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November 2008
Traveling for Thanksgiving? How’s it look out there?
Share your Thanksgiving travel stories with us
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the first time since 2002, travel group AAA expects the number of Thanksgiving travelers to drop — by about 600,000 over last year’s totals. Economic uncertainty is the reason many would-be travelers will be sticking closer to home this year. Atlantans are among those feeling the pinch. Last week, several of you wrote that your checkbooks just can’t accommodate a trip at this point.
Even though numbers are expected to fall slightly (about 1.4 percent), roughly 41 million Americans will still travel 50 miles or more from their homes over the next few days. The good news for them is that the roads and airports should feel a little less crowded.
Hartsfield-Jackson also hopes to keep airport lines down to 20 minutes or less with 32 security lanes up and running during the holiday crush. Things may feel a bit more crowded though once you board your plane, because airlines have made major cuts in their number of available flights.
If you’re traveling by car, this may be the cheapest road trip you’ve taken in a couple of years. Petrol prices in metro Atlanta have dipped well-below the $2 mark. So if you do get stuck in traffic, it will at least be a more affordable traffic jam than last year’s.
If you’re staying in a hotel (or your visitors to Atlanta are staying in a hotel), you should be able to find a good deal on lodging in this economy. A quick hotels.com check in Atlanta found rooms available for as low as $39 per night (Microtel Inn Galleria), with many throughout the metro area totaling less than $100 per night.
Even with the prospect of fewer cars on the road or fliers in the airports, I’m sticking with the traditional rules of Thanksgiving travel - leave early, take alternative routes and be prepared for delays. Bad weather can always ground a flight, delay a landing or slow down traffic anywhere along your route.
If you are heading out over Thanksgiving, report back to us about the travel conditions you’re experiencing. Did you fly through the airport in record time? Are you stuck sitting on I-75? Alert your fellow travelers to the good routes - or the bad - and we’ll return the favor.
If the family’s coming to your house this year, let us know how their travels went. Did they get delayed in Denver or hung up in Hoboken? Did anyone have difficulty scheduling a flight due to airline cuts?
Finally, if you’re booking a hotel on your trip — or if your guests are staying in a hotel here in Atlanta — tell us about any lodging deals you might have found.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving everyone!!
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Are you NOT going home for the holidays?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Isn’t it ironic: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has 1,300 new parking spaces, yet Thanksgiving travel is projected to be down out of Atlanta this year.
Would-be travelers who are feeling the economic pinch might not go home for the holidays this year. Are you one of them? If so, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter might contact you.
Let us know if you’re keeping it close to home in Atlanta instead of traveling to see friends and family this year.
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It’s time to cook up a culinary getaway
Would you combine vocation with vacation?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s that time of year when I wish I was a better cook. Mind you, I’m not terrible. Day in and day out, I cook solid dinners for my family and friends, and (to date) I’ve never given anyone food poisoning or served something that makes them gag. I came close a couple of years ago, when my Christmas goose was cooked a bit too long. It was edible, but that’s about all that can be said for it. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, I dream of preparing a dinner that goes beyond edible to noteworthy or even spectacular.
So like a growing number of travelers, I am considering taking a culinary vacation. (Let’s face it, I’ll probably need several.) I am not a natural in the kitchen. I could really benefit from expert instruction, as well as the freedom to experiment and make mistakes without the worry of ruining someone’s dinner - holiday or otherwise.
Mention a cooking vacation, and most people envision pasta-making in a Tuscan village or lessons in French cuisine along the Seine. But you don’t have to travel overseas or even out of state to take a break with a whisk and a spatula. Chateau Elan in Braselton offers weekend recreational cooking classes that include instruction, wine for the budding cook, one of those cool chef hats, a recipe booklet and a serving of the dishes you prepare. The classes this month and next focus on preparing Thanksgiving and holiday dinners, but themes change throughout the year.
Every August, the Jekyll Island Club Hotel offers a “Cooking at the Club” package, which includes a four-night stay, gourmet cooking classes in the Crane Cottage kitchen, patisserie sessions, wine tasting, a Jekyll Island Club Hotel chef’s jacket, daily breakfasts and a farewell dinner.
Similar culinary packages can be found at the Amelia Island (Fla.) Ritz Carlton and the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV. The Greenbrier even offers classes for the kids, and both offer classes on mastering the art of barbecue.
If you don’t fancy a stay at one of those places, try booking a cooking vacation through a culinary travel company like Epiculinary.com. The service offers tours throughout the U.S. and round the world, including three in the southern U.S.: Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn.; a Cajun Country tour in LaFayette, La.; and a New Orleans Creole tour in a Big Easy bed and breakfast.
Does getting pampered while learning tricks of the culinary trade sound like a good vacation to you? Where would you go? Do you any advice for the novice culinary traveler?
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Travel deals are perfect holiday excuse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At some point in our adult lives, we have all done it: the mad Thanksgiving (or Christmas, or fill in your holiday here) dash from one family event to another where you juggle several “feasts” in a matter of hours.
If you’re in town, you are expected to be at all family gatherings. And if you’re not in town…well, WHY aren’t you in town? It’s the holiday season for goodness sake. You had better have an explanation for your absence.
So I find it fitting that the Vince Vaughn/Reese Witherspoon movie “Four Christmases” is hitting cinemas the day before Thanksgiving. The movie is about a couple who prefer to holiday all over the world in lieu of festive dinners with the fam. Only this year, their plan to get out of Dodge is foiled, and they must face their relatives at four different Christmas events.
Over the years, we have known similar jet-setters who spend Thanksgiving in Paris one year and in Belize the next. They’re not family-averse - but travel enthusiasts who know that Thanksgiving is just another day for the rest of the world. While the price of domestic flights soars during this time, cheaper fares can typically be found if you’re willing to forgo the turkey and cranberries stateside.
Even in the good ol’ USA, off-season travel deals can be found. TravelZoo.com lists more than 25 Thanksgiving travel deals for Americans seeking T-Day adventure in their own backyard or throughout the world. Here are a few possibilities the site suggests…
Book a four-day cruise to the Bahamas for as little as $179 per person. Granted, these are interior rooms, but I still found special rates on ocean view rooms yesterday. The AJC also has a list of cruise deals for the fall and winter you can consult before booking.
Fly to Europe. Lufthansa is offering one-way flights from Atlanta to London, Frankfurt, and Paris for less than $300 and flights to Madrid, Munich and Milan for slightly more if you book by November 19. Though European weather can be unpredictable this time of year, it’s a great time to see the Old World without the high prices and heavy crowds.
Many people head to Disney World over the Thanksgiving break, which can mean big crowds. Of course, our family always heads for Mickey’s lair in July, when the crowds are large AND it’s 100 degrees in central Florida. I think the Thanksgiving travelers are on to something — crowds in the fall beat crowds in oppressive heat every time. You can find lodging deals throughout Orlando, especially if you stay off site. The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate offers rooms from $99 during Thanksgiving, and includes access to 36 holes of Greg Norman golf, tennis, spa and heated pools.
Head to the Big Easy and get a 40 percent discount on a room in the historic Hotel Monteleone. With rooms starting at $99, you can stay in the oldest hotel in New Orleans’ French Quarter and bed down where literary greats once slept.
Finally, while everyone else is basking in the glow of their families’ hearths and hearts, you will likely find off-season discounts at domestic beachside destinations of your choice.
So, if you’re looking to be excused from the family table this Thanksgiving, perhaps a good travel deal in a tough economy will ease the blow of your absence. Just remember to book your flight ASAP if you’re planning to fly over the holidays. The tough economy is also forcing airlines to dramatically cut back the number of seats and the number of flights they offer.
Will you be making the most of holiday travel deals this year? If you’re not heading home or staying put, where will you be on November 27th? Are you flying or driving to your destination? When did you book your trip? Do you think the deals are better this year in light of the bad economy?
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T-Day getaways nourish body and soul
Give thanks that someone else is doing the cooking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In more than fourteen years of marriage, we have spent only two Thanksgivings in our own home - once in our tiny apartment in DC and once here in Georgia. That means we have been on the road for the majority of our Thanksgivings. While most have been spent with family at the beach - not a bad turkey day destination - they always involve cramming my two siblings’ and our growing families into our parents’ house for several nights. Then we scramble around like too many cooks in the kitchen to get the big feast prepared. It is family madness at its loveliest, and it could be far worse.
But the whole weekend is still stressful. Last year, it also became expensive. After years of up to nine grandkids and their six parents piling into the upstairs of my parents’ house, William and I made the radical decision to pay for some breathing room Thanksgiving weekend. The price of the condo we rented a few blocks from the family celebration was well worth our sanity, but it still cost as much as any unexpected and unbudgeted vacation.
I am a big family person, and Thanksgiving is one of those big-family days in my book. We have friends who see the four-day break as a great opportunity to fly off to Europe or head out West for a mini-break - no family and often, no turkey involved. I love Europe, but I’m not sure I could spend Thanksgiving like any other day there. At the same time, there are a lot of places here in the land of turkey and dressing where I wouldn’t mind spending that condo money.
Thanksgiving is such a family-oriented holiday that many resorts and inns offer special packages to lure travelers to stay with them instead of Gramps and Gran — or…to bring along Gramps and Gran for a stress-free feast.
If the idea of T-Day stress makes you just want to get away from it all, you have many options. I know it’s not the southeast, but New England IS home to the Pilgrims and their traditional day of thanks, so they get props for having many excellent places to reflect on our history and gorge on some gobbler.
But back to our beautiful region - the one where dressing is made from cornbread and where stuffing is something you get knocked out of you in a fight…Many bed and breakfasts throughout the South serve up delicious turkey dinners and offer all the hearthside comforts of a Normal Rockwell family celebration without any of the hassle or tension. Here are a few Southern destinations to check out, including the High Hampton Inn in Cashiers, NC which has thrown its Thanksgiving House Party for travelers for 36 years.
For a beachside Thanksgiving, try the turkey dinner at Amelia Island Plantation or the Amelia Island Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla. or at Port d’Hiver in Melbourne Beach, Fla. Celebrate in a traditionally-southern way at Savannah’s historic Azalea Inn and Gardens or bed and breakfasts in small-town Washington, Ga. like the Washington Plantation and the Holly Court Inn. Or head up to Tennessee and North Carolina for a mountain stay in one of the many country inns that dot the landscape. Go to bedandbreakfast.com for a state-by-state list.
If you’re not all that into turkey or feasts, or if you just want something else to do after the dressing and cranberries settle, Thanksgiving weekend is a great time to get out and go round the South. We will talk more about that next week. Until then, tell us…
Are you traveling to a stress-free Thanksgiving destination this year - or would you consider letting a B&B do the cooking for you in the future? If so, where would you like to spend the weekend - in the traditional home of the Pilgrims…a quick getaway nearby…the mountains…the beach… or just anywhere that you’re family isn’t?
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