Travel Trails By Martin B. Deutsch for 1969

September 1: THE NO-HITCH, ALL-SMILES SERVICE IDEAL
How does a carrier, in this era of excessive union power and general employee indifference to product quality, motivate and maintain a consistent level of service excellence? How does a company faced with endless turnover (like, say, among stewardesses) dramatize to the people on its payroll the importance of maintaining a polite and pleasant façade for the public they serve?

August 1: PROTECTING HEARTH AND HOME WHEN YOU'RE AWAY
This is the time of the year that most families are on vacation or getting ready to go. Most of the existing guidebooks deal with where the traveler should go and what he should do and see, what he should wear and the best places to eat. What the vacation traveler--and the guidebooks--often ignore are the many requirements regarding the protection of his home and property while he is away.

July 1: ANTIGUA, THE TAHITI OF THE CARIBBEAN
If my stay at the Half Moon Bay Hotel is any indication, then Antigua in the Lesser Antilles has come a long way since a previous visit some four or five years ago. At that time, I recall that the roads were terrible, the hotel at which we stayed allowed us only an hour of water in the morning and evening, and I was impressed with neither the rooms nor the food. This time, things were quite different.

June 1: THE BIG ISLAND GETS BIG WITH TRAVELERS
Honolulu and Waikiki are still the big names, but the real scene in Hawaii these days is not on Oahu--it's on the Big Island of Hawaii. In addition to fantastic scenic beauty, Hawaii's largest island offers a virtual absence of commercialism and an exciting element of discovery.

May 1: GRAND BAHAMA FOR WORLD TRAVELERS
The conveniently located Grand Bahama--just a half-hour's flight from Florida--is a tourist playground. It offers numerous vacation possibilities--casinos, championship golf courses, game fishing, tennis and more--along with magnificent beaches and colorful tropical flora, for harried housewives, overworked businessmen, young singles and families.

April 1: THE MANY FACES OF SAN DIEGO
I get down to San Diego three or four times a year, usually by car from Los Angeles. It is a comfortable and gracious city, probably one of the most beautiful in the United States, amply endowed with a versatile roster of natural and man-made attractions, plenty of hotels and motels and trailer camps, splendid and moderately priced deep-sea fishing, a great deal of history and culture gracefully blended and a lot of other plus factors.

March 1: SWIMMING--AND TOURING--MY WAY THRU ISRAEL
I recently swam my way around Israel. Although it hardly qualifies as an island--at least, in a geographic sense--it does rest on some of the world's most interesting bodies of water, call them Biblical, strategic, renowned or historic. Anyhow, here's how I worked on my tan in Israel.

February 1: THE LINCOLN HERITAGE TRAIL
In the early years of the 19th century, Abe Lincoln's family migrated from Kentucky across Indiana into Illinois. Many of the places where the Lincolns settled, lived, married and left their permanent footprints in history have come down through the years virtually intact as national monuments. With summer vacation time coming up fast on the calendar, we'd like to recommend a two-week trek of your own, following the 1,000-mile Lincoln Heritage Trail through this appealing three-state area.

January 1: LAS VEGAS: ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
Horseman's Park, built against the advice of the many hotel experts that Mark Swain consulted, ranks as one of the Stardust Hotel's most unusual attractions. For years, Swain thought about a showplace arena which would attract horse and livestock enthusiasts from around the world. Stardust President Moe Dalitz bet his money on the idea. Success was immediate. Three months after opening, the Stardust had to triple the stall space.

Copyright © 1962-2008 by Martin B. Deutsch. All rights reserved.