Destination: Europe
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Paris’ By Yael Naim
by Jim Benning | 10.23.09 | 2:28 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzWorld Travel Watch: Dengue in Nicaragua, Instability in Bosnia and More
by Larry Habegger | 10.23.09 | 12:11 PM ET
Larry Habegger rounds up global travel news
London’s Heathrow: The Worst Airport in the World?
by Eva Holland | 10.21.09 | 2:02 PM ET
Poor Heathrow. It’s taken the title in a passenger poll for the second year in a row. Charles de Gaulle, LAX, Frankfurt and Miami rounded out the bottom five.
Interview With Nicholas Kristof: Traveling and Tweeting Under ‘Half the Sky’
by David Frey | 10.21.09 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo by Fred R. Conrad David Frey asks the author about his dream vacation, Twitter, travel to hellholes and the trip that changed his life
Video You Must See: ‘Artificial’ in the London Underground
by Kevin Fay | 10.21.09 | 10:04 AM ET
Paul Bryan captures the artificial atmospheric conditions of the London Underground.
Athens: A New Look for an Old City
by Rick Steves | 10.20.09 | 11:37 AM ET
Exploring Europe, exploring travel as a political act
‘Venice Doesn’t Smell’ and Other Things You Should Know
by Eva Holland | 10.19.09 | 1:54 PM ET
Over at WhyGo Italy, Jessica Spiegel offers some blunt myth-busting and advice about Venice. That infamously mediocre, overpriced food, for instance? It’s real but avoidable.
‘My Life In Ruins’: Worth the Rental?
by Eva Holland | 10.15.09 | 5:00 PM ET
Publicity still via Fandango “My Life in Ruins” landed on DVD last week, and I picked up a copy to check it out. A follow-up flick from Nia Vardalos of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” fame, it tells the story of an uptight Greek-American tour guide who learns to let loose, and I was cautiously optimistic when I first heard about it. I’m happy to report that my confidence was rewarded with an enjoyable lightweight flick—with a couple of caveats.
First, anyone looking for unexpected plot twists will be disappointed: This is a safe, predictable comfort-food type of movie. Second, the jokes are a lot like the storyline; pardon the pun but this is well-traveled comedic territory. Still, Vardalos and co-star Richard Dreyfuss are charming enough to keep things together, the titular Greek ruins are gorgeous, and hey, do jokes about tourist stereotypes ever really get old?
If your answer to that question is yes, then “My Life in Ruins” probably isn’t for you. But if you can appreciate a sunny little story peppered with travelers’ inside jokes and some lovely Greek landscapes? Then I’d say it’s worth the five bucks and two hours of your time.
Photo You Must See: Sailing Off Trieste
by World Hum | 10.14.09 | 9:58 AM ET
REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini Sailboats at the annual Barcolana regatta in the Gulf of Trieste near northern Italy. The race is one of the largest in the world with more than 2,000 participants.
Looking for the USSR in Moscow
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.09 | 3:02 PM ET
World Hum contributor Jim Heintz says that one of the hardest things to find when visiting the Russian capital “is a sense of how bleak life was under the hammer and sickle.” He writes:
Unlike Rome or Athens, where the tourist is called upon to imagine the glory that once was, in Moscow you have to visualize what wasn’t there. Walk into a food store and imagine the shelves empty; picture the store without a clever name or attractive logo—its sign would have read only “meat” or “milk” or “products.”
These days it’s unlikely that one’s tour guide briefs the secret police at the end of the day. Your hotel may not be cute or comfy, but it’s probably not overtly scary like the Rossiya, a signature Soviet monstrosity that’s now a vacant lot. In a way, this may be kind of a disappointment: Going to the Evil Empire had more cachet than a trip to the Overpriced Capital.
Behind the Eiffel Tower’s Beauty Regimen
by Eva Holland | 10.13.09 | 10:15 AM ET
As the120th birthday celebrations for the Paris landmark continue, EuroCheapo’s Theadora Brack shares “some riveting facts” (har) about the tower’s maintenance regimen.
From Bhutan to France: Gross National Happiness
by Eric Weiner | 10.09.09 | 12:26 PM ET
On the intersection of place, politics and culture
EU Aims to End Airline Liquid Ban
by Eva Holland | 10.09.09 | 10:44 AM ET
Good news, sort of, from across the pond: The European Union’s transport commissioner is “resolved to get rid of these awkward and very uncomfortable” security restrictions—just as soon as new screening technology becomes available. There’s no target date, but the thought counts for something, right?
Mapped: The Cheeses of Britain and Ireland
by Eva Holland | 10.08.09 | 10:57 AM ET
Another tasty bite of geographical fun—and more proof that British food is worth defending. (Via @LPUSAstaff)
The Titanic Memorial Cruise: Tasteless or Touching?
by Michael Yessis | 10.07.09 | 3:43 PM ET
Miles Morgan Travel, the company behind the Titanic Memorial Cruise, tells Reuters it has “come in for a little bit of criticism,” but stresses the upcoming trip is meant to be “a commemoration not a ghoulish recreation of the original journey.”
It may or may not be ghoulish, but it is a recreation. The cruise will depart Southampton, England on April 8, 2012, 100 years to the day after the original Titanic’s departure. On April 12, 2012, it will stop at the exact spot Titanic sank.
“I’ve had several people in tears on the phone,” Miles Morgan said. “I was reading the itinerary to one woman and she literally broke down.”