Affordable Travel

Turkey is home to all sorts of people, and has been since the days preceding the Roman Empire. This great seat of the Ottoman Empire is home to people who are Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Italians, Iraqis, Moroccans - the list goes on and on, because the nation of Turkey has been a global crossroads for travelers, traders, explorers, and conquering nations for as long as we have recorded history of this great land.

Lately, Turkey has been caught in a sort of political no-man’s land, and its attempts to be accepted fully into the greater community of European countries have come close but never quite been successful. It has enjoyed a good relationship with the USA, but that friendship was strained when Turkey hesitated to back the USA’s premeditated invasion of Turkey’s neighboring Iraq. After intense negotiations, the nation denied the USA use of its land for massing troops and bomber planes, but later negotiated a compromise in exchange for cash payments and an opportunity to gain from trade agreements after the overthrow of the old Iraqi government.

And there has been a history of conflict between Christians and Muslims in the country of Turkey, where war has scarred the landscape for centuries. But Turkey, with its exotic destinations like Istanbul, remains one of the most interesting and attractive travel destinations. The people are regarded and some of the most open and friendly in the world, the culture is rich and diverse, the food is extraordinary, and for those who are practical and budget minded, a holiday in Turkey with all sorts of wonderful amenities can be had for a fraction of the cost of other popular - and less interesting or historically important destinations. Most professional travel agents who have seen the world will heartily recommend that if you have not experienced Turkey, you have no idea what you are missing.

San Diego, home of the Superbowl winning Chargers, the pennant winning Padres, and some of the best examples of southern California architecture in the USA is on the beautiful Pacific coastline, within a short and scenic drive from Mexico. San Diego has been famous for its zoo for generations, and it is still home to a rare collection of wild and wonderful creatures and is a sure-fire way to please your kids if you are looking for an easy family outing. The city of San Diego is tropical, and the special look of the city, known for its colorful stucco buildings with tile rooftops and wonderful gardens, has spawned a whole style of decorative interior design and outdoor landscaping known as “San Diego style”. The town is part USA urban center, with towering and glittery skyscrapers and major computer industry giants, a substantial port, and plenty of opportunities for shopping or entrepreneurial businesses.  But it is also - as its Spanish name suggests - a gateway to the south, and is a bastion of much south-of-the-border Mexican culture. Beautiful parks, interesting museums, plenty of amusements for people of all ages, and a bustling international airport make San Diego a very attractive tourist destination, and the climate is mild enough that you can enjoy everything the city has to offer, during every month of the year. Even in winter, the beaches are pleasant for strolling, and there are diehard surfers who take advantage of the rolling waves even on the coldest days in February.

Florida’s south beach was not so popular in the 70s and 80s, but now it has become one of the most popular beaches in the country, and is ritzy and expensive, attracting the kind of people that would normally be found on the luxurious beaches of Club Med or Monte Carlo. The fabulously wealthy live here in high priced condos and beach houses, while throngs of ordinary tourists swarm to not only enjoy the water and the beach, but to scope out the beautiful people who can afford to live here all year round or own hideaways that they might use for annual holidays. People speaking all sorts of different languages frequent the trendy bars, restaurants, and hotspot nightclubs of South Beach. There is even a diet named for this place, and the assumption of most readers is that if you can go on a diet and end up looking like some of the supermodels who hang out on South Beach - which allows topless bathing, another magnet for sightseers - then the diet must be an incredible one. If you visit Miami and want to get a taste of the exotic, take a ride down to South Beach and stroll around. It is not like being in the USA, but is more like being in some cosmopolitan world city where the super rich and famous people of the world - the Paris Hiltons of the jet set scene - come to play and frolic while spending obscene amounts of money. But it can be a fun place for even the ordinary tourist on a small budget, just because it affords such glamorous people watching possibilities, great restaurants and bars, and of course a beautiful beach for swimming and sunning.

Off the map and out of the way of most tourist-oriented tours is one of the more historically significant spots in the whole of North Carolina, at the John A. Baptist church property in the Kenilworth neighborhood of Asheville. Behind this small and simple wooden church built in the mid 1800s is a small tract of land of about 4 acres, where in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, slaves, Indians, and other poor and disenfranchised persons were buried in the so called “slave cemetery” of south Asheville. But the burial ground, where people who were so poor that their families could not afford to bury them in standard caskets or with tombstone markers, does not look like others you may be familiar with and can be easy to miss. Disguised as it is in the wooded area, it can be altogether overlooked unless you realize that when these people died their resting places were only marked by a planted tree or a placed natural rock. Now, more than 100 years since the cemetery was at its peak of usage, the ground is swollen with heaved clay from the shifting earth, and the former field is now a wooded area of pines and oaks. Here and there a tombstone can be found, but most of the markers of graves have become the trees that are now mature and form the woods where the cemetery lies. Perhaps someday, with enough attention from the interested public, the place will finally be declared a protected historical site by the local and state governments.

In Southern India the ancient temple of Jagganath Puri is visited by literally millions of people per day during holy seasons, and throughout the rest of the year it is home to thousands of daily worshippers who flock into the pyramid-like tall granite building - said by some devotees to be millions of years old - to observe the rituals of incense burning and serving of opulent offerings of food to the wooden Jagganath deity on the altar. The temple priests are born into their role, and generation after generation of such Brahmin priests have maintained the high religious standards for rituals, cleanliness, and festival observances at the monumental holy site.

The city of Puri is popular not just because it is the site of this famous Hindu temple, however. The city is on one of the rare beaches in that part of India, and many people visit Puri not just for religious reasons, but for summer fun. The waves on the Puri beach are fun for body surfing, the sandy beaches are nice for long strolls, and the weather is hot, but the coastal breezes make it much more tolerable than the scorching heat of other parts of India. Many people combine their pilgrimage to the holy sites around Puri with a family vacation, renting rooms in nearby hotels or guesthouses, so that they can spend a weekend or more in and around Puri. Sweet shops, souvenir shops, and restaurants are abundant in the town, so no matter what your motivation for visiting Puri, you should be able to enjoy yourself and find plenty to do to entertain yourself.

Aristotle Onassis, the oil-shipping tycoon, often took vacation trips to Monte Carlo in the 1950s while living in Southern France, and the “celebrity spotters” and reporters took notice. Undoubtedly he recalled the glittering city on the rock, from the day when he first saw it from the railing of the crowded ship that took him to Buenos Aires. But Monte Carlo in the early 1950s was a rather dull place, a shadow of its former legendary self. Gone were the times of Diaghilev, Pavlova, and Nijinsky. And the empire of the Prince of Monaco himself was in decline. Aristotle’s mind began to calculate a way to resurrect his business, and soon he figured out that if he invested $30 million in a new port to accommodate ocean liners, the town of Monte Carlo could attract at least 2000 visitors per day. He also felt that an office in Monte Carlo could be much better for his employees than the cramped and inadequate workspace in Paris. The Societe des Bains de Mer or SBM, controlled most of the real estate in Monaco. Thanks to his investments and plans, the city gradually regained its status as a fashionable destination, and the Onassis family became the hottest daily subject for all the European tabloids. Early in life he had fantasized about owning his own private island. He realized his dream in 1963, when he purchased Scorpios, a lush 500-acre tract. The island hideaway in the shape of a Scorpion was covered with cypress, olive, fig, walnut and almond trees, and helped him to easily forget about his previous life in Monaco, although the way he improved Monaco has helped it create memories for visitors to that elegant city for decades ever since.

Walt Disney started out as a cartoon artist and as his cartoons grew, so did the advances in technology. Soon animated pictures were the newest way to project cartoons, and his characters came to life in movies and on television. Before his death, Disney had become as household name around the world, and the empire that he left behind is now a media conglomerate worth billions of dollars, with extensive properties and gigantic mega amusement parks located in various parts of the world. The two best know locations are in California and Florida. In Orlando, Florida, the Disney company has so much of a presence that it nearly owns that whole part of the state, and its considerable influence is felt throughout the political machinery of Florida, where the company enjoys unprecedented tax incentives and favors from the government which makes hundreds of millions of dollars of tourism dollars from the Disney owned attractions. If you visit Orlando, you can stay in a Disney themed hotel and then spend days on end exploring the Disney theme park, along with Epcot, a supernatural science and entertainment center opened to the public. Prices are relatively inexpensive to enter the Disney grounds, but you can expect to pay lots of dollars here and there for such things as snacks, rides, and souvenirs. Although hundreds of different package options are offered, they all focus upon kids who visit Disney World having the time of their lives while mixing it up with such characters as Mickey, Minnie, and Donald Duck.

If you want to visit the birth of American punk rock, go to the CBGB club at 315 Bowery Street, where such bands as the Ramones and Blondie got their start on the stage of what was once a rather dingy, seedy, and unknown little club. Punk poet Patti Smith, the rocking band Television, and groups including the Sex Pistols and New York Dolls were all regulars at the influential little hole in the wall. Now CBGBs attracts people from all over the world, not only for its high historical value but to pack the house for cutting edge bands that are still the bread and butter of the club. Back in the 70s and early 80s, the entire downtown of NYC was rather neglected, and as Joey Ramone once pointed out, those who went into NYC pretty much had the whole place to themselves because nobody else wanted to be there. Things have changed, and now any real estate even remotely near the city is sky high in price. Similarly, the old neighborhood of CBGBs club has “come up” a bit, and nearby tenants have begun to complain about the club’s noise and crowds. The landlord for the club has raised rent to keep up with the current real estate boom, and after the owner of CBGBs missed about $100,000 worth of rent payments, they ended up in high profile court case that caught the attention of music historians from around the world. For the time being the club is able to say open and continue its nightly music shows, but in the near future it may be forced to close down if the owner is not able to make the rent payments.

If you visit the farmlands of Pennsylvania, known for prize winning dairy cattle and rolling landscapes, you will eventually encounter the Amish people who were among the first to settle this part of the USA, and have been the last to change their original methods of living. Although around them the land prices have gone up, technology has changed the way the agricultural business is done, and the centuries have passed, the Amish people themselves have stuck to their roots and their old, religious lifestyle. They are one of the most self-sufficient communities on earth, and are skilled crafts people and excellent farmers. They generally avoid using electricity or motorized machines, instead doing their chores with hand tools and traveling by horse and buggy. Some of the old school carpenters still use block and tackle weights and drawing knives, instead of modern power tools, and the Amish not only grow the animals and crops they use to make their yarn and thread, but they also make their own clothing. You can visit their farms, buy fresh produce, home made cheeses and other dairy products, furniture that is hand made, and add books about Amish arts and crafts to your library, while touring the Amish countryside of Pennsylvania. Along the way you will enjoy viewing the state’s old covered bridges, tasting the hard pretzels that have long been a staple of Pennsylvania, and you can stay in one of the many old inns that dot the rural countryside.

Austin, Texas is the state capitol and has long been a “cool” town and a popular tourist destination. In the 1970s it was one of the most progressive towns in Texas, thanks in part to the local university and a hip and liberal college population. Then during the 80s the town grew into a rather robust little city, and as the population increased, so did the cost of living. But Austin still attracted people from all over the USA who came there to enjoy its great music scene, California-style social life, independent arts theatre, and proximity to natural wonders like the local swimming hole fed by a deep underground spring. As the university invested more and more money to expand its enrollment and popularity, the state government also grew, thanks to strong connections to politicians in Washington DC, including sitting presidents. Then during the 1990s, as a high tech sector moved to town and offered more jobs and an expanded business environment, so did the music industry. The popular television show “Austin City Limits” captured many of the local artists for the whole country to see, and eventually music moguls who found California too expensive relocated their studios to Austin. Now it is regarded as the “other Nashville” and provides the middle part of the USA with the most powerful music industry presence, competing head to head with the music markets of New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. Because of these developments, the city’s popular nightclubs are packed on weekends and showcase some of the best talent in the nation.