Destination: Nevada
R.I.P. Stardust Hotel
by Jim Benning | 10.31.06 | 5:59 AM ET
Photo by heather0714, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
I spotted the guy in the ghoulish grim reaper costume, gripping his faux scythe, at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas Saturday night. He fit right in among the other Halloween revelers—the scantily clad nurses, the Top Gun pilots in their flight suits and reflective sunglasses, Richard Nixon and his entourage of Secret Service agents. But the grim reaper really should have been skulking several blocks up the strip at the Stardust, where death loomed like a hazy cloud of casino cigarette smoke. On Wednesday, the half-century-old hotel with the strip’s most iconic neon sign will close for good. The usual implosion will follow in several months, paving the way, as the Vegas hotel life cycle dictates, for a new megaresort.
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Yahoo! BuzzThe World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Beppe, Borat, Bungees and Bunnies
by Michael Yessis | 09.29.06 | 8:03 AM ET
Beppe Severgnini returns to the top, and so does the Playboy Club. Travelers and armchair travelers have an eye on both this week as the Zeitgeist ventures to Oaxaca, New Zealand, Italy, Colorado and the 52nd floor of the Palms in Las Vegas.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
La Bella Figura: A Field Guide to the Italian Mind by Beppe Severgnini
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (current)
Farecast
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Where the Moon Stood Still, and the Ancients Watched (Chimney Rock, Colorado)
* The current most e-mailed story overall at the New York Times, however, is our kind of travel story: Kazakhs Shrug at ‘Borat’ While the State Fumes
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: This One Goes to Eleven
by Michael Yessis | 09.22.06 | 7:34 AM ET
You, Bono, The Edge and Neil Peart really brought the rock this week. Where did you bring it? Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, New York, Las Vegas and China. Time to crank up the Zeitgiest and find out what’s been intriguing travelers and armchair travelers.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle by Neil Peart
* Yes, that’s the drummer and lyricist from Rush. Here are some excerpts from “Roadshow.”
World’s Busiest Airline Route
OAG (September)
Barcelona-Madrid
World’s Sexiest City
Gridskipper (poll)
New York City
Most Viewed Video
Yahoo! | Current Traveler (this week)
“A Day in the life of The Edge: Part 1”
* Here are part two and part three.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Footloose and Boot Free: Barefoot Hiking
Top-Rated Travel Podcast
PodcastAlley (September)
The Strip
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Condo-hotels create risks, opportunities for buyers
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Oprah Takes a Road Trip, Pumps Gas For First Time Since 1983
* Oprah and Gayle? Not so rock ‘n’ roll. Their sing-along artist of choice on their road trip? Celine Dion.
Most Viewed Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
China
No. 1 World Music Download
iTunes (current)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
“Best Song About Travel”
* Hint: It’s not by Celine Dion. Or Rush. Or U2. Though A Sort of Homecoming should at least be considered for any list of great travel-themed songs.
Got something that deserves to be included in next week’s World Hum Zeitgeist? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Pool Crashing, Soda Pop and “Pizza Jason”
by Michael Yessis | 09.15.06 | 8:04 AM ET
After last week’s end-of-summer blues and 9/11 remembrances, seems like travelers and armchair travelers are in a happier mood, ready to eat and drink and crash some pools. Where? Looks like the world’s classic destinations are still in style. Here comes your zeitgeist.
Most Viewed Story
World Hum (this week)
* Jason Wilson: One Traveler, Three Dishes Named “Jason”
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
* Los Angeles: Galco’s Soda Pop Store
Destination of the Year
PlanetOut Travel Awards (2006)
* Spain
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
* Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
* The Art of Pool Crashing in Las Vegas
Cover Story From a Glossy Travel Magazine
Conde Nast Traveler (September issue)
* Insider’s Guide to New York City
Favorite Country for Holidays
Conde Nast Traveller UK Reader’s Poll
* Italy
Most Viewed “Travel & Places” Video
YouTube (this week)
* “Welcome to Aggieland”
Most Popular Site Tagged “Travel”
del.icio.us (current)
* TravelPost’s Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide
The Google “I’m Feeling Lucky” Button Travel Zeitgeist Search
* A happier place than the happiest place on earth
Got something that deserves to be included in next week’s World Hum Zeitgeist? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The Art of Pool Crashing in Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.06 | 8:02 AM ET
Las Vegas pools reflect the city in general: they’re loud, over-the-top (flat screen TVs in the cabana!) and a showcase for sun-drenched people in itsy-bitsy clothing—or, sometimes, no clothing at all. So, of course, they’re in high demand. So much so that they attract a lot of pool crashers. Locals climb fences, pose as employees and hoard used room keys from hotels up-and-down The Strip to get into the best pools. One person, according to a great AP story by Kathleen Hennessey, spent seven hours in a ballroom before trying to sneak into a pool unnoticed.
‘What Happens Here, Stays Here’: The Dark Side of Las Vegas’s Tourism Slogan
by Michael Yessis | 07.28.06 | 10:41 AM ET
Here’s what happens when some people start taking Las Vegas’s ad slogan—“What Happens Here, Stays Here”—a little too seriously: First, they arrive in Las Vegas and do things they never do at home, often involving too much alcohol, too little judgment and an alibi provided by the official Las Vegas Alibi Generator 2.0. Sometimes what they do in Vegas also happens to be dangerous and possibly illegal, and that captures the attention of the Las Vegas Police Department. And that prompts the local Las Vegas NBC affiliate to run a sensational local news story asking, Is the Vegas slogan causing problems for police? The answer? Well, maybe, but we don’t want to kill the golden goose.
Francis Fukuyama vs. Bernard Henri-Lévy: Battling Over Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 03.28.06 | 12:29 PM ET
March Madness Hits Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.06 | 12:43 PM ET
I clearly remember March Madness of 1990. It’s the year I won $120 on a three-team parlay (big money in those days) when Duke’s Christian Laettner drained a buzzer-beater versus Connecticut, and I remember having no problem finding a seat at any of the Las Vegas sports books where I watched the NCAA basketball tournament that year. People cared, but not like these days. Now it’s truly March Madness. Round one of the NCAA men’s college basketball championship begins today, and hotels and casinos are guaranteed to be slammed. And not just for today. For three consecutive weekends.
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.
Hooters Casino Hotel Opens Today in Las Vegas
by Michael Yessis | 02.03.06 | 4:51 AM ET
First came the airline. Now comes what the folks over at the Best Week Ever are calling “a place for boobs to go.” The new Hooters Casino Hotel takes the place of the Hotel San Remo, just off the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, and will be hosting grand opening festivities all weekend.
Rick Reilly on the Palms’ Hardwood Suite
by Michael Yessis | 01.19.06 | 6:07 AM ET
It’s only $50,000 a night, a bargain for what Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly calls the “hardworking NBA star, trying to feed [his] family on $9 million a year.” Reilly devoted his entire column last week to the outrageously expensive suite at the Palms in Las Vegas, which features, among other things, three “NBA sized” Murphy beds and a basketball court. His column is, as usual, quite funny. Unfortunately, it’s available online only to SI’s subscribers, but the magazine has made a slide show available. Beware of image two: Reilly wrapped around a stripper pole.
Las Vegas: ‘What Happens Here, Ends Up On Your Mastercard Bill’
by Michael Yessis | 01.13.06 | 12:02 AM ET
I love Las Vegas, but I still found Chris Ayres’s takedown of the city hilarious. Ayres spent several days in Vegas covering the recent Consumer Electronics show, and he proclaims in the Times of London this week that he “hated almost every second of it.”
Farewell to The Stardust, Castaways
by Michael Yessis | 01.12.06 | 1:58 AM ET
Las Vegas said goodbye to another of its old-time hotels today. Castaways, formerly known as The Showboat, endured for almost 50 years before succumbing to crippling debts after 9/11. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has the story—and the video of the implosion. Next up on the list of old Vegas hotels set for closure: The Stardust.
Las Vegas, Where Thousands of Taxis Still Aren’t Enough
by Jim Benning | 01.09.06 | 11:18 PM ET
I just stopped off in Las Vegas for a couple of nights en route home from a snowboarding road trip to Park City, Utah, and I couldn’t have picked a worse time. The gigantic Consumer Electronics Show just ended, and the city has been jammed for days. The crowding got so bad that the Nevada Taxicab Authority, which had already added 300 additional cabs for the trade show, had to hold an emergency meeting to add 300 more. And I still saw long, snaking cab lines in front of many hotels. It’s ugly.
Las Vegas by Monorail
by Jim Benning | 11.17.05 | 8:07 AM ET
I’ve been a fan of Wayne Curtis ever since I read his terrific 2002 Atlantic Monthly story The Iceberg Wars, so I was happy to crack open the December 2005 Atlantic and find another piece by him. “Back to the Future,” whose first two paragraphs are available online, is about the new, problem-plagued Las Vegas Monorail, and it includes a brief survey of monorail history to boot.