Destination: Africa
From Igloolik to Timbuktu
by Eva Holland | 01.17.08 | 1:20 PM ET
Photo by Jean and Nathalie via Flickr (Creative Commons)
I always look forward to Stephanie Nolen‘s latest dispatch from Africa in The Globe and Mail—and not just because she’s probably the biggest name ever to come out of the journalism school at my alma mater. She is a master at finding unexpected stories that go well beyond the usual “Troubled Africa” fare, and this week, a story from Mali is no exception.
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Yahoo! BuzzKenya: To Go or Not to Go?
by Jim Benning | 01.09.08 | 5:37 PM ET
That’s the question travelers are asking in light of the violence that has followed Kenya’s Dec. 27 presidential election.
Year Off to a Rocky Start for Travelers
by Jim Benning | 01.02.08 | 10:57 AM ET
South Africa: Three Great Books
by Eva Holland | 12.18.07 | 7:37 AM ET
In Three Great Books, we highlight must-reads for a topic, city or country.
Photo by Victor Geere via Flickr (Creative Commons)
The German philosopher Friedrich Schiller believed that periods of oppression and tyranny produce the greatest works of art; in his words, that “truth and beauty, with their own indestructible vitality, struggle triumphantly to the surface.” In South Africa’s case, at least, he just may have been right. The apartheid era and its aftermath have inspired a wealth of high-quality literature from the likes of Alan Paton, Zakes Mda and Nobel Prize winners Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee. Three great books:
‘Elderly White Women’ Look to Kenya for Sex Tourism
by Michael Yessis | 11.26.07 | 11:55 AM ET
Residents along the Kenyan coast “estimate that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex,” according to a Reuters story. The country is “just full of big young boys who like us older girls,” a pair of 50- and 60-something tourists from England tells correspondent Jeremy Clarke. By “big young boys,” the ladies seem to be referring to consenting 20-something men, which makes the arrangements legal. That doesn’t make it right, though.
King Tut Mummy Moved to Climate-Controlled Luxor Digs
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.08.07 | 2:30 PM ET
We’ve apparently been loving our favorite Egyptian boy-king to disintegration. Archaeologists in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings removed King Tutankhamun from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb last weekend and placed a climate-controlled glass box in his underground tomb, according to the AP. “The humidity and heat caused by…people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder,” said Egypt’s antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass. “The only good thing (remaining) in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face.”
Students Abroad: Escaping the American Bubble
by Julia Ross | 11.05.07 | 2:24 PM ET
As we’ve noted before, rising interest in study abroad programs has sparked discussion about how to reduce costs and improve access so more American college students can take part. Now a lengthy Read More »
From Fiji to Kenya, Travel Hot Spots Brace for Global Warming
by Joanna Kakissis | 11.01.07 | 2:17 PM ET
A ski resort without snow. A scuba club whose coral reefs have succumbed to warmer and stormier seas. A water-guzzling golf resort in a desertifying area. Faced with global warming, the tourism industry must adapt to scenarios like these around the world or risk losing tourists, Elisabeth Rosenthal writes in The New York Times.
Discovering Love and Loss in Niger
by Joanna Kakissis | 10.22.07 | 12:05 PM ET
Away from home and enticingly out-of-context, travelers often find love they couldn’t access in the routine of their lives. Sometimes that love is erotic. Sometimes it’s a love of love itself, as Alexis Wolff discovered in a lovely essay about Niger in The New York Times’s Modern Love column.
Doris Lessing, Travel Writing and the Nobel Prize for Literature
by Eva Holland | 10.19.07 | 5:35 AM ET
Chalk up one Nobel Prize victory for travel writing! Okay, okay. Admittedly this year’s winner Doris Lessing is much better known for writing novels and short stories than for her travel memoir, African Laughter: Four Visits to Zimbabwe, about her return to her newly-independent childhood home after decades of government-imposed exile. But much of her best-known fiction, from debut novel “The Grass Is Singing” to the “Children of Violence” series, also focuses on the white settler experience in Rhodesia, and the details of place and time are vital to the story in each work.
Travel in 2017: Start Learning Chinese and Changing Your Eating Habits
by Michael Yessis | 10.18.07 | 2:59 PM ET
The Freakonomics guys aren’t the only ones this week with an eye on the future of travel. Forbes delivered a special report about “The Future,” which features some provocative speculation on travel in the year 2017 from World Hum contributor Elisabeth Eaves. Among her predictions:
Women’s Travel E-Mail Roundtable, Part Twelve: Hitting the Road
by Catherine Watson | 10.12.07 | 11:29 AM ET
All this week, four accomplished travelers -- Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Liz Sinclair, Terry Ward and Catherine Watson -- talk about the rewards and perils of hitting the road alone as a woman.
Women’s Travel E-Mail Roundtable, Part Two: The ‘Feminine Card’
by Stephanie Elizondo Griest | 10.08.07 | 3:17 PM ET
All this week, four accomplished travelers -- Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Liz Sinclair, Terry Ward and Catherine Watson -- talk about the rewards and perils of hitting the road alone as a woman.
‘The Condé Nast Traveler Book of Unforgettable Journeys’
by Tyler D. Johnson | 10.05.07 | 10:23 AM ET
A new anthology gathers some of the most memorable stories from the magazine's 20-year history. Tyler D. Johnson says it contains the humor and wisdom only travel can deliver.
‘Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman’s Skiff’
by Julia Ross | 09.25.07 | 10:07 AM ET
Rosemary Mahoney's new book doesn't just chronicle her unlikely journey down Egypt's great river. Reviewer Julia Ross finds it also deftly explores the uncertain waters that split genders and cultures.