Destination: California
Yosemite Visitor’s Death Prompts Half Dome Safety Review
by Jim Benning | 06.20.07 | 8:00 AM ET
Particularly fit and adventurous visitors to Yosemite National Park often make the 17.2-mile round-trip trek to the top of Half Dome. The final leg, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, is “a dizzying 400-foot climb up a ladder-like contraption made of cables and wooden steps.” And it was there, on Saturday, in good weather, that 37-year-old Japanese citizen Hirofumi Nohara slipped and fell over the dome’s edge to his death. He’s the third person to die on the dome in a year. But particularly noteworthy, the paper reports, “Since 1971 there have been nine falls, including Nohara, but only three of them were fatal, all within the past year.” Understandably, according to the paper, rangers are now taking a close look at safety on the dome.
Related on World Hum:
* Thou, Yosemite, Art His Goddess
* R.I.P. Colin Fletcher, ‘The Father of Modern-Day Backpacking’
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Yahoo! BuzzWho’s Slowing Down a High-Speed Train in California?
by Jim Benning | 06.13.07 | 4:20 PM ET
Oh, to be able to hop on a high-speed train like this French TGV to breeze through California. High-speed rail has serious support among the public and in the state legislature, according to a recent story in San Diego CityBeat. So who’s standing in the way? According to Steven T. Jones’s report, it’s none other than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in the case of high-speed rail really does seem to be The Terminator. Writes Jones: “While posing for the April 16 cover of Newsweek with the headline ‘Save the Planet—or Else’ and touting himself around the world as an environmental leader, Schwarzenegger has quietly sought to kill—or at least delay beyond his term—high-speed rail.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From the Great White North to the Land Down Under
by Michael Yessis | 06.08.07 | 12:49 PM ET
This week travelers trek the length of the globe, from Canada to California to Mexico to Costa Rica to Australia. There’s also the inevitable Paris Hilton vs. Hilton Paris match up. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
In Napa, Wilderness Above the Wineries
* That’s Napa, pictured above.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Paris Hilton accommodations vs. Hilton Paris
* Christopher Reynolds pits the two head-to-head.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Mexico to (Miss) U.S.A.: Boooooo
* Readers have mixed feelings about the now-infamous boos.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
JetBlue Tries to Bounce Back From Storm of Trouble
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Air Traffic Control System Command Center
Most Read Feature
World Hum (this week)
An Island in Costa Rica
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
National Geographic’s Atmosphere
* Current podcast: Mount Everest Expedition
Disney’s Tom Sawyer Island: Too Old Media
by Jim Benning | 05.23.07 | 3:20 PM ET
Out: Tom Sawyer and books. In: Jack Sparrow, movies, video games and, yes, vertical integration. Last October, Disneyland fans were wondering whether park officials would ditch Tom Sawyer for Jack Sparrow, turning Tom Sawyer Island, which was designed by Walt himself and opened in 1956, into a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-themed attraction. Or, as one observer put it, “Will Disney abandon book-lovers for Pirates 2.0?” Absolutely, Disney officials announced today, though they’ve slyly kept the island’s original name. On Friday, Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island will debut, timed, not coincidentally, with the opening of the latest “Pirates” film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From Chocolate to Kaiseki
by Michael Yessis | 05.18.07 | 5:09 PM ET
Or, in other words, travelers’ interests this week range from Hershey, Pennsylvania to the streets of Japan. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Magnificient Trees of the World
* The Lone Cypress in Pebble Beach, California (pictured) makes the list.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
A Tour of Japanese Cuisine With Spago Chef Lee Hefter
* From the same writers: A look at kaiseki
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Japan’s Latest Budget Accommodation: Internet Cafes
* The nation that brought us the capsule hotel has done it again.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Hershey Honors its Past, Looks to the Future
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Amsterdam: Telegraph Travel Guides
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Farecast
Most Read Feature Story
World Hum (this week)
Mark Ellingham: Rough Guides and the Ethics of Travel
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Playa del Carmen
Thou, Yosemite, Art His Goddess
by Jim Benning | 05.15.07 | 11:35 AM ET
Gary Kamiya recently returned from a visit to Yosemite, where he found spring turning in a typically brilliant performance. His eloquent essay in Salon today celebrates all places wild and California’s grandest national park, in particular. Kamiya draws heavily on the writings of John Muir. He also sprinkles in quotes from Melville, Camus, Shelley and even Edmund from “King Lear.” “The planet is putting on its most spectacular show right now in Yosemite,” he begins. “Over an ancient sun-soaked cliff, a river that moments ago was as staid and obedient as you and me is hurling itself over the edge like a runaway roller coaster, turning into a hundred-headed shower of white downward-streaking comets, twisting and turning and dissolving and embracing and vanishing and reappearing, falling 500, a thousand, 1,500 feet before it collides with the rocks and disappears into a maelstrom of foam and mist.” For the uninitiated, that’s Yosemite Falls.
Related on World Hum:
* Celebrating California’s Highway 395
* Gary Snyder: ‘Our Western Thoreau’
* Can Slow Travel Save the Planet?
Photo by i_r_e_n_e via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
R.I.P. William Becker, Co-Founder of Motel 6
by Michael Yessis | 05.14.07 | 9:23 AM ET
Photo by independentman via Flickr (Creative Commons).
The “6” in Motel 6 famously represents the $6 William Becker and his co-founder, Paul Greene, charged travelers per night when the budget chain opened its first property in Santa Barbara, California in 1962. According to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Becker “had been inspired by a monthlong, cross-country car trip from Santa Barbara to his family’s farm in Greenwich, N.Y., in the summer of 1960.” The two founders leveraged their background in building low-cost tract homes, and turned out rooms with no-iron sheets, coin-operated televisions and “shower stalls with rounded edges rather than corners to reduce cleaning time.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Naked and the Red
by Michael Yessis | 05.11.07 | 3:45 PM ET
From Sin City to St. Petersburg, Russia, we’re not worried about traveling with too many clothes this week. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in St. Petersburg, Russia
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Sin City Uncovered: Vegas Strips Down to Embrace its Naughty Side
* It’s an $8 billion embrace.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
The Perfect Break: Jersey
* The island, not the home of Bon Jovi.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Brisbane Times (current)
Gang Violence Marring NZ’s Image
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
A Mass-Transit Trek Through Portland’s Singular Sites
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* It’s been so many weeks now we’ve stopped counting.
Restaurants ‘Nudge Diners’ in Campaign for Zagat Votes
by Michael Yessis | 05.04.07 | 8:26 AM ET
The Zagat guides took another punch this week. The New York Post’s Steve Cuozzo revealed that restaurant owners in New York are mounting e-mail campaigns to have diners vote for their restaurants, a practice allegedly forbidden by the Zagats. Yet, according to the Post, the Zagats don’t seem to be enforcing their rules.
Talking Books, Writing and Travel in New York and Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 04.23.07 | 4:55 PM ET
It’s a good week for literature lovers on the East and West coasts. In New York, the PEN World Voices Festival kicks off tomorrow and runs through Sunday. It’s packed with compelling events featuring authors from around the globe. Among the highlights: Tomorrow, Pico Iyer and Billy Collins, both the subject of World Hum interviews, will discuss the environment. On Wednesday, novelist Don Delillo makes a rare appearance on a panel entitled Writing Home. (It was in DeLillo’s novel “The Names” that we first came across the phrase “world hum.”) Thursday’s schedule features Multiple Passports: Writers on Homeland and Identity, which includes Ian Buruma, author of the excellent Asia travel book “God’s Dust.” And Sunday brings two panels for travel literature fans: Voyage and Voyeur: Travel and Travel Writing, featuring Alain de Botton, among others, and A Tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski.
Celebrating California’s Highway 395
by Jim Benning | 04.23.07 | 12:24 PM ET
When it comes to scenic California roads, coastal Highway 1 gets most of the attention, but there’s another route equally worthy of adoration: Highway 395. It winds along the Eastern Sierra, delivering anglers to lakes and rivers, skiers to the slopes of Mammoth, and hikers and climbers to the lower 48 states’ tallest mountain, Mt. Whitney. I’ve always loved driving the highway, especially in winter, when the Sierra is blanketed in snow. So I was jazzed to see it featured prominently in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times. Staff writer Hugo Martin highlights points of interest along the highway, from the Alabama Hills, where countless Westerns have been filmed, to Bodie Ghost Town.
And the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Travel Writing Goes to?
by Jim Benning | 04.16.07 | 4:31 PM ET
Nobody. The 2007 Pulitzer Prizes were awarded today, but of course, there’s no category for travel writing. Still, we’re delighted that LA Weekly food writer Jonathan Gold won the Pulitzer for criticism. That’s close enough, because Gold approaches Los Angeles restaurants with a traveler’s sensibility, venturing into hole-in-the-wall ethnic restaurants where few food critics dare to go, from Thai Town to Little Ethiopia. His 2000 book, Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles, is probably a little dated by now, but it’s still a great guide for anyone seeking out the city’s most interesting food—and neighborhoods.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Beer, Buzz Aldren and the City by the Bay
by Michael Yessis | 03.30.07 | 8:13 AM ET
Travelers kept the Grand Canyon Skywalk top of mind this week, as well as San Francisco, Jackson Hole and ways to stretch their travel dollar. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Insider’s Tour of San Francisco’s Chinatown
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Jessica Smith of MTV’s ‘Laguna Beach’ Named Let’s Go Spokesperson
* She allegedly did a very bad thing.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Sheer terror
* Sheer terror? Skiing Jackson Hole’s Corbet’s Couloir must be really scary.
Most E-mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Urban Human Hounds Tracking Down the Beers
* A must read if you want to “basically run around a lot and end up at a bar.”
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* We’ve lost count how many weeks in a row this has topped the list. It’s been that long.
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
A Very Long Way to the Hong Kong Cafe
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Soft Caribbean Cruise Market Could Mean Savings for Passengers
* Just don’t get too giddy and end up like these people.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Traveler Beware Edition
by Michael Yessis | 03.02.07 | 8:01 AM ET
They’re turning people back at the Canadian border, shrinking the payout for blackjack in Las Vegas and seeing through your clothes in Phoenix. Those stories—plus journeys to Alaska, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Sweden and Mulholland Drive—are intriguing travelers this week. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Going to Canada? Check Your Past
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Las Vegas: A Winner’s Guide to Blackjack
* Casino are starting to pay only 6-5 for blackjack. What’s next? No doubling down?
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Full-Body X-Ray Security Scanner Debuts
* The first passengers asked to submit to a full-body X-ray, apparently, “didn’t bat an eyelash.”
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Escapes Under $500: Go to Puerto Rico’s Second City
* That would be Ponce.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
The Cold Show in Fairbanks, Alaska
Most Read Travel Story
World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Wayfaring
Best Waterfront City
Project for Public Spaces
Stockholm
Travel Story of the Year
Solas Awards (2007)
Fishing With Larry by Tom Joseph
* Here are all the prize winners.
Most Competitive Country
World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitive Index
Switzerland
* What is this? “The index is not a ‘beauty contest’, or a statement about the attractiveness of a country. On the contrary, the index measures the factors that make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism industry of individual countries,” said Jennifer Blanke, Senior Economist of the World Economic Forum.
Eel River, California
by Ben Keene | 03.02.07 | 7:07 AM ET
Coordinates: 40 38 N 124 20 W
Thanks to cell phones, digital cameras, Internet cafes and budget airlines, destinations that might have once been little known or sufficiently removed from the beaten path are revealing their secrets to determined drifters with greater frequency.