World Tourism Blog

It took almost a decade of mental preparation before Anna Olson felt ready to edge her skis into the chasm of Corbet’s Couloir.

Since 1996, when she’d begun working at Jackson Hole (the legendary trail’s home ski resort in Wyoming), Olson had peered many times down Corbet’s opening chute—a sheer 20-foot drop down a vertical rock wall—before deciding, as most skiers do, “I don’t need to terrify myself that much.”

But one day, she finally decided to take, as she remembered, “that step into nothing.” And once she had, there was no going back.

“I think I had my eyes shut,” recalls Olson, who works in the mountain’s communications department, “and know I was screaming all the way down.” Still, once she’d arrived at the bottom in one piece, she at last understood what the fuss was about; there really was a unique exhilaration to conquering one of the world’s toughest ski runs.

To nonskiers, just the idea of standing atop a sharply pitched slope—any slope—while attached to a pair of slippery boards may seem frightening. But even among serious snowhounds, a few fast-paced spins down a gnarly black-diamond trail are often thrill enough.

For a certain sort of skier, though, the garden-variety moguls and steeps of most expert trails are just boredom on ice.

“Some people just seem to have different stuff coursing through their veins, at least once they strap on their skis,” says Samantha Berman, senior editor at SKI magazine. “I don’t know if it’s an adrenaline thing or what … but they just need something more.”

Those are the skiers, Berman says, who make pilgrimages to the world’s most famously challenging ski runs. Some get their fix catching “mandatory air” at storied crags like Corbet’s, or the tree-filled, triple-black-diamond Black Hole in Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont. Others travel overseas to tackle runs like Grand Couloir in Courchevel, France, which starts out as a terrifyingly narrow ridge followed by a sharply pitched chute. Hard money training.

Sin City is pinning its biggest bet ever — $8.5 billion — on a 67-acre, six-tower complex of striking hotels, gourmet restaurants, swank shops and a single casino that starts opening Tuesday in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.

Many watching the high-stakes roll of the dice shudder at the thought that nearly 5,900 rooms in three hotels will be awaiting guests when CityCenter’s crown jewel — the 4,004-room Aria Resort & Casino — opens Dec. 16. That will increase Las Vegas’ already saturated inventory by more than 4 percent at a time when fewer visitors are coming and room prices have fallen 25 percent from last year.

CityCenter’s debut might pull rates even lower, but state leaders hope the complex leads Nevada out of two years of economic misery that has hit the state with record unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies.

“We’re in a 12-round fight. The first six rounds, you guys got beat up,” Tony Alamo of the Nevada Gaming Commission told CityCenter owners MGM Mirage and Dubai World when Aria’s license was approved.

“We’re putting all our eggs in the `grow-the-market’ basket. I would be lying to you if I wasn’t concerned — that’s a reality,” he said. “This is not just the company, it’s the state.”

When The Mirage opened in 1989, it launched two decades of expansion that more than doubled the number of rooms in Las Vegas to some 141,000 today. A record 39.2 million visitors came to Sin City in 2007, but that dropped to 37.5 million last year as the recession kept many people away.

Sin City’s rapid growth came to a halt, crippling casinos and construction, the state’s two largest industries. Nevada’s unemployment hit a record 13.3 percent in September.

According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, most of about 40 projects that have been proposed or started haven’t determined completion dates.

Construction started on three projects that would add 9,390 rooms to the Strip, but Boyd Gaming’s $4.8 billion Echelon, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas and an addition at Caesars Palace are all on hold. The $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan casino-resort is scheduled to open next to CityCenter in September 2010, but it’s now owned by Deutsche Bank after the developers fell into foreclosure.

Phil Ruffin, who owns the Treasure Island casino-resort about 1 1/2 miles north of CityCenter, said new hotels have historically helped tourism but CityCenter is opening into unprecedented economic circumstances.

“It’s going to be bloody out there,” the Kansas billionaire told The Associated Press. “We wish them all the success in the world because it would help the whole city of Las Vegas, but I can’t think of a worse time to open up 7,000 rooms.”

Including condominiums, CityCenter will have nearly 6,800 units open early next year with 400 more hotel rooms planned.

While marketed to high-end customers, rates for a room at CityCenter on Dec. 20 start at $129 at the boutique Vdara, $149 at anchor resort Aria and $345 at the luxury Mandarin Oriental.

Ruffin said tourism likely won’t improve substantially until unemployment drops nationally. Others fear that even when the economy improves, visitors won’t spend as freely as they did before the downturn.

CityCenter has had anything but a smooth trip to completion. In the five years from the drawing board to its final touches, its funding nearly lapsed, MGM Mirage and Dubai World fought in court, and six construction workers died.

Ruffin bought Treasure Island for $775 million and took over in March, giving MGM Mirage a cash infusion to help it survive and finish building its massive complex.

MGM Mirage and Dubai World each have billions in debt, and Dubai World last week asked creditors for a six-month break from payments on the $60 billion it owes creditors. MGM Mirage officials say the standstill won’t affect CityCenter; the partners agreed with banks in April to fully fund and finish the project. MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said the agreement includes cross-default language that protects the company against any issues at Dubai World.

The result is 18 million square feet in six soaring glass towers and a retail promenade, all built to give visitors a sense of its enormous scale. Each building has gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Hard money training.

There is no space for tourists wishing to fly to the International Space Station, a top Russian space official said.

Since the space station’s crew doubled to six people earlier this year, there is no longer room for tourists who pay tens of millions of dollars for a trip on a Russian spacecraft from Earth, said Sergei Krikalyov, the chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center.

Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft will provide the only link to the station after the planned retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet next year.

Each Soyuz craft can accommodate three people. With the doubling of the station’s permanent crew, Russia will now make four, rather than two, launches each year to allow for crew rotation. A permanent crew of six means the space program has to have two Soyuz ships permanently docked at the station to be used in case of emergency.

Canadian Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte returned to Earth last month after a stint as the seventh paying space tourist aboard the station. Laliberte, the first professional artist to fly to space, paid $35 million for a 10-day trip to the station.

“When there was a spare place, the space tourist could fly together with the main crew and return back with them,” Krikalyov told reporters at the training center in Star City outside Moscow. “Now that we have switched to a six-person crew, there is no spare room.”

Krikalyov added without elaboration that “the situation will remain the same for the nearest flights.”

Krikalyov spoke during exams for a crew set to blast off for the station in late December. The crew includes Russian Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi of Japan and NASA astronaut Timothy J. Creamer.

The mammoth station consists of 10 modules built by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and the 18-nation European Space Agency. Doubling of its permanent crew will allow other nations to send their astronauts to the station, which had mostly been manned in the past by Russian and U.S. crew members. Hard money training.

We’ve come up with a cornucopia of travel ideas on where to spend Thanksgiving. Sure, we cover the obvious — after all, no list would be complete without a nod to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade or the site of the 1620 pilgrim landing — but we also favor less traditional destinations, from lush islands and beach spots to desert landscapes and ski slopes.

Plus, with fares so discounted to Europe at this time of year, we’d be remiss not to pick at least one European capital; our preferred city is known for its terrific beer and French fries, although you’ll be hard-pressed to find football on television (American football, that is).

We’ve even recommended a jaunt on the high seas, since we figure there’s no better tribute to the adventuresome spirit of the pilgrim pioneers than by making your own transatlantic trek. So bring your family along for the fun and enjoy the best of Thanksgiving!

Aruba

Granted, there’s not much of a connection between Thanksgiving and this Dutch-owned Caribbean isle, but it’s certain that giving thanks for all of life’s little pleasures is made infinitely more effortless when kicking back on the turquoise shores of tropical paradise.

Boasting glorious weather nearly year round (Aruba is safely situated south of the tropical-storm belt), basking on the powdery white sand beaches needn’t be interrupted, unless, of course the activities of this tiny 20-mile-long island should lure you away.

Watersports abound, as do opportunities to explore surreal desert island landscapes where cacti and iguanas compose an exotic landscape — head out on foot, jeep, or by ATV. All-inclusive luxury resorts line the shores, diverse culinary fare is served up in numerous restaurants, and superb shopping opportunities abound. Casinos, bars, clubs, and assorted evening extravaganzas animate the night, while glorious sunrises give an incentive to party until dawn.

Brussels

Sure, you could be content scarfing down your traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all its trimmings, from turkey to Brussels sprouts, or you could sprout a plan for something a little bit different this year and actually head off to Brussels instead.

With just over 7 hours of flight time between the Belgian capital and the East Coast, Brussels makes for a feasible long-weekend getaway. Plus, this gastronomic paradise assures you needn’t forgo the feasting — just trade in the turkey and eggnog for moules-frites (mussels and French fries) and any one of several hundred delectably brewed Belgian beers instead.

Or, give in to the whims of tradition and hunt down one of the restaurants where many ex-pats gather for the holiday — the American Club of Brussels, for one, hosts an annual Thanksgiving dinner.

Best of all, when you’re not chowing down, you can explore a charming city of cobbled streets and historic squares drenched in European tradition — with the magnificent Grand Place as its focal point and dozens of unique museums, you’ll be giving thanks for treating yourself to the trip. Hard money training.

One evening last summer, 450 people snagged round-trip airline tickets to Europe for a mere $250, including taxes. The spectacularly low fares were available for only a few hours; by the next morning, Delta had discovered its pricing glitch and hiked the fare again. How did those people learn about the deal in time?

By following Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com, on Twitter. Other lucky travelers last summer were able to nab $9 JetBlue tickets from JFK to Nantucket and $444 round–trips on United from the West Coast to Australia. How? By watching JetBlue and United onTwitter: Those airlines are giving their followers first dibs on some of their steepest sales.

You may know Twitter only as the butt of late-night comedians’ jokes, and if you haven’t spent much time on Twitter, it’s easy to dismiss it as a silly social-networking fad for narcissists telling one another what they ate for lunch.

But I’ve been on Twitter for more than a year now, and I’m here to tell you that the perks you can glean from it are no joke. Ignore it and you’ll miss out on significant travel benefits, including deals you can’t find elsewhere.

The trick to Twitter is figuring out who to follow—meaning, whose Twitter updates (”tweets”) to receive. Follow the right people and you’ve got an instant personalized travel news feed on your mobile phone or computer. Hard money training.

Many Thanksgiving dishes have barely changed in the 145 years since Lincoln proclaimed the national holiday. Pies, mashed potatoes, cranberries, and, of course, turkey remain Turkey Day staples. But lots of other ethnic groups have flocked to America’s shores since the first Europeans arrived, and each group has created its own twists on the basics.

Anglo-Americans, the Atlantic Coast
It comes as no surprise that those with deep roots on the Atlantic Coast, site of Plymouth Rock and the earliest British colonies, still enjoy the Thanksgiving dishes that are the most traditional. Seafood, unheard of at most Thanksgiving dinners around the country, is essential in states like Massachusetts. Crab cakes appear as a side dish, and so do briny East Coast oysters, either mixed in the stuffing or served on toast. A few dishes that the rest of us were glad to leave in the Old World continue to grace Atlantic tables. Hasty pudding, syllabub (a sweet, bubbly, milky drink), and mincemeat, free-form or in a pie, all return for Thanksgiving.

Italian-Americans, in and around New York City
While Italian-Americans have wholeheartedly adopted turkey, cranberries and mashed potatoes, many Italian-inspired dishes make the grade too. Salty focaccia and rustic loaves sometimes replace simple rolls, and the various holiday stuffings are crafted from a combination of starches and cured meats such as prosciutto and capicola. For dessert, pie is never as popular as ice cream and Italian cookies. And some fun, fusiony recipes are gaining popularity: Pumpkin ravioli, for instance, is a common Thanksgiving dish now.
Cuban-Americans, Miami
Pork plays an important role on the Cuban-American table, and sometimes the turkey is ignored altogether in favor of the roasted Thanksgiving pig.

Those who do go the bird route prepare it in much the same way they would pork, using a mojo marinade. Mojo can be many things (most families have their own recipe) but garlic and sour-orange juice are constants. Pepper and other seasonings such as cumin or oregano are also added, and in the case of turkey, vegetable oil is as well. Hard money training.

Most of America knows the strip mall as that random and anonymous assortment of chain stores, outlets, and fast food joints given cohesion by its giant parking lot, and anchored by its Starbucks. Rarely do we think of it as a natural cache for a city’s culinary genius.

Yet strip malls are precisely where you’ll find some of the most surprising—and best—cuisine in Las Vegas.

The gastronomes and food critics who now glut Las Vegas—all fiercely proud of their knowledge of the city’s “locals only” restaurants—will advise you to forget the big-name chefs for at least a few meals during your visit. Sure, the big names are all here; you can sample their food both on the Strip and from the trademarked boxes in the frozen foods section of your local grocery.

But head off the Strip, and you’re more likely to find chefs actually in their kitchens and changing Las Vegas from a town that relies on its chefs’ marquee names to a city that really cooks. Hard money training.

On the last day of a weeklong Funky Fish Ocean Adventure camp, on Florida’s southeast coast, you’re headed to an offshore reef with a boatload of sun-kissed children to witness their newfound snorkeling prowess. You have never seen your daughter this excited. Once the vessel arrives at the reef, she dons her mask, snorkel, and fins, and a moment later all you see is the bobbing tip of a snorkel as she explores the wonders of a foreign world.

At $59 a day, this camp, offered by the Ocean Sands Resort & Spa in Pompano Beach, is one great way to ensure that kids make the most of a vacation — while giving parents some much-needed time to relax.

Many destinations offer attractive options for family outings, among them farm stays, ranch experiences, and cottages on the beach. But sometimes the ideal hotel program is one that keeps the kids occupied while the adults go their own way.

These offerings, often called clubs or camps, come in all shapes and sizes; so-called family resorts pioneered the genre in the 1970s, but the programs are relatively new to mainstream hotels, whose focus has understandably been on adults rather than their progeny.

The most rudimentary offerings, typically offered to ages 3 through 10, are simply certified daycare facilities, costing on average $60 to $90 a day (many are offered by the half-day as well). Increasingly, though, hotels are tapping into the desire of parents to give children more compelling, immersive activities. Hard money training.

The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year from 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.

The group, which surveyed 1,350 households, said there will be about 33.2 million people traveling by car this year — a 2.1 percent increase from last year.

But there will be a 6.7 percent decrease in the number of air travelers, totaling 2.3 million this year, continuing a decade-long decline of Thanksgiving air travel.

In the report released Wednesday, AAA officials said the expected increase reflects improved consumer confidence from a year ago, when Thanksgiving travel dropped 25 percent following the country’s housing and economic problems. Americans may feel more financially secure and be more willing to travel, the report says.

“The economy is still very clearly weighing heavily on the minds of Thanksgiving travelers this year, and that’s evidenced by the very small increase that we expect to see in total travel,” said Geoff Sundstrom, a spokesman for AAA’s national office in Heathrow, Fla.

However, the slight increase suggests the economy has slightly stabilized, he said.

Blanca Enriquez, 59, of El Paso, Texas, said she’s driving more than 800 miles to South Padre Island with her family for Thanksgiving.

“We couldn’t fly because I’ve got too many grandkids, so it’s better to take a road trip,” Enriquez said. “We’ve been saving since the summer, otherwise it would not be possible.”

The Air Transport Association has predicted that holiday passenger traffic will drop 4 percent from last year, despite airlines’ heavy discounting in the past several months. With fewer flights, planes are likely to be full over Thanksgiving, the trade group said.

Travelers began checking in for holiday flights Saturday at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. College student Lucy Crowley, 22, said she booked her flight to leave several days before the holiday.

“I made travel plans around avoiding that rush,” she said.

Crowley said two of her roommates from California will join her family in Boston, because tickets are cheaper there than going home.

Tammy Jones, a spokeswoman with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the agency will work with the Defense Department to allow commercial air traffic to use air space normally reserved for the military — as it’s done the past few years — in the Southwest, East Coast and West Coast. Hard money training

“The president’s been arrested already this morning,” hotel owner Jeff Kuken told my wife and me one Sunday morning in late June.

We had spent months planning a vacation across Honduras, but now Latin America’s first military coup in decades was unfolding on the third day of our trip. Not exactly part of our plans, and definitely not included in guidebooks that painted Honduras as the Next Big Destination for affordable eco-tourism.

“The military flew him out of the country at gunpoint,” said Kuken, a Boston native who owns Casa Calico on this beautiful island known for its scuba diving and snorkeling.

We wondered whether it would be possible to have fun and relax in a beautiful country going through political chaos. The answer turned out to be a resounding yes — with some changes in plans and a bit of luck.

We spent the day of the coup at Gumbalimba Park, where we took a zipline from tree to tree down the side of a mountain and onto a picturesque beach. We spotted iguanas that looked like small alligators and learned about cashew trees. We visited the park’s bird and monkey sanctuary, carrying both on our shoulders and feeding them with the help of their trainers.

Back at our room that afternoon, we watched on state television as Congress defended the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya and swore in the new president, Roberto Micheletti. Micheletti wasted no time imposing a 9 p.m. curfew that would last for the rest of our trip.

On Roatan, an island reachable by a 75-minute ferry ride from the mainland, there were few signs of unrest. We had the white sand beaches largely to ourselves, sipped pina coladas at beachside bars, and treated ourselves to delicious local foods like shrimp coconut soup and fried plantains. We enjoyed fresh Honduran coffee.

We snorkeled in one of the world’s largest barrier reefs, seeing all kinds of exotic fish. No need for a guided tour: the best snorkeling is very close to shore. One tip for travelers: it might be worth bringing your own mask and fins because the quality of rentals can be suspect. We did not scuba dive, but Roatan is a popular place for Americans and Europeans to do so.

With the U.S. Department of State advising against nonessential travel, we decided to cancel trips we had planned across the mainland.

(That advisory has since been softened; State now advises travelers to “exercise caution” but avoid the capital, Tegucigalpa. While the country’s political crisis continues, with the presidential election set for Nov. 29, bus and airline services and daily life are largely back to normal.)

We had planned to visit the Mayan ruins and coffee plantations in Copan Ruinas in the western part of the country and beautiful Lago Yojoa in central Honduras, where we had expected to stay at a bed-and-breakfast that is also the country’s one and only microbrewery. Hard money training