Fall, winter discounts are showing up

Travel deals

If you're planning to travel in the fall, some discounts are cropping up on flights, hotels and more (although don't expect to find any deals around Thanksgiving or near Christmas, busy travel periods when prices are high).

A sampling:

• Hilton is offering a free $50 American Express gift card with paid stays that include a Saturday or Sunday night. The offer is valid at U.S. properties for stays through Dec. 31 when you pay with an American Express card. Customers must request promotion code OAXM when making hotel reservations. The gift cards are valid toward your next stay at most U.S. Hilton hotels.

• Members of AAA can bring children for free when they ride some Amtrak long-distance trains. Each paying adult can bring up to two children ages 2 to 15. Adults also receive 10 percent off regular fares with AAA membership. Buy tickets by Sept. 30 with a three-day advance for travel; there are some blackout dates (use promotion code e H617 when booking.)

• For frequent fliers on American Airlines, the carrier has reduced the mileage required for short-haul flights and for travel to the Caribbean and Cancun, Mexico.

Airlines

Carriers roll out some fancy cocktails

In these times of airborne liquid deprivation, stressed-out fliers may toast the tidings that United Airlines beverage carts are dispensing a new libation on select flights: Trader Vic's Mai Tai cocktails.

The tropical concoctions and accompanying Polynesian fare, which were being planned before the government crackdown on liquids in carry-on luggage, will be offered on all flights to and from Hawaii starting this month. The swells in first class and business class drink free; those in coach pay $5.

United isn't the only airline to feature new exotic booze: In spring, Delta launched a line of signature cocktails that includes a "Mile High Mojito."

We'll drink to that. Now, if only we could bring aboard a sealed bottle of water ...

Outdoors fun

Bellingham comes in tops for the Gore-Tex set

If you want to make outdoors fun a way of life, here are the best towns, according to Outside magazine's August issue, with Bellingham and Bend, Ore., among the winners:

Paddling: Bellingham.

Rock climbing: New Paltz, N.Y.

Wellness: Sebastopol, Calif.

Road biking: Madison, Wis.

Trail running: Bend, Ore.

White water: Asheville, N.C.

Mountain biking: Durango, Colo.

Skiing/snowboarding: Truckee, Calif.

Surfing: Haleiwa, Hawaii.

All-around: Boulder, Colo.

Travel industry fighting new passport requirements

The travel industry is pressing the Bush administration to delay a security measure that would require all cruise passengers and air travelers taking trips beyond U.S. borders to carry passports starting Jan. 8.

(Ferry passengers — such as those on the Victoria Clipper and Washington State Ferries between Washington and British Columbia — and pleasure boaters recently got a delay; they won't need passports for U.S.-Canada travel until January 2008.)

The measure — part of a larger federal anti-terrorism effort — eventually would require all travelers, including U.S. citizens, traveling between the United States and Canada and other places such as Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda to have a passport or "other accepted document" to enter the United States.

Travel Industry Association President Roger Dow said the cruise industry, in particular, was ill-equipped to meet the proposed 2007 target date because few people who booked cruises (such as those from Seattle to Alaska, which stop at British Columbia ports) had passports.

The requirement would be imposed on airline passengers at the same time, but Dow said many air travelers, unlike occasional cruise-line passengers, already carry passports.

"We're concerned about the potential for chaos" in the cruise industry, Dow said, adding that the industry is asking the administration for an extension to June 2009.

The requirement for passports would be extended to land border crossings with Canada and Mexico in January 2008. The travel industry, and government officials in Washington state and British Columbia, fear that it could put a damper on travel between the U.S. and Canada.

Travel ticker

Walt Disney World and Universal Studios in Orlando have both raised prices for the second time this year. The price of a basic one-day, one-park admission will be $67. Meanwhile, a new policy at Disney and Universal allows guests to reschedule their vacations without penalty if the National Weather Service posts a hurricane warning for Orlando or a guest's hometown within seven days of his scheduled arrival.

Seattle Times staff and news services