2010′s Top Travel Destinations

Here are some top destination lists for travel as 2009 ends and 2010 begins.

Lonely Planet’s U.S. staff’s top picks for 2010: U.S., Canada, South Africa, Mexico, Thailand, Cuba, Italy, Philippines, Brazil, Costa Rica.

Conciegre.com’s 2010 “It List”: Marrakesh, Kyrgyzstan, Vancouver, Burma, Venice, Antarctica, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Colombia, South Africa.

Yahoo Travel’s most popular cities of 2009, based on consumer interest and activity: Las Vegas, Miami, Cancun, San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, New York City, San Francisco, Orlando, Honolulu, Paris.

Frommer’s top (dozen) destinations of 2010: Santiago de Cuba, Cuba; Florida Panhandle Beaches; Hawaii (the Big Island); Salta Province, Argentina; Mexico City, Mexico; Melbourne, Australia; Hanoi, Vietnam; Kerala, India; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Tunisia; Copenhagen, Denmark; Isles of Scilly, England. Frommer’s reader favorite destination for 2010, based on a contest: Paris.

Government Offers Free Honeymoons To Save Troubled Marriages

A Malaysian state government says it plans to offer free honeymoons to save the marriages of couples who are on the brink of divorce.

Ashaari Idris, a government official in northern Terengganu state, says troubled couples will be allowed to spend two nights at the state’s scenic islands or beach resorts to help them rekindle their romance under a “Second Honeymoon” program.

Ashaari says the state government hopes to launch the plan soon “to resolve marital problems and to create models of exemplary families.”

He said that couples who enroll in the program must also undergo counseling.

Italian Crowne Plaza Offers The Vacation Deal Of The Century

You had to be quick, but what a deal.

A four-star hotel near Venice mistakenly offered the ultimate low-cost vacation — a romantic weekend in the Italian lagoon city for 1 euro cent.

Not surprisingly, the Crowne Plaza in Quarto D’Altino, 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) from Venice, received bookings for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights on the night the rate was posted on its Web site, the hotel chain acknowledged. And it seems those bookings may be valid.

The hotel first thought the offer was posted by a hacker, sales manager Fulvio Danesin said Friday.  But it turned out to be human error at the Atlanta, Georgia, offices of Intercontinental Hotels Group, the hotel’s mother company, he said.

The offer was supposed to be for a two-night stay at half price. A night at the 151-room hotel normally costs between euro90 ($128) and euro150 ($214).

The 1-cent rate was up only one night, but that was long enough for travelers to book dates running from October through 2010, Danesin said. The hotel stands to lose euro 90,000 ($129,000), he said.

Monica Smith, media relations manager for the hotel group in the U.S. , said that some 228 guests made reservations for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights while the error was on the Web site and that the reservations would be honored.

“Although a pricing error, IHG is committed to honoring the 1-cent rate for guests who have a valid confirmation,” Smith said. She added that rooms booked at the low rate “are nontransferable.’

War Breaks Out

Doesn’t it figure – you go on vacation and a war breaks out.  Yes – Israel bombed Gaza today.  What choice did they have with rockets falling every day on the southern Israeli communities and no end in sight.

Here’s a picture from Ynet:

For updates these are the English sites of the 3 main Israeli papers:

The Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/

Yedioth: http://www.ynetnews.com/

Ha’aretz: http://haaretz.com/

And here’s the site for Channel 10 News (in Hebrew): http://www.nana10.co.il/

Anyway – here in the Tel Aviv area you wouldn’t know anything was going on in the south.  Shahar’s Bar Mitzvah was this morning with a very nice luncheon following.  It was great – more on this when my pictures are developed. 

It’s back home on Monday….

Monday Afternoon’s Update

Stopped at the Arena Mall in Herzlia this morning – that’s the mall below this apartment building at the marina:

Heading to a radiothon this afternoon to support Israeli soldiers.  It’s being held at the main studios of Army Radio – the most popular station in the country.  The studios are in Jaffa:

FYI – the second season of Survivor kicks off on Wednesday night and there are billboards all over the place – it takes place in Panama:

Greetings From Israel

Thought the weather would cause problems with Saturday’s departure to Tel Aviv - but Newark Airport was empty when I arrived for my 3:50 PM flight.  As usual flight took off an hour late, but landed only 10 minutes late – how do they always manage to do that?

Sunday morning is a very quite time at Ben Gurion Airport as El AL doesn’t fly on Saturday so they have no overnight flights arriving – my Continental flight was the only one landing so we zipped through passport control and customs – however, this airport, while beautiful has some of the longest walkways I’ve ever seen.  Take a look at the picture below: