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Hurricane Ida Is In Your Caribbean, Messing With Your Cruises
You know the cruising season has begun when the hurricanes and tropical storms lay into the Caribbean; it's just a hazard of the peak season. Still, this week we've been watching the progress of Hurricane Ida, which began way down in Central America and worked its way due north, eroding beaches in Cozumel and Grand Cayman before just not being downgraded back to Tropical Storm in advance of landfall in Mississippi.
Most affected by the storm were two inaugural sailings of Carnival ships, the Fantasy and Triumph from new home ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, respectively. According to CruiseCritic, each voyage is now delayed by a day, turning a 6-nighter into 5 and Triumph's 4-nighter into 3 with no port calls; it's now a "cruise to nowhere."
Tags: Hurricanes / Weather / Mexico Travel / Travel Warnings / Cruise Travel / → All Tags
Hurricane Rick Swatting Cruise Ships Out Of The Way En Route To Baja
If there is something we know about traveling during the late summer thru early fall, it's to buy trip insurance. We're sure some cruisers and Baja vacationers will be finding out the importance of such policies as Hurricane Rick hits Baja Mexico and diverts ships away from holiday ports in order to avoid the 100 mph winds.
Although Rick has already crested in strength and now it peters down to a category 3 hurricane, let us remember that having a category anything storm crash your beach holiday is never positive. Judging the infographic above, Rick is zeroing in on Mexico like a frat boy with fantasies of cheap Patron. With the storm due off the coast from late today through early tomorrow, cruise ships are skipping visits to Mazatlan and possibly even Cabo San Lucas, adding insult to injury for the city that counts on these near-daily cruise ship calls.
Tags: Wine Travel / Mexico Travel / Top Chef / Rick Bayless / → All Tags
'Top Chef Master' Rick Bayless Recommends Baja For Wine
For oenophiles in search of a good grape escape, you have options other than Napa. Top Chef Master Rick Bayless suggests heading to Baja California, specifically Adobe Guadalupe, a winery in the Guadalupe Valley near Ensenada. Bayless tweeted that it was one of the best of the 50 wineries in the region.
Adobe Guadalupe's 60-yard vineyard produces varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, Syrah, Cinsault, Mourvedre, Merlot and Viognier. The winery, which makes 5,000 cases of vino each year, names its blends after archangels, such as Gabriel, Serafiel and Uriel.
Tags: Mexico Travel / Scuba / Travel News / Green Travel / → All Tags
Mexico Opening Underwater Museum To Protect Coral Reefs
The Mexican government has a creative new idea for getting tourists to stop overwhelming and destroying the coral reefs around Cancun: distract them with something shiny. So they're building the world's largest underwater museum and filling it with art work, hoping that the new attraction will take some pressure off the regional ecosystem.
There's little environmental risk to the area as the concrete will be PH-neutral. Exactly the opposite in fact: the new rocks will allow algae and small invertebrates to flourish, adding rather than subtracting from the local ecosystem. The construction of the museum itself will probably take a bite out of the local environment, but we assume it'll be done in a minimalist way. Can you imagine the headache if it came out that their Green Tourism museum was, well, not?
Tags: Shopping Travel / Mexico Travel / Cancun Travel / → All Tags
New Perfume Line Promises To Make You Smell Like Cancun
Smells like Carlos & Charlies? Cancun-based cosmetics retailer Ultrafemme is putting out a new line of high-end "Cancun perfumes," designed explicitly to make the workaday woman smell like a girl living it up in Cancun. There's an argument to be made that this is a curious branding decision, given that Cancun was put on this earth to make Key West look classy. Nevertheless, they've got five distinct scents that they're selling in stores throughout the Mexican Caribbean and Los Cabos.
If you can't get down to Cancun, but still want that fresh overcrowded resort tourist trap scent, they've set up a retailer so you can purchase the scents online. All fragrances come in specially-shaped 1.7oz bottles, and each of the five is its own unique treasure.
Tags: Swine Flu / Travel Health / Travel News / Mexico Travel / → All Tags
Swine Flu Has A Grip On Every Country Except Antarctica
At this point in the Swine Flu game, you have to worry more about the situation in your destination than the flu itself; some countries are still quarantining travelers showing flu-like symptoms. These include Singapore, India, Egypt and China, which detained 1,800 Americans this summer although only 200 of whom were sick. Cancel your Mecca pilgrimage plans as well since Saudi Arabia is on the verge of requiring certificate proof of flu shot, and Iran has banned all trips to Mecca.
The Ottawa Citizen makes a valid point in favor of giving up on worrying about Swine Flu:
Another reason not to avoid travel: The virus has spread into practically every part of the world already (though not Antarctica.) You can't avoid it by staying home, and you won't contaminate a foreign country by going there.
Tags: Adventure Travel / Safaris / Discovery Channel / Luxury Travel / Africa Travel / Peru Travel / Mexico Travel / Historical Travel / Tour Packages / → All Tags
The Very Rich Can Hop On Discovery Channel's New Hardcore Adventures
Is this the recession or what? Guess not: Discovery Communications is teaming up with travel provider G.A.P Adventures to launch dozens of luxury trips based on Discovery Channel programming. With prices starting at $2,000 per person for trips ranging from 3 to 24 days, these are not for the faint of wallet.
Locations range from common tourist destinations like the USA and Mexico to places like Botswana, where you'll probably always need a guide. All of the packages come with their share of intriguingly esoteric Discovery Channel twists; one of the USA tours revolves around historic parks in the Southwest. What travelers will see on the 12 day tour, though, ranges from rock formations to deserts to dwellings abandoned thousands of years ago.
The other USA destination is even more nature-oriented, taking travelers all the way up north to Alaska. Adventurers spend 10 days observing wildlife in their habitat, which can be both mindblowingly fascinating and straightforward deadly.
Tags: Traveling With Children / Kids / Lists / Mexico Travel / → All Tags
Lonely Planet Counts Down Top Ten Kid-Friendly Cities Of The World
After what has no doubt been a lengthy summer of Travel Chanel specials on tropical escapes and kid-friendly vacations, Lonely Planet has released their own top ten list: Top 10 Cities to visit with children.
The list flaunts the qualities of some usual suspects, like Rome and London, but it actually surprises by extolling the charms of some cities we wouldn't have considered for a family vacation. For instance, number 8 above Rome and Sydney is Singapore. Everyone knows that it's a very clean place, but that comes with gum chewing being against the law.
Tags: New Routes / Mexico Travel / Airline News / Volaris / → All Tags
Volaris Invites California to their Mexican LCC Fiesta
While this isn't exactly the right time to announce new air routes between Mexico and the United States, actually it is probably the worst time to do so, small Mexican LCC Volaris is charging ahead with plans for summer expansion.
Let's hope that this swine flu is well put to bed by early July, when Volaris begins running daily non-stop flights from Los Angeles and Oakland to two south of the border destinations: Guadalajara and Toluca. Currently the airline flies to over 20 Mexican cities, but this marks its first international jump.
What's in the future for Volaris now that they've made it up into coveted west coast airports? Well, if Southwest has anything to say about it, the little LCC will be their new amigo and passengers will be able to book Volaris flights on Southwest's website and vice versa. One small step for Mexican flights, but one giant leap for international LCCs.
Related Stories:
· Volaris [Official Site]
· Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris adds US routes [Today in the Sky]
· Mexico Travel Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: ToastyKen]
Tags: Swine Flu / Travel News / Mexico Travel / → All Tags
Is Swine Flu Hysteria a US Tourism Conspiracy?
Is the swine flu hysteria a United States domestic tourism conspiracy? We're talking about the huge hubbub around the outbreaks and not the flu itself, which is very much real, but has been hyped as a travel emergency by everyone from the airlines to the cruise ships to public transportation.
According to the New York Post's Page Six, a Mexican businessman attending a fancy-schmancy party in Manhattan offered a fresh take on the media frenzy over the H1N1 virus:
[He] said the flu outbreak was an American conspiracy to keep gringo tourists from traveling south of the border. 'In these recessionary times, the idea is to keep Americans at home spending money here,' the mogul opined. 'First it was the drug cartels, now this pig thing! The Americans are ruining our reputation.'
Them's fighting words if US air travelers, already freaked out at seeing fellow seatmates sporting masks and lathering on anti-bacterial lotion, get confused over whether or not to even trust their own country. And we're totally of the mind that the hysteria is really just an excuse to create new photoblogs, like this gem: Hot Guys In Flu Masks.
Future coffee table book of male models in masks or not, we're keeping our eyes open to the tourism tug-of-war currently going on between Mexico and the rest of the world. If Swine Flu can't even keep Heidi and Spencer north of the border, then we're pretty sure your average vacationing Joe won't be immediately deterred either.
Related Stories:
· Blame America [Page Six]
· Hot Guys in Flu Masks [Official Site]
· How Cruise Companies Are Dealing With Swine Flu [Jaunted]
· Swine Flu Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: OhLaLa Mag]
Tags: Travel Health / Airline News / Mexico Travel / American Airlines / Delta / → All Tags
Swine Flu Sends the Airlines Home Sick With Worry
What ever happened to the good old days of college spring break, when MTV would host beach house parties with Coolio and the biggest worry was to return home with your own personal STD? Now, with the outbreak of the dreaded swine flu virus both above and below the Mexican border, spring breakers are rethinking all those beer bongs as the pandemic spreads and threatens to cripple summer's peak travel for the airlines.
The pork hit the fan yesterday, when the US State Department issued a travel alert for the swine flu in Mexico, prompting airlines like Delta and Continental to allay the fears of their travelers by waiving rebooking fees through the first week of May. Meanwhile, if you're still set on hopping a direct to Cancun, you better hope that the flight still exists; major airlines haven't canceled flights yet, but are "closely monitoring the situation."
Tags: The Real World Cancun / Reality TV Travel / Cancun / Mexico Travel / → All Tags
Stalking The Cast of 'The Real World Cancun'
Summer may be just around the corner yet, but down in the land of a thousand Coronas, Cancún, production on the 22nd season of Mtv's The Real World is already wrapping up. Although the group's job this season will be with StudentCity.com, with the goal to "give people a safe and fun vacation," there's no doubt that the house will be chock full of its own contrived drama and weepy issues. As The Real World is a formulaic show, let's have some fun and attempt to predict where they'll be doing the Four G's of MTV Reality: Groping, Getting, Giving and Going.
