Kauai Still Cleaning Up From Hurricane Iniki

Kauai County, Hawaii, has opened a hot line to provide up-to-date information on Kauai’s recovery from Hurricane Iniki, which devastated sections of the island Sept. 11. Hotels are still cleaning up, but the first of the approximately dozen major hotels to reopen--the Hyatt Regency Kauai--is scheduled to begin taking guests in January. The next to reopen for tourists will probably be the Kauai Hilton and the Kauai Coconut Beach Resort, both of which suffered only minor damage and have been 100% booked with workers and government officials involved in the island’s rebuilding. A few other hotels will open this spring, probably in April, including the Westin Kauai at Kauai Lagoons and the Sheraton Kauai Garden Hotel. The Hanalei Bay Resort will probably reopen June 1, according to a hotel spokesman. Others, including the Poipu Beach Hotel, Sheraton Kauai Beach Resort and the Stouffer Waiohai Beach Resort, are allowing themselves until next fall to complete reconstruction. Some sections of Kauai remain without electricity or phone service, but workers are struggling to reinstate service for the entire island by sometime in November. American Hawaii Cruises, the only cruise line with weekly stops in Kauai, will resume service possibly as soon as December. The hot-line number, staffed by volunteers, is (800) 262-1400.

Travel Quiz: What is the third-largest city on the West Coast?

When in France: France’s tough new anti-smoking law takes effect today, outlawing smoking in many enclosed places, including restaurants, hotels and theaters, where smoking will be permitted only in sign-posted designated areas (hotel rooms are not affected). In this country of smokers--France has one of the highest smoking rates in Western Europe--the law strengthens anti-smoking regulations already in effect on public transportation, and demands that those in charge of enclosed public areas “assure the protection of nonsmokers.” Tourists will find that smoking, already not allowed on subways and suburban trains, will now be banned in the stations. Further, smoking sections on long-distance trains are being reduced to a maximum of 30% of seats now, later to drop to 25%. The law, passed in January, is part of a progressive crackdown on smokers, including a price increase on cigarettes. Fines for smoking in nonsmoking areas will range from $42 to $270.

Quick Fact: For computer buffs with bucks, Zagat’s 1992 restaurant and hotel surveys for New York, Chicago and Los Angeles will be available by Dec. 1 on floppy disk for $100 per city. The printed guides cost $10.

Special Phones at LAX: Installation is being completed in all nine LAX terminals of 179 AT&T; Public Phone 2000s, which feature a built-in keyboard that acts as a Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD), as well as volume control for the hearing-impaired. No additional charge is levied for use of the TDD or volume-control services. In addition, the phones, which will be installed by Dec. 1, offer a few amenities that can be useful specifically to travelers on business: They connect to laptop computers and portable fax machines--the only phones at LAX designed to do so. They are easy to identify. They have a nine-inch color monitor with a keyboard at the bottom on the phone. The telephones accept most major credit cards, local telephone company cards and AT&T; Calling Cards.

A Faster Amtrak: A Swedish tilt-train, designed to allow high speeds without requiring high-speed tracks, will begin revenue-producing tests by early February, 1993, between New York and Washington. On loan from the Swedish State Railways, the electric-powered train can reach speeds of up to 150 m.p.h. (high-speed trains such as France’s TGV travel at 185 m.p.h.), and could someday replace current Amtrak equipment between New York and Washington, or New York and Boston, an Amtrak official said. For testing, the tilt-train will first handle a regular schedule between New York and Washington, then a Washington-New Haven, Conn., schedule. In the spring, it will run trips between Boston and New London, Conn. If tests prove its worth, Amtrak will purchase similar equipment for those routes, probably some time in 1994, according to an official. Despite the train’s speed, officials do not expect a big-time savings on the Washington-New York trip because trains on those tracks are limited by federal rules to 125 m.p.h., and the Metroliner already reaches that speed. But the New York-to-Boston leg could experience considerable time gains--from an express-train trip of four hours to three--because the equipment is designed to handle at high speeds the numerous curves that now limit Amtrak speeds, particularly in Connecticut, north of New Haven.

Back to Zagreb: Swissair, which in August, 1991, suspended service between Zurich and Zagreb, Croatia, due to the civil war, has resumed flying between the two cities with thrice-weekly service.

Denver Aztec Exhibit: What museum officials are calling the most comprehensive exhibition ever on the Aztec people (300 artifacts, some of which have never before left Mexico) is being shown exclusively at the Denver Museum of Natural History, now through Feb. 21. The exhibit is set in a 40,000-square-foot area of the museum that has been organized to depict various aspects of daily life in the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, capital city of the Aztec empire. Artifacts range from simple tools used by farmers to large stone carvings of gods found at the Great Temple and around the plazas of Tenochtitlan, which is modern-day Mexico City. Admission to the exhibit and the museum is $7.50 for adults, $5.50 for children (4-12) and senior citizens (age 65 and older).

Comparatively Speaking: Cruise ship sanitation scores for ships inspected in August and September (a score of 86 or higher indicates acceptable sanitation): Costa Riviera, 88; Fair Princess, 86; Noordam, 92; Pacific Princess, 86; Sagafjord, 93; Sky Princess, 86; Tropic Star II, 93; Berlin, 88. (Source: Department of Human Services.)

Quiz Answer: San Jose, which in population trails only Los Angeles and San Diego, according to a 1990 report by the California Department of Finance. (San Francisco is fourth-largest.)