Breitling, the Swiss watch company that has taken heat for using scantily-clad women in advertisements and store displays, announced over the weekend that the practice will end. The company’s new chief executive, Georges Kern, told the German newspaper SonntagsZeitung that those themes are “no longer suitable and do not reflect values of today’s society.” Kern, whose college degree was in political science, knows the direction the wind is blowing. It was just one year ago at a Breitling store party in Manhattan that the company arranged for models to be in attendance, posing as pilots in caps, epaulets and stiletto heels but notably missing their pants. The year before, astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly and… Read More…

Let’s face it, travel is disruptive, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Whether it’s an interruption in sleep schedule, exercise program or family time, there’s a gadget, app or destination that tackles the issue head on. That’s something to keep in mind if a frequent traveler is on your holiday shopping list. Sound Oasis sleep mask Forget the raccoon-disguise that mashes your eyelashes against your lids and slides sideways in any position other than lying flat. Sound Oasis, makes a variety of sleep masks that do more than help you sleep in uncomfortable settings like planes and buses. Their products are billed as sleep… Read More…

The holidays mean different things to different people but north or south, east or west, this is the season for gifts and travel. Below some products I sampled and tips I collected wandering the globe this year. It is my gift and my pleasure to share them with you. Where you stay When I travel, I often stay with locals by booking myself into someone’s home through Airbnb. When I learned about its Dublin-based competitor, Homestay, this summer I decided to give it a try on my Eurail trip through Eastern Europe. With both companies you are booking yourself into someone’s private home. Due to… Read More…

Checked bag fees provide $25 worth of reasons to pack light. If you can carry onto the airplane all you’ll need for your next trip, you’ll not only save money, you’ll be assured the bag will arrive when you do. A new study from the aviation technology company, SITA shows that six and a half of every 1,000 checked bags fail to arrive at their proper destination so the odds are with us. Still, on my last few trips, I squandered more than an hour waiting for my stuff at the claim carousel. Either of the suitcases I carried with me, one on a trip to Italy, the other… Read More…

Pop singer Meghan Trainor’s momma may have told her “not to worry about your size” as she sings in her adorable hit, All About That Bass, but when it comes to your travel suitcase, size and weight definitely do matter. Airline bag fees and tougher security at transportation hubs are the two most obvious reasons to pack light. But there are other incentives. To experience a destination like a local means getting out of the cab and onto the bus, bike or sidewalk and who wants to haul a heavy bag up the steps of the subway or down the cobblestone streets? So if you wanna… Read More…

When I travel I am often on my own so compact is best, especially since my Lenovo laptop and assorted techie accouterments alone need one entire (albeit small) backpack. So I was delighted to find that the portable, lightweight travel clothes washing machine sent to me by The Scrubba Wash Bag worked as billed. This product gets a free ride in my suitcase and starting position in my latest wrap-up of travel products for the aviation crowd. World’s First Packable Washing Machine The secret to packing spare is wearing things multiple times which means hand-washing, a manicure-wrecking, floor-soaking experience that I frankly don’t like. The Scrubba… Read More…

When my kids were little we used to take them to Eastover Estate  & Retreat in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts. Ignore the fancy-pants name, this was a home-spun, teeny-bit threadbare mom & pop resort – a place where three meals a day were served in the enormous dining hall, next to which was a equally enormous community space with fire place, game tables and 24/7 hot chocolate. We all loved the place because it was like going to camp. Heck, we could do the same activities at home but throwing darts and dancing to Top 40 tunes in the resort’s wood-paneled rec room was… Read More…

NUFOOT TRAVEL SLIPPERS I have been known to drink the water where I should not, and go out alone when I should not, but there is one travel precaution I always heed; don’t go barefoot.  For me, this is easy advice to follow, I simply don’t like walking around without something on my feet. So as I explained in an earlier post, no matter how light I pack, I always include a pair of travel slippers. So how could I say “no” when Nufoot offered to send a pair of neoprene sock/shoes for me to try? Grant Landis, the company PR guy described them as offering the “stability of walking… Read More…

I can’t believe it was just one year ago that my internet-savvy daughter, Marian Schembari told me about Airbnb. I was visiting her in New Zealand headed to the United Arab Emirates  and – as is my wont – had not yet booked a hotel in Abu Dhabi.  “Why didn’t I check Airbnb?” she asked, and I had to confess, I’d never heard of it. Simply, Airbnb is a web-based marketplace for people to rent overnight accommodations to travelers. These can be as modest as a bed in a shared room or as grand as an entire house. In additional to these conventional places, people… Read More…

My latest story in The New York Times Travel section straddles the line; is it about travel or about health? Travel is exciting. Health? Not so much. I’m bored by conversations about sickness and maladies, but even the heartiest traveler will sooner or later encounter a problem requiring some kind of medical treatment. The good news is that it doesn’t have to mean consulting with someone in a white lab coat or being subjected to a stethoscope. There is a whole menu of foods and spices that can do double duty treating travel-related medical issues. Last year, Debbie Marshall, editor of silvertraveladvisor.com, a website for… Read More…