One Week In Argentina

Seeing as I'm not doing any actual travelling in the near future, I thought I would do some rough sketches of places I'd like to go. I recently read Paul Theroux's Old Patagonian Express. In addition to reconfirming my undying adoration of Theroux, it gave me the itch to check out South America, a continent I've only gotten near, but never actually all the way there. (I think Trinidad is the closest I've been, as the crow flies). Although there is serious draw to see Macchu Picchu and tackle Brazil, one seems overrun and the other too daunting, so my current thought is Argentina.

Flights are such that a week in Argentina, flying in and out of Buenos Aires, would actually be pretty doable. Plus there's minimal risk of jet lag, so the week won't be filled with struggling with sleep cycles. So, here is my plan for one week in Argentina.

Buenos Aires. BA is getting a lot of press these days about how "European, yet affordable" it is. Sounds good to me. I've recently heard positive feedback from a honeymooning friend at work, a too chic travel website and Mike's parents, so I figure it has broad appeal. So, first, hotel thoughts. The grande dame hotel is the Alvear Palace. So if I were to go with my mom, I'm staying there. Otherwise, I'd stay at one of the smaller places in the Recolata or San Telmo neighborhoods. The Cocker (as in spaniel) looks lovely - stylish but not overdone, all suites, some with roof gardens, for around $100 a night. The Art Hotel is also getting a lot of write ups these days. It's another affordable town house-turned-inn, this time in Recolata.

As for activities in BA, I think it would be a wandering-with-occasional shopping adventure. Sounds like Palermo Soho resembles its namesake in an earlier incarnation (that is to say, lighter on the H&Ms). Bar Uriarte is apparently a restaurant gem in that neighborhood. Although not a big steak eater, I'd have to succumb to the local reputation in BA and eat some. Restaurant Dora is supposed to be excellent, as is La Cabrera. With all that walking around, I'd need snacks. Empanadas are a good place to start. Apparently La Cupertina in Palermo on Cabrera, has a tasty sweet corn empanada. For 60 cents. I'd certainly stop in at a Havanna cafe, a local chain, for alfajores - sandwich cookies filled with dulche de leche and covered in chocolate. Yum. Word is the Argentinians don't do a half bad gelato, either. So I think I wouldn't starve.

After a few days in BA, I think I'd be itching for some adventure, in which case I think I'd hop a flight to Mendoza. Mendoza is Malbec country and, as I've fallen prey to buying lots of wine on vacation and lugging it back, I might as well do it somewhere affordable. Finca Adalgisa is apparently a rustic but lovely place to stay in the area and Club Tapiz is the old-vineyard-as-minimalist-inn variety. As for eating, one vineyard, Bodega Carlos Pulenta, apparently has an excellent restaurant.

If hopping on a plane seems to trying, then I'd go to one of the estancias (the Argentinian agritourismos, I'd say) within driving distance of BA and herd some cattle, eat some beef, and drink some wine. Estancia El Martillo seems like a good place to do such things.

Of course, this is a very short trip. An extra week or two and I'd probably fly my way to Torres del Paine, way down in Patagonian Chile for some serious hiking and maybe some sailing around. I've always thought the Explora Lodge (also known as Hotel Salto Chico) would be out of this world. But that's for another post.

Oops

This is what a cancelled trip to Croatia looks like. Handiwork the result of a banal trip down a sledding hill in Vermont this week. Travel planning now refocused on something spectacular post-crutches. Bummer.

Trip Planning: Volume 1

I have spent the better part of my free time over the last several days trying to find a way to fly on frequent flyer miles from Washington to somewhere in or around Northern Croatia over Easter. In light of this somewhat random and undoubtedly challenging task, I shall write about my accumulated knowledge of finding cheap ways to get somewhere far away. And once I actually get there and back, I expect I shall write about the unexpected pleasures of Croatia.

So, step 1: accumulate frequent flyer miles. These buggers can be really frustrating, but a little discipline can reap great rewards. Step one is consolidation. I try my hardest to make sure I’m accumulating miles on the same airline. So this means using a miles credit card for purchases, work and personal. It also means getting miles on the chosen airline whenever I rent a car or stay in a hotel (most places have some sort of arrangement with airlines). Also, sometimes you can use miles from one program (say Amtrak) to “buy” miles with another (say Continental). This is also rather handy. Some airlines also let you transfer miles from one account to another at a fairly reduced price, which is quite useful when you’re trying to get two tickets. So, all of this hopefully yields enough miles to start looking for tickets.

Step 2: finding the frequent flyer seats. If you know 11 months in advance that you’re taking a trip, you’re all set in this department. Otherwise, it takes some creativity. Most airlines now allow you to search online for frequent flyer seats, but it’s all rather deceptive. That’s because most websites will only show you the seats on that airline, and most miles programs also let you buy seats on partner airlines.

So, for example, at continental.com, you can search for Continental frequent flyer seats. But if you have the endurance to sit on the phone, they can also access Delta, Northwest, and other airlines’ seats. This is rather handy when, for example, you want to fly from Washington using Continental miles, but most Continental flights from Washington connect through Newark, which is deeply irritating. Luckily, Air France flies to Europe direct from Dulles, and you can use your Continental miles on Air France, by way of Delta. An added bonus is that I’ve found the telephone folks at frequent flyer programs to be pretty handy. They can do better searches than the website – such as, I want to leave April 6th, but I only want to use 50,000 miles, so if there aren’t seats on April 6th, what day are there seats? Or, I want to go to Pula, but I’ll take a 50,000 mile seat anywhere within a couple hour drive, are there any other airports with free seats? So, moral of the story: suck it up and sit on the phone for a while.

Step 3: making the frequent flyer flight work. One of the problems I have faced a time or two before is that I can get a frequent flyer seat to the general vicinity of where I want to go, but not exactly where I want to go. The great news is that Europe, and increasingly Asia, is overrun with discount airlines that are the perfect solution. For Europe, as a general matter, if you fly to London, you’re pretty much good to go anywhere in Europe or Northern Africa. Surprisingly, this phenomenon has spread across the continent, so you can now get Swiss, Czech, Italian, Belgian low cost airlines and a host of others. For the most genius list of low cost airlines, this website can’t be beat. We’ve flown Geneva-Rome, Venice-Geneva, London-Gibraltar, and are probably headed for a London-Ljubljana flight. So convenient.

That said, sometimes it’s more fun not to fly over all those fun places. There’s the obvious romance of the train (I rather enjoyed a Nice-Rome sleeper some years ago, complete with espresso served by the conductor in the morning and people in the neighboring cabin who we imagined as a husband and wife spy team). But I’ve grown rather fond of renting a car and heading out on the open road. I’ve never driven in Asia, but I think I’d give it a whirl the next time back, if the itinerary was right. Europe, certainly, is doable – roads are good, support services are good, roads are much better marked than at home.

The appeal of driving to me is that you actually get a little more local flavor this way, you don’t have to schlep your bags much, and you can stop off in fun little places along the way where the train never goes. Plus you get harrowing tales of driving through the madness of European cities (I believe I did a good 8-10 laps of the center of Nice at one point, and more or less screamed my way through downtown Barcelona) and of squeezing your car through tiny medieval streets (let’s just say you actually can drive through Montepulciano – who knew?) Admittedly, this appeals more to those of us who were forced to learn to drive stick shift in our youth, but there are enough Americans around that for a little more money, they’ll rent you an automatic. Plus, if you drive in Italy, you get to stop at the Autogrilles (rest stops, Italian style).

As far as car rentals go, I’ve had unparalleled success with Europcar. They let you pick up in one country and drop in another, they run good discounts from time to time, they don’t force you to buy insurance, they arrange for after-hours drop offs, and to date their customer service counters have been excellent. (By my count, this includes Paris city office, Nice city office, Rome Ciampino airport, Rome Termini Station office, and two rounds with the Piazzale Roma office in Venice, and a Fes-Marrakech reservation we never actually used). I’m a fan. Also a huge fan of the Michelin site for maps (and their print road maps are great, too).

So, it looks like April will have us flying on free seats to London, then Easyjet to Ljubljana, then a drive to Istria, in Northern Croatia, from there. Sounds like the perfect trip.

2006: The Year in Travel

My posts seem to have ground to a bit of a halt, due mainly to the fact that I've had a few easy weeks and thus have spent limited time in front of my computer at odd hours. Luckily, though, there is an easy way for me to add a little something without distracting more than momentarily from my new pile of work. So, here it is, 2006, the year in travel.

2006 began in Los Angeles, hosted by some local denizen friends (who have begun 2007 as new parents - fantastic!) I am not a huge lover of LA, but the trip was for the company, so that was all good. Local activities engaged in: drinks at the Chateau Marmont and Standard, "california" sushi, and a stay at the surprisingly affordable, not as crappy as it could have been Elan Hotel.

January is home to the annual ski weekend for Mike's friends, housed by some lovely residents of Bennington, VT. For the second year in a row, we did not actually ski during the ski weekend, which was a huge personal victory for me, the crappiest skier of the bunch. There is also a growing crop of babies at the ski weekend, who I hope will keep skiing at bay for a little while longer, although I admit to fear that one of them may soon be a better skier than me. Resolution for 2007: ski lessons.

January also saw a week in Vegas at the Bellagio for work. All of the 30ish male coworkers were jealous, but I rather dislike the place. Bellagio is a nice hotel, on someone else's dime, and had the added bonus of having good (if insanely overpriced, again the someone else's dime) coffee at the "Espresso Bar" and a pair of Marc Jacobs shoes on sale in one of the stores. Restaurants (Olives, Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris, FIX in the Bellagio) were universally underwhelming.

February was a trip to NYC to hang out and see friends, accented by a lovely dinner at Jack's Oyster Bar, followed shortly thereafter by a long night of food poisoning. Would have highly recommended the place otherwise. Oh well.

February also saw a weekend at Disneyworld for a certain bachelorette. Let's just say my future children may see Disneyworld, but it will be with their grandparents. On a practical note, the Disney Yacht Club, shielding your eyes from the requisite theme, had decent rooms.

March was Houston for a wedding. Not much to report, except that Mike did serious damage at the Galleria mall while I was bridesmaiding. Houstonian Hotel (wedding site) had a superlative gym, and also a large elk mural in the lobby, in front of which I now have a lovely photo.

Then it was off to London for a weekend to visit friends. My third trip, Mike's first. Highlights were Borough Market, drinks at the Tate Modern, gastropubbing, Indian fast food, and trying to drink our wine from Italy so we didn't have to carry it home.

April was a wedding in Princeton which, despite the rain, had the requisite dose of nostalgia during the Chapel wedding. Followed shortly thereafter by a chicken parm from Hoagie Haven.

May kicked off with a fan-tastic birthday weekend in Paris. Highlights were undoubtedly dinner at Le Cinq and meeting our friends from London for a drink because we both happened to be in town. So chic.

It was back to NYC in June, thankfully stomach illness-free. New favorite bar from this trip: Pegu Club, 77 W. Houston.

To Boston for the 4th of July, with a lovely trip to the Harbor Islands. This was a new discovery for me, but what a great urban getaway. Take a little ferry ride from the harbor docks, end up on an island. Have a picnic. Walk around the docks. Ferry back for dinner in the North End, followed by watching the locals play bocce. Divine.

August was quiet (too much work for vacations), then off to Morocco by way of Gibraltar and Algeciras, Spain in early September.

September saw a trip with the Princeton ladies to our local Atlantic spot: Bethany Beach, where we spent a cozy weekend listening to the wind howl and the weather cleared in time for a beach walk on Sunday.

A lovely fall weekend in October in Nantucket found us a new fave restaurant: 29 Fair. Expensive, but worth it. And of course visited all the old favorites.

The rest of the fall was filled with work travel (Boston and Manchester, NH), plus the requisite holiday trips to Cleveland.

Closed the year out this past weekend with another weekend in Nantucket. Despite the distinct tragedy of the Downyflake having closed for the winter this year, we had some divinely cooked bay scallops and a lovely New Year's Eve at Cinco.