Puerto Rico is associated with the United States, but it's not a state and not a territory, so who governs this island, what it has to do with Red Sox Nation and--more importantly--how you should get there are all great questions.
Luckily for us, the assignment of answering 'em fell into our laps, and we find ourselves writing this to you from the warm confines of the sunny Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Unless you are taking JetBlue from JFK, or one of the small planes from Logan, you are more than likely boarding a ferry in Hyannis, Mass. to get yourself to Nantucket.
Last Friday we took the high speed Hy-Line, which transported us from Hyannis to Nantucket in one hour flat.
As for the Nantucket walk of shame, oh yeah, we did it.
If you read Jaunted, you probably already have a passport. If you don't have one, however, or if your name has recently changed and you haven't bothered to update your passport, the list of places you can travel to by air without one is about to get shorter. A similar law for cruises, water transport and land transport is looming, but has not actually been implemented yet.
After the jump, we provide you with the rundown on what you need to do to get that passport you previously didn't need for jetting off to the Cayman Islands and tending to your offshore bank accounts. This includes how to get expedited service. Act now if a trip is coming up, and you won't have to fly to one of 14 government passport agencies around the country for 24-hour emergency turnaround (which is only honored for actual emergencies).
Good luck, and for chrissake, put that baby to use if you haven't already. Alternatively, you could go Florida or Guam. Or to Burkina Faso with a World Passport printed in Esperanto!
Think you can get to Mackinac Island without our help? Maybe you can, but the journey is very Amazing Race-ish.
Air. Boat. Horse.
Getting There:
If you are flying, more than likely you will first have to get to DTW, Detroit Metro Airport, once there you will want to hop a propeller plane to PLN, Pellston.
Pellston is that cool little rustic airport we told you about earlier this week. Free WiFi, good pub grub, and multiple fireplaces. C'mon, how many airports have even one fireplace, let alone more than one.
From Pellston you hop on the Mackinaw Shuttle to the ferry terminal. Roundtrip shuttle ride will run you $20.00.
Now you have to get from flat land to the rock, which means crossing the Straights of Mackinac. Arnold Transit Co. was our ferry of choice, though it looked like there was another option. The roundtrip ferry ride is an additional $20.00, oh and don't lose your little red ticket or the ferry wench will make you pay $12 to get off the rock--not that this happened to us or anything.
Once you arrive on Mackinac island your transportation trifecta is not complete until you take the horse cabby to your hotel. Yup, horse it or hoof it. That is the roadblock. We chose hoof it, because hoofing it up to the Grand Hotel was another $4.50.
While you might think we are a bit tight with a buck, think about this. From Downtown Manhattan to JFK cost us a flat $45.00 in a cab. From Pellston Michigan to Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island? $44.50. Think about it.
Antwerp, Belgium's second city, is a fourty minute train ride from Brussels.
Once at Antwerp Centraal Station you will need to take a tram--#15 or #2--downtown to Groen Plaats.
From here you are ready to explore all of Antwerp's boutiques, street art, cafes, bars, nightclubs, cartooneries, and the Schelde River.
What can't be explored easily on foot can be seen via rental bike.
Antwerp and Brussels are definitely rival cities. The Antwerpians we spoke with see themselves as the antithesis to Brussels. Think New York/LA, or Sydney/Melbourne, on a lesser scale of course, after all, this is Belgium.
The first thing you should know about Harbour Island is how to get there.
Most travel media outlets let you know that the only way to get to Harbour Island is by boat, but they don't tell you all the details.
Don't worry, getting to Harbour Island isn't nearly as hard as it sounds, as long as you are willing to fly on smaller planes where the passenger next to you is apt to be drinking a Kalik out of a paper bag--no joke.
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by markj
