Tag: Islands
Three Travel Tips: Planning a Caribbean Vacation in Hurricane Season
by Jim Benning | 08.21.07 | 1:45 PM ET
Travel tips are easy to find on the Internet, but some are better than others. Each week, we’ll bring you World Hum-approved travel tips from around the Web.
1) Play the odds. “Travelers can minimize the risks by choosing islands like Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao or Trinidad and Tobago, all located so far south that they are rarely hit by major storms.”—The Washington Post
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Yahoo! BuzzCounting Caribbean Fish, Debating Voluntourism
by Jim Benning | 08.08.07 | 12:25 PM ET
Elisabeth Eaves recently visited the Caribbean island of St. Vincent to voluntour with the Reef Environmental Education Foundation. The scuba diver spent her underwater time identifying and cataloging glassy sweepers, barracuda and other assorted fish, all for the benefit of ecology and science. “These days, lots of organizations send travelers on ‘voluntours,’ wherein you pay for the privilege of doing a short stint of conservation work—on turtle hatcheries in Central America, bear-tracking missions in the high Andes, or wildlife parks in East Africa, to name a few projects,” she wrote in a series of stories for Slate. “What do-gooderism I possess is tied to Jacques Cousteau fantasies. Maybe, just maybe, I can contribute a tiny little bit to marine biology.” So what does she think about voluntourism now? I asked her a few questions via e-mail.
Voluntourism, like all trends, is being scrutinized. Some suggest it’s not all it’s cracked up to be—that many outfits put profit ahead of doing good work, that all the money people spend on costly voluntourism vacations could be put to much better use. Any thoughts on that?
Honeymooning with Jaws
by Nancy Smay | 07.16.07 | 10:37 AM ET
Photo by Nancy Smay. She went to Bora Bora on her honeymoon. She had a few tropical drinks. Someone suggested scuba diving. Then Nancy Smay found herself in way over her head.
Greenland: The ‘World’s Largest and Loneliest Island’
by Michael Yessis | 06.28.07 | 9:14 AM ET
Not for much longer, perhaps. Air Greenland recently launched its first commercial flight from the U.S. to the self-governing Danish territory, which lures most of its relatively minuscule amount of visitors—55,000 last year—from Denmark. One of the few non-Danes to visit this year: USA Today’s Laura Bly, whose terrific story reveals a beautiful—take a look at her slideshow—and heartbreaking place, a land where climate change and social change are moving at a rapid pace.
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.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
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.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
36 Hours in Florence
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Harry Potter, Billy Graham Get Theme Parks
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Travelers Face Frustrating Passport Delays
* Earlier on World Hum: U.S. Passports in Demand: Lines Look ‘Like a Rolling Stones Concert 25 Years Ago’
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Panoramio
* The site allows users “to locate photos exactly over the place they were taken.” It’s also being acquired by Google.
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
National Geographic’s Atmosphere
* The pitch: “It’s not quite as cool as teletransporting, but it’s close.”
“Hot This Week” Destination
Yahoo! (this week)
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Bill Gates’s Yacht Inspires Plans for Thai Island
by Jim Benning | 06.01.07 | 4:01 PM ET
Oh, to be Bill Gates’s yacht. The waters you’d sail. The navigational software that would chart your course. The luxury tourism developments you’d inspire. Developer Gulu Lalvani says a conversation he had with Gates in Phuket, Thailand earlier this year has inspired him to build a small island just off the Thailand coast in Phang Nga Bay. As Lalvani recalled, Gates told him: “If I could bring my yacht, I would come here every year.” The trouble is, Gates’s 54-meter yacht (a little larger than the pleasure craft pictured here) is too big for Phuket’s marina, which holds yachts up to 40 meters long.
Nicolas Sarkozy, You Were Just Elected President of France. How Are You Celebrating?
by Jim Benning | 05.08.07 | 5:12 PM ET
I’m going to Malta to hang out on a luxury yacht!
Swimming Tourism: ‘Ferries Are For Wimps’
by Jim Benning | 05.08.07 | 11:44 AM ET
Personally, I have no problem with people who ride ferries. But former Australian lifeguard Simon Murie, who runs a company that leads trips for island-hopping swimmers, has declared that, yes, “ferries are for wimps.” SwimTrek organizes trips to places like the British Virgin Islands, the Greek Islands and Croatia’s Dalmation Coast so that serious swimmers can spend their holidays island-hopping—in the water, of course. Swimmers cover up to four miles a day and up to 15 miles a week, often making one journey between islands a day with a chase boat. As a swimmer, I find Murie’s description of the experience pretty compelling.
A Traveler’s Account of Dengue Fever
by Jim Benning | 05.07.07 | 10:24 AM ET
Photo by ÇP, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
On the way home from a vacation in New Zealand, Pamela Ferdinand stopped off in the Cook Islands, including Aitutaki. It seemed like an idyllic way to cap off her South Pacific holiday. She didn’t know an outbreak of dengue fever was hitting the region; she knew all too well after she returned home. As she writes in Sunday’s Washington Post, “The next week I lay in torment at my home in Cambridge, Mass., alternately suffering chills and sweats with excruciating joint pain, bleeding under the skin and severe dehydration that landed me in the hospital for nearly a week.” She recounts her painful recovery—she lost seven pounds along the way—and offers a fine overview of the mosquito-borne illness.
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.
Need a New Passport? Bill the Caribbean.
by Terry Ward | 01.16.07 | 2:59 PM ET
When my passport expired late last year, I shelled out nearly $150 in expedited fees and overnight shipping envelopes to have a new one rushed my way. If Morocco hadn’t been calling, however, perhaps I would have waited for the Bahamas to pick up the tab. Nassau Paradise Island is spending big bucks on newspaper ads—I saw one in the Orlando Sentinel—touting a new gimmick to keep passport-shy Americans coming: 19 member hotels are offering to reimburse the cost of passports in exchange for a minimum two-night stay.
For Sale: World’s Smallest Island Nation
by Jim Benning | 01.09.07 | 12:29 PM ET
Yup. The Principality of Sealand, a former wartime fort seven miles off the coast of England, is up for sale. It doesn’t exactly sound like paradise. Calling it an “island” might be generous. It’s set on a steel platform rising out of the chilly North Sea. But if you’re looking to be king, it surely has it charms—particularly a wild history. It was claimed in 1967 by Paddy Roy Bates. The Royal Navy ordered him out, but he refused and even fired warning shots at a Navy ship to defend his autonomy. In 1968, a judge ruled that Sealand was beyond Britian’s territorial control, allowing Prince Roy to go about the business of nationhood, including issuing passports and developing currency and a flag.
The Rise of the Procreation Vacation (Complete with Sea Moss!)
by Jim Benning | 11.08.06 | 1:40 PM ET
We’ve reported on the growth of dental tourism, among other offbeat vacation trends. Now comes word of the growing popularity of “procreation vacations” undertaken by couples on a quest to get pregnant. An AP story notes a range of options, including the three-day Procreation Vacation on Grand Bahama Island, where guests sip sea moss to boost their chances; the Birds and the Bees package on Chesapeake Bay in Maryland (think oysters and massages); and the Procreation Ski Vacation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which includes romantic crackling fires. The trips sound like good fun, but do they actually help?
‘Getting Stoned With Savages’: The Adventures of Flip-Flop Man in Vanuatu and Fiji
by Kristin Van Tassel | 09.12.06 | 6:31 AM ET
In J. Maarten Troost's new book, he again flees Washington D.C. for a life on the islands of the South Pacific. Kristin Van Tassel reviews his foray into the world of volcanoes, sharks, hookers and kava.
Montserrat: It’s “Against FAA Regulations to Fly Through Volcanic Ash”
by Jim Benning | 05.21.06 | 3:06 PM ET
Gadling’s Karen Walrond had a wild flight near the Caribbean island of Montserrat yesterday. Her flight from Miami to Trinidad was diverted because, as she saw from the window, the deadly Soufriere Hills volcano has been shooting ash nearly 60,000 feet high.
The Unlikely International Ambassador of Baseball
by Jim Benning | 05.04.06 | 11:18 PM ET
Kelsey Timmerman is not the first to write about travel and baseball in Latin America—the sport often pops up in stories about Cuba and the Dominican Republic, among other countries—but his essay in the Christian Science Monitor is the first I’ve seen about baseball on the small Honduran island of Kokota. That’s where, on a recent visit, he tried to teach a group of villagers how to play the game—a game, he admits, he never did like to play. As he writes near the top of the story, “I speak a little Spanish; most of the villagers do not. They speak Miskito. Let the charades begin.”
Thomas Swick Discovers Paradise
by Jim Benning | 04.03.06 | 6:10 PM ET
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel travel editor recently visited the Cook Islands. He stayed at the Paradise Inn. He lathered himself in sunblock. He perspired. He snorkeled. And as he writes in Sunday’s paper, he had a realization about paradise.
You Just Won the Lottery! Want to Buy an Airplane or Private Island?
by Jim Benning | 02.23.06 | 6:45 AM ET
Not Michael Terpstra, one of eight Nebraska ham processing plant workers who will split $365 million -- the largest lottery jackpot in American history. "Everybody has dreams -- buy an island, buy an airplane,"
Terpstra said at a news conference Wednesday. “But in reality, I’m not a fan of flying and don’t really like water.” That means he won’t be getting a call from Farhad Vladi.
Visitors Slow to Return to Bali
by Jim Benning | 02.02.06 | 8:40 PM ET
After a terrorist attack in Bali last October left 20 dead, experts predicted the island’s tourism industry would rebound within a year or two. That may yet happen, but at the moment, four months after the attack, the tourism business is still in a major slump, and owners are worried, according to an AP story on CNN. The numbers tell the story. Said the director general of Indonesia’s Tourism Ministry: “Just before the bombing, the number of tourists arriving every day had reached 5,000. Today it’s about 2,100.” If you’ve been reading World Hum, you already know that Bali-lover Liz Sinclair has been undeterred by the attack.
Island Nation to U.S.: Give Back Our Only Jet!
by Jim Benning | 12.20.05 | 1:37 PM ET
This has to go down as one of the wildest travel-related stories of the year. The Pacific island nation of Nauru is asking the United States to return its only passenger jet—the Air Nauru 737—which it lost in court recently to a U.S. government credit agency. Without the plane, the island must charter jets so that its 10,000 residents are not isolated from the rest of the world. But that’s just the beginning. “Nauru lost the plane after a failed legal attempt to put the U.S. on trial in a bizarre case involving spies, terrorism and North Korean defectors,” the Australian reports.