Indiana Dunes official urges folks to visit area

Indiana Dunes official
urges folks to visit area

PORTER, Ind. — The new superintendent of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore hopes more people will consider visiting the 15,000-acre park along Lake Michigan’s southern shore.

The national park, established in 1966, stretches from near downtown Gary to the edge of Michigan City, surrounding the Indiana Dunes State Park, several industrial plants along the shore and two towns.

Lynn McClure, midwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the park’s dunes reach 180 feet high. Visitors can enjoy sunsets from the top of Mount Baldy or ride the Calumet Bike Trail. Families will want to visit the nature center. And with the arrival of lake-effect snow this winter, there will be cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the park.

For more information, visit www.nps.gov/indu.

New building to feature
hotel and a library

NEW YORK — Patrons of a new hotel won’t have far to go for their bedtime reading.

The New York Public Library is selling its branch in midtown Manhattan, across the street from the Museum of Modern Art, to Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. and plans to share space in a new building with the luxury hotel.

Under the agreement, the five-story Donnell Library on West 53rd Street will be razed and replaced with an 11-story building, the hotelier and the library announced. Construction is set to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2011. The library will receive $59 million in cash and will own and occupy the first floor and two floors below ground of the new building.

Poll: Satisfaction falls
with airport car rentals

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. — Customer satisfaction with airport car rentals has declined, according to an annual survey by J.D. Power and Associates.

Now in its 12th year, the study measures overall customer satisfaction with renting cars at airports by examining costs and fees, pick-up process, the rental car itself, return process, reservation process and shuttle bus or van.

The survey uses a 1,000-point scale, and found that overall satisfaction dropped from 767 points in 2006 to 750 points in 2007.

Jim Gaz, senior director of travel and entertainment at J.D. Power, said in a statement that “the decline in customer satisfaction with rental cars is indicative of a general decline in performance throughout the travel industry in 2007 from airports to airlines to hotels.”

For more information, visit www.JDPower.com.

Fishing in the winter?
Try it, magazine urges

NEW YORK — Get warm, fish rich, travel cheap.

That’s the advice from Field & Stream magazine, which names 10 destinations where you can go fishing this winter and escape the cold without busting your budget.

Seven of the 10 destinations offer average January high temperatures of 60 degrees or above, with some well into the 80s, the magazine said. The three spots with lower temperatures are worth the chill, according to the magazine, because of the quality of winter fishing.

Some of the destinations even offer free camping, the magazine said.

For more information, visit www.FieldandStream.com.

Associated Press