Camping: The Unsung Vacation Choice

My campsite at Fish Creek Ponds.

I’m spending a couple of days in the Adirondacks among hundreds of families who are vacationing in a way that seldom gets any attention in the media.

We’re camping at Fish Creek Ponds, where the state of New York maintains hundreds of campsites, most of them directly on one of several beautiful ponds and creeks. The price of a cabin or hotel room with an equivalent view would be astronomical, yet these sites cost only $22 a night.

The campground has a beach with lifeguards, a basketball court,  a volleyball net, flush toilets and showers. Every day, vendors come through selling firewood and ice cream. A nearby marina delivers canoes, kayaks and rowboats directly to campsites. Last night there was a free folk concert.

The campers come from all over the Northeast with equipment that runs the gamut from the most luxurious Winnebagos to tiny backpacking tents.

I grew up camping, but this was my first trip in a couple of years. It reminds me that many American families vacation this way, without staying in hotels, flying in commercial airliners or even eating in restaurants.

Yet travel magazines and the travel sections of newspapers publish very little about this mode of vacationing. I plead guilty, as well. I haven’t written much about camping. But I’m going to try to do better in the future.

Photo: Fish Creek Ponds, New York

Sunrise over First Pond at Fish Creek Ponds, New York

I shot this photo around 7 this morning from my campsite at Fish Creek Ponds in the Adirondacks.
Read the rest of this entry »

Report: Airline Food Unsanitary

Much of the food served on airliners is prepared in unsanitary conditions, USA Today reports. I would find this much more alarming if I could remember the last time I got food on an airliner.

Hotel Housekeeping: Fee Or Discount?

What’s the difference between a fee for a service and a discount for not using it?

Not much but semantics. The hotel industry is moving toward a la carte room cleaning options, and it hardly matters whether we get a discount for opting out of housekeeping or pay a fee for opting in. The bottom line is the same.

Read the rest of this entry »

300 Passengers Held On Jet For Hours At Bradley

The latest horror story about passengers being confined on a grounded aircraft comes from my own back yard, at Bradley International Airport, as the Associated Press reports.

Read the rest of this entry »

Southwest Sale For Fall Travel

Traveling domestically this fall? Southwest Airlines is having one of its better sales for flights between Sept. 8 and Nov. 17.

Read the rest of this entry »

Careful Priceline Bidding Yields Bonus

Two things to know about bidding for hotel rooms on Priceline:
1) There’s no substitute for doing the homework;
2) Sometimes when you do the homework, you get a little bonus!
Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t Pay For Boarding Passes

It has become a pernicious habit of Las Vegas hotels to charge guests to print boarding passes for their return flights, but there’s no need to pay for that.

Sure, it’s a good idea to check in online well in advance of your flight, as a means to protect your seat. If you’re flying on a standard fare on Southwest, it’s critical to check in early if you want to get a good seat. The good news is that if you don’t have access to a printer, you can check in without printing the pass.

Read the rest of this entry »

Spirit Airlines Wants You Back

Spirit Airlines has resumed flying after a strike by pilots and is promoting “strikingly low fares” to win back the customers it abandoned six days ago. 

Oh, ha-ha. Get it? Strikingly? That light-hearted banter must warm the hearts of the passengers whose vacations were ruined and those who were stranded far from their homes and jobs, forced to buy excruciatingly expensive walk-up fares because Spirit made absolutely no provisions to meet its obligations to them.

To make it all right, Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza has issued a bland apology and promised to win back customers’ trust with lovely gifts and prizes. Spirit is offering a $50 coupon with a flood of fine-print restrictions and 5,000 extra frequent flier miles for new bookings.

I’m sorry folks, but if that woos you back to Spirit, you’re no smarter than the abused spouse who caves to a bouquet of roses and a little whimpering. Put some ice on that black eye, renew the restraining order and don’t fly Spirit Airlines.

Spirit Airlines, Exposed For What It Is

I’ve done some vigorous complaining here about my treatment at the hands of American Airlines on a recent flight, and about the general decline of airline customer service.

But my experience was nothing like — could not hold a candle to – the treatment Spirit Airlines is dishing out to its customers right now.  I could tell you the whole sorry story but let me refer you instead to Joe Brancatelli’s Portfolio.com column. He has, as usual, nailed it, leaving me to post his link and go get another cup of coffee.