"Confessions of a Travel Writer"

Travel Channel premiere of a program that's a bit about my life

Many of my travel writer colleagues are totally fabulous: smart, curious, adaptable, genuinely nice. But some are less so: demanding, complaining, self-centered, condescending. And a few are particularly unpleasant to travel with. "Confessions of a Travel Writer," which was shown on the Travel Channel on August 10 but which I just watched, alluded to both. Fortunately, the show didn't feature the worst of the travel writer species or I'd be embarrassed by association.

Cameras followed five travel writers hosted by the Chilean Tourist Office on a one-week press trip last February (I think) to Santiago, San Antonio Valley wine country, Valparaiso and Patagonia (including the totally spectacular Torres del Paine National Park). And I finally watched, thanks to the magic of DVR. Charles Runnette hosted the show, with Shira Lazar, Chantal Martineau, Jimmy Im and Andrew Evans comprising the rest of the guests. Some of them represented publications that I thought did not accept "sponsored trips" -- but that's a topic unto itself. I could totally identify with it: a packed-full itinerary, private van transportation (and flights to/from Patagonia) between stops and lavish hosted meals that everyone seems to be hungry for.

On camera, Runnette sported the been-everywhere-seen-everything shaggy traveler look. He complained on camera about trivial inconveniences such getting the worst room in a Valparaiso hotel, about sitting in the last row on the flight to Punta Arenas, about penguin poop at the Isla Magdalena penguin rookery and about mosquitoes elsewhere in Patagonia. I can testify that press trips rarely give guests much of a chance to spend much time in their rooms other than take stuff out of their bag(s) and put it back in, shower and sleep. Runnette was enthusastic about a couple of big soaking tubs, but I've rarely had time to fill, let alone soak, in one of them on a press trip.

What the TV show failed to convey is the real work involved in gaining some insights and getting an interesting story despite the grueling schedule and the fact that even a group as small as five has different interests. Plus the host's desire to show off very specific things. The Society of American Travel Writers' 2006 convention was in Santiago. About half of us stayed at the same hotel that this press group did and the rest in a different high-rise hotel distant from the historic town center. Many of us ate at one of the Bellavista restaurants that this group did upon arrival. Many of us went to Valparaiso fof a day. And a few of us lucky ones selected a post-convention trip to Patagonia, including Torres del Paine National Park. Unlike a press trip, however, which is hosted, members pay to attend SATW conventions -- and in some cases, pay more than other groups but often get more for our meeting money. That said, we had slightly different versions of many of the experiences that this group did.

Like most reality shows, "Confessions of a Travel Writer" was not really real. All five of the guests were rather young, trim and telegenic. In truth, many travel writers have many decades on their odometers and aren't nearly as telegenic as this quintet. The women clearly were not members of the Patagonia/North Face/REI tribe. They wore the New York version of active outdoorwear, city-style makeup and glowing smiles. But even five people can be a microcosm of the travel writer experience. Charles and Shira hung together a lot. Jimmy misplaced his notebook in Valparaiso. Andrew was interested in photographing things that did not necessarily captivate the others -- especially Charles. But on balance, they seemed to get along. And that, on any press trip, is sometimes an accomplishment.

In an interview with WorldHum.com, which is owned by or affiliated with The Travel Channel, Runnette described the tightrope that we travel writers walk. He told interviewer Michael Yessis, "Any job is difficult to summarize in 43 minutes on TV, and, frankly, this show only scratches the surface of what it takes to be a travel writer. The funny thing about this job is that when you tell anyone you’re a travel writer, nine times out of 10 the first thing out of their mouth is: 'That’s my dream job.' I would say this show lays waste to that popular myth. Yes, it’s better than many jobs, but after watching this show viewers will understand the down side of travel writing. Dealing with morons, bad pay, long days and nights. And, frankly, it can be lonely at times."

The program was promoted as a "premiere," but according to a Facebook entry, it is a pilot -- so there may be others. If there are, I'll be watching.

A Berry Nice Hike

Fall is in the Colorado air (and on the Colorado ground) -- but are the aspens OK?

The other day, President Barack Obama signed an official proclamation designating September 2009 as National Wilderness Month. My husband, our friends Reed and Dave and I celebrated it with a hike into the James Peak Wilderness. When we left Boulder shortly after 8:00 a.m. with the intention of hiking to Rogers Pass, the sun shone in a clear blue sky. When we arrived at the East Portal Trailhead (below), the sky was still blue, and the sun was still bright.

We hiked up the trail that is familiar in winter and in summer. It leads to Rogers Pass, but there are also side trails to Arapahoe, Forest and Crater Lakes. We've never seen so many raspberries on bushes in open areas. Are the bears all working the garbage cans closer to town rather than the raspberry bushes? I stopped to pick and eat every time I spotted red. My companions nibbled a few, but I went after as many as I could.

Picking and eating those sweet, fresh-off-the-bush berries proved so distracting that it took me a while to notice that the sky was quickly clouding over. It was only later, when it started getting cool and threatened to sprinkle, that I stopped to put on a long-sleeved shirt.

It's 5 miles or so from the trailhead to the pass, but we weren't interested in getting wet, so a few miles in, we turned around. The descent was quick, the rain held off and once we were out of the conifers, I started really looking at the grasses and bushes, which definitely showed their true fall colors.

From afar, the aspens were beginning to turn to gold.

Closeups revealed spots of dark brown and black.

Several years ago, the aspens along the Front Range went from green to black to fallen to the ground without ever showing their classic autumn beauty. Here's hoping it doesn't happen again in during National Wilderness Month '09.

United and Continental Expect to Be Bedfellows

Rivals are vowing cooperation -- and Southwest is implementing next-generation air-traffic efficiencies

The on-again, off-again romances, courtships, engagements and miscellaneous liaisons in the American air transportation industry are positively dizzying. The latest announcement involves a planned linkage of former rivals United and Continental in a bilateral agreement for domestic and international cooperation, in reality a cost-cutting measure by two struggling legacy carriers that have invidually trimmed costs and tapped new revnue sources, largely by charging passengers for services that were until recently free.

The new relationship, which is yet to be approved by regulators, is described as a "partnership" and not a merger. It is supposed to include code-shared domestic flights and also reciprocity between United's MileagePlus program and Continental's OnePass program, enabling to earn miles when flying on either airline and redeem awards on both carriers, including accruing miles toward elite status -- though whether they will be any easier to redeem is yet to be seen. Similarly, members of Continental's Presidents Club and United's Red Carpet Club will have access to both.

Continental has also been invited to join the Star Alliance, which has announced an "enhanced transatlantic partnership of the two U.S. airlines and Star Alliance member carriers Air Canada and Lufthansa" -- whatever that will turn out to be. This latest venture into airline togetherness is supposed to be implemented sometime in 2009. Forgive me for being a tad skeptical, but when it comes to airline coopration, several similarly optimistic plans have unraveled.

Meanwhile, go-it-alone Southwest seems to be stepping in to the tune of $175 million to help implement Required Navigation Performance technology that "allows the aircraft to fly more precise, direct, and accurate paths, allowing more 'lanes' to be built into the same limited airspace," an airline press release quoted executive vice president and chief of operations Mike Vande Ven as explaining. Within six years, Southwest expects to have RNP at the 64 airports it serves. Southwest calculated that every single minute of time saved on each flight, would reduce carbon emissions by up to 156,000 metric tons annually by 2015 and result in $25 million in fuel savings per year.

Southwest has partnered with Naverus, a leader in RNP development, and the Federal Aviation Administration since May 2007 to train the airline's pilots on RNP, equip the airline's fleet to be RNP capable to and to produce RNP-charted procedures. In other times, the FAA might have taken this responsibility upon itself, but Southwest appears to have provided the impetus to get fuel-saving and green procedures underway. Southwest's goal is to begin flying with RNP procedures in place by fall 2009 and have the entire fleet under such operations by 2013.

Road Tripping in the Rockies

When it comes to driving in the mountains, it's always something

Winter driving in the Rocky Mountains often provides such challenges as slick roads, temporary avalanche-control closures, longer closures when a slide hits the highway, SUVs that slid off the road and caused rubbernecker delays, jackknifed 18-wheelers, trucks waiting to pull into chain-up areas and meanwhile blocking traffic lanes, just plain heavy skier traffic (I-70 west of Denver means epic traffic jams, winter weekend after winter weekend), etc.

Summer is roadwork season when highways and local streets in mountain communities are repaired, resurface or at least repainted (winter sanding can erase the white and yellow lines. Bridges are rebuilt. Exit ramps are widened or reconfigured. Cone zones prevail. Give yourself some leeway if you need to get somewhere at a certain time.

Why Can't an Airline Be More Like a Bus Line?

Washington Post compares eight Washington-New York bus lines. Wow!

I was living back East in the last century when Eastern Airlines launched its then-revolutionary Shuttle between New York's LaGuardia and Boston to the northeast and Washington-National to south. Low fares. Hourly flights in both directions. No strings. No TSA screening. Except in the heart of the rush hour, quick cab ride to close-in airports. Business travelers embraced it. And it soared. In those pre-Amtrak days, rail travel on antiquated trains (the New Haven Railroad to Boston, the Pennsylvania Railroad to D.C.) seemed tedious, and buses, for business travelers, seemed déclassé.

Fast forward to this century, and buses seem to be a fantastic way to travel between these two cities. Washington Post reporters rode 10 different buses operated by 10 different bus companies, and all I can say is: with the arguable exception of Southwest, the worst bus line sounds preferable to the best airline these days.

The Post's motorcoach comparison shopping, assembled into a chart called "Rolling With It," reveals low fares (the lowest reported as $1*, the highest one-way fare is $30), convenient center-city stops, online booking with no or modest change fee, walk-up service with no or modest surcharge (but usually cash only) and often amenities that airline passengers can only dream about. Depending on the bus line, these can include free WiFi, electrical outlets, leather seats, free bottled water and free movies that in one case passengers vote on. Most have some kind of frequent-rider deal, with a free trip after as few as four paid trips. Amazing!

*There must be strings to a dollar fare, but I don't know what they are.

The most stinging criticism the Post had was for two lines. MVP was described as, "Our non-MVP bus was pretty dismal. Hindsight lesson: MVP runs its own vehicles Monday-Thursday but uses others on weekends. No WiFi, broken reading lights and the restroom was like an indoor outhouse, unclean and lacking toilet paper and hand sanitizer." Of New Century Travel, the paper commented, "The boarding was unclear — we were instructed to board the Philly-bound bus, but then what? — and the ride was harrowing from start to finish. We want our 20 bucks back!"

I suppose that those Continental Express passengers stranded overnight on the tarmac in Minneapolis last month would have been ecstatic if such had been the worst of their experiences. Click here if you've forgotten that awful true story.

If you are traveling that NYC-WAS route, check the Post's chart with prices, policies, phone numbers, websites and ratings from four buses to a half-bus. If I were still traveling the Northeast corridor, that's what I would do.

Bruising Add-On's Tarnish the Cruising Experience

Royal Caribbean taken to task for charging extra for cupcakes

I can't pretend to be an authority on cruise ships, having taken all of one full trip and one out-and-back trip to nowhere on a "naming cruise" with mainstream cruise lines in my life. Even with my limited experience, I was shocked at all the extras that are not included in the price of the voyage. In fact, I wrote a feature called "Keeping the Bargain in Bargain Cruises" after I found out how many add-ons there are and how much they cost.

Now Anne Campbell's post, "Royal Caribbean the First to Charge for Cupcakes," on her Ship Critic blog shines an authoritative spotlight on these extras. She wrote, "Aboard Royal Caribbean’s 'Oasis of the Seas' you’ll pay extra — the cruise line says prices aren’t available yet — for a cupcake at The Cupcake Cupboard, an on-board shop."

While she praises the beauty and such innovative diversions on RCCL's ship(s) as the “flow rider” surfing simulator, rock climbing, ice skating, roller blading on deck and central Promenade of stores, restaurants and bars, she takes the line to task for charging extra for room service and a surcharge or a la carte pricing (a record in the cruise industry) at nine of 24 restaurants aboard.

"But no one wants to feel nickeled and dimed aboard a cruise," she notes.

TSA Screeners Get New Uniforms and Badges

Transportation Security Agency screeners -- 48,000 strong -- will be dressing more like law-enforcement officers

If a royal blue shirt and badge communicates "police" to you, screeners at the nation's airport checkpoints who are going to start wearing police-style badges are projecting an intentionally misleading image. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is outfitting its screeners with 3-inch-by-2-inch, silver, copper and zinc badges to be worn on "police blue" shirts after just two days of procedural training, including how to communicate with the flying public in a non-confrontational manner.

The TSA's idea is to convey an image of authority to passengers, who, understandably, are weary of arbitrary and inconsistent screening procedure. The TSA blames the public for harassing and being disrespectful of screeners, occasionally even pushing or punching, according to reports. The TSA probably prefers to believe that their screeners treat passengers even-handedly and politely, but anyone who flies more than occasionally has had less than pleasant experiences. And some airport police are not thrilled that the screeners might be, to put a snarky spin on it, impersonating officers.

Extending this, the Transportation Security Agency has had a high employee turnover rate since it was created as part of the post-9/11 Department of Homeland Security. According to the TSA's own Employee Retention Report released in July 2007, the agency "had an attrition rate of 17.6 percent in 2005 and 14.6 percent in 2006, according to the report. TSA says that decrease is evidence of an attrition rate that continues to fall. The administration said its turnover rate is 16.5 percent, higher than 2006, but still a 13.6 percent reduction since 2005." Even if it were falling comparably to, say, 10 percent, that's still somewhere around 4,800 former TSA screeners every year. Given the efficiency of other Department of Homeland Security agencys (FEMA comes to mind), who knows what happens to all those very official looking badges. Will the agency require and track their return?

Airport police officers are armed and have the power to arrest, which screeners do not. Some are concerned about confusion that can cause unforeseen problems. Other agencies,including some stationed at airports, also give badges to their employees.