Tips

Luxe Guides Serve as Members of the Wedding

Are you taking your upcoming wedding on the road? Perhaps you are staying put — but having lots of guests travel to your nuptials. Either way, you may want to give your guests a souvenir Luxe guide for the city in which you wed. (Currently, the company publishes guides to 36 cities— romantic spots all. The concise, pocket-sized. authoritative, attractive guides give info about bars, spas, shopping, dining , arts, etcetera, etcetera. Furthermore, you can have Luxe make you a custom edition that includes your wedding day vital stats on a custom-designed paper sleeve. For more information, click here.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM ON $10,000 A DAY The Astrology of Travel If you're planning to run away and play, it's exciting to bring along a friend. You never know whether you will still be speaking when the trip is over, but this only adds to the fun. In selecting an earthling to travel with, remember that any of these people could be your companions. [morSignsontheRoad.htme] 

Here's to Your Health:Hot Tips for Happy Hypochondriacs
We Love British Airways Travel Clinics and  MASTA

I always get my jabs in London. Where else can you just waltz in and be presented with a menu 
For the longest time, the British Airways Travel Clinic was a trusty resource.  It was located at the  British Airways Travel  Shop  at 213 Picaadilly. Visiting that place always gave a shot in the arm. When the carrier closed its shop in late 2006, it closed its clinic.
          But, in a most responsible move, British Airways transferred its travel clinic business to  MASTA (Medical Advisory Services for Travelers Abroad) which has facilities all over the UK. The London site is located near  Oxford Circus at 52 Margaret Street London W1W 8SQ Tel: 0845 600 2236

Some  immunizations available:

• Polio
• Polio Inactivated (for those with weakened immune systems)
• Tetanus
• Typhoid
• Typhoid Oral (3 course dose)
• Yellow Fever
• Typhoid and Hepatitis A combined
• Hepatitis A
• Junior Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Hepatitis A & B combined
• Meningitis A & C
• Meningitis ACWY
• Rabies IM
• Japanese Encephalitis
• Diphtheria
• Diphtheria and Tetanus combined
• Tick Borne Encephalitis
  Influenza
• TB Test
• TB (BCG)

I don't know if they're still offering Bubonic Plague jabs. You'd have to ask. Prices are good, service is quick and comprehensive.
Also on offer is medical travel advice and consultation services for the areas you intend to visit, blood tests, malaria treatment kits, and everything you can imagine and more.

213 Piccadilly.
London W.1.J 9HQ
nearest tube: Piccadilly Circus)

 101 Cheapside
London EC2V 6DT
(nearest tubes: Mansion House, Bank, or St. Paul's):

Find Out Before You Go...and Doctors on the Road

How can you learn about worldwide health risks, protective immunization, and where to turn when a medical problem arises?
    IAMAT --  a non-profit membership organization. Since its founding in 1960, it has been a world leader in advising travellers of health risks, geographical distribution of diseases, immunization requirements and sanitary conditions of water, milk and food, and environmental and climatic conditions around the globe.
      The IAMAT directory of physicians directs members to participating physicians, specialists, clinics and hospitals in 125 countries. Access by clicking here
Centers For Disease Control
      Contact this Atlanta-based government organization for current information on disease and health risks in every country. Call 404-332-4559 or click here.
State Department Overseas Citizens' Emergency Center
Washington, D.C.
     Contact them for current safety and political advisories for every country. It's a bit, ah, official-looking, so brace yourself before you click here.
voice tel. 202-647-5225
modem tel. 202-647-9225
fax tel. 202-647-3000 

Books: Not Your stockbroker's Vacation

A quirky encyclopedia of ways to do good and feel good, 700 Places . . .is more than a compendium of lists and global resources; it helps the hopeful, bewildered traveler find out how to save the world in ways tailored to his or her own temperament.  
Too huge and too valuable to lug around, this delightful, 500-page doorstopper makes a stunning gift. Start with you, then look around you; 700 Places . . will do more than awake any jaded traveler or surprise and shift your slug-like coach potato friends into action.  It sets merry fires crackling in brains and souls yearning for adventure, romance, and yes, the meaning in life. It's pure logotherapy.
Nora Lee Kelsey's book first addresses the central question: how to think about what to do and how to do it.  How does one choose the right volunteer project?  Should one pay for the privilege of volunteering? (The answer is often, surprisingly, yes - especially if you want a shower.)
Opportunities to do one's duty or as the Buddhists have it, 'to alleviate the suffering of all sentient beings' range from building villages in Africa to laugh-out-loud but still tender, small-scale projects, like the $30 a day Sloth Sanctuary in Aviarios, Costa Rica.
The author writes, “This unique animal rescue center cares for over 100 endangered sloths and the numbers continue to increase. Many are orphans...Sometimes babies fall from a tree and their mothers are too simply too afraid to descend to the ground to retrieve them because of their natural fear of predators, humans, and dogs....Adult sloths arrive with life-threatening injuries from power lines, encounters with cars, dogs, even cruel humans. Baby sloths are quite delicate...” Check it out at http://www.slothsanctuary.com/  and to check out the book, go to Amazon.
Give it to a kid, give it to your recently-retired Gran, give it to yourself...and to hell with that spa in Davos.