Orange County Register: Travel
- Quick Getaways: Palm Springs is a hot spot for a cool-season trip
Friday - 01/30/2015 - 02:33 PMNearly 100 miles east of the heart of Orange County lies an expanse of sand, palm trees and windmills. It’s a place where the mayor who once crooned “I Got You Babe” chased off college spring breakers.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Park Hyatt New York surrounds guests with top-tier grandeur
Sunday - 01/25/2015 - 10:23 PMOverview: The debut of the Park Hyatt New York in August was widely regarded as one of the most important hotel openings in America in years. Although based in Chicago, the top tier of the Hyatt Hotels portfolio has been slow to establish a presence...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - More local flights delayed Tuesday as East Coast storm begins to wind down
Tuesday - 01/27/2015 - 11:28 AMAs the weather began to die down Tuesday in East Coast cities that were prepared for disaster, about 100 flights heading to the snow-covered area or returning to sunny Southern California were canceled Tuesday.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Home exchange programs allow travelers to swap houses and make friends
Friday - 01/16/2015 - 03:00 AMMi casa es tu casa.This phrase – “my home is your home” – took on a whole new meaning for my husband, John, and me when we had house exchanges with a family in Bordeaux, France, and another in Madrid last summer.Both families are charming,...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Surprises await on Dalmatian coast
Thursday - 01/08/2015 - 03:00 AMIn Mostar, a city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, the walking bridge ahead is steeply arched. Large stones cover the bridge surface like steps. Cresting the bridge, the rapid current of the frigid Neretva River flows below.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- John Wayne Airport traffic increases in November
Wednesday - 12/31/2014 - 08:24 PMIn the busy run-up to the holiday travel season, 767,315 passengers traveled through John Wayne Airport in November, up 3.8 percent from the same month in 2013. Commuter aircraft operations increased 71.6 percent.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Pedaling around Portland
Monday - 12/29/2014 - 04:53 PMA parade was coming, we were told as we walked into our hotel lobby preparing for another night out in Portland.
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I’ve seen more than my share of parades, and even marched in a few, but like most things, Portland, Ore., does parades a little... - Waiting for baggage at John Wayne Airport? Check out the art
Tuesday - 12/23/2014 - 03:17 PMAt the ripe age of 6, Gianna Gancar was faced with a dilemma. She had to decide on a subject for her art project – one that would be entered into a countywide contest.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Avoid these pricey tourist traps
Tuesday - 12/16/2014 - 07:47 PMWhen was the last time you walked out of an attraction and thought, “Wow, that was a huge waste of time and money”?
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Tourist traps have been around as long as there have been tourists to spend money on them, and the appellation is somewhat in the... - Hotel Irvine: Las Vegas style meets O.C. suburbia
Monday - 12/08/2014 - 08:13 PMAt Hotel Irvine, the subtle smells of vanilla, jasmine and lily greet guests as they enter a sleek lobby reminiscent of posh hotels typically found in big cities like Las Vegas and Los Angeles.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Review: San Francisco's Hotel G
Thursday - 01/29/2015 - 03:00 AMOverview: The Hotel G soft-opened in San Francisco last May, but the adjoining restaurants and fitness center didn’t open until fall. The 13-story building was originally constructed in 1908 as the Fielding Hotel, which faded long ago.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Brooklyn's famed The River Café returns in glorious fashion
Sunday - 01/25/2015 - 10:24 PMOne of New York’s most celebrated restaurants is back and better than ever.I thought it could never be done. It was a sentiment shared by pretty much everyone after The River Café in Brooklyn took a devastating hit from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.The...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Marla Jo Fisher: Home alone? Not my kids
Monday - 01/19/2015 - 04:13 PMWhile you’re reading this, I’m driving to Temecula to take my friend wine tasting for her birthday. We have to leave ridiculously early in the morning to start this endeavor, I guess on the theory that “It’s always 5 o’clock somewhere.”...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Save money – and get a stamp – when visiting our national parks
Tuesday - 01/13/2015 - 11:00 AMI admit it: I’m such a dork for our country’s national parks that I own one of those “passport” books you can get a stamp in every time you visit a park.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Quick Getaways: Camping along the Southern California coast
Saturday - 01/03/2015 - 09:29 PMI looked down from the cliff where we pitched our tents, our surfboards set up against a fence between us and the water. The waves were pumping, with sets rolling in one after another as the sun glistened off the ocean where surfers looked like small...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Sky's the limit for new B.C. gondola
Thursday - 01/01/2015 - 11:00 AMThe Sea to Sky Gondola neither starts at the sea nor ends at the sky.
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Rather, it gets its name from the scenic Sea to Sky Highway, a section of British Columbia’s Highway 99 which heads north for 77 miles from Vancouver, skirting past Howe Sound to... - On planes, trains and automobiles, holiday travel soars to record
Tuesday - 12/23/2014 - 01:09 AMPatti Krickl was so excited to see her granddaughter she couldn’t sleep.“It’s like Christmas morning for me. I’m like, ‘Where’s my baby?’” said Krickl, smiling, as she waited at John Wayne Airport on Monday morning for family and...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Monaco: A region with a rich history
Monday - 12/22/2014 - 12:52 PMAmong the pleasures of travel, I enjoy looking at money.
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By “money,” I mean the environs of wealth, and the visible manifestations of it well spent. Domestically, for instance, the opulent 19th-century mansions of Newport, R.I., are a fine... - Bocas del Toro is a wild ride, waves or no
Wednesday - 12/10/2014 - 04:37 PMWe got the devastating news right when we set foot on the island region of Bocas del Toro in Panama. “No waves, flat,” the taxi driver said, motioning his hand in front of him like he was scraping the top of a lake.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Condé Nast Traveler ranks JWA top 5 in the nation; LAX one of the worst
Wednesday - 12/03/2014 - 11:43 PMWith holiday travel kicked into high gear, it might be a good idea to review airport options across the U.S.
National publication Condé Nast Traveler ranked the 10 best and 10 worst airports in America based on readers’ votes.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Quick Getaways: Tips for checking out 'Top Chef' related restaurants in Las Vegas
Wednesday - 01/28/2015 - 01:17 PMSkipping the craps table and gathering around the dinner table is becoming an ever-attractive staple for my family during our annual jaunt to Las Vegas.Having grown up in the restaurant business and knowing my parents’ foodie tastes, I happily hop...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Travel disrupted by mountain snow, canceled flights
Tuesday - 01/27/2015 - 01:57 AMSouthern California’s run of warm weather has come to a halt, making way for rain in Orange County and snow at local mountains – but some local flights are being canceled because of the major storm in the Northeast.Rainfall hit Orange County on...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Cheap getaways for Valentine's Day
Tuesday - 01/27/2015 - 11:00 AMSo maybe you’ve been too busy to think about Valentine’s Day, and now you realize it’s almost here.
And, to complicate matters, Feb. 14 this year falls on Saturday night during President’s Day weekend.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Quick Getaways: Hop the rails to Old Town San Diego
Wednesday - 01/14/2015 - 06:26 PMTrains are a unique mode of long-distance transportation: They don’t require freeways, toll roads, turn signals or getting rid of your water bottle if you want to get onboard. Plus, they offer a scenic view that’s hard to match behind the wheel....
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Whale watching on a budget
Monday - 01/05/2015 - 06:55 PMAs you may know, gray whales are swimming past us right now, migrating south to the tranquil lagoons in Baja California where they will mate and then return next year to give birth.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Marla Jo Fisher: Why you should travel in January
Monday - 12/29/2014 - 04:49 PMJanuary can be a great month to travel on a budget, because rates start dropping precipitously right about now and won’t go back up until spring.Many of us just returned from vacation, or spent all our money on Christmas, so tourist destinations...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - New Year's Eve in Vegas is a real show-stopper
Sunday - 12/28/2014 - 01:30 PMA destination devoted to entertaining visitors every single day can’t just throw any old party to ring in the New Year.For one night only, about 340,000 people spending some $226 million are expected to crowd the Strip and downtown Fremont Street...
More | Talk | Read It Later | Share - Questions and answers about traveling to Cuba
Friday - 12/19/2014 - 03:01 PMDon’t rush to book that flight to Cuba just yet. While the U.S. plans to restore diplomatic ties with the Caribbean island nation, globe-trotting tourists won’t be able to hop on a plane to Havana anytime soon.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- A walk in the (crowded) Woods
Monday - 12/15/2014 - 01:06 PMAs many as 6,000 visitors head for Muir Woods on a single summer day, where they compete for one of roughly 250 parking spaces. You don’t need advanced math skills to figure how that works out.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
- Uncovering the Amazon
Monday - 12/01/2014 - 03:59 PMWe have been on the Cuyabeno River less than five minutes, when our guide, Luis Torres, suddenly raises his hand and stands up in the front of our boat, a long 10-person canoe.More | Talk | Read It Later | Share