Anyway, they’re having one of their usual sales, with fares ranging from $49 to $169 each way. The upper end of these sales is definitely creeping up. Especially good are […]

Thanks to a heads up by The Cranky Flier on the news that American Airlines will shortly join other airlines like Air Canada, Qantas and Air New Zealand in improving their booking display by showing on the one screen options for different fare categories.
I find these very useful to selecting the right fare type for […]

A few changes are being considered by EU parliament.

Carry on size restrictions which were due to come into effect 6 May have been delayed to 2008 (source EurActiv).
Calls to harmonise rules, especially between EU and US (source oceanfm). See my entry on recent experiences for examples of how the supposedly similar security rules are […]

Though Mayor Gavin Newsom promised free wifi for all of San Francisco over two years ago, the venture remains a distant reality for residents there. Earthlink, the ISP that signed on to build the network, backed out of the agreement last week citing job cuts and general restructuring. They also recently fired the exec in […]

A couple of weeks ago we posted a citywide overview of Los Angeles farmers markets. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from our inbox, it’s that you people love yourselves some east of the 110 action. And since downtown is being overrun by farmers’ markets catering to the billion or so people who gridlock […]

Thanks to a blog post by John MacIlree on the global air transport network (more specifically this research report by Guimera, Mossa, Turtschi and Amaral) I now have some more travel trivia.
There are approx 4,000 places with airports (multiple airports in a city count as one) served by major airlines. I’ve flown to or […]

Apologies for the lack of recent blog entries. Normally I don’t let heavy travel slow me down, but for all sorts of reasons lately I’ve been offline more than normal. The past couple of months or so has been crazy, even by my standards.
Asia x6Australia x5Eastern EuropeNorth America x2South Pacific x11Western Europe x3
Anyway, enough excuses. […]