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IT—Inside Traveler
By Jessie Johnston and Emily King

October 26, 2006:

IT's All Relative

It's been a while since IT has shared a press release with our readers. And while this one is a bit silly, we applaud the idea—sorry Mom!—of ditching the family. We've opted to forgo commentary, as this pitch pretty much speaks for itself:

"Have you ever been tempted to skip stressful, family holiday get-togethers but haven't had a good enough excuse? Wanted to escape the clutches of a controlling mother-in-law, and dreamed of a calm and peaceful getaway? You can control your own fate this holiday season with the 'Run From the Relatives' Package available at any of the four Omni Hotels in the West including San Diego, Los Angeles, Tucson, and Denver/Boulder.

"To help travelers remain undercover, guests can stay under an alias (like celebrities do) and the package is complete with a menu of excuses to use with family members when you return. The value-added 'Run From the Relatives' package includes: one night's accommodation for two, room service breakfast for two, a whimsical pre-printed menu of excuses to use with family members, and a $50 American Express gift card to send to family members to apologize for not seeing them for the holiday."

The $199-per-night package is available from November 18, 2006 through January 7, 2007. Only want the room? The four Omni hotels are running a special for $129 per night, a price your skint bloggers condone.

IT Travels with Amy Alipio

Just back from Eastern Europe (and maternity leave), assistant editor Amy Alipio shares the highlights from her trip in get-to-the-point fashion:

"Best Hotel Amenity—The locally produced bath products made from lavender, rosemary, and other Adriatic plants at the harbor-front Hotel Kastil in Bol, on the island of Brac, Croatia. They made me feel like I was showering outdoors in a summer meadow.

"Spookiest Moments—Driving through Bosnia and passing whole villages of abandoned houses—brick and concrete skeletons bearing witness to the 1992-1995 war. We found good roads in Bosnia, with modern and clean gas stations, and discovered that Sarajevo is a lively city with stylish young folk. But those silent houses were unforgettably eerie.

"Favorite Romanian City—Oradea. Okay, it's the only Romanian city I know well—it being my husband's hometown. Regardless, this northwestern city is a former belle of the Austro-Hungarian empire (it's now near the border between Romania and Hungary) and its city center shows off now-faded baroque buildings scattered beside the silvery Crisul Repede River. Best of all, it's a gateway to the bucolic time warp that is Transylvania.

"Best Baby-Changing Room—At Nancsi Neni restaurant in Budapest. Since we were traveling with a baby for the first time, finding a good changing room was a big deal, and the one at Nancsi Neni was the presidential suite of baby-changing rooms: It had a fun printed curtain and a thickly padded changing table with a mobile over it—and a handy roll of plastic trash bags alongside, all testament to Nancsi Neni's popularity with families coming to sample home-style Hungarian fare, like roast duck and red cabbage."

October 24, 2006

What Time Is It When an Elephant Sits on Your Passport?

Regardless of whether a plague of travel-document-perching pachyderms is imminent (and, to be honest, we suspect that it isn't), for many Americans it's time to get a new passport. Unless further lobbying by the travel industry causes yet more changes to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, American citizens will be required to show a passport in order to reenter the U.S. by air from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean as of January 8, 2007. Since new passport applications take six to eight weeks to process, and you'll need to have your document with you when you leave the country in order to present it when you return, this is the ideal week for current non-passport-holding Americans with trans-border holiday season air travel plans to get their applications in. If you'll be driving or cruising out of the country at holiday time, you are still exempt from the passport requirement. Up until three weeks ago, the effective date requiring passports for non-air entry was slated for January 1, 2008, but recent legislation means it may be pushed as late as June 1, 2009. If we're still at IT, we'll post a reminder that March. Save the date.

IT's Reader Roundup: The Sequel

Last week we shared a number of tips inspired by "Insiders Amsterdam" with you. This week we continue the series with our readers' favorite things to do in and around the Dutch capital.

Brigid Hayes, of Ottawa, Ontario, visited Amsterdam in July of this year: "We visited the Verzetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum), which explores the moral quandaries faced by the Dutch during the German occupation and paints a complex and moving picture of the choices people made. All written commentary is in both Dutch and English. Included as well is a section on the Japanese occupation of Dutch Indonesia and the colony's fight for independence from the Netherlands after World War II. The museum complemented the Anne Frank House museum, offering a taste of what was happening in the city outside the house."

Dayton L. Robinson, from Mukilteo, Washington, shares a great way to see today's Amsterdam in action: "I suggest rowing a boat down the canals. Years ago, I stayed in a hotel that had a dock with some rowboats tied up to it. I asked the concierge if I could rent one, and he said renting was not necessary, I could just go downstairs and pick up a pair of oars. I started at about 10 a.m. and planned to continue turning left at each opportunity, figuring I wouldn't get lost using that strategy. At one point, I was rowing up one of the main rivers with quite a bit of boat traffic. The larger boats had to wait for the road bridges to open, so I would catch up with them at each bridge. By noon I had rowed off my tourist map and was 'charting new territory' but was still confident my strategy wouldn't fail me. As a last resort, I figured I would turn around at 3 p.m. and row back in the opposite direction if I hadn't found the hotel by then. At about 2:30 I turned into a canal that had a dead end and became concerned that all was not well. By good fortune there was a houseboat tied up, and I decided to ask for directions. The folks onboard didn't speak English, but I was able to communicate that I needed a map, and they immediately brought one out. I saw that I was on the right canal for the hotel, had it not been a dead end. The remainder of the journey was short and uneventful."

Others wrote to tell us of top out-of-town excursions. Judy Griswold has visited Amsterdam four times and writes: "If you visit the Netherlands, you should see a windmill. The village of Sloten has a real working windmill. To reach it, take tram line 2 to Sloten from Centraal Station and then walk for ten minutes."

Rene, of Amherst, Massachusetts, visited Amsterdam in 1997 and shared a favorite field trip: "We really enjoyed our day trip to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. It hosts more than 250 drawings and paintings by van Gogh and works by modern artists. There's an outdoor sculpture garden, the Beeldenpark, next to the museum, and both are located within the lovely De Hoge Veluwe National Park, which we explored on free borrowed bikes. The hour-long train ride offered views of the countryside."

Kathy Snyder recently returned from a trip with her husband to the northern Netherlands and offers the following recommendations: "Groningen is a busy university town with some lovely buildings and lots of activity. The little village of Pieterburen invites discovery, and you'll want to visit the 'Martha's Vineyard of the Netherlands,' the island of Schiermonnikoog, a beautiful slip of sand with farms, almost no cars, tons of bikes and lovely beaches. In nearby Friesland province, Harlingen and Sneek are also great places to spend time."

Molly Shannon, now of Austin, Texas, suggests a visit to her former hometown: "Take a 30-minute train ride to The Hague, seat of the Dutch government. A nice walk from the train station you'll find the Gevangenpoort, a beautiful small building dating to around 1370, when it served as one of the gatehouses in the walls that gave The Hague its name (originally Gravenhage, meaning 'the count's wall'). A half-century later Gevangenpoort was transformed into a prison. Guided tours explain that sentencing did not include a prison term at the time. You spent time in prison before trial, and would undergo not so gentle 'persuasion' to confess. The medieval torture instruments that were part of this inquisition drive home the point that every nation has a barbaric past. Also notable are the floors in this building, which include planks so long, wide, and thick they have lasted through the centuries. Clearly, the old landscape painters such as Ruisdael did not exaggerate the romantic forested beauty of Holland at the time."

E-mail your feedback and tips to InsideTraveler@ngs.org.

Bookmark IT! www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/extras/blog/blog.html

When in airports, Emily King, Traveler's assistant to the editor, enjoys smelling and ogling Cinnabons, then exercising willpower and walking away from them. Researcher Jessie Johnston takes pleasure in perusing the invariably excellent selection of watches for sale and in giving herself permission to buy trashy magazines.

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