Don't Go to This Famous Spring Festival

Plus, another knock against One Key, all the eggs in the rich traveler basket, a True Crime cruise, and crackdowns on nudist beach voyeurs.

Mar 02, 2025

I should start this somewhat crank-ish column by acknowledging that, yes, the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C. are beautiful. A whopping 3,700 cherry trees ring the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial. When in peak bloom during the Cherry Blossom Festival (announced this week as between March 28 and 31) it is one of the more awe-inducing man-made spectacles you’ll ever see.

That is, if you’re pressed against the fence and only looking out across the water at the wreath of pink and white trees.

My two strongest memories from the years I’ve ventured down to the blossoms are as follows.

One: the painful state of so many of these trees’ roots. Exposed, chipped, bent, and snapped by the countless thousands straying from the paths due to crowding or a pressing need for a picture. My love of nature doesn’t usually extend to anthropomorphizing trees, but their beleaguered state brought me close.

Two: being snarled at by a woman in her 50s because I didn’t see her husband staked out this tree for her so she alone could take photos from behind its boughs of the sunset. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more embarrassed for a grown adult.

Now, it was a remarkably good spot and she’s a particularly egregious example. But the sighs you hear as you walk around the trees are as likely to be from somebody frustrated by a person walking into their shot as somebody in awe of the beauty.

With so many people and so many on the hunt for a good shot, I’ve come to find little romance or charm to be had during this period. Like Giverny—which I advised readers against going to—it is achingly picturesque. Especially at sunset when the warm light of the fading sun compliments the various shades of pink flowers. But it has turned into a photo-taking experience, not a “let’s stroll in the beautiful flowers” experience.

Instead, my preference of the past few years has been to lean into another flowering tree, an astounding number of which call D.C. home—magnolias. There are absolutely massive ones all around the city and in the randomest parks (Enid Haupt, Rawlins Park, 4th St. Entrance to National Gallery, the Arboretum, Dumbarton Oaks).

If you do go to the Cherry Blossom Festival, I’d try sunrise rather than sunset. It’s less crowded, and the cold and harsh morning light gives a certain fragility to the flowers. Of course, if you do go at sunset, and you really just want the pic, you’ll get exactly what you want.

DEPARTMENT OF GRIEVANCES

It’s a double whammy of things I couldn’t be less interested in—big cruises and true crime—but a true crime-themed trip is taking place next year on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship. The journey bills itself as the first of its kind, and I suppose if you follow true crime content religiously, you would be excited about meeting the hosts of the various shows. Eeeeeexcept I can’t help but feel that people would be far more excited about going on a cruise with the actual subjects of the true crime podcasts? Obviously, that’s super dark and has all kinds of potential problems, but the whole nature of that industry is morbid and a bit unhinged, so it seems logical. What could a host tell a person who listens to this stuff religiously enough to be interested in a trip like this that they wouldn’t already know?

I find myself perplexed by this announcement from American Airlines that it will now start boarding five minutes earlier to help with the boarding process. (Now it will board 35 minutes before departure instead of 30.) Maybe I’ve just had bad luck, but it’s rarely the occasion that the plane I’m trying to get on is empty and sitting at the gate for a while before boarding. Instead, my usual experience is getting to the gate at boarding time but the plane is only just arriving at the gate and deplaning. Then the plane boards close to departure time and the ridiculous padding airlines have done to their scheduled journey times ensures that I arrive “on time.” I’d be curious how often that extra five minutes is even available.

No words are necessary beyond noting that tickets for Fyre Festival 2 are on sale…

It’s not directly related to travel, but as somebody who traveled a lot in Europe in my teens and early 20s, there’s something sad about Skype shutting down. Skype was how I kept in touch with my family while studying abroad (I’m old enough to not have had Facetime as an option). And along with MSN Messenger, it was how most of the European friends I made kept in touch with me. Farewell!

These two stories—Rich People Are Firing a Cash Cannon at the US Economy—But at What Cost? and Rising Costs Take Their Toll on Less-Affluent Americans’ Travel Plans—are edges of the same sword. The first is a column in Bloomberg revolving around the staggering statistic that the top 10% of earners ($250,000 or more in a year) are now responsible for HALF of all consumer spending in the U.S. You can really see this in the arms race in luxury travel. For instance, nobody I’ve talked to is worried that there’s a finite amount of rich people for all the ultra-luxury cruise ships that Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Aman, Belmond, and so on. However, on the rest of the travel spectrum, cracks that I have been bleating about for nearly a year now in the U.S. domestic market are breaking wide open. There is very little value in a lot of domestic markets in the U.S. Hotel prices are sky high, Airbnb and Vrbo have become fee monsters, attractions (except in D.C.) are an arm and a leg, and domestic airfare is sky high. If you’re somebody who’s been saving up for a nice trip, it’s a remarkable thing to say but Europe is still a better deal.

Speaking of the deterioration of things. I blame Airbnb for creating this idea that an 11 a.m. checkout is normal. And hotels are taking advantage, not only pushing forward check-out (which used to be something you’d only come across in Germany) but pushing back check-in. And when you look at it from a pure “hours I’m paying for” perspective as Richard Quest puts it, it really starts to grate!

Hard to argue with the British consumer group that rated British Airways as the worst long-haul airline and RyanAir as the worst short-haul. And I think Air Canada coming in second-worst should be a much-needed wake-up call they likely won’t heed. I don’t think they’re second-worst, but they’re far, far worse than they should be.

It’s done under the guise of combatting over-tourism, but introducing tourist taxes or increasing them (shy of a Bhutan-like level) does little to curb actual tourism. Instead, it’s a money grab. If you can’t stop the tourists from choking your city to death, at least make all you can off them and do some good for your citizens. Bali is the latest to consider such a tax, and now Catalonia (home to Barcelona) is doubling the tourist tax to 15 euros a night!

As many readers know, I strongly dislike One Key, Expedia Group’s rewards program. Since I don’t use Vrbo much, I was unaware of another way in which it was bad—you can’t even use its rewards program at many of its properties!!

If you’re still haunted by the DCA airplane-helicopter crash, this story bringing together all the reporting and what we’ve learned about the lead-up to it is really insightful.

…and it really is worth noting that despite the increase in stories you’re likely seeing (the news media gives people what they want), so far 2025 has been safer than last year.