LOUISIANA TRAVEL NEWS

Latest Local & International Travel News, Guides, Information & Planning Tips

In the print edition of Sunday's Travel pages, read about the place that was the home of Our Lady of Lourdes: the shrine and sanctuary in Lourdes, France, where St. Bernadette saw visions of the Virgin Mary 150 years ago.

In print and online Travel pages, check out 10 outdoorsy things to do when you drive south through the Florida Keys to Key West.

The Trip Tips column focuses on upcoming festivals in Gulfport, Miss.; Gulf Shores, Ala.; Destin and Sandestin, Fla.; and Key West, as well as how to get an eight-level upgrade (!) on a Norwegian Cruise Line cruise next year.

Travel Troubleshooter columnist Christopher Elliott helps a man who was charged double for his airline ticket.

And in Paper Trails, we have photos of a baseball team that's now in a Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, and a photo from Japan of two New Orleanians, one a Marine, who's about to be deployed to Afghanistan.

Check it all out in this week's Travel pages online, and in pages D-12 to D-14 in Sunday's Living section.

Millie Ball, Travel editor

Cooperstown, New York

Distance from New Orleans, about 1,400 miles

(From left, front row) Blake Landry, Brooks Richard, Gage Plaisance, Seth Gravois, Rhett Clement; (from left, back row) Jai Bourg, Chance Verdin, Paul Faucheaux, Spencer Folse, Spencer Miller, Wesley Lassare

'My son Spencer became part of history when he was able to participate in a 12-year-old youth baseball tournament in Cooperstown, " writes Beth Folse of Thibodaux.

"The LA Diamond Jaxx traveled to Cooperstown New York to play baseball in the Cooperstown Dreams Park and American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational tournament the week of July 5.

The players were then inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame. Cooperstown Dream Park is a place where dreams really do come true. Missing from the picture are coaches Shane Trosclair, Rusty Lassere and Dondi Clement.

Tip: Go into the town of Cooperstown to get to know the people, and make sure you eat at TJ's Place at 124 Main St. It's the best breakfast in town."

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The problem: Is there a difference between the price you pay for an airline ticket online, compared with off-line? I recently tried to buy a ticket for my mother on Expedia. She wanted to fly to North Carolina to visit my brother, who was on life-support.

ROB O'NEAL / FLORIDA KEYS NEWS BUREAU / ASSOCIATED PRESS One of about 50 six-toed cats, which live in and around the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Fla., checks out her surroundings. /

CUDJOE KEY, FLA. -- When you leave the Florida mainland heading south, U.S. 1 becomes a series of bridges and two-lane roads connecting the 110-mile-long chain of islands known as the Keys.

Its historic charm is engulfing.

The first towns are Key Largo -- where "The African Queen" boat from the film now lives -- and Islamorada. Both have inspired countless movies.

GULFPORT: MUSIC AND CARS

The Cajun, Country, Swamp Pop Music Festival and Car Show next Friday and Saturday in Gulfport, Miss., just won the Shining Example Award Festival of the Year from the Southeast Tourism Society.

It will be held at the Harrison County Fairgrounds (6.5 miles north of Interstate 10, Long Beach exit 28), where performers will be on stage 6 p.m. to midnight Friday and 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday. The car show is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Jim Morton / Grandfather Mountain / AP Photo Two years ago, peak fall color was in mid-October along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain in Linville, N.C. Want more Travel stories? Read Millie Ball's Blog.

New England's fall foliage typically peaks in late September and early October. But around the country, leaf-peeping season can run well into November.

The U.S. Forest Service links to fall color reports in all but a few states at www.fs.fed.us/news/fallcolors/.

Precisely when the leaves turn, and how brilliant the colors will be, can't be predicted too far in advance, because it depends on early fall weather.

"One of the things that is really critical is cool nights," said Howard Neufeld, a professor of plant physiology at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. "Starting in September, if it starts to get cool but not below freezing, if you have clear cool days and cool nights, it stimulates fall color."

B.B. King Museum opens

Matthew S. Gunby / AP PhotoMedia and visitors tour the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center during a media day in Indianola, Miss. The museum opened to the public Saturday, Sept. 13.

A new museum honoring the music legend opened last weekend in Indianola, in the Mississippi Delta between Greenwood and Greenville. The $14 million B.B. King Museum & Delta Interpretive Center (www.bbkingmuseum.org) tells his life story, and includes a brick cotton gin building in which King once worked.

Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida
Distance from New Orleans, about 653 miles

From left) Kathy, Michael and Jim LeBlanc

"On only our second trip to Walt Disney World, we had a great time," writes Jim LeBlanc of River Ridge. "We took a side trip to the Kennedy Space Center and toured the Vehicle Assembly Building and Shuttle Launch Pads 39 A&B. Kathy and Michael also swam with the dolphins at Discovery Cove ( we have the DVD) and we had dinner with Shamu at Seaworld. Non-stop action packed into one week but a whale of a time!"

The problem: What are your rights when a tour operator fails to deliver part of your vacation package? I booked a one-week vacation in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, through Apple Vacations recently. It included accommodations and transfers to and from the airport.

But when we arrived in Kingston, we discovered that the shuttle bus didn't run from Kingston, but from Montego Bay. We had to pay $160 for a taxi ride from Kingston to the hotel. We also had to pay $75 to change our return flights to leave from Montego Bay instead of Kingston.

With good reason, hurricanes have dominated conversations for the past two weeks, and after studying the tracking charts for Gustav, most of us got out of Dodge, so to speak. Now it's time to share what we learned in this week's Travel pages.

My neighbor Amy called Southwest and got two tickets on the last flight out the Sunday before Gustav. "Can you tell me where I'm going?" she asked the agent. Read about her unexpected jaunt to escape the hurricane.

I flew to Atlanta, since I had tickets to South America from the Atlanta airport last Tuesday. See what happened and what lessons I learned along the way.

Then I asked co-workers what advice they had after their hurricane evacuations, and they came up with quite a few.

Check it all out in Travel. And may your next trip be one for a reason that's fun!

Millie Ball

Travel editor, The Times-Picayune

Our vacation had taken forever to put together, and we were full of anticipation as we neared the departure date of our flight from New Orleans to Atlanta and then to Lima, Peru . . . on Tuesday, Sept. 2.

Yep -- the day after Hurricane Gustav hit southern Louisiana.

This is only one story -- mine -- about coping with a hurricane evacuation. But I learned a few things as I scrambled to get out of town.

How about you?

Plan ahead and use back roads. In nine years, we've never spent time in traffic. We look up all possible routes on Mapquest and Google Maps, print them out and consult them in the car whenever we hear there is a jam. -- Maria

My neighbor Amy has my favorite evacuation story. Here, in her words:

Treasure Island hotel and casino in Las Vegas - where one New Orleanian retreated for a 'hurrication' - has a pirate ship out front where it presents free shows.

"I drove west on Saturday morning, Aug. 30, to my parents' home in Donaldsonville. By Saturday night, I realized I had evacuated in the wrong direction. It was clear that this area of Louisiana was going to be hit hard by Gustav early the next week.

I called Southwest Airlines and asked if they had any seats on any outbound flights on Sunday, and if I could use my two free Rapid Reward tickets. The agent said there were seats on the last scheduled flight.

I said, 'I'll take two. Can you tell me where I'm going?'

Austin, Texas

(From left) Holy Cross High School students Tim Scanlan, Miklos Halmos, Garrett Simoneaux, Alex Osborne, Cody Meyer, Trey Barback, Andrew Albrecht and Seth Brown.

"New Orleans students are shown standing in front of a portrait of Davy Crockett recently at the Holy Cross Conference for Student Leaders at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas," writes Brian Kitchen.

The goal of the conference was to help Holy Cross leaders understand the mission and heritage of the Holy Cross educational experience while making it a part of their legacy as leaders in their individual schools.

Highlights of the trip included a visit to the Brother Vincent Pieau Residents, which houses the retired brothers of the Province; a day of community service; a visit to the Assumption Cemetery, where many of the brothers are laid to rest and a picnic at the Holy Cross Villa on beautiful Lake Austin.

Tips: When visiting Austin, find out what the locals mean by "Keep Austin Weird." And definitely try real Texas barbeque at the Salt Lick; save room for Amy's Ice Cream.

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The problem: What's a car rental company's responsibility to have a vehicle available for you when it sends you a confirmation? I ask because we recently rented a car from National Car Rental in Mexico, and they ran out of cars.