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Side trips: Hertz offers Nickelodeon with rentals
By Times wires
Published December 23, 2007
If you're renting a car from Hertz, you can also rent a media player packed with programming from Nickelodeon to entertain the kids. The cost is $17 a day, and if you rent for five days, you get days six and seven free.
Hertz began offering the media player, called "Nick on the Go," on Dec. 15 at airports including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago (O'Hare), Dallas/Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle and Tampa. Hertz plans to add 25 more locations in 2008.
"Nick on the Go" is loaded with more than 40 hours of episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer and others.
Reserve by calling toll-free 1-800-654-3131.
Hotel prices headed up
Be prepared to pay more for a hotel room next year, according to the annual lodging industry report from PricewaterhouseCoopers' Hospitality & Leisure Practice.
Hotel rates increased 7.5 percent in 2006, and are likely to finish 2007 with a 5.7 percent increase. For 2008, the price of a hotel room is forecast to go up another 5.6 percent.
Cambodian game park studied
The Cambodian government is studying a Spanish company's proposal to convert a tract of jungle in the country's wild northeast into a game hunting park for big-spending tourists.
The Madrid-based NSOK Safaris company wants to use 247,100 acres in Rattanakiri province, which is home to an abundance of wildlife, including several endangered species, as well as several indigenous tribal minorities. The province is about 200 miles from the capital Phnom Penh.
About 30 types of animals - including deer, pigs and wild boar as well as reptiles and birds - could be put up for hunting, but shooting tigers would not be allowed.
Chris Greenwood, a spokesman from the World Wildlife Fund in Cambodia, called on the government to release more information about the plan. "Anything that threatens the survival of already endangered species is not a good thing for conservation in Cambodia," he said.
Crime hurting tourism in NOLA
The cold hard fact of a crime wave is creating headaches for tourism officials in New Orleans.
Just more than half of respondents to a University of New Orleans poll released Dec. 10 rated the city a 1, 2 or 3 in crime on a scale of 10, with 1 being "the worst city in the U.S." The poll of 775 people gauged the impressions of Americans outside Louisiana. Its margin of error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
So far in 2007, New Orleans has had at least 200 murders, nearly 40 more than all of 2006.
And in an alarming note, roughly one-third of respondents to the UNO poll said they were "extremely unlikely" to visit the city for "business or pleasure" in the next two years.
An estimated 6-million people are expected to visit by the time the year ends. That would be up from 3.8-million in 2006 but far short of the 10-million who visited in 2004, a record year.
No smoking at Oktoberfest
The German state of Bavaria has approved the country's toughest smoking restrictions, passing legislation that should see Munich's famed Oktoberfest go smoke-free.
Bavaria will not allow for special rooms to be set aside for smokers at restaurants, and also will not exempt beer tents, including those at the Oktoberfest, Munich's annual celebration of the national brew. Only private functions will be exempted.
Traveling by the book
It is not too late to buy a travel book as a Christmas gift. Here are some possibilities:
- National Geographic Journeys of Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips ($40, National Geographic). Stellar photography, practical how-twos and smart tips for trips by water, road, foot, rail and more.
- Reaching Climax and Other Towns Along The American Highway by Gary Gladstone ($19.95, Ten Speed Press). Portraits of oddly named towns on the roads less traveled, including the Florida burgs of Panacea, Two Egg and Yeehaw.
- Adventures with Purpose: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Earth by Richard Bangs ($16.95, Menasha Ridge). Tales from one of America's best-known adventurers.
- The Best American Travel Writing 2007 edited by Susan Orlean ($14, Houghton Mifflin). This year's edition includes tales by Ann Patchett and David Halberstam.
- American Casino Guide 2008 by Steve Bourie ($16.95, Casino Vacations Press). Tips on the games and where to play them by a Broward author.
[Last modified December 19, 2007, 18:12:48]
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