Travel Vicariously with Pilgrim's Tales

Pilgrim's Tales Publishing is a small individually owned imprint that puts out unusual and very personal travel books aimed at the vicarious voyager in us all. Brandon and Cheryl Wilson are intrepid travelers indeed, accomplishing daunting long-distance treks -- often the first Americans to do so -- and putting their experiences into words.


Yak Butter Blues (right) by Brandon Wilson is the tale of the couple's 650-mile trek across Tibet. Walking from Lhasa to Kathmandu, in neighboring Nepal, they crossed the wild Himalayan plains, accompanied only by their Tibetan horse, Sadhu. They faced Tibet's challenging weather (blistering winds, extreme temperatures, sandstorms, blizzards, high altitudes and thin air), as well as what the author describes as "exhaustion, hunger, illness, inflexible bureaucrats and trigger-happy soldiers." It's a tale of faith, of the human spirit and human connections, as well as an ancient culture that has changed after half a century of Chinese rule.


Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa, also by Brandon Wilson, documents their 10,000-mile overland odyssey Morocco on the Mediterranean to Cape Town, South Africa, on the continent's farthest tip. Interactions with clueless tourists, uninformed guides, people and animals are the fodder for this travel adventure book.


Walking on the Templar Trail, Wilson's next book, covers Wilson's trip "in the footsteps of history." With an he embarks on a 2,620-mile trekking pilgrimage for peace across two continents and countries along an ancient trail followed by Templars, Romans, pilgrims, and traders on their way from France to Jerusalem.


I have never met Brandon or Cheryl Wilson, but I'd like to. When it comes to travels of this ambition and treks of such magnitude, vicarious works for me.

DIA and LGA: A Study in Airport Contrasts

"DIA is Getting More Crowded" reads the top headline in today's Denver Post business section. The article goes on to explain that Denver International Airport, built to handle 50 million passengers a year (but designed with a capacity for significant expansion), last year counted 47.3 million. Of these, some 41 percent were connecting passengers, who generally don't leave their concourse.

The opening sentence for this front page story is, "Denver International Airport seems more crowded all the time." I'm here to tell you that there's crowded and there's crowded. DIA might might be racking up numbers, but LGA felt really mobbed -- and really old and tacky.

Commercial air service at LGA began in 1939. Its Central Terminal Building was built in 1964, expanded in 1967 and again in 1972 and was most recently "modernized" in 2000. The expansion and especially the modernization are not immediately obvious. The terminal is still crowded. And as airports go, it's still a dump. When I arrived on a recentl rainy day, the roof on my arrival concourse was leaking, as it had been when I arrived there on a rainy day about two years ago. The clever catchment system seems ready to roll out in any downpour. It might have been positioned in the same spot as the last time I was there in the rain.

The concourses are narrow, the waiting areas are crowded, the security lines slow-moving because they have to funnel into the crowded concourses and the restrooms inadequate. And did I mention the delays? LGA, which surrounded on two sides by water, has two runways. DIA has six. We were late in taking off from DIA because there were delays at LGA. A week later, my flight left LGA on time, because I'm sure ground controllers couldn't wait to get rid of another aircraft.

DIA might have 47.3 million passengers a year, but to me, it seems like fewer. LGA has about 25 million, and every time I fly to or from there, it seems that most of them are at the airport the same day I am.

Cheap NY-London Flights, But Who's on First?

Zoom Airlines recently announced "a revolution in low-cost air travel" with impending London-New York flights for £129. I'm quoting its press release here and take no responsibility for bizarre capitalization, but I reveled in the news that "the low-fares, full-service airline is to operate daily flights from London Gatwick to New York JFK from Thursday 21 June. Zoom will operate an ‘easyJet-style’ booking service with flexible one-way fares and the New York flights will offer economy and Premium economy services with designated seating, meals service and ‘plenty of frills’.

"Zoom says it plans to become the UK’s leading low-cost Transatlantic airline providing an affordable alternative to BA and Virgin which ‘have been fleecing passengers for too long’.
The new flights will also take off almost a year ahead of any “Open Skies” deal which may lead to more low-cost flights being offered by Zoom in the future."

Zoom promises:
• Year-round low-cost fares
• Full flexibility for passengers to travel when they want, with no restrictions on fares such as the need to stay a Saturday night
• Lunch time departures from Gatwick arriving NYC JFK early afternoon • The ability to be able to change reservations for a minimal fee
• Options to buy affordable one-way tickets
• Value-for-money Premium Economy service

John Boyle, co-owner with Hugh Boyle of Zoom Airlines, has been quoted as saying, “You cannot put a sheaf of paper between the prices charged by BA, Virgin and the American carriers on the New York route and it is high time that passengers had a better deal. We are offering savings of up to 70% on these flights. “Our catch phrase is ‘Now you’re sitting comfortably’ and we think this will appeal to people who, quite frankly, have been forced to pay outrageously high fares to fly between London and New York for too long."

Zoom does have a track record, having operated between the UK and Canada for the three years, serves Bermuda and has been granted permission to operate from London Gatwick as an official UK carrier to the United States alongside British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

This sounds to good to be true, and it might be, so don't book yet even though the inaugural is less than two months away. When you go to the US booking page of the carrier's website, the following message comes up: "Due to US Department of Transportation regulations, we are presently unable to offer flights to London and Bermuda to persons in the United States. Please check our website in the coming weeks for more details. We regret any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to serving you in the future. Please call for further assistance 1.866.359.9666." This is the Zoom Airlines' North American toll-free number.

Maybe this will all change tomorrow -- or next week -- or next month. Stay tuned.

The Wine Adventurers

Oh to be young, footloose and in love with each other and wine. I stumbled on a blog called 1000 Wines, written by C.J. Levine and Brianne Day Levine who introduce themselves individually and then write, "C.J. and Brianne met on the Internet in September of 1998. They first met in person on May 20th, 1999, and were married a year to the day later in 2000. With the exception of a few wild months in Camas, WA, they have always lived in Portland, OR, the city they both consider home."

In March 2006, they embarked on a 16-month round-the-world wine, food and culture odyssey. Brianne wanted to study enology (winemaking) and viticulture (grape growing), and they both wanted to learn about "the similiarities and differences of most of the world’s wine producting regions and cultures."

They've been Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy. They have visited 15 wineries, 12 vineyards, two wine cellars and eight breweries. They're nearing the end of their journey, and wish I'd been following them vicariously, on-line, since the beginning. I've dipped into some of the posts archived on their site. It has ended up being about a lot more than wine, and if you want to read abour their experiences and see their photos, check out their blogged travel diary.

Fancy Denver Hotel Welcomes Families

Other than the guest room of friends or family, an attractive and well-located hotel can be the difference between a vacation dream and vacation drudgery. Denver's JW Marriott Denver, a very upscale Cherry Creek North hotel, is offering a well-priced weekend package for families this summer. Note that I didn't write budget-priced, because this is a deal that represents value rather than straight-out economy. Still, I think that as kids who grow up eating real food in real restauants rather than manufactured commestibles in fast-food places learn to appreciate food, kids who now and again have a taste of luxury learn to appreciate fine travel.

The Kids in the City Package includes luxury accommodations, complimentary valet parking, four tickets to the Denver Zoo, JW coloring book, milk and cookies at evening turndown and complimentary in-room movie. Each family will also receive a Passport to Savings at Cherry Creek’s most popular kid-related businesses such as the Wizard's Chest, Cute as a Button, Kazoo & Co. and many others. The hotel is at 150 Clayton Lane. For reservations, 303-316-2700 and mention rate code 21FFUP. The package is offered weekends through September 3, 2007.

New Travel Blog

Travel blogs are a dime a dozen and new ones are coming on-line all the time, but I draw your attention to one created by Travel Arts Syndicate, a New York-based syndicate that sends my (and other writers') feature articles out to newspaper travel sections. Though the scope and approach isn't yet clear (it really is brand new with only three posts up as of this writing), it will certainly include when and where which TAS writers' work appears and other news of TAS writers, as well as editor Terese Loeb Kreuzer's own travel experiences. Since she lives in New York, she will share her epic knowledge of that popular city as well. After all, we travel writers "travel" even when we are at home.

Europe's Low-Fare Airlines

I've been curious about low-fare airlines abroad ever since I heard about RyanAir (founded in 1985) after airline deregulation began hitting European skies. New York Times "Frugal Traveler" columnist Matt Gross did the legwork (or more accurately, butt-in-seat-work) in a feature called"Adventures in Low-Cost Travel" that appeared today's travel section, comparing European low-fare carriers. In such a volatile business as airlines, I'm slightly uneasy about a report printed toward the end of April on a weeklong city-hopping trip undertaken in January, which for a newspaper isn't exactly swift.

Nevertheless, Gross praised Air Berlin ("a spanking new Airbus A320" in which "the air was so clean I could smell the high-tech filtering system"...and "for the first time, I had a personal flat-screen") but gave thumbs down to its codeshare partner, Fly DBA ("the airline's 737-300 exuded shabbiness"). Jet4You had "the highest fares and the oldest planes." He praised FlyBaboo (right)for its waiting area, aircraft and on-the-ball flight attendant, and EasyJet for its flexibility. Wizz Air's cabin, he reported, "was overpressurized and its flight attendants a confused as the color scheme." As for the pioneering RyanAir, he called it "not just the cheapest but the chintziest." Other airlines whose names he dropped but which he did not fly were Vueling, TUIfly, and Sterling. Italy, he reports, "has a host of tiny carriers that focus on random and disparate cities."

Low-fare arlines can offer cheap tickets by publicizing only the base price. Rockbottom fares often require advance booking or other restictions. They often fly from distant airports. Add-ons include taxes, fuel surcharges, high excess baggage fees, airport security charges and other miscellaneous fees. Forget frequent-flyer miles, but then, with low enough fares, who needs them?