Virgin's new U.S. airline debuts

We recently published our Family Travel Handbook, which is loaded with tips on vacation planning for parents. And we're always on the lookout for new ways to help parents. So we were delighted to see that gear outfitter REI [Recreational Equipment Inc.] has come up with a clever, free way for parents to encourage their children to explore. Employees at each of REI's 90 stores put together suggested itineraries for local hikes and bikes, none of which are too tough for beginners. As part of this Passport to Adventure program, kids aged five to 12 can pick up a passport-like journal at any store and use it to record their excursions. Once kids have completed three of the itineraries, they will receive a passport stamp as well as a certificate of accomplishment and a water bottle--and, REI hopes, a new appreciation for the outdoors. The offer is good through Labor Day, and you can pick the passports and itineraries at the customer service desk of any REI store. You can find store locations--and preview the biking and hiking itineraries--at REI's website, rei.com. And if you're interested in taking a guided trip with REI, check out our Real Deal profiling 10 of their offerings, among them, cycling in France and white-water rafting in Canada. Related: Our Family Travel Handbook has more strategies for entertaining your kids this summer . [Update: This blog item was revised for clarity since its first posting. The word "stores" was misspelled and the full name of REI was not given.]

Time travel is possible. And our future looks bright. What am I talking about? Well, if you visit Korea this year, you'll get a glimpse of technologies you won't find in the U.S. yet. You see, in the late 1990s, the Korean government invested in a nationwide high-capacity broadband network. Ninety percent of Koreans pay less than $30 a month for incredibly quick Internet service for their PCs and cell phones. In comparison, only 75 percent of Americans have broadband access at home, and relatively few have such speedy Web service on their cell phones. Given this universal, superfast Internet service, companies like Google can offer Koreans the richest possible Web services. Take, for example, the Google homepage that greets Google users in Korea today. It's animated. When you move your cursor over the icons underneath the Google search box, you'll see them jump up and down, helping to explain their purpose. Google doesn't offer this animated page in the U.S. because it would the page would take too long to load for many users. Eventually, in both Korea and the U.S., Google may offer moving animations for the advertisements that it posts next to its search results, reports the blog SearchEngineLand. Have you ever traveled to another country and seen a far-sighted technology that you expect will be soon adopted by the U.S.? Share your story with us, by posting a comment. Thanks.

Last week, Malta and Cyprus received permission from the European Union's finance ministers to replace their currencies with the euro. The change will go into effect in January 2008, bringing the euro club to 15 members. Here's a quick recap of the others: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Slovenia. The switch will make it more convenient for travelers already stopping in nearby euro countries, such as Italy or Greece, to tack on a visit to Malta or Cyprus. For inspiration and travel packages, check companies like Homeric Tours, whose week-long trip we recently featured as a Real Deal, Cypriot Odyssey. FIT Tours is a good source for Malta. One word of warning: while the actual cost of goods in Malta and Cyprus should remain roughly the same under the euro, we wouldn't be surprised if some local businesses use the switchover as an excuse to bump up prices. (We saw it happen when Italy lost the lira!) As you may know, the euro has reached the painful exchange rate of 1 euro to $1.38. You can do the math for your hotel reservations and other costs by using Budget Travel Online's currency converter. And you can get the backstory on the economic reforms Malta had to make to qualify for the euro via this article on Economist.com. Have an opinion about the euro (good or bad?) and what it means for travelers? Share your thoughts!

An airport is not a place where you can come away with much faith in human decency. Just consider what happened at JFK for one week in late June and early July. A Scottish discount carrier with the funny name of FlyGlobeSpan was scheduled on June 28 to depart from JFK airport and fly to Ireland. It took a week to depart. The most galling part? The airline refused to rebook its passengers on flights served by other airlines. Here's the skinny: An engine problem--apparently caused by a lightning strike--prevented a plane from ever taking to the skies. FlyGlopeSpan only offers service on this route on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. As this was a Thursday night departure, FlyGlobeSpan didn't want to rebook the 240 passengers on another flight until its next scheduled departure. The Scottish airline could have sent a rescue aircraft from the U.K. But, says the airline, regulations about how much time the crew needs to rest between flights meant that it would not have taken off any earlier than the time when the aircraft was expected to be repaired. The airline put passengers up for the night. Another flight attempt was made the next day, but the plane wasn't yet ready for take-off. The airline put up passengers for another night, but refused to rebook them on the flights served by other airlines. On Saturday, Glasgow airport closed because of an attempted car bombing. As most of FlyGlobeSpan's planes and staff are headquartered in Glasgow, chaos erupted. Passengers at JFK airport say they were unable to receive information about the status of their flight. Eventually, the airline instructed its agents to begin sending its customers home via other airlines. While the length of the delay was unusual, FlyGlobeSpan has received a lot of complaints from passengers, who have posted their gripes about a variety of flights on a variety of routes at the website AirlineQuality.com. (That website, by the way, is a good place for you to post comments on the quality of any flight you might take on any airline.) This past weekend, FlyGlobeSpan finally issued an apology for its failure to keep its passengers informed of developments. It also apologized for failing to promptly rebook them on another airline's outbound flight when their own plane was clearly unable to fly. Lastly, it offered to reimburse passengers who used their own funds to book flights out of JFK. (Thanks to the Irish Times and the blog Airline Confidential.)