Chronicles of On The Road Travel

Roughing it in Luxury

While thousands of people were mourning the premature burn of Burning Man's namesake in the Nevada desert this Labour Day Weekend, we explored the California wilderness with a little camping of our own. Let me preface this by saying that although we travel frequently and have done our fair share of backpacking in the past, we are not avid 'campers'.  In fact the last time we set up a tent Seth spent a good portion of the night sleeping in our Jetta.

So, in an attempt to ease into our long weekend at Big Basin with friends we drove down the coast to Santa Barbara for some 'luxury camping' at El Capitan Canyon. We had visions of secluded cabins, luxury cooking facilities, outstanding views, ipod speakers, walks on the beach, etc. We were disappointed to find that for the price of an outstanding B&B we had a fairly basic cabin, located 30 feet away from another basic cabin that was overflowing with kids, that featured a run down picnic table, an empty barrel for a fire (without wood), no views and definitely no iPod dock. It took a day of wishing we'd chosen the luxury B&B up the coast before it dawned on me... El Capitan was a great idea for true campers who just wanted an extra touch. It was not a good choice for people like us who were looking for a luxurious entry to the campground. After spending two nights on a lopsided tent floor in Big Basin I realized that the small luxuries El Capitan did provide (clean bathroom, jacuzzi, comfortable bed) were a valuable proposition. Just a bit too pricey for my vacation expectations. A closer look at the website shows that they do not actually describe themselves as a luxury campground - this is a term that was used in an article we'd read way back when.. The site more accurately describes the campground as "Enjoy services and amenities typically found in a traditional resort, yet it’s minimalism without deprivation…comfort without over-indulgence. The glories of nature without the overbearing manufactured hand of man."

Travelers to Peru can now take advantage of a similar luxury. Mountain Lodges of Peru has just launched its Lodge to Lodge Hike to Machu Picchu, which allows travelers to hike the Inca Trail with the luxury of finishing your day at a beautiful lodge located on private land. The six day guided trek costs US$2,500 per person (including lodging and meals) - a significant premium to the traditional Inca Trail Trek, but may be just the thing for those who want to rough it in luxury.

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

OTR on the Radio!

I did my first radio interview today on Around the World Radio, an hour-long global travel talk radio show on KZSB AM in Santa Barbara. Aside from my over-zealous use of the word 'absolutely' it was actually a lot of fun. The OTR interview followed just after one of my favorite travel stars, Teresa Rodriguez Williamson of Tango Diva, and was focused on OTR travelers and the highlights of Latin America.

Each program starts with Travel News; the latest information about travel bargains, travel industry news and entertaining insights. Following Travel News are four travel segments. Each segment is about ten minutes in length. In-studio guests or call-ins from distant ports-of-call make for the lively, conversational destination reports.

If you want to hear a rebroadcast of today's show, you can listen to live streaming online this Saturday morning at 10:00am PST. Click here to go to the Around the World Radio website and click on the 'Listen' button on the left hand side.

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

OTR Accepted to the Trusted Travel Blogs Network

We are very happy to announce that Chronicles of On The Road Travel has been nominated and accepted to the Trusted Travel Blogs Network. The Trusted Travel Blogs Network is a community project much like an open-source project: they believe that through building a community, the problem of unreliable travel blogs can be minimized for readers.

We are honoured to be listed amongst some of our favorite travel blogs, including: Brave New Traveler, Nerds Eye View, and Vagablogging.

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

The Best Airfare Websites

Bob Cowen at Internet Travel Tips just released the results of his comparison study of airfare websites. The study included Expedia, ITASoftware, Kayak, Orbitz, SideStep, Southwest and Travelocity, qualifying them by the speed and ease of which they display the best prices and fligths.

Kayak was the winner with the best user-interfaced for quickly finding the lowest price and the most convenience. However, the site does suggest using Kayak to locate the best price and then going directly to the airline's own website to avoid ticketing fees and additional schedule change costs.

             

Another site worth pointing out is Vayama - a new one that I came across recently. Although it has a nice interface (if a little bit slow), what I like most about it is that it aggregates the smaller, international airlines that you might not even know existed. I haven't used it yet, so can't comment on its efficiency, but thought it was worth pointing out for those planning international travel.

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

Offset Your Conscience

With so much recent talk about carbon gas emissions and their impact on the environment it’s hard not to feel but a little self-conscious about jumping on a plane to embark on a vacation or business trip.  While we don’t currently have alternatives for all our flying needs (we can choose to do a video conference over traveling to a business meeting but it would take the better part of a week to bus it down to Guatemala from Canada, by which time you would have to turn right back around if you’re on the typical 10 day vacation), there are things we can do to travel with a cleaner, greener conscience through 'climate-neutralizing' initiatives by companies like Offsetters.  Offsetters, a Canadian based company, has an affiliate program with WestJet whereby if you book a ticket on Offsetters’ site (guaranteed to be the same price as if you book directly on WestJet’s site) you will also gain a carbon credit, which is then invested by Offsetters on projects that will reduce carbon gas emissions, resulting in  ‘climate neutral’ travel.  You can also use their flights calculator to figure out how much damage you are contributing each time you hop on a plane.  This gives you the total distance traveled, carbon gas emissions for your trip, and the cost of these emissions.  Traveling from Toronto to Seattle, for example, a distance of 3304 kms., results in 0.722 tonnes of CO2, a cost of $13.63.  You can choose to buy offset credits for your CO2 cost that will be contributed to projects that will lower gas emission around the world, such as efficient cooking stoves in Honduras to help preserve their natural resources and improve their health standards, or restoring the rainforest in Uganda.  The offset may not be perfect, given that some of your contribution must be used to cover overhead costs, but it certainly is a move in the right direction. 

Anyone can buy credits online from Offsetters and the contributions are spread among projects around the globe.  For a list of other companies going ‘climate neutral’ go to David Suzuki’s site. 

Thanks to Geeky Traveler for letting us know about these sites.

This article was posted by Veronica Montero

Travel Advice & Recommendations from Local Experts

The Crystal Ball of Airfare

A few months ago we wrote about a new website, Farecast, that predicts flight prices for certain routes. A great idea for those who are planning in advance (except that the predictions are only for a one-week period). Unfortunately, the folks at the Seattle Times tested out their claim of 75% accuracy and found that the rate was only 61% (which is nearly as reliable as taking a wild guess).

In an effort to curb the skepticism, Farecast has rolled out a FareGuard option, which allows you to buy a $10 insurance policy (on sale now for $3) on their predictions. If Farecast tells you to hold off on buying a ticket with a prediction that prices will fall, and then prices actually rise, they will pay you the difference of what you were originally quoted and what you ended up paying.

It's an interesting idea until they get big enough and the airlines start to find that their pricing is getting skewed. At that point they will likely shock the system so that Farecast ends up paying more than they are worth. In the meantime, Farecast has partnered with a lot of the big airlines in an effort to ensure that this doesn't happen - but will this bias their predictions?

Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts

Orbitz Mess

I recently purchased an airplane ticket through Orbitz for the first time and I know for sure this will be the last.  All went smoothly in terms of getting the booking done, receiving their convenient notifications prior to departure (I always have trouble locating my e-tickets the day before my trip) and actually departing Toronto and getting to Lima.  The problem arose when I wanted to change my return date and I fell into the bowels of their outsourced Customer Support department, out of which I emerged having spent hours on the phone with Orbitz representatives and having two unauthorized credit card transactions for over $1,200 for a change that never happened.  I was quite honest and detailed in my feedback when I received a customer support questionnaire from them that same day I discovered their colossal mistake!

My first phone call with them was a little longer than I would have wished but I got the information that I needed.  My ticket had a 30 day limit so to extend it by three weeks I would have to buy a new one-way ticket that they quoted me at around $500 (plus the $35 penalty) and cancel the return portion of the original.  I considered my options and called back the next day to make the change.  This is when the Customer Support ping-pong started.  I went from one agent to the other, eventually being transferred to Sales because the agent told me that she couldn’t book a flight that originated in Lima, then being transferred back to Support because Sales said they don’t deal with changes, and back to Sales again.  One hour later, I had gotten nowhere, no one could give me the same story I had received the day before and, in fact, I had no alternatives other than purchasing a new round trip ticket originating in Toronto (for at least twice the price of the one-way I had been quoted the day before) and I should call the airline to make sure I could only use the return portion.  This all sounded pretty fishy to me and, besides, I could not justify buying a whole new ticket to extend my stay so I gave up on the idea and told them not to cancel anything, that I wasn’t making any new purchases.

A bit deflated from the experience, I decided to call the airline a few days later to check up on what their story was and, sure enough, they confirmed my suspicion that buying a return ticket and only using one portion was considered fraud. 

A couple of days later my husband gets two credit card transactions from the day of my second conversation with Orbitz – one for $35 and one for $1180.  We had used his credit card for the purchase so I was pretty sure I knew who the charges were from.  I called Orbitz yet again and the agent confirmed that they had made the transactions but could not tell me what change they had made was and simply said they would investigate only once I faxed them a copy of my credit card statement.  I explained to her that I was traveling in Peru and had no access to a fax nor to my printed statement and all I got was a reply out of a training guide: ‘We’re sorry for your inconvenience.  We will investigate once you send us a fax.’  Trying to speak to a supervisor meant waiting on the phone for another half hour which I could not spare at the moment.  I am now resorting to asking my credit card company to not process the unauthorized transactions, not trusting that I will be able to sort out this mess with Orbitz themselves given their original response.  I just hope that I actually have a spot on my flight when I show up next week and that they haven’t confused things even more. 

In my opinion, more than a solid user interface is required to run an online travel business.  The follow up customer support stage is just as important.  Orbitz has figured out the first in its over 5 years of operation but has lots of work to do on the second. 

UPDATE, March 27: Over two months later, I am still dealing with never ending customer support conversations with Orbitz.  Now I ask for a supervisor directly each time I call them, even though it takes between 45 minutes to an hour to get through to one and they are no more competent than the CSRs.  Orbitz did an investigation and concluded that they had mistakenly upgraded my ticket but they still have not reversed the charges on my credit card as they now need to call Continental Airlines to finalize the details of what they need to do to amend this.  Once they have sorted that our they said it would take between a week and 60 days to finally reverse the charges!  Maybe by next Christmas I will have my money refunded!  I will be relieved not to have to speak to an Orbitz CSR ever again after that.

This article was posted by Veronica Montero

Travel Recommendations & Advice From Local Experts

Get Involved With Microfinance in Guatemala

Although our primary goal with On The Road Travel is to make independent travel more accessible to the world, we also aim to support and promote local entrepreneurs. Our travels have taught us that the best experiences are when we can get involved with the locals and get to know their cultures. Locally run tours and establishments offer a uniqueness that you can't find with larger, internationally run organizations and we do our best to promote these local entrepreneurs in the countries we cover.

My friend Dorion visited Guatemala over the holidays and spent time with one of our recommended tour providers: As Green As It Gets. He was so impressed that he has decided to help them fundraise in order to raise money on behalf of the independent coffee farmers working with As Green As It Gets. Here's how it works (as written by Dorion):

While the country is so amazing, the level of poverty is truly staggering. In fact, it is some of the worst in the developing world. I’ve been to Guatemala twice now, and every time I return from a trip, I wish there was something I could do to get involved. This time, I found it -- but I need your help.

While I was in Guatemala, I had a chance to spend some time with the head of As Green as it Gets, a development organization helping independent coffee farmers and producers. As Green as it Gets has had much recent success, enabling coffee farmers to process their own coffee instead of selling the whole fruit to a large farm who makes all the profit.

One of the ways in which they do this is by raising loan financing on behalf of the farmers. The organization also helps the farmers sell their coffee directly to the US market.  This type of work makes a huge impact in the lives of the farmers -- increasing their income (by over 1000%) and providing means to elevate their families from poverty.

This week, I'm hoping to raise $5,000 in loans on behalf of independent coffee farmers working with As Green as it Gets. I'm hoping that you can pitch in with a loan of $125 or more. Personally, I will be putting in $500 to get things going.

These loans will give the farmers the money they need to buy equipment, and to process and export their coffee in order to maximize their potential profit from this years harvest.

It is this kind of support for entrepreneurs that makes success stories in the developing world – much like what you've heard about Grameen bank and
micro-lending -- a small amount of money by our standards can go a long way to help a small business owner.

Here's how the loan will work....
Loans are in blocks of $125 USD. 100% of the money goes directly to the coffee farmers. After 13 months, you get a 1 pound coffee bag as your interest payment (excellent coffee that would retail for about $15 per pound in the US). This coffee will be picked and roasted by farmers using the money you lend. At the end of a 13 month period, you can elect to:
1. Get the $125 repaid
2. Rollover the $125 into a loan for another year (at the end of the next 13 months you will get another pound of coffee), or
3. Donate the $125 to the organization and receive a 501(c)(3) tax receipt.

If you are interested in getting involved in with microfinance and supporting this worthy project, please contact Dorion directly.

Farecasting

It used to be that if you waited until the last minute, you could get great deals on seat sales with the airlines. As we found out a few weeks ago, this is no longer the case. In fact, if you are trying to plan a trip on short order, you are more likely to find budget-breaking prices.

A new online service was recently launched that might be useful for those seeking flights. Farecast provides estimates (or farecasts) on airfares in the US. The tool shows you whether the lowest airfares for a specific route will rise or fall over the coming week.

Sadly the website does not seem to work with MAC, a problem that plagues me with many, many websites out there. But that is a blog for another day...

Travel Sabbatical

The concept of a 'life coach' seems to be a buzz word amongst my generation. Only a handful of people I know tell me that they are truly happy with their current jobs and plan to stay there over the long term.  Unlike our parents, who tended to stay with the same employer for most of their careers, the majority of people I know have experienced at least 2 or 3 different employers by the time they hit 30.  Are we more restless? Maybe. Picky? Probably. Struggling with the idea of work to live vs. live to work? Definitely.

Maybe its the life stage i'm in, but I feel like more and more people are now relying on life coaches or career coaches to find the solution. A couple of weeks ago I met Tara Russell who recently launched Three Month Visa, a professional life and career coaching practice. Tara is focused on encouraging those who want to take some time off to consider travel as a medium to grow and flourish. "I have found that travel is a powerful touchstone for people's dreams and values."

I couldn't agree more! You can contact Tara at [email protected].