travel

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges travelers to see its travelers' health Web site wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/ ahead of time to learn about any disease risks and health recommendations for areas they plan to visit. Among its recommendations:
-- See a doctor familiar with travel medicine at least four to six weeks before you leave to answer your questions.

It was 2 p.m. on a recent Thursday outside of one of Pittsburgh's busiest business hotels, and the cabs parked there hadn't had a customer in the last hour and 20 minutes.
Charles Chuckee knew exactly how long it had been because that was how long he had been sitting in his cab waiting for a fare. The guy in the cab in front of him had given up and driven away.

Too often vacations are so full of activity that there's no time for relaxation. So on a recent visit to Boston, a city where I tend to pack in too much, I combined my sightseeing with lolling away the hours in some of the city's best cocktail bars.

Many people who vacation in Vegas find their fun under a roof, be it gambling in the casino, watching one of the town's headliner shows or shopping in one of Sin City's fabulous malls.

Tight corporate-travel budgets have thinned the ranks of road warriors. But for those still toiling in airports and rented rooms, the rewards are getting richer.

Don't let an economic downturn stop you from traveling. By renting houses, shopping around for deals and staying just outside the big cities, travelers can explore the world on a budget.
And staying outside urban centers will connect you with the local people and their culture.

While on the job, Joe Tomaro gets from point A to point B in a stainless-steel vehicle that is 74 years old, 27 feet long, weighs more than 5,000 pounds and manages only about 8 miles per gallon.
Oh, and it looks like a spacecraft.
"It definitely gets people's attention," Tomaro said.

Under gray skies, ethereal clouds cling to green mountainsides beneath their peaks. Whitecaps foam on the surface of the Columbia River. It's the kind of early March day that Edward Cullen might enjoy.

Even if "Twilight" means nothing to you beyond the time of day the sun dips over the horizon, there's plenty to recommend about the Columbia River Gorge, a breathtaking National Scenic Area east of Portland, Ore., that stretches for 80 miles from Troutdale in the west to The Dalles in the east.

If you liked the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films ...
If you have a jones for Blackbeard ...
If you've heard North Carolina has been working since 1996 in the Beaufort Inlet to excavate the Queen Anne's Revenge, thought to be Blackbeard's famous flagship...
If you've been reading about the exploits of modern pirates in Somalia ...