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Side Trip
Briefs and news of note for the traveler.
By Times staff and wires
Published April 8, 2007
EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY AT EPCOT FOOD & WINE FEST Noted chefs such as Cat Cora and Roy Yamaguchi and fancy cake creator Colette Peters will be among the food professionals taking part in the annual Epcot Food & Wine Festival, Sept. 28 through Nov. 11. Wine and beer tastings, cooking seminars, special dinners and other demonstrations will fill the schedule. Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, will sign books and take part in other activities during the opening weekend. Many events, especially wine dinners with noted chefs, sell out early. Some events are included in the park admission price. To get a schedule of events or purchase tickets, call (407) 939-3378 or go to www.disneyworld.com/foodandwine. Your own private ranger Park ranger Kent Taylor, director of the National Park Society, will guide weeklong tours to Yellowstone National Park, above, on Aug. 25; Canyon Country, Utah, on Oct. 5; the Canadian Rockies on Aug. 4; and the Black Hills of South Dakota on June 3. Taylor also guides private groups to national parks and world heritage sites in the United States and worldwide. These custom vacations are designed for special interest groups, friends, family reunions, couples and travelers with health or mobility concerns. To learn more, visit www.nationalparksociety. com or call the National Park Society toll-free at 1-800-578-1883. Online help for national sites A new Web site makes it easier to plan trips to federal recreation areas, from monuments and historic attractions to forests, parks and scenic byways. At www.recreation.gov, the public can view photos and information on thousands of places and activities. Use recreation.gov to make reservations and payments online for tours, camp sites and other accommodations. If you go to the Web site with something specific in mind - say a camp site at California's Yosemite National Park or a tour of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky - booking is fast and easy. But there is a lot of information for browsers. A handy map lets you click on a state and then dig deeper to find an area you might want to visit. Cruise ships okay crime pact The cruise industry has entered into a new formal but voluntary agreement with the FBI and the Coast Guard to report any serious crimes committed aboard cruises. According to the FBI, cruise ships are not required to report violations of U.S. law outside U.S. waters, 12 miles offshore, but under the new agreement they would do so immediately. A briefing prepared for the hearing by staff of the House Transportation Committee described current record-keeping on cruise ship crime as spotty. It noted that the FBI does not keep data on the total number of alleged crimes reported on cruise lines but only on cases for which it opens files - 50 to 60 a year. The FBI said that under its new agreement with cruise lines, it will keep track of all crime reports. Best beaches for families Florida beaches fared well in a recent survey on TripAdvisor.com. According to visitors to TripAdvisor, the best beaches for families in the United States are: - Nags Head Beach, the Outer Banks, N.C. - St. George Island State Park Beach - Glorietta Bay Beach, Coronado, Calif. - Bowman's Beach, Sanibel Island - Hilton Head Island Beach, S.C. - Indiana Dunes State Park Beach, Michigan City, Ind. - Bathtub Beach, Stuart - Stewart Beach, Galveston, Texas - Higbee Beach, Cape May, N.J. - Mayo Beach, Cape Cod, Mass. Compiled from Times staff, wires
[Last modified April 5, 2007, 12:31:04]
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