World Tourism Blog

This week, as the weak winter sun did its best to warm my home state of Idaho, my husband and I began looking for a place to go with our kids (ages 9 and 11) and my parents over spring break.

The kids want the beach and snorkeling. My husband and I, fancying ourselves to be veteran travelers, will not set foot in a resort. My parents, having suffered adventure travel at our hands before, prefer an experience that is authentic but not life-threatening.

With all this in mind, I turned to 80 Degrees, a new online travel planner from the guidebook publisher Fodor’s.

80 Degrees, uses a quiz to help figure out what destination will deliver the trip you are looking for. The interactive tool asks you whether you want to go off the beaten path, stay safely in a resort, or venture somewhere in between. The quiz also helps define the attractions you seek, such as beaches, casinos, or child-friendly activities. Plug in the type of travelers, be it a romantic couple or a large group, and how much money is expected to be spent on lodging. After a few more questions about where and what, the site delivers a list of appealing options.

Right now, 80 Degrees is only set up to find winter escapes where the temperature hovers around a perfect 80 degrees. The company plans to roll out a European vacation version early this year, and some options for skiers after that, with a different name to reflect cooler climates.

Meanwhile, 80 Degrees directs its users to a host of sunny getaways in Belize, Mexico, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Florida and the Caribbean.

Like all worthwhile travel Web sites, 80 Degrees makes excellent reading on its own, even if a two-week stay in Virgin Gorda is nothing but a pipe dream. The destination ideas come with an online travel guide, and those mini-guidebooks include forums with a wealth of thoughtful reviews that drill down to the minutiae that can make or break a lodging experience at a particular hotel or resort — from helpful drivers to horror stories about bugs in the oven. About 700 writers work for Fodor’s, a venerable travel publisher that covers 500 destinations around the world. The guide’s hotel and restaurant listings are independent of advertising sales, according to Fodor’s staff.

The publisher’s main Web site — http://www.fodors.com/ — is a good place for travelers to learn more about areas they already know they want to visit. 80 Degrees helps the undecided figure out where that is.

“A lot of sites, if you know where to go, they’ll tell you different things to do in a particular location,” said Tim Jarrell, Fodor’s publisher. “We’re trying to inspire you. We’ve done our job if we give you a destination that perhaps you had not considered before you took the quiz.” Home Security Systems.

Youre paying to check your belongings, so why should other peoples excess baggage  get a free ride?

Thats the question being asked by a growing number of travelers. As airlines look for new ways to boost revenue, fees for checked bags are on the rise; so is scrutiny of overweight customers whose baggage is built in.

Its a touchy subject, Airfarewatchdog.com has found, and one that airlines have been happy to avoid discussing, where possible. As late as 2008, United Airlines wouldnt even address the matter with us.

But an outcry among passengers, tired of their seatmates taking up more than their fair share of jealously-guarded seat space, is said to have played a role in the airlines new rules for transporting “customers of size.” Where a terse “we have no policy” was once the standard response, United adopted new regulations in 2009. Customers who were unable to confine themselves to one seat would be required to buy a second, should the crew be unable to reseat them.

Its a policy thats becoming increasingly commonplace.

To many, the idea seems simple enough – if you cant fit into one seat, you should probably consider buying two.

Its not simple at all. Canadas government takes a dim view of the matter. In late 2008, the countrys Supreme Court upheld a ruling that prohibited airlines from charging the disabled or “obese” for a second seat, affecting Canadian flyers Air Canada and WestJet.

Here in the United States, some airlines with upfront policies have spent their fair share of time in the courts. Southwest has long been famously transparent about its second seat rule, the one that United and many other airlines have emulated. The company has been sued more than once by disgruntled passengers.

“On the lawsuits, all have ruled on the side of Southwest,” spokesperson Whitney Eichinger points out.

Southwests policy is that those who cannot fit in one seat must buy two.

“If the flight goes out with empty seats, Southwest will refund the cost of the additional seat,” Eichinger said.

Other airlines have had their share of legal trouble in this area.

In the past, Air France warned passengers with what they referred to as “high body mass” not to expect to be seated if they have not purchased an extra seat. This is a warning that many airlines, even those who officially have tried to downplay any official policy, have long given to travelers.

Some travelers, however, dont see the need. That, or the airline and the passenger disagree over what constitutes “need.” An Air France passenger traveling from New Delhi to Paris in 2006 sitting in a single seat was stopped by employees, who wrapped packing tape around him in public to prove that he was too fat. Citing humiliation, he sued, and won.

At the time, the airline had a program in place that offered passengers a second seat at a 25 percent discount, tax-free. It was a move that the airline had hoped would encourage customers to make arrangements in advance.

Last week, Air France made an update to the policy, bringing it more in line with Southwests policy, which has been around for decades. According to Air France spokesperson Karen Gillo, the second seat purchase is still optional. Now, however, the cost will be reimbursed if the flight is not fully booked.

“Its a way to encourage individuals to pre-plan to ensure their own comfort and safety; it allows them to travel with less stress,” she said.

Gillo stated that “for the mass majority of the cases, the flights arent fully booked” and passengers will be reimbursed.

Air France isnt the only one making tweaks these days. JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras said the airline is currently working to refine its policy.

Currently, Lleras said, the airline does its best to accommodate customers free of charge. It will charge if it has to, but says that it approaches the matter on a “case by case basis.” Home Security Systems.

If you’re planning a cruise vacation in 2010, get ready for higher prices, better entertainment, water parks, and one of the most innovative concepts to come along in awhile: Rooms designed for solo travelers on the Norwegian Epic, without the supplemental charge that single passengers on cruises have traditionally paid.

“I think it’s genius,” said Cynthia Boal Janssens, editor and chief blogger at AllThingsCruise.com. “I’m amazed with so many new ships coming on line that this hasn’t been done sooner. Lots of single people cruise and want to cruise, but right now, if you are going on a cruise as a single person and you occupy a double cabin, they charge you an additional fee for doing that, sometimes as much as 200 percent.”

The Epic, which launches this summer, will offer 128 studios for singles. The cabins open onto a lounge area where solo travelers can socialize.

Paul Motter, editor at CruiseMates.com, said he thinks the single studios “will take off. We have a whole message board on CruiseMates for people seeking cruise companions. It’s a huge potential market.”

Motter said another emerging trend in cruises is more brand-name entertainment. For years, mediocre musical revues with names like “Salute to Broadway” were standard fare on ships, to the point where they “kind of became a joke,” said Motter.

In contrast, the Epic will feature Blue Man Group and Second City improv shows. Royal Caribbean’s megaship, Oasis of the Seas, which launched last fall, offers a complete production of “Hairspray.”

“Hairspray” is “the first time a cruise ship has fully licensed a Broadway production. And it’s a really good production, on par with a national touring company,” Motter said.

Oasis was the “it” ship of 2009, attracting enormous publicity as the largest cruise ship ever built. It carries 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members, with facilities that include an ice rink, golf course, volleyball and basketball courts, a 1,300-seat indoor theater and seven “neighborhoods,” including a boardwalk and a mini-Central Park. There is so much to do onboard, that when the ship pulls into a port, “a lot of people don’t get off,” said Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com.

The cruise industry will launch a dozen new ships this year, but Brown said, “Nothing will compete with Oasis.”

Ships debuting in 2010 include a sister ship of Oasis called Allure of the Seas, a new Queen Elizabeth from Cunard, and Celebrity Eclipse, the third in a series of Celebrity ships that started with the Solstice in 2008 and the Equinox in 2009.

Despite all these new ships coming onto the market during a recession, the cruise industry has managed to keep them full. In 2009, ships sailed at 104 percent capacity on average, meaning that every room was occupied, and some rooms were shared by more than two people, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, an industry group with 25 cruise lines representing 97 percent of cruise capacity in North America.

At the same time, the number of passengers keeps increasing: 13.01 million people cruised on CLIA ships in 2008, 13.44 million in 2009 and a projected 14.3 million will sail in 2010.

“Maybe we are not recession-proof, but we are recession-resistant,” said Richard Sasso, CEO of MSC Cruises and marketing director of CLIA.

One way cruises have kept ships full is by dramatically increasing the number of international passengers, to make up for slow growth in the North American market. The number of passengers from outside North America has doubled to more than 3 million a year since 2003, while the number of U.S. and Canadian passengers has increased by just 30 percent to 10.29 million.

Discounts have brought customers in, too. Cruise prices go down when demand is weak — just like airfare — until every cabin is filled.

But the low prices of 2009 are starting to disappear. “Fares are going up, for sure,” said Brown, the CruiseCritic editor.

One sign of change: More passengers are booking farther in advance. In 2009, the average booking window for a cruise was 4.6 months before the departure date, and 39 percent of passengers were booking their trips less than four months out, Sasso said.

For 2010, the average booking window has already increased to five months out, and only 30 percent of clients are booking less than four months before their departure.

What does this mean for consumers?

“As the ship fills up, the prices go up,” said Motter, the CruiseMates.com editor. “They give you the best prices six months to a year out, and at the very end, if there are still empty cabins, they discount them. The best way to get the best deal on a cruise is to book early. Almost all the cruise lines offer price guarantees, so if you see a price lower than what you booked, they will honor that.”

On the other hand, you can still find last-minute bargains in places where the market is “really soft,” said Brown. “Eastern Mediterranean, Greek Isles, Turkey. For the Mexican Riviera, I’m still seeing $299 departures on seven-day trips.”

Don’t forget to check social media when planning a cruise. More cruise companies and cruise Web sites are using Twitter and Facebook to highlight deals and trips. Cunard even has a YouTube channel where fans can watch construction progress on the new Queen Elizabeth, as well as videos of James Taylor performing on another Cunard ship, Queen Mary 2.

Another long-term trend in cruising is the increase in family friendly programs and attractions. In the last 10 years, the median age of cruisers has dropped from 57 to 47, according to Bob Sharak, CLIA’s executive director.

“Multigenerational groups — the groups that bring adults, kids and grandkids — are bringing down the average age,” said Mimi Weisband, spokeswoman for Crystal Cruises.

One feature on new ships that younger passengers are sure to love is the water park. Carnival Dream, which launched last year, has an aqua park called WaterWorks with a 300-foot-long water slide, the longest water slide at sea.

A new Disney ship, the Dream, launching a year from now in January 2011, will have a 765-foot-long water coaster, the AquaDuck, that will wrap around the perimeter of the ship’s top deck, with one loop jutting 13 feet over the side of the ship, 150 feet above the ocean.

Other innovative features on the Disney Dream include virtual portholes for windowless staterooms that will offer live views of the sea and sky from video cameras mounted around the ship. The Dream will also have an adult lounge called Skyline with changing backdrops offering views of famous skylines around the world.

Cruises also keep offering more and more sophisticated programming. In late 2009, Celebrity ships launched a series of enrichment seminars and activities called Celebrity Life. In addition to fitness classes and spa treatments, the programs include cooking classes, wine-tastings, stargazing, scrapbooking and lectures on art and history.

Cruise itineraries keep changing too. Crystal Cruises’ new port calls include Kuwait City, Bandar Abbas in Iran, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Sevastopol in the Ukraine and Port Elizabeth in South Africa, with new excursions that include South African wineries and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Princess Cruises will visit 17 new ports in the next two years, including Abu Dhabi, Tangiers in Morocco, and Xiamen, on the southeastern coast of China. A “Highlights of Germany” tour offered by Princess this year will include two nights in the town of Oberammergau to see a passion play that villagers only perform once a decade. Home Security Systems.

which sees more than 70 parades roll through greater New Orleans before Fat Tuesday — is getting one more.

The Saints-crazed city plans to celebrate the team’s first-ever trip to the Super Bowl with a parade to honor them.

“There will be some type of massive parade in the city of New Orleans win or lose,” Mayor Ray Nagin told reporters Tuesday night.

Although his office tried to back away from the certainty of a parade on Wednesday, Nagin said he had already begun discussions with Saints officials and others.

“It’s not set in concrete yet,” Barry Kern said on Wednesday. “But I think it will be by the end of the day.”

One of the many things to be decided is who would pay for the parade.

New Orleans’ latest budget cut funding in several areas and put most city offices on a four-day week.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley estimated the parade would attract 200,000 people and security for it could run as much as $300,000.

Police spokesman Bob Young said Wednesday that amount could be cut, however, if the Saints parade was to roll behind a regularly scheduled Carnival parade, since police would already be on the parade route.

Meanwhile, parades scheduled to roll on the first big weekend of Mardi Gras — Feb. 6-7 — scrambled to keep from interfering with the Saints’ matchup against the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.

The Krewe of Alla moved its parade from Sunday to Saturday and will roll behind Adonis and Choctaw.

Carrolton and King Arthur will still parade on Sunday, but will both start one hour earlier — 11 a.m. for Carrolton and noon for King Arthur.

In Houma, the krewes of Hyacinthians and Titans will roll an hour earlier so Houma residents can catch the Carnival parades and make it home in time for the Super Bowl kickoff.

Nagin said the divisional playoff game against Arizona and Sunday’s NFC championship game against Minnesota each generated between $500,000 and $750,000 for the city’s economy.

Saints fans prize the upcoming Super Bowl appearance, the first in the franchise’s 43 years of existence. This is only the ninth winning season for the club, which did not get its first one for two decades.

The 31-28 overtime victory over the Vikings on Sunday night marked the first time the Saints had hosted an NFC championship game. Home Security Systems.

Stop by the Minoru Yamasaki-designed McGregor Memorial Conference Center at Wayne State University in Detroit and its halls are open for a stroll through what’s considered a masterpiece from the World Trade Center architect.

Across the state in Muskegon, at St. Francis De Sales church, a visit most days can get you a guided tour from the head of maintenance at the massive, poured concrete structure from architect Marcel Breuer.

Better known for its Great Lakes beaches for summertime escapes and its wintertime destinations for outdoor enthusiasts, Michigan also is a repository of modern architecture. It offers the chance to do more than just gaze the buildings or snap a few pictures — with many notable buildings open for tours or intimate visits.

The State Historic Preservation Office is behind an effort to highlight Michigan’s modern architecture and design heritage. It’s raising $250,000 to help record oral histories of architects from the time; create driving tours; and research and catalog important projects from around 1940 to 1970. The office is promoting the state’s architecture through a Web site with stories, photos and links to sites around the state.

One of the places that helped establish Michigan as a center for architecture and design was Cranbrook, just outside Detroit. Cranbrook includes K-12 private schools, an Institute of Science, the Cranbrook Academy of Art and an art museum. Cranbrook was designed in the 1920s and ’30s by the renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who helped establish a creative culture that attracted designers Ray and Charles Eames and modern architects Ralph Rapson and Harry Weese. Saarinen’s son Eero, himself a prominent architect, lived and trained at Cranbrook.

Reed Kroloff, a former editor-in-chief of Architecture magazine and director of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, lives on campus in a home designed by Saarinen. He’s grown accustomed to finding visitors — curious about Cranbrook and its role as a crucible for modern art, architecture and design — peering the front door.

“Usually, if I’m not in my bathrobe, I’ll give them a little bit of a tour,” Kroloff said.

Gwendolyn Wright, an architecture professor at Columbia University, said Michigan is a showcase for a broad range of modern buildings, from homes and office towers to factories that display the evolution of industrial architecture. Cranbrook’s campus, she noted, illustrates a unique connection between education and the arts.

“You have that sense just on the grounds and with the evolution of the buildings, from the move from craftsmanship that was hand-based … up through the modern kinds of craftsmanship,” said Wright, who has made driving tours of the state while visiting. “You see these constantly feeding back and forth.”

The Alden B. Dow Home and Studio in Midland tries to offer visitors a personal experience — as if they had been invited over for dinner at what was the home of one of the state’s premier modern architects. The son of Midland-based Dow Chemical Co.’s founder studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, and a large concentration of Dow’s work can be seen in homes, schools and churches throughout the city.

“When you come to the Dow house, you sit in the living room. You truly experience the building,” said Dow Home and Studio Director Craig McDonald.

When planning a visit to sample Michigan’s architecture, set aside at least two days for a driving tour of the Detroit area and several more if the itinerary includes Midland, which is about two hours away, or Muskegon, along the coast of Lake Michigan. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes can be found in cities throughout the state.

In Detroit, other notable Yamasaki-designed buildings include the Helen L. DeRoy Auditorium and the Education Building on Wayne State’s campus, as well as the One Woodward Avenue tower in downtown. Just to the east of downtown is Lafayette Park, a housing development of townhouses and apartment buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe.

Cranbrook is a quick drive away in the northern suburbs, but you could spend a full day just on campus. Saarinen House, the former home and studio of Eliel and Loja Saarinen that’s an Art Deco masterwork, is open for tours, although the architect’s Cranbrook Art Museum that was built in 1942 is undergoing renovation.

And while many of Michigan’s architectural gems can be toured, others are private homes or just off limits. The most notable is the General Motors Technical Center in the Detroit suburb of Warren. Designed by Eero Saarinen and landscape architect Thomas Church, some of its buildings can be seen from the surrounding roads but there’s no public tours or access to the grounds. Home Security Systems.

The emblem of the Olympic Winter Games is a colorful humanoid with arms spread wide, a contemporary interpretation of a stone landmark called an inukshuk with a history stretching back more than 3,000 years in Inuit culture.

Sitting atop the Olympic Rings, the symbol looms large on licensed merchandise and is sure to generate curiosity once the Games are under way.

An inukshuk (in-OOK-shook) is a carefully balanced pile of unworked rocks and slabs. The Inuit have built them through time to guide travelers, assist with hunts, warn of danger or indicate caches of food. A miniature version stands hip-high, with others measuring 3 to 6 feet tall (1 to 2 meters), one builder said.

With a more human look, the design for the Olympic emblem was chosen in 2005 from about 1,600 proposals to represent hope, friendship, hospitality and teamwork, according to Vancouver organizers. Named Ilanaaq (ih-LAH-nawk), meaning friend, it was cast in Canada’s red and two shades of blue, along with green, yellow and gold, to evoke the host country’s sweeping forests, mountains, islands and sunsets.

Towering examples of inuksuit (the plural) have been constructed in modern times, like the sculpture located in Vancouver on English Bay, left over from the 1986 World Expo. Other First Nations peoples in Arctic regions from Alaska to Greenland also used such markers, and they can be found elsewhere around the world, including one on the summit of Pike’s Peak, in Colorado, and elsewhere in the western United States, where they were built by Navajo and other Native Americans.

In the Inuit culture, inuksuit played a key role for the nomadic people in the frozen, unforgiving climate of northern Canada and were built to withstand winds of more than 90 mph (150 kilometers), said Peter Irniq, an inuksuit builder, former commissioner of the northern Nunavut Territory and an Inuit cultural teacher who lives in Ottawa.

“They’re symbols of survival,” he said. “Whenever I’m around inuksuit in the Arctic I am never scared because I know that Inuit have lived there before me for many, many thousands of years and have survived from hunting and fishing,” he said.

Norman Hallendy, who has written two books on the subject, said the markers served a multitude of roles.

“It was really part of their life support system,” he said. “Some were reminders of a dangerous place, some pointed to the safest or easiest ways to get home.”

Along some Arctic coastlines, the more human-looking form was once thought to be put up to proclaim to Scottish whalers, “OK, we’re here, which meant they could stop and trade for fresh caribou or take some people on board as pilots,” Hallendy said.

In years past, one Inuit use for human-looking rock structures was far more solemn, Irniq said.

“When Inuit made them a long time ago, they represented murder and it also represented suicide, that there was murder or there was suicide at that place,” he said.

The day-to-day inuksuit took on different shapes, depending on their function. Some were built with peepholes or windows to look through in a certain direction, revealing good places to find seal, caribou or Arctic char. It could have been placed equidistant from prime fishing or hunting grounds or had one slab extended to indicate direction.

For stores of kill too burdensome to carry, an inukshuk sometimes included antlers on top to make the spot easier to find under snow and ice, Hallendy said.

For hunting, since the Inuit lived in small groups, the piled landmarks were placed in lines along each side of caribou routes. Women and children hid behind them, waiting patiently for the beasts to arrive and startling them into believing there were more people. The spooked caribou were forced in the direction of men waiting with bows and arrows.

In Cape Dorset, a center of Inuit art at the tip of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Inukshuk Point is home to more than 100 of the markers and has been designated one of Canada’s national historic sites.

“That is one of the most sacred sites in the entire eastern Arctic,” said Hallendy, who lives far away in the small village of Carp, 35 miles from Ottawa, but has traveled to the north many times. “It is very, very moving. When you go there, you’re almost struck dumb by the power of the place. You can feel it. You can see it. It’s a very inward and a very quiet experience.”

Inukshuk, he said, could also be venerated, honored with offerings of food or a lock of hair, or considered evil or good.

To Hallendy, the markers will always be most special in their natural surroundings. Some, he said, have generated mini-ecosystems of their own. Seed-laden bird droppings have led to flowers and other life around the base against an otherwise desolate landscape.

“You get a whole bloody tiny little universe that begins to live at the feet. The Arctic is virtually a desert, but you have this incredible, beautiful little micro world that’s lush with things. It’s a magical world.” Home Security Systems.

Set in a private nature reserve spread over 1,000 acres of Central America’s last remaining lowland tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, Lapa Rios Ecolodge overlooks the pristine point where the Golfo Dulce meets the wild Pacific Ocean. There are no guardrails or path monitors, so there is a bit of danger mixed with paradise.

The last time I was in Costa Rica I didn’t stay at an eco-lodge, I stayed at the Hotel Presidente in San Jose. I had flown not just from Los Angeles, but all the way from India. I’m not good with jetlag, but this was especially bad, and when I arrived on the evening flight, my hosts asked me to join them in the bar for a drink. I did, and after downing an Imperial cerveza I found another on the table. Then the two spoke to each other, and I found a third. Then I vaguely remember dancing at some unknown hour before stumbling to my room, and falling naked into my bed.

Then, sometime in the deep of the night, I awoke and headed for the bathroom. I think I still thought I was in my hotel in New Delhi as I headed straight down the hall, opened the door, walked a few steps, and heard a click behind me. I spun around, rubbed my eyes and found I was naked in the hallway of the Hotel Presidente.

That’s a bit how I feel where the ecotourism movement is today — it thinks it’s in one room, when in fact it is in an entirely different one.

Having attended and spoken at a number of ecotourism conferences in the last couple of years, and listened to endless reams of dire data, I believe as the concepts of ecotourism have evolved they have become more and more analytical. More data driven; more about cost benefits analyses, about benchmarking; about quantifying guilt …

And the real motivation for ecotourism is in a room full of magic.

What is touched upon in the “Adventure with Purpose” television specials is the power of narrative, storytelling; of the romance, mystery and the danger of wild places — and these attributes argue, often subliminally, for preservation, and visitation. Most people won’t be compelled to visit a place because it uses certain light bulbs or soap or low volume toilets; or hires locals; or carbon offsets, though these are necessary and good practices.

What most folks seek, I believe, are the unfathomable shadows where the wild things are.

Too many eco-lodges and destinations have become internment centers mapped and planned with no blank spots. The trails are well-marked and monitored. The busses are built for comfort. Around the world at eco-lodge pool sides and lobbies visitors watch from a safe distance ethnic spectacles and performances, loaded with Post-it Note mysticism. The deep, rich cultures and traditions are too often reduced to dinner shows for the mobile rich. In these brief, one-sided encounters, there is little chance to understand the people behind the dances and battle cries, no real celebration of a vibrant, living culture. Visitors are offered the bread crumbs on the floor beneath the big table of cultural apperception.

In these dynamics, there is little room for true discovery.

Yes, the wilderness is vanishing, and cultures are fading, but what saves them are not dry statistics and doomsday scenarios, but rather the emotional sumptuousness and connection that comes from visitation. My job, as an ecotourism advocate, is to figure out how to inspire someone on a couch in a city watching his television or computer screen to get up and make that step and come see and feel the witchcraft of wilderness. Once so touched, travelers become the most passionate advocates for preservation, as the trees and brooks and wild things are as family.

If a place can be unmediatedly wild, without the requisite security and compliant spaces, without adult supervision, it is then faithful to our childlike imaginations of wilderness. The natural sublime is as much about awe as real danger, the peril of avalanches in the Alps for the Romantics; the risks of the rainforests in Costa Rica. The sublime attracts like moths to a flame, where we feel most alive when we can imagine our own demise.

And, ecotourism in its original manifestations was sublime, but we have moved to a different room.

Ecotourism ought to be the great, original adventure, an individual tale of privation, courage, constant vigilance and danger. Done right, it is a journey undertaken with only a fragmentary map constructed out of a patchwork of accumulated local lore and the occasional milepost marked “here be dragons.” Home Security Systems.

If you’re fancy free and love to wander, the price might finally be right to travel solo.

Instead of punishing travelers who prefer to go alone with hefty surcharges, the travel industry is starting to woo them with deals that tickle their wanderlust without ravaging their wallets.

“The tour industry is making way for the single traveler,” said Margie Jordan, spokesperson for the American Society of Travel Agents. “This is nothing that’s going to go away. The single traveler is going to have as many opportunities as anyone else.”

For years most travel deals were based on two people traveling together.

“Single travelers would see a price on line and we’ve had to break the news that if you’re going by yourself, it’s 150 to 200 percent more,” said Jordan, CEO of ASAP Travel. “They were left high and dry.”

But times are changing and Jordan said cruise lines in particular are stepping up. MSC Cruises is currently offering trips that waive the dreaded single supplement, which accounts for the price hike.

“And Norwegian Cruise Line is introducing ‘Studio’ staterooms built and priced solely for the single traveler,” she added. “It is actually something new in the cruise industry.”

Maria Miller, of Norwegian Cruise Line, said the 4,200-passenger Epic that is due to launch in July, is equipped with 128 studio staterooms designed specifically to give the solo traveler a room of one’s own.

“This is a great opportunity for us to go after the solo traveler market,” she explained. “We’ve tapped into an unmet need.”

With research showing 35 million adults take solo vacations but only five percent opt for cruises, Miller said the potential is huge.

“There’s a sizable market out there, but discontent around the single surcharge,” she explained.

So, solo prices on the Epic will not include a single surcharge.

“And we’re talking solo, not singles,” Miller said, distinguishing solo travelers from the meet-and-mate crowd.

“There certainly is a place for singles cruises, but that’s not what we’re trying here. The solo traveler is independent. They’re not looking for us to create an experience for them.”

Kate Moeller, of Club Med North America, knows a thing or two about changing demographics.

“We used to be really a singles destination, but then we became more family oriented,” she said.

Moeller said Club Med’s Solo Savings program waives the single supplement to accommodate the solo traveler at certain resorts.

“We have these deals in specific theme weeks in specific resorts,” she said. “Recently, we had a Zumba week, food blogger week, food and a wine week.”

Jordan said the cruise industry is likewise sensitive to change.

“Everybody is looking for the newest, most innovative thing. We’ve seen really creative things with cruise ships: bowling, surfing. Now we’re looking for who else we can bring in.”

She added that other cruise lines are waiting on the success of Norwegian’s solo experiment.

“Now when refurbishing in dry dock, they add balcony state rooms. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw Carnival or Royal Caribbean follow suit by introducing studio cabins,” she predicted. Home Security Systems.

Kick back at an open-air screening or in a movie theater Bajan-style by ordering the local answer to nachos: some salty deep-fried fish balls made from fresh-caught flying fish. And forget a drink — in Barbados, it’s washed down with a bottle of the local tipple, thirst-quenching Banks beer.

Art collector Odetta Medich left her home country of Lithuania to live in Sydney, but she still remembers fondly the unusual snacks and beverages she enjoyed at the movies in the onetime Soviet territory—especially a traditional beerlike drink called kvas.

“We used to buy it outside the cinema from a lady dressed in a white doctor’s coat, serving it from a large rusting cylinder drum with a little tap at the side,” she recalls.

Americans may not drink much beer at the movies like the Lithuanians—at least, legally—but snacking is, undeniably, a central part of cinema-going in the United States, as well as abroad.

And while popcorn may be popular in movie theaters worldwide, there are still traditionalist holdouts in every country, where unusual local treats are still offered at the concession counter.

“You have to order something to eat—it’s a required part of the movie experience,” says Charles Runnette, editorial director of entertainment hub Movieline.com (and occasional T+L contributor).

For travelers, a trip to a subtitled movie in a foreign land is a great way to soak up some culture—and get a taste of what the locals like to munch on while taking in the country’s latest action, comedy, or chick flick. Palates vary widely across the globe, so movie snacking is bound to be an adventure.

In Japan, for example, a country that practically invented quirky comestibles, the movie snacks of choice are baked fish skeletons coated with soy and sugar. South Koreans adore fishy snacks as well, but they also go mad for roasted chestnuts. And in Moscow, VIP theater patrons indulge in—what else—beluga caviar. Home Security Systems.

Legoland will open a new park in Florida in 2011 on the site of the old Cypress Gardens attraction, which closed last fall.

Merlin Entertainments, the owner and operator of Legoland, said Legoland Florida would include resort facilities with accommodations, along with more than 50 rides, shows and other attractions, including Lego models and interactive programs.

The company’s first U.S. Legoland is located in Carlsbad, Calif., and three more are located in Europe, in Denmark, Germany, and near London. Merlin said in a statement that the park in Florida would be its largest. A sixth park is being developed in Malaysia.

Legoland parks are geared to families with children ages 2 to 12.

Cypress Gardens opened in 1936 in the small town of Winter Haven, about 50 miles from Orlando. In the days before Disney, it was a must-see for visitors to Florida, known for water-skiing shows, botanical gardens and Southern belles in hoop dresses. It closed after years of declining attendance.

Merlin Entertainments also operates Sea Life Aquariums. One is located adjacent to the Legoland in Carlsbad and a second is opening this year in Phoenix.

Two Legoland Discovery Centers are also opening in the U.S. this year, in Texas and New Jersey. These are indoor attractions, not theme parks, where children play with Legos for a few hours and interact with Lego exhibits. Hard money training.