(Test) CN Traveler Beat

Flying With Kids

By Wendy Perrin

Thought I'd share some email correspondence I had with a reader on traveling with kids.

writermomlaw@yahoo.com writes:
Dear Wendy,   
I was reading your April column in which you mentioned flying with your two- and four-year-olds to Florence, Italy. My husband and I are planning to take our two-year old from Minnesota to Rome.  Do you have any advice for us?
Many thanks,
Marlene Petersen
writermomlaw@yahoo.com

I respond:
Three things I do to remain sane when dragging my kids on transoceanic flights:

• Fly an airline that has individual TV screens in coach and child-appropriate programming like Sesame Street.  These airlines include Air France and Cathay Pacific.
• Can’t fly non-stop?  Exhaust the kids during layovers. Run down empty concourses, play tag in unoccupied gate areas, find an indoor playground.  I love Frankfurt International, for instance, because there’s a great play area  in Terminal 2 right next to the McDonald’s. You can also ride the monorail back and forth between Terminals 1 and 2—something my train-obsessed kids adore.
• About 45 minutes before take-off, give the kids Infants’ or Childrens’ Tylenol to relieve ear pain. Also, during take-off and landing, give them milk or juice so that they are swallowing and thus minimizing clogging in their ears.
• If other kids of the same age are on the plane, introduce them to each other. My kids love meeting other kids and can spend an hour chatting and exchanging toys. Both sets of parents get some relief that way.

writermomlaw@yahoo.com writes back:
Many thanks. One more question: What should I bring onboard to keep my child occupied?

I respond:
Some lightweight, compact, travel-friendly games that I always pack in my carry-on:

• A Magnadoodle -- you draw on a magnetic board with a magnetic stick attached by a string (no mess, no small pieces, no parts that can get lost)
• Imaginetics play sets  -- you move magnet pieces around a board to create scenes and action in a setting such as an airport or a farm or trainyard.  Fabulous!
• Play Scenes -- vinyl stickers that you place on boards and move around (such as “A Day At The Zoo”).

I also carry low-sugar snacks, juice boxes, and a small soft ball that you can play catch with in the airport during connections.

Readers Share Their Travel Secrets

By Wendy Perrin

Here's a tip on how to rent that convertible for cheap.

We like to visit South Florida, Miami, the Keys, and particularly Key West.  In such fun places, it’s nice to rent a convertible.  However, the $65+ daily rates in advance are rather steep for a place so flush with rental cars.  So, I generally reserve an economy, compact, or mid-size car for the low $30s.  Upon arriving at the rental car counter, they invariably are willing to “upgrade” to a convertible for about $10 a day—quite a savings.  If they’re not available, you’re no worse off, as you have a confirmed reservation and most convertibles only have the room of a compact or mid-size at best.
Brian P. Myers

My Favorite Country

By Wendy Perrin

You can probably guess the question I’m asked most often: What’s the best place you’ve ever traveled to?  The answer:  New Zealand.  It combines the best aspects of my other favorite countries while eliminating the worst.  Take the scenery.  Imagine if someone rolled the world’s most gorgeous landscapes—the Alps, the Cotswolds, Provence, Tuscany, South Africa’s wine country, the Norwegian fjords, and northern California’s beaches—into one small country.  Then there’s the people:  Unbelievably friendly and welcoming, relaxed, fun, down-to-earth.  And so few of them!  There are three times as many sheep as people—which means no lines anywhere, uncrowded roads, and the ability to travel spontaneously, with no reservations.  Then there are the wacky only-in-New-Zealand activities to get your adrenoline pumping—from jetboating on the Shotover river to black-water rafting through caves to Zorbing in Rotorua to Flying by Wire in Queenstown.  There’s also the food. Even when you’re just grabbing potato chips and a drink from a gas station, the chips taste so much like potato that you realize ours taste like cardboard, and the “Just Juice” you buy is just that: 100 percent juice, nothing added.  I haven’t even mentioned the favorable exchange rate or the spectacular lodges that make New Zealand, in my opinion, the perfect honeymoon destination.  I’ve sent six couples there for their honeymoons, and each has come back claiming it’s their favorite country too.  Most have booked their trips, at my suggestion, through Donna Thomas of New Zealand Travel.

When Not to Pay in Dollars Overseas

By Wendy Perrin

My coworker Kevin just got back from Ireland and is kicking himself for falling into a trap I warned about in my February column.  Kevin stopped for some pub grub at Durty Nelly’s in County Clare, gave his credit card, got a receipt, then noticed he’d been charged in U.S. Dollars.  Kevin’s credit-card receipt states:  “I accept that I have been offered a choice of currencies for payment.  I accept the conversation rate and final amount and that the final selected transaction currency is U.S. Dollar.  I also accept that my choice of currency is final.”  But nobody ever gave him a choice of paying in Irish Pounds or U.S. Dollars!  Had he been given a choice, he would have chosen Pounds, since he knew (because he edits my column) that more and more hotels, restaurants, and stores overseas are adopting technology that lets them charge you in U.S dollars, and that you should insist on paying in local currency instead:  If you pay in Dollars, an unfavorable exchange rate is used and a mark-up is added.  In fact, right on Kevin’s receipt it states:  “Exchange rate mark-up 3 percent.”  Kevin asked to speak to Nelly so he could complain, but she wasn’t around, so he came back and complained to me instead.  Don’t say we haven’t warned you!

Got Delta Miles? Here's How to Squeeze More Flights Out of Them

By Wendy Perrin

This morning I tried to redeem my Delta frequent-flier miles for four seats from any N.Y.C.-area airport to Atlanta so I can fly with Tim and the kids to a family reunion.  The only seats available were the ones costing 50,000 miles rather than the usual 25,000. When I complained to frequent-flier guru Randy Petersen about how hard it’s been to use Delta miles ever since the airline went bankrupt, he gave me this advice:  Use the miles on either Continental or Northwest (Delta’s domestic code-share partners).  You can’t do this online; you must call Delta Reservations.  So I phoned and, lo and behold, got four seats from Newark to Atlanta on Continental.  I had to pay $10 per ticket for talking to a Delta rep rather than booking online, but it was worth the $40 to save 100,000 miles.

Why is it so hard to find a non-stop Delta seat for 25,000 miles these days?  I asked a Delta spokesman, and here’s his response:  TK TK TK

The 12-hour vacation

By Wendy Perrin

My husband Tim and I had managed to eek out only one trip alone together since the kids were born.  We were in desperate need of a romantic getaway, but had been unable to find the time or a sitter.  Of course, if you keep waiting until the time is right, it’s never going to happen, right?  So last week Tim surprised me with a 12-hour vacation.  He dropped off the kids at Granny’s and announced we were going to the Four Seasons for the night.

We arrived at 10 p.m. and left at 10 a.m., yet it felt like we were gone for days—probably because, even though the Four Seasons New York is only a ten-minute walk from the apartment building where I grew up and lived until a few months ago, it felt like we had landed on another planet.

Here’s a photo Tim took from our 41st-floor perch.

Since Sunday nights are the hotel’s slowest time and likely nobody else would be checking in later than us, we were upgraded to an executive suite overlooking Central Park.   I collapsed into the dreamy king-size pillow they call a bed.  The 1,000-thread-count (or whatever) Italian linens were so crisp and cool that I could not stop rubbing my legs against them. I lay there gaping at the nighttime skyline until nodding off.

Alas, neither of us could sleep past 7:00 a.m.—we’re too accustomed to being awoken by our kids every morning at the crack of dawn.  So I went to the spa, which I had entirely to myself.  After 20 minutes in the hot tub, the jets shooting water onto my shoulders and upper back, I felt as loose as if I’d had a massage.  As I reclined in the water, my head on the edge of the hot tub, an attendant appeared with a rolled-up towel and placed it under my neck. There were so many other nice touches: the basin beside the hot tub filled with ice and cold wet washcloths, the cool bottled water, the coffee, the bowl of apples, the Monday morning papers.  I wanted to move in.

Before checking out we had breakfast at the hotel’s Restaurant 57.  Normally I can’t stomach paying $40 for breakfast, but the fresh sweet mango juice and chicken hash with poached eggs and cilantro were so yummy that I didn't care—especially since they kept me going till dinnertime.

Since an executive suite at the Four Seasons New York is unaffordable for most of us (including me), I’ve asked general manager Name TK to share with us how to increase your chance of getting a complimentary upgrade at his hotel. Below, his advice:

    * TK
    * TK
    * TK

Have you got any tried-and-true tips for landing a free hotel upgrade?  Add your comments with the link below: