The Loop

Let's Talk Travel (Part 1 of 2)

December 13, 2008
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Last week I jumped a train from New York City to Harrisburg, Penn. My apologies to Amtrak for not using their services more often for trips within a three to four hour radius of where I live. What's not to like about getting to the station 15 minutes before departure time as opposed to two hours? There's no need to strip down to your undergarments, you can carry on medium sized portions of a grooming liquid or just general refreshments, there's no middle seating, no cranky flight attendants, there are outlets for plugging in laptops or phone chargers, I never felt turbulence and didn't have to put seats forward or tray tables up on takeoff and landing. I started at Penn Station and the last stop was Harrisburg. The trip took just over three hours and the ticket cost me $45, one-way. Once I arrived at the station I was driven to Hershey, which is a growing town, that on a calm day, smells like chocolate. More on Hershey, the hotel, the golf courses, the "grand expansion," chocolate and some of the people I bumped into while I was there in a upcoming post.

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The reason why I went to Harrisburg was to meet up with my new best friend, Sandy Fenton. Fenton, who could be the pace car for a race of Tasmanian Devils, has been talking travel on the radio for the past 15 years. She has more energy than General Electric and is an expert at getting to and from the best point B's in the business. Fenton hosts a talk show on Saturday afternoons on WHP580, "Let's Talk Travel," where she discusses just what she advertises with other frequent travelers. Today and next Saturday I spoke to Fenton about golf courses, resorts, restaurants and golf personalities. Both shows are an hour, so it's a commitment, but I wouldn't send you there unless there was some useful information about where I've been and who I've talked to so far as the Travel Editor at Golf Digest, as well as some behind-the-scenes of how I do my job and the culture of where I work.

To get to the links to the five segments which aired today, go to the this page of WHP580's website, scroll down, and on the left side of the page, just below a bunch of pictures of Fenton with past guests, there's an option of "Listening To Past Shows:"

The show I just did is under the heading, "12/13/08 The World's Greatest Resorts: Part 1 with Matt Ginella from Golf Digest & Golf World." Didn't get enough? There will be another one next week under 12/20/08.

This week we talked about, among other things: Pebble, Pinehurst, Sea Island, Bandon Dunes, the Hotel Hershey, the Greenbrier and playing golf with Phil Mickelson.

--Matty G.