Blogger's Choice Awards

By Budget Travel
October 3, 2012

We have mixed feelings about contests that attempt to pick "the best" blogs. After all, the beauty of the Internet is the wide variety of voices on a variety of topics. Some are broad, some niche, some opinionated, some news-based.

That said, for This Just In to get the resources to become bigger and better, it will need proof that readers like it.

So please consider This Just In for the Blogger's Choice Awards in the "Best Travel Blog" category.

Our blog is identified by our silly website address: (blog.budgettravel.com/budgettravel) instead of its name, This Just In.

You'll have to register to vote. It's free to do so. Winners will be announced next Thursday, Oct. 16.

Spread the word to any This Just In fans you know!

Plan Your Next Getaway
Keep reading
Inspiration

Iceland on sale for the next year or so

My colleagues and I feel odd saying this, but the financial crisis in Iceland makes for great news for American travelers. The U.S. dollar buys twice as much in Iceland today than it did a year ago. And the country is not as far away as you might think. As my fellow BT editor Kate Appleton points out, it's closer to fly between New York City and Iceland's capital, Reykjavík, than it is to fly from the Big Apple to L.A. The Icelandic Tourist Bureau has just told us that Icelandair has just slashed fares from New York or Boston to $400 roundtrip, "about what a one-way fare once cost." This fare is good for travel November 1 through March 31, 2009. IcelandAir has revamped its seats and interiors on its airplanes for economy- and business-class passengers. And starting in November, the airline will have an easier-to-use website featuring online check-in (with matching kiosks to match at airport terminals). IcelandAir flies from Boston, New York-JFK, Minneapolis/St. Paul (seasonal), and Orlando. This past February, Budget Travel sent Jennifer Sabo to Reykjavík to take photos and notes about what it's like there in the off-season. Read her report: "Reykjavík: Cold, Dark, and Handsome." This view of Iceland's appeal has been seconded by our colleague Marilyn Terrell at National Geographic. Terrell says: "You can get a hot dog in Reykjavík for less than in Central Park." She also notes that the Intelligent Traveler blog has an "Iceland on the Cheap" report and photo slide show. For more on hot dogs and other comfort foods in Iceland, see Budget Travel's story "Eat Like a Local: Reykjavík." My BT colleague Summar Ghias says that, despite the cold, Iceland is a great spot to go for New Year's Eve celebrations. "Icelandic law allows a firework free-for-all on New Year's Eve, making for a raucous night in the capital city. Elves, trolls, and other costumed creatures sing and dance at 11 bonfires scattered across Reykjavík." The island is easy to drive around, despite winter weather. There is only one main highway circling the island's key spots, and the country has become super-adept at keeping its roadways free and safe. So…in case you were wondering: What is there to do in Iceland? Attractions include: Hveragerdi, a hot-spring village that uses geothermal water to warm greenhouses. Skaftafell National Park, near Kirkjubæjarklaustur village. The park sits on one of Europe's largest glaciers and is made up of three different geological areas: Skaftafell and Skeioarársandur, a volcano and outwash plain; Lakagígar, a crater area on a volcanic fissure; and the glacial cap. Gape at icebergs in the glacial lake—while they last! The picture-perfect scenery has been a backdrop in many popular movies and TV shows filmed here, among them two James Bond movies (Die Another Day and A View to a Kill), Batman Begins, and The Amazing Race 6. Explore the Golden Circle, home to hot springs, colorful mud pools, and blowholes. Volcanoes aren't far away. If you haven any thoughts on Iceland, feel free to share by posting a comment.

Megabus: A first-person account of a mishap

Budget Travel has talked a lot about Megabus in the past year. The company (which provides city-to-city coach service in the Midwest and Northeast and some parts of the West Coast, and we gave it an Extra Mile Award for its innovations: 1) keeping its fares extremely low; 2) doing pickups and drop-offs in the centers of cities rather than at terminals; 3) equipping its double-decker fleet with free Wi-Fi, video screens, headsets, and seat belts. 4) offering alerts by cell phone in case of delays. This weekend, I took my first Megabus trip, and was, for the most part, delighted with it. The tickets were cheap ($20 each way between New York and Washington, D.C.), the comfy, double-decker bus was squeaky clean, and we arrived in DC more or less on time. There was one crazy mishap, though, and I’m dying to hear what BudgetTravel.com readers have to say about it. The bus made a stop just outside of New York, where a new driver replaced the original one, and another stop in Baltimore, where 17 people boarded. About 10 minutes after we left Baltimore, a few people started making noise about how we were heading in the wrong direction. The driver assured them that we were going to DC—at which point the Baltimore passengers realized they were on the wrong bus. Apparently, the digital sign on the outside of the bus read "New York," so they assumed the bus was going to New York. Our driver didn’t know this—remember, he had replaced another driver in the beginning of the trip and probably just assumed the sign was correct. Right away, the driver called the Megabus dispatcher to see how he could help the Baltimore passengers, and the dispatcher told him to keep going to D.C. Throughout the process, the Baltimore passengers grew more and more irate. They were yelling at the driver, demanding that he make the next bus out of D.C. wait for them, threatening to sue Megabus, and so on. A few of them called Megabus on their cell phones to yell some more (one man screamed to the Megabus operator that he and 16 others were being hijacked). It was ugly. At first I wasn’t sure who was at fault. Sure, the bus should have had the correct destination on the sign, but as a passenger, I can never imagine getting on a bus without verifying that it was going where I needed to go. Now, though, I’m pretty sure Megabus is responsible. I called Megabus yesterday to find out how they handled it. They put the Baltimore passengers on a bus that left a little after 4 p.m., and issued full refunds. So my question is this: What should Megabus have done for these passengers? Turned around and gone back to Baltimore (which would have made the D.C. passengers late)? Forced the next bus out of D.C. to wait for us to arrive so these passengers could get on (this would have made that bus late getting to New York)? Given the passengers full refunds? More? EARLIER The long-haul bus trip from hell Buses are back, at least for trips between cities

Travel Tips

For travelers still going somewhere, deals are out there

Making for grim reading is this USA Today report that "travelers are postponing, scaling back or canceling trips of all kinds," with experts saying "it could be more than a year before travel rebounds." The only (very partial) upside to all this retreating is that those people actually willing and able to curtail their indefinite staycations and leave their house for a real trip may be able to get some deals. To help with that goal, USA Today also put together a roundup of 25 budget-oriented websites. It's a good selection—and we'd say that even if they hadn't included us (which they kindly did)…