A Trip News

Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s largest cruise line operator, said it will resume visits to Mexican ports.
Following word that the Centers for Disease Control is no longer recommending that Americans avoid nonessential travel to the country due to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the company said its first cruise ship to return to Mexico will be the Carnival Holiday.
The four-day cruise departing May 28 from Mobile, Ala., will stop in Cozumel, Mexico.
No other major cruise line has announced plans (more…)

While most of her fellow Spanish majors chose to study abroad in Spain, Boston College junior Megan Leahy elected to head to Mexico for “a more independent experience.” Leahy, who spent the spring semester at La Universidad Iberoamericana’s Puebla campus, says her classes at BC prepared her so well that she sometimes was mistaken for a native. But she admits that it’s still “hard to fully communicate how I feel or articulate a joke or slang from English to Spanish.”
FRESH CHOICE: Puebla (more…)

NAMED for a jumble of railroad tracks, the Junction section of Toronto was once a booming manufacturing hub, with lively pubs, hotels and shops. But industry declined and, in recent decades, the neighborhood withered as prostitutes and drug dealers staked their turf along Dundas Street West, the area’s main thoroughfare.
The pendulum, however, seems to be swinging back. Spurred by the hipification of other once-derelict districts like West Queen West, the young and artsy are taking advantage (more…)

Delta is launching its inaugural Los Angeles-to-Sydney flight.
The battle for air passengers on the busy Australia-US route has grown hotter with US airline giant Delta launching its inaugural Los Angeles to Sydney flight.
The flight is scheduled to leave LA international airport at 10.35pm LA time on Wednesday (3.35pm Thursday AEST).
Delta plans to steal market share from the dominant airlines on the route, Qantas and United Airlines and another newcomer, Richard Branson’s recently-launched (more…)

For Asia Pacific travellers, overseas trips begin with a visit to the Internet to plan their own itinerary, according to the Travel Smart Survey commissioned by Visa. 72% of survey respondents seek travel tips to help them decide where to go, mainly from the internet (43%) travel agents (23%) or friends, relatives and colleagues (23%).
The way the sexes and generations use the internet for travel planning differs. Women are more likely to be their own travel agents than men with 48% of the women (more…)

THE BASICS
Just in case you were worried that the extreme luxe lifestyle was dying off, you can stop fretting. It is alive and well at The Resort at Pelican Hill, which opened last November on 504 acres overlooking the Pacific at Newport Coast, an hour south of Los Angeles . The hotel is the vision of Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Real Estate Company, who seemingly spared no expense in creating an opulent resort reminiscent of a seaside Italian village, one infused with the style of Palladio. (more…)

Well fortified … (from top) Carcassonne’s Cite’s cobbled streets; a mural at Notre Dame de l’Abbaye; jousting re-enactment. Photo: Lonely Planet, AFP
In a land of castles and cassoulet, Susan Johnson slows to the seasonal rhythm of life.
Lost in Carcassonne, not entirely certain whether I’m heading in the direction of the medieval walled Cite for which it is famous, I use my schoolgirl French to ask a passing stranger for directions.
“Mais oui,” replies the handsome, well-dressed young (more…)

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link opened for traffic in Mumbai yesterday, Anil Mathur reports. The 5.6km bridge is planned to ease traffic in the Indian financial capital, but also become a tourism attraction, with regular tours planned. The eight-lane bridge, which will be illuminated at night, cost an estimated INR16.5 billion (US340 million) to build.

(more…)

Six weeks, nine countries, one bag: Alice Russell reveals her packing regime.
IS it possible to travel for six weeks with 7 kilograms of luggage in one small bag? I’m a person who takes a bootload of gear for a weekend away but on a recent 40-day trip to nine European countries I achieved the light traveller’s Holy Grail.
It took lots of planning but it was worth it. I was smugly self-congratulatory as my bag measuring 45cm x 30cm x 18cm and I fitted unobtrusively into crowded trains and buses; (more…)

NEW ORLEANS — As we made our way through the French Quarter, reeling from the swampy air and the midday cacophony of Bourbon Street, we could almost taste the jambalaya.
During our exhaustive research for this four-day jaunt, everyone had recommended Coop’s Place, tourists and locals alike. Cheap, good, and Cajun, they said. The perfect spot for our inaugural lunch.
I opened the door, basked briefly in the icy air conditioning, and then stepped aside to let my husband roll in with the (more…)