Tag: Links
Saying Goodbye to 2009 in Travel: Six More Links
by Eva Holland | 01.04.10 | 5:26 PM ET
We spent last week saying our farewells to the year that’s just ended—in books, video and more. But before we truly close the book on 2009, there are a few more links worth checking out.
The Times of London has put together its own year-end list of best travel books, while the New York Times also rounds up some holiday travel reads.
Gawker’s readers provide some harrowing tales of holiday travel disasters.
Social bookmarking site StumbleUpon has collected its most popular travel content for the year, and Jaunted has handed out the full roster of its 2009 travel awards, The Jauntys.
Finally, over at Flyover America, World Hum contributors Jenna Schnuer and Sophia Dembling are ready to look ahead: They’re airing their 2010 travel non-resolutions.
Got a link that we missed? Drop it in the comments. Happy New Year!
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Yahoo! Buzz‘Up in the Air’: Eight More Great Links
by Eva Holland | 12.22.09 | 5:33 PM ET
The Jason Reitman-directed travel movie continues to draw all kinds of press attention, much of it well worth reading.
Over at The Daily Beast, novelist Walter Kirn reveals how Reitman and star George Clooney saved his novel from obscurity.
In the New York Times, op-ed writer Frank Rich argues that “Up in the Air” is the perfect movie to close out a troubled year, using “the power of pop culture to salve national wounds that continue to fester in the real world.” Rich’s Times colleague Adam Andrew Newman looks at the movie as an advertising bonanza for Hilton and American Airlines.
World Hum contributor Alison Stein Wellner reviews the movie for the Perceptive Travel blog (warning: major spoilers) while blogger Joe Posnanski offers a thoughtful response to “Up in the Air” from a traveler’s perspective.
Finally, here’s an in-flight tweet from Jason Reitman, posted just after the Golden Globes nominees were announced: “Flight attendant congratulated me on the noms. Guy in 1C loved the movie. Yup, I’m on Air Canada amongst my people.”
19 Great ‘Up in the Air’ and Airworld Links
by Eva Holland | 12.11.09 | 10:28 AM ET
The movie is hitting theaters worldwide and generating Oscar buzz. Eva Holland rounds up some can't-miss links.
Links We’ve Loved: The Post-9/11 Kindness of Gander, Newfoundland
by Michael Yessis | 09.11.09 | 9:39 AM ET
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, several trans-Atlantic flights were diverted from their U.S. destinations to airports throughout Atlantic Canada. The hospitality and kindness of the town of Gander, Newfoundland, has become legendary. Here’s one story I loved, the Savvy Traveler’s 2001 tale of the passengers of Delta Flight 15 and the residents of Gander, who hosted them for “four long, yet special, days.”
Here’s our original blog post.
Morning Links: ‘Authentic’ Sushi, Saying Goodbye to GM and More
by Eva Holland | 06.12.09 | 9:17 AM ET
The Morning Links for June 12, 2009:
- Today would have been Anne Frank’s 80th birthday. Her original diaries and other papers are going on display at the Anne Frank Museum for the occasion.
- Outposts blogger Timothy Egan offers his take on the strange case of an American exchange student on trial in Italy for the murder of her roommate.
- So long, California roll? The Atlantic takes a look at a fresh crop of American sushi chefs that are returning to tradition.
- For anyone keeping tabs on the new Gulliver’s Travels flick, Chris O’Dowd has signed on as arch-nemesis Edward. He joins Jack Black (as Gulliver), Emily Blunt and Jason Segel.
- In USA Today, World Hum contributor Julia Ross looks back on three generations of family loyalty to GM, and thanks the newly-bankrupt company for “a great ride.”
- Two animal rights groups have filed complaints to prevent the Mirage from importing more dolphins for Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. A Mirage dolphin named Sgt. Pepper died last week.
- In the Daily Beast, a photographer looks back on the bad old days (that is, the 1980s) of the New York subway. Don’t miss the accompanying slideshow.
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Morning Links: P.J. O’Rourke, In-Flight Weddings Get Nixed and More
by Eva Holland | 06.11.09 | 8:36 AM ET
- In the wake of last week’s “Where’s Waldo?” movie news, Popwrap’s Jarett Wieselman thinks it’s about time for a “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” flick.
- The Daily Beast’s Marty Beckerman interviews P.J. O’Rourke about his new book, “Driving Like Crazy,” and why he’s “given up traveling to shitholes.”
- A security guard was shot and killed yesterday after a gunman burst into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and opened fire.
- In the Globe and Mail, Stephanie Nolen meets the families who have made their homes in some of India’s thousands of protected monuments.
- Matador Abroad offers a list of 20 interesting expats to follow on Twitter.
- The AP reports that inspection processes at pilot training programs will be ramped up in response to findings of pilot error in the Continental Connect plane crash last February.
- So long, mile-high marriages. EasyJet has dropped its plans to introduce in-flight weddings due to legal complications.
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Morning Links: Stolen Picassos, Travel Games and Gadgets and More
by Eva Holland | 06.10.09 | 8:50 AM ET
- A sketchbook containing 33 drawings has been stolen from the Picasso Museum in Paris. The book is apparently worth millions.
- A car bombing at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan, has killed 15 people and injured dozens more.
- World Hum contributor Pam Mandel looks back on the “continually confusing exercise” that was her trip to Leningrad in 1990.
- Over at Double X, author Rachel Cusk talks about her latest memoir, “The Last Supper,” which tells the story of a summer spent in Italy with her young family.
- An electrical fire in the bathroom forced an American Airlines flight to make an emergency landing in Halifax, Nova Scotia yesterday. Nobody was injured.
- Doesn’t anyone just play “I Spy” anymore? The Telegraph has a tech- and gadget-heavy list of the 10 best travel games.
- The New York Times takes an evocative look at a South Carolina BBQ joint that still smokes its hogs the old-fashioned way.
- An Arkansas Holiday Inn got seriously pranked this weekend, as a caller claiming to be a sprinkler company worker convinced guests and employees to smash windows, set off fire alarms and more. (Via Fark)
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Morning Links: Machu Picchu on the Cheap, a Milestone Cross-Country Drive and More
by Eva Holland | 06.09.09 | 8:16 AM ET
- 100 years ago today, Alice Huyler Ramsey, the first woman to drive cross-country, left New York for San Francisco. The trip took 41 days and 11 spare tires.
- In the New York Times Happy Days blog, Pico Iyer reflects on life in New York and Kyoto, and on “the joy of less.”
- Cue up a YouTube clip of Blame Canada: Researchers from the Smithsonian have traced the geese that brought down US Airways Flight 1549 back to Labrador.
- World Hum contributor Kelsey Timmerman recently sat down for an interview with Budget Travel’s This Just In.
- Arthur Frommer isn’t impressed with that bill to restrict the use of full-body scanners at airports, currently making its way to the Senate. He calls opposition to the scanners “misguided.”
- Matador Trips has advice on how to see Machu Picchu for just $80 all-in.
- The Telegraph looks at some of the measures airlines are resorting to in an effort to cut down on weight and fuel consumption. Among them? Japan’s JAL has shaved down its cutlery.
- New York City’s High Line opens today. The High Line Blog has photos and a short dispatch from yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
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Morning Links: Learning to Love France, Angkor Wat at Night and More
by Eva Holland | 06.08.09 | 8:26 AM ET
- In the Telegraph, Michael Simkins attempts to overcome his “good old Anglo-Saxon prejudices” and learn to love France.
- More bad news from Mexico: A group of tourists was evacuated in Acapulco over the weekend after a shoot-out broke out between soldiers and gunmen nearby.
- The Washington Post worries about the fate of Chesapeake Bay as human impact increases. There’s a lovely accompanying photo gallery.
- A bill placing restrictions on the use of full-body scanners at airport security has made its way through the House and on to the Senate.
- In the New York Times, World Hum contributor Evan Rail checks out Budapest’s growing design scene.
- Cambodia may open up Angkor Wat to night tourism to draw more visitor dollars: Good news for night owls, but bad news for the already under-pressure site?
- National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel has a preview of some of the post-renovation additions to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
- Scotland’s Scotch Whisky Association is taking its trademark battle against a Cape Breton single malt—Glen Breton—all the way to Canada’s Supreme Court.
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Morning Links: ‘Obama Fries’ in Kenya, Britney at Buckingham Palace and More
by Eva Holland | 06.05.09 | 8:23 AM ET
- In the New York Daily News, Robert Downes tries to sell Americans on the “low-cost logic” of backpacking, for travelers of any age.
- Britney Spears, in London for a series of shows, is apparently planning to “pop in” to Buckingham Palace in hopes of meeting the Queen. Tabloid reporters, start your engines—this should be good.
- In the Telegraph, Richard Madden confesses to an addiction to solar eclipses, and looks back on some of his journeys in search of a fix.
- President Obama found some time to play tourist in Cairo this week, too. The New York Post has a slideshow from his visit to the Pyramids.
- Meanwhile, in Kenya, the National Post’s Simona Siad wades through Obama souvenirs, “Obama fries” and more.
- The Times Online has picked the best 50 walks in Britain, and offers guides to each one.
- Travel Headline of the Day: 140 mph trains previewed, but they’ll cost more. (You think?)
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Morning Links: Stanley and Livingstone, the Cirque in Space and More
by Eva Holland | 06.04.09 | 8:19 AM ET
- Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. BlogHer has a thoughtful dispatch on the event from an expat in Beijing.
- Christine Garvin and her readers at Brave New Traveler share their most surreal travel experiences.
- This summer on the History Channel, four explorers will attempt to retrace Henry Morton Stanley’s most famous journey in Expedition Africa: Stanley and Livingstone.
- The Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the “foreign-film fadeout” in U.S. movie theaters.
- German-Lebanese-American writer Lionel Beehner compares the order of Berlin to the anarchy of Beirut, and realizes that he needs a little bit of both.
- Word has it that Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte is headed into orbit this fall. He would be the first Canadian space tourist.
- Employees at the Art Institute of Chicago are bracing for “an imminent encounter with a large group of identically clad people,” the Onion reports.
- Zion National Park turns 100 years old this summer. World Hum contributor Ben Keene takes a look at the park’s highlights and the planned centennial events.
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Morning Links: Living out of a Suitcase, National Parks for Free and More
by Eva Holland | 06.03.09 | 8:09 AM ET
- It’s been confirmed that the missing Air France flight crashed over the Atlantic Ocean, 400 miles off the coast of Brazil. Investigations are ongoing, but officials say the plane’s data recorders may never be found.
- Britain’s Royal Family is being urged to expand the opening hours for Buckingham Palace, with the proceeds from increased ticket sales going to repairs on other royal palaces.
- Over at the Indie Travel Podcast, Sherry Ott explains how to live out of a suitcase. The secret, it seems, is all in managing the smells.
- Applications for the Peace Corps are up, and the volunteer agency figures the “Obama effect” is partly responsible.
- The Traveling Mamas interview Nia Vardalos, star of the upcoming Greek-tour-bus travel movie, “My Life in Ruins,” about Greece and traveling with kids.
- Our friends at Wend want your best shots of waterfalls for their June Friday Photo contest. The winner lands a pair of Teva water shoes.
- The L.A. Times Daily Deal blog has the scoop on free weekend admissions (on selected weekends) to 147 national parks this summer, including heavyweights like Glacier, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone.
- Slate’s food issue is here. Sara Dickerman has a thoughtful piece about those cookbook authors who “aim to bring another culture to life through recipes and observations,” while Laura Shapiro looks at the Federal Writers Project and one of its lesser-known programs, America Eats.
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Morning Links: State Department Recommendations, Guano Seen From Space and More
by Eva Holland | 06.02.09 | 8:57 AM ET
- The State Department has just updated its list of no-go countries, and several popular tourist spots—among them, Nepal, Colombia, Kenya and Israel—made the cut. Arthur Frommer has a critique.
- Ten new emperor penguin colonies have been located in Antarctica—and all thanks to patches of “excrement-stained ice that are so large they are visible from space.”
- Here’s a shrinking planet story for you: Meet Alfonso Ramirez, the Mexican immigrant who is Glendale, California’s hookah master.
- One of the stars from the entrance to Coney Island’s Astroland has been donated to the Smithsonian—it will be on display in the National Air and Space Museum.
- Travel writer Alain de Botton notes the absence of fiction devoted to our modern working lives, and calls for “an ambitious new literature of the office.”
- In an eerily timed article, Esquire looks at two new memoirs from plane crash survivors.
- Like us, Robert Reid is sick of that s-cation word. He offers 19 alternative -cation formulations. My favorite? The Kevin Bacation.
- Over at Reason Online, Josie Appleton argues that pointless regulations are ruining British pub life.
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Morning Links: The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, Nicholas Kristof’s Travel Tips and More
by Michael Yessis | 06.01.09 | 9:29 AM ET
- An Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris has “dropped off radar” and may have crashed in the Atlantic. Today in the Sky, among others, is following the story closely.
- Nicholas Kristof offers 15 travel tips. No. 14: If terrorists finger you, break out singing “O Canada”!
- Joshua Hammer put together this year’s New York Times summer travel book reading list. His angle: “This summer, travel for the sake of pure travel is out.”
- Also reviewed in the New York Times Book Review: P.J. O’Rourke’s awesomely named “Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-Bending, Celebrating America the Way It’s Supposed to Be—With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank Mowing Our Lawn.”
- In the Wall Street Journal, O’Rourke addresses what doomed the American automobile.
- “One-in-five Britons admits that they happily jet overseas to holiday destinations they cannot pinpoint on a map,” reports the Daily Express.
- Wanderlust magazine wants people “to pay more attention to local dress and to cover up where appropriate on their travels.” Its campaign is called Put Your Brits Away!
- C’mon, fellow travelers. The Russian nesting doll industry needs our help.
- Finally, the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative goes into full effect today. For many Americans, that means you’ll need a passport when re-entering the U.S. from Canada or Mexico. The Buffalo News says that means it’s time for U.S. citizens to “think of Canada as a foreign country.”
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Morning Links: ‘Starbucking,’ Aviation Biofuel and More
by Eva Holland | 05.29.09 | 8:28 AM ET
- Bill Clinton owns up to the New York Times about his love (and extensive knowledge) of local craft shops from Hong Kong to Arusha. Who knew?
- The Onion reports on Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz’s soul-searching, Slim Jims-fueled cross-country road trip.
- A British tourist had his passport stolen in New Zealand’s Milford Sound area this week. The culprit? A wild parrot.
- In a fun and thoughtful dispatch from Mumbai, Jil Wheeler looks back on her gradual acceptance, and eventual love of, the city’s distinctive brand of English.
- Smithsonian looks at the dueling mythologies of American movement—the Frontier and Ellis Island—and asks, “Is it time for them to be reconciled?”
- Forget about that Queensland gig: Orlando has launched its search for a blogger who’s ready to spend 67 days in the city’s theme parks and other tourist attractions.
- A California man has spent 12 years—and counting—trying to visit every Starbucks on the planet. He has 9,100 down, and roughly 3,000 to go. A Starbucks spokesman called the quest “flattering.”
- McClatchy checks in on the state of aviation biofuel research and finds that tests, so far, are promising, but supply could be an issue.
- Matador Trips takes a look at some of the world’s wackiest museums. I don’t know about you, but I plan on staying far, far away from the Cockroach Hall of Fame.
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Morning Links: Cheese-Rolling, Township Tours, Obama in Vegas and More
by Eva Holland | 05.28.09 | 8:57 AM ET
- A new, restored edition of Hemingway’s Paris memoir, “A Moveable Feast,” has been released. Christopher Hitchens dissects the fresh material in the Atlantic.
- In the Guardian, David Smith test-drives a Soweto township tour, and finds the experience awkward but enlightening.
- According to the AFP, some restaurants in Berlin have begun printing special bills for foreign tourists, with the phrase “Service not included” added in English. The catch? German law stipulates that service charges be included in the listed price.
- The Guardian’s Benji Lanyado navigates “the most futuristic hotel in the world” in this fun video.
- With Times Square gone car-free this week, Gadling’s Sean McLachlan looks back at the days when the area was “full of seedy bars, seedier adult shops, and crumbling movie houses where you could watch a double feature of martial arts films for two bucks.”
- Amid fears of earthquakes, the Chinese government plans to demolish the ancient city center of Kashgar. Critics say it’s an attack on minority Uighur culture.
- For anyone keeping up their own Barack Obama travel map (and I know you’re out there)—the President spent the night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this week.
- Gloucester’s annual cheese-rolling competition took place on Monday. The Big Picture has it covered.
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Morning Links: Swimming With Dolphins, the Elgin Marbles and More
by Eva Holland | 05.27.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- With the New Acropolis Museum set to open next month, the Elgin Marbles are back in the news—and academics in Greece are hoping that the new facility will finally force their return by the British Museum.
- Slate V takes a scathing look at the worst beach movies ever made.
- The CEO of Virgin Atlantic predicts that no airline will escape the tough times this year: “I would be very surprised if anybody made any money,” he told the Telegraph.
- In the New York Post, World Hum contributor Alexander Basek checks out the arts-and-crafts community in Berea, Kentucky.
- The Globe and Mail’s Micah Toub tackles Los Angeles by bicycle.
- The World Society for the Protection of Animals is calling for an end to the ever-popular swim-with-the-dolphins tourist attractions. “The captive-display industry operates under the veil of conservation and education, yet the evidence is clear that these complex and intelligent animals are being exploited,” said a WSPA rep.
- “Tintin” fans, rejoice: the Hergé Museum opened this weekend just outside Brussels.
- In a victory for technological dinosaurs everywhere, an old-fashioned paper guidebook won out over an iPhone and a Blackberry in a Conde Nast Traveler tourism challenge.
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Morning Links: Naughty Nuns, the Las Vegas Sign Turns 50 and More
by Eva Holland | 05.26.09 | 9:05 AM ET
- In London, an Israeli tourism ad that showed the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights as being within the country’s borders has been pulled from the tube after prompting more than 300 complaints.
- The Telegraph has a fun slideshow homage to the American West.
- Over at the Daily Dish, guest blogger Lane Wallace ponders the ways in which we assess risk, particularly in an adventure tourism setting. Here’s the research paper that’s the basis for her post.
- The much-photographed “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign has landed on the National Register of Historic Places. The sign is 50 years old this year.
- In the Washington Post, World Hum contributor David Farley looks at the rise of the New York City gastropub.
- An iPod-sized universal voice translator could be coming soon to an electronics store near you: both Google and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are on the case.
- Budget Travel has the details on three crafty travelers who bartered for their holidays this year, trading labor or goods for air miles and accommodation.
- Ugly Tourist Item of the Day: 17 Brits were arrested in Crete this weekend “after they paraded themselves dressed ‘in nun attire and naughty lingerie,’ police said.” They’ve been charged with insulting the Catholic Church, and are likely to be fined but not jailed.
- Finally, who knew a McDonald’s billboard could be so much fun? Every tourist in Piccadilly Circus, apparently.
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Morning Links: ‘Hello Kitty’ Holidays, Traveling During Pregnancy and More
by Eva Holland | 05.21.09 | 8:52 AM ET
- So long, Vegas: the Blue Man Group is headed for the high seas with Norwegian Cruise Lines.
- “Hello Kitty Dream Holiday” package, anyone? Taiwan can provide.
- For all our fellow heat seekers: World Hum contributor Lola Akinmade checks out the world’s hottest peppers, and where to find them.
- In the U.K., Google Street View has obscured the faces of anyone included in their images—including Colonel Sanders.
- A flight to Hawaii for $400 round-trip? Arthur Frommer has the details.
- “Dancing With the Stars” may be over for another year (and hey, congrats, Shawn Johnson) but dancing is forever—and World Hum contributor Abbie Kozolchyk has the down low on where and how to learn some of the world’s iconic steps.
- We’ve gone way beyond shampoo and conditioner: Matador Goods offers up 10 surprising travel-sized items.
- Just in time for Memorial Day, HalogenLife picks 10 favorite local brews from across the U.S. (Via Gadling)
- Traveling while pregnant? Check out Delicious Baby’s ongoing series on the subject. The latest post tackles flying while pregnant.
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Morning Links: Watering Old Faithful, the Salish Sea and More
by Eva Holland | 05.20.09 | 7:35 AM ET
- Two employees at Yellowstone National Park have been fired after being caught urinating into Old Faithful—the story notes that the geyser “was not erupting at the time.”
- Nobel Prize winner (and occasional travel writer) Orhan Pamuk is headed back to court over complaints that he insulted Turkishness. (Via the Book Bench)
- For the second year in a row, New York City has free bike rentals available through the summer.
- Strait of Georgia? Puget Sound? Juan de Fuca? A retired professor has a proposal to give those confusing bodies of water around southern British Columbia and Washington a single name: the Salish Sea.
- In the wake of February’s Buffalo plane crash, several senators are calling for an investigation of the safety standards being enforced for regional airlines.
- London’s rail commuters are Twittering haikus about “the great British summer,” in “the world’s first interactive Twitter poetry competition.” Yoko Ono will select the winners.
- Breaking news: Airport currency exchanges offer the worst rates going. I know. I was shocked, too.
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