Catch Swine Flu, Stay for Free: Mexican Hotels

Travel industry shrinks itineraries for customers seeking quick getaway

(NEWSER) - Strapped travelers unwilling to spend the time or bucks on a “staycation” now have a new option: a "daycation." With hotel occupancy at a 20-year low and bookings down at least 20%, many vacation companies are shrinking travel itineraries to one or two days, and hotels and resorts are flouting their minimum-stay requirements to woo customers, reports the Wall Street Journal. More»

They may be cheap, but you really don't want to stay in them

(NEWSER) - Unless you like urine-scented rooms and hairs in the bathtub, you probably won’t want to stay at any of Trip Advisor ’s top 10 dirtiest hotels in the US. Below, a sampling of the user reviews:

1. Heritage Marina Hotel, San Francisco: “The second room ‘appeared’ clean until we realized the next morning that we slept with bed bugs.”
2. Days Inn Eureka/Six Flags, Eureka, Mo: “The smell was horrible. The floors and walls were dirty. There was food and beverage spilled and dried up all over the place.”
3. Tropicana Resort Hotel, Virginia Beach: “The ice machine produces dirty ice and is not fit to use.”
4. Super 8 Virginia Beach/At the Ocean, Virginia Beach: “There were hairs in the bathtub, and bugs on the counter.”

Can't afford a vacation? Don't worry about skipping these locales

(NEWSER) - Sure, you could read one of the many lists of destinations you should visit this year—but in this economic climate, wouldn’t it be more useful to check out a list of places not to visit? Hailey Eber thinks so, and gives her top 10 in BlackBook :

• Oymyakon, Russia: In this Siberian village on record as the coldest town on Earth, the temperature must drop to -62 degrees Fahrenheit before schools close.
• Paula Deen Cruise to the Caribbean: You usually put on a few pounds while on vacation…and a few more if that vacation is the neverending buffet of a cruise ship. Add Paula Deen’s butter-filled recipes into the mix, and you’ll soon be “too ashamed to waddle around the lido deck in your bikini.”
• Pakistan: “Violent extremists, Al-Qaida, and Taliban elements do not a vacation make. But, you probably knew that already.”

Docs blast 'nonsense' plan to keep ill off airplanes

(NEWSER) - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic will refuse to check in passengers with symptoms of swine flu unless they have doctors' notes saying they're healthy, reports the Times of London. Passengers with runny noses, headaches, or sore throats will be told not to board their flights. The new policy has outraged the British Medical Association, which calls the plans unworkable and "absolute nonsense." More»

(NEWSER) - World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan told a summit in Mexico today that, though most cases of swine flu were not deadly, the virus cannot be stopped, the BBC reports. “With well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable,” Chan said—adding that public perception is also tough to control. More»