Letters: To really escape, look for an ‘authentic’ adventure

To really escape, look for an ‘authentic’ adventure

The study reported by Araina Bond in her article “When the Vacation Bubble Bursts” [June 13] misses the mark and, as a result, so do the recommendations she offers for “maximizing vacation fun.” Interviews I have been conducting for the last two years with people whose lives have been impacted, changed or transformed by adventure travel lead to very different recommendations than those presented in the article. These interviews are more informal and less scientific than those conducted in the reported study, but they are nonetheless strongly suggestive.

According to my interviewees, “transformative” trips tend to be psychologically and/or physically challenging, push travelers out of their comfort zones and immerse the traveler in an “authentic” experience in a dramatically different natural environment or with people of a different culture. Volunteer projects (disaster relief, building schools, etc.) in remote settings are good examples of potentially transformative travel experiences. These trips may not be fun in the usual sense and they are rarely relaxing, but they do have a profound and lasting impact on those who take them.

Don Mankin, PhD, Venice

The cross photo and the ACLU remark

Just where in the world is Joseph A. Lea going with his comments [Letters, “Yikes, Alert the Media! Oh. Wait.” June 12]?

Though not a member of the ACLU, I’m quite sure it has no quarrel over a newspaper’s — any newspaper’s — printing a photograph of a Christian cross in its Travel section. I mean, please, come on!

For one, ACLU stands for “American Civil Liberties Union” and claims no more jurisdiction over Germany’s Oberammergau’s landscapes than it does over Brazil’s (Rio’s Christ the Savior statue). Tongue in cheek or otherwise, Lea is really stretching it with the “Oh, the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth ...” bit.

Bruce Scottow, Los Angeles

Questionable ‘resolution’

Catharine Hamm is ecstactic that Princess Cruise’s “resolution” is one that requires Jennifer Newton to do future business with Princess and is calculated to enhance its bottom line at her expense [On the Spot, “Course Correction,” June 13]?

Really?

Jon Caplan, Los Angeles

Cheese article: a nice slice of life

I never thought I’d see the day when my little hometown of Monroe, Wis., would be featured in the L.A. Times [“The Art of Cheese” by Jay Jones, June 6]. Growing up there, I thought cheese was cheese. It was not until I moved to California that I grew homesick for that delicious Green County Gold. Now when friends and relatives come to visit, we beg them to load their luggage with pepper jack, baby Swiss and Muenster. Jay Jones should make a return trip to the area for Monroe’s once-every-other-year festival Cheese Days, this year Sept. 17-19, where you can sample cheeses from local cheesemakers at the cheese tent, learn how to dance the polka and milk a cow. I’ve already booked my plane ticket!

Jenny Bochar, Santa Clarita