Five New ‘Best’ Small Towns

I’m a bit leery of “Top 10″ and “best” lists for travel. The methodology is usually dodgy and it’s hard to understand how the top 10 beaches or small towns or hotels could change so radically from year to year. And yet, while I don’t take them for gospel, I do often find these lists interesting. Sometimes they turn up a place I’d like to visit. USA Today’s  Five Best Small Towns in America is a case in point.

Coins In The Baptismal Font? Who Does That?

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has this sign posted at the entrance.

Check out the final item. Tourists need to be told not to throw coins into the baptismal font? Seriously?

I have seen tourists do some seriously stupid things but nothing quite that crass.

And what’s next? Please don’t drink the holy water?

Saving Cash in Las Vegas

We just got back from Las Vegas, a fun and exciting city designed entirely to suck money out of suckers’ pockets. So here are my top tips for coming home from with at least enough cash to get your car out of the airport parking lot:

1. Time it right. Las Vegas room rates are less predictable than airfares, owing not only to seasonal fluctuations but to the schedules of major conventions and other events. When choosing travel dates, plan well ahead, go directly to the hotel websites, check the rate calendars for the best prices and book those dates. In general, Fridays and Saturday nights cost more. The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a particular bargain.

2. Don’t gamble. If it weren’t a losing proposition for the gambler, casinos wouldn’t exist. If you must gamble, pick a low-stakes game with decent odds so you will lose less money and it will take longer. There’s a single-zero penny video roulette game at The Four Queens downtown where I swear it could take me all day to lose the price of a latte. At that rate, it’s cheap entertainment, not real gambling.

3. Take an airport shuttle to your hotel. The cost of $6 or $7 a person is usually lower than the cost of a taxi, unless there are more than two of you.

4. Bring enough cash. The casino ATMs typically charge $4.95 per transaction, on top of what your bank may charge you. So if you withdraw money to gamble, you’ve already lost before you start playing.

5. Tip the casino cocktail waitresses. Yes, they’ll bring you free drinks but if you don’t tip, they’ll go elsewhere. And if you give them a few bucks in advance and ask them to keep coming, they’ll do that.

The New Face Of Las Vegas

If you haven’t been to Las Vegas lately, have a look at the latest additions to the skyline, as seen from my room at the MGM Grand. It may change again soon — there’s talk of demolishing the unfinished Harmon Hotel because of structural deficiencies.

Spain Is For Wine Lovers

I was just looking at the photos from my recent trip to Spain and this one made me want to go right back.

Yes, that’s a wine rack in a supermarket with Freixenet cava at 5.25 euros and decent red wines from the area for less than 1 euro a bottle.

And all I managed to get back in my suitcase was a bottle of wine from the Bierzo region and a big chunk of the Galician cheese called tetilla — both long gone now. Adios.

Photo: Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain

Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain

I took this photo from the window of my room at the Hotel Plaza in Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain.

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Las Vegas Rates In Orlando

The SpringHill Suites Convention Center in Orlando is offering accommodation via Travelzoo at $39 a night through Sept. 30, excluding Sept. 2 and 3, and otherwise subject to availability.

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Who’s Hurting Tourism In Arizona?

Kidnappings in Phoenix? Dismembered corpses in the desert? E.J. Montini, a columnist for The Arizona Republic, argues that politicians looking for votes are exaggerating the dangers posed by illegal immigration, thus scaring visitors away.

New York Restaurant Week (Plus) Begins

New York’s Restaurant Week kicked off today and lasts until July 25.

I know, that’s two weeks. Well, almost. Saturdays are excluded and some restaurants don’t participate on Sundays, either. And then there’s another restaurant week in the winter, so I guess this is summer Restaurant Week. Or fortnight. Or whatever.

More than 275 restaurants are participating, offering prix-fixe lunches for $24.07 and dinners for $35.  Taxes, tips and beverages are extra.

So if you hanker to dine fancy in New York at a discount, now would be the time to check out the details.

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.