Our own Beata Santora sat down with Fox News' Strategy Room today to talk Etiquette 101, Condé Nast Traveler's newest mobile app.
From which phrases you must know in the language of the country you're visiting to fashion faux pas to avoid, Beata touches on just a few of the insights in our September issue.
Hello Formal: Assalaamu alaykom, sometimes assalaam wa rahma, or simply salaam. Less formal: Marhaba, followed by kaif halak (“how are you?”). When one Arab greets another, the usual gender rules apply—only more so. Gulf Arabs get close: kisses between women and sometimes nose touches for the men. Handshakes may be followed by a right palm pressed to the heart, to express the strength of the bond. But this physicality stays within genders. “Kissing the opposite sex is not even an option,” says travel writer Mohamed El Hebeishy, who grew up in Egypt and now lives in Dubai. “And do not be the first to reach out for a handshake.”
Good-bye Ma’assalama or, if you’re the one staying, allah yesalemek. Salaam is also common.
Thank you Shukran (add jazilan for “very much”)—but hayak Allah (which also means “you’re welcome”) is more commonly heard in Dubai.
Excuse me A’afwaan as a light apology; ismahli to get someone’s attention (ismahili to women). For “I didn’t catch that,” low smaht (to a man) or low smahti (to a woman).
Help me Mumkin tesa’adni (tesa’ade’ani if you’re a woman).
Please Men fadlek (to men) or men fadlik (to women).
In the September 2010 issue, Condé Nast Traveler's Dorinda Elliott goes Down Under to meet Cate Blanchett who, besides running the Sydney Theater Company, raising a family, and jetting around the world to various film locales, also heads a growing environmental movement.
Read the excerpt below:
A few minutes later, Blanchett, dressed in a simple shift with her hair tied back in a messy ponytail, is in the makeup chair, multitasking, a movie script in her lap and a cell phone in her hand. She is a hardworking person, I am thinking—and a citizen of the world, living in several time zones at once. She was just speaking with a friend in L.A., she tells me, discussing a play she is considering doing there. The conversation had gotten sidetracked when her friend told her about an Indian entrepreneur who is investing in, of all things, devulcanized rubber. This is not as bizarre as it seems. With the same crisp transition she displayed channeling Blanche DuBois's shifting moods in the much-heralded recent New York production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanchett has become an entirely credible environmental wonk.Want more? Pick up this month's issue of Condé Nast Traveler.
Our own Kate Maxwell was on the Today Show this morning sharing trip ideas to play hooky with the family before school starts in the fall.
Kate suggests Belize (Matt Lauer loves it!), which is just a short flight from Miami. The Inn at Robert's Grove is just $117 per night per person. Another resort Kate suggest for great deals is the Beaches Resort Sandy Bay in Jamaica for $100 per night per person.
Watch the video for other great-value destinations including Yosemite Park, Los Cabos, and Savannah.
I am standing at the end of a dock. The water before me is blue and sunlit. In one hand, I’ve got a duffel bag. A small inflatable dinghy is coming toward me. Its engine makes an insectlike noise. The man in the dinghy waves.The sky is wide, and the afternoon light shines on a few dozen sailboats moored in Stage Harbor. A light wind flaps flags, and halyards bang against metal masts. Since coming to live on Cape Cod five years ago, I’ve been dreaming of a trip like this. Starting from a dock in Chatham, just eight miles from my house, I will soon leave my landlocked existence for the open sea. I’ve loved many places, and been changed by some of them. But I’ve never experienced a land so varied—at once wild and civilized, open and traditional, lush and spare—so transformative as Cape Cod. If offered a chance to spend the last moments of summer anywhere on earth, I can’t imagine choosing anywhere else.
Pick up the August issue of Condé Nast Traveler to read the full article
There’s iodine in the air, and the ferruginous tang of rusting girders. From my window in the Hotel Veracruz, overlooking the Zócalo, the skyline is a thicket of cranes and bell towers skirting the gulf. Gigantic containerships float about like smoke-spewing leviathans, waiting to dock. A freight train heading off for Mexico City from the port releases a forlorn wail.
Veracruz, Mexico’s historic gulf coast port, feels like a city that has been reclaimed from the sea, as though it’s not quite meant to be here, an industrial Atlantis stranded between tides. The merchant houses around the Zócalo—grand, ornate, harking back to the Spanish—seem like mermaids longing for another life, the regal majesty of faraway Madrid perhaps. The buildings are made not of stone, which is hard to come by in this area, but piedra muca, blocks of coral excavated from the reefs. Turning a corner, you brush against the sharp ridges of brain and fan corals.
Pick up the August issue of Condé Nast Traveler to read the full article
Tip 2: Get Personal
The more information you
share, the more potentially spectacular the results. That means
revealing more than just whether you require fine dining or Wi-Fi. "If a special occasion falls during your trip, bring it up," says Deputy Copy Editor Priscilla Eakeley,
who booked a trip to India through Victor Biswas. "When I casually told
Victor that my husband and I were to be at Spice Village in Kerala on
his birthday, he surprised us by reserving the room there that Paul
McCartney and Heather Mills had stayed in during their honeymoon. The
staff presented my husband with a heroic stab at a birthday cake and an
unforgettable, barely comprehensible rendition of 'Happy Birthday.'
Fortunately, our marriage has held up better than Sir Paul—thanks in
part to Victor."
Tip 3: Be a Collaborator
"The best trips spring from a team effort between you and the specialist—which is why at least one in-depth phone conversation is essential, so you can work out all the possibilities," says News Editor Kevin Doyle,
who used Earl Starkey for a trip to Turkey. "In my experience, nothing
beats the combination of a knowledgeable agent and your gut. Earl
enumerated the advantages of staying in Istanbul's lively Beyoğlu
quarter, but I just couldn't shake a certain romantic notion I had
about the old city, no matter how touristy or inconvenient it might be.
Earl and I compromised on a room with a view of the Blue Mosque, and I
couldn't have been happier."
Conde Nast Traveler senior editor Kate Maxwell battled the crowds clamoring for Lady Gaga at the Today Show this morning and chatted with anchor Meredith Vieira about how to book a summer vacation on the cheap.
Kate suggests staying during the week as hotels slash as much as 50 percent off weekend rates. She also adds that the longer you stay, the more you'll save. We've seen that numerous times this summer: even hotels in usually pricey Bermuda are offering a third night free.
Lastly, Kate recommends signing up for airfare alerts for your favorite airline, like US Airways' e-Savers, to get fresh deals from carriers.
