TripCart :: The Travel Blog

Strong Bag Tags

After a recent post with advice about how to increase your chances of holding on to the bags you check through at the airport we got a reply from Rob whose advice was: "Any luggage tag that can be ripped off is dangerous, because thieves do exactly that. They rip off the tag at the airport and now that they have your address and know you are on vacation, they can rob your house. That's why leather luggage tags or any stronger material are the best idea!" 

Well, we think we found the answer.  MyTags are 7" long and are more durable than leather, they also  include two clear pockets, one for your itenarary and the other for your address and phone number.  However, even though you can get your name printed on them, they're still kind of pricey at $10 a pop.

(thanks happy hotelier)

Your Unwelcome Hotel Guests

Ever wondered just how clean your hotel room really was?  It's probably better if you don't think about it.  According to a recent piece on Concierge, it appears that most hotel rooms are a lot grosser than we'd like.  They evaluated three tiers of hotels from five-star to economy accommodation and found that they were all pretty filthy.  E. Coli was found pretty much everywhere including the ice buckets, telephone and alarm clocks.  In the economy rooms it wasn't just E. Coli but fecal matter that was found on the desk chair and the bedroom floor.  Fear not, while this is pretty gross it's not that harmful-

For the sake of comparison, the average hotel room may be cleaner than the average household and less risky to your health than sitting near someone with a cold on a long-haul flight.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for when it comes to cleanliness and the best thing to do is to try not to think about it too much.  Spend your time enjoying the mini bar instead.   

Roger, Roger. Why Do We Say "Roger?"

Ever wondered why pilots and truckers on their CB radios always say "Roger?"  The Straight Dope has the answer-

Pilots and other military types say “roger”  to acknowledge receipt of a message or  instructions. “Roger” at one time was the phonetic designation for the letter R, which in turn stood for “received.” Why not just say "received"? From a safety perspective, it makes  sense to use standardized language, particularly when dealing with international operations. An American pilot may not understand German, but they both understand aviation terminology. The International Civil Aviation Organization oversees this standardization and disseminates it accordingly.

The use of “roger” isn't all that old. In the military's phonetic alphabet, "roger" didn't become the designation for R until 1927. (Previously the designation had been "rush.") The first citation given by the Oxford English Dictionary for “roger” in the sense of "received" dates from 1941, coinciding with U.S. entry into WWII. The term made the big time in 1943, when the Army Signal Corps incorporated it into one of its procedural manuals.

In 1957 "roger" was replaced by "romeo," the current designation, but by then "roger" = "received" was so entrenched that the brass knew better than to try and change it.

As for the use of “roger, roger” in Phantom Menace, the consensus seems to be that it's a sly (OK, not that sly) reference to Airplane (1980). The co-pilot in the latter movie, played by Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was named Roger Murdock. This was the pretext for such lines as:

Captain Oveur (Peter Graves): Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?

Variations on this theme include Oveur/over and clearance/Clarence. Trust me, it's pretty funny in the movie.

As for Roger’s last name, “wilco” dates from the same time, and is simply an abbreviation of “will comply.”  So the pilot who invokes our friend Roger Wilco is saying “I understand you, and will follow your instructions,” only cooler and shorter.

(thanks gadling )

Atlanta Still Has World's Busiest Airport

We reported a few months ago that Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport was America's busiest but in a statement released today by the Geneva-based Airports Council International Atlanta's airport also takes the prize as the world's busiest with about 85 million people passing through in 2006.  Chicago's O'Hare (76 million) came in second followed by London's Heathrow (67.5 million).  The rest of the top 10 included Tokyo's Haneda (65 million), LAX (61 million), Dallas-Fort Worth (60 million), Paris' Charles De Gaulle (57 million), Frankfurt (53 million), Beijing (48.5 million), and Denver with 47 million. 

Google Maps - Now With Traffic

Google Maps keep getting better.  They've recently added traffic patterns for major cities (an option that was only previously available on mobile versions of Google).  To check it out just click on the "Traffic" button that now appears next to "Map."  Gray is for the places where they don't have data, Red means that traffic is at a crawl (less than 25 miles per hour), Yellow means that traffic's going between 25-50 miles per hour, and Green means everything's moving along just fine.

(thanks google operating system)

The T-List - Travel & Tourism Blogs

T-List stands for Tourism/Travel list. This concept have been used in the past with the Z-List. This time, it’s up to travel and tourism bloggers to be discovered. ; )

Instructions
- Write a post.
- Copy/paste the link list from the post you’ve discovered the T-List into it.
- Make sure the links are active and correct.
- If your blog is on the list, remove it’s not a self-promotion post. As Tim Fehlman (Z-List) said : “Don’t worry, because if your name is on mine, it’s on others and will spread.”
- Add your favorite tourism and travel blogs on it.
- Add the url of the blog where you’ve discovered the T-List as well.
- Publish the post.
- People will notice the T-List and continue it.

Here is the list

Hotel Blogs
Les Explorers
Chrispitality Media Blog
A Luxury Travel Blog
Travel Rants
Travolution Blog
BootBlog
Erin Julian
My Travel Backpack
Happy Hotelier
The Travel PR Blog
Cheapest Destinations
Radar

We'd love to hear about other great travel blogs you might know about.

(thanks les explorers) 

6 Sites for Travelling Super Smart

We're always trying to find ways to travel cheaper, or smarter, or quicker, or more efficiently.  CNNMoney.com has found a selection of 6 websites they think will help-

• ExpertFlyer.com - helps you score super-cheap First Class tickets and lets you know which flights are most likely to give you an upgrade
• JiWire.com - a list of over 130,000 WiFi hotspots that are searchable by location and vendor
• FlightStats.com - real-time arrival and departure info for almost every flight in the world
• Zagat.com - user-submitted reviews started with Zagat way before there was even a web
• HopStop.com - if you're going to be in Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington then HopStop can sort you out with all of your public transportation needs
• AthleticMindedTraveler.com - where to work out in alomst 60 cities

Lovely Prices for Tours for Two at the MOMA

Love is in the air this month and for the next week you and your significant other can make googly eyes at each other while you walk around after hours at the Modern Museum of Art in NYC-

This February, enjoy a romantic after-hours Tour for Two of MoMA's galleries! A special 50% discount is available on Tours for Two taking place in February, Saturday through Thursday, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. These private guided tours include collection highlights such as Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night and Henri Matisse's Dance (I).

(thanks newyorkology)

Where's the bag?

Your best bet these days is to travel without bags if you can get away with it.  Unfortunately the TSA is making more and more people check luggage which is resulting in more and more mishandled bags.  This past year the airlines outdid themselves by mishandling just over 4 million bags.  These bags were either damaged, mis-routed, or all together lost.  Southwest Airlines flew just under 100 million people and mishandled just over half a million bags.  Delta Airlines came in a respectable second place with 456,000 mishandled bags and US Airlines got the bronze with 420,000.  On average 6 bags per 1000 people were mishandled but for those lucky enough to fly on regional carriers the rate often doubled.  Check out the typo in the picture above.

Related posts: Skycaps Give Passenger Complimentary Suitcase Full of Trash • Strong Bag Tags • Hold on to Your Luggage

Related travel guides: Getting to Manhattan and New York City • Getting to Washington D.C. • Getting to Honolulu, Waikiki and Oahu, Hawaii • Getting to Los Angeles, California • Getting to San Francisco, California

Recommended Highlights in the region:  Arundel Mills Mall - Hanover, Maryland • Willowbrook Mall - Wayne, New Jersey • Ala Moana Center Mall - Honolulu, Hawaii • Fashion Valley Mall - San Diego, California • The Great Mall of the Bay Area - Milpitas, California

Interstates as Subway Lines

This is by far the easiest way to understand the nation's interstate system.  Artist Chris Yates has designed this beautifully simplistic map of the US interstate system in a style similar to subway maps.  Pretty neat.

San Ysidro is the Celebrity Ranch De Jour

In little Montecito, California, lies the 500-acre San Ysidro Ranch.  It sits in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains and looks out over the Channel Islands.  There are 17 miles of trails situated amongst luxury bungalows that feature hot tubs and wood-burning fireplaces amongst other sumptuous amenities.  Hollywood bigwigs have been getting hitched here for over 60 years, starting with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in 1940.  Jackie and JFK also got married here as well Julia Roberts and Jennifer Lopez.  If you're in the mood to live it up like a celebrity (and have the means) doubles start for around $600 a night.

(thanks concierge)

AirTran Hates Little Kids but Likes Big Ones

We told you about AirTran's refusal to keep an out of control toddler on one of their planes a few weeks ago, well it turns out that while the budget airline may not be big fans of little kids but they are big fans of college kids.  They used to have a program called X-Fare which now has the spiffy new name AirTran U.  If you're of college age (18-22) you can hop on almost all AirTran flights for a mere $69 until Christmas time.  It'll cost you $89 if you want to fly in or out of Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco or Seattle (basically anywhere not on the East Coast).  Any flight with a layover is considered two separate flights, so check the map to see if a connection is required before you book.

Vote for the Freddie Awards

It's time to vote for the Freddies.  The Freddies, named after British civil aviation revolutionary Sir Freddie Laker, are the Oscars for frequent flyer programs.  Voting will go on until the end of February with the winners being announced a few months later.  You can vote on different topics including: best member communication, best web site, best awards redemption, best customer service, etc.  So here's your chance to laud the praises of your favorite airline or to stick it to the one that's been sticking you.  Happy voting.

(thanks jaunted)

MapQuest Does Gas

MapQuest has gotten into the mashup business, and they're helping us find cheap gas.  They also include prices for diesel, biodiesel, and hydrogen.  It's interesting to see the differences in gas prices across the country and rewarding to find the cheapest gas (most cities have at least a 50 cent difference in price).

(thanks mobissimo)

Maxim Posts the Top 10 Most Horrific Plane Crashes in Movies

Obviously it's best to keep this to yourself if you're loved ones are scared to fly, but Maxim has recently posted their picks for the top 10 "most horrific movie plane crashes."  Each movie is accompanied with a small clip of the gruesome scene in question.  If you don't have time to check them out here's the list of winners-

1. Con Air
2. Die Hard 2
3. Flight of the Phoenix
4. Airplane!
5. The Edge
6. Cast Away
7. Final Destination
8. Fearless
9. Fight Club
10. Alive

The States with the Best Websites

Every state in the Union has a department of tourism responsible for luring tourists to its charms but some states are better at it than others.  Smiley Cat takes a look at every state's official website and compares the good, the bad and the ugly.  Top spots were given to California, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.  We put up our vote for the ugliest, nothing against Wisconsin, mind you.

Coachella - Getting Ready to Rock

Coachella, a huge (by American standards) annual music festival in Indio, California (just outside of Palm Springs) has released their list of bands scheduled to perform over three days from April 27-29th.  The main headliners include: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, Sonic Youth, Faithless, The Decemberists, Kings of Leon, Rage Against the Machine, Air, Tiesto, DJ Shadow, The Roots and about a hundred other bands.  Hip-hop seems to be sorely underrepresented.  Beware that tickets for this musical extravaganza are from cheap with the 3-day pass running in excess of $250 and a day ticket (the first day looks to be the best day to attend with Sonic Youth, Felix Da Housecat, DJ Shadow, Faithless, Rufus Wainright, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and a bunch of others) is $85.  The Europeans are spoiled by music festival after music festival practically every weekend of the summer, here's a journalist from The Guardian complaining about last year's Coachella.

AirTran's Passengers: 1 | Toddlers: 0

The Kulesza family were on their way from Florida to Massachusettes but after they boarded the plane their daughter Elly went apes.  The plane was already running late and to be fair to the other 100+ passengers on the plane AirTran decided to ask the family to get off the plane.  An AirTran spokeswoman said that the Kulesza's daughter "was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat."  The Kulesza's got off the plane but raised a fuss and were very offended by the whole affair despite AirTran putting them on another flight the next day and offering them three round-trip tickets.  We say good for AirTran - if you can't control your kid, you should drive.

Southwest Airlines Almost Kills a Liver Transplant Patient

This past Sunday Richard Brown almost died due to the callous recklessness of a Southwest Airlines agent.  Mr. Brown, who has Hepatitis-C, had tried to get into the Mayo Clinic but after being turned down he was referred to a hospital in San Francisco instead.  He went to the airport in Scottsdale and attempted to board a Southwest plane bound for SFO but was stopped by a ticket agent who insisted Mr. Brown buy a second ticket due to his size.  Mr. Brown had no money for an additional ticket and his additional size was one of the side-effects of having a failing liver.  Southwest refused to relax their rules and phone calls were getting him nowhere, eventually a Southwest agent in Dallas footed the bill for his ticket themselves so that Mr. Brown could finally be on his way.  For all the details head to The Consumerist.

The Best Places to Kick It at the Airport

Little perks at the airport can go a long way to make your flying experience much more pleasurable.  Recently many airports throughout the US have been making upgrade to their airports in hopes of luring more business travelers.  CNN Money has compiled a list of their favorite airports for layovers:

Minneapoplis-St. Paul International (MSP)

This Northwest Airlines Hub has an average wait time at security of less than 15 minutes as well as airportwide WiFi - you can also be get to Mall of America in under a quarter of an hour.

Charlotte Douglas International (CLT)

An alternative to the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, this airport keeps security waits to less than ten minutes on average and also features airportwide WiFi.

Denver International (DIA)

Planes arrive on time to Denver more than anywhere else in the US, airport WiFi for $10 a day is available and full-body massage can be had in two terminals.

San Francisco International (SFO)

5 minutes is the average amount of time security will bother you at SFO, $10 a day WiFi and a full service spa are also available.

Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW)

This airport now has a pimpin' new passenger train as well as "comfy" Herman Miller chairs in their lounges.

(thanks gadling)

Followup: Find the Best WiFi Beaches in Southern California

Yesterday we talked about the best WiFi beaches in the US, but Ken Hanscom over at Some Life made two very good points:  1) the actual beach locations sometimes covered quite a large area and 2) there was no mention of whether or not the WiFi was free. Ken's added a Google map with the exact locations of free WiFi beaches in Southern California (unfortunately, it's only available in an iFrame).  Here's Ken's Top 10 list of free WiFi beaches in Southern California (the WiFi is either on the beach or very nearby) -

1. Avila Beach
2. Hermosa Beach
3. Huntington Beach
4. Laguna Beach
5. Long Beach
6. Malibu
7. Newport Beach
8. Oceanside
9. Pismo Beach
10. Redondo Beach

Top Beaches in the US with WiFi

A new travel blog called Geek About has recently posted their list of the top 10 beaches in the world that also offer WiFi.  So, when you take time off, if you still need to be plugged in, this list should help make planning your next trip to the sea a little easier.  The beaches from the United States that made it into the top 10 include: Clearwater Beach, Florida - this beach off of Tampa has multiple WiFi outlets; Sunset State Beach, California - just south of Santa Cruz, this beach has tons of activities and camping available as well as internet access;  Hermosa Beach, California - one of the more happening hotspots in LA for beach-goers, there's also plenty of WiFi via AT&T and iPAss;  Waikiki Beach, Hawaii - probably the most beautiful spot on the list, it would be a shame to be latched to the loptop here but it still beats the office.

Airport Security - Finally Its Fun

Airport Security is usually a drag, but for once it can be a little entertaining.  Computer game-making anarchists persuasive games have just released a new game based on the arbitrary rules that the TSA have come up with.  The point of the game is to seize the proper items from passengers (which constantly change) without violating their rights and without the line getting too long.  The New York Times has some in depth coverage: "It came out of a desire to demonstrate the absurdity of these arbitrary changes that appear to have nothing to do with actual security and everything to do with what people call security theater," the creators said.  At least now you'll have a new game to play on your iphone while you're waiting in line. 

(thanks collision detection)

fastfoodmaps.com

Now it's so much easier to get your trans-fat on.  The next time you're driving around like a chicken with its head cut off looking for a Taco Bell you can whip out your mobile and head towards fastfoodmaps.com.  They've got almost 50,000 fast food joints online for cities and towns all over the country.  They point to McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Carl's Jr and Hardee's, but we're still holding out for Waffle House.

Watch Out for WiFi Watchers

We missed this post over the holidays, but Bettnet warns us about hooking up to just any old random WiFi port in the airport.  The hackers out there:

I was recently at New York’s JFK airport in the JetBlue terminal, where they have prominent signs offering free wi-fi, courtesy of the airline. But when I went to connect, I noticed that several options were available including one labeled “default” and another labeled “JetBlue free hotspot.” It turns out that the former was the actual free hotspot and the latter was the honeypot. (Of course, JetBlue could have averted some of this by actually renaming their router something useful like, say, “JetBlue free hotspot” instead of leaving the unhelpful “default” moniker it came out of the box with.)

What tipped me off was that the “JetBlue free hotspot” was labeled in my Mac OS X “Airport” (i.e. wi-fi) menu as a “Computer-to-Computer network.” On Windows I think this might be called an “Ad-hoc network”. Without getting into too many technical details, this means that someone has made their own computer appear to be a wi-fi router. If you connect to this network on an imperfectly protected Windows laptop, this hacker will have access to your data from his own computer. Even if you’re on a properly configured laptop, Windows or Mac, they’ll still be able to harvest any passwords or other data you attempt to send while trying to connect to web sites.

Lifehacker suggests using your cell phone as a modem as an alternative.

Spiffing-up Seattle

Good things are going on in Seattle.  A nasty fuel storage center bordering the Puget Sound waterfront is now the site of the Olympic Sculpture Park due to open next weekend.  It will feature 21 sculptures by well-known artists.  The park runs a cool $85 million and is part of a project to expand the Seattle Art Museum, another beneficiary of some of the Microsoft/Starbucks money that has been filtering into the public sphere lately.  No matter where the money's coming from it's always nice to see some urban renewal, too bad that for now it's too cold to enjoy it.

related travel guides: northwest washington and the cascades

Marketing your Misery at the Airport

Soon you may have something new to do while your waiting in line for your chance to be searched by the TSA - after a six month test program at LAX it looks like the Transportation Security Administration will begin to allow companies to market their wares via the security bins where belts and shoes and keys (or babies) must be placed before going through the metal detectors.  Companies will pay the airport for the right to provide millions of dollars worth of trays and tables to the TSA at security points.  Airports are eager to join the program, and passengers will have even more things to annoy them while they wait in line.

Menus for Me and You

Why haven't all restaurant menus been online since the first internet bubble?  Who knows?  All we know is that Menutopia is trying to make amends.  Currently their smooth little website works in only 8 cities in the U.S. (Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington DC) but they claim to already have over 16,000 menus on hand.  There is also an option to read user reviews about the different restaurants but it doesn't look like anyone's bothered to do it yet (probably because they're all over at Yelp).  Any website offering restaurant listings really should have access to their menus, we're kind of surprised this hasn't already been done.

Update:  We got an email from MenuPages today, they've got over 60,000 reviews for restaurants throughout NYC and have recently added 6 new cities:  San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC and Chicago.

Road Vengeance

Tired of getting cut off by some idiot?  See some cutie you'd like to talk to again?  Have some nice guy let you merge into his lane?  Now there's a website that'll let post people's licenses and you can either tag them with an award, a flag, a hazard or a wink.  They've got over 50,000 members and over 25,000 plates have been tagged.  There's usually between 100-200 new license plates submitted daily.  This is a great way to vent without the double-barrel shotgun having to get involved.

(thanks boingboing)

Watch What You Eat

AirlineMeals.net has garnered a thriving community of hardcore frequent fliers who love to catalog what they eat when they fly.  Their easy to use interface allows you to peruse the in-flight meals offered by hundreds of airlines from around the world.  While this is pretty cool, the best part of the site is the photos they of have airline food from yesteryear - their catalog dates back all the way to the late 50's (a 45-year-old TWA meal is featured above) and it doesn't look like airplane food has changed very much since then.  Other neat sections on the site include the rundown of food found in airline lounges and their shots of the kitchens where all the food is prepared.  There's also a section on those specialty meals that its always a good idea to order so that you get served first.