Reminder: World Expo 2008 opens this week in Spain

Name: Budget Travel LLC
Price range: $

By Steve Merrill

October 3, 2012

Courtesy Expo Zaragoza 2008

A few months ago we blogged about World Expo 2008, a three-month exhibition in Zaragoza, Spain, focused on the theme of "water and sustainable development." The Expo, billed as "The Greatest Water Festival on Earth," starts this Saturday and ends on September 14. I visited Zaragoza a few years back as I was passing by on the E-90/A-2 highway, and found the city utterly charming.

Britain’s newspaper The Independent recently produced a 15-minute video called 48 Hours in Zaragoza, which gives you a good sense of the city’s beauty, and its personality. Be forewarned, though, that the script has a few wince-able moments. At the Tryp Hotel near the Expo site, the host enthuses, “The beds have pillows big enough to eat you!” I thought the pillows looked pretty docile—but it's possible they were just biding their time. To skip ahead to a few of the highlights, drag the progress bar to the 2:30 mark and watch until about 7:00.

The World Expo’s official website says that the event will take place on a thousand square meters of exhibition space and christen three notable new buildings: the largest freshwater aquarium in Europe (5,000 specimens from major world river systems, including giant Nile crocodiles), the Water Tower, which takes its shape from that of a water droplet, and the Bridge Pavilion (above), a stunning, two-story span that drops pedestrians onto the main Expo site.

For more on the impressive buildings and exhibits, I found this video to be the most useful.

Expo planners expect roughly 5-7 million visitors during the event’s three month run. Ticket prices are dependent on a number of variables; ticket information here.

Zaragoza is about 250 kilometers (about 150 miles) from both Madrid and Barcelona, making it a relatively easy trip from Spain’s two largest cities. A new high-speed AVE train-link from Madrid reduces travel time between the cities to less than 1.5 hours. Train travel from Barcelona takes less than two hours. Eurail card holders with service in Spain earn 12 percent off of Expo entrance fees.

And Finally, a Few Odd Twists…

Expo Zaragoza has recently had its moments of sublime P.R. weirdness. If you have a few minutes to burn, check out Bob Dylan’s new recording of A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, which he’s donated to the Expo for promotional use. This noticeably more upbeat version of the original, dystopic recording ends with Dylan hoarsely (froggily?) endorsing clean water for the planet. Odd, and fun too.

More fun, still, is the Spanish-language, animated series starring Fluvi, the Expo’s super-earnest, water-droplet mascot. I don’t speak Spanish, but to me it looks like this sequence captures the heroic cartoon droplet as he squares off in an American-Idol-style rap contest with an insidious enemy of clean H20. Engrossing, funny—and a little strange. I couldn’t stop watching.

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Travel Tips

June 14-17 LimoLiner as Amtrak alternative

For a recent trip from New York City to Boston, I opted to ride LimoLiner instead of take a train or a rental car. As I blogged about yesterday, Amtrak is disrupting most of its New York City to Boston service June 14 to 17. So if you're traveling that route on those dates, you may especially want to consider LimoLiner as an alternative. UPDATE June 12 4p.m.: The installation of a new bridge span on the Thames River Bridge, originally scheduled for June 14 through 17, has been rescheduled for June 16 through June 19. I first heard of LimoLiner from Amy Langfield of NewYorkology.com, a blog about NYC activities and event-listings. (Amy mentioned this bus line when she was a guest expert for a recent BudgetTravel.com live chat.) While not exactly "budget travel"—my ticket was $140 roundtrip on four days' notice—LimoLiner was less costly than Amtrak's offer of $162 roundtrip (offpeak, regional service), and cheaper than renting the cheapest rental car (including gas and insurance costs) in the NYC area on a weekend—at least as far as I could find via Orbitz. The most distinctive part of LimoLiner is that it comes with a "bus attendant" who serves meals en-route and who hands out earplugs so that you have the option of enjoying the movie that's shown as well as the live CNN coverage. (Because you need to use headphones to hear the movie, passengers who aren't interested in watching can be blissfully left to read or work on their laptops in the quiet. (Incidentally, 110-volt power plugs are available at each seat station.) The WiFi signal is outstandingly strong. The bus has two "repeaters" on-board to ensure broadband-strength WiFi Internet connections—and steady cell-phone service, too. The bus was speedy, making only one scheduled stop, in Framingham, Mass. On my trip, the meals were okay. The options were a chicken or a vegetarian sandwich, with a choice of a carb-based snack and a beverage. The seats were super comfy (reclining what felt like 160 degrees for easy napping). The young "bus attendant" was actually attentive, helping some elderly customers get blankets to stay warm in the A/C. Another perk: LimoLiner features a standard toilet seat like you'd find in a house instead of on a bus. On my trip, the bathroom had a vase with some fresh flowers. Last details: Each row only has three seats, allowing for more elbow room and better views of the flat-screen monitors that broadcast movies and live CNN. The New York City stop is outside of the Hilton New York; in Boston, it's at the Hilton Back Bay. Average trip time is four hours.

Sending our best to Wisconsin Dells

The Wisconsin Dells, an area I wrote about in a recent road trip story, has been flooded as a result of a dam break (caused by two days of storms). We're thinking of you, Dells--hang in there. If you have a great memory of time in the area, post it, and we'll send them all to the folks there to show them how much we care. (My personal great memory was at the Kalahari resort, where I had a blast at the indoor waterpark--particularly the slide that's like a big funnel/toilet.... My friend Shawnda did a move we called "cleaning the rim.")

A bug in Hertz's system?

While returning a rental car at LAX yesterday, I learned something interesting: The Hertz rep said that if you drive fewer than 100 miles during your rental--as we did, remarkably--the computer automatically charges you for gas ("and if I don't catch it and you don't catch it, you get charged for it," he said). Anyone else ever come across this problem? UPDATE: Travel guru Christopher Elliott points out in the comments section that he has been following this charge on his excellent blog. (Forgive me for missing it: I was on vacation!) It was actually a company policy, not a bug in the system, and Hertz announced today that the policy is being changed--and what's more, Hertz will start charging fair prices (plus a fee) for gasoline purchased through the company. Elliott explains it well--and simply finding a new way to say it feels too much like school to me--so I'll just link to his explanation here.

iPhone tips and tricks for budget travelers

Apple announced today that it will start selling souped-up iPhones for $199 a pop on July 11. GPS will be built-in, letting you find where you are on an electronic map. (Free add-on applications, such as Loopt, use location feeds to help you find friends on the go, along with other neat tricks.) And the new iPhones will run on AT&T;'s speedy "3G" (third generation) network, which ought to let you access info much faster than current iPhones. Now that the iPhone is entering "budget travel" territory, here are some iPhone travel tips. You may be hit with enormous charges if you travel with your iPhone overseas—even if you don't intentionally use any services and never place a call. Here are tips on how to avoid these charges. I've used these tips myself on my overseas trips. [Note: I have interspersed language from Apple's and AT&T;'s websites with my own tips below to be as precise as possible, particularly on the instructions about how to use the device.] Tip 1: When overseas, turn Data Roaming "off". When you travel overseas, international data usage is not covered under your AT&T; plan. And because the iPhone is constantly seeking large amounts of data, you can be unpleasantly surprised by data charges while you're traveling overseas—even if you rarely use the device. To turn data roaming "on/off" tap on: Settings>General>Network>Data Roaming. Toggle Data Roaming to "off" and you will block data roaming (but not voicemail service) outside the U.S., the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Note, I'm assuming that the new iPhones will not ship with this function already in the default "off" position. It's good to check to make sure, whether you have a new or "old" iPhone. Tip 2: When overseas, use WiFi instead of the 3G network on post-July 11 iPhones: WiFi is available in many airports, hotels, and parks to browse the Web or check email. The chips required to receive info over the 3G network pull a huge amount of battery power, and your iPhone will likely run down faster when using it. Tip 3: Turn off your iPhone's "Auto-Check" function for email. Check email manually using WiFi instead of having emails downloaded to your iPhone automatically. That way, your iPhone won't be constantly seeking new messages—and adding charges to your phone bill—while it's in your pocket. (To turn off the "auto-check" feature, tap on: Settings>Mail>Auto-Check and select Manual.) Tip 4: Avoid the International Voice packages from AT&T.; The phone company offers to upsell you on packages that reduce your per-minute rate for making calls in exchange for paying a monthly fee. Unless you're a business person planning to make dozens of calls on the road, this will not pay off for you, on average in most foreign countries, by my calculations. Tip 5: But do consider the "Data Global Plans", which AT&T; offers for more than 35 countries. Because you'll probably be roaming, any time you receive a voicemail message or download a map or an email, you may be "roaming internationally" and paying a fortune in "data pay-per-use" charges. If you order the plan, you'll be spared wild charges on the receipt of voicemails. Plans can be added by a phone call to AT&T; customer service, and start at about $6 a month. You can add it just for the month that you're traveling to a particular country and then call back on your return to de-list from the plan. Tip 6: Beware of the iPhone's camera. When traveling overseas, some places, from mosques to government buildings to museums to train stations, don't allow you to take photos. If you are already toting a separate digital camera, you may want to stow your iPhone away. Tip 7: Get real-time estimates of travel times on your driving route. Open Maps, and you'll see a mini version of the U.S. Type a location into the search box by street address and state or zip code, an intersection, or a major attraction (Niagara Falls). Need driving directions? Tap the button that has two arrows, one pointing up and the other pointing down. Enter your start and stop destinations. (You can click on a name in your Contacts list if you've already entered an address for him or her.) Then tap Route. You'll get an overview. Tap the button that looks like a car, in the lower-right corner of your screen. Strips of road on your screen will now change color, with red-lined roads indicating high-traffic volume. On the first screen of driving directions, you'll see a total-driving estimate that is updated by what is known for current traffic speeds on your route. This works on both "old" iPhones and post-July 11 iPhones. Tip 8: Use Google on your browser wisely. Find the forecast for your area by typing weather chicago or weather 60609...meaning, "weather [city name]" or "weather [Zip code]." For currency conversions, use this as a model: 85 usd in euros. Feel free to share your own tips below.

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