What’s the deal with Puerto Rico?
Posted on May 14th, 2008 – 12:15 PMBy Troy Melhus
The In Box is full.
After a week of traveling myself — hey, we write about travel; we may as well experience it, too — I returned to an e-mail account bursting with deals.
So without further ado, here’s a rundown of the In Box and some Twin Cities area highlights I’ve been able to spot.
• Hotwire.com is boasting a “Car Rental Savings Alert,” not just for Minneapolis, but for several major cities. Hotwire has long been a personal favorite of mine because the prices have generally been comparable to those at Priceline.com, but without the hassle of the bidding process.
Hotwire was claiming they had cars in the Twin Cities available for as little as $14 a day at the weekend rate. Some cities were boasting as little as $10 a day. Gas, of course, is extra.
• Hotwire also dropped me a “personal note” — you know, the “Travel Ticker’s Insider deals handpicked just for you.” What caught my eye: Jamaica deals from BookIt.com, and an AirTran sale that expires Thursday, with fares from Minneapolis to San Juan for $136 one-way.
• Speaking of Puerto Rico (which, by the way, is what’s pictured above), the U.S. territory seems to be a big destination these days. Sherman’s Travel was boasting a $399 deal to America’s slice of the Caribbean at CheapCaribbean.com.
If you’re seriously thinking of going, here’s an article I wrote about a trip to Vieques, Puerto Rico, a couple of years ago.
• Sherman’s Travel also runs down what they say are some of the “New Summer Fare Sales from $29 One-Way.” Of course, reading about deals like these really sometimes makes one wish we had a Southwest Airlines in Minneapolis.
• Delta Airlines is offering a 15 percent fare discount this week as well. Among some of the infamous “sample fares” — which I never seem to be able to find when I’m booking online: Minneapolis to San Juan for $217 roundtrip.
What is it with Puerto Rico?
• And finally, tired of being a foreign rube? While most travelers are sophisticated enough to figure out that wearing college sweatshirts and baseball caps overseas screams “I’M AMERICAN,” a new website Vayama.com is offering additional tips to International travelers on the customs of other countries.
Learn, for example, that you should slurp your noodles in Japan and eating on the street in France is considered quite rude.
One response to "What’s the deal with Puerto Rico?"
What is it with Puerto Rico? Pretty simple, you don’t need a passport to go there, unlike Mexico (or other southern vacation spots) or Canada. The PR people splash that on all the ads I’ve seen. “No passport required”.
Chris Welsch has traveled to more than 40 countries on six continents; he is as enamored of the Great Plains as he is of the Great Barrier Reef.
Kerri Westenberg has traveled the globe for National Geographic magazine. Distant memories, now that motherhood makes her more likely to head to the Dells.
Troy Melhus has heli-skied on glaciers, dived alongside Monk seals and raced for 24 hours on a mountain bike. All this, and he rarely spends more than $500 on a trip.