Filed under: Trips
Some solo travelers go solo all the way no tours, no packages, no organized anything.
For others, the obvious choice is a tour organized specifically for singles many by companies dedicated to the singles market, such as Singles Travel International. Others are offered by mainstream tour operators, offering price breaks for singles on certain departure dates.
But there are other types and styles of travel that are especially well-suited to single travelers. Most of them share one key trait: Theyre not based on the two-by-two paradigm that permeates most of the industry.
Special interest tours: Trips focused around a theme or activity, from a week at a cooking school to an archaeological dig in Romania. Youll travel with people who share your interests, establishing a basic bond and a comfort level that usually grows stronger as you share experiences each day. Check the United States Tour Operators Association (ustoa.com), a trade organization representing companies that offer tours and packages around the world; its members are responsible for the majority of tours and vacation packages sold by US travel agents. You can search the list of members by interest and trip type.
Another good resource is the Specialty Travel Index (spectrav.com), whose listings of special interest and adventure trips and tour companies are exhaustive. The variety is amazing anything from butterfly-watching expeditions to knitting tours.
Volunteer vacations: Do good, see new places and meet like-minded travelers. Not only is every sort of opportunity available everywhere in the world but youll find most programs draw single travelers. An estimated two-thirds of all Habitat for Humanity International volunteers sign up solo; the Global Volunteer Network estimated that 90 percent of its volunteers, who work with partner organizations in China, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Thailand and Uganda, are solo; Global Volunteers, another far-reaching group, says 60 percent of its travelers are solo volunteers.
Other good sources for locating volunteer vacations: Vol unteermatch.org and Globalvolunteers.org.
All-inclusive resorts: Convenient, relaxing and safe, these resorts have long been popular with single travelers. But today there is a variety of brands and resorts catering to different demographics even Club Med has family resorts these days so make sure you find the resort right for your style (some of the singles resorts are younger and, well, randier, than others).
Spas: Theyre all about rejuvenation, health, pampering and fitness. Theyre places for self-improvement and personal journeys, which by definition are solo endeavors. Sure, there are couples weekends and mother-daughter packages, but for the most part, spas are solo city.
Cruises: While giant cruise ships may be challenging for singles, from being the only single at a dining table full of couples to activities that require partners, smaller ships and river cruises are singles-friendly. Their relaxed atmosphere and activities such as cooking classes and nighttime lectures on cultural or historic aspects of the cruise region provide a comfortable environment for making new friends while exploring new places.
Jill Schensul
April 12, 2012
Pharmaceutical companies would tend to have termed the budget a normal one. The increase in excise duties on medicines from 5% to 6% would add to costs, but tax credit on inputs would lessen the burden. Excise as a percentage of sales has come down over the years and is at just 1.5% in 2010-11, nearly half its level in 2006-07.
The budget also extended the 200% weighted income tax exemption on research and development expenditure for five years, giving long term certainty on this exemption. This will benefit domestic drug firms who spend significant sums on research and most companies focusing on the US generic market for formulations would fall in that category.
Photo: Bloomberg
Ramp;D expenditure as a percentage of total revenues was 1.9% in 2010-11 for listed pharmaceutical companies. This may seem small but is higher for companies such as Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (9.5% of revenues) and Cadila Healthcare Ltd (8.5% of revenues), based on data from Capitaline.
While the budget would have largely preserved the status quo, except for some inflation in input costs, an amendment to the minimum alternate tax laws took the wind out of the sails of some companies. The government has imposed MAT on all companies, in the past few years, even those eligible for tax exemptions.
But partnership firms escaped the MAT net. The budget proposes to end that concession, making it applicable to all taxable entities, with very few exceptions. Companies who had set up partnership firms with a significant operating size in states like Sikkim, where area-based tax exemptions are available, have been hit hard.
Cadila holds a 96% share in a Sikkim-based partnership firm, and its share of profit in the firm amounted to Rs 412 crore in 2010-11 or about 49% of its consolidated profit before tax. At a MAT rate of 18.5%, if this measure had been in place in 2010-11, it would have led to a 9% reduction in PBT in 2010-11.
Similarly, Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd owns a 97.5% share in a Sikkim-based partnership firm, and its share in the profit of this firm in 2010-11 amounted Rs 1079 crore, or 53% of its consolidated profit before tax. MAT would have led to about a 10% reduction in its profit before tax.
The impact of this measure is thus significant, but it is not catastrophic. The MAT paid out today will be recouped in later years and it is a timing effect. That is, companies will pay MAT now, but when they exit the tax holiday and have to pay normal income tax, they will get credit for MAT paid.
The immediate effect will be to see earnings drop, which is why share prices have fallen. But for long-term investors, who will consider earnings over a longer period, this should not drastically alter their outlook on these companies.
Graphic by Yogesh Kumar/Mint
We welcome your comments at marktomarket@livemint.com
Click here to see enlarged graphic
April 10, 2012
Chasity Wampler of Richmond competes on the uneven bars during Saturday?s state gymnastics meet at Ball State University. / Palladium-Item photo by Joshua Smith
April 2, 2012
Most area residents only know about India from the annual Jai Ho cultural festival that takes place in Danbury, but some take a close-up look by participating in a humanitarian trip to a poor city in that ancient Asian country.
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An article in the Danbury News-Times reports on the humanitarian tourism trips to Kolkata, India, organized each year by Western Connecticut State University anthropology professor Jean Hatcherson. Participants help educate people living in conditions similar to what was depicted in the film Slum Dog Millionaire.
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Later this month, Hatcherson will receive a Danbury Women’s Mentor of the Year Award in a ceremony on the WestConn campus.
April 2, 2012
<;MXn Call The Bee#x92;s Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx, (916) 321-XXXX.>#x96; Linda Beymer
Travelogue lists travel talks and events, as well as organized day trips with nominal costs up to $100. Send information to travel@sacbee.com. Priority will be given to events free to the public.
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April 1, 2012
Every year, the Gustavus Center for Servant Leadership (CSL) sends a group of students to various locations around the country to participate in building houses with Habitat for Humanity.
“Habitat for Humanity has a branch called Collegiate Challenge, which is basically their alternative spring break. Interested sites submit requests and we can look at all the different sites and choose,” David Newell, Assistant Director for Community-Based Service and Learning, said.
The trips usually go to the Gulf region of the US, with past destinations including Biloxi, Miss., New Orleans, La., and Corpus Christi, TX. This year, three groups of approximately thirty students will head to Pensacola, Fla., Laredo, Tex., and Maryville, Tenn.
“We [want to] work on establishing relationships with these places we also want sites where we can learn something, so that we can have a significant impact on the place we go but they can also have a significant impact on us,” Newell said.
March 30, 2012
That it was an eagle. And where wed come from.
Neither Finks nor her two boat mates cared that the bird was the only one among them who caught a fish that day. This event in time #x97; one of peace, beauty and nature at its glory #x97; served a much greater purpose.
We forgot the past, Finks said. We were in the moment.
It is the kind of moment that helps military veterans deal with the emotional and physical scars they brought back with them from places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
As so many veterans can attest, they simply cannot walk away from war and return to civilian life as though nothing had ever happened. It affects them. It affects their families and friends, their employers and co-workers. And while many seek help through counseling, the calming sounds of a river, the four-count rhythm of fly casting and the joy of netting a trophy trout go a long way toward beginning the healing process.
Such is the purpose of Rivers of Recovery, a non-profit organization that takes veterans on fly fishing excursions in places like Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. Guides teach them how to fly fish while also giving them tools to help them cope in their everyday lives. Within six months after these trips, veterans have shown decreased levels of perceptual stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety symptoms.
The nationwide organization hopes to serve 1,000 veterans in 2012. Its board of directors includes Modesto attorney Jim Mayol, who is spearheading a fund-raiser March 22 at the State Theatre that, if successful, will send 20 or more local veterans on trips for the third consecutive year. The event includes a showing of a collage of films on fly fishing.
Mayol is a member of Rivers of Recoverys national board of directors, as is Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Thomas Jake Katosic, a 29-year-old Groveland native, served in the Army in Korea though not in a combat zone. He grew up fishing on the Tuolumne River, and went on a Rivers of Recovery trips to gain a better understanding of those who went to war.
I have lots of friends who went to Iraq or Afghanistan and came back really different people, Katosic said. I learned it was not just about the trip, but what they impart to you on the trip.
Phillip White of Los Banos said the river trip offered a sense of peace and stability hed experienced rarely in his life. White, 31, attended nine different high schools for a variety of reasons, beginning at Los Banos and finishing there as well. He joined the Marines in 1999 and went to Iraq in 2003, his unit being among the first in the invasion. They literally obliterated an entire small town on the way to Baghdad, he said, and in one clash his unit fought its way out of an ambush by 2,000 Iraqis.
We didnt lose a single Marine, he said.
Another battle left hundreds of many Iraqis dead.
We put Vote for Bush signs in their hands, White said.
He returned stateside and mustered out of the service a changed man at the end of 2003, he said.
March 27, 2012
June 14: dinner at Shady Maple, $99. St. Josephs, Tom, 610-965-9722.
July 19: lunch at Shady Maple, $81. St. Anns Prime Timers, Emmaus, Barbara, 610-967-1561.
OVERNIGHT TRIPS
Ocean City, NJ, June 18-22, $258. Air Products Activities Committee, 610-481-5872.
Atlantic City Resorts, show, May 1-2, $115. School retirees, Joanne 610-398-0981.
Mount Rushmore, The Badlands and Black Hill of South Dakota, Aug. 24 – Sept. 3, $995. Golden Rodalians, Pat, 610-366-1152.
Cape Cod and Marthas Vineyard, June 26-30, $515. Lower Macungie Seniors, Doris, 610-966-3653.
Myrtle Beach, SC, tour of Charleston or Georgetown, S.C, three shows, May 20-26, $630. Bethlehem Mora Club, Roland, 610-703-1788.
Cape Cod, Hyannis, Chatham and Marthas Vineyard, June 25-28, $699. Sacred Travelers, Bernie, 610-691-6054.
Villa Roma Resort, Catskills, NY, June 20-22, $378. St. Johns Friendly Fifties, Northampton, Pat. 610-767-4881.
Smoky Mountains, Pigeon Forge, Dolly Wood Festival of Nations, April 15-20, $710, members; $750, nonmembers. Lehigh County Senior Center, Beth, 610-437-3700.
Virginia Beach, May 21-25, $579. Assumption Church Travel Club, John, 610-767-3036.
Simply Savannah, tours of Savannah, sightseeing cruise, May 20-25, $555. St. Theresas Seniors, Mary, 610-838-0679.
Virginia Beach and Colonial Williamsburg, May 20-24, $495. Fearless Fire Company Auxiliary, Judy, 610-797-1466.
California Coast, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Monterey, Big Sur, Solvang, Los Angeles, San Diego, April 29 – May 7, $2,549. Operation Sunshine, Carolyn, 610-435-9155.
Lithuania, Poland and Prague, July 16-31, $3,895. Lithuanian Womens Club, Margaret, 570-277-6163.
Cayman Islands, Belize, Cozumel, Routan, April 6-13, $580-$820 plus airfare. Chestnut Hill Church, Debbie, 610-967-1975.
San Antonio, Texas, guided tour of San Antonio, River Walk CruiseLBJ Ranch, W. B. Clinton Presidential Library, April 13-23, $875 Panther Valley Golden Agers Travel Club, Frank, 570-645-9614.
Sponsored Trips are for nonprofit organizations. Send information: event, date, cost, phone number. Fax: 610-820-6693; email: news@mcall.com; mail: Trips, The Morning Call, Box 1260, Allentown, 18105-1260.
March 26, 2012
Newsbreak: An unusual, and certainly avoidable, one-vehicle crash has occurred at our favorite intersection of the news media, policy and politics.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bandwagon has somehow collided head-on with itself. Eyewitnesses from coast-to-coast are shaking their heads in disbelief.
March 24, 2012
Ocean City
St. Patricks Day Parade Festival
Spend St. Patricks Day by the seaside. Visit Ocean City for the 31st annual St. Patricks Day Parade and Festival, sponsored by Delmarva Irish-American Club. The parade features pipe and drum bands, local high school marching bands and decorated floats. After the parade, celebrate at The Irish Festival at the 45th Street Shopping Center, offering live Irish entertainment, dancers, face painting, Irish apparel and, of course, food and drinks.
March 21, 2012
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