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To snag the best airfares, travelers need to be adventurous and willing to pick up at a moment’s notice.

OK, now let’s be realistic. Most people making summer travel plans need just that: plans. They get a week off, maybe two, and aren’t going to spend hard-earned cash on a last-second whim.

But great deals are still within reach for those who have even a little flexibility in choosing where and when to travel.

The average roundtrip domestic ticket will cost $431 this summer, an increase of 2.6 percent from last year, according to Kayak.com. But remember: that’s an average. One trip might cost $800 while another can be found for $200.

“Airfares are high but there are pockets of cheap out there,” says Seth Miller, an information technology consultant who writes a blog under the name The Wandering Aramean. Miller does his best to beat the system by connecting in strange cities, flying at off hours and taking advantage of sales often offered when an airline adds a new destination.

Here are some tips from Miller and other expert travelers on how to combat rising airfares.

— LAST-MINUTE WEEKEND FARES

When airlines don’t fill planes for an upcoming weekend, they slash prices.

Each Tuesday, they email offers for that coming weekend or the following one to fliers who have signed up online for the deal alerts. Travelers have to depart late Friday night or anytime Saturday and come back Monday or Tuesday. An added plus: weekend getaways save precious vacation days.

Recent offers include: Houston to Memphis for $180, Huntsville, Ala. to Chicago for $174, Washington D.C. to Greenville, S.C. for $157 and Charlotte, N.C. to West Palm Beach, Fla. for $240.

— TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

Airlines are experimenting with sales on Twitter. At the forefront is JetBlue, which tweets last-second fare sales and vacation package discounts from (at)JetBlueCheeps. Some deals apply to just a few seats and are gone within hours.

“If you find something, jump on it,” says John DiScala, who each year flies around 150,000 miles, visits 20 countries and writes about it at JohnnyJet.com.

JetBlue recently tweeted a sale at 3:16 p.m.; it ended at 6 p.m.

Airlines announce special sales to those who “like” their Facebook pages and sites like AirfareWatchdog offer fare alert emails (airfarewatchdog.com/fare-alerts/).

There are also frequent fliers who search for and post cheap flights in online discussion boards. Two of the better discussion boards are: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/ and http://milepoint.com/forums/forums/mileage-runs-mattress-runs-travel-hacking.6/

— FLEXIBLE DATES

Looking to go to Paris for a week but don’t care when in the next few months? ITA Software’s airfare search (matrix.itasoftware.com) provides a calendar of the lowest fares.

Just enter the departure and destination city — nearby airports can even be added — and then how many nights to spend there. It will find the cheapest prices for a month out from a given date. The length of the trip can even be a range, say five to seven days.

— CHASE THE FARE, NOT THE DESTINATION

Want to know the cheapest fares from a departure city to anywhere? Check out Kayak’s explore tool (kayak.com/explore). It allows travelers to search multiple airlines at once this way. A map pops up with all the destinations under a set budget point.

Searches can be done for a particular month or for all of summer. The query can be narrowed by activity — beach, golf, gambling, skiing — or by continent.

— ODD CONNECTIONS

Fares to Hawaii might be steep. But connecting though another city with a sale to Hawaii, could save a lot of money. Use AirfareWatchdog’s “fares to a city search” (airfarewatchdog.com/cheap-flights/to-a-city) to see if there are any less expensive indirect routes to your destination. Instead of flying from, say, Boston to Honolulu, it could be a lot cheaper to book two separate tickets — the first between Boston and Houston and the second from there to Hawaii.

“If you can save $1,000 per couple and get two cities for less than the price of one, it’s a no brainer,” says Georgia Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.

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Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.

One possible sign of concern for Orlando tourism: Brazilian travel cooled considerably, rising just 5 percent in March after big gains in January (18 percent) and February (42 percent).

Brazilian tourists have given the region’s economy a boost during the past two years — Walt Disney Co. executives have repeatedly cited the strength of that market — helping offset softer demand among travelers from countries such as the United Kingdom.

The fastest-growing overseas markets in March were China (up 55 percent) and Germany (up 32 percent).

 

Star Trek comes to Orlando

EMS Exhibits, the company behind the new CSI attraction on International Drive, has added an exhibit based on the classic”Star Trek” science-fiction TV shows and movies.

Star Trek: The Exhibition opened Memorial Day weekend at 7220 International Drive, the same building that houses CSI: The Experience. The sci-fi attraction includes sets, costumes, museum pieces and props from all five “Star Trek” television series and 11 “Star Trek” films.

“Everything is original. There’s no replicas,” said Don Rousseau, senior sales-and-marketing manager for the exhibit.

The pieces on display come from a traveling exhibit that for 10 years called Las Vegas home. Rousseau said the company would like to keep the exhibit in Orlando permanently if it proves popular enough.

Admission to the attraction is $15.95 for adults and $9.95 for children, with a combo ticket for the Star Trek and CSI exhibits available. The attraction has a specially priced event planned for July 23 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Comfort Inn sells for $6.4M

The 334-room Comfort Inn at 6101 Sand Lake Road in Orlando’s tourism corridor has changed hands, according to Paramount Lodging Advisors, which brokered the sale.

The property sold for $6.4 million, or $500,000 less than what the sellers paid for the hotel when they bought it in 1997, according to records from the Orange County Property Appraiser’s office. The seller was Laxmi Sand Lake Hotel Ltd., based in Greenville, S.C. Universal Sands LLC of Troy, Mich., was the buyer, according to public records.

The hotel, built in 1984, is located near the corner of Sand Lake Road and Universal Boulevard, a short distance east of International Drive.

Another I-Drive-area hotel sold recently, though the price of that property has not yet been disclosed in public records. The Econo Lodge at 8738 International Drive was bought by a Brazilian company that plans to renovate the property and operate it as an independent hotel called Avanti Resort.

New federal licensing program enables tour companies to set up cultural immersion and people-to-people travel packages

Havana, Cuba. PHOTO COURTESY YMT VACATIONS.

View of Havana from El Morro. PHOTO COURTESY YMT VACATIONS.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Changes in U.S. policy on travel to Cuba have enabled companies like YMT Vacations to introduce new tours under federal license aimed an enhancing cultural understanding.

Getting the needed permits took six months, but was worth the process, said YMT Vacations VP of marketing Richard Genovese. The 9-night cultural immersion features an in-depth exploration of Havana and Santa Clara as well as cultural and educational activities designed to give program participants a meaningful understanding of the island nation. Departures begin Sept. 4, 2012.

“Our new Cuba program is truly unique as it allows value-oriented travelers the opportunity to visit a destination that was closed off for many years,” said Jerre Fuqua, President of YMT Vacations, which caters to discerning mature travelers.

The nine-night cultural immersion program is billed as a people-to-people experience with a a full-time program of educational and cultural exchange activities to promote contact and interaction with the Cuban people.

The program includes a visit to Old Havana Revolucion Plaza, Jose Fuster’s House, Ernest Hemmingway’s Farm, the Che Guevara Museum, and a tobacco farm for cigar rolling lessons. Guests will also have the opportunity to interact with locals and participate in painting and dance classes.

Priced from $1999 per person for September departures, YMT’s Cuba, People Culture program includes 8-nights of hotel accommodation (1-night in Miami, 5-nights in Havana, 2-nights in Santa Clara), a full program of cultural exchange activities, 15-meals as noted in itinerary, a professional tour manager, roundtrip charter flights from Miami to Cuba, baggage handling, and required Cuban visa and fee.

*$299 per person tax and fees are additional.  Price does not include $30 per person departure tax, airfare to Miami from home city and extra airline baggage fees.

 

the leading provider of affordable group travel packages, is pleased to announce the introduction of a People-to-People exchange program to Cuba.  The 9-night cultural immersion is affordably priced from $1999* per person and features an in-depth exploration of Havana and Santa Clara as well as cultural and educational activities designed to give program participants a meaningful understanding of the island nation.  Departures begin September 4, 2012.

“At the core of each and every one of our itineraries is the desire to provide our guests with a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience at an affordable price,” stated Jerre Fuqua, President of YMT Vacations.  “Our new Cuba program is truly unique as it allows value-oriented travelers the opportunity to visit a destination that was closed off for many years.”

YMT Vacations has been issued a specific license by the Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorizing travel to Cuba.  The license (CT-18935) permits YMT Vacations to organize “People-to-People” group travel that includes a full time program of educational and cultural exchange activities to promote contact and interaction with the Cuban people.

The program includes a visit to Old Havana Revolucion Plaza, Jose Fuster’s House, Ernest Hemmingway’s Farm, the Che Guevara Museum, and a tobacco farm for cigar rolling lessons.  Guests will also have the opportunity to interact with locals and participate in painting and dance classes.

Priced from $1999 per person for September departures, YMT’s Cuba, People Culture program includes 8-nights of hotel accommodation (1-night in Miami, 5-nights in Havana, 2-nights in Santa Clara), a full program of cultural exchange activities, 15-meals as noted in itinerary, a professional tour manager, roundtrip charter flights from Miami to Cuba, baggage handling, and required Cuban visa and fee.

 

For more information about YMT’s Cuba program, please contact YMT Vacations at 1-800-922-9000 or visit the website at www.ymtvacations.com.

About YMT Vacations:

Based in sunny Los Angeles, YMT Vacations has been a leader in providing affordable travel packages since 1967. YMT programs are targeted to a mature audience and feature land and cruise itineraries to popular destinations including Alaska, Hawaii and Europe.  Over one million travelers have enjoyed YMT’s time-tested tour programs and nearly half of their guests are repeats or referrals – two facts that illustrate that YMT Vacations truly is the best travel value available.

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Filed under: Travel, world news Tagged: | Cuba, cultural exchange, Havana, Travel

BISBEE, Ariz. – People here like to say that, once you emerge from the Mule Pass Tunnel heading south into town, you go back in time to the Old West.

They are wrong. Or, at least, not completely right. The Old West, as commonly imagined, can be found 20 miles north in Tombstone, where the OK Corral shootout happens daily at 2 p.m. as the high-desert chaparral bows in shame and the tumbleweeds scurry off.

But when the tunnel disgorges you into Bisbee, just nine miles from the Mexican border, you enter an alternative universe – geologic, psychic, political – steeped in several stages of the past.

Bisbee is an arty, quirky world populated by characters more likely to be found in the 1960s than the 1860s, free spirits who retain a sense of the town’s copper mining history but have mined their creative resources to transform this dot on the map into something altogether different.

You sense it at first sight.

Wedged into a canyon, Bisbee is so vertical as to be vertiginous. Houses painted in bold colors not found in nature – perhaps to contrast with the unrelenting muted brown, rust and green of the landscape – are carved precariously into the rocky hillside, connected by snaking stairs running all over town. Down on the canyon floor, crumbling brick buildings that once were company stores, bars and brothels now house art galleries, independent bookstores, artisan and New Age curio shops and, yes, bars.

Rather than re-enactors dressed in period garb, Bisbee gives you Tranny Danny strutting in a red bustier, or the woman in blue pigtails, petticoats and powder blue Converse high-tops, or the dreadlocked dude in a black top hat warbling Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” No official data exists, but Bisbee (pop: 6,500) must have the highest per-capita rate of forehead tattoos in the nation.

It’s all, you know, copacetic, man. Locals don’t even blink when many of the more colorful citizens saunter by, and tourists seem tickled and have a story to tell when they return to Scottsdale or Sun City.

And, in a state politically redder than its mesas, a state that gave us Goldwater, rogue Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the landmark anti-immigration measure SB 1070, Bisbee decorates building facades with anti-Republican posters and pro-socialist murals.

Then again, some of Bisbee’s public art – on cars, homes, vacant lots, even the dog park – is so out-there bizarre as to defy definition. Check out the Art House in the middle of the tourist-heavy Brewery Gulch neighborhood. Mannequin sculptures of Adam and Eve, so anatomically correct they should be pixelated when kiddies are around, stand as sentinels by the front door, while a Maya god hovers on the roof and a Lady Gaga-inspired nude lurks around back.

Rest assured, traditionalists: Traces of Bisbee’s days as a copper mining juggernaut remain, from the stately Victorian elegance of the Copper Queen Hotel to the Queen Mine Tour and to the gaping, yawning hole in the ground that once was the cash-cow Lavender Mine on the edge of town.

But these days what brings a steady stream of visitors here is the funkiness. For every tourist wanting to stay at the 110-year-old Copper Queen Hotel, which is oak-paneled and ornately decorated with a bust of John Wayne in the lobby, there are those who choose to stay at the Shady Dell, a retro ’50s trailer park abutting the town cemetery. The Dell pays such close attention to period detail it boasts its own micro-radio station playing hits (and commercials) from back in the day.

Artists save the town

Some might lament that Bisbee’s mining history gets short shrift. But as native David Amalong, who owns the New Age store The Source Within (which also houses the Mini Museum of the Bizarre), points out, the town nearly expired after the last mine closed in 1975.

“Then the hippies came in and squatted in the abandoned buildings,” he said. “Then the artists came and they bought and restored the buildings. You could say they saved the town. Before that, Bisbee was typical Arizona redneck land. My father worked in the mine. I know.”

Just as miners at the turn of the 20th century came here because that’s where the work was, so too did free spirits at the turn of the 21st century flock to Bisbee because that’s where they could express themselves.

It’s why Jason and Jennifer Luria left Phoenix five years ago to buy the Shady Dell. It’s why Reed Booth, the “Killer Bee Guy,” stopped living out of his van as a drifter 26 years ago and became a local honey entrepreneur. It’s why Kristen Drewes left Buffalo, Wyo., in the rearview mirror and set up stakes here.

“Tombstone calls itself the ‘town too tough to die,’ ” Drewes said. “Well, Bisbee’s the ‘town too high to care.’ I’ve never been in a place so accepting. You can be gay, straight or somewhere in between; we don’t care. We’ve got retired physicists and archaeologists living next to hippies (who) don’t wash, and they all get along.

“Me, I’m just Fruit Loops. I’m woo-hoo crazy. So I belong here, too. Bisbee’s the state’s largest open-air sanitarium. And I mean that nicely.”

If so, then the inmates running it are having a fine time. Though the town is left-leaning politically, it’s neither strident nor militant, à la Berkeley. Republicans are welcome, too, they say, especially if they buy art and dine and shop in the stores.

No one really expects the tourists to go to the solar cooking demonstrations at the Food Co-Op or attend the Sunday night “progressive” movie that screens at the Ecoasis hostel, anyway. Bisbeeans have found a way, it seems, for commerce and communal harmony to coexist.

Politics and patchouli

How accepting is Bisbee? Palling around town on a recent Sunday was Joanne Goldwater, daughter of Republican icon and 1964 presidential candidate Barry, and Patricia Steward, daughter of the former head of the state’s Democratic Party.

“I love to come down here and stay in the bed-and-breakfast inns,” Goldwater said. “You always meet such interesting people.”

Goldwater had known Steward from their time together living in Scottsdale. But Steward, who now owns the popular Bisbee bar The Stock Exchange (currently closed for renovation), chuckled when told of Goldwater’s “interesting people” comment.

“This town,” Steward said, “there’s nothing like it. It looks like Europe and feels like it must be outer space. It reminds me of a mix of Amsterdam, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. I say Washington because we are political. We’re Democratic socially but Republican in terms of wanting less government. We’re eclectic that way.”

How’s this for eclectic?

A crime story in the weekly Bisbee Observer: “An unknown person is spraying WD-40 on a Bisbee garage every day and night. The garage owner has the empty cans for evidence.”

Or this?

A flier on a telephone pole: “Missing Chicken. Big, fluffy, yellow. Her name is Wavy. Last seen Thurs 5/24 on OK Street. If you see her, catch her! She is very sweet. Call us …”

Or this?

You can tour the town in a hearse looking for ghosts. The woman who drives said vehicle, Renee Kaplan Harper, also curates the Mini Museum of the Bizarre, where dirt from Jim Morrison’s grave resides next to the mummified hand of a Haitian voodoo priestess, John Dillinger’s death mask and a pickled fairy fossil.

Big buzz in Bisbee

Most Old West towns claim hauntings, and Bisbee is no different. But bizarre happenings of the non-apparition variety have gripped the town.

There was that time in the summer of 1998 when 60,000 angry Africanized honey bees swarmed after a hive was disturbed. Residents, cops and firefighters were attacked and ran through the streets covered in blankets. Eight people were hospitalized. One resident, Debrah Strait, was stung 400 times that day, later telling the San Diego Union-Tribune, “It was as horrific as you can imagine it to be.”

In came Booth, in his beekeeper suit, to exterminate the remaining offending bees. After the attendant media buzz, Booth opened the Killer Bee honey butter and mustard shop, wrote a book on his exploits and said he’s being considered for a cable reality show. “I tell customers, ‘Buy the cinnamon honey butter, and I won’t ask what you do with it in the privacy of your home,’ ” he said, winking.

It takes a lot to surprise Booth. But Bisbee is a continual source of wonder to him.

“I came here for two weeks 26 years ago,” he said. “Before that, I spent four years living in a van and being a sign painter on the road. I’ve been to every state, every town. When I rolled into this place, I was like, ‘You gotta be kidding me. What the (bleep)? This is the place! It exists!’ “

Sit a spell at the Dell

A similar epiphany hit Jennifer and Jason Luria when they bunked at the Shady Dell trailer-park themed motel on vacation. They were so smitten that they bought the joint five years ago. Jason was in the hospitality industry; Jennifer was a designer. They’ve now combined their skills.

Staying at the Shady Dell is a trip. Guests have choices of Airstreams, Manor trailers, a retrofitted bus, even a converted yacht. The couple’s rigorous, meticulous attention to period detail amazes.

Jennifer greeted a guest checking in wearing a perky ’50s dress. She sported ebony Anna May Wong bangs, blood-red lipstick and a carnation pinned above one ear. (Justin, by the way, dresses in a white T-shirt like a greaser.) Although forced to use a few modern conveniences, such as a credit-card swiper, she hands guests their receipts from an old cash register, as the AM radio behind her plays Patsy Cline’s turgid 1961 hit “I Fall to Pieces.”

“We wanted to create the effect that once you came here what you saw, what you heard, what you felt, was as close as we could get to a time that a lot of people have never experienced,” Jennifer said.

The verisimilitude is nearly total. The wood-paneled trailer had TV trays, framed photos of ’50s bobby-soxers, a black-and-white TV that plays B movies (“I set up ‘Hot Rod Girls’ just for you,” Jennifer said), a GM Frigidaire, a Dixie oven, a percolator coffee pot. Even more impressive: a calendar on the sink from June 1956 (which has dates corresponding to June 2012); a 1955 yearbook from the State University Teachers College in Geneso, N.Y.; Epsom salts, Dentur-Eze and April Showers talc in the medicine cabinet; a cribbage board and pinochle cards in a drawer; and air-mail stationery with No. 2 pencils on the desk.

Eve Greenberg and Jim Lewandowski of Gilbert, Ariz., have stayed at the Shady Dell twice on trips to Bisbee. “The first time was to experience the ’50s period,” Greenberg said. “This time, it was for peace and quiet. We’re not much for the Bisbee bar scene.”

Still mining history

There are some for whom the 50 shades of weird that is Bisbee are too jarring. It is possible, though, to visit without getting overly immersed in the counterculture. One of the most popular tours is of the Queen Mine, for which you don a yellow rain slicker and a miner’s helmet with a bright lamp slung over your shoulder to see in the dark. A miniature train descends 300 feet underground, and a tour guide (all are former miners) explains how copper was extracted from the rock.

Joe Garcia, who worked underground for 10 years until the mine closed in 1975, explained stope mining essentials: drilling 24 holes 7 feet in, packing in the dynamite and setting the fuse.

“Once in a while, the blast would make a hole 20 times bigger than what you wanted,” he said. “That’s what you call a cave-in, guys. Nothing you could do about it.”

Garcia also was stoic about losing his job when the mine closed. “They threw us all out,” he said, shrugging. “The hippies came in.”

And the hippies have stayed. And prospered.

In the gloaming of another red-rimmed Bisbee sunset, as the illuminated “B” on a hill overlooking the city competed with a giant Christmas-light peace sign for attention, a colony of bats swirled overhead.

“Look, it’s bat season,” Kaplan Harper enthused to her tour group. “Bats! Bats! Bats!”

If you didn’t know it by then, this confirmed it: Bisbee is truly batty.

BISBEE, ARIZ.

LOCATION

Approximately a two-hour drive from Tucson, four hours from Phoenix. Located on Highway 80, 20 miles south of Tombstone and nine miles north of the Mexico border.

ATTRACTIONS

• Queen Mine Tour: Highway 80 in Old Bisbee. Tours held 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m. daily. Cost: $13 for adults; $5.50 for ages 4-12. Reservations recommended. (866) 432-2071 or www.queenminetour.com

• Bisbee Mining Historical Museum: 5 Copper Queen Plaza. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Cost: $7.50 adults; $6.50 seniors 65-plus; $3 children under 16. (520) 432-7071, www.bisbeemuseum.org

• Lavender Jeep Tours: 11 Howell Ave.. Several vehicle tours available, including “The Back Roads of Bisbee” and a backcountry tour. Cost varies. (520) 432-5369, www.lavenderjeeptours.com

• Bisbee Hearse Tour and Bisbee Old Ghost Tour: Starts in front of the historical museum. Check websites for times. www.hearsetour.com, www.OldBisbeeGhostTour.com, (520) 432-3308

• Bisbee Mini Museum of the Bizarre: Inside The Source Within, 28 Main St.. Hours: 11 a.m.- 5 p.m. daily. Cost: $3; http://bizarrebisbee.com

LODGING

• Copper Queen Hotel: 11 Howell Ave. 48 rooms, two restaurants, old-fashioned saloon. (520) 432-2216 www.copperqueen.com

• Hotel LaMore (Bisbee Inn), 45 OK St., Bisbee. 20 rooms, antique furninshings. Said to be Bisbee’s most haunted hotel. (520) 432-5131, www.bisbeeinn.com

• The Shady Dell Vintage Trailers: 1 Douglas Road. Mostly 1950s-themed trailers, plus a retrofitted bus and a converted yacht. Some have bathrooms. Short walk to showers. (520) 432-3567, www.theshadydell.com

DINING

• Bisbee Breakfast Club: 75A Erie St. Open 7 a.m.-noon Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays; 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays. (520) 432-5885, www.bisbeebreakfastclub.com

• Cafe Roka: 35 Main St.. Italian-California cuisine. Open 5-9 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays; (520) 432-5153, www.caferoka.com

• Old Bisbee Brewing Company: 200 Review Alley. Open noon-10:30 p.m. daily; (520) 432-2739, www.oldbisbee brewingcompany.com

• Santiago’s: 1 Howell Ave., Mexican. Open 5-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. (520) 432-1910, santiagosmexican. blogspot.com

• Screaming Banshee Pizza and Wine Bar: 200 Tombstone Canyon. Hours vary, closed Mondays. Check website: www.screamingbansheepizza. net. (520) 432-1300

SHOPPING

• Atalanta Music Books: 38 Main St. (520) 432-9976. Fiction, nonfiction, art supplies, musical instruments, magazines, compact discs, toys and organic or recycled clothing and housewares.

• Bisbee Bicycle Brothel: 43 Brewery Ave.. New, used bikes, vintage bicycles, historic bike photos. (520) 236-4855, www.bisbeebicyclebrothel.com

• Killer Bee Honey: 15 Main St. Locally made honey, honey butter and honey mustard. (520) 432-2937. www.killerbeeguy.com

• Metalmorphosis: 79 Main St. Metal and copper art for home and garden. (520) 432-2922. www.metalmorphosis.biz

GALLERIES

• Belleza Fine Arts Gallery: 29 Main St. (520) 432-5877, www.bellezagallery.org

• The Tang Gallery: 32 Main St. (520) 432-5824, www.minatangkan.com

• Sam Poe Gallery: 24 Main St. (520) 432-5338, www.sampoegallery.com

– Sam McManis

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

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Call The Bee’s Sam McManis, (916) 321-1145.

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Welcome to Travel Insider, an occasional feature in which we get the inside scoop on common – sometimes exotic – destinations from those who have lived or traveled often there.

The place: France.

The expert: Michael A. Davis, 72, of El Dorado Hills, who retired as a cardiologist from Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento and regularly travels to France with his wife, Paula. Their last stay was two months in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, 25 miles east of Avignon in Provence.

What are cultural differences between France and the United States? How should visitors react?

The French are good at savoring the little things, especially revolving around food and drink. Virtually all stores, even the post office and smaller grocery stores, close at noon; often, produce is purchased daily fresh off the vine, often at outdoor markets.

French restaurant service is somewhat different; they are usually a bit understaffed, service is usually professional and efficient but not often “warm and fuzzy.” The waiter will leave you alone for as long as you want, and I, frankly, learned to appreciate this as we felt we could stay as long as we wished.

Name local delicacies that tourists absolutely must try.

There are two musts – one is either a fresh baguette or butter croissant just baked in the morning. The other is the regional wines; in Provence these are the Rhone wines with grenache, syrah, and mourvedre the primary grapes, and Châteauneuf du Pape the greatest of the wines.

Do you have any tips on the least- expensive ways (airfare, train, ship, car) to get to or around France?

Lease a car on longer stays; you get a brand-new car, all insurance is paid with it, and it’s much less expensive than a rental by the week. If one decides to travel by train only, it’s best done if one stays in larger cities, for example, then the Rail Pass system works great, and train travel either by the high-speed TGV or the local trains is simply outstanding.

How safe and efficient is rapid transportation (bus, subway, taxi)?

Rapid transportation in France is, I suspect, the best anywhere. Common sense in the Metro in Paris and in train stations will help you avoid problems. Same for walking at night in Paris, and especially in the countryside of Provence – very low crime rates.

What are places where you can experience the real France, the non-touristy part?

To enjoy the “real Provence,” take little drives in late spring through the amazingly beautiful countryside and eat lunch or dinner at one of the small local village cafes. Try Le Pistou in Châteauneuf for a perfect 13-euro, three-course lunch. Drive around the Gorges du Verdon and stay in Moustiers Sainte Marie. Drive the Côtes du Rhône wine road, walk through the little wine towns and sample and buy some of the great wines.

If your family were to visit you in France, where would you take them and why?

If they stayed with us in L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, we’d walk the town – très beautiful with its river. We’d take the train to Marseille for a day trip, drive the Côtes du Rhône wine road with a picnic lunch, eat lunch and sample wines in Châteauneuf and shop in the outdoor produce market outside of town. We’d take day trips to Arles, Orange, Uzès, Nîmes, Gordes and the Luberon – all perfect and beautiful day drives.

How would you describe the locals’ attitude toward tourists?

If you make an effort to learn some French before your trip and try to interact with the locals, you will find a whole new world will open up. They may get a bit of a laugh out of your feeble attempts, but it is always appreciated. We found the vast majority of French people to be positive in our interactions.

What is the one place not to miss when in France?

Too many to list, but I would say the Côtes du Rhône wine road drive for villages, amazing views and beauty, and to picnic. A three-night visit to Nice, with a day trip to Antibes is another.

What is the one overhyped place travelers should skip?

Palace of the Popes in Avignon, and most wine museums.

What is it that made you want to spend so much time in France?

The amazing variety of beautiful places to visit and travel through, possibly the best food and great wines in the world, historical sites everywhere, perfect weather in May and June with a unique, deep-blue sky, crops budding at different times, like lavender, poppies, sunflowers, and it’s easy to travel by car or train. Think of Napa, but better in all ways.

Would you ever consider going back, either to visit or live?

We would love to go back and perhaps use just the train system to visit cities like Lyon, Marseille and Nice again, and Annecey, Beaune and St. Tropez. If we were to live anywhere besides our country, this would be the place.

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LANCASTER — Their organized chants echoed from the bench along the third-base line at Tallmadge Elementary School, across the field and literally could be heard from hundreds of yards away.

The distinct sounds of girls playing softball was evident at every diamond across the city as the Edward Jones Invitational girls softball tournament continued Saturday.

In this particular case, it was the 8-and-under Lancaster Pride girls making sweet music during a battle with the Honeybees of Homerville, in a unique downsized version of the game.

The players competing in the coach-pitch division were decked out from head to toe in neon green and blue uniforms, with matching batting helmets with personalized last name stickers on the back giving them some individuality.

The customary accessories of color-coordinated hair ties and bows also were in place and miniature batting gloves hung from back pockets just like the big leaguers. The only thing not miniature was the sounds that belted out in unison from the players.

The 8U Pride (16-2) ultimately fell 12-10 in this game 12-10, just their second loss of the season, but coach Chip Sharp knows it’s the way his kids play the game and not so much the outcome which means something.

“I’m really proud of them,” Sharp said. “They play with their hearts. They play hard and they play all the way through.”

The Lancaster Pride softball program fields nine teams from 8U to 18U, but unlike a lot of travel programs, this one is geared with the cost conscious in mind.

“With the whole Pride program, we’re trying to help the girls who can’t really afford real expensive travel teams and stuff like that,” Sharp said. “We keep it so we’re playing more local ball and just a couple overnight stays here or there for bonding and such. But we try and keep the games within an hour-and-a half drive so the parents can drive and see their kids.

“To play on a big name team you’re looking at $5,000 to $7,000 a year in travel, and we don’t want to do that to people.”

The 8U Pride has traveled some this year, winning a pair of tournaments along the way.

“We want to pick up as many local girls as we can and just play,” the coach said. “I’m very proud of this little group right here. This is the third tournament we’ve been in and we’ve won the first two.”

The team won the first two games of the Edward Jones tournament and advanced to the championship round, which will be today. All but two players on the team are from Lancaster, another is from the Newark area and another is from Jackson County.

Getting a chance to play a big tournament in front of the home fans is something the Pride kids treasure.

“We really like the hometown support,” Sharp said. “We get a lot of compliments on our girls and stuff like that. For only being 8-years-old, they make a lot of awesome plays and they hit. We’ve got some awesome hitters.

“We’ve got a lot of girls who can hit it to the fence. There are 10-12-year-olds who struggle to do that. I’m very proud of them. We work hard and do a lot of fundamentals and stuff like that, but it all pays off.”

Travel softball isn’t for the faint of heart. For the Pride players, it’s a year-round venture which includes once-per-week hitting practice at an indoor facility during the winter as well as regular batting instruction at Sharp’s home during the cold-weather months.

“We work on batting and stuff like that in my basement, so it’s like a two-day-a week deal all winter long,” Sharp said. “We play tournaments on the weekends in the spring and summer and play 10U and 8U during the week. They’re tough; they play tough. I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls.”

Explore Tibet, a Lhasa-based travel agency that focuses on responsible tourism, now offers a trekking adventure to Mt. Lhakpa Ri in the Himalayan range on http://www.tibetexploretour.com.

(PRWEB) June 10, 2012

Explore Tibet, a Lhasa-based Tibet travel company that focuses on responsible tourism, now offers a trekking adventure to Mt. Lhakpa Ri in the Himalayan range.

The Himalayas were first opened for British expeditions in 1921. Since that time expedition teams from all over the world have attempted to summit the many 7,000-meter plus mountains in the range. Non-professionals can trek to the Everest Base Camp (EBC) and the surrounding mountains.

This trek goes beyond the base camp to the Advanced Base Camp (ABC), gradually ascending Mt. Lhakpa, or Lhakpa Ri, as it’s known in Tibetan. The mountain offers close-up views of Everest as well as dramatic views of the many 7,000 meter mountains in the range.

Travelers and the Tibet tour operator on this expedition must have mountaineering experience, be physically fit, and take time for proper altitude acclimatization.

The journey begins in Lhasa, and travels overland to southwest Tibet, giving time for sightseeing and acclimatization. The trip passes through the cities of Gyantse and Shigatse, with stops at cultural destinations like the famous Kumbum Stupa and the Tashilhunpo Monastery.

After spending a night at the base of Mt. Everest, the expedition will set off towards the EBC marker. This area has some of the most famous scenery in the world, and the plains around the mountain contain herds of wild goats and other wildlife.

After meeting with a yak team, trekkers will set out through a rocky basin with views of Rongbuk glacier. The multiple-day ascent goes from the first camp at 5,460 meters to the final stop on Lhakpa Ri at 7.045 meters.

Explore Tibet is a Tibetan-run Tibet travel agency focused on responsible tourism and sustainable practice.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/tibet-travel-company/prweb9591111.htm

The last time I was on a roller coaster, I was clutching an engagement ring in my hand as I prepared to pop the question to my longtime girlfriend Nicole at the top of the famed Cyclone.

Almost a decade later — and a marriage full of ups and downs — I found myself pulling a harness over my head with the fruit of our love sitting beside me.

Our first child, Faith, who turns 7 in June, made the 48-inch height requirement for the twin-looped Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va.

The ride has been the first coaster for countless kids and the exhilaration on Faith’s face as we barreled down the initial 114-foot drop ensured another generation of coaster enthusiasts.

This corner of Virginia has been luring thrill-seekers since long before the award-winning theme park opened in 1975. In fact, 405 years before, when the first permanent English colony in the Americas was settled in nearby Jamestown in 1607 — beating the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock by 13 years.

My wife and I planned our own pilgrimage to the region last spring break with Faith and our two other daughters — Sophie, 5, and 1-year-old Isabella.

Aside from Busch Gardens, the history-rich area includes the original fort at Historic Jamestowne, Colonial Williamsburg and the Yorktown battleground — where the Revolutionary War saw its deciding battle.

During the seven-hour drive from Brooklyn, we popped in Disney’s “Pocahontas” to give the girls a quick history lesson.

The bucolic landscape of the Tidewater region hasn’t changed much since the daughter of Chief Powhatan saved the life of colonist John Smith, according to legend.

Historic Jamestowne brings that legend to life better than any Disney DVD through exhibits and a multimedia theater presentation.

There is a re-created Powhatan Indian village and replicas of the three ships that brought the colonists up the James River.

The walk through the town site passes by the original church tower, which dates to the 1690s, and the foundations of the earliest buildings in Virginia.

More spectacular is the scenic drive that loops through the lushness of James Island, where bald eagles, heron and osprey soar overhead.

The next day, our time machine jumped forward to Colonial days as we trudged up and down the
wide, pebblestone-paved Duke of Gloucester St. in the historic heart of Williamsburg.

Scores of schoolkids from as far away as California dashed between the restored 18th-century buildings at the 301-acre site, which served as the capital of the Virginia colony between 1699 and 1780.

Among the top attractions is the Capitol, an H-shaped statehouse originally built in 1705.

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By Derek Miller

For the Salisbury Post

Just hearing the word Alaska conjures up a whole host of powerful adjectives. Amazing, breath-taking, magnificent, spectacular, majestic, massive, overwhelming, beautiful, etc. are just a few descriptions of Alaska that I have heard in my life.

I first started hearing about Alaska from my grandparents, who traveled often to the 49th state in their Cessna airplane. I was only a little tyke and had no comprehension of what Alaska was or meant. All I knew is that my grandparents traveled to Alaska and that they could not get enough of the place. They would bring back hundreds of photographs. To see the incredible joy and emotions they displayed while talking about their Alaska experiences was something I will never forget.

Even at that time I realized that this Alaska place must be really amazing because my grandparents loved it so. Anything that made my grandparents happy was fine with me. In fact I would come to learn that Alaska is a place that I must see for myself. So after 51 years of Alaska-free living, it was time to take action, so off to the great white north we went.

As many do, my wife Kathie and I ventured to the last frontier via cruise ship. It is a great way to get acquainted with the state, especially the southeastern coastline and the inside passage. After a smooth flight to Vancouver, British Columbia, we spent the night in a downtown Vancouver hotel.

After 42 hours of relatively smooth sailing, we arrived at Alaska’s capital city of Juneau, located on the Gastineau Channel and surrounded by glacier-capped mountains rising thousands of feet. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years by the native cultures of the Tlingit (pronounced klink-it), Haida and Tsimshan people. This was the first town founded after Alaska was purchased from Russia by the United States. Serving as the capital of Alaska since 1906, Juneau is still only accessible by sea or air.

For a population of just over 30,000, Juneau is culturally, politically and socially active. One of our highlights on this stop was a visit to the Mendenhall Glacier, which is 12 miles long, 1.5 miles wide, and comprised of ice 400– 800 feet deep. It was our first peek at a glacier up close and in person. The glacier was impressive as it appeared to reveal a large body of water meandering through the mountains, frozen in time. On our glacier trip we were fortunate to see several bald eagles, a porcupine and some mountain goats.

After our stop in Juneau we headed to Skagway on the Alaska panhandle. With a population of approximately 20,000, Skagway is the smallest borough in Alaska and is located in a narrow glaciated valley at the head of the Taiya inlet, the northernmost Fjord on Alaska’s inside passage. Skagway is surrounded by snow-capped mountains, glistening glaciers and the beautiful Alaskan Sea. This place is worth visiting for its breathtaking geography alone.

Skagway was our favorite port of call. It was once little more than a small and lawless settlement, but this quickly changed when gold was discovered in the Klondike region of the Yukon Territory. Thousands of dreamers in search of riches soon made their way to the community. From July to October 1897 the area grew from a disheveled collection of tents into a town with well laid out streets, buildings, stores, saloons, brothels, gambling and dance houses.

The highlight during our stop in Skagway was going on an excursion called “The Yukon Adventure and White Pass Scenic Railway,” which gave us a close-up glimpse of the historic White Pass Trail that was famous back in 1898. It was quite fascinating to hear and learn stories of the miners who made this legendary trip on foot more than a century ago. In Fraser, British Columbia we had the pleasure of sampling some of the local fare, including Bison chili.

The railroad portion of the trip was by far the most scenic train ride I have ever been on. The ride encompassed breathtaking panoramas of mountains; glaciers, gorges, waterfalls, rivers and historic sites from the comfort of vintage parlor cars. The White Pass Railway was built in 1898 during the Klondike gold rush. This narrow gauge railroad is an international historic civil engineering landmark. The WPY, as it is called; climbs nearly 3,000 feet in just 20 miles and features steep grades, cliff-hanging turns , two tunnels, and numerous bridges and trestles. It boggles the mind when you realize that it required tens of thousands of men and 450 tons of explosives to overcome such harsh climate and challenging geography to create this railway.

Then it was time to venture off to the Tracy Arm Fjord, located about 45 miles south of Juneau and 70 miles north of Petersburg off of Holkham Bay and adjacent to Stephens Passage within the Tongass National Forest. The Fjord is named after Civil War general Benjamin Franklin Tracy. Tracy Arm Fjords wilderness contains 653,179 acres and consists of two deep and narrow fjords, both over 30 miles long and one fifth of their area is covered in ice. During the summer, the fjords have considerable floating ice ranging from hand-sized to pieces as large as a three-story building.

The last stop on our magnificent Alaskan journey was Ketchikan, located near the southernmost tip of Alaska’s panhandle. The town, which bills itself as the salmon capital of the world, was originally a Tlingit Indian village in the late 1800s. Pioneers came here and established a fishing, salting and canning operation. During the gold rush the town expanded and was able to survive by logging and fishing when the mines played out. The logging industry is gone for the most part but tourism and commercial and sport fishing are important to Ketchican’s economy. With the convenience of the dock and town being so close in proximity, we decided to do our own self-guided tour. At first glance, you get the sense that Ketchikan was and still is a frontier town. One of the better known areas in town is Creek Street, a boardwalk built on pilings over Ketchikan Creek. This is the historic “red-light” district of town. There are numerous museums, colorfully painted boutiques, attractions and frontier-era homes that give visitors a feel for what life was like in years past. Ketchikan Creek, which runs through the center of town, is usually the focal point in the month of August, when visitors can see the salmon run.

Unfortunately Ketchikan was our last stop in Alaska, and now it was time to head to our final destination of Seattle, Washington.

I took many pictures, but no words or photographs could ever do Alaska justice. However, I only wish that I could share my Alaska experience with my grandparents and thank them for inspiring and captivating me as they did. If it weren’t for their inspiration, I may never have experienced Alaska’s natural beauty and adventuresome spirit.

Derek Miller is retired from the United States Air Force. He lives in Salisbury.

It seemed like such a simple idea.

Bring all of the best kids together who play select or travel soccer and put them on one team to dominate an age group locally and beyond.

Girls’ teams had done this in the Evansville area for years and continue to do it today with SWISA teams like the Rush and the Crush that competed for State Cup titles this weekend in Indianapolis.

Louann Woodford / Special to The Courier Press
Back row: (L to R) Fred Schmalz (coach), Brandon Potts, Andy Hamilton Pete Condol, Travis Williams, Tyler Book, Robert Dale (assistant coach) and Greg Hamilton (manager).
Middle row: (L to R) Josh Weinzapfel, Ryan Flora, Lucas Woodford, Andy Hodges, Andrew Cook, Zach Osip, Kyle Wilson.
Bottom row: (L to R) Travis Wannemuehler, Jace Jarboe, Cody Chapman, Austin Bruder, Jacob Rheinlander, Nick Wilson.
Book, Flora, Hodges, Cook, Osip, Wannemuehler, Jarboe and Bruder did not remain with the team.

But boys’ teams were slow to warm to the idea until the Evansville Soccer Club used the lure of an acclaimed coach, former University of Evansville head men’s coach and Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Famer Fred Schmalz, to unite the best kids in 2008.

“The girls had been doing this for a while and they put together some great teams with lots of college-caliber kids,” said Schmalz. “But this was a first for the boys. We had a great run.”

The Evansville S.C. U-18 boys had hoped to be seeking another State Cup title (the team won in 2010) this weekend themselves, but they were upset in a preliminary game, according to Schmalz.

Now the core of that team will move on to play soccer at seven different college programs and one college basketball program. Six will play at the University of Southern Indiana.

Only one Evansville S.C. player, former North midfielder Nick Wilson, has elected not to play. He will attend Miami (Ohio) and concentrate on an engineering degree.

“This is the first group of guys from this area to come together like this,” said Schmalz. “We’re sending 12 kids to college, and that’s not counting our (four) underclassmen.”

The end came in a 2-1 loss to MSA Vadar, a team from Northwest Indiana. “We were ahead 1-0 at the half,” said former Castle standout and USI signee Lucas Woodford. “It was one of the best halves we ever played together.

“But in the second half they were able to put in a couple loose balls off free kicks, something we had problems with all season. Unfortunately, it ended up costing us another run at a state title together.”

But the legacy will continue as Woodford will be joined at USI by Evansville S.C. and Castle teammates Brock Harvey and Logan Ball, former Mater Dei players Josh Weinzapfel and Andy Hamilton, former Washington midfielder Travis Williams and former Henderson County defender Brandon Potts.

“Not all of those guys will go in and start as freshmen,” said Schmalz. “But it won’t be long before they help form the core of a much-improved program at USI. They can play.”

Another former Mater Dei player, forward Kyle Wilson, will play at the University of Evansville.

“Being able to play together has allowed us all to get better,” said Wilson. “This team was mainly a combination of Blitz and Elite. We played against each other and had always known each other, so the chemistry was great from the start.

“But I’d have to say having Coach Fred as our coach was one of the biggest factors that helped us develop as a team. He always coached us as college players. Even when we started out as freshmen in high school he treated us that way.”

Other signees off the team include Cody Chapman of Washington, who’s going to Franklin; Jacob Frank of North, going to Northern Kentucky; and Braiden Acton of North, to Eastern Illinois, Also playing in college will be Jordan Lee of Henderson County (Ky.), to Cedarville (Ohio), and Pete Condol of Mount Carmel (Ill.), to Quincy. Day School forward Alex Hanke will play basketball at Hanover.

Underclassmen on the team include Castle junior Jahan Favardin, Memorial junior Jacob Frank, Murray (Ky.) junior Ian Umstead and Henderson County sophomore Miguel Valasquez.

Woodford said he would miss the practices.

“If you look at our team, the guys were the best players from the area,” he said. “If you ever went to our practices you’d see how hard everybody worked and made each other get better.

“We’ll be ready when we go to college because we were with people who knew the game, knew how to play and enjoyed playing together. That’s why we were really successful.”