A Trip Is Born!

David and I didn't intend to make it complicated. Last November, we decided to go to Italy in the spring because, after touring the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu, California, David hankered to see Pompeii and Herculaneum, and I wanted to return to the place where poetry, not wealth or power, had shaped a country's language.

Grounds of Villa dei Papiri replica at Getty Museum

It all happened centuries ago, according to the account in Elizabeth Gilbert's book, Eat, Pray, Love, but, to me, that doesn't make the story any less romantic. It began when Latin, changing as it went, spread from country to country to spawn the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian languages. There were so many dialects, though, in each country, that a carpenter in southern France could not understand a woodworker from Paris. In Italy, consisting of dozens of city-states, people from one town could not understand the people two towns away.

When it came time to choose one dialect so that countries could be united by a single language, the largest, most powerful cities in each country dictated the language choice. The French dialect spoken in Paris became the only acceptable dialect as did the Portuguese used in Lisbon and the Spanish spoken in Madrid. It is only in Italy that the most powerful city did not determine the spoken language.

In Italy, the intellectuals rejected the dialects of their largest cities, Rome and Venice, and turned instead to the lyrical beauty of a poet's language. Unlike all the other countries in Europe, it was literature, not power or wealth, that determined the choice. And it was Florence's dialect, home of the Renaissance and Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy, that served as the basis for the Italian we know today.

You've got to love a land that became united by adopting the beautiful language of a poet. No wonder I never tire of it.

New Oddly Named Travel Booking Site

(Arthur Frommer notes in his blog today that there's a new travel website with a hotel search service he finds impressive.) 

Post by Arthur Frommer

If you haven't yet made use of a travel booking site called Hipmunk, you're missing out on a smartly imaginative, thoroughly practical, new means of finding the lodgings that best satisfy your needs. The people who devised Hipmunk have brought an element of fun to the job of choosing accommodations, while at the same time maintaining a laser-like focus on the reason why we prefer certain hotels over others.

(Hipmunk is also an airfare search engine, a function that impresses me less than its hotel services.)

To begin with, Hipmunk is an aggregator of other hotel aggregators. It uses the excellent hotel-finding website called HotelsCombined, Airbnb, and several other popular surveys of hotel prices to find the best current rates for hotels. And it boldly prints those rates at the top of every listing.

But after listing the prices available to you in a particular city, setting them forth in ascending order of price if cost is your main criterion, it then re-orders the listing to take account of other desired goals.

Let's say you're a family traveling together, and you want to far removed from those areas of the city where inappropriate activities -- porn shops, strip bars, and the like -- are clustered. You click on the word "vice" and are immediately shown the hotels that are located a fair distance away from those undesirable activities.

But that's only one way that Hipmunk sets forth its information. You first click either "cheap," "average," or "pricey" -- and the website lists only the hotels that satisfy those descriptions. Then you click an "overlay," the words "food" or "tourism" or "shopping" or "nightlife," and depending on what you click, the website lists those hotels that are closest to a great many restaurants, attractions, shopping, or nightlife. It also identifies the location of each hotel on a large map occupying a fair portion of the site.

To focus your search even more, you can click on the words "ecstasy" (listing hotels according to a combination of good price, good reviews by hotel commentators, and good amenities), or the words "price" (cost alone), or amenities (possession of various helpful services in the hotel).

[Link to Frommer's blog.]

Avoid Rip-Off in Currency Conversion Abroad

(This article by Melinda Page was originally published in Budget Travel's November, 2010, newsletter.)

Traveling abroad isn't cheap to begin with, so it's doubly painful when converting currency starts to add up—if you're not careful, you could lose up to 22¢ for every dollar. Here's what you need to know to protect your purse.

When it comes to navigating exchange rates, it pays to know all your options. From buying money online to grabbing it on the go at the airport, we've assembled a handy guide to the seven most common methods for foreign exchange. Each has its pros and cons (some of which can feel like legal swindling), so we've evaluated the options for you with the euro as our base tender, using an Exchange Rate Rip-off Meter from 1 to 5. After all, we can think of far more fun ways for you to spend your money.

Exchange Rate Rip-off Meter

1 Go for it!

2 Watch closely for fees.

3 Depends on your situation.

4 Avoid if possible.

5 Run away! Far, far away!

Swipe a Credit Card
Exchange Rate Rip-off Meter 1
How it works You can use your credit card just as you would at home; card issuers typically tack on currency-conversion fees of 2 to 3 percent for international transactions, you'll get the best exchange rate and fees that are lower than those associated with exchanging cash. If you want to get the best rate, sign up for a Capital One card, which levies no fees for international transactions. *$100 buys €74.24.

Best for The majority of your big purchases, hotel bills, and restaurant tabs. Basically, it's convenient enough to use instead of cash wherever possible.

Exception! Don't use it to take money out of an ATM—ever. You'll be hit with hefty fees (up to $20 in transaction fees or 4 percent of the amount of the advance, along with any local ATM fees), plus you'll be charged interest starting on the day you withdraw the money.

Tightwad Travel Tip – Prevent Leaking Pens

I'm persnickety about pens. While ballpoints may have their advantages, no one could ever tear me away from my gel cartridge pens. I love the way the ink flows over the paper, and, when I use them, I swear my words flow more easily too.

The only problem with gel pens is that they don't always travel well. The cartridges are sensitive to the changes in cabin pressure and seem to “explode” after a flight. There's nothing worse than uncapping a beloved pen when you're ready to sign a hotel register and having it leak all over your hand.

The Pilot pen people have a solution. The package for their “real fountain pen” (and it does perform just like a fountain pen!) provides this helpful hint:

     “When using most liquid ink pens on an airplane, be sure to remove the cap with the point upward to avoid problems that could occur due to cabin pressure.”

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Ammonites and trilobites and stalactites, oh my!

For four days, David and I wandered through conference halls agog at fossils we'd previously seen only in museums; traipsed from room to room down hotel corridors bedazzled by Madagascar minerals; and visited Africa, on the outskirts of town, where tent after tent overflowed with weaving, basketry, and jeweled artistry.

The Tucson show, the biggest in the world, is a potpourri of sights and sounds from around the world. A man from Alaska, displaying native crafts and belt buckles he'd hand-crafted, explained how he'd been dropped off in the wilds, a mile or so from Denali Park, with no car, no job, and no means of support seventeen years ago. He was like Chris McCandless in Krakauer's novel, Into the Wild, but this guy had lived. And he'd written a book about his adventures, available for only $16.95.

In a hotel room, several Brits had a late-afternoon beer as a man with a brilliantly-colored parrot on his shoulder told them about his deep-sea diving adventures looking for treasure. Out in the parking lot, another Brit, who'd rigged up a generator to combat the freezing temperatures, told David how to examine a trilobite's eyes for detail to ensure fossil authenticity.

At one of the tents, intrigued by jewelry that entranced and stopped me in mid-stride, I spent a long time talking to the Afghanistan man who explained that most of my favorite stone, lapis lazuli, came from his country. When I finally decided on a piece that the man insisted was $20 and not a penny lower, he took my $20 bill and handed me back $5 with a wink and a smile.

On our last day, at a hotel courtyard brimming with tables of Moroccan and Indian gems and stones, where the scent of jasmine incense wafted on the air, Prakash explained that what appeared to be colored cylinders were subtly-hued Shiva Lingam stones, prized for their mystical qualities. Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom movie was looking for just such a stone to help the desperate villagers. Today, these stones, found only by certain families who have passed on their secrets for tending them from generation to generation, are harvested from the Narmada River in the Mandhata Mountains of India during only one month of the year in springtime.

At top, landscape jasper becomes wearable art.  Shiva Lingam stones are in the middle.  The massage wand (with phosphorescence !) is on the bottom.

Now, I was able to walk away from the book peddled by the Alaskan who could have been Chris McCandless's double, but there was no way I could pass up some of these stones, not with a story like that. Besides, Prakash promised the stones would bring balance and harmony to my life. And after four days of ogling treasures from all over the world and finding myself buying things I didn't even believe in (Check the green and pink wand that's supposed to be used for massage. I could care less about massage, but the ruby-red stone in the wand is phosphorescent!), I'd need both balance and harmony to find satisfaction in my boring old, gem and fossil-less life back in San Diego. I bought five.

Practicalities -

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is held every year from the last week in January until mid-February. Information about exact dates can be found on-line.

Many people assume they must be dealers to gain admittance to the shows, but that is not true. Most shows are open to the public and most dealers do not mind selling you one or two items instead of 100.

There are anywhere from 40-50 venues scattered throughout the city so you will find entire motels devoted to one particular item or country. Search the Internet, newspaper, or pick up a brochure to help you find what you're interested in. Parking is either free at most places or modestly priced-- $3-5 for the day.

Tucson Safeway Memorial

David and I spent a week in Tucson seeing as much of the Gem and Mineral Show as possible, but first we had to pay our respects.

When I moved to this beautiful desert city in 2004, this Safeway was right around the corner from my apartment.  Now, the place where I used to buy my weekly groceries has become a memorial.

Tightwad Travel Tip - Park and Fly

Does your morning flight mean you must leave the house at the crack of dawn or spend an extra two hours in rush hour traffic?  If so, consider staying at a Park and Drive motel the night before your flight. 

These packages can be helpful for that early morning departure or late night arrival flight.  Most require you to pay for one night's lodging (either coming or going) for your car to remain, free of charge, in the motel's guarded parking lot for one to two weeks.

David and I used a Park and Fly motel this winter and paid only a little more than we would have paid for an airport parking garage and less than we would have spent on taxi fares.

Free Pet-Sitting

Guido the Cat

(Last year I decided January was the ideal month to discuss ways to save money. If you can manage a few cost-saving tricks during the winter, a vacation is more easily affordable when the weather turns warm. Here are the best tips for 2011.)

When David and I returned from a month in Mexico last summer, Guido the Cat let us know he had not appreciated our absence. He sat on the steps all afternoon as we unpacked and loudly meowed the entire time. Either he was bawling us out for having the audacity to leave for a month, or he was catching us up on all the cat-news he'd been storing up for thirty days. In any case, by the time it was dark, poor Guido was completely hoarse. His raspy, barely audible voice continued until midnight, though, so great was his need to communicate.

Our dog, Lena, on the other hand, was happy to see us but a little blasé about welcoming us home. She'd been at Club Med for Dogs, after all, so we could have stayed away for another month or two as far as she was concerned. Life with our wonderful neighbors meant lots of walks and lavish attention from two adults and two children. Even if she had to contend with Legos in her water bowl and afternoons dressed in elaborate costumes complete with bandanas, she had enjoyed affection 24 hours a day.

Guido had none of that.

It really wasn't anyone's fault. Our neighbors came in every day to give Guido water and food and clean his litter box, but because Guido is shy, he hid every time he heard the door open. They never saw him. Not once. No wonder the poor guy was lonely.

For the trip we're planning this spring (We're going to Italy, Spain and Morocco. We hope. Stay tuned!), we knew we had to think of a different solution. Our neighbors are great people and charge us a pittance compared to boarding kennels, but we think Guido needs a lap to curl up in every night. We had to find a pet sitter.

We checked with professional sitters, but our tightwad budget could not accommodate $60 a day. A boarding kennel was out of the question, and not just because of the high price. The first, and last, time we left Lena in one for three nights, she cried when we picked her up. I've seldom heard a dog cry, but there was no mistaking her misery.

Two Free Trips in One Flight

(Last year I decided January was the ideal month to discuss ways to save money. If you can manage a few cost-saving tricks during the winter, a vacation is more easily affordable when the weather turns warm. Here are the best tips for 2011.)

Do you have a long-lost cousin in Dallas you've always wanted to visit? Do you have a hankering for a slice of Chicago deep-dish pizza? Or maybe you know you'll be exhausted by your flight back from Croatia and want to spend a night in Boston before finishing the trip home to Seattle.

No matter what your reason, you can visit any of those cities and it won't cost you a dime!

Fly to Europe for Free (almost)

(Last year I decided January was the ideal month to discuss ways to save money. If you can manage a few cost-saving tricks during the winter, a vacation is more easily affordable when the weather turns warm. Here are the best tips for 2011.)

If you have an excellent credit rating, are well-disciplined, and don't mind delayed gratification, it's possible to “buy” a flight across the country or across the ocean for under $100. Here's how to do it.