Earth, Water, Fire, Air and You:  Bargain Vacations

If  only our cholesterol and weight followed the downward trends of  The Stock Market!  Well they don’t but that does not mean fitness and energy are not obtainable for us Tomatoes.

Since my column is travel and since the word budget is the new word for everything, I am writing this month on regaining your sanity through moderately priced travel that combines earth, water, fire and air and you.

Water:
Certainly the cheapest way to cruise is to take the New York Water Taxi from Pier II, near Wall Street to Red Hook Brooklyn.  www.nywatertaxi.com . The taxi is free and once there you can enjoy a little bit of Sweden via the meatballs in Ikea’s cafeteria.   But if you do want to go to Sweden, try Icelandair  at www.icelandair.com via Rekjavik, the capital of Iceland, flights starting around $500.   Why go this long way around?

For those coming to Iceland on flights from Europe, there is one of the most relaxing experiences:  a dip in The Blue Lagoon. I did it the other way around,  at sunrise after a flight from JFK to Iceland  and nothing has soothed like that hot mineral water since.  You need a bathing suit in your carry on. The changing area is clean, supplied with towels. You walk on wooden paths into the meteorically heated water. Remember Iceland consists of the youngest part of our earth. You will dissolve in this bubbling valium until time to go. Then redress and have a cup of hot chocolate. The Lagoon is not far from the airport making this a popular option. And by the way, Iceland is only 5 hours from the East coast, with Icelandair cheap packages in the off season. Caveat: as the packages include air, transfers, breakfast and hotel, you are out of pocket for everything else which alas is exorbitant in this small country.

Blue Lagoon day trips are Nov 1, 2008 - Apr 30, 2009 - from $68 per person.  May 1 - Dec 31, 2009 - $79.

http://www.icelandair.us/offers-and-bookings will also give you tour options in the area.

But for deals on real cruises: try all the biggies: Expedia and such, Vacationstogo.com, cruisecritic.com and the cruise lines themselves.  River cruises can be found on www.vikingrivercruises.com and www. elegantcruises.com and world value cruises which has good destinations.

For a major if non PC treat, take the Orient Express cruise up the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar.  Put your contact email on their specials list. Make sure you also get a deal on excursions as well as on air and cruise. Excursions can cost up to ½ of the whole cruise cost but some are offering them free so you need to study all the similar discounts with port charges included.

My experience with discount cruise sites is that at the end, prices are very similar. Some might offer a few more discounted cabins, but check where you are in the ship before booking on the price only. Promenade decks might mean people are walking by your porthole! Partially blocked might mean a lifeboat is your view.  If a shipboard credit is part of your deal, find out exactly what the credit can be applied to first.  And of course compare the price with that offered on non US sites which you can find on www.yahoo.co.uk  for Britain and www.ca.yahoo.com for Canada.

Earth:
New York: MOMA from 4PM-8PM is free on Friday nights and a break in the garden with its well-placed seating areas is the best deal in town. Target, my   favorite department store for its progressive community outreach, generously sponsors the free admittance. **By the way, Target has a fantastic travel section with items you do not see elsewhere. My best buy is the ‘Swiss card’ which looks like a credit card but has a bunch of useful teeny tools embedded in it. 

Back to MOMA, Sit in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden and admire the art, which surrounds you. Moonbird by Miro will make you feel you are back in the womb; Calder lifts you into the sky, Green Blue by Ellsworth Kelly is as sharply and perfectly folded as your best ironing, Picasso's She Goat is an old friend. The world’s best “modern art” and in a lovely garden all for free.

But if you want more art in your travels, the next best is London where national museums are free. That includes The National Gallery which you will know from the Van Dyck’s of soon to be beheaded Charles I, Tate Britain with its Turners,  Victoria and Albert and the Royal Jewelry, National Portrait Gallery with Freud’s Queen Elizabeth II, Tate Modern on The Thames etc. A cheap meal can be gotten at any of the museum cafeterias and Borough Market near Tate Modern- a must for street eaters of a gourmet inclination.

Every city today has outdoor eating areas and plenty of take out food: a good resource is Let’s Go Guidebooks, written by Harvard students for other budget travelers at www.letsgo.com.

Air:
Hudson Valley: One option for an airy day in the country is Beacon NY, a straight shot  from Grand Central Station.  The highlight of Beacon is Dia Beacon, a 10-15 minute walk along the Hudson from the RR Station. The modern art museum, housed in a former Nabisco Packaging Factory, is nothing like any museum you will ever visit. Whole rooms are the art not just the items in it.   Storm King Sculpture Park, wwwstormking.org  is across the river in 550 acres of walking trails snaking around outdoor sculptures. Excellent hiking by the way.  Beacon itself is a gentrifying old factory town, worth a stroll down main street. Then there is the Appalachian Trail near Wingdale on Metro North RR, Silo Ridge Golf Club near Wassaic, for tony golfers, and lots of history if you have a car (Hyde Park, Boscobel, and other mansions built along the river.). A 18th century inn, Old Drovers’ near Dover, is a must for those who want a romantic evening. It is a staid historic inn with dreamy old rooms, candle lit dining and lots of antiques.

Fire: 
Volcanoes and mountains are a flight away in both Mexico and Costa Rica. In the latter, for a budget trip, grab a 4 night weekend trip to San Jose (suggest my friends who own www.Taratours.com for budget Central and South America trips). Then in situ, book a day trip to Poas Volcano, another to Tabacon Hot Springs Spa, and a third overnight jaunt to Arenal Volcano, which will boom and explode  all day and night.  Make sure you look out the window as you cross back into land from the Caribbean, there is a beautiful landscape of high volcanoes with deep pocketed peaks.  For longer and more up market trips, try www.latour.com, specialists in the area.

Then there is my favorite: Mexico and Ixtapan Spa Hotel and Golf Resort at www.spamexico.com. This is the resort mentioned before where 1175 will get you a full week, all meals, 21 organic spa services and fitness classes etc. During the Summer , this area is the Mexican equivalent of the Rocky Mts. But prices are half of what you might pay for very basic accommodation in the US.  Now, volcanoes are extinct in Mexico, but their activity has left us with beautiful mountains and valleys.  Suggest while you are there you do a bit of shopping as the Peso is now 13:1Dollar.  Flights are still low on the majors, and fuel surcharges and taxes are the lowest going to Mexico.  And if you go, look for me as I am there often shedding weight, stress and firming up these old appendages. Reservations are in Texas at 1 800 IXTAPAN.

Need more than the four elements, here are miscellaneous stress relievers:

  • Try  a forage in a consignment shop in Paris called Reciproque is the biggest—suggest you buy Suzy Gershman’s Born To Shop Paris at www.suzygershman.com
  • Stroll to see the flowers in Hyde Park where the crocuses are up already.
  • Have a reflection in Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, especially the Japanese and Chinese areas. Note: My deal hotel in West Hollywood is The Elan, where prices include: full buffet breakfast with gourmet muffins, fruit breads, eggs, juice, great coffee AND wine and cheese each night AND internet access from hotel computers.  Rates from $135 upwards depending on season.
  • Finally turn off your television news and watch the travel channel!

So as our President wishes, go spend a bit, travel, but come home ready to be a more productive and effective citizens. If interest rates are so low as not to be attractive, invest in yourself.


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Phyllis Stoller has a BA from Tufts University, an MA from New York University and a Finance Degree from the University of the South Bank, London England. Phyllis Stoller founded and managed for 16 years, the largest tour operator for women in North America.  She was voted top in women’s   travel   by Travel & Leisure Magazine,the first to receive this honor.  Phyllis has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, Lifetime TV for Women and others. She is a consultant on marketing to women.

Phyllis now resides in New York City and London, England and is affiliated with ECPS Consulting Corporation in New York. She prides herself on her family: husband, Eric, a ‘keeper’,  sons Nick (comedy writer and director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Matt , a progressive political strategist who works with liberal Democratic candidates. Phyllis can be reached at Phyllisnycity@gmail.com.

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