The Real Deals

March 12, 2007

Amazing deals always seem to be out there. The trick is to find them. And guess what? You just did. See details below:

 

  • A week in the Azores: R/T airfare & 6 nights from $589/person
  •  

  • Italy air/car/5-night hotel package from $1,399/person
  •  

  • Greek Island Hopping: R/T Air & 8 nights from $1499/person
  •  

  • Beach it in Brazil: R/T Air & 8 nights from $1,906/person
  •  

  • France River Cruise: R/T air, 7-nights, trips & meals from $1,998/person
  • A week in the Azores: R/T airfare & 6 nights from $589/person

    The Real Deal: Air/hotel package for a week in Portugal's lush Azores islands. Round-trip airfare and six nights' accommodations from $589 per person.

    When: Through June 12, 2007.

    Gateways: Boston.

    Details: The offer is priced per person based on double occupancy. Valid for Tuesday departures; add $90 to depart on Friday. Prices may be higher on holidays and after April 1, 2007. Daily breakfast is included. Taxes and fees are an extra $147 per person. Upgrades from coach fare to SATA Plus Business-Class are available for an additional $170 each way. Children under 10 pay for airfare and only 10 percent of the hotel rate; those under 6 are only charged for airfare.

    Book By: No deadline, but must complete travel by June 12, 2007.

    Contact: Azores Express, 800/762-9995, azores-express.com

    For more trip details, click here.

    __________________________________________

    Italy air/car/5-night hotel package from $1,399/person

    The Real Deal: Air/car/hotel package for exploring the lively university town of Perugia and its Umbrian neighbors. Round-trip airfare, five nights' accommodations, and rental car from $1,399 per person

    When: Dec. 1-14, 2006; add $90 for Nov. 1-30 and Jan. 7-31, 2007; $100 for Feb. 1- Mar. 31; $340 for Dec. 15-31, 2006 and Jan. 1-6, 2007; $1,160 for July 20-Aug. 31, 2007; $1,200 for Apr. 1-May 31 and Sept. 1-Oct. 31, 2007

    Gateways: New York City; add $50 for Boston, Washington, D.C.; $95 for Atlanta, Chicago; $200 for Los Angeles, San Francisco

    Details: Hotel taxes, daily breakfast, and fuel surcharges (which can top $150) are included. Additional airport taxes are $125 per person. Based on double occupancy; single supplement $699

    Book By: No deadline; based on availability

    Contact: Foreign Independent Tours, 800/248-3487, fittours.com

    For more trip details, click here.

    __________________________________________

    Greek Island Hopping: R/T Air & 8 nights from $1499/person

    The Real Deal: Air/hotel package for a week in sun-kissed Mykonos and Santorini, capped off by a visit to bustling Athens. Round-trip airfare, eight nights' accommodations, and interisland flights and ferry rides from $1,499 per person.

    When: Depart Oct. 8, 15, 22, 2007; add $100 for May 7, 21; $150 for Sept. 10, 17, 24; $440 for May 28; $460 for June 4, 11.

    Gateways: New York City; add $53 for Chicago, Miami; $148 for San Francisco; $224 for Houston; additional cities available.

    The Fine Print: Breakfast daily, airport/hotel transfers, hotel taxes, and fuel surcharges are included. Additional airport taxes are $175-$215 per person. Based on double occupancy; single supplement starts at $281. For general guidelines on evaluating deals, click here.

    Book By: No deadline, but book as soon as possible--select dates are already sold-out.

    Contact: Gate 1 Travel, 800/682-3333, gate1travel.com.

    Why It's a Deal: The lowest round-trip fare we've found between New York City and Athens in mid-October is $891 per person (Continental). For about $500 more, Gate 1 Travel covers the international airfare as well as two 1-way flights within Greece, ferry transportation, airport/hotel transfers, and an eight-night stay.

    For more trip details, click here.

    __________________________________________

    Beach it in Brazil: R/T Air & 8 nights from $1,906/person

    The Real Deal: Bask in the sun on Brazil's Copacabana Beach, stroll the streets of Rio de Janeiro, fish for piranhas near a floating hotel in the Amazon jungle, and tour colonial-era buildings in Brazil's onetime capital of Salvador da Bahia. Round-trip airfare, eight nights' accommodations, sightseeing tours, some meals, and local transportation from $1,906 per person.

    When: Depart Mondays through Thursdays until April 30, 2007.

    Gateways: Miami; add $31 for New York; $126 for Los Angeles; additional cities available.

    The Fine Print: Airport/hotel transfers, hotel taxes, two dinners, breakfast daily, entrance fees, guided tours, and fuel surcharges are included. Additional airport taxes total about $160 per person, which must be paid in advance, plus departure fees of $10-$15 per person for the two intercity flights within Brazil, which must be paid in cash at the airports. Each U.S. citizen must obtain a Visa in advance of arrival for a $100 fee. Contact your nearest Brazilian consulate. Based on double occupancy; the single supplement is $285. For general guidelines on evaluating deals, click here.

    Book By: March 31, 2007.

    Contact: Top Destination Tours & Travel, 800/480-0707, latinamerica4less.com.

    Why It's a Deal: In comparison, the lowest round-trip fares we've found to Rio de Janeiro in mid-March are $715 per person from Miami (TAM Airlines) and $804 per person from New York (Continental). For $149-154 a day more, Top Destination Tours & Travel covers eight nights' lodgings, transportation, guided tours, and flights within Brazil, and provides the convenience of handling the trip logistics.

    For more trip details click here.

    __________________________________________

    France River Cruise: R/T air, 7-nights, trips & meals from $1,998/person

    The Real Deal: A springtime river cruise through France, with highlights including Paris, Giverny, and the beaches of Normandy. Round-trip airfare, a seven-night cruise, seven shore excursions, and all meals from $1,998 per person--$500 off the typical rate.

    When: Depart Mar. 24, 31, Apr. 7, 14, 21, 2007; add $250 for departures in May, June, July and Aug.

    Gateways: New York City; add $100 for Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.; $200 for Houston; $300 for Los Angeles; additional cities available.

    Details: Airport/port transfers, meals, and onboard lectures are included. Additional airport taxes and fuel surcharges are about $335 per person, and port charges are $84 per person. Based on double occupancy; single supplement is a whopping $2,143. For general guidelines on evaluating deals, click here.

    Book By: Jan. 31, 2007; afterwards the price jumps to $2,498 per person.

    Contact: Uniworld, 800/733-7820, uniworld.com.

    For more trip details, click here.

    Plan Your Next Getaway
    Keep reading

    Transcript: Vietnam Audio Slide Show

    Ben Thanh Market These first pictures are from Ben Thanh Market, which is located in the center of Saigon (offically, the city is named Ho Chi Minh City). You'll find everything from pyramids of fruit to stacks of shoes to piles of motorbike parts inside the covered building. Here's my friend Hien among the maze of fabric stalls. Hein was born in Vietnam, grew up in Canada, and recently returned to Saigon. He showed my boyfriend, Dustin, and me around when we visited in November 2006. We had come to Ben Thanh Market because Dustin was looking for wool to have a coat made, but we weren't having much luck finding it. When we asked the proprietors at this stall, they scurried off and returned with two types of beautiful brown wool. If we had bought the four meters needed for the coat, we definitely would've bargained. No prices are fixed at any market in Vietnam. Kenly Silk Vietnamese women wear silk to keep cool and look stylish. You'll see it sold everywhere. Kenly Silk, a few minutes' walk from the market, is one of the nicest places I've come across. The staff is very friendly, and the store has a huge range of silks from which you can make pajamas, dresses, shirts, overcoats--just about anything. This is the kind of shop that both teenagers and grandmas will love. Nhut Nhut is a classic Vietnamese men's tailor--no nonsense, very stripped down. It's known for suits made exclusively from cashmere blends and shirts constructed out of high-thread-count Italian cotton. There are books of swatches along the wall full of options. Tricia & Verona This sleek boutique is called Tricia & Verona. It's located right across the street from the Sheraton Hotel on Dong Du Street, which is lined with bars and restaurants. The store was opened in early 2006 by sisters Tuyen and Vy, who look remarkably alike. They have bags full of fabric samples and piles of magazines to help generate ideas, and many fun, fashionable items to buy off the rack or to have copied. Dustin and I had several items made here (this is him getting measured for pants), and encountered lots of well-heeled expats picking up glamorous silk jackets and dresses during our visits. Minh Khoa Around the corner, on Dong Khoi Street, you'll find rows of boutiques and souvenir shops. This store is run by Minh Khoa, one of Vietnam's up-and-coming designers. He specializes in fabulous, one-of-a-kind cocktail dresses and wedding gowns. The store's racks are organized by color and anything can be copied. Minh will work with customers to design the perfect dress, and his shop sells the costume jewelry to go along with it. Minh Hanh If you're looking for modern twists on traditional Vietnamese styles, check out Minh Hanh. The designer specializes in delicate embroidery, trimming everything from dresses to coats. This velvet jacket is edged with embroidery made by the ethnic minorities of northern Vietnam. Sapa is the main town in this mountaineous area, where you'll see women stitching as they walk, with babies bundled on their backs. Si Hoang Si Hoang is located in a grand three-story colonial building, and it's decorated with traditional Vietnamese furniture. The store is named for its owner, an artist who's turned his talents to designing ao dai, the traditional Vietnamese dress. Ao dai are comprised of long, fitted tunics paired with flowing pants. They're worn for weddings, special events, and as uniforms at some businesses. Many of the fabrics at Si Hoang are hand painted. These two women are working on a design that will take them a few weeks to complete. The shop also has a line that's exclusively for kids. The designs were drawn by children in orphanages and schools. If you're looking for a taste of local culture to round out the day, come by the shop around 8 P.M. A free fashion show with tea, music and singing takes place almost every night.

    Stealing Buddha's Dinner

    Anh and I hung out with the others kids in the basement, playing Atari and ping-pong and watching TV. The commercials held our interest as much as any show, for they let us know what we should be eating, playing, and wearing. They let us know how we should be. After a commercial for Lite-Brite a girl with shiny pink barrettes might triumph, "My ma and ba me bought that." Another kid would boast about going to McDonald's three times in one week. Almost all these kids were way ahead of me and Anh. Their parents were anxious for them to fit into Grand Rapids and found the three quickest avenues: food, money, and names. Food meant American burgers and fries. Money meant Jordache jeans and Izod shirts. Names meant a whole new self. Overnight, Thanh's children, Truoc and Doan, became Tiffany and David, and other families followed. Huong to Heather, Quoc to Kevin, Lien to Lynette. Most of the kids chose their own names and I listened while they debated the merits of Jennifer versus Michelle, Stephanie versus Crystal. They created two lives for themselves: the American one and the Vietnamese one--Oriental as we all said back then. Out in the world they were Tiffany and David; at home they were Truoc and Doan. The mothers cooked two meals--pho and sautés for the elders, Campbell's soup and Chef Boyardee for the kids. Rosa would have none of it. She hadn't changed her own name when she married, after all, and had named my brother Vinh--not some white name, she scoffed. She told Anh and me that we needed to be proud of who we were. Still, my sister tried out Ann for a little while, until laziness prevailed and she went back to Anh. It was an easy name anyway, and caused her little stress. Not like my name: Bich. In Vietnamese it meant jade, which was all well and fine in Vietnam but meant nothing in Michigan. It was pronounced with an accent tilting up, the tone leading almost toward a question, with a silent h. Bic! I hated the sound--too harsh, too hard, and the c so slight that it evaporated in the air. I preferred to hear it as Bit. The sound seemed tidier, quieter. So that's what I made my name over to be, and it was fine until my classmates learned to read and swear. By second grade I was being regularly informed that I was a bitch. I started fantasizing then about being Beth, or maybe Vanessa or Polly. I longed to be Jenny Adams with the perfect simple name to match her perfect honeyed curls. But I knew I could never make it stick. Who would listen to me? Who would allow me to change? Not Rosa, nor anyone at school. I could not tell my stepmother, my father, my sister--I could tell no one--what I suffered each day during roll call. The shame layered upon embarrassment equaled silence. I felt I could judge the nature and compassion of teachers, especially substitutes, by the way they read my name. The good ones hesitated and gently spelled it, avoiding a phonetic pronounciation. The evil ones simply called out, Bitch? Bitch Nu-guy-in? So I listened carefully, enviously, while the kids in Thanh's basement transformed themselves into true Americans. Most of their parents had factory jobs, too, but that didn't stop them from buying nice clothes and tennis shoes and toys, whatever it took to assimilate. Rosa wouldn't have that either. She believed in pinching pennies, as she put it, and my longing for a Jenny Adams wardrobe was useless against her rules about clothes. Rosa favored reds and burgundies, claiming they were best for our skin types, and she forbade me and Anh from wearing yellow. "Never, never, never," she said. "Girls with your skin color look sallow in yellow." When we shopped we hit the discount stores. Her favorite was Burlington Coat Factory, which in spite of its name mostly sold clothes. They were piled in giant bins or stuffed tight into circular hanging displays. On principle alone Rosa purchased only what was on sale, her eyes lighting up at the word clearance. When I went to school in blue corduroys and a pink sweater stitched with a picture of a stallion rearing up, I avoided sitting next to Jenny Adams with her flowered dresses and polished Mary Janes. While the other girls in Thanh's basement learned to dress like Jenny, I found comfort in the girl whose parents were as stubborn as mine: Loan, who remained Loan, which carried a lovely double syllabic. Lo-an. We went to the same school during first and second grade, and became the best of friends. Bitch and Loan, some of the kids said on the playground. Hey bitch, can you loan me some money? At home, I kept opening the refrigerator and cupboards wishing for American foods to magically appear. I wanted what the other kids had: Bundt cakes and casseroles, Chee-tos and Doritos. My secret dream was to bite off just the tip of every slice of pizza in the two-for-one deal we got at Little Caesar's. The more American foods I ate, the more my desires multiplied, outpacing any interest in Vietnamese food. I had memorized the menu at Dairy Cone, the sugary options in the cereal aisle at Meijer's, and every inch of the candy display at Gas City: the rows of gum, the rows with chocolate, the rows without chocolate. I knew the spartan packs of Juicy Fruit as well as the fat pillows of Bubble Yum, Bubbalicious, Hubba Bubba, Chewels, Tidal Wave, the shreds of Big League Chew, and the gum shaped into hot dogs and hamburgers...I dreamed of Little Debbie, Dolly Madison, Swiss Miss, all the bakeries presided over by prim and proper girls. Reprinted by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., from Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen. Copyright (c) 2007 by Bich Minh Nguyen.