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Jen Leo writes for Condé Nast Traveler, Los Angeles Times, and edited the award-winning Sand in My Bra series (Travelers’ Tales). She loves to travel with her toddler. You can also read about her at JenLeo.com.
Chris Christensen the host of the Amateur Traveler. The Amateur Traveler is an online travel show that focuses primarily on travel destinations and what are the best places to travel to. It includes both a weekly audio podcast and a twice monthly video podcast. In January 2010 he left his day job as the Executive Vice President of Engineering and Operations for a company in Silicon Valley (LiveWorld) that runs online communities for companies like Marriott, American Express, eBay, HBO, the NBA, Kraft, Campbells, Kimberly Clark, A&E, and QVC.
Gary Arndt is the man behind one of the world's most popular, independent travel blogs. He has been traveling non-stop since March, 2007 and has visited over 60 countries and territories. That is a real monkey on his shoulder.
Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 11:21AM Episode 20 will be our Year in Review show. Please leave a comment and share with us what you thought the biggest travel stories of the year were. Also feel free to share what trips you are most looking forward to in 2010.
We'd also like to hear your thoughts about the security changes instituted by the TSA after the recent attempted terrorist attack.
Reader Comments (5)
My trip for 2010 has been cancelled because of the economy. I had intended on spending a month exploring Scotland and the Hebrides, but I just can't afford to take the risk with the economy right now.
Also I will not fly into the USA again until they drop some of their more restrictive and invasive "security measures." With each new restriction Terror wins another battle. Be secure, not reactionary.
Biggest travel story of this year and really the last 5 years for me has been the continued proliferation of travel booking sites, allowing people to book their own trips and eliminate the travel agent from the equation.
Along those same lines, a close second would be Twitter and Facebook allowing the average consumer to be 'directly' connected to their favorite airline/hotel/hostel/travel blogger/journalist and get the best deals and inside information before the general public.
The Nigerian bomber just happened but it's a big story because of the long term repercussions. 9/11 and Richard "Shoe Bomber" Reid continue to haunt the travel industry 8 years later.
I'm looking forward to getting to Toronto, Brazil and India.
I'd like to know if there's a way to find out what the very best deals to fly anywhere are. For example, let's say that I have a fairly flexible schedule to take off when I'd like to. And lets say that I don't have a particular place I want to go. I'm only interested in a list of the very best deals on airfare. For example... if you you're flying in February... This airline is offering an amazing deal (70% off) to Nicaragua, and this airline is offering 50% off to Bali... etc. Is there a way to just look for what the greatest deal out there is without having to enter specific locations and dates?
Skip Hunt
Austin, Texas
skiphuntphotography.com
I was so annoyed by the "stay in your seat for an hour" rule that I sent email to my Congressman & commented on a newspaper editorial. Text: Sometimes you hate to be right. I didn't expect the shoe inspections and the restrictions on liquids to prevent another terrorist attempt on an airplane, and they didn't. Now the TSA is once again doing something to be seen to do something, instead of doing something useful. Please rein them in!
Making passengers stay in their seats for the last hour of flight with nothing in their hands is ridiculous. (Will we need to take immodium and wear Depends for international flights if the next attempt is three hours before arrival? And haven't they heard of pockets?) Subjecting every passenger to two searches is a waste of everyone's time. All this will achieve is a reduction in airline travel: I am seriously considering taking Cunard next time I go to Europe.
The failure here was that Abdulmutullab was allowed on a US-bound flight in the first place. If the State Department and TSA can't do better than this we should consider turning security for international flights over to El Al. But perfect security is a chimera and flying would still be exponentially safer than car travel even if he had succeeded. Please don't let TSA make it more miserable than it already is.
The reason the State Dept in Nigeria was so ineffective in the Nigerian bomber case is they just didn't have the time to make sure he got on the No Fly List. Hey, it takes time to come up with lame excuses to keep upstanding Nigerians from receiving Visitor Visas.
My daughter's mother-in-law has made three, count 'em trips to the American Embassy in Abuja, hat in hand, figuratively speaking, trying to get a visitor's visa. After dotting every i and crossing every t, she was told at 50 something that she was too old! According to the State Dept's website, they presume that every person applying for Visitor Visas is really intending to migrate. But what is really curious is that several Nigerians that were childhood friends of my son-in-law got into the country with visitor visas with no problem. Hmmm! Me thinks there has been some greasing of the old bureaucratic palms in the US State Dept in Nigeria. Perhaps if the bomber's father had bribed someone in the State Dept they would have done better.
I say, sack them all!!