Trains across the USA, hotels for solos, airline service to Cuba

Across the USA by train for just $213
This travelogue about a train trip from San Francisco (actually Emeryville) to New York shows how affordable and fascinating train travel can be across the US. The train crosses the Sierra Nevada Mountains, then the Rockies. It rolls across the flatlands that dominate the center of the country and comes into Chicago before heading across to New York City.

Today, the USA still has an excellent rail network for visitors that’ll take you to almost all the towns and cities a visitor would want to see. Arguably, the most scenic and historic of all the train routes in America is the cross-country journey from San Francisco to New York. As you climb through the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas, and further east through the heart of the Rockies, you may find it hard to disagree.

12 hotels perfect for travelers flying solo
This Travel and Leisure story and slideshow uncover “celebrated hotels [that] make solo travelers feel engaged, comfortable, and catered to, rather than up-charged.”

If you’re looking to explore the world with no travel companion other than your fabulous self, you may think the surcharges, sympathetic looks, and stink-eyed waiters sneering, “Table for one?” are a sheer inevitability. Happily, that’s not the case.

U.S., Cuba to hold talks on normalizing airline service: U.S. official
On the heels of Obama’s push to normalize relations with Cuba, the airline industry is maneuvering to set up regular service to Cuba from the US. There are many bureaucratic steps that must be taken, but the service is expected to start by early next year.

Both sides would like to reach an agreement, the official said, which could benefit U.S. carriers such as American Airlines Group Inc and JetBlue Airways Corp expecting demand and more revenue from Americans wishing to visit the communist-ruled island.
Key issues the sides must discuss are aviation safety and security, the official said. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration must sign off on Cuba’s operations, although cooperation is already under way to accommodate specialist groups that charter U.S. airlines to fly to Cuba.
The United States will also address the potential for Cuba’s state-owned carrier, Cubana de Aviación, to share its flight codes with U.S. airlines and sell tickets on flights operated by U.S airlines, according to the official.

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