Maskless travel and secluded luxury for less

Good morning and happy hump day! The big news of the week, of course, is the federal judge's ruling that threw out the long-standing mask mandate for airplanes and public transportation.

While there were reports of people stripping their's off mid-flight when the ruling was announced, we're still a bit shy about going maskless. And it appears we're not alone.

Yesterday, we flew from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, and noticed about 80% of passengers at DCA were masked. On board the flight, about 90% of the passengers kept their faces covered. And the flight attendant joked that she kept wanting to tell the few people who weren't masked to put them on. Old habits are hard to break! Joining the minority of maskless passengers was one of the pilots.

No matter where you stand on masks, we're hoping that this at least eases some of the air rage blamed on masking disputes. Although as this Tweet from Monday indicates, the tension isn't likely to disappear.

Happy travels!

Here's a few other headlines before we dig in:

• If you're hoping to do a vacation rental this summer in Honolulu, you might need a back-up plan. The City Council last week banned rentals outside of the resort areas of Waikiki, Ko Olina and Turtle Bay for shorter than 90 days, according to Hawaii News Now.

• Apparently, there’s something to be said for keeping borders open with no vaccine or testing requirements the past two years. The latest data from the Airports Council International shows Cancún International Airport (CUN) had over 13.2 million international passengers last year, making it the 10th busiest airport worldwide. That’s a  huge leap from 2019, when Cancún ranked 61 overall. So, how has this Mexican airport become one of the world's busiest airports? SimpleFlying.com explains. 

You’ve probably realized already that we love Mexico and are grateful to be plugged into what’s worth seeing and doing there. That’s why this week we wanted to share a few reasons you might want to consider a boutique property near Mérida that’s now part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection chain.

The Hacienda Temozon has just 28 rooms, including a presidential suite that used to be the owner’s bedroom. Why we think it’s worth consideration:

• Our industry friends raved about it – And (shhhh, it’s a secret) travel industry people tend to be far more critical about experiences, service, operations and other details than consumers.

• Off the tourist trail – Don’t expect hoards of people, like Cancun. 

• Instagram-ready setting – Between its vivid red exterior, ornate archways and garden-filled grounds and sparkling blue pools, it’s hard to take a bad picture here. (And, let’s be honest, a lot of people want that these days.)

• Convenient for sightseeing – For those of us who love exploring, the hacienda’s close to remote delights such as Cenote Yaal Utzil, another perfect Instagram brag site with its intense blue water and tree roots hanging down like ivy. 

• Luxury for less – We checked prices for a long weekend stay in early May and found rates starting at $183 a night. At that price, we could enjoy a Mayan spa treatment set inside the property’s cenote and spacious rooms with high ceilings and Spanish tiles.

If you’re a loyal reader of reviews, you’ll find that almost all of the hotel’s verified reviews on its website raved about it. The outlier: a one-star review from three months ago in which the guest complained about the pool being not being heated and having difficulty finding the property using Waze. We don’t tend to pay attention to these sorts of reviewers. 

OTAs are just soooo 2000

Last week we told you about Uber making moves into travel’s super app space, testing an expanded platform that would let users book every step of their trip, from that airport run to trains, hotels and flights, right on the app.

Intriguing, yes. But there’s also another new travel app, called Origin,  that caught our eye. This one goes way beyond the booking functions of traditional online travel agencies by merging human travel experts with artificial intelligence to give the full service of a travel advisor 24/7 right from your phone or computer.

It’s not free, but for frequent travelers looking to book multiple trips with complex itineraries, it may well be worth the price. 

We took it for a quick test and were impressed.

How does it work? Just load the app and answer a few questions about your travel style such as where you want to go, what types of things you want to experience (food, adventure, relaxing in the sun, historic sites, wellness,) your budget, how many hours of activities you'd like per day, what type of accommodations you want (private villa, all inclusive, five-star or boutique hotel) and how often you want to move around during your trip. And the final question: whether you prefer to connect with your travel curator on the phone or via chat on the app.

What we loved about the Origin app: For our test run, we opted for the chat function. The trip curator was responsive, and we were then able to respond to her whenever was convenient. No shuffling calendars for phone calls.

How we conducted our test: We plugged in a trip request for Ecuador, using the same parameters of a trip we did last fall - so we knew what to expect. We were pleased with both the recommendations and the in-depth knowledge that the curator conveyed during our follow-up questions. 

In Quito, she recommended a boutique hotel that we happen to love -- Casa Gangotena, which is in a renovated 16th Century mansion right on the plaza in the heart of Old Town. The other recommendations for the Galapagos and a rainforest adventure were ones we hadn’t heard of, but they were certainly intriguing. And when we followed up for more information, she came back quickly with very knowledgeable comparisons.

For instance, when we were in Ecuador, we went to fabulous private eco-lodge, Mashpi, in the rainforest just a few hours from Quito. Our Origin curator recommended Sacha Lodge. It’s a bit more of a trip, but looks well worth it. You fly from Quito to Coca, then travel via “scenic canoe trip down the Napo River to the Sacha Reserve." She also suggested two different high-end properties in the Galapagos, neither on a beach. And since  we knew that the Finch Bay Hotel on Santa Cruz Island is the only one on that island with a beach, we asked for beach options. She came right back with that one, and one more we had never heard of, Iguana Crossing, on Isabela Island.

Other pluses:

• It’s convenient. Besides the AI-assisted personalization and expert travel curators who are based around the world and assigned to assist based on their on-the-ground insight, we love that all the communication is in one place, and easy to find. All the chats are saved, as well as trip previews with links to the different properties and well-crafted summaries of the destinations and different options.

• Inspiration. There’s plenty to get your travel dreams going with fabulous photos, destination summaries and links to featured trips, sample itineraries and highlights of what’s popular right now.

• Covid-19 updates: There’s even a place to check the latest Covid-19 rules and plug in your own preferences and comfort level with different country restrictions, or lack thereof.

The downside: The cost. But hey, we’re big believers in you get what you pay for. The planning fee for non-members is $400 a trip, which is a bit more than you might expect to pay a traditional travel advisor. But if you travel a lot, the annual fee of $3,000 provides unlimited, 24/7 trip planning and assistance.

No, it’s not for everybody. But for people who travel a lot and want highly personalized service on their own time, we give it a thumbs up!

Business travel bouncing back?

Do you miss traveling for work? Then you might want to dust off that suitcase.

New signs indicate that business travel's finally coming back to life.

American Express Global Business Travel and TripActions both report a significant uptick in business travel bookings in recent weeks, according to Business Travel News. 

And when we listened to Delta Air Lines earnings call last week, we heard Delta CEO Ed Bastian tell Wall Street analysts and journalists that business travel volumes “reached the highest post-pandemic levels we've seen."

Also, Delta President Glen Hauenstein cited a survey of business travelers that showed 90% of respondents expect to travel more in April, May and June than they did in the first quarter. And the numbers could soar even faster as more countries reopen, he said. 

Other key takeaways from Hauenstein:

• Delta has seen “very rapid increases” in business demand to South Korea and Australia since they reopened. 

• The big question, he said, is when will Japan and China reopen? “And that's probably not in this next quarter and hopefully sometime this fall, but that's a little bit further out. What I would say is when these countries are open, business returns quickly."

• People's reasons for traveling for business are slightly different. “And this is more anecdotally … (but) we  are seeing an increase in meetings, an increase in groups,”  rather than individual business trips.

And finally, you think U.S. airports are bad …. 

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a master ranking of airports by stress level? Yes, but it’s impossible for many reasons, given flight time peaks and valleys, a flight’s on-time performance, security staffing levels, peoples’ varying mobility levels and an individual’s own definition of stress.

But that didn’t stop a PR firm from analyzing Tweets and issuing exactly such a list for Europe, creating a wave of bad press – especially for Dublin Airport. The Irish Examiner and other outlets declared DAA Europe’s “second-most stressful” airport, following London’s Heathrow Airport. Airport officials quickly apologized, acknowledging that recent lines were a sign that “we have let our customers and ourselves down in recent weeks.”

Yes, there’s some grain of truth to the PR stunt. At the No. 3-most-stressful ranked Manchester Airport, a top official recently resigned after passengers missed flights due to long lines, the Examiner said.

Say hello. Pitch your story. Make a wisecrack. Ask us a travel question. Travel Editor co-founders Jeri and Barbara love travel and love connecting with want to hear from you, whether you're a discerning traveler seeking your next adventure, a travel tech startup founder, an aspiring road warrior, a visionary industry exec or a Friend of Travel Essential! Email us at [email protected]!