Travel

You say you would like to visit many of the great places Texas and Louisiana have to offer, but gasoline approaching $3 a gallon has slowed those plans?

Have we got a solution for you.

It's the 2008 Travel Expo, sponsored by the Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph and Tyler Junior College, scheduled for Saturday, March 1 on the grounds of the Ornelas HPE Center and will feature booths representing travel destinations from across the Lone Star State as well as musical entertainment.

Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. with activities scheduled inside the center and outside on the parking lot. Admission is free.

Outside events will include a Civil War reenactment, a group showing World War II vehicles and reenactors dressed in 16th century costumes.

Door prizes include tickets to Texas Motor Speedway's O'Reilly 300 and Samsung 500 and family trips scheduled for April 5-6 to Galveston Island.

Inside the Ornelas Center, musical groups include performances from the Vibre Handbell Quartet, featuring musicians from the East Texas Handbell Association and the Class Reunion Quartet.

Local bands scheduled to perform include Geezer, Two Wild Cars and The Sweetwater Band.

Representatives from cities and travel destinations across Texas will be on hand to help you plan you're close to home summer vacation. Convention and visitor bureaus will also be available to answer questions about their particular areas.

So for considerably fewer gallons of gasoline, you can make the short trip to TJC on March 1 and make plans for your Texas-Louisiana getaway during the 2008 Travel Expo.

New Monopoly Cities

EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. - Monopoly is looking for a few good cities.

Hasbro, which makes the board game, is developing a global Monopoly game that will feature 20 cities from around the world. Fans of the game can vote for up to 10 of 68 candidate cities until Feb. 28 at http://www.monopoly.com.

You can also nominate a city via a wild card - basically an online write-in ballot - if your favorite place is not on the list. Beginning Feb. 29, the top 20 most nominated wild card cities will compete in a one-week faceoff for the chance to be one of the board's low-rent properties - the equivalent of Baltic and Mediterranean avenues from the original game. The company points out that this wild card option means it's conceivable that Paris, Texas, and Paris, France, could both be on the board, or that Kalamazoo could share real estate with Sydney or Cairo.

The railroad properties from the original board will feature land, sea, air and space travel in the new game.

Monopoly is published in 37 languages and sold in 103 countries.

The new global game will be called "Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition." It will be unveiled in August and go on sale in September.

The 68 candidate cities include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Caracas, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, London, Mexico City, Montreal, Moscow, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Vancouver.

U.S. cities on the list are Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C.

Garden Events Galore



NEW YORK (AP) - Like daffodils breaking through the cold ground, garden shows, festivals and events are a sure sign of spring. Here are a few around the country in the next few weeks and months:

n The Philadelphia Flower Show, March 2-9, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, http://www.theflowershow.com

n The New York Botanical Garden Orchid Show, through April 6, Bronx, N.Y., http://www.nybg.org

n New England Spring Flower Show, March 8-16, Bayside Expo Center in Boston, http://www.masshort.org/New-England-Spring-Flower-Show

n National Cherry Blossom Festival, Washington D.C., March 29-April 13, http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org

n Virginia Historic Garden Week (75th anniversary with events at homes and historic sites around the state), April 19-27, http://www.vagar-denweek.org

n Atlanta Botanical Garden "Orchid Daze, Gargoyles & Grace," through March 30, http://www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org

n Atlanta Dogwood Festival, April 4-6, Lenox Square; http://www.dogwood.org

n Camellia Walks, Middleton Place, Charleston, S.C., Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through March 29, http://www.middletonplace.org

n Chicagoland Flower & Garden Show, March 8-16, Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, http://www.chicagoflower.com.

n Cincinnati Flower Show, at Coney Island, April 19-27, http://www.cincyflowershow.com/.

n Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Skagit County, Wash., April 1-30, http://www.tulipfestival.org.

n San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, March 12-16, the Cow Palace, http://www.garden-show.com/.

If you're willing to travel to Europe for your flower fix, the famed Chelsea Flower Show in London is May 20-24, http://www.rhs.org.uk/chel-sea/index.html.

Tickets to the Chelsea show can be hard to come by, but the event is on the itinerary for a May 17-26 tour of "Paris and London Gardens," offered by Donna Dawson of http://www.gardeningtours.com. There are still a few spots available for the trip, which includes visits to Sissinghurst in England and Versailles and Giverny in France. Price for the tour is $3,895 per person for double occupancy (single supplement is $1,293), including hotels and more.

Best Eco-Getaways



NEW YORK (AP) - Outside magazine's March issue recommends several places in the U.S. as the "best new eco-getaways." They are:

n The Lodge at Sun Ranch, in Cameron, Mont., which is notable among eco-resorts for allowing hunting of free-range organic elk; $900 a person for three nights, http://www.sunranchlodge.com. Outside says the ranch plants 10 trees in the Amazon for every guest.

n Proximity Hotel, Greensboro, N.C., a new hotel striving for top certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design code, a nationally recognized benchmark for green buildings. Solar panels heat 60 percent of the hotel's water, and its elevator captures electricity produced by the brakes as the car descends; doubles from $199, http://www.proximityhotel.com

n Orchard Garden Hotel, San Francisco, which was built from concrete made from fly ash, a byproduct of coal power plants, with key cards that turn off the heat when you leave the room; doubles from $190, http://www.theorchardgardenhotel.com/.

n Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa, the only LEED gold-certified hotel in the U.S., where a copy of Al Gore's eco-manifest "An Inconvenient Truth" is kept in every room along with the Holy Bible and a Buddhist bible; doubles from $160; http://www.gaianapavalleyhotel.com.

'Nevada Passage' International



RENO, Nev. (AP) - Three years ago, Nevada's tourism commission created a syndicated television program called "Nevada Passage," featuring two-person teams competing in bicycle races, kayaking, jet skiing, rock climbing and other outdoor events.

Now the show is going international with a new partnership featuring Land Rover SUVs.

In May, the adventure reality series will serve as one of the 18 qualifying events around the world for the 2008-09 Land Rover G4 Challenge, a combination of off-road races, navigation challenges, trail running, mountain biking and kayaking.

"Nevada Passage" was designed by tourism officials to showcase Nevada as offering more to visitors than just casinos.

Past "Nevada Passage" competitions included backcountry skiing in the Sierra Nevada, sand-boarding at the Sand Mountain Recreation Area near Fallon, kayaking on the Truckee River in downtown Reno and rock climbing at Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas.

Tourism officials said the partnership with Land Rover this year will make it necessary to keep secret the exact location of the five days of events to prevent competitors from getting an unfair advantage by practicing at the sites ahead of time.

The top two two-person teams from the competition will advance to the international selection event in early 2009, where one team will be selected to represent the United States in the final challenge in Asia.

International Airfare Predictions



SEATTLE (AP) - Farecast.com is now offering international predictions on airfares in 200 markets between the U.S. and popular destinations in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada.

The company says that fares to Europe during the peak summer months will average 11 percent higher this year over 2007.

Consumers can expect to pay $600-1,500 on the lowest price airfare from top U.S. cities to most European destinations, compared to $350 for domestic travel, according to the Web site, which offers guidance on when to book in order to take advantage of the lowest fares.

Fares to top U.S. to Mexico and Caribbean markets average $360 in the low season, to over $500 in the high season.

'Unexpected' Travel Books



NEW YORK (AP) - Travel + Leisure magazine and DK Eyewitness Travel have partnered to create two new hardcover travel books, "Unexpected Italy" and "Unexpected France" ($25).

These are the magazine's first books focusing on single destinations.

The richly illustrated books include insider accounts, recommendations from Travel + Leisure editors, maps, and practical information on hotels, restaurants, and activities.

"Unexpected France" includes chapters on "Biking Through Versailles," "Glories of the Loire," and a section on Aveyron, which the book describes as a "sparsely populated, often-overlooked" part of Southern France with beautiful landscapes, medieval villages and good food and lodging. Highlights of the area include the centuries-old pilgrims' trail through France to the Pyrenees mountain passes crossing over into northwestern Spain, where medieval Christians hoped to find their salvation at the shrine of St. James in Santiago (Spanish for St. James) de Compostela.

"Unexpected Italy" includes chapters on wine, undiscovered islands, flavors of the Piedmont (truffles and the area's signature bicerin drink - coffee, chocolate and cream), and top sights in Milan, including the refurbished La Scala auditorium.

---

Instead of 'Do not disturb': 'Pillow fight in progress'

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Instead of hanging a "Do not disturb" sign on your door, next time you stay at an Embassy Suites hotel, you might hang up a "Pillow fight in progress" sign.

The pillow slogan was one of five that won a contest sponsored by the hotel chain to replace "Do not disturb" signs.

The winning door-hangers will be available for use in the hotels starting March 5. The authors of the winning entries will receive a three-night stay at select Embassy Suites destinations.

The other winning slogans were:

-"Shh! I'm hatching a plan to bust some little soaps out of here."

-"There are days when I wish I could wear this around my neck."

-"I've built a pillow fort and I am not opening the door for anybody!"

-"Aww, Mom. Just five more minutes. Please?"

---

Will uncertain economy lead to cutback in vacations?

NEW YORK (AP) - The uncertain economy may lead some Americans to cut back on vacations, according to a survey.

Fifty-five percent of those polled said they would "cut back on discretionary expenses like eating out and vacations," according to the GfK Roper Reports' random telephone survey of 1,005 adults conducted Feb. 1-3.

The survey also found that consumer confidence is extremely low right now, with only 10 percent saying it's a "good time to buy" the things they want and need, while 44 percent said it's a good time to wait. This is the lowest level of confidence recorded in this periodic survey since September 2001.

An earlier survey from GfK Roper Reports on 2007 vacation trends found that longer vacations increased slightly in popularity last year.

The survey found that 25 percent of travelers preferred taking one long vacation in 2007 over several shorter trips, up from 21 percent in 2005.

Vacations of five or more nights were taken by 46 percent of those surveyed. About two-thirds of vacationing travelers used their own car, and just 28 percent flew.

Fifty-eight percent were accompanied by a spouse on vacation, 32 percent by children and 26 percent by friends or relatives, the survey said.

Sixty percent of those surveyed spent under $1,000 on their trips.

The vacation trend survey findings were based on in-person interviews with a cross-section of 2,003 adults last August and September.

---

HostelWorld.com gives out the annual "Hoscars" for best hostels

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP ) - A hostel in Krakow, Poland, won top honors in HostelWorld.com's annual "Hoscar" awards for best hostels.

The Flamingo Hostel in Krakow, Poland, got the highest average individual ratings from among properties rated by some 600,000 users of the Web site.

Voting customers, who booked their hostel stays online, were surveyed after their stay and asked to grade their accommodation based on character, security, location, staff, fun and cleanliness.

Other hostels that ranked in the top 10 were Mama's Hostel Krakow, Poland; Clarence Castle Toronto, Canada; Jetpak City Hostel, Berlin; Hostel Estoril, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Hilux Valencia Feetup Hostel, Valencia, Spain; Hostel of the Sun Naples, Italy; Travellers House, Lisbon, Portugal; Backpacker Hostel K's House, Tokyo, Japan; and East Seven Berlin Hostel, Berlin, Germany.

---

National Geographic offering student trips

WASHINGTON (AP) - National Geographic is now partnering with Putney Student Travel to offer trips around the world for high school students.

Each trip is joined by a National Geographic expert, and students are supposed to complete projects during their trip in either photography, journalism, documentary film, archaeology, or biology.

The trips will be three weeks long, with destinations including Belize, the Caribbean, China, Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Iceland, Ireland, Mali, Peru, Spain and Tanzania. Most of the trips run $6,000-$7,000, not including airfare.

For details, call 877-877-8759 or visit http://www.ngstudentexpeditions.com.

---