Destination: United States
Stardust Blown to Dust
by Michael Yessis | 03.13.07 | 7:58 AM ET
Photo by heather0714, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
We said our in-person goodbyes to the Stardust last year, and now the iconic Las Vegas hotel and casino is officially no more. The Stardust was imploded early this morning—the AP has the video—to make room for Echelon, a $4.4 billion resort. The Stardust will live on in Vegas history as the city’s first low-cost, mass-market property.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzThe World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Seville, Switzerland and The Strip
by Michael Yessis | 03.09.07 | 9:00 AM ET
Travelers this week looked to Las Vegas, Seville, the Grand Canyon, Tallinn, Riga and Charleson, S.C., and wondered whether to avoid Oslo (too expensive) and Atlanta (too busy). Here’s the Zeitgeist:
Most Read Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
Las Vegas
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Las Vegas: A Winner’s Guide to Blackjack
World’s Busiest Airport
Airports Council International (2006)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
* Chicago’s O’Hare and London’s Heathrow finished second and third respectively.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Seville’s the City for Piety Animals
* This also gets another of our groan-inducing headline of the week awards.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in Charleston, S.C.
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Switzerland Invades Liechtenstein
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Another Wonder for Grand Canyon?
* As we like to say, what would Edward Abbey think?
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Wi-Fi Bus Crosses the Border
* It’s “likely the first international cross-border Wi-Fi-enabled bus line.” It connects Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Schmap
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
July 7, 2007: The Magic Date
by Jim Benning | 03.02.07 | 3:56 PM ET
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: The Traveler Beware Edition
by Michael Yessis | 03.02.07 | 8:01 AM ET
They’re turning people back at the Canadian border, shrinking the payout for blackjack in Las Vegas and seeing through your clothes in Phoenix. Those stories—plus journeys to Alaska, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Sweden and Mulholland Drive—are intriguing travelers this week. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Going to Canada? Check Your Past
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Las Vegas: A Winner’s Guide to Blackjack
* Casino are starting to pay only 6-5 for blackjack. What’s next? No doubling down?
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Full-Body X-Ray Security Scanner Debuts
* The first passengers asked to submit to a full-body X-ray, apparently, “didn’t bat an eyelash.”
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Escapes Under $500: Go to Puerto Rico’s Second City
* That would be Ponce.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
The Cold Show in Fairbanks, Alaska
Most Read Travel Story
World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Wayfaring
Best Waterfront City
Project for Public Spaces
Stockholm
Travel Story of the Year
Solas Awards (2007)
Fishing With Larry by Tom Joseph
* Here are all the prize winners.
Most Competitive Country
World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitive Index
Switzerland
* What is this? “The index is not a ‘beauty contest’, or a statement about the attractiveness of a country. On the contrary, the index measures the factors that make it attractive to develop the travel and tourism industry of individual countries,” said Jennifer Blanke, Senior Economist of the World Economic Forum.
Eel River, California
by Ben Keene | 03.02.07 | 7:07 AM ET
Coordinates: 40 38 N 124 20 W
Thanks to cell phones, digital cameras, Internet cafes and budget airlines, destinations that might have once been little known or sufficiently removed from the beaten path are revealing their secrets to determined drifters with greater frequency.
R.I.P. Hal Rothman, Sin City Scholar
by Jim Benning | 03.01.07 | 2:37 PM ET
You don’t have to be an academic to appreciate the work of Las Vegas scholar and writer Hal Rothman, who died Sunday at the age of 48. In books like Neon Metropolis: How Las Vegas Started the Twenty-First Century and Devil’s Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth Century American West, he explored tourism’s powerful impact on Las Vegas and the Western U.S. “He didn’t dismiss it (Las Vegas),” said one UNLV professor in an obituary in today’s Los Angeles Times. “He understood that some people loved it, others hated it, and you had to take Las Vegas seriously as a subject for study.”
Gary Snyder: ‘Our Western Thoreau’
by Jim Benning | 02.28.07 | 3:35 PM ET
Gary Snyder might be best known as the inspiration for the character Japhy Ryder in Jack Kerouac’s novel “The Dharma Bums.” But Snyder is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and a fine essayist who has devoted much of his life to exploring ecology and Eastern philosophy. While he’s not exactly a travel writer, he has evoked the Sierra Nevada mountain range in his various works about as well as anyone. Which is why we note a new book from him, Back on the Fire: Essays.
American Travelers Embracing (Gasp!) Food Tourism
by Jim Benning | 02.28.07 | 1:20 PM ET
We all know Americans love their food, so it’s not surprising that food is playing a prominent role in their travels these days. Nevertheless, a new study confirms it, finding that 27 million Americans have recently made culinary experiences—including wine tours and cooking classes—a part of their holidays. Barry Glassner, author of the new book “Gospel of Food” (as well as the excellent “The Culture of Fear”) isn’t surprised. “We define ourselves by how we eat,” he told the AP. “We show others and we show ourselves what kind of people we are by how adventurous we are about food.” So where are Americans going for culinary tourism? Among U.S. states, California leads the way, followed by Florida and New York.
Related on World Hum:
* How To: Dig Dim Sum in Hong Kong
* The Pasta Nazi
* Confessions of a Chicken Man
Photo by Jim Benning.
The New Yorker’s ‘New Orleans Journal’
by Michael Yessis | 02.28.07 | 8:38 AM ET
Dan Baum has been covering New Orleans for The New Yorker since the Katrina disaster, and for the next few months he’s writing a blog of sorts—“scenes from his reporter’s notebook,” according to the intro—about his experiences in the city. His most recent post: A terrific chronicle of a gumbo dinner and a trip to the Ray Avenue Baptist Church with a mechanic he wanted to cultivate as a source.
Related on World Hum:
* Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?
* Rolf Potts in New Orleans: A Visit to the Lower Ninth Ward
* Tim Cahill and the Blues
Prince of Wales Island, Alaska
by Ben Keene | 02.23.07 | 4:31 PM ET
Coordinates: 55 47 N 132 50 W
Approximate area: 2,731 sq. mi. (7,073 sq. km)
With a relatively limited amount of physical evidence, the peopling of the Americas has long been a subject of study complicated by Bering Strait-sized gaps in our understanding. Recent DNA testing on remains recovered from Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, however, suggests that the migration from Asia to Tierra del Fuego may have occurred earlier—and faster—than previously believed. Genetic similarities between the people who occupied On Your Knees Cave here on this heavily forested patch of land some 10,300 years ago and modern descendants of native Pacific coastal populations led researchers to this new hypothesis. The third largest island under U.S. sovereignty, Prince of Wales in the Alexander Archipelago saw a period of population growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the introduction of salmon and pearl shell industries, but it has since declined.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Bali, Bargains and Jet Blues
by Michael Yessis | 02.16.07 | 9:20 AM ET
The Silk Road, Mexican beach towns, Chiang Mai and those poor passengers stuck on the tarmac at JFK were on travelers’ minds this week. Here’s the Zeitgeist:
World’s Best Travel Value: Island
Travel + Leisure Readers’ Poll (March 2007 issue)
Bali, Indonesia
* The rest of the top five: Phuket, Thailand; Ko Samui, Thailand; Langkawi, Malaysia; and Borneo.
World’s Best Travel Value: City
Travel + Leisure Readers’ Poll (March 2007 issue)
Chiang Mai, Thailand
* The rest of the top five: Kathmandu; Mendoza, Argentina; Hanoi; and Bangkok.
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Armrest Seating, Anyone?
* Perhaps those stranded JetBlue passengers can relate.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Viewing Two Chinas From a Stop on the Silk Road
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Check Out Under-the-Radar Mexican Cities and Beach Towns
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
A Walk in the Woods
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Mobissimo
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
JetBlue Apologizes for Stranding Passengers on Planes at JFK
* It makes this seem not so far fetched.
Jan Morris on the Future of America
by Jim Benning | 02.15.07 | 2:33 PM ET
The United States is no longer beloved around the world, but all is not lost, frequent travel writer Jan Morris notes in the Guardian. “Perhaps, with a future new president already champing at the bit, we are about to witness its rebirth,” she writes. “As a foreigner I am immune to the rivalries or seductions of American party politics, but I have loved the old place for 60 years, and I simply pray for an American leader to give us back its baraka, as the Arabs say - nothing to do with religion or economics or power or even ideology, but the gift of being at once blessed and blessing.” Morris is the author of many books, including “Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere,” which ranked 24th on our list of the top 30 travel books of all time.
Related on World Hum:
* A Former Peace Corps Volunteer as President?
JetBlue Apologizes for Stranding Passengers on Planes at JFK
by Michael Yessis | 02.15.07 | 8:47 AM ET
Who can relate to the passengers on JetBlue flights who were stuck on the tarmac at John F. Kennedy International Airport for as long as nine hours yesterday? Perhaps the passengers who recently were stuck for more than eight hours in Austin, Texas with malfunctioning toilets and no food. If this effort to support a passengers’ bill of rights gains traction—and it looks like some members of Congress are behind it—perhaps these incidents will become a thing of the past.
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Interstate Highways, Hot Destinations and the Mile-High Club
by Michael Yessis | 02.09.07 | 8:34 AM ET
We’re going to France and we’re learning the language. Excellent. Other stops in this week’s Zeitgeist include Spain, Morocco, Cuba, Hawaii and Hot-lanta.
Most Popular Country for Travelers
Reuters/French Tourism Ministry (2006)
France
* 78 million people visited the country last year.
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Fodor’s French for Travelers
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
‘Significant Steps’ Taken in Quest for Morocco-Spain Tunnel
Best Place in the U.S. for a Value Vacation
Hotwire.com Travel Value Index (2007)
Atlanta, Georgia
* Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Orlando-Daytona Beach, Florida; and Kansas City, Missouri round out the top five.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Interstate Highway System Simplified
* The U.S. Interstates rendered in the style of a metro-system map. Its designer calls it “map-porn.”
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
* We still like this book.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
In Cuba, Finding a Tiny Corner of Jewish Life
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
How to ... Join the Mile-High Club
* The Guardian suggests this.
Most Read Weblog Category
World Hum (this week)
Planet Theme Park
* This story helped it rise to the top.
The Critics: Louis Theroux’s ‘The Call of the Weird’
by Michael Yessis | 02.08.07 | 7:40 AM ET