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Tag: holiday travel View All Tags

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Relive Christmas In Bethlehem, PA, A Great Town No Matter The Season

January 5, 2010 at 11:29 AM | by Jennifer Kester | 0 Comments

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania's best known as Christmas City. It really makes the most of its moniker, with a big "Star of Bethlehem" hanging high above the city and Main Street decked out with fresh garland and white lights during the winter.

But Bethlehem isn't only a holiday destination. Located in the Lehigh Valley, only about 15 minutes from Allentown, Bethlehem also offers some great attractions after Christmastime and the bonus is that you won't have to elbow your way through crowds.

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Addressing TSA In-Flight Restriction Rumors From The Sky

December 29, 2009 at 1:04 PM | by markj | 1 Comment

The rumors of in-flight entertainment black outs have been, in our experience, greatly exaggerated. We are currently high over Pennsylvania on board a Virgin America flight heading from JFK to SFO. Granted, the flight is domestic, and we are far from entering the last hour of the flight, but so far (and this is our second flight today) it is business as usual.

Gogo/Google WiFi is four bars strong, the seat belt sign is off, we are free to move about the cabin, and personal electronics are in full use, obviously. As for all that crazy secondhand chatter about knee-jerk domestic restrictions—well, we just aren't seeing it, at least at the moment. Quite possibly it is pilots discretion, but it is even more possible that the 140-character twumor (twitter rumor) mill was out of control. After all, how many celebrity death hoaxes have there been on Twitter anyway?

Have your own in-flight tsa restriction rumors to file? Go ahead and log 'em in the comments below.

Related Stories:
· Travel Security updates [Jaunted]

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American Airlines Holiday E-Card Getting Good Attention For Good Reasons

December 29, 2009 at 9:04 AM | by Omri | 0 Comments

American Airlines created a pithy little holiday e-card that they sent out to AAdvantage customers, no doubt with dreams of viral success. So far so good, and nothing different than what any other advertising department does. What's surprising in this case is that they're actually succeeding, with an outlet no less distinguished than the Chicago Tribune writing about the card's success on Twitter and Facebook.

While while we would normally ascribe this to someone passing a press release to someone else, in this case we're kind of ready to believe the hype. The card is actually pretty good, especially for travel advertising that's trying to pretend it's not travel advertising. There are some parts that get a little It's A Small World-esque, with banal lines like "Savor What's Good About Now." But the overall video is fast-paced and it's cute, a delicate combination that keeps it upbeat without turning it into a saccharine mush. The slogan at the very end—"Look Up"—is particularly well-chosen.

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The World's Top Three Glittery New Year's Celebrations

December 24, 2009 at 10:05 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

You can drink, you can dance, and you can kiss someone at the stroke of midnight anywhere, but somehow the experience of New Year's has more resonance when you're doing all things in the presence of pyrotechnics or a giant crystal ball covered in lights. Hey, everyone likes something sparkly and exciting, and so we sincerely hope that you get to celebrate the turn into 2010 at one of The World's Top Three Glittery New Year's Celebrations.

3. Paris, France
Paris isn't called "The City of Lights" just for the heck of it; not only will you be able to stuff your face full of cheap Nutella crepes on the street, but you'll be able to do so while walking down a traffic-free Champs d'Elysées, bordered by Christmas light-covered trees and bookended by the illuminated Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde. But with so many historical landmarks and gorgeous buildings, you'll have decisions to make. How about kissing at midnight in front of the Eiffel Tower, as it goes crazy with a lights display? C'est magnifique.

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The Mississsippi River Will Burn Tonight For A Cajun Christmas Tradition

December 24, 2009 at 9:24 AM | by kjb | 0 Comments

Hopefully you’ve made it back from the mall safely, and know you’re ready to sit back and wait for Santa to arrive. However, if you’re a resident of Louisiana you might have a little more work to do before it's time to open up all those presents. That’s because residents gather along the Mississippi River each season to ignite huge bonfires on the banks of the river. There’s a few stories surrounding the tradition’s beginnings, but most seem to agree that the fires light a path for Santa to deliver his goods.

Things were looking iffy earlier this year because the water level was too high, and officials were warning residents that they couldn’t light things up this year. However, the waters have gone down to good-to-go levels so locals will be out in full force to celebrate the season. People have been doing this for about 200 years, so even without the official approval, we’re thinking a couple fires just might have snuck out anyway.

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Venice Is Flooded Again; Everyone Go Wakeboarding!

Where: Venice, Italy
December 24, 2009 at 8:47 AM | by JetSetCD | 2 Comments

The terribly wintery weather currently hitting Europe right now is bringing the lagoon waters of Venice up into the piazzas and reminding us of one of our favorite quirky stories from last year: that of the guy who wakeboarded through a flooded St. Mark's Square. We've posted the video for you again above, and believe us that it's worth watching all two minutes because the Red Bull guy also wakeboards in a canal. This is what happens when you combine horrible weather, a sinking city, and an opportunist tourist on energy drink.

Each year, this high water, or Acqua Alta, hits the Italian city at its weakest time: when the tourists and locals are all in town to celebrate the holidays. It also doesn't help that the lowest (and therefore most affected) place in town is the visitor mecca of St. Mark's Square. When the waters get knee-high here, you'll see Venice become a network of raised platforms as sidewalks—here's a great picture to demonstrate. Come to think of it, we should add "leaving the rain boots behind" to our list of the Top Five Tourist Mistakes in Venice.

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Wherein We Warily Test The Priceline Negotiator's Last-Minute Deals

December 23, 2009 at 1:49 PM | by Heidi Atwal | 0 Comments

Seriously, Shatner?

There've been Priceline gripes a-plenty, but we've also begrudgingly admitted to using "The Negotiator" to wrangle ourselves travel savings when it suits us. In our very, very, very last-minute search for holiday travel deals, what should we stumble upon than a menu of Flights Under $150, expiring tomorrow. *Flash-Act Now!-Flash*

Is The Shatner for real, though? Prices averaging at about $150 round-trip, with some departures the day before Christmas? We had to dig a little deeper to see if Captain Kirk was fooling us with that karate stance and winning grin.

What we found, after the jump.

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Celebrating In The Skies: Virgin America Will Pour You Some Patron

December 23, 2009 at 10:34 AM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments

Welcome to our new feature on the ways that the airlines are making you more comfy and less cranky this holiday travel season—"Celebrating In The Skies." Some airlines just want you to sit down and shut up, but these—thanks to extra treats and smiles—will show you how much they appreciate your flying with them.

Do you happen to be flying on Virgin America in the next few days? If so, be prepared to sit back with a free cocktail, free in-flight WiFi, and the chance to win tickets and an additional gift. You see, back when we chatted with CEO David Cush two weeks ago, he hinted that select flights during the peak holiday travel time might get some freebies, and he's made good on his word.

FREE BOOZE, after the jump.

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O'Hare Delays Make LaGuardia at Christmastime Look Like A Walk In The Park

December 23, 2009 at 8:47 AM | by Jennifer Kester | 0 Comments

We knew we'd encounter the holiday travel rush from our West Coast-to-East Coast flight last night, especially at our final destination, LaGuardia. But it ended up being the least eventful leg of our trip—because of an almost four-hour delay for our connecting flight in Chicago's O'Hare.

O'Hare is known for its frequent takeoff tardiness, but this time the culprit was the small storms in Chicago and East Coast, which delayed flights to New York and D.C., among other places. We saw at least one cancellation, but most flights were just delayed several hours.

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Tweet Of The Week: Happy Holidays, Grouchy TSA Agents!

December 22, 2009 at 5:33 PM | by JetSetCD | 1 Comment

We love Tuesdays. Why, you ask? Because the day brings many travel tips and quips as "Travel Tuesday" on Twitter, and we're going to share our favorite with you. Got an avid travel twitterer we should follow? Let us know.

Today is one of the worst travel days of the year, screw the days before Thanksgiving. This week we've dealt with flight delays and cancellations and winter weather like crazy. It also doesn't help that eight year ago today was the day that Richard Reid, now known as the "shoe bomber" tried to conceal and detonate explosives hidden in his shoe during a transatlantic flight. Luckily he was detained and found out before he even boarded the plane, but his legacy was to make all air travelers from that point on remove their shoes for the security screening.

We've seen all sorts of TSA talk on Twitter today, what with so many transiting through airports today and hauling liquids and wrapped gifts. One traveler, who won't be flying for a few days, makes a great point however:

Wrapped presents but foud out TSA says not to even for checked bags! But I fly in on Christmas. When am I suppose to wrap them?

Although airlines and airports have used today to voice this warning on their twitters, that wrapped gifts aren't allowed, apparently people aren't paying attention. Unless the wrapped gift in your luggage is for the TSA screener, don't wrap it.

Related Stories:
· @daniellemiranda [Twitter]
· Travel Tweet of the Week [Jaunted]

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Have A Hitchcock Holiday At A San Francisco Theater

December 22, 2009 at 3:51 PM | by Heidi Atwal | 3 Comments

It's 36-hours before Christmas, and we're readying ourselves for a full day of A Christmas Story airings, with a little Love Actually and It's a Wonderful Life sprinkled in-between. 'Tis the season for themed-movies—heck, even Die Hard is getting a lot of airtime—and as much as burrowing underneath a Snuggie with TiVo-ed shows sounds enticing, we'd much rather get out to avoid cabin fever.

San Francisco cinephiles and holiday movie lovers have plenty of reason to do so with two programs designed for those whose idea of cheer is cozying up to the big screen. The first is a very kid-friendly series titled "Christmas with Walt Disney." It runs from December 24-January 4 at The Walt Disney Museum, highlighting holiday miscellany like The Nutcracker Suite from Fantasia, Pluto's Christmas Tree, and "rarely seen home movies of Walt and his family."

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Celebrating In The Skies: Imps And Vikings On Iceland Express

Where: Iceland
December 22, 2009 at 2:26 PM | by JetSetCD | 0 Comments


Welcome to our new feature on the ways that the airlines are making you more comfy and less cranky this holiday travel season—"Celebrating In The Skies." Some airlines just want you to sit down and shut up, but these—thanks to extra treats and smiles—will show you how much they appreciate your flying with them.

Can low cost carrier Iceland Express just hurry up and fly to Newark already? They've already got several Europe routes and Newark won't start until summer 2010, so we're jealous that it'll be only Euros enjoying the magical holiday surprises in store onboard Iceland Express flights this week.

If you are lucky enough to be flying to Iceland for their four daily hours of sunlight at this time of the year, where's what you'll find onboard your flight:

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