Travel Maven blog

New smoking rules clear the air aboard cruise ships

Travelers who loved vacationing on the Carnival Paradise, which once was a cruise ship entirely cigarette smoke free among passengers and crew, have reason to cheer. As 2011 draws toward a close, second-hand smoke at sea is dissipating.

With this year’s trend toward prohibiting smoking in cabins and in most gathering spots aboard ships, cruise lines slowly are catching up to the lifestyles of their passengers at home, where work places, public areas, restaurants, and bars are smoke free over much of North America.

As the number of smokers at sea decreases --  Carnival says that only 5 percent of its passengers say they want to smoke in their cabins – places to puff diminish.

Picture above: This outdoor section on the new Oceania Marina is one of only two places on the 1,250-passenger ship where smoking is allowed.

Rick Steves, Budget Travel magazine win top Lowell Thomas awards

WELLINGTON, New Zealand

Rick Steves, one of America’s best-known travelers as a guidebook writer, blogger, twitterer and TV/radio host, is the Journalist of the Year in the 2011 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle win top honors as the best travel publications in North America.

National Geographic Traveler wins five awards, including best travel website and best cultural tourism article. Outside magazine also wins five awards, including best adventure travel and best investigative stories.

Traveling in New Zealand one day at a time

I am in New Zealand a week already and still don’t know what day it is. Every day I need help to find the answer.

The local paper indicates today is Wednesday, but my computer, which is on New York time, says today is Tuesday, election day. If today is Wednesday, how come I don’t know who won the elections?

A Grande slice of Gulf beach in Naples, Florida

Many of the newer condos and resorts lining the coast of Southwest Florida in and around Naples stand tall toward the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.

That’s toward, but not on the beach, because man, these days, no longer is stupid enough to destroy the mangroves, nature’s best beachfront protectors from the furious storms of the Gulf. Instead, vacation buildings near water’s edge sit behind the mangroves, which are low twisting trees with amazing root structures that live comfortably in and around the seawater.

One of my favorite activities on a Southwest Florida vacation is to play in the waters between the mangroves and the mainland, kayaking, for instance, near Fort Myers on ancient Native American paths now mapped out as the Great Calusa Blueway.

Farther south, in the Naples area, where private development sometimes makes beach reaching difficult, you’ll find easy access to the sands and a nice boardwalk for strolling through the mangroves off U.S. 41, near the venerable Naples Grande resort, which is  part of the Waldorf Astoria group.

Day dreams of Florida's sands and palms

October snow terrorized New England. Geese by the thousands are honking as they fly south, past my windows that face Lake Erie, which is turning a steely gray (see picture below, click on it for bigger view).

Early November may be a little early for human flight, but this snow bird from Ohio, having turned the heat up to "comfort zone" on the baseboard thermostat last night, is uncomfortable enough to visualize the benefits of the sands and palms of Florida.

My day dream takes me to winters past -- in northern Ohio, that's November deep into March --  when I drove my trusty Toyota convertible south, waiting impatiently for the moment when the temperature rose to a point that I could tolerate an open roof.