From Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio

RECESSION-PROOF TRAVEL

If you watched the Today show earlier this week, you saw my piece on recession-proof travel—how to travel in hard economic times when the dollar is getting beaten up. If you saw the news this week, you saw the dollar drop to a huge low against the Japanese yen.

The Wall Street lows are affecting everyone and it is not just the sub-prime market—it is the value of the dollar everywhere. Does that mean you can’t travel this year? No, it doesn’t. In fact, one of the things we talked about on the Today show is where to go where the dollar is still king.

And believe it or not, the dollar is still king in certain countries in Europe that have not switched over to the euro yet. Believe it or not you can still get bargains in Switzerland which is adamantly refusing to go to the euro. In places in Croatia, in places in Asia which is still recovering from their own economic crisis of a few years ago, and of course, Argentina, where the dollar is absolutely still king.

FOOL-PROOF CAMERAS/BLURB.COM

We also did a piece on the Today show all the new cameras out there that will allow you to take fool-proof, idiot proof, no-brainer pictures. But most importantly, we gave tips on how to store those photos after your travels. Some services do a good job, and some services—if you don’t pay attention—will automatically delete your photos. Not a good idea, so, we tell you what to do and where to do it.

And then, there is a new service out there, which everybody on the show, including me, loved.

It is called Blurb.com: You get software for free, you download it on your PC or you Mac and then you can drag and drop all your photos into your own hardcover coffee table book. It costs between $12.95 and $50 and seven days after you send it in, you get your beautifully bound book. It is amazing, so check out Blurb.com.

But of course it all starts with one thing: You have to take nice photos to begin with. It gets down to no-brainer stuff. If you see a great beach, don’t shoot it at noon. Most people see the pyramids in Cairo from a bus at noon, when everything washes out. Take your time, go for the shots that make sense, like early morning or late at night—the magic hours. Lighting is everything and if you wait for the light, you will get a much better shot.

For more, check out Photography Tours: Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

TERMINAL 5 HEATHROW- MOVING IN?

Some other stuff in the news this week, we talked about Terminal 5 in Heathrow. Well the other day, the Queen of England showed up at Terminal 5 to open it, and you know her speech writers were working overtime when she just basically said “I hereby declare this terminal open.”

Well, that was about it for the Queen, but that is how she does things, she just shows up, says six words, and somebody else cuts the ribbon.

But, the interesting thing about Terminal 5 is its rule that you’re not allowed in if you show up within 35 minutes of your flight. Which I think is hysterical because it doesn’t deal with reality.

It says “OK, we’ve got a brand-new terminal, we got all these new gates, all these new flights are coming in, but if you show up at the terminal within 35 minutes of your flight, you’ll be bumped out and won’t be able to make your flight.”

So, no late arrivals, no problem. But they are forgetting one thing—even if you showed up four hours ahead of time, Heathrow still only has two runways.

Wake up guys, no one is going anywhere. It is a beautiful building with nowhere to go, which is why they opened up this building with so many great restaurants and clubs and spas. That’s right, you’re not leaving Heathrow, you are moving into Heathrow. I still have issues with that.

As beautiful as the building is, as lovely as it is (I mean they have a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, they’ve got a Tiffanys), think about this: Do they want us to stay when they build a terminal like this? Or do they want us to go? Airports don’t know what they want anymore.

You know what? If you only have two runways and you are basically the world’s busiest airport, hey, bring a cot. You’re staying.

POLICING THE LOVE BOAT

California State Senator Joseph Simitian is putting in bill that basically says the cruise ships now have to carry police officers on board. How about that for the bar scene on the Love Boat?

All right, that is going to be interesting too, to find out, first of all, what the status is of that bill and what does it really mean when you see stories all the time, or do you see stories all the time?

That is the question: Is it overblown by guys like us, about people falling off cruise ships, murders that go unsolved, and you know, just basic, drunken antics. Do you need a police officer on board the love boats?

Bottom line, remember this, it is all about common sense. It is all about what you do when you go out on a trip—what you pack, what you don’t pack, how you behave. Nobody tells you the rules change when you go out to sea.

Although, a lot of people after the movie Titanic thought they were the king of the world and fell off—you don’t do that on the bow of the ship; ships aren’t made to do that. And, remember the guy who said he was king of the world on the Titanic? He died too.

Read more from Peter’s blog, the Travel Detective Files.

Learn more about Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.

Looking for even more in-depth news coverage of the week’s top stories? Visit our Travel News Analysis Category.