Destination: England
English Adventurer to Arrive Home After 13-Year, Self-Powered Journey
by Joanna Kakissis | 10.05.07 | 12:17 PM ET
After spending well over a decade traveling the globe by foot, skate, bike, paddle and crawl, 40-year-old English eco-adventurer Jason Lewis is expected to arrive in Greenwich on Saturday morning, completing his quest to journey around the world under his own power. Lewis, once a self-employed cleaner, traveled across five continents, two oceans and one sea before reaching the English Channel last Sunday.
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Palin Effect’: Next Stop, Eastern Europe
by Julia Ross | 09.18.07 | 2:42 PM ET
Likeable travel host Michael Palin launched a new series on BBC over the weekend, and UK tour operators are bracing for the fallout. It seems Palin’s “New Europe” series—in which he explores the length of Eastern Europe, from Estonia to Albania—could trigger something tour companies have dubbed the “Palin Effect”: a spike in bookings to any country the Monty Python alumnus highlights. “Previous Michael Palin series including Himalaya and Sahara resulted in a surge of interest in countries such as Bangladesh that were previously not really on the tourist map,” one tour operator told the Telegraph. “We were surprised by the effect it had.” Let’s hope Palin’s fans leave a lighter footprint than the stag party weekenders lately buffeting cities like Riga and Prague.
Related on World Hum:
* British Secondary Schools Add Michael Palin’s ‘Himalaya’ to Required Reading List
* Prague Latest Magnet for Misbehaving Brits
Related on TravelChannel.com:
* Destinations: Prague
Take a Vacation. It’s Presidential.
by Ben Keene | 08.16.07 | 10:19 AM ET
Love him or hate him, our commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, can teach Americans at least one lesson: how to vacation. With only a few weeks of summer remaining, President Bush, like many other world leaders, is trading the stress of executive office for some rest and relaxation. And he’s leaving the majority of U.S. citizens in his Texas dust. Actually, if a survey conducted by a global human resources firm is accurate, even the average Finn, Israeli or Lithuanian would have a hard time keeping up with his seven-year vacation-time total. Because whatever President Bush may lack in creativity—he’s taken 65 trips to Crawford, Texas since entering office—he more than makes up for in number. According to the Houston Chronicle, G.W.B. is well on his way to claiming the White House record for time off, rapidly closing in on the 436 days Reagan racked up during two terms.
War Tourists Descend on Falkland Islands
by Michael Yessis | 08.07.07 | 12:17 PM ET
Twenty-five years after Argentina and the United Kingdom fought for their control, the Falkland Islands, or Las Malvinas as they’re known to Argentinians, are the latest destination to get a boost from war tourism. More than 900 people died in the 73-day war. According to the AP, most visitors are drawn to the sites of the fiercest fighting: Mount Longdon and Mount Tumbledown. Earlier this year, we noted El Salvador’s entry into the war tourism business.
Prague Latest Magnet for Misbehaving Brits
by Julia Ross | 08.06.07 | 12:30 PM ET
Is Eastern Europe under siege by badly behaving Brits? We’ve heard about kilt-wearing, buttocks-baring Scots in Poland and sex tourists in Latvia. Now Prague is attracting attention for out-of-control “stag and hen parties” thrown by UK weekenders. A report released last week by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office says the Czech Republic sees a higher proportion of traveling Brits requiring consular assistance than any other country, citing stag night revellers for much of the mischief.
Leo Hickman: In Search of the True Cost of Travel
by Frank Bures | 07.13.07 | 8:44 AM ET
Are travelers destroying cultures, economies and the planet? Are they making the world a better place? Frank Bures chats with the author of "The Final Call" about the ethics and consequences of world travel.
Hong Kong Marks 10th Anniversary of Return to China
by Michael Yessis | 07.02.07 | 10:43 AM ET
The streets of Hong Kong filled with revelers and protesters yesterday, the 10th anniversary of the date Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule. It was either a great occasion for students to meet and “have a fun day,” according to China’s People’s Daily Online, or, according to Western media reports, a day for pro-democracy advocates to once-again rally for more freedoms. World Hum contributor Daisann McLane put the situation into context in a recent story for Slate.
Stonehenge Welcomes ‘Druids, Drummers, Pagans and Partygoers’
by Michael Yessis | 06.21.07 | 3:23 PM ET
They partied like it was 3,000 B.C. at Stonehenge today. It’s the summer solstice, and according to the AP, more than 20,000 people made the pilgrimage to the mysterious prehistoric monument on the Salisbury Plain. They’re giving it love, but we hope not too much.
British Airline Pilots’ Association: ‘Air Travel has Become a Scapegoat for Global Warming’
by Michael Yessis | 06.19.07 | 11:00 AM ET
So how does one reconcile that sentiment, which comes from a new report by the British Airline Pilots’ Association, with this and this and this and this. (Frankly, I can keep going with the links.) Well, Greenpeace doesn’t even make an attempt, calling the report “pure propaganda,” according to the BBC. BALPA, which says it represents 85 percent of Britain’s 10,000 airline pilots, claims trains and ships are also big sources of carbon dioxide, yet they don’t receive the scrutiny that airplanes do when it comes to emissions.
On the Road With Dad: ‘What Was He Doing Here?’
by Michael Yessis | 06.18.07 | 2:43 PM ET
Travelers’ Tales editor Larry Habegger was traveling through England when he looked in the mirror in a Stratford-upon-Avon hotel room and saw his father. The moment helped trigger a moving essay in the San Francisco Chronicle, which follows Habegger’s journey through the country and his realization that, with “every click of the wheels on the tracks,” he’s getting older. “Maybe it was the reading glasses, maybe the fatigue in my eyes,” he writes. “But there was no mistaking it: I resembled my father more than I wanted to admit, and my father isn’t young any more.”
Related on World Hum:
* Andrew Steves: Travels in Dad’s Footsteps
* Eulogy for a Traveler
* Gregory Hubbs: Remembering Transitions Abroad Founder Clay Hubbs
* ‘Wanderlust: On the Road with American Road Movies’
British Food in India: Fish and Chips With Turmeric and Chili Powder, Anyone?
by Terry Ward | 06.15.07 | 11:48 AM ET
When I visited London for the first time earlier this year, I was torn. For my first UK meal, would it be fish and chips in a pub or a bowl of curry on Brick Lane? Both meals are about as typically British as you can get. In fact, according to the”‘Curry factfile” on a UK Food Standards Agency Web site , there are more Indian restaurants in London than in Bombay and Delhi. Britain’s first curry house opened in 1809, and Indian food has since become a UK favorite, accounting for more than 40 percent of all ethnic food sales. The love affair, however, is decidedly one-sided. British cuisine—the term alone elicits snickers from food snobs worldwide—hasn’t exactly taken the Subcontinent by storm. But that’s a fact that one British celebrity chef is out to change.
‘I Used Arthur Frommer’s ‘Europe on 5 Dollars a Day’’
by Michael Yessis | 05.04.07 | 3:05 PM ET
We recently noted the 50th anniversary of the classic travel guide, Arthur Frommer’s “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day.” USA Today’s Kitty Bean Yancey pays tribute today by taking a trip to Paris in search of answers to the questions, “[D]o his budget staples survive? And can a euro-trashed tourist find satisfaction there today?” Yancey also turns back the clock, sharing a terrific journal entry—and a great photo of her hitchhiking—she wrote in 1971 while traveling in Paris with the guidance of “5 Dollars.”
From Abbey Road to Arctic Monkeys: Mapping England’s Pop Music Heritage
by Michael Yessis | 02.08.07 | 9:20 AM ET
Judging from this Google image search and this Flickr cluster, not too many music fans visiting England haven’t walked in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo across Abbey Road. But England, of course, has a rich music heritage beyond the Beatles, and the country’s tourism agency wants to show it off. VisitBritain just released a map—and a sweet Web site—with more than 200 destinations associated with famous musicians. “For decades the done thing has been to bury Britain’s rock heritage rather than praise it,” writes Jeevan Vasagar in the Guardian. “Two of the country’s most famous music venues—the Cavern Club in Liverpool and Manchester’s Hacienda—ended their lives under a wrecking ball. But the era of official neglect is over.”
UK Guidebook Writers: ‘Readers are Getting a Poorer Experience’
by Michael Yessis | 01.24.07 | 8:33 AM ET
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Cheap Flights and Covered Bridges
by Michael Yessis | 01.05.07 | 9:08 AM ET
It’s a new year, and travelers are still showing love for some old standbys—Las Vegas, cheap travel and a good Irish beer. But they’re also looking for some underwater adventure. Here’s your first Zeitgeist of 2007:
Most Viewed Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
Las Vegas
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
No Place for a Zamboni: A Hockey Rink Where Players Sink
* Yes, this story is about the glorious sport of underwater hockey. It is, apparently, big in Britain.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
How to Get the Cheapest Flight Every Single Time
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
Digg (current)
The Traveling Morans
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Three Travel Books Crack Entertainment Weekly’s Nonfiction Books of the Year List
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Places in Between by Rory Stewart
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Busiest Airport in the U.S.
FAA (2006)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
* Total flights logged in Atlanta: 976,307. Chicago O’Hare International Airport finished a close second with 958,643 flights.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Covered Bridges Take You From Present to Past