Yellowstone offers $49 rooms

Yellowstone National Park Lodges is offering a special rate of $49 for rooms with shared bathrooms in the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Jan. 4 through March 6 with the exception of Feb. 18-21. Rates are normally $87 per night for single or double occupancy.

Yellowstone’s winter season began Dec. 18, with the opening of Old Faithful Snow Lodge. The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel opens today, Dec. 21. The lodges provide the only wintertime accommodations within the park. Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel will close for the season, March 7, and Old Faithful Snow Lodge will close March 6.

To qualify for the special rate rooms must be reserved before Jan. 14, using the promotional code “WOB49.” Reservations can be made by calling (307) 344-7311 or toll-free (866) 439-7375 or online at www.YellowstoneNationalParkLodges.com using the promo code box. This rate cannot be combined with other specials or packages.

The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is located five miles inside the park’s northern entrance and is convenient for visitors who want to drive to the Lamar Valley to view wolves, bison, elk and other wildlife. The road from Gardiner, Mont. to Mammoth Village and on to Cooke City, Mont. is the only road plowed all winter. Just outside Mammoth Village are groomed cross country ski trails and access to the park’s interior via snowcoach and snowmobile.

Complete details about accommodations, restaurants and activities in Yellowstone can be made by calling (307) 344-7311 or toll-free 866-GEYSERLAND (866-439-7375), or visiting the Website at www.YellowstoneNationalParkLodges.com.

Banner year forecast

Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara is predicting that 2011 will be the best year ever for Mexican tourism. She is talking about 26 million international visitors coming to Mexico and spending $12.6 billion. The minister outlined a seven-point program to reach these goals. These include consolidating the Mexico brand, emphasizing on-line marketing, strengthening competitive segments, converting the Tourism Board into the “ideal partner” for state tourism offices, improving lift. Tourism this year increased by 15 percent compared to 2009.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Aviation changes

Aeroméxico has announced that it will be investing about $1 billion to expand its fleet with 25 additional jets. Management credited new labor agreements for allowing this. The agreements, while relaxing some restrictions, will lead to the creation of many more jobs. Meanwhile, rapidly expanding Interjet has rented 34 check-in counters previously used by Mexicana. Financially troubled Mexicana still promises to start flying in January, but its services will be greatly reduced. Interjet, which began by flying out of Toluca — near Mexico City — has shifted two-thirds of its area operations to Mexico City, much to the distress of Toluca authorities and business people who had invested there. While the Toluca airport is more convenient for many travelers, it lacks the departure options and connecting flights found at Mexico City International.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Tequila and mariachis

Plaza Garibaldi, where swains in Mexico City seek out mariachi bands to serenade their sweethearts, now has a Tequila and Mezcal Museum, an agave garden (tequila and mezcal are made from agave) and more. This is the newest tourist attraction in the capital. Garibaldi had become a somewhat rough neighborhood. City authorities promise police patrols will keep it safe.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Cancun conference ends

The U.N. Conference on Climate Change has ended in Cancun, leaving the resort destination weary but richer. Delegates from nearly 200 countries attended, along with protestors, filling up almost all available rooms. Early estimates indicate Cancun took in some $85 million from the event.

More was accomplished than had been expected. Last year the conference venue was Copenhagen, where global warming is difficult to comprehend in December. This year, although the beaches beckoned, delegates worked until 4 a.m. the final night before agreeing on the Cancun Accord. The protestors outside complained that too much was left undone. Vegetarians, for example, were disheartened that the delegates did not condemn the eating of meat.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Holiday Season Starts

“Lupe-Reyes” has begun. Yesterday (Sunday) was the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most important religious holiday of the year. The Winter High Season — when prices at resort destinations rise — begins on Wednesday and Dec. 16 is the night of the First Posada, gatherings — at which drinks are served — recalling the trek to Bethlehem. Office parties also are back in fashion. From Christmas Eve until Jan. 2 many businesses and government offices close. Those who can, take off for the beach. Flights to resort areas are booked solid. Nothing really will get back to normal until Jan. 7, the day following Epiphany, which marks the visit of the Three Wise Men, known in Mexico as the Magician Kings or Reyes Mágicos. Children in Mexico await gifts from the kings, but now they have Santa Claus, too.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Volaris expands fleet

Volaris, one of the new, low-fare airlines, has acquired three Airbus A319s, giving it a total of 26 jets in what it claims to be the most modern fleet in Mexico. Volaris operates an average of 19 flights a day at Mexico City International and another 23 from the Toluca airport, which also serves Mexico City. One of the new planes will be used on a route from Guadalajara to Chicago, which Volaris hopes to inaugurate next week.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Maya theme park planned

The Yucatan government hopes to interest investors in a project to build a Maya-oriented theme park at Chichen Itza, near one of the best-known archaeological sites in Mexico. If all goes well, work will begin on Dec. 21, the date of the winter solstice. The last date on the Maya calendar comes three days later. Some people believe this implies the end of the world. If so, little investment money will be lost. If not, work will continue on the Palace of Maya Civilization. The Xcaret Group is said to be putting up $12 million just to get things started. No date for the completion of the park has been announced.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Good news and bad

During the first three-quarters of this year, Mexico earned a record $7.5 billion from tourism. As a dollar-earner, however, the hospitality industry slipped behind the export of manufactured goods, petroleum sales and remittances from Mexicans working abroad. Opinions about all this are many and varied.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Flight schedules increased

Aeroméxico is increasing service to cities it serves in the United States. It now is operating four flights daily from New York and Miami, five from Los Angeles, three from Chicago and two from Las Vegas. Volaris plans to open a route between Chicago and Guadalajara. It also is looking at Phoenix and Las Vegas as well as cities in Florida. Several of these routes previously were covered by bankrupt Mexicana, which may — or, may not — start flying again in January. Changes in FAA regulations now allow airlines from Mexico to add routes to the USA.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers

Toll House Inn takes on new look

My wife and I spent a wonderful night at the newly renovated Toll House Inn in Boonville, CA.

The inn is an historic Boonville landmark built in 1912. It’s a two-hour drive from San Francisco and about eight hours and more than 560 miles from my home in Southern California.

It was a rustic, comfortable place under its old ownership when I last stayed at the Toll House in 1998.

Toll House sits on 650 acres, five miles outside of town on the Boonville-Ukiah road with easy access to wineries, parks and more in Anderson Valley.

We stayed in the lovely porch room, a ground-floor suite with private screened porch, full private bath with clawfoot tub, an incredibly comfortable king bed and a single daybed.

More on Toll House Inn later. For more information or reservations go to www.tollhouseinn.com or call (707) 895-2572.

FAA rating restored

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has restored Mexico to Category 1, four months after it knocked the country down to Category 2. The demotion, reflecting poor safety procedures, meant that Mexican airlines could not inaugurate any new service to the United States, although routes in operation could continue. The move hit hard, coming as it did when Mexicana Airlines suspended all flights as it sought bankruptcy protection. Mexico spent an estimated $50 million to meet the FAA requirement, hiring 80 inspectors and 40 pilots in the process.

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Jimm Budd

Reporting from Mexico City

Member of the Society of American Travel Writers