Anyone who's been stuck in transit for more than two hours, has asked why airports don't offer better amenities. I've often wondered why there are no movies at airports - don't tell me it's because you'd miss your flight, you already know how to set your mobile to vibrate. Where's the gym or the pool or the spa? Flyertalk has an interesting post on this topic.

Take showers, for instance. Many airport lounges around the world provide them, as a benefit for very frequent flying or with paid membership. Several of these lounges also allow access by the day. The facilities offered, however, are not standard and airlines don't do a particularly good job differentiating their product (usually seen as a commmodity seat) from the competition for the infrequent customer.

While I'm on about economics related travel stuff, there's a post on the Freakonomics blog that asks "What's your family vacation nightmare?" Funny stuff in there.

To me, “family vacation” means parents and siblings and children and cousins and other assorted relatives. With that in mind, a “nightmare family vacation” is one that lasts more than 24 hours.

My husband is forced to restock his wardrobe from the tiny gift shop on board, so that all his outfits carry the ship’s logo. Several times I mistake him for a crew member, which at least adds spice to our nightlife.

Rolf Potts has a great interview with adventure travel writer L. Peat O'Neil, who had travel in her blood from day one.

By age 13, I was planning a solo trip through Europe. But first I had to earn the money, my parents said. I cleaned houses, typed notes for teachers, ironed shirts for the neighbor ladies and looked after toddlers whenever I wasn’t in school. Took my first big solo trip when I was 16, during three months summer vacation between 3rd and 4th years of high school. I stayed in hostels and with friends of my parents or slept on trains.

Also, here's food for thought from the same article for aspiring travel writers.

If you’re going to travel you have to have a day job, or some steady work gig. I don’t like the sense of obligation that press junkets and familiarization trips put you under. For me, travel writing means going my own way, nosing around in the back corners and talking to people the tourist bureau representatives steer travel writers away from. That means paying my own way, unless I’m on assignment for a publication that covers expenses.

You can learn more from this remarkable wandering woman at Adventure Travel Writer, a site with links to her classes, other writings, and resources for aspiring travel writers.

Pam blogs about travel and other adventures at Nerd's Eye View. Her Labor Day weekend travel plans were thwarted at every turn, so she stayed home. Which was fine.