Zora O'Neill's Blog

Just because everyone should know, and I’m never sure who stumbles across this domain: All Strangers Are Kin is out in paperback March 7. Available at fine bookstores everywhere.

All further book details are over at www.allstrangersarekin.com.

And my personal site is www.zoraoneill.com.

And, because I still like writing small things from time to time, I also have a newsletter.

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I'm pleased to say an essay I wrote for Travel & Leisure about cooking with Syrian refugees in Greece is included in the new edition of Best Women's Travel Writing.

The book comes out in May, but the editor is running a giveaway now! Enter here:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...

No, really, this is the last post ever! As most of you know, my book All Strangers Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World is coming June 14, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Throw me your email address, and I’ll deliver you a handful of essential, entertaining bulletins about the book and events surrounding it. (You can bet there’ll be some really good food.)

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Habibi, tell me all about ALL STRANGERS ARE KIN

Email Address

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From the now-defunct Black Hole in Los Alamos, NMI wrote on this blog pretty steadily from January 2004 to early 2015, and then it started a slow (but graceful!) decline until it was finally put to bed in February 2016.

A few ways to explore:

Scroll back to see the last two posts, my collected wisdom on renting cars and booking flights, after 15 years of travel writing.
The very first post (this became a chapter in Forking Fantastic!)
All posts about the travails of a guidebook author
A very important post about vintage hotels, and another about motels
All posts about cooking from Robert Farrar Capon’s wonderful book The Supper of the Lamb
My series of counterintuitive travel tips and reasons travel is better when you’re older
All posts about Queens, and NYC in general
All posts about New Mexico
All posts about Thailand
All posts about Mexico (including a multimedia extravaganza!)
Assorted posts about the Middle East and greater Mediterranean: Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, Greece, the UAE, and even Qatar

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Hell on wheels, Malta-styleAs I said two weeks ago, I’m shutting down this blog. This is my last post ever! Thanks for reading, lo these 12 long years.

———————————

As a guidebook author, I have rented a crazy amount of cars, in lots of different countries. Two of my most popular posts ever were about renting cars in Mexico.

I’m sure I still don’t know everything. But here are the basics for anyone looking to get a better deal.

1. You probably don’t need to buy extra insurance…except when you do.

You’ll get pressure to buy it. But if you’re renting with a decent US-issued credit card, one of its perks is probably rental-car collision insurance (covering the damage you might do to the car). Most MasterCards come with 14 days’ coverage; Visas usually offer 30.

But don’t take my word for it! Definitely check your card’s terms before your trip. Also ask whether the coverage is primary (you can claim on it first) or secondary (you’d have to first claim with your personal car insurance, if you have it).

As for the other key insurance, liability insurance (what you might do to other cars/people while driving): that is usually provided by the car company at no extra charge. It’s required in most states, but in the ones where it isn’t (California is the biggie), your own personal car insurance will probably cover you. (Again, check before your trip.) If you don’t own a car, alas, you do have to buy liability insurance in the states it’s required.

Most other countries also require rental companies to pay for liability insurance, but there are exceptions–such as Mexico. And there, I learned, some companies (such as Hertz) carry the insurance, while others don’t. But all of them will cheerfully try to sell you on extra coverage–so you need to read the fine print. See here (point #6) for more.

2. Start your search wide.

Run a quick search at Kayak.com to get an idea of the range of rates for the trip you want. Target the lowest prices from the international chains (Hertz, Avis, etc).

Avoid Enterprise where possible. They nickel-and-dime to a sometimes excruciating degree, in my experience. Although in smaller cities, they are sometimes the only option, and can be perfectly great.

3. Join the club.

Whatever company you’re considering renting from, join their frequent-renters club. It comes with automatic 10-15% discounts.

You can also set up preferences for airline discounts (below), and also request not to be given the insurance hard sell when you pick up your car.

4. Get discounts from airlines.

Most airlines–and Amtrak–offer significant discounts at car rental companies. For this, you have to book through the airline’s engine or get a code to punch in at the car-rental website. (For both, go to the frequent-flier part of the website, look under ‘earn miles’ then ‘car rentals.’)

Try a few different ones–they vary a lot depending on the time of year and where you’re renting. (It’s easier to just try the search with the code/engine, rather than parsing the fine print and deciding whether the rules apply.)

I usually check American, United and Amtrak. And because I’ve signed up at a couple of different car companies’ clubs (step #2), I can store the discount codes there.

5. Try an off-airport location.

Some airports charge crazy fees for car rentals. Going to a “suburban” location in the same city can save a ton of money, more than the cost of a taxi to that location. And there’s usually no added fee for returning the car to the airport (but double-check).

6. It costs nothing to cancel a car reservation.

If you see something good, book it. You can always cancel it later, with no penalty.

(Obviously don’t book the prepaid option!)

7. Rental rates change all the time.

After you make your booking(s), check back a few times before your trip. You will probably be surprised, horrified or indignant about how much the rates change, and often for the lower.

Console yourself by feeling smug when you book the new, better rate.

8. Choose prepaid only close in.

When you’re within 4 days or so of your trip, and you’re pretty certain everything’s a go, then you can choose a prepaid discount, if you see a good one.

Now’s also the time to check www.hotwire.com, which does “blind booking” for car rentals, where it shows only the price, not the company. If you see a crazy bargain here, be sure you’re checking the price with all fees and taxes. If it’s still lower than what you have lined up, then go for it.

Honestly, I barely mess with prepaid deals, because it makes me feel all jinx-y about my trip! But sometimes I’ll check the day before I fly and switch to prepaid if it’s better.

9. It’s fairly easy to claim on insurance, if you need to.

I’m not saying you should be a cavalier driver or anything, but at least don’t fret too much if you do damage your car somehow. The paperwork, in my experience with both Visa and American Express, has been pretty easy, and the settlement happens within about four months.

If you do have some kind of incident, don’t move your car without making contact with your car-rental company. It will send an adjuster to document the situation.

10. Don’t take your car on dirt roads (if you can avoid it).

Car rental companies tend to think this is so blindingly obvious, they don’t mention it. But often they have clauses that say the insurance is voided if you’re on a dirt road. (Check with your credit card’s collision insurance too.)

Happy, cheaper driving! Any questions? I know I said I’m killing off the blog, but of course I’ll answer comments!

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As I said in my last post, I’m about to shut this blog down for good. But before I go, I’m posting all the nitty-gritty logistical stuff I currently know about travel. This post is about airfares. Next week’s is about renting cars. Questions? Ask in the comments.

————————————————————

There are a million blogs that drill down deep into the world of booking flights. But unless you’re flying every month, I doubt you’re reading them–and they’re so full of jargon and codes, you can’t understand them anyway.

So here’s my starter set of tips for people who buy airplane tickets only once or twice a year.

1. Check a few websites.

But not all of them! It’s easy to make yourself crazy.

For domestic flights, you likely won’t find a lot of variance. But for international trips, some sites are better than others at digging up weird routings.

My starting points are:

flights.google.com: Very easy to change dates, and it will suggest cheaper dates or nearby airports.

kayak.com: Searches a lot of stuff. Handy filters. Nice +/-3 days search feature.*

southwest.com, for domestic flights: Southwest doesn’t show up on aggregate-search sites (such as Google and Kayak), and if you’re not in the habit of flying them, it’s easy to forget about them.

priceline.com, for weirder international routes (open-jaw, for instance, flying into one city and out of another). Sometimes it does some squirrelly things to make tickets very cheap. (This is a whole crazy can of worms for advanced flight nerds; search “fuel dumping” if you’re curious.)

*Annoyingly, sometimes the various big US airlines (American, Delta, United) also decide not to participate in aggregate-search sites. As I’m writing this, I think that might be happening with American and Delta. So if you notice a conspicuous absence of results from one airline, I guess bite the bullet and go check directly at their websites. Argh.

2. Look at one-ways.

If round-trips are looking higher than you want, try breaking your trip into two one-ways. On almost all domestic routes, this works fine and often better, because you can cherry-pick flight times and prices. I fly JetBlue to Albuquerque, for example, because I like that nonstop flight–but flying back, I go with American or United, because I can’t hack JetBlue’s red-eye.

On international routes, it’s not quite so foolproof, but it’s worth a shot.

3. Pick the right dates.

Flying mid-week (Tues, Wed, Thurs) is usually cheaper than other days.

On the other hand, that old rule about staying over a Saturday night is rarely true anymore.

4. Look beyond your destination.

If you’re flying to a city that’s a hub for an airline, it may very well be cheaper to buy a ticket to somewhere else, routing through the city you want, and then just toss the second leg.

For example, this past summer I wanted to go to Salt Lake City. But it was cheaper to buy a ticket to Park City, via Salt Lake, and just skip out on the last leg.

NOTE: You must travel with only carry-on luggage, as the airlines don’t like this practice (it’s called “hidden-city ticketing” if you want to read more about it) and will not check your bags only halfway.

To find these kinds of deals, start at skiplagged.com.

5. You can cancel in the first 24 hours.

This is a biggie! All US-based airlines will cancel your ticket and refund all of your money, no fee and no questions asked, within 24 hours of purchase.

The exception is American, though it’s not really an exception, just a different way of offering the same thing. On the American website, you can place your reservation on hold for 24 hours before purchasing. (Look for the “hold” button at the bottom right, as an alternative to credit cards, PayPal, etc.)

A lot of international airlines do this too, provided the ticket starts in the US. Google “[airline] 24 hour cancellation” and see what pops up.

6. Book directly with the airline when you can.

Orbitz et al. (aka online travel agents, or OTAs) add almost zero value, and if you need to make changes, they actually make your life a lot harder (“Sorry, we can’t help you—contact the airline”; “sorry, we can’t help—call your travel agent”).

So if you find a deal on one of the OTAs, try searching on the main carrier (or, if it’s a foreign airline, its US-based partner) to see if you can replicate it.

Sometimes, though, you can’t find the same price at an airline’s site, and you’ll have to go with the OTA. That’s not the end of the world. Just be prepared for serious phone time if you need to make changes.

7. Set up a frequent-flier account, even if you’re not playing the miles game.

Having login info at the airline website just makes it easier to check your flight details, change seats, etc.

8. You might be able to afford business class.

Biz-class fares to Europe drop very low in summer and over holidays like Thanksgiving, while coach class spikes.

On some routes in summer 2015, the difference was only $300 or so. Summer biz-class sales usually start in the spring, but can pop up any time after that.

9. Let luck rule.

If you’re not sure where you want to go, keep an eye on theflightdeal.com. It’s probably the current best site for random deals (airfarewatchdog.com is also good).

The instructions on how and where to find the particular flights are very detailed, and this can at first can look overwhelming. Don’t get stressed—just take it step by step.

In the process, you’ll learn some of the trickier ways to search for flights (and you won’t need my help anymore!).

10. There might be a better way than flying.

Check rome2rio.com. Especially good if you want to fly in to one city and out of another, and need to know how to get between the two.

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Maltese, you’re killing me!I just got back from Malta. Maltese, the Semitic language you probably didn’t even know existed, is the most delightful bizarro brand of Arabic I’ve ever heard.

They say “ciao aleikum”! (But…no, they do not reply “waleikum ciao”–alas.)

Aaaaand that’s what I’m just about to say to you now. This blog is so long in the tooth. Twelve years old, which is at least 96 in Internet years. For most of 2015, it was just stashed in the retirement home, off in a corner chair, staring into space.

All last year’s highlights happened mostly off-blog:

selling a Talk of the Town to the New Yorker (REAL DEAL! I’m still amazed)
finally getting my book accepted and signed off on (pub date THIS JUNE!)
and working with refugees in Greece, as this post hinted, and this essay explained a little more

Most everything happening with me these days is over on Facebook (especially the refugees part, which is ongoing), Twitter (itty-bitty travel commentary) and a bit on Instagram.

(And then of course there’s the book…did I mention the book? You can preorder it here and here.)

I’ve scheduled two more posts, totally practical ones where I’m dumping all my hard-earned wisdom about booking airplane tickets and renting cars. (Burning questions? Email me or ask in the comments. I’ll work them in!)

And then I’m going to put this dozy li’l Roving Gastronome to bed.

Thanks for reading along all this time. This blog has been invaluable in helping me develop as a writer, and I wouldn’t have bothered to do it without all your positive feedback along the way.

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For the last two weeks, I was on the island of Mytilene (aka Lesvos or Lesbos) in Greece. Peter and I go every other summer or so–he’s been going since 1992. It just so happened this summer the island is inundated with refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and more, who are taking boats over from the Turkish coast.

I wrote a lot about the people I met at the refugee camps on my personal Facebook page, and near the end of the trip, I collected donations from friends to redistribute directly to refugees and to give to volunteers on Mytilene for supplies.

Some people missed that window to donate, so I’m posting a few options for helping out here, if you are so moved.

1) See what the Lesvos Volunteers group needs.

This is a kind of umbrella website for all the volunteers on Mytilene (a few are mentioned below). I have met and/or worked with almost all of them, and can vouch for their efficacy. As of now (early October), this website is the best way to figure out what they need.

This is because–fortunately!–the various specific volunteer groups have gotten a lot of press and subsequent donations. So their needs are now quite specific.

One of those needs, it must be said, is people, on the ground helping. If you are at all entertaining thoughts of going to Greece, and you’re a self-starter who can see what needs doing and just do it, they could use you.

2) Send a shipment of supplies via Amazon.



I set up an Amazon.co.uk wish list with basic gear for kids and adults. (Shipping from the UK to Greece is cheaper than from the US.) If you’re based in the US, ideally order with a credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee (a lot of cards charge 3%).

I keep the list updated for weather and specific needs, per Philippa and Eric Kempson, a British couple who live in Eftalou, on the north coast near Molyvos, where the most refugees arrive. They and their team (also part of Lesvos Volunteers, above) help people out of the water, feed them, get them warm clothes. I first read about them in this story.

3) Donate to the NGO O Allos Anthropos.

Here is a GoFundMe page I set up with Annia Ciezadlo. [EDITED: We paused donations for now so I could send a chunk of money. If we gather too much at once, it’s a mess to move it all! Bear with us.]

I cooked with them a bit one day, and Annia went a second time, and wrote this great piece about it.

This is a wonderful team of Athens-based volunteers who came to Mytilene to cook at the refugee camps. While many refugees are not poor, they are still traveling on extremely limited funds (who knows when they’ll work again?), so a hot meal from these guys is a balm for the soul. For others who are totally broke, this is the only real food they’ll get.

Super-awesome volunteer Syrian cooks on the first day I was at Kara Tepe, working with O Allos Anthropos. These refugees are capable people–they just need some supplies to work with.

4) Wire money to the NGO Angalia. [As of 23 September: HOLD OFF for now! They are swamped with donations and can’t manage it all at once.]



Angalia (it means ‘hug’ in Greek; also spelled Agkalia) is a three-person organization that spends all donations directly. It was started by a Greek priest (he just passed away September 1)–read about him on the UNHCR blog. I met another member of the NGO, Giorgos Tyrikos, in Kalloni and immediately gave him cash. He was off to buy sandwich fixings. They do good work. See the bank-transfer details below.

If wiring money to a random bank account in Greece makes you nervous, or your bank charges terrible fees drop me an email. I’m happy to take cash via PayPal myself, then wire money in a lump sum, to minimize the cost.

You can also use the new service TransferWise, which sends money internationally with very low fees. And if you use this referral link, you get a kickback and so do I–I will donate mine to Angalia.

4) Donate to International Rescue Committee.



This is the most conventional thing to do–it’s tax-deductible and all. Of course there’s some overhead, and not all your cash will go to help people. But I can definitely vouch for the IRC.

In the short time I was on Mytilene, they did two substantially great things at Kara Tepe: laid down gravel to keep the dust down in the camp, and built shower stalls for women. Since then, they’ve done even more, such as running buses to spare refugees the 40-mile walk across the island.

Giorgos of Angalia also had a fantastic story about an IRC rep handing him an envelope full of cash earlier in the summer, on the first day Greece kicked in the capital controls–Giorgos had donated money waiting in the bank, but couldn’t withdraw it. IRC gave him 5K euros to buy food.

Many thanks in advance, and even if you can’t help now, at least keep these refugees in your thoughts.

ADDITIONALLY, for anyone with contacts in Greece: Information is in very short supply for refugees. Here is a Greek-Arabic phrase list–please distribute to anyone you know working with refugees in Greece. Also, please share this map of Mytiline island (PDF, good for printing; JPG, good for viewing on phones), with the various camps marked. And here is a Google map, for online reference.

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For the last two weeks, I was on the island of Mytilene (aka Lesvos or Lesbos) in Greece. Peter and I go every other summer or so–he’s been going since 1992. It just so happened this summer the island is inundated with refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and more, who are taking boats over from the Turkish coast.

I wrote a lot about the people I met at the refugee camps on my personal Facebook page, and near the end of the trip, I collected donations from friends to redistribute directly to refugees and to give to volunteers on Mytilene for supplies.

Some people missed that window to donate, so I’m posting a few options for helping out here, if you are so moved.

1) Wire money to the NGO Agkalia.



Agkalia (it means ‘hug’ in Greek) is a four-person organization that spends all donations directly. It’s run by a Greek priest–read about him on the UNHCR blog. I met another member of the NGO, Giorgos Tyrikos, in Kalloni and immediately gave him cash. He was off to buy sandwich fixings. They do good work. See the bank-transfer details below.

(If wiring money to a random bank account in Greece makes you nervous, or you just don’t know how to do it, drop me an email. I’m happy to take cash via PayPal myself, then wire money in a lump sum, to minimize the fees.)

2) Send a shipment of supplies via Amazon.



I set up an Amazon.co.uk wish list with basic gear for kids and adults. (Shipping from the UK to Greece is cheaper than from the US.) If you’re based in the US, ideally order with a credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee (a lot of cards charge 3%).

Whatever you buy gets shipped to Philippa and Eric Kempson, a British couple who live in Eftalou, on the north coast near Molyvos, where the most refugees arrive. From there, the people have to walk about 40 miles to Mytilene town, where the camps are. Philippa and Eric (and other volunteers) feed people and help outfit people for the trip. I first read about them in this story.

3) Donate to International Rescue Committee.



This is the most conventional thing to do–it’s tax-deductible and all. Of course there’s some overhead, and not all your cash will go to help people. But I can vouch for the IRC.

In the short time I was there, they did two substantially great things at Kara Tepe: laid down gravel to keep the dust down in the camp, and built shower stalls for women. They probably did lots more. Giorgos of Agkalia also had a fantastic story about an IRC rep handing him an envelope full of cash earlier in the summer, on the first day Greece kicked in the capital controls–Giorgos had donated money waiting in the bank, but couldn’t withdraw it. IRC gave him 5K euros to buy food.

Many thanks in advance, and even if you can’t help now, at least keep these refugees in your thoughts.

Super-awesome volunteer Syrian cooks on the first day I was at Kara Tepe, working with the food-solidarity group O Allos Anthropos. These refugees are capable people–they just need some supplies to work with.

No related posts.

Oh, hello there. I briefly forgot I had a blog! But the electronic record must show some exciting developments in the realm of words printed on paper.

Tiny hint of what might be on the cover, maybe1) The Crimson Sofa All Strangers Are Kin is delivered and accepted, as they say in the biz.

(In the biz, this also means I finally got PAID again. Writing a book is the most nonsensical “job” ever. Happy May Day, everyone!)

So that means (because this is printed on paper), publication date for my travel memoir about why it’s worth learning Arabic, despite the grief it can cause, is June 2016. Yes, that’s more than a year from now. No, I cannot tell you why it takes that long.

But production is moving along at a rapid clip (copy editing is in process; I’ve seen one cover mockup already), so there will be more news soon.

2) Moon Santa Fe, Taos & Albuquerque is out in a new full-color edition!

OK, maybe not at this moment “out” in stores, but I got a big box of them the other day, and they look lovely. If you’re planning a trip to fair New Mexico, pick one up.

(If you’ll go farther afield, remember there’s also Moon New Mexico, also now full-color, and only a year old.)

3) The beautiful New Mexico Farm Table Cookbook is out.

I have nothing personally to do with this except that you’ll see my name on back under a very excited blurb. It is a beautiful book! And, to quote myself, it does go way beyond the classic red and green chile dishes. Beautiful photos, and recipes from a huge variety of restaurants all over the state.

Try out the Los Poblanos Pork with Modern Soubise (p122), would ya, and tell me how it is?

I can’t do it myself now because I’m off to back-of-beyond Greece for a couple of weeks. Much needed hiking trip, because…

4) I’m updating the Lonely Planet USA guide.

Not the whole thing, just the NY/NJ/PA chapter. But even that involves a ton of driving and a lot of road food (hence the need for hiking). Man, America. You gotta get with the program on vegetables!

(Welcome exceptions: Moosewood and Stonecat Cafe. In a perfect world, I’d have a whole post about eating at Moosewood, finally, after living out of one their cookbooks for so long in Egypt. But I gotta go pack.)

I’ll be heading up to the Adirondacks and out to Long Island when I get back from Greece. More news then…

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