PE.com - Tourism Blog

In a surprising Black Friday ("Lord of the Flies" in your local shopping center) move, cell phone companies are getting in on deep discounts. Cingular is offering customers 50 percent on most phones all weekend. But T-Mobile may have bested that offer.

According to television ads and its Web site, T-Mobile is offering anyone who signs up for a two-year contract with its MyFaves plan between Nov. 23-25 two free flights. Granted don't be surprised to get a bill for taxes and airline fees which can be hefty.

Those who buy the plan must fill out an application and send it in before Dec. 31. Then check the Web site in December and see if you're eligible. Apparently folks with an inactive account or overdue balances up until Feb. 29, 2008 will be disqualified.

For folks who already have a T-Mobile plan the carrier has a sweepstakes site where its offering chances to win one of 5,000 available flights.

So far nothing seems fishy in the fine print except for your obligation to pay taxes and fees on the flights. And the 10 destinations are all large, well-known airports -- Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando and Dallas.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 4:27 AM, November 21
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Tags: virgin america
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That plan by President Bush to make traveling worry free for fliers during the Thanksgiving holiday may have left out one big variable -- weather! Alas, the U.S. Government has no control over the weather and "Storm" from the X-Men is trapped in the pages of comic books.

So far it's not looking good for travelers. This is from a USA Today story:

A front brewing in the Northwest is forecast to spread severe weather from the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico and east to Vermont on one of the highest-volume travel days of the year, said Tom Moore, senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel.

"Wednesday is going to be a nightmare over a lot of the country," Moore said. "Although it's not going to be a colossal storm, there's going to be so much rain and low clouds, I would say there are going to be significant delays over large parts of the country."

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 10:17 AM, November 20
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Downtown Riverside gets a shout out in the newest release from the California Travel and Tourism Commission touting "Where to Shop and Get Pampered in California."

The release specifically singles out the Mission Inn Resort & Spa and the antique and specialty stores along Mission Inn Ave. and Main Street which must feel good for merchants like Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles and Citrus Punch Designs.

Other Inland mentions include the Lake Arrowhead Resort, Big Bear Lake, downtown Lake Elsinore and Redlands, Victorville and Old Town Temecula.

Palm Springs gets mention for its downtown merchants although the release keeps repeating "Main Street." It's Palm Canyon Drive or Hwy 111 if you're coming from I-10 if any tourists are reading this.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 4:33 PM, November 19
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Tags: mission inn, riverside
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Rendering of Ritz Carlton Rancho Mirage

Every once in awhile I get a kick out of browsing the real estate ads in the Wall Street Journal looking for insanely priced Palm Springs-area properties. Today I ran across an ad in Friday's edition -- half-page, above the fold, obviously not cheap -- for The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton Rancho Mirage.

That means the much anticipated return of the Ritz-Carlton hotel atop a Rancho Mirage hill is less far off. According to the hotel's Web site and the site for the real estate portion, reservations are currently being taken for when the hotel re-opens next September. Prior estimates had the hotel re-opening before the end of the year or in early 2008.

No rates for hotel rooms are posted yet, but don't expect to get your daily newspaper at your doorstep for free. A $25 a day resort fee will get you:

- 24 hour fitness center access
- unlimited Internet access
- morning coffee
- daily newspaper delivery
- 24-hour computer access in the business center
- $25 voucher on a purchase of $100 or more
- daily exercise classes
- bottled water
- preferred tee-times at more than 10 golf courses
- pool towels and poolside refreshments

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 1:28 PM, November 19
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Tags: palm springs
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Sure, it’s been more than a month since I flew Virgin America to get to a wedding in New York but I haven’t stopped talking about it. There’s been a lot written about the new domestic airline since it launched this year but here's my first-hand take.

Some perks:
The mood lighting on the plane. I had read about it but didn’t really realize how calming the blue-ish, purple-ish lighting could be and made it feel like I had paid much more than $144 one-way from LAX to New York. For that kind of fare I’d expect fluorescent lighting and canvas uncomfortable chairs, not plush black leatherette.

A separate cup holder in the tray table so the entire tray table doesn’t have to come down just for a drink. Ingenious.

You can pre-order food and drinks so that when the stewards come down the aisle they know your exact order. Even if you seem them making their way down the aisle you can still make an order, like I did, because it’ll register on their computer tablets they carry with them. Unfortunately there are only a few free beverages. Food will cost you.

Some quirks:
Be prepared to nudge your neighbor for access to your keyboard/video game controllers that sit in the shared armrests.

They offer Nip/Tuck episodes for $1.99. I won’t even get into the silly pricing considering its just a rental, but I wouldn’t watch that show with my parents in the same room let alone on a plane with strangers.

Music is alphabetically arranged so you’ll run across some entertaining musical groupings like this one: The Pussycat Dolls, The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, The Who and finally, The Wiggles.

The music playing in the cabin after the plane lands is something out of a nightclub which would be all well and good toward fulfilling the cool, hip vibe except for the grating siren-like sound it carried. But it may achieve something ingenious, getting people off the planes as soon as possible lest they linger to enjoy the mood lighting and iPod chargers.

Some things to look forward to:
A few features “not yet available” on the airline’s entertainment system on the back of each seat include “read,” “shop,” and “E-mail & Text.” I’m sure all will likely come with a price but so far I’m intrigued.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 4:55 AM, November 19
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Tags: virgin america
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(The Charlotte Observer, Jason E. Miczek)

Traveling the friendly skies this Thanksgiving could be less of a chore. President Bush announced Thursday that he would open up the military's airspace from Maine to Florida to make more room for more flights. The president also touted the FAA's Web site which tracks delays at the country's airports. I've been less than impressed with it in the past but now looks like the info has been souped up. LA/Ontario International Airport and Palm Springs International Airport may not be visible on the map but search by the airport codes up top (ONT and PSP) and info on flight delays will pop up.

Here's what else Bush had to say during a press conference (commentary in parenthesis is my own):

"There are a lot of people worried about traveling because they've had unpleasant experiences ... Airports are very crowded, travelers are being stranded and flights have been delayed sometimes with a full load of passengars sitting on the runway for hours. (zing! That's you JetBlue) These failures are carrying some real costs for the country (some would say missing a family gathering isn't always costly. Not me though. Hi mom! Hi dad!)"

Bush also said the airlines would:
- increase staff
- set seats aside for folks who may end up on cancelled flights
- bring in more ticket counters and stairs (although I'm not entirely certain how having more mobile stairs on the tarmac makes a big difference)

By next summer, airlines may also end up paying higher penalties to passengers bounced from their flights -- now $400 it could increase up to $800. Also, Bush encouraged "congestion pricing" by eventually forcing airlines to pay higher landing fees during peak times. That could be good news for some airports like Ontario and Palm Springs which aim to get new airlines to land there by possibly dropping the fee entirely as an incentive. Bush also said airlines could eventually be forced to bid for prime take off and landing times, a test of a free market for sure.

Will it work? We'll see.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 1:14 PM, November 15
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(Bloomberg News) The Kaufmann House in Palm Springs

*Clarification: The tourism organizations typically foot the bill for a travel writer's experience be it food or hotel or tourist attraction, but don't pay the travel writers directly. It occured to me my mention of it below might be misleading.

Palm Springs is heading into its season (the beginning of the six or seven months that make it bearable, downright enjoyable to call the desert home) and so begins the season for stories about the resort town usually a result of local tourism groups like the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism or Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Authority paying travel writers to visit and enjoy.

Here's a sampling of what's popped up in media nationwide:

Palm Springs When it Sizzles Will Get You the Cool Prices
Mary Lu Laffey with Rand McNally Travel News visited during the shoulder season and partook of the usual landmarks -- the Palm Springs Aerial Tram, a modern home tour, a lunch trip to Sherman's Deli -- but seemed most facinated by the water misters outside most storefronts during the "I-didn't-know-I-could-sweat-this-much-without-moving" season. She also took in a tour from Elite Land Tours, stayed at the Viceroy and dined at Melvyn's.

The '50s Live in Palm Springs
Gary Werner for the O.C. Register only makes one reference to Palm Springs being a town for the aged. The rest, written with a little more flair than the story above, focuses on the area's modern architecture from the Eisenhower era and specifically the Orbit In, a boutique hotel near town that revels in 1950s modernism.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 4:24 PM, November 13
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Tags: palm springs
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(Wyndham Hotels & Resorts)

Along with obnoxiously slapping an "i" in front of something to suddenly make it indispensable, the new thing is calling otherwise mundane products "smart."

Like Wyndham's new smart chair. Not only does it have brains (in this case, outlets so you can plug into the Internet and/or charge your idevices) but wooden trays attached on both armrests make it handy for lefties and righties (if not able to take flight - now that would be smart).

The thing that gets me is that somehow this chair appeals to those of the "Gen X" variety according to the hotel's press release and this story from USA Today.

Now I'm not a Gen X-er rather one of those sci-fi sounding "Millenials" but is it really a Gen X desire to have a chair that has electrical outlets in it? You could move the chair closer to an electrical outlet. I can't imagine the Smart Chair moving at all what with cords attaching it to other outlets.

As a traveler (regardless of my youth or not), this is what I want in a hotel:
- Flat-screen televisions.
- Electrical outlets as far as the eye can see.
- Comfy bed.
- An iron and hair-dryer
- Towels larger than a washcloth
- Working shower

Not too much to ask.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 11:05 AM, November 02
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(Big Bear Frontier)

Big Bear Frontier's cabins and motel have been sold to RLR Investments for $10.1 million. Now it appears to be for sale yet again according to the Ohio-based investment firm's Web site listings.

Posted by Kimberly Pierceall at 10:32 AM, November 01
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Tags: big bear
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