Trip Coach: November 14, 2006

November 14, 2006
Budget Travel editors answered your questions about travel

Budget Travel editors: Welcome to this week's Trip Coach. Let's get to your questions!

_______________________

Minneapolis, MN: Five girlfriends are going to San Diego in January. Any recommendations for us?

Budget Travel editors: Yes! Head straight to the happening Gaslamp Quarter for cute boutiques, restored Victorian buildings, and many of the city's best and trendiest restaurants. You'll find sophisticated Mexican dishes at Candelas and Moroccan lamb skewers and Mediterranean fusion at the Solamar Hotel's Jsix. The nearby W Hotel doubles as a bona fide nightclub, with a velvet rope and a swinging scene on the second floor terrace beach bar--complete with a sand-covered floor. Explore Little Italy and Balboa Park, home of the world-class San Diego Zoo, a cluster of museums, a lily pond, and the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, where you can catch a free concert on Sunday afternoons. The sprawling red-roofed Hotel del Coronado, made famous in Gene Wilder's Some Like It Hot, is just a short ride across the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge. A trolley tour can take you there, too. The city's downtown is easily walkable and cabs, including popular pedi-cabs, are common; a car rental isn't necessary unless you want to venture off to places such as La Jolla. For more tips on how to make the most of your trip, check out our special Girlfriend Getaways magazine.

_______________________

Chicago, IL: Three of my best girl friends and myself have decided to spend New Years Eve in London, England. We arrive on 12/29 and stay until 1/6/07. Besides ringing in the New Year, how do we find out what else is happening in London that week? We plan on visiting the usual tourist stops, but we would like to venture off the beaten path. Any suggestions?

Budget Travel editors: When I was in London my friends and I relied on Time Out London. Every Wednesday a new edition of the exhaustive listing magazine goes on sale for £2.50. Also check out our London snap guides for information on where to eat, drink, sleep and play. As for off the beaten path, I enjoyed strolling through St. Katharine Docks and gawking at the expensive yachts I'd never be able to afford. The area's tree-lined streets are filled with places to eat and shop and its one place you can escape bustling, tourist-ridden London.

_______________________

Dallas, TX: What is the best time of year to visit England and Ireland?

Budget Travel editors: That totally depends on your definition of "best." If you're looking to save money, avoid the summer months of June, July, and August, when transatlantic airfares, car rental rates, and hotel prices across Europe are at their highest--plus popular destinations like London, Dublin, and the Ring of Kerry will be mobbed with tourist hordes. Stick to the shoulder seasons of April through May and mid-September through October when you'll most likely luck out with prices, weather, and crowds.

_______________________

Oak Park, IL: I will be in London the last week of December. I noticed that there are some great day trips to Paris via train/chunnel. I just found out that the chunnel will be closed that week. Is their another reasonable way to get to Paris for a day?

Budget Travel editors: With an ever-increasing number of low-cost carriers popping up throughout Europe, there's no reason why you can't fly easily--and affordably--around the continent. On easyJet, for example, flights from London's Luton airport to Charles de Gaulle in Paris start at $32 each way, departing on December 26, with one-way flights around the holidays rarely exceeding $55. For more information, visit easyjet.com.

_______________________

Riverdale, MD: My wife and I are both in (electric) power wheelchairs...Do you have any information about accessible vacations?

Budget Travel editors: There are a number of tour operators that specialize in accessible travel throughout the world. Depending on your ability and interest, one of these specialists just might have the right trip for you: Epic Enabled (011-27/21-782-9575, epic-enabled.com) runs wheelchair accessible safaris in South Africa; Jubilee Sailing Trust (011-44/23-8044-9108, jst.org.uk) operates sailing excursions in the Caribbean, U.S., and Europe on ships designed with wide decks; Wilderness Inquiry (612/676-9400, wildernessinquiry.org) books adventurous outdoor vacations, like canoeing the Florida Everglades; Colorado Discover Ability's Integrated Outdoor Adventures (970/268-5700, cdaioa.com) offers skiing trips for amputees in Colorado; and Handicapped Scuba Association International (949/498-4540, hsascuba.com) runs diving trips in the Caribbean.

_______________________

Stoughton, WI: How to find a moderate price, safe, clean hotel in NYC (4/12/07 thru 4/15/07) for Self, wife, daughter and two teen-aged grandaughters?

Budget Travel editors: Since there are five of you, look into a short-term apartment rental. New York Habitat or and CitySonnet have a good selection of apartments. Note that New York Habitat has a minimum stay of three nights; CitySonnet four nights.


Or, try looking in the financial district, where hotels frequently offer weekend discounts (weekends are considered off-peak). The Exchange Hotel near South Street Seaport has undergone a complete and quite stylish renovation. Spring rates start at $259/night; suites are available from $329.


Lastly, try HotelConxions, a New York City-based agency, which we recently wrote about here. HotelConxions recently announced that it would promise "exclusive deals" to customers who book over the phone through the end of the year (800/522-9991, hotelconxions.com). Although we found mixed results, it only reinforces that you need to shop around to ensure you're truly getting a deal.


For more hotel ideas, check out our New York City Snap Guide, chock-full of places to sleep, eat, shop, and play. And read "My New York is Better Than Yours" for some places you musn't miss.

_______________________

Plan Your Next Getaway
Keep reading

Chapter 4: Turning Over the Rocks

Chapter 4: Turning Over the Rocks I have been fly-fishing only once in my life. It was in Woody Creek, Colorado, outside Aspen, and I went with a young guide who had come highly recommended by the original chef at Eleven Madison Park, Kerry Heffernan (no relation to my wife, Audrey), an expert fly-fisherman. My guide, displaying wisdom that belied his age, called me over as he waded into a clear, rushing stream, and picked up a small rock. He turned it over and smiled. From a distance, I noticed nothing unusual on its slick underside. I had no idea what he was looking for, or at. "Here, come look," he said. He pointed out dozens of tiny aquatic insects hatching on the rock. This told him precisely which fly to tie because, as he explained, the trout would only bite on an artificial fly that resembled what was actually hatching. The guide then put the stone back exactly where he had found it. I was intrigued. There was a world of information under that rock, if only one knew or cared enough to look for it. I took a valuable business lesson back home to New York. There's always a story behind a story if you look for it; and you can augment your success at "hooking" customers by taking the care, time, and interest to look. On my rounds in our dining rooms, I'm constantly turning over rocks, hunting for those details--a guest's impatient look or a glance at a watch, an untouched dish, a curious gaze at our art work. These details could indicate that someone is bored, impatient, in need of affection, puzzled, interested, or just daydreaming. But each gesture is a potential opportunity for me to visit the table and provide some hospitality. It's human nature for people to take precisely as much interest in you as they believe you're taking in them. There is no stronger way to build relationships than taking a genuine interest in other human beings and allowing them to share their stories. When we take an active interest in the guests at our restaurants, we create a sense of community and a feeling of "shared ownership." Shared ownership develops when guests talk about a restaurant as if it's theirs. They can't wait to share it with friends, and what they're really sharing, beyond the culinary experience, is the experience of feeling important and loved. That sense of affiliation builds trust and a sense of being accepted and appreciated, invariably leading to repeat business, a necessity for any company's long-term survival. And it all starts by turning over the rocks. I'm constantly reminding our staff members to initiate a relationship with our guests whenever it's appropriate. For example, it's amazing how powerful it can be simply to ask guests where they are from. Often, that leads to making a connection because we know someone in common, or we've enjoyed the same restaurant, or we can share a sports story. The old game of "Do you know So-and-so?" is a classic example of turning over rocks to further human connection. And it works. When you are considering several restaurants for dinner, other things being equal, you'll choose the one whose maitre d' went to the same school as you, or roots for your sports team, or has the same birthday as you, or knows your second cousin. You'll also tend to choose a restaurant whose chef came out to greet you on your last visit, or who saved you the last soft-shell crab special, knowing it was a favorite of yours. The information is always there if it matters enough to the staff to look for it. Making my rounds in the dining rooms involves, more than anything else, my ability to see, hear, and sense what's going on so that I can connect intelligently with our staff and guests and make things happen. I don't have a standard approach for every table, but I often start with a gut sense that a patron is ready for a visit. That's what springs me into action. I might just walk over to a table and say, "Thanks for being here." That puts the ball in the other court. The encounter either does or doesn't advance from there. But once the rock is turned over and a dialogue begins, I start to learn something, and I always act on what I learn. (And sometimes I learn that the person just wants to be left alone to eat dinner.) One night in April 2002, soon after opening our barbecue restaurant, Blue Smoke, I noticed a couple in the back room gazing out at the trees in the courtyard. I could sense that they were debating whether they liked their ribs, so I went over to greet them. "Where are you from?" I asked. "We're from Kansas City," the man said. "We're going to have a tough time living up to the barbecue standards of your hometown," I replied. As we chatted, I also learned that they had recently moved to New York and that they were very happy to have discovered a real pit barbecue place in their neighborhood. "I only wish we didn't have to make reservations for barbecue four weeks in advance," the man said. I told him that we had just decided to leave half the tables open for walk-ins as a way of encouraging spontaneous visits to the restaurant. That news pleased them. Then the man added, "You know, in Kansas City they give you more than one kind of sauce. Would you ever consider serving a sweeter and spicier sauce than this?" My hunch was right: something had been on their minds. Now I knew what it was, and also how to make a connection. "It's interesting to hear you say that, because we're actually working on a Kansas City-style sauce right now in the kitchen. Would you like to be the first guests to try it?" I went to the kitchen for a pitcher of that sauce and brought it back out to the table. The man poured some on his brisket (something a Texan would never do). "This," he said, beaming, "takes me home!" I asked for his business card, and later wrote him a note when Blue Smoke began offering Kansas City-style barbecue sauce. I'm certain that this couple felt a sense of ownership in the restaurant after our encounter. As far as they were concerned, they were in part responsible for our putting the new sauce on the table. That's the kind of dialogue we want to have. Hospitality can exist only when there is human dialogue. This particular dialogue provided great customer feedback and helped us forge a bond with two customers--not a bad investment of six minutes of my time! I try to be in the restaurants as often as possible. For nearly twenty years, until the opening of The Modern on West 53rd Street, all my restaurants were within a 10-minute walk of one another and my apartment--and I made it my business to visit every one of them during lunch. I'm not there just to greet and shake hands. I'm building daily communities within the restaurants' larger community. The best way to do this is to first gather as much information as I can about our guests. I call this collecting dots. In fact, I urge our managers to ABCD--always be collecting dots. Dots are information. The more information you collect, the more frequently you can make meaningful connections that can make other people feel good and give you an edge in business. Using whatever information I've collected to gather guests together in a spirit of shared experience is what I call connecting the dots. If I don't turn over the rocks, I won't see the dots. If I don't collect the dots, I can't connect the dots. If I don't know that someone works, say, for a magazine whose managing editor I happen to know, I've lost a chance to make a meaningful connection that could enhance our relationship with the guest and the guest's relationship with us. The information is there. You just have to choose to look. I always try to sense opportunities to glean information, and it's not limited to information about our guests. I will often just stand on the periphery of the dining room and watch. I gauge the temperature of the room, the smell, and the noise. Most important, I watch my staff members. Are they enjoying one another's company? And are they focused on their work? If the answer to both questions is yes, I feel confident that we're at the top of our game. Think about every time you've walked into a restaurant or an office, or even looked into the dugout at a baseball game. When the team is having fun and is focused, the chances are very good that the team will win. I study the faces of our guests. If I see that the direction of their eyes intersects at the center of the table, I know that they are actively engaged with one another and I'm confident that everything is fine. This is an inopportune time to visit. Guests dine out primarily to be with one another, and their eyes tell me they are doing precisely what they came to do. Whenever I see that the direction of someone's eyes is not bisecting the center of the table, then a visit may be warranted. I am not certain that something is wrong, but I am certain that there is an opportunity to make a connection without feeling like an intruder. It could be that a guest has been waiting too long for his or her food and is looking for a waiter. It could be that someone is simply curious about the architecture, a work of art on the wall, or, for that matter, an attractive guest across the dining room. Or a guest could be momentarily bored, or just taking a pause, or having a fight with a companion. I also look for solo diners. From my own experiences dining alone, I know that solo diners have a straightforward agenda: to treat themselves to a gift of quality, contemplative time, and to do so at our restaurant. I consider that the ultimate compliment, and I'm also hoping that today's solo diner will host tomorrow's party of four. A little perception goes a long way. Hospitality can, in the right instance, involve little more than standing nearby and allowing my body language to smile at the guests. If I catch, say, a woman's eye, she may beckon me to the table and let me know that she needs water, a waiter, or the check. If I thank her for coming to the restaurant, she might say, "You're very welcome. This place is so much better than your other restaurants!" Or, "We were wondering when you opened this restaurant." Or, "It's nice to be back. It's gotten much better. Last time, the service was so slow." Or, "We hadn't been back since you opened. It was so loud then! How did you fix that?" In these exchanges I'm collecting information not just about who our guests are, but about how they feel about our product. One advantage a restaurant has over many other businesses is that we can get instant feedback while our consumers are consuming our product. People have an emotional attachment to food and to their money, and they come to our restaurants with high expectations. To the degree that they believe we are on their side, we usually don't have to work very hard to get candid reactions. If our customers love what they've ordered, I can tell by looking at their faces (and their plates). If they aren't happy, they're going to let me or my staff know--as long as we've built the right relationship with them. One night in Blue Smoke, I noticed that some diners had finished eating but had left most of their onion rings untouched on the plate. They could simply have been full, but I went over to say hi and to have a closer look. Sure, enough, the rings didn't look crispy. "You didn't love them," I said, gesturing to the rings. "You know, you're right," the man answered. "They were the only thing I thought could have been better. I wish they'd been crispier and spicier." "Well, then," I said, "you're not paying for them." A moment later, as they got up to leave, the man handed me a $100 bill. "This is for the waiter," he said. Good as this waiter was, I knew that the generous gratuity was in part a reflection of the fact that the guests appreciated our taking a special interest in them and caring for them. In the end, we decided to take the onion rings off the menu, because we couldn't get them consistently right without incurring a very high labor cost to produce them. That, of course, led to a spate of new complaints: "Bring back the onion rings!" It had occurred to me in Woody Creek that until my fishing guide turned over that rock, I'd have been content to stand at the edge of the running stream enjoying the dreamy valley and mountains. But in business, turning over the rocks and reading the water, as a fly-fisherman might do, gives you crucial information so that you can take an even deeper interest in your customers, and encourages them to do the same with you. Since I opened Union Square Cafe in 1985, guests who have dined with us there and in our other restaurants are presented with both a check and a comment card, an idea I had first seen while I was at Pesca. (There, guests were asked for their name and address, but feedback and comments were not solicited.) If guests write their name and address on the front of the card, we place them on the mailing list for our newsletter. That way, as promised on the comment card, we can "keep them informed of upcoming events," such as our "morning market meetings," "wine and food dinners," and cooking classes. On the back of the card there's room for guests to share their opinions about the food, wine, ambience, service, and anything else on their minds--an ideal opportunity for us to collect dots. Early on, I responded personally to every comment card, but today that is the job of our chefs and managers, who read up to 100 cards a week. It's an excellent way to build trust, encourage and enrich dialogue, and give our guests the confidence that, at our restaurants, their suggestions are taken seriously. It may seem obvious now, but in the 1980s using a comment card to compile a mailing list for a fine restaurant's newsletter was an innovation of sorts. You would rarely if ever see comment cards distributed in fine restaurants--that was more the domain of places like Denny's. But within two or three years I began to notice that the wording I chose for our first comment card--"We want you to return to Union Square Cafe and eagerly seek your comments or suggestions"--was being adopted almost word for word in all kinds of restaurants. Today, we have collected well over 150,000 names on our mailing lists. The lists have proved to be an extremely effective way to build a community and stay connected with our guests and friends all over the country--and even worldwide. Today, of course, the entire marketing profession is out to collect e-mail addresses to stay in touch with existing and prospective customers. We do that too, but in my judgment nothing can or will replace the meaningful contact that happens with a personal note or newsletter sent the old-fashioned way. One of the oldest sayings in business is "The customer is always right." I think that's become a bit outdated. I want to go on the offensive to create opportunities for our customers to feel that they are being heard even when they're not right. To do so, I always actively encourage them--when I'm on my rounds, in our comment cards, and in letters or e-mail to us--to let us know if they feel something's not right. When they do, I thank them. Excerpted from Setting the Table by Danny Meyer. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission from HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022

Win a Girlfriend Getaway to Miami's Bal Harbour Village!

We want to know your girlfriend getaway tradition! Is there something your group always does? Is there something you always bring? Tell us your story, and you could win a girlfriend getaway for two to Miami's Bal Harbour Village, courtesy of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau and its partners. Located at the northern tip of Miami Beach, Bal Harbour Village is a barrier-island community where luxury runs deep, with indulgent resorts, elite shopping, and dramatic dining--all just minutes from the culture and nightlife of Miami and South Beach. The prize includes: Roundtrip airline tickets for two to Miami International Airport, from the nearest continental U.S. city that American Airlines serves to Miami International Airport (courtesy of Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau). Two nights' accommodation (one room, with two beds) at the European-style Sea View Hotel. One of the first structures built along Bal Harbour's coastline, the European-style, oceanfront Sea View Hotel features 220 newly renovated guestrooms, an intimate private beach, 50 cabanas surrounding a heated Olympic-size pool, and several restaurants offering contemporary and international cuisine. One $500 gift card to the world-famous Bal Harbour Shops. The open-air shopping center is home to nearly 100 top-tier stores, including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, Hermes, Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Dior, Valentino, Chanel, Bulgari, Cartier, and many more. One Bal Harbour Passport, offering $2,000 in shopping, dining and spa privileges. Pucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Judith Ripka, Luca Luca, Neiman Marcus, Ralph Lauren, Saks Fifth Avenue, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tourneau and Zegna are just a sampling of the luxe Bal Harbour Shops designers and stores participating in the 2007 Passport promotion. Dinner for two at Carpaccio, where fashionistas sit at outdoor tables all afternoon lingering over lunch while the posh parade goes by. The cozy, yet sophisticated, Italian eatery offers a selection of carpaccio, homemade pastas, salads, and pizzas baked in a wood-burning oven. Admission for two to The Fifth, a nightclub housed in a 9000-square-foot Art Deco-style building. The luxurious bi-level space has a warm eclectic decor that retains the level of intimacy you'd find in a private NYC loft. You'll get a VIP table for two and a bottle of champagne. Send in all the juicy details about your girlfriend getaway tradition, and the one that the editors of Girlfriend Getaways deem the best will win the prize. The prize (estimated retail value: $3,500) is valid for 12 months after it's awarded, subject to availability (blackout dates and holidays apply, and airline tickets must be booked in V class inventory); it's nontransferable, and non-negotiable, and can't be redeemed for cash value. Taxes are the sole responsibility of the winner. One prize will be awarded; your chances of winning depend on how many entries we receive and whether yours is best. Open to residents of the 50 United States and its territories, except Arizona. Budget Travel (the contest's sponsor) employees and their relatives are ineligible. Winner and travel companion must sign an affidavit of eligibility and release. Void where prohibited. All submissions become the property of Budget Travel. You can submit your entry through the form above, or if you want to mail in your entry, send it to Girlfriend Getaways, Budget Travel, 530 Seventh Ave., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10018. Note: We're asking for your phone number so we can contact you if you win. We promise not to give it away.