How Can I Save on Transportation During a Round-the-World Trip?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

13 Great Travel Horror Movies

The Hollywood horror archives are filled with tales of bad trips. To celebrate Halloween, Eva Holland and Eli Ellison sift through the carnage to pick their favorites—and lose a little sleep doing so.

Matt Weiland: Through 50 States With 50 Writers

The coeditor of “State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America” talks to Frank Bures about the book, the WPA and how the United States hasn’t been “bulldozed for speed”

Love Herring in Sweden

From artery-clogging casseroles to a fermented concoction that smells alarmingly like vinegary flatulence, Lola Akinmade digs in to a smörgåsbord of herring and explains how to best appreciate Scandinavia’s favorite fish. 

The Water Is Wide

Bronwen Dickey considers Tim Butcher’s “Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart,” which takes readers deep into the Congo

Vagrant Ruminations of a Compulsive Traveler

Where does the urge to hunt for that “fleeting fix of elsewhere” come from? Peter Wortsman recalls a life of travel inspiration. 

Notes From an Unofficial Tourist Greeter

Summer is over, and so is Julia Ross‘ season as an ambassador to travelers in Washington, D.C.’s Woodley Park neighborhood. She’s happy to be off duty.

The Perils of Traveling by Private Jet

This is exactly why we at World Hum always fly commercial when asking Congress for a bailout.

Smoke-Free Hotels On the Rise

AAA now counts more than 8,000 smoke-free travel lodgings in the United States, USA Today reports. Most amazing: The number has more than tripled since 2005. 

Los Angeles Native Jonny Olsen: Huge in Laos

The L.A. Weekly profiles a 28-year-old former semipro skateboarder who, after taking a trip to Thailand in 2002 and buying a folk instrument as a souvenir, went on to master it. Jonny Olsen plays a mouth organ called a khaen. He’s now the only white pop star in Laos, shocking Laotians with his khaen chops. It’s a fascinating story.

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Saving Chekhov’s Yalta ‘White Dacha’ Home

The unusual house where Anton Chekhov lived and wrote for several years was turned into a museum in 1921, but it’s now falling apart, and territorial issues aren’t helping matters. 

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Alain Ducasse: ‘I Am Not a Fan of Airline Food’

The legendary chef recently shared some tidbits about his travel habits with the Telegraph’s Lisa Grainger. His favorite thing about traveling? No surprise there: the local food. “For me, going to markets is the best way to understand the soul of a place,” Ducasse said. “I taste everything, wherever I am. There is nothing quite like the simple pleasure of a marvellous piece of local fruit; it tells you so much about where you are.”

‘Australia’: The Next Big Travel Movie?

I caught the trailer for Baz Luhrman’s upcoming, travel-flavored epic in theaters this weekend, and it looks set to follow the likes of Into the Wild and Lord of the Rings as the next big-screen tourist-bait. (It also looks suspiciously like an Australian remake of Out of Africa, but that’s beside the point.)

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National Geographic’s ‘Herod’s Lost Tomb,’ FTW

That’s “For The Win,” to all you non-gamers out there, and yes, the revered publication is launching a games division, with downloadable titles that can be played on Macs, PCs, and some mobile devices. ‘Herod’ could be cool, but frankly, I’m holding out for “Sudoku Traveler: China.”

Additional Measures Taken to Ease Holiday Travel Woes

As if family lanes at the airport weren’t enough of a gift to weary travelers, President Bush has announced plans to open additional military airspace across the country to commercial airlines, helping ease holiday travel delays for passengers.

Related on World Hum:
* More Family Lanes Coming to Airport Security Lines

‘Frozen Skyline’: Architecture and the Recession

We noted a couple weeks back that a U2-Norman Foster project in Dublin has been put on hold thanks to the economic crisis. Now, a Frank Gehry development in the U.K. has gotten the axe, as well. “If Gehry can be tossed aside by recession-wary banks,” Jonathan Glancey asks in the Guardian, “what about less celebrated architects?” Glancey’s thoughtful essay speculates about the future of the architecture industry—and our skylines—through the recession, and after.

Photo by David Paul Ohmer via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse and ‘Steamboat Willie’

Eighty years ago today, Disney’s world-conquering mouse made his big-screen debut—traveling onboard an old-fashioned riverboat. Here’s the seven-minute clip that eventually spawned a global theme park empire, “Steamboat Willie”:

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‘The Shawshank Re-Redemption’: Travel Movie Sequels That Could Have Been

The National Post’s Chris Knight has some fun pondering what most movie sequels would look like if they were required to pick up precisely where the previous flick left off, as the latest James Bond does. Among the more appealing travel-themed sequels he envisions? “The Shawshank Re-redemption, featuring the wacky hijinks of Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins as escaped convicts on the lam in Mexico.”

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Calvin Trillin on ‘The Best Texas BBQ in the World’

When Texas Monthly named Snow’s, a relatively unknown barbecue joint in Lexington, Texas, the best in the state, many people were surprised. Among them: Trillin. The New Yorker’s food guy writes: “I felt like a People subscriber who had picked up the ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ issue and discovered that the sexiest man alive was Sheldon Ludnick, an insurance adjuster from Terre Haute, Indiana, with Clooney as the runner-up.”

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