Destination: Florida
Bollywood Comes to Miami
by Eva Holland | 12.19.08 | 11:44 AM ET
Well here’s a new twist on an old theme. Instead of a Hollywood movie exposing American travelers to new and exotic locations (say, New Zealand, Colombia, or… Wyoming), it looks like Bollywood is set to launch some of its legions of fans towards a domestic tourism hotspot: Miami. The newest Indian blockbuster, Dostana, was shot entirely in South Florida, and the Greater Miami tourism bureau is calling it “one big postcard” for the city.
The movie follows the story of two men who pretend to be a gay couple so they can move in with their landlady’s (predictably stunning) niece. Singing, dancing, juicy beach shots, and plenty of intense gazes ensue. (And yes, we’ve got video after the jump.)
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Best (Almost) Fictional British Pubs
by Michael Yessis | 09.30.08 | 2:41 PM ET
Among David Barnett’s picks for great fictional pubs: George Orwell’s The Moon Under Water and Anthony Burgess’ Korova Milk Bar, from A Clockwork Orange. Though they’re products of the authors’ imaginations, it looks like they’re so good they’ve both spawned real-world pubs. In his Guardian piece, Barnett mentions a series of British pubs named The Moon Under Water. I found another in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Hemingway House: Snowball’s Six-Toed Descendants Can Stay
by Jim Benning | 09.26.08 | 12:45 PM ET
The U.S. Department of Agriculture had talked of fining the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West thousands of dollars a day, claiming the museum couldn’t qualify for a license for the 50 or so cats residing there—descendants of Hemingway’s cat, “Snowball.”
‘Great Orlando Wheel’ Announced With Hypnotic, Over-the-Top Promotional Video
by Michael Yessis | 07.01.08 | 12:03 PM ET
Oh, the hyperbole! I’ll bet the first minute and a half of this clip offers more entertainment than the 400-foot-tall Great Orlando Wheel ever will when it opens in central Florida in 2010. See for yourself.
‘When Adventure Tourism Kills’
by Michael Yessis | 03.06.08 | 11:11 AM ET
With that over-the-top headline, Time magazine begins addressing the safety of adventure tourism in the wake of the death of 49-year-old Austrian Markus Groh. He died last month during a shark-diving excursion off Great Issac Cay in the Bahamas. A shark bit his left leg, and he bled to death. Scuba Adventures, the Florida company that ran the trip Groh took, chummed the waters to draw sharks and eschewed cages for its clients.
In Fort Lauderdale, ‘Where the Boys Are’
by Jim Benning | 03.05.08 | 12:03 PM ET
Tom Swick recently asked beach-goers in Fort Lauderdale if they were familiar with his “favorite Fort Lauderdale novel,” Glendon Swarthout’s spring break-themed “Where the Boys Are,” published in 1960—or the film or song of the same name. It’s not hard to imagine the response. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has video.
Eating Cuban on Miami’s Calle Ocho
by Jim Benning | 02.14.08 | 1:37 PM ET
The cultural heart of Cuban life in Miami is, naturally, Little Havana. And in Little Havana, the main drag is Calle Ocho—8th Street. It’s on Calle Ocho where old men in elegant guayaberas gather to play dominoes, and it’s on Calle Ocho where a number of fine Cuban restaurants have been serving up strong espresso and garlic-infused fried pork for years. For Americans who want to experience authentic Cuban culture without violating U.S. laws with a clandestino trip to Havana, Miami’s Calle Ocho is the place to start.
Thomas Swick’s Seven Wonders of South Florida
by Jim Benning | 08.27.07 | 1:50 PM ET
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel recently named its readers’ picks for the seven wonders of the region. They included, predictably, the Florida Everglades, Walt Disney World and the Florida Keys. On Sunday, travel editor Thomas Swick named seven other wonders, and his was just the kind of quirky list we like.
Hemingway Cats Have ‘Historic, Social and Tourism Significance’
by Jim Benning | 07.10.07 | 1:36 PM ET
In a World Hum story about visiting Ernest Hemingway’s old Key West house, Doug Mack noted that each one of the dozens of cats residing there has “a calm but vaguely sinister look on its face, creating a mildly Hitchcockian scene.” That scene—made all the more Hitchcockian because some of the cats famously have six toes—has been at the center of a controversy ever since the USDA claimed the historic site is an “exhibitor” of cats and requires a special license. But now, the house has won some support from the Key West City Commission.
Fire in the Night
by Bill Belleville | 06.25.07 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo by Bill Belleville. In a Florida lagoon, Bill Belleville paddles among the manatees and mangroves on a quest to see the dazzling blue-green light of bioluminescence
‘Vamos a Cuba’: Should the Children’s Travel Book be Removed from Miami Schools?
by Michael Yessis | 06.07.07 | 5:39 PM ET
No way, I say. The fate of “Vamos a Cuba,” however, rests in the hands of a three-judge panel at the Federal Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Miami, which yesterday heard arguments regarding a Miami-Dade Country school board decision to remove the book from school libraries. According to the Miami Herald’s Tania deLuzuriaga, the controversy started when Juan Amador Rodriguez, a parent and former political prisoner in Cuba, complained that the travel book failed to accurately depict life on the island. The school board removed “Vamos a Cuba” in June 2006. A federal judge soon ordered the book back into the library, setting the stage for the current appeal process.
Harry Potter, Billy Graham Get Theme Parks
by Jim Benning | 05.31.07 | 11:43 AM ET
Every day brings news of more amusement parks in the works, on themes ranging from the sacred to the profane. In Charlotte, North Carolina today, 88-year-old evangelist Billy Graham celebrates the dedication of the Billy Graham Library, which, according to some observers and Graham fans, is more like a corny theme park than a dignified museum. “Their concerns start just inside the enormous glass cross that forms the door to the 40,000-square-foot museum,” according to the Los Angeles Times, which headlined its story, Billy Graham, tourist attraction. “The lobby is set up like a barn to evoke Graham’s boyhood on a North Carolina dairy farm. Hens cluck on a soundtrack. A stuffed cat heaves a battery-powered sigh. And amid bales of hay, a cow that looks uncannily lifelike begins to sing.”
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.
Las Vegas (Who Else?) Leads in U.S. Tourism Ad Spending
by Michael Yessis | 04.26.07 | 8:18 AM ET
Sin City spent $52,158,800 in advertising in 2006 to lure travelers to the desert, almost tripling the outlay for the runner-up on the list, Puerto Rico. Texas, Florida and Arkansas round out the top five. Brandweek has a list of the top 25. (Via Jaunted)
y’ Success”>Australia’s ‘Bloody’ Success
Dave Barry’s Miami: ‘¿Usted Piensa Que Conseguiré Mi Equipaje a Tiempo Para el Tazón Estupendo?’
by Michael Yessis | 02.02.07 | 1:30 PM ET
Super-hyped Super Bowl XLI takes place this Sunday in Miami, as you probably know. Pulizer Prize-winner and sometime travel writer Dave Barry lives in the city, and this week he’s written a guide for all those traveling to South Florida. “Welcome to Miami, Super Bowl visitors!” Barry writes in the Miami Herald. “You are going to have a wonderful time, from the moment you arrive in our magical city, until the moment you discover that your wallet is missing.” Barry’s advice ranges from learning some phrases to communicate with the Spanish-speaking locals to navigating South Beach.