Offbeat Travel Articles for September

September 7th, 2010

Here’s what is up for September.

Before anything else, I’d like to announce that we have (finally) developed a contributors page. Want to know who writes for OBT, visit Our Contributors. Also, if you’d like to learn more read our new About Offbeattravel

We’re also pleased to have become an affiliate of CheapoAir. And we’ve found the deal that gives you $10 off when you book through OffbeatTravel.com. It’s good
for hotels (the coupon is on all the pages), and for airfare (coupon is on the index page).

As fall approaches, it really is the best time to travel. The weather in most places is still gorgeous and you won’t run into blistering summer heat. So, consider England, and in particular the Guernsey Channel Islands, beautifully described by Patrice Raplee. And Troy Herrick has provided the plan for a day trip to Catania, (Sicily) Italy. If you haven’t heard of it, well, that’s why we’re called Offbeat Travel.

And speaking of Offbeat, join Fyllis Hockman on her trip to Namibia. This first installment focuses on the desert to the ocean. Intrigued? You’ll also enjoy the stunning photos. For anyone who has enjoyed the delicious frozen custard of Ted Drewes in St. Louis (also a Route 66 icon), read the history by Norma Bolin.

Sometimes, what we need is a personal view of travel and how it affects us. Judith Fein provides a truly intimate look at the tombs in Safed, Israel. Beautifully written.

New Features

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard: A Delicious Route 66 Icon in St. Louis by Norma Bolin No trip along Route 66 or to St. Louis would be complete without a tasting the famously delicious Ted Drewes frozen custard. This is the story behind the custard.
Read more at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard

Guernsey Channel Islands: History, Beauty, and More by Patrice Raplee. Hillsides swathed in colorful bluebells and wildflowers scent the late afternoon air, as golden cows munch contentedly in lush fields. Just beyond the fields, verdant cliffs, surrounded by hand-built stone houses, overlook the sparkling sea and boats drift sedately upon the waves. It is here on Guernsey in the Channel Islands where time slows and serene landscapes provide a vignette of life in harmonious rhythm.
Read more at Guernsey Channel Islands History and Attractions

Daytrip to Catania, Sicily, Italy – An Offer That You Can Not Refuse by Troy Herrick. Through the ages Catania has been devastated by Mt. Etna’s eruptions and lava flows but like the phoenix it always rises again better than ever. Consequently this city is younger than its Sicilian neighbors. Visitors to Catania discover a treasure trove of Baroque architecture and ancient ruins. But these monuments are not just historic site; they are still in use today. All are conveniently located in the compact city center so you can tour them through a leisurely daytrip. Read more at Day Trip to Catania Sicily Italy

Safed Israel: Tales of the Tombs in Israel by Judith Fein.
The hills around Safed are dotted with ancient tombs. To Jewish believers, these tombs of long-deceased tsaddikim, or holy men, are the meeting place between the living and the dead. People make pilgrimages to the burial places to ask for blessings, favors, surcease from suffering. Read more at Tales form the Tombs: Safed Israel

Namibia, Africa: Where Arid Desert Meets Frigid Sea by Fyllis Hockman
They say it is hard to walk in the footsteps of another, but those were exactly the instructions we received when trekking along the ridge of an approximately 350-foot-high sand dune in Namibia, Africa. The old mountain-climbing adage applies here, as well: The slower you go up the mountain, the faster you get there. Read more at
Namibia, Africa: From the Desert to the Ocean Seal Reserve

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Happy Travels!

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When Life Gets Tough this Travel Writer Hits the Road

September 6th, 2010

Okay, so life isn’t going all that great right now, at least in some ways. But I know what to do – I’ve made plans to hit the road, and the airport. Apparently when the going gets tough, the tough leave town. Or at least this travel writer leaves town.

It’s up to Crownpoint to cover the Navajo rug auction, then a press trip to Bartlesville, Oklahoma (expect an article on that destination). End of October I’m combining a trip to visit family in Florida (where all good New Yorkers seem to go when they leave the city — except for me, but then, I’ve always been a bit different) with a visit to VEMEX to learn more about European travel. November brings a week in Indianapolis to see my son, and dear friends.

I think I’ve probably fit in as much travel as I can, but still a part of me is thinking, where else can I go. I have December free…

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My new toy: Garmin nuvi 1300 GPS

September 5th, 2010

I am totally and completely spatially impaired. I don’t say this with pride, but with regret tinged with wonderment. How could anyone be so inept that they have to be led out of a building?

In a few days I’m heading out to Crownpoint New Mexico for the Navajo rug auction. It’s going to be a short article for a New Mexico magazine. Fine. I’m excited. I’m also quite certain I’ll get confused, miss turns, and generally blunder my way into the right place.

During the day, that doesn’t really bother me. But I will be leaving in the dark to find my way back to the motel, about an hour away. The possibilities for disaster are numerous.

My solution to most problems is to throw money at them. That simplifies life — a lot. Then the only real issue is how to get more money, but that’s separate, and not half as upsetting as trying to figure out how to get around, with no sense of direction, in the dark.

I wrote to the Magellan GPS folks to get a review unit of one of the Maestro series – they looked really good, but they apparently didn’t think a review on OffbeatTravel was worth their time. Similarly, the Tom Tom people declined to answer my email.

With time running out I headed to Best Buy to see what they had. I had heard mixed reviews of Garmin and really needed to see the units and how they worked. Difficult to do on the internet.

I can’t say the sales clerk was eager to help me, but when I did let him know that I was buying, not browsing, he did come around.

His response to my question of which brand was simple. Buy a Garmin. Why? Signal strength.

Well, he certainly had me with that. A GPS unit that can’t find a signal in the middle of New Mexico is not much of a help.

And there was one on sale with Lifetime maps, and a mounting kit, and really everything except an AC adapter (which I bought separately).

I spent several hours setting it up – downloading software updates, downloading all the maps, etc. etc. But then I took it for a spin. Initially, not impressive. It is quite certain that my house is further west. And similarly, that my friend Bob’s house is further south. But we do live in the foothills of the Sandia mountains.

It also routed me extremely oddly to his house. But Bob said that even Google has problems with his street. It also didn’t recalculate my route when I turned into a dead end.

Hmmmm.

I was concerned, but it was late and I was tired. I figured I deal with it in the morning.

Fast forward to today. I had picked an address pretty much at random, with the only requirement that it be an area of town I hadn’t yet explored.

The unit all but purred. Yes, it still seems to mislocate addresses a bit, but it was perfect with the streets, directions, and recalculations. And I love the way it let me know not only the turn I have to make, but the direction of the next one as well.

I’m sure all the units do that. But hey, I wouldn’t know. I only know the unit I have.

I have an email in to customer service and hope to actually speak on the phone to a real human before I head out on my Crownpoint adventure. But Jack doesn’t seem to yell at me when I breeze past what he perceives as my house. Perhaps he figures, he did his job and now I have to do mine.

What do you think? What has been your experience?

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Dresden, Germany: A beautiful city restored, and yet…

July 28th, 2010

I have oddly mixed feelings about Dresden. This is one of the most opulent and beautiful cities in Europe. Only Venice took my heart so completely. As a traveler, I think everyone should see the city, and appreciate the incredible effort that went into rebuilding it from the ruins of the bombing of 1945.

As a person of Jewish descent (born and raised, and now a Unitarian Universalist – unless I get a whiff of what I think may be anti-Semitism at which time I instantly change into major Jew mode), I have to think that Dresden wasn’t and still isn’t exactly contrite about its treatment of its Jewish citizens in the Hitler years. It seems more distancing from the distasteful behavior that took place, and a sense that the bombing of the city made up for any inappropriate behavior, ie. they’ve been punished for any sins they might have committed.

Unlike Berlin that struck me as a city weighted down by its Nazi past, beautiful Dresden seemed more likely to gloss over the Nazi atrocities. There was little mention of that pesky time in which Jews were sent off to die and their property confiscated.

One local guidebook describes the original synagogue as having been destroyed in 1938. Well, that was the night of the pogroms, that ravaged the Jewish communities throughout Germany, and that’s exactly what seems to be missing from Dresden. The context for the disappearance of Jews, and Jewish culture. A trolley tour I took mentioned the public pool and park that was once owned by a prominent Jewish businessman. No mention is made of the fate of this man, it was as if he simply donated his possessions and walked away.

While the devastation of much of the historic beauty of the city of Dresden horrified the world, and many questioned its destruction, at least one historian has noted that this truly beautiful city, was not exactly an innocent city. Frederick Taylor, author of Dresden: Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1945, indicated that Dresden was a Nazi stronghold even before Hitler took power, rife with anti-Semitism. Moreover, during the war it used slave labor of POWs and Jews to do precision work manufacturing. Presumably these workers were so happy to be alive they wouldn’t be sabotaging the works.

So, I’ve written two articles and it frankly required me to divorce my feelings as a person of Jewish heritage from my feelings as a smitten tourist.

The first one The Treasures of Dresden is the love story with Dresden.

The second on Jewish sites in Dresden, required me to confront my feelings about this heart-breakingly beautiful city.

I still haven’t resolved anything at all about it. But I will note the following: According to World Jewish Congress (November of 2009)

– Swastikas have been daubed on the wall of the New Synagogue in the eastern German city of Dresden on the eve of the 71st anniversary of the Nazi’s ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom in 1938. The interior minister of the state of Saxony, Markus Ulbig, condemned the desecration. “We will not allow such things to happen. In Saxony, there is no place for anti-Semitism,” he said. Uhlig paid a visit to Dresden’s Jewish community on Monday.

The report went on to note that:

Historians say the Nazis tested the German public’s reaction to the spasm of anti-Semitic violence and the lack of public outcry led them to press on, culminating in the systematic extermination of Jews launched three years later.

Clearly reminds me of the wise words often attribute to Edmund Burke, although whether he wrote them or not is unclear – All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

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Albuquerque is one great city

June 23rd, 2010

This is going to be a rant, so if you’re not in the mood, I totally understand. I haven’t had breakfast yet and that always makes me cranky.

But I think I’ve just about had it with people who denigrate Albuquerque because it has somehow become cool to do so.

The airport has been called cutesy – cutesy????? It’s filled with several million dollars worth of art and artifacts. It is one of the few in the country that has a definable decor — it’s pure southwest. Definitely not your generic, where-the-heck-am-I airport. It’s human scale and you can walk to all the terminals. We call it the Sunport because it’s your port into our beautiful sunny skies.

Even folks who earn a living pretending to live in the city think it’s cool to say it’s boring. Boring???? We have community theater running every weekend – take your choice of Broadway hit shows to the type of entertainment that would be categorized as off-off-Broadway (hey, I’m a New Yorker and that’s the way I think).

Friends who raved about Santa Fe finally were lured (by me) to Albuquerque and raved about our museums. And they should. We trounce anything anywhere else in the state, and having traveled extensively, we are better than many of the other cities of our size (about 500,000 in the city and about 800,000 in our metro area which includes Rio Rancho).

You want big name entertainment? We have it. The two casino hotels that border the city bring in the headliners. Oh, and yes, you can gamble there, too.

We have three distinct and equally engaging neighborhoods to explore. Old Town is the historic heart and is filled with nooks and crannies of shops, galleries, and restaurants. Each of the plazas was once a hacienda. Nob Hill is our eclectic a bit edgy area with more upscale as well as quirky shopping and restaurants. And Downtown is our compact “city” area. Truthfully, from the New Yorker in me, it’s not really a city-scape, but it has the KiMo Theatre – think pueblo meets art deco – and Skip Maisel for the best prices on silver and turquoise jewelry. It’s also the home of Sumner and Dene, my favorite shopping gallery. It’s filled with art that you can afford to bring home.

Hiking? Ohmygosh – do we have hiking. I won’t even get started on it.

Tours? How about ghost tours and trolley tours

Festivals? Oh, yes! The Gathering of Nations held here every April packs them in. If you want to experience native American culture, this is the city, and that is the festival. If you think you’ve seen hot air balloons, you haven’t. Not until you come to our October Balloon Fiesta when hundreds (yes, several hundreds) of these colorful behemoths lift off into the blue sky.

Take my word for it – people may not give the city the respect its due, but once you visit you’ll love it. Visit the Albuquerque tourism website – ItsATrip.org and see why.

But be careful. I visited Albuquerque (and Santa Fe), went back to New York, sold my house, quit my job and moved out here. And I moved to Albuquerque. It could happen to you.

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Happy to be hitting the road

June 22nd, 2010

It’s been a while, and I’ve missed it. After ending up in the hospital with pneumonia – likely from catching Valley Fever in Arizona in February – and all the assorted tests and freaking out doctors (totally ignoring my attempts to explain the odd and frightening constellation of symptoms that plagued me) – well, it just brought me down.

But, I’ve taken all the tests I intend to take, and blown off the rest. It’s a bit like having a weight lifted. I’m walking a 1.5 miles a day, and feeling good.

Which means, it’s time to hit the road.

I’ll be finishing up the articles on Arizona – just published one on the Verde Valley – Montezuma Castle and Montezuma Well, and Jerome (definitely a quirky and funky art town). And I’m still working on Germany. Dresden is coming next.

But in the meantime, it’s off to Colorado (where I’m told there is NO Valley Fever) so expect some pieces on the Rocky Mountain State.

Then, Maui beckons. Remember when I wrote a while back How Do Travel Writers Vacation? that when I really want a vacation I have to pay for it or I’ll be working. Well, I’m paying my way, and Maui is a vacation.

Which doesn’t mean I won’t write about it. I’m sure I will. But I won’t HAVE to write about it.

Don’t know where else I’ll be going, but I’m happy to be packing my bags once again.

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Hangzhou China: a garden city with ancient temples

June 18th, 2010

Perhaps all countries are filled with contrasts but we rarely see it in our own. The US encompasses a sometimes uneasy alliance of many disparate groups and ideas.

Why would China be anything else? Nonetheless, it’s interesting that in a communist country, capitalism is so in-your-face. Street vendors, artisans, and hawkers who have perfected their relentless techniques.

And, in a country where theism of all kinds is disdained, Chan (Zen) Buddhism, temples, and the ancient cultures are still there.

If I made a list of my favorite cities, Hangzhou would surely make it into the top five.

With the serenity of West Lake, the temples, the restored historic district, and tea plantations, make sure your next trip to China includes the city of Hangzhou. It’s easily reach by train from Shanghai.

There’s a saying in China: In heaven there is paradise, on earth, Suzhou and Hangzhou

Read more at: OffbeatTravel – Hangzhou, China

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Jewish Travel in Berlin, Germany

June 1st, 2010

As anyone who has been reading this blog knows, I went to Germany last November to explore Jewish history sites. It was an emotionally confusing experience and left me trying to sort through a storm of emotions.

I handled it initially by blogging about the storm of emotions, and then by writing single-focused pieces. Kinda like eating an elephant one bite at a time (although truly, I never intend to eat an elephant – any way at all).

I’ve finally been able to write up the whole article. You can read what is essentially a guide to Jewish Travel in Berlin..

Berlin has won my admiration, and Germany has made such incredible strides in tolerance, and openness.

I know many people who are Jewish who to this day feel queasy about a visit. Perhaps the fact that Germany has opened its doors to those of Jewish heritage persecuted under the Nazis will change minds and hearts.

If only Eastern Europe didn’t have such a long history of inviting Jews to come in, and then starting the pogroms to turn them out.

Ah, I see I still have those conflicting thoughts and feelings. Even now that I have truly come to admire Berlin, and now have a German family through my Significant Other. Complete with grand-daughter. And I love them all

Perhaps it’s the confronting of sometimes uncomfortable or conflicting emotions that promotes growth. I sure hope so :)

Anyway, the one emotion I certainly brought back with me is one of closure. And, pride. The Jews of Berlin are still standing.

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Websites try to emulate print publications: Why???

May 30th, 2010

The other day I was surfing the net and came across a travel website where the format was to page your way through a mockup of a print magazine instead of clicking through hot links on a main page.

It certainly looked like a print publication with lots of pretty fonts, and huge gorgeous photos. But no trees were ever killed in its production.

The downside was clear, though. I couldn’t hold it in my hands, I had to peer at the screen to see the tiny print, and if I blew up the image enough to read it, I had to keep moving the mouse around the cyber page.

It was really annoying.

And the worst part was that there were no hot links. No links at all! Nothing to take you to the hotel website, places to read about an attraction. It was truly a dead publication.

So, why???

Money, and the chance to look pretty.

Advertisers don’t pay well for internet sites – in fact, the money made by publishers ranges from dreadful to supporting one or two people. It’s only the mega sites that can truly be said to be financially successful. Too many sites competing for advertising dollars, and no really good model for full-page ads.

Ah, yes. Full page ads, half-page ads. How do you do that on the internet? Through making it look like a print magazine. Now, advertisers know about that. And presumably they’ll pay for it. And, they have to pay for it month after month if they want that ad. They can get circulation data for the magazine – just like they’re used to getting.

And the magazines are seductive to publishers and advertisers.

But do readers like it? Or, does it destroy the interconnectivity that is the joy of the internet?

I hate it. And, I won’t read them. And, you will never find them on OffbeatTravel.com. We update our site several times a week to bring readers fresh information anytime they feel like reading.

Just try that with a fake dead trees format.

What do you think?

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It’s time to visit Libya: Visa limitations are lifted and there’s those UNESCO world heritage sites

May 26th, 2010

It had never occurred to me to visit Libya. I thought of it as the fiefdom of Muammar Al-Gaddafi, but Libya is also home to five quite impressive UNESCO world heritage sites. Read more about visiting Libya and those amazing heritage sites.

Why haven’t we heard about this before? If you’re like me, you just kinda assumed that people in the USA were discouraged by our government from going. It turns out that it was Libya that was doing the discouraging.

According to a spokesperson from Libya Expeditions – “There are no U.S. restrictions to traveling to Libya , this was simply a 5 year long diplomatic impasse with the Libyan side not issuing tourist visas for U.S. citizens because of reciprocity issues.”

It seems our government was reluctant to issue visas, and the Libyans retaliated by not issuing them to US citizens. But apparently the rest of the world was welcomed.

That has changed. A trade and investment pact was signed between Libya and the U.S. last Thursday in Tripoli.

Read more about this new development of interest to world-trotting travelers at Examiner.com

I’m ready to sign up for a trip.

What do you think?

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