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Rundown
for the Week of August 22, 2003
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to the Whole Show
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Tracking Butterfly Migration
Some of history's greatest travelers are the animals that migrate astounding distances every year. In just a couple of weeks, pilots at 30,000 feet will notice a burnt-orange cloud traveling next to them. The "cloud" will actually be several million Monarch butterflies riding the thermals 5 miles above ground, making their way from Canada to Mexico.
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in RealAudio
Monarch Madness, with Sue Halpern
Author Sue Halpern was in El Rosario, Mexico, when she first saw the Monarchs traveling together and she was amazed. She wrote a book -- "Four Wings and a Prayer" --about how these butterflies could possibly fly thousands of miles to the same 50-acre pine forest every year.
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in RealAudio
A chat with Elizabeth Howard, founder and project director for Journey North
If you want to follow this year's butterfly migration, Journey North will help you do it. Journey North works with thousands of students across the U.S. and Canada to track the migration of species moving across the globe. Recently, they started tracking the southern migration of the monarch butterfly in a program called "Journey South." Students go to their Web site and submit sightings of the butterflies. The data is then given to scientists who use the information to map the monarch's final migration. Host Diana Nyad gets more from a chat with Elizabeth Howard.
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The Impressive, The Perverse and The Strange at Burning Man by Rico Gagliano
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in RealAudio
Burning Man, the free-form music jam with a nod toward the peace, love and mind expansion of the '60s, is swinging into full gear in the Nevada Desert now. There's a mystique to Burning Man. One day, there's wind blowing across miles of uninterrupted sand; a week later, singles, couples, families, the old, the middle-aged and the young converge to create Black Rock City, a temporary community of 30,000 people. Contributor Rico Gagliano spends a week meeting people who shed their professional lives and responsibilities to form the ninth largest city in Nevada, full of the impressive, the perverse and the, well, strange.
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Online resources
 www.burningman.com: The official Web site for all things Burning Man: hundreds of photos, program schedule and links to fan sites
Click here to search for other stories by Rico Gagliano
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Travel Behind the Scenes A Hitchhiker's Tale
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in RealAudio
The spontaneity of rubbing elbows with strangers is one of the delightful aspects of travel. In our series "Travel Behind the Scenes," we meet people who come across strangers going somewhere every day. Today, we veer away from the mainstream and set out with the ultimate spontaneous traveler: the hitchhiker.
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Other "Travels Behind the Scenes"
"New York: Grand Central Shoe Shine": June 26, 2003
"Lost and Found Department, Disneyland, Anaheim, California ": June 13, 2003
"Adolphus Onyiante, ground operations coordinator, Jet Blue Airlines, JFK": May 23, 2003
"Fred Christina, former waiter at New York's Plaza Hotel": April 25, 2003
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Sound Travels Climax Golden Twins
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in RealAudio
This week, "Sound travels," the part of our show where we travel with just our ears as our guide, gives us a whirlwind tour through the music of life. OK, that might be a bit lofty, but the different sounds here were on a CD sent to our office in a white envelope with only the words "Climax Golden Twins" embossed on the front. What is it? We can tell you is this: These are sounds from all over the world. They're produced and arranged into discreet compositions: cultures are blended and sounds juxtaposed. It's the perfect travel CD, actually.
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Fix My Trip The case of the disappearing van reservation
It has happened to just about every traveler at least once: the disappearing reservation; the reserved hotel room that is "not showing up in the system;" the lost dinner reservation; or, the rental car reservation that produces no car. Actually, that last one happened to Ron Lancaster in Bowling Green, Ohio. He reserved a van through Budget to get his family to a reunion. When he was told no van was available, family members were forced to rent cars and drive separately. Since then, Ron says, Budget has been unresponsive. They sent him a form letter.
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in RealAudio (Hear about Steve's experience)
So, what should Budget have done, and what can travelers do to avoid this sort of problem? Well, good thing it's time for "Fix My Trip," where we help people fix travel snafus. We asked our Travel Troubleshooter, Chris Elliott, to see if he could even the score for Ron.
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in RealAudio (Let's hear about the solution)
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Online resources:
www.elliott.org: Christopher Elliott's Web site
Got a trip that needs fixing? Have you exhausted every possible remedy and don't know where to turn? Send us an e-mail at fixmytrip@savvytraveler.org and tell us what happened to you. Be sure to include your daytime phone number.
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Deal of the Week European Low-Fare Airlines
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in RealAudio
Historically, it cost too much to fly around Europe, right? Well, our Travel-Expert-in-Residence, Rudy Maxa, says Germany is beginning to boast several low-cost carriers we should pay attention to -- and it sounds like Berlin is becoming something of a hub for low-fare airlines!
DEAL(S): Fights to Europe these days are packed -- trust us. So, if you can't find a good fare directly to the city you want to fly to, consider flying into Germany and taking one of these cheaper carriers onward:
-A new carrier called Germania Express has begun two flights a day linking Berlin and Vienna and Berlin and Zurich for $88.50 each way. Fly between Berlin and Istanbul for not much more: $114 each way.
-For its hub in Cologne, Hapag-Lloyd Express serves four Italian cities -- Palermo, Naples, Rome and Venice -- as well as other destinations, including Valencia, Spain. Fares: 23 to $352 each way, depending on how busy a flight is.
-And, here are two more airlines you might not have heard of: Germanwing (also out of Cologne, with 22 national and European destinations, and prices beginning at $22) and dba (which flies between Berlin and Venice -- $56 each way -- and flights from Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart to Nice, France).
-One more: Air Berlin has added shuttle flights from Berlin to Barcelona, London, Rome, Milan and Vienna beginning at less than $115 each way.
NOTE: You can't find these airlines on the big U.S. travel Web sites -- just as you can't find Southwest Airlines on Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity. It's best to visit the airlines' Web sites.
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