Destination: California
Napa Valley, California
by Ben Keene | 08.04.06 | 3:35 PM ET
Coordinates: 38 30 N 122 20 W
Area: 754 square miles (1,953 sq. km)
Bavarian beer baths are fine for some, but the more sophisticated may prefer a Chardonnay massage—a truly intoxicating way to de-stress. Popular among the Parisian upper class in the 18th century, the
long relaxing soak in a barrel of wine once thought to reduce the effects of aging has now become an exfoliating rub-down in the 21st. And California’s Napa Valley, famous for its Mediterranean climate and abundance of wineries (roughly 300), happens to be one of the few places where such a spirited spa treatment can be found. A narrow valley that stretches almost from Mount Saint Helena to San Pablo Bay, Napa Valley actually produces only about 5 percent of California’s total wine.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
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Yahoo! BuzzTaco Travel is Big News
by Michael Yessis | 07.22.06 | 3:17 PM ET
There’s chaos in the Middle East, heat still grips much of the U.S. and Europe, and Tiger Woods leads the British Open. And at 4:30 p.m ET today the most e-mailed story at the New York Times is ... Chasing the Perfect Taco Up the California Coast. Never underestimate the power of the taco.
A Los Angeles-San Francisco Bullet Train?
by Jim Benning | 07.07.06 | 10:35 AM ET
Michael Dukakis (the guy who taught us all that one bad photo-op can ruin your whole presidential campaign) makes the case in today’s L.A. Times for a high-speed train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. We know, it’s a pipe dream. But we can dream, can’t we?
R.I.P. California Map & Travel, Cody’s Books
by Jim Benning | 06.29.06 | 1:13 PM ET
Today, we pay our respects to two great California bookstores we’re losing or already have lost. California Map & Travel Center, the fine Santa Monica travel bookstore whose L.A. roots stretched back to 1949—an eternity in L.A.—recently closed shop. The small Pico Boulevard store was crammed with guidebooks, narratives and globes, and it sometimes hosted readings. I once saw travel editor and writer Thomas Swick read there on a book tour, to an enthusiastic audience. The store was profiled here in better days. The other big loss, of course, is Cody’s Books, an institution on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. The store, which stocked all kinds of books, will close July 11. Two other Bay area Cody’s locations will continue to operate, but it is the Telegraph Avenue store, a stone’s throw from the UC Berkeley campus, that is so beloved among book-lovers.
Welcome to “Tehrangeles”
by Michael Yessis | 06.08.06 | 12:28 PM ET
The biggest community of Iranians outside of Iran lives in Los Angeles, or “Tehrangeles” as some residents call it. As tensions between the governments of U.S. and Iran continue to rise over, among other things, the development of nuclear technology, Tehrangeles has become more and more important in the eyes of both countries. The Council on Foreign Relations, for instance, says the CIA relies on Tehrangeles to “pick up valuable intelligence” from residents who travel often between the two countries. Today on NPR’s Morning Edition, Renée Montagne takes a less wonky look at the community, which is centered along Westwood Boulevard, just south of the UCLA campus. “Pop into any shop and you’ll hear Farsi,” she says. “The business signs are all in Persian.”
No. 9: “The Innocents Abroad” by Mark Twain
by Michael Yessis | 05.23.06 | 9:32 PM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 1869
Territory covered: Europe and the Holy Land
Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad marks a turning point for both the author and American travel writing. In 1867, Twain boarded the ship the Quaker City for a five-month Journey through Europe and the Holy Land, and he convinced the Daily Alta California, a San Francisco newspaper, to pay him $1,250 to file letters from abroad for publication. He sent 51, and those, along with a few others written for newspapers in New York, comprise “Innocents Abroad.” The dispatches, followed by lectures he delivered based on his travels, helped establish Twain’s voice as an American original. During Twain’s lifetime, “Innocents” was his most popular book, and today it remains perhaps the most celebrated travel book by an American writer. Some critics credit its longevity to its fresh approach: It was written from a different angle than most travel books of its time. As Twain writes in the preface:
California Woman Plans to Turn a 747 Into a House
by Michael Yessis | 04.26.06 | 12:16 PM ET
Francie Rehwald has hired architect David Hertz to build her an environmentally friendly and “feminine” house out of an old 747. “The wings will be the main house,” according to an Agence France-Presse report. “The cockpit will become a meditation temple, the jet’s trademark hump will become a loft and the remaining scrap will be used for more buildings.” A computer rendering of the house is pictured here.
Talking Travel Writing at the L.A. Times Festival of Books
by Jim Benning | 04.19.06 | 12:31 PM ET
For Southern California book lovers, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is, hands down, the must-attend event each spring, mainly because of the terrific panel discussions. This year, the festival takes place at UCLA on April 29 and 30. Two panels are of particular interest to travel-lit fans, and both are conveniently scheduled for Sunday.
Which City Has the Worst Drivers?
by Michael Yessis | 03.31.06 | 1:45 AM ET
Is it Buenos Aires? Mexico City? Kuwait City? Rome? Los Angeles? London Times correspondent Chris Ayres devotes his latest So L.A. blog entry to his opinion on the subject. “[T]his week I returned from Buenos Aires, Argentina, a city whose entire population seems to be trying to break the land speed record in a 1984 Renault 9 GLS,” he writes. “And I concluded that the lapses of concentration demonstrated by motorists in Los Angeles is far preferable to the sociopathic stare of the average Porteno cab driver, who considers it his duty to accelerate towards stationary objects (including human beings) at double the speed limit, before averting multiple homicide by stomping on the brakes or swerving violently.” Sounds horrible, but I’m going the other way on this. I’ve seen some dreadful drivers here in Los Angeles. Just tonight, for instance, I was traveling a busy two-lane street when the guy in front of me swerved into the oncoming lane and stopped cold, just to drop off his passengers. No hazards. No signal. No brain.
J.R. Moehringer: A Day at Sinatra’s House
by Michael Yessis | 03.28.06 | 2:27 PM ET
Bullfighting School: ¿Quién es Más Macho?
by Jim Benning | 03.13.06 | 12:50 PM ET
I don’t talk about this much because, frankly, it just intimidates people, as it should. But back in 1998, when I was but a young magazine freelancer with a dog-eared copy of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” on my bookshelf, I enrolled in bullfighting school. The California Academy of Tauromaquia in San Diego, to be specific. That’s me in the photos. It was for a story for Men’s Fitness magazine.
I studied the art of bullfighting for several weeks, learning the ins and outs of cape-handling, among other essentials. For homework, I studied episodes of the TV show “When Animals Attack.” And then, wearing the traditional white shirt and cap of a bullfighting student, I stepped into a stone bullring in Mexico under a hot desert sun (actually, it was rather cool, but “hot” sounds more unforgiving; stick with me here), and went mano a mano with a snarling, charging 400-pound heifer. I graduated with honors.
Before any of you send angry e-mails: Not only did I not harm the animal, but at the time, I was a vegetarian who wouldn’t go within 10 feet of a Big Mac, so send your notes elsewhere. But I digress. I bring this up now because Gadling just pointed out a recent New York Times story in which the writer attended the same bullfighting school and faced a 300-pound heifer.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Three hundred pounds? That’s it?
Exactly. That’s the first thought that ran through my mind.
Back in the day, if you wanted to prove yourself in the ring and deliver a meaty story to your editors, you made sure you faced at least 350 pounds of lumbering beef. Know what I’m saying? And honestly, if you were an editor worth your salt, you wouldn’t print a bullfighting story by a writer who faced anything close to 300 pounds. At the New York Times, you’re just giving more ammunition to those in Red America who claim the liberal media elite are out of touch. Don’t you editors know your heifers? Get back in touch. We need you. No bull. Okay, a little bull.
As for the California Academy of Tauromaquia, it offers an excellent bullfighting education, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in learning the basics. And really, shouldn’t we all know at least the basics? No? Okay.
Los Angeles: Three Great Books
by Jim Benning | 03.11.06 | 5:24 PM ET
Killing My Lobster in San Francisco’s Mission District
by Michael Yessis | 03.03.06 | 1:16 PM ET
The acclaimed San Francisco comedy group Killing My Lobster finishes up a two-weekend run of its travel-themed show “Killing My Lobster Takes a Cruise” tonight and tomorrow at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. I recommend this or any other Killing My Lobster event. The group puts on themed shows several times a year, and when I lived in San Francisco a few years back I saw a bunch of performances. All were hilarious. Here are a few ideas for what to see and do before and after the show.
San Francisco: The Mission District
by Michael Yessis | 03.03.06 | 1:05 PM ET
San Francisco’s Mission District, with its strong Latin tradition, is beloved by artists, activists, hipsters and foodies. “I try to get anybody coming to San Francisco to come to the Mission,” San Francisco-based writer Dave Eggers recently told the New York Times. “Not to misuse the word ‘authentic’—I think that’s such a troubling word—but the Mission really does have all the best parts of San Francisco intersecting here.”
Atlanta’s Georgia Aquarium Reaches 1 Million Visitors Milestone
by Michael Yessis | 03.02.06 | 2:14 AM ET
It comes only 98 days after the Georgia Aquarium opened its doors, according to a CNN report today. Impressive numbers and a rousing success, yet I have to admit that I’ve never really understood the appeal of aquariums.