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This weekend we check up on loose change left for TSA. Should they treat this as a tip for a good personal encounter? Next month will provide the best Northern Lights display in a decade. Where can you get the best seats? And, for those tired of Top 10 lists, here is a Bottom 5 list of cave hotels with a fun slide show.
Travelers leave $500,000 per year at TSA checkpoints
A lot of money gets left at TSA checkpoints and TSA is treating this half-a-million as tips — they are keeping it and putting it to their bottom line. But, what should be done with this spare change that travelers leave after being hustled through the security lines? Some congressmen think the money should be donated to charities that help military travel. They tried to do this a few years ago, sending money to the USO. But, evidently, TSA prevailed. This might be worth an email to your Representative or Senators.
Every year, travelers leave half a million dollars at airport security checkpoints. Maybe it’s a tip for Americans to show their appreciation for all the fine work the Transportation Security Administration does. Or maybe people just don’t want to carry the coins anymore, and the checkpoints present the perfect opportunity to dump the pocket weights on some other poor sucker.
Either way, TSA has appreciated the donations. Under current law, the agency can retain and spend whatever money is left unclaimed to augment its annual appropriations, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In each of the past two years, that amounted to about $500,000.
Best places to see the Northern Lights
A super Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights), the best natural lightshow in a decade, is coming this December, according to NASA. But where can we have a chance to get the best seats for this spectacle? Well, Iceland is on the list, as is Alaska. Or, wait until March 2014 and go south for the Aurora Australis (Southern Lights).
Solar activity will hit the peak of an 11-year cycle at the end of the year — and the more intense the solar flares, the more magnificent the aurora display.
The best chance to see the Northern Lights will be somewhere between 66 to 69 degrees north — a sliver of the world that includes northern Alaska and Canada and bits of Greenland, northern Scandinavia and northern Russia.
You can also head south, for the Aurora Australis, lighting up from around March 2014 onwards.
Cave hotels, why not?
They are finding ways to put hotels into abandoned prisons, trees and underwater. Why not in caves? It seems that these establishments are ahead of the curve and have been offering rock bottom rates for underground stays. Well, the rates may be rock-bottom, but not necessarily cheap or affordable. This slide show is a view into the underworld.
The Mine Suite, Sala Silvermine, Sweden
Billed as the world’s “deepest hotel room,” this subterranean suite is found 155 metres underground. It is maintained at a comfortable 18C (and extra blankets are also provided), but it’s a chilly 50-metre dash to the loo — temperatures elsewhere in the mine hover at just above freezing. Sustenance is provided in the form of cheese, biscuits, fruit and sparkling wine.
Le Grotte della Civita, Matera, Italy
“By any standards, Le Grotte is a luxury hotel,” wrote Tim Jepson for Telegraph Travel after his stay. “But this is not the luxury of a Four Seasons, say, or a Maldivian island idyll. The floors are uneven, the rock walls unadorned. There is no restaurant. With a few exceptions, there are no windows. Rather, this is the luxury of the unique experience, the luxury of the one-off, the luxury of a setting and backstory with which no other hotel can compete or compare.”
The Laleh Kandovan International Rocky Hotel, Iran
“The hotel, which opened in 2007, is on the edge of the mountain village of Kandovan, 27 miles south of the city of Tabriz. All the rooms have under-floor heating and some have whirlpool baths. There are Persian rugs on the floor and the walls have recessed lighting. The decor is stylishly minimalist, using plenty of tiles and letting the rough rock sides do the talking.” — Nigel Richardson
Kelebek Hotel, Turkey
Located in the Cappadocian village of Goreme — where cave lovers are spoilt for choice when it comes to subterranean accommodation — rooms here are housed within the cone-shaped “fairy chimneys” for which the region is renowned. They come complete with hand-carved furniture, locally-made fabrics and marble-tiled bathrooms. There’s also a pretty garden at the rear.
Kokopelli’s Cave, USA
Built into sandstone cliffs, Kokopelli’s Cave has fabulous views of the La Plata river and the Four Corners (where the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet). Caves consist of a master bedroom, separate living area, dining area, kitchen and bathroom.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
