Kansas City Star: Travel

World's largest cruise ship offers a boatload of firsts

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

There’s a story about a grizzled foreign correspondent in Asia who once was taken to task over a taxi fare on an expense report. He defended it as routine, but the accountants pointed out that he had been reporting from an aircraft carrier at sea on the day in question. Without missing a beat, the correspondent growled, “Well, do you know how big those things are?”

Christopher Elliott | Where's the car rental logic in this: One fewer day costs three times as much?

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

Q. My car rental company has more than tripled the rate it charged me. I had prepaid $390 for the car through Alamo’s Web site. When my flight was canceled, I called Alamo to tell it I could not get the car until the next day. I was told that my reservation would be held for 24 hours. I picked up the car the next day and returned it on time. When I dropped off the rental, a representative said the computer system was down. When I got my bill the next month, there was an extra $1,116 charge because of the late pick up.

After a 90-year absence, opera returns to New Orleans' Bourbon Street

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

NEW ORLEANS | Bourbon Street — where Dixieland jazz competes with karaoke bars, rock ’n’ roll cover bands and strip club jukeboxes — was one of the first places in America where opera was heard. Now it’s being heard there again, with a New Orleans-style twist.

A hurricane hit my hotel: Where's my refund?

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

Q. My father and I were supposed to meet in San Antonio before a conference. The weekend we were to be in San Antonio was the same weekend Hurricane Ike plowed through Texas. My flight was canceled. We had reservations at the Holiday Inn on the Riverwalk for the weekend. The rate was prepaid and nonrefundable, which at the time of booking was fine. However, when we saw where the hurricane was headed, we called to cancel our reservations independently.

Keep it cheap in Copenhagen with pedal power

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

The Danish capital might rank among the world’s most expensive cities, with its pricey food and steep hotel bills.

How the travel industry can win you back

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

The travel industry wants you back. That’s because things probably can’t get any worse for the travel industry. Hotels are in foreclosure, airlines are once again on the verge of bankruptcy, tour operators are selling their products at ridiculous discounts, and destinations are resorting to publicity stunts to attract visitors.

Magazine ranks KC No. 2 for affordable getaways

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:15 CDT

Kansas City has received some good tourism buzz from the readers of Travel + Leisure, which rated it second in the “affordable getaway” category in a new survey. The online survey done last summer compared what the magazine called “America's Favorite Cities.”

Ry Cooder on mission to resurrect California of his youth

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 22:15 CST

When Ry Cooder and I got to El Mirage Dry Lake, it was 110 degrees and heading to 117, hot enough to cook your head inside your hat. The Mojave Desert in daylight will cut the gizzard right out of you, Tom Joad once said, which is why the Okies crossed it at night.

2008 travel photo contest: A field of winners

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:15 CDT

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Our judges had their hands full selecting the top winners for this year's vacation photo contest because the quality of the entries was so good.

Badlands National Park teems with nice surprises

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:15 CDT

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK, S.D. | Marcia McMacken stepped off the boardwalk and took a long look at the sweeping scene around her — bright green meadows in front, craggy tan peaks and deep forbidding canyons behind. She was clearly enamored.

Last chance to enter our annual photo contest

Sat, 10 May 2008 22:15 CDT

Several years ago I was traveling through the Missouri Ozarks when I came across a 100-year-old grist mill near Eminence. It was a rustic structure perched on the edge of a turquoise spring.

THE RULES

Sat, 10 May 2008 22:15 CDT

The Kansas City Star’s Travel Photo Contest is open to amateur photographers of any age who are residents of Missouri or Kansas.

2010 will be year of the deal

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

If you thought the travel bargains were unbelievable this year, just wait until 2010. I’m aware that this prediction flies in the face of conventional wisdom. I mean, how many travel experts have you seen on TV warning that the deals are going, going, gone?

Arizona wineries are growing

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:15 CST

Grapes aren’t supposed to grow in the desert. But here in this southern Arizona town, surrounded by endless, rolling green and amber hills, the Callaghan family is de-stemming gigantic bins of grapes that will eventually produce a nice Petit Verdot.