Attention, fans of carbohydrates! It’s time to warm up your online purchasing fingers. The Neverending Pasta Pass goes back on sale at Olive Garden today, but there’s a new twist this year: 50 passes will be available that entitle the bearer to neverending pasta for eight weeks, and a weeklong trip to Italy. Update: And they’re gone: 22,000 passes and the 50 Passports that come with the free trip sold out in one second. [More]
vacation
Some Airbnb ‘Mega Hosts’ Are Renting Out More Than 1,000 Properties At Once
By 6.9.17
The portrait that Airbnb paints of its hosts is homeowners who either want to occasionally rent out unused rooms, or people who just happen to have amazing weekend homes that they want to share with random strangers. That may be true for many Airbnb hosts, but there’s also a growing concern about so-called “mega hosts” who are effectively running hotel operations, renting out dozens, hundreds, sometimes more than 1,000, properties at any given time. [More]
Google Debuts Personalized Travel Planner Dubbed “Google Trips”
By 9.19.16
As anyone who’s ever found themselves standing around a police station in Spain at 3 a.m. calling mom back in the U.S. for their own hotel info can attest, it can be really tough when you’re lost in a foreign country or city without an Internet-connected device. Google wants to make those kinds of experiences easier and help travelers coordinate their activities with a new travel planning app called “Google Trips.” [More]
Citibank Apparently Hasn’t Heard About ATM Skimmers In Mexican Tourist Destination
By 9.15.15
Reader J. had what we’re sure was a wonderful vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico last November, and used his Citibank ATM card to withdraw cash as needed. When he returned home, he noticed multiple withdrawals on some days, and the “extra” transactions were for amounts much larger than what he remembered taking out. J. says that Citibank wouldn’t reverse the transactions, since the card never left his possession. [More]
Feel Like The Trip Home Is Quicker Than The Trip There? Science Says You’re Not Alone
By 6.11.15 — Updated: 5.2.17
After reading the above headline, you’re probably already saying to yourself, “Yessss I know exactly what that feeling is!” The “return trip effect” is one we’ve all likely experienced — it seems to take a long time to get somewhere — whether it’s vacation, a visit to relatives or a business destination — and a much quicker time to arrive back home again, even though you traveled the same distance. Scientists are on the case to try and explain why we all feel this way. [More]
Beach Town May Ban Renters From Using Vacation Homes’ Pools
By 6.9.15
One of the first attractions people might look for in a summer vacation home is exactly the thing a resort town wants to take away: Citing noise concerns, a Delaware beach town is considering banning renters from using the backyard pools at homes while they’re staying in the area. [More]
Airbnb Launches New Tool To Help Rental Owners Make More Money
By 6.5.15
Airbnb launched a new tool Thursday that aims to help owners of properties make the most money possible. Price Tips will create continuous suggestions for pricing based on metrics such as demand for rooms, local events and rental prices for hotels in the area. The company claims that owners who price their property within 5% of the suggested amount are four times as likley to attract a renter. [TechCrunch] [More]
Carnival Introduces Cruises That Include Three-Day Volunteering Opportunity For Passengers
By 6.5.15
Have you ever experienced competing desires to lounge on a cruise ship but also help others in need? On the off-chance that you have, Carnival wants to present a solution: its new Fathom cruises. [More]
Delta, Southwest Revamping Boarding Processes To Keep Flights On Time This Summer
By 6.2.15
When heading out for a long-awaited summer vacation, most people don’t want to waste valuable time waiting in an airplane’s aisle while other people jam their bags in the crowded overhead bins, or playing a round of musical chairs so a family can sit together on the upcoming flight. In an effort to ensure travelers don’t miss time sunning themselves on the beach, two airlines are revamping their boarding processes. [More]
EPA: Vacationing Family “Seriously Exposed” To Toxic Pesticide While Staying In Luxury Condo
By 3.24.15
When you’re staying in a fancy, luxurious vacation condominium at a Caribbean resort, there’s a certain expectation that your health won’t be seriously threatened. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says members of a Delaware family have become seriously ill after their $800-per-night condo at a resort in the U.S Virgin Islands was possibly fumigated using toxic pesticides normally found in industrial farming. [More]
Rent Your Own Hungarian Village For Just $750 A Day
By 2.25.15
Let’s face it — most of us are never going to be the mayor of our own village. But if you’ve got some cash to spare, you can buy your way into deputy mayordom by renting a Hungarian village for just $750 a day. [More]
Tourists Rent Car, Get Free Snake In The Trunk
By 9.29.14
“Free ball python with every car rental” might appeal to some customers as a promotion, but it would be an expensive one, and most people probably wouldn’t be interested. Two tourists found a free surprise python in the trunk of the car they had rented at Logan airport in Boston and drove to their motel in Maine. The good news? The snake was alive and unharmed, and its owner has already been found. [More]
Weekend Water Main Break Soaks Thousands Of Visitors’ Plans To Visit Ohio Amusment Park
By 6.9.14
The car is packed and gassed up, the road trip snacks are bountiful and summer vacation is in high gear. That is, until visitors arrived at Ohio’s Cedar Point amusement park over the weekend, only to find the park closed because of a water main break. Total buzzkill. [More]
Cruise Lines’ Problem: You Already Hate Cruises
By 5.23.14
There are two kinds of people in the world: people who take cruises, and people who have already made up their minds that they hate cruises. The CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines says that it’s his company’s job to find the people in that second category and convert them. [More]
Travel Agency Spells Couple’s Last Name Wrong On Plane Tickets––Twice
By 5.14.14
International air travel and typos don’t mix. A California couple booked the tickets for their vacation in Cancun over the phone. If they had made the reservations online, at least they would have been the ones to blame for their last name being spelled incorrectly. The agency assured them that two transposed letters in their last name would be no problem. Aeromexico, the airline they’ll be flying, disagrees. [More]
6 Things Your All-Inclusive Vacation Might Not Include
By 4.22.14 — Updated: 5.2.17
All-inclusive trips to resorts or on cruise ships can be a convenient and relaxing, since your major expenses are already taken care of. They can suddenly become a lot more stressful when you learn that the things that make a vacation fun––excursions, fancy beverages, memorable meals––aren’t part of the package that you signed on for. [More]
New Jersey Sues Tour Company That Stranded Travelers Overseas
By 8.14.13
There’s one thing that’s worse than having your vacation abruptly canceled out from under you because the tour company folded, and that’s having it happen during your vacation, so you end up stranded far away from home. A New Jersey-based company did that to their customers back in October. Now the state has filed suit against the company under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, aiming to get customers their money back. [More]
4 Vacation Destinations We’d Rather Be Visiting Than Great-Uncle Jerrold’s Doll Museum
By 3.26.13
For those of us still trapped firmly in the chilly, sloshy, sleet-filled embrace that is this miserable winter, vacation sounds like just an exotic dream. While you’re painting your daydream pictures for the time when you can finally take off, there are some fast-growing tourism industries out there getting more popular with visitors. [More]
