Destination: United States
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From the Great White North to the Land Down Under
by Michael Yessis | 06.08.07 | 12:49 PM ET
This week travelers trek the length of the globe, from Canada to California to Mexico to Costa Rica to Australia. There’s also the inevitable Paris Hilton vs. Hilton Paris match up. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
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In Napa, Wilderness Above the Wineries
* That’s Napa, pictured above.
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Paris Hilton accommodations vs. Hilton Paris
* Christopher Reynolds pits the two head-to-head.
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Mexico to (Miss) U.S.A.: Boooooo
* Readers have mixed feelings about the now-infamous boos.
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JetBlue Tries to Bounce Back From Storm of Trouble
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Air Traffic Control System Command Center
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An Island in Costa Rica
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National Geographic’s Atmosphere
* Current podcast: Mount Everest Expedition
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Yahoo! BuzzAverage U.S. Hotel Room Price Tops $100
by Terry Ward | 06.08.07 | 11:01 AM ET
I’m toying with the idea of heading west on an American road trip this summer, but a short piece in today’s USA Today gives me pause. Gene Sloan writes that a milestone has been reached: According to Smith Travel Research, the average U.S. hotel room price now tops $100 per night. To be exact, it’s $102.79. Granted, that figure can vary drastically, depending on the market—from an average of $84 in Detroit to, gulp, $254 in New York City, Sloan writes.
U.S. Plans Temporary Waiver of Passport Policy*
by Michael Yessis | 06.08.07 | 8:42 AM ET
Travelers frustrated with the United States government’s glacial pace in processing passport applications may be getting a reprieve. Various reports this morning say the policy requiring all U.S. citizens to show passports when flying to Canada and Mexico will be suspended through September 30 while the government tries to catch up on paperwork. Travelers without passports will instead need to show another form of government-issued identification, and perhaps be subject to more scrutiny by border-security agents.
Update, 1:56 p.m. ET, June 11 : It’s official. The government made the announcement Friday.
Las Vegas Gets Its First Frank Gehry Building
by Jim Benning | 06.07.07 | 6:00 PM ET
And no, it’s not a one-third scale replica of his Bilbao museum for a new Spanish-themed casino and hotel. It’s not even on the Strip. But the 67,000-square-foot Lou Rivo Brain Institute—Gehry’s first in the city—is sure to become a tourist attraction. Construction began in February and it’s scheduled to open in late 2008.
‘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.
‘Accent Reduction’ 101, or How to Speak American
by Terry Ward | 06.06.07 | 12:24 PM ET
If this test is any indication, I have a neutral American accent. And further confirmation that my intonation is fairly middle-of-the-road comes when I travel abroad and locals tell me they find my particular version of American English easy to understand. My boyfriend’s experiences, however, have been different. During our recent stint in France, Chris, who is Florida born and bred, had a hard time making himself understood to the French people we encountered who spoke decent English.
Is Summer Now the ‘Vacation Deprivation’ Season?
by Michael Yessis | 06.04.07 | 5:32 PM ET
For U.S. citizens, it seems, but not Europeans. While most of our overseas counterparts get at least 20 guaranteed vacation days each year, and while Italian lawmakers are proposing to add seven new holidays to the country’s slate, Americans seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Last month the Center for Economic and Policy Research released its No-Vacation Nation report, which reveals that the U.S. is “the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation.” Those that do have vacation time aren’t taking it all, or are taking working vacations.
Mexico to (Miss) U.S.A.: Boooooo
by Jim Benning | 06.04.07 | 12:21 PM ET
I’ve always found Mexicans to be friendly and hospitable on my trips south of the border. Sure, Mexicans often gripe about U.S. government policies—who doesn’t?—but like most people around the world, they can differentiate between individual travelers and their government. But Miss U.S.A. is not your typical traveler. Mexicans at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City last week apparently directed their anger and frustration over U.S. government policies at one exceedingly well-quaffed, strutting Rachel Smith, otherwise known as Miss U.S.A.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Seeing Stars Edition
by Michael Yessis | 06.01.07 | 6:41 PM ET
Kelly Slater, Billy Graham and Harry Potter all make the Zeitgeist this week as travelers contemplate Hawaiian surf, learning to speak French, Planet Theme Park and the alleged return of the Loch Ness monster.
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Q&A: Eight-Time World Champion Surfer Kelly Slater
* He says the sight of the heavens from Mauna Kea (pictured) is probably the best view in Hawaii.
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36 Hours in Florence
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Harry Potter, Billy Graham Get Theme Parks
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Travelers Face Frustrating Passport Delays
* Earlier on World Hum: U.S. Passports in Demand: Lines Look ‘Like a Rolling Stones Concert 25 Years Ago’
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Panoramio
* The site allows users “to locate photos exactly over the place they were taken.” It’s also being acquired by Google.
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National Geographic’s Atmosphere
* The pitch: “It’s not quite as cool as teletransporting, but it’s close.”
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Cheyenne, Wyoming
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.”
Is It Time To Retire ‘Ugly American’ From the Travel Lexicon?
by Michael Yessis | 05.29.07 | 12:10 PM ET
Anthropologists, New York City cabbies, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, New York Times writer Paul Vitello and many others agree: We need to rethink the use of the term “ugly American.” “Let it be said that no group holds a monopoly on the title of ‘ugly,’” writes Vitello in Sunday’s paper. “Tip-stiffing, line-jumping, excessive price-haggling, sidewalk-blocking-when-stopping- suddenly-to-take-pictures- of-a-person-playing-the- steel-drums—none of these are unique to any national group.” As evidence, Vitello points to the recent Expedia survey of European hoteliers that ranked French, Indian, Chinese, Russian and British tourists as the worst tourist nations in the world.
The Roadside Motel: ‘Reinventing an American Icon’
by Michael Yessis | 05.24.07 | 2:41 PM ET
While Route 66 sees the sad decline of countless roadside motels, elsewhere in the U.S. they’re on the rise. “The credit goes to a growing number of ‘boutique motels,’ properties dating back to the 1940’s, 1950’s, and early 1960’s that have been bought and completely reimagined by energetic young moteliers with a clear vision of what makes for not merely comfortable but also memorable accommodations,” writes Charles Gandee in the introduction to a roundup of chic motels in Travel + Leisure.
Matt Gross: Road Tripping Across America, Frugally
by Michael Yessis | 05.23.07 | 6:03 PM ET
When I last touched base with Matt Gross, Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times, he’d just completed a 90-day, around-the-world trip spanning “3 continents, 17 languages and approximately 900 varieties of dumplings.” Last week he embarked on another epic journey, this one a road trip from New York to Seattle during which he’ll zig-zag through almost every state in the U.S. He’ll do it Blue Highways-style: driving backroads. Gross will be filing stories and videos from the road every Wednesday throughout the summer for the Times. His first installment, which includes a visit to an outdoor marketplace in Mebane, North Carolina known as “Little Mexico,” appears today.
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.
Notes from the Barbecue Trail: From Lockhart, Texas to Lexington, North Carolina
by Michael Yessis | 05.23.07 | 11:20 AM ET
On the spectrum of barbecue love, I fall between someone satisfied with a McRib and the kind of crazed person who would shell out $12,500 for this gold-plated grill. Essentially, I like barbecue enough that I’ll travel to eat the good stuff. Some days I brave the traffic on I-95 south of Washington D.C. for smoked pork shoulders and muddy spuds at Dixie Bones in Woodbridge, Virginia, and not too long ago, inspired by an outstanding series by David Plotz in Slate, my dad and I made the pilgrimage to Lockhart, Texas.