Travel Blog
What We Loved This Week: La Vela Puerca in Hamburg, Tavern on the Green and More
by World Hum | 06.05.09 | 4:34 PM ET
Photo by Rob Verger Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Michael Yessis
I loved reading Gary Shteyngart’s views on travel and travel writing, courtesy of his interview with Rob Verger. Makes me want to go back and reread his excellent book, Absurdistan.
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Yahoo! Buzz65 Years Later: Robert Capa and D-Day on Film
by Eva Holland | 06.05.09 | 11:44 AM ET
Tomorrow marks the 65th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, an assault that is widely viewed as one of the key turning points in the Second World War. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Canadian and British Prime Ministers Stephen Harper and Gordon Brown will be converging on the area for an official ceremony this weekend, following in the footsteps of thousands of tourists who visit the beaches each year.
The event has me thinking about the enduring appeal of the D-Day beaches—after all, Europe has no shortage of battlefields and war monuments, but few are as well-known to Americans as Omaha Beach (or, for Canadians, Juno Beach). It seems to me that their historical significance alone doesn’t explain it. The beaches, I think, have such a powerful presence in the public consciousness thanks in part to a few iconic photographs by Robert Capa.
Kitsch City, U.S.A.
by Sophia Dembling | 06.05.09 | 10:32 AM ET
Photo by Tom Battles I certainly understand why some readers took exception to my assertion in a recent post that Las Vegas is among the must-see sights for Americans. Vegas is, indeed, a very silly place. But that silliness is what makes me love it—I have a very deep affection for all things kitschy, and Vegas is an entire kitsch city.
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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Danny Boyle Can’t Quit You, Mumbai
by Eva Holland | 06.04.09 | 3:27 PM ET
Yup, the Indian city has its hooks in the Oscar-winning director of “Slumdog Millionaire,” and it isn’t letting go. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Boyle has bought the film rights to Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, Suketu Mehta’s Pulitzer-nominated travelogue about Mumbai’s seedy, sometimes-violent subcultures: dirty cops, exotic dancers, religious hitmen and more.
Nashville: An Affair Worth Remembering?
by Jenna Schnuer | 06.04.09 | 12:30 PM ET
Dear Nashville,
It’s been too long. For a while there, we had a thing going. I showed up every six months or so. You entertained me. It was an ongoing affair to remember. But then life got in the way. All my fault. I know. I apologize. But, really, my love for you has grown. I think about you constantly and, don’t tell my hometown (or anywhere else for that matter), but I’m secretly rooting for you in Travel + Leisure’s Favorite Cities survey.
Budget Dining in Barcelona: How to Do it Right
by Eva Holland | 06.04.09 | 10:38 AM ET
The first time I visited Barcelona, I was at the tail end of a 10-week backpacking trip around Europe. I had just four days left before I caught a plane back to the U.K. (where I’d been living) and then home to Canada—and, predictably, I was out of money.
My British and Canadian bank accounts were both tapped out, and while I could still charge my dorm bed—a clear necessity—to my credit card, I stubbornly refused to charge restaurant meals or withdraw cash for groceries on it. (The interest will kill you, y’know.)
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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Travel Movie Watch: ‘Where’s Waldo?’
by Eva Holland | 06.03.09 | 2:05 PM ET
No, seriously. The goofy globetrotter with the striped shirt is getting a movie all his own. And it will be live action. Over at Get the Big Picture, Colin Boyd has a scathing look at the project, suggesting that Universal’s decision to pick it up after Paramount gave up on it “might showcase a fairly pronounced stupidity.” I’m inclined to agree.
Welcome, JetAmerica and flydubai
by Rob Verger | 06.03.09 | 10:07 AM ET
The list of lost-cost carriers now has two new names: JetAmerica and flydubai.
JetAmerica, a charter company with a home base in Toledo, Ohio, will fly to five cities. They are advertising $9 fares, with a “convenience fee” of $5, thus selling some seats (before taxes and fees) for $14.
Over at The Cranky Flier, Brett Snyder isn’t optimistic. “I honestly couldn’t make this sound any worse if I tried,” Snyder writes. “The CEO is John Weikle, one of the original founders of Skybus.”
Meanwhile, in the U.A.E., flydubai has been born, with initial routes beginning this week between Dubai and Beirut and Amman. They plan to expand from there. “You’ll soon be able to flydubai to other cities in the Middle East, GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] and India,” their website states. “And eventually, the network will extend to Iran, Eastern Europe and North & East Africa.”
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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‘Up’ and the Spirit of Adventure
by Eva Holland | 06.02.09 | 3:01 PM ET
After keeping tabs on the hype for the last couple of months, I finally made it to “Up” last night. The latest from Pixar, which tells the story of an old man finally living out his South American travel dreams, has been pleasing critics and owning the box office, so I was keen to get to the theater myself.
And the verdict? Well, a little bit mixed.
Brother Bertram, Photojournalist
by Pam Mandel | 06.02.09 | 1:08 PM ET
Image courtesy of Lyman Museum. I’m a sucker for Hawaii’s unreachable past, a somewhat imaginary time when there really was a little grass shack in Kaleakakua to go back to. So I’m pretty excited about the photography show that’s running at the Lyman Museum in Hilo.
When the President Goes to Vegas: Hail Obama?
by Alexander Basek | 06.02.09 | 10:20 AM ET
Photo by Alexander Basek It’s easy to ignore the language surrounding hotel stays. Spas have therapists and there’s a concierge or a butler for your pillow and your bath. In fact, it gets to be difficult when you need something but don’t know whom you’re supposed to talk to about it. Does an order for ice fall under the purview of the cooling concierge or the cocktail consultant? We may never know the answer.
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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