Travel Blog
France Mulls Breathalyzers at Late-Night Bars
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.16.08 | 3:30 AM ET
Interesting move in France. The government may require thousands of clubs, cafes and bars open after 2 a.m. to install Breathalyzers by Jan. 1. Taking the Breathalyzer test would not be mandatory, but politicians are hoping patrons who may have had one too many drinks will voluntarily check their alcohol levels before driving home. The proposal was floated after a rash of drunk-driving accidents. Not everyone is cheering: Some are still reeling from a new smoking ban, and others in the hospitality industry complain Breathalyzers are too expensive.
Related on World Hum:
* France’s Smoking Ban Chokes its Hookah Bars
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Yahoo! BuzzHard Rock Park Opens to ‘Awesome’ Reviews
by Eva Holland | 05.15.08 | 1:00 PM ET
Photo by scmikeburton via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
It’s hard to believe it’s taken this long for the United States to get a rock ‘n’ roll theme park. After all, aren’t rock and roller coasters two of the things America does best? (And I say this as a Canadian.) But at long last, Hard Rock Park has opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and according to Myrtle Beach Online, “awesome” was the word of the day at the park’s recent “soft” opening. Since then, rave reviews have continued to pour in.
Why Disneyland is Hot and Vegas Is Not
by Jim Benning | 05.15.08 | 11:05 AM ET
Interesting bit of economic analysis from the AP: “The gaming business often brags that it’s recession-proof because gamblers will always like to gamble, but amusement destinations historically have seen their business get hard hit when consumers’ wallets are pinched. The upscaling of Las Vegas with its five-star hotels, restaurants and shops, and the down-pricing of Disney to more value-oriented park packages and hotels over the last decade has turned that concept on its head.” Now, if Disney would just open a Vegas casino everything would balance out nicely.
Related on World Hum:
* A Clash of Civilizations Over Disney’s ‘It’s a Small World’
Photo by gruntzooki via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Cruise Line: Woman Was Alone When She Fell From Ship
by Jim Benning | 05.15.08 | 10:28 AM ET
Norwegian Cruise Line says surveillance video captured a 46-year-old New Jersey woman falling from her stateroom balcony shortly after the ship left New York on Sunday. The woman disappeared after the fall. “The details are likely to end growing speculation that foul play was involved,” USA Today reports.
Travel Essential: A Sense of Wonder
by Eva Holland | 05.15.08 | 8:57 AM ET
In his latest column, South Florida Sun-Sentinel travel editor Thomas Swick surveys the woes facing American travelers this summer and then offers a simple solution: “Go. Somewhere. Anywhere.” And take your sense of wonder. “For those who have it,” he writes, “a road trip to North Carolina is just as enjoyable as a vacation in Italy. For it involves the same fundamental gift: a journey out of the house, to another place, one with a different landscape, culture, way of doing things.”
Photo: Reebok Embraces Bollywood
by Jim Benning | 05.14.08 | 1:42 PM ET
Perhaps it’s due to jet lag—I just arrived in London and have been forcing myself to stay awake to adjust to the time change. Or maybe it’s because I was reading The Post-American World on the flight over and had just come across this line: “The biggest movie industry, in terms of both movies made and tickets sold, is Bollywood, not Hollywood.” Whatever the reason, I was taken with this shrinking-planet shop-window display I just passed in Soho:
The Call to Prayer: ‘An Audible Pinprick to Your Conscience’
by Julia Ross | 05.14.08 | 12:56 PM ET
TripAdvisor User Threatened with Libel Suit After Reviewing Hotel
by Jim Benning | 05.14.08 | 12:28 PM ET
Very creepy. And it seems other TripAdvisor users posting critical reviews have been threatened, too—apparently by attorneys representing unhappy hotel owners or managers. Catherine Hamm of the Los Angeles Times asked some experts about it. TripAdvisor users “have the 1st Amendment” on their side, she writes. But she adds: “All the experts agreed that those who post on TripAdvisor or like sites need not worry about having their say as long as they frame it as opinion rather than fact.”
Is Phoenix Going Green?
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.14.08 | 12:00 PM ET
If you’ve visited Arizona’s largest city, you’ve probably gotten used to seeing it as a dry and increasingly smoggy desert metropolis that’s trying a little too hard to keep its lawns thriving. But if some in the city have their way, Phoenix will look very different in years to come. The city, reports Grist, has embarked on a slow but steady path to sustainability—embracing light-rail transportation and biofuels for its fleet of vehicles—and even greater density downtown to combat sprawl.
So Long, Guggenheim Las Vegas
by Jim Benning | 05.13.08 | 6:22 PM ET
Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne bids farewell to the Rem Koolhaas-designed Guggenheim Museum, which closed Sunday. “Like a lot of Las Vegas marriages,” he writes, “the one between the Venetian Hotel and the Guggenheim Museum was born of some seriously misplaced optimism.”
Sardines, Sushi and the Healthiest Diets on Earth
by Joanna Kakissis | 05.13.08 | 10:35 AM ET
Gourmet magazine has a great Q&A with Daphne Miller, author of the book, The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the Healthiest Diets from Around the World - Why They Work and How to Bring Them Home. Miller, who practices family medicine in California, traveled the world to study indigenous cuisines and find out why they are so much healthier than the typical American diet. Think many places in Japan and Crete, China and West Africa, where the food is local, whole and never processed.
‘7 Tourist Traps You Love’? Um, Not so Much.
by Jim Benning | 05.13.08 | 10:24 AM ET
Among the places making the list of tourist traps that Budget Travel readers “loved anyway”: Mardi Gras World museum in New Orleans, Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border (pictured) and Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Wrote one reader: “Pigeon Forge ... is absolute fun and enjoyment.” I passed through Pigeon Forge once en route to the Great Smoky Mountains. It is—how do I put this delicately?—hell on Earth. To fully experience the place, I highly recommend “lunch” at Duff’s Smorgasbord.
Related on World Hum:
* Cancun to Times Square: How to Spot a Tourist Trap.
Photo by jimbowen0306 via Flickr, (Creative Commons)
NYC Man: JetBlue Pilot Made Me Sit on Toilet for Three Hours
by Jim Benning | 05.13.08 | 9:39 AM ET
Hence, the $2 million lawsuit. The traveler claims it occurred on a San Diego-New York flight in February. No comment from JetBlue.
New Travel Book: ‘No-Man’s Lands’
by Frank Bures | 05.13.08 | 9:33 AM ET
Full title: “No-Man’s Lands: One Man’s Odyssey Through The Odyssey” (Hardcover)
Author: Scott Huler
Released: March 11, 2008
Travel genre: Travels with classics
Territory covered: Mediterranean
A Passage to India—With Mom
by Jim Benning | 05.12.08 | 5:35 PM ET
Nice Mother’s Day piece by Jeff Greenwald about a trip to India with his 75-year-old mother. “Not only was this my mother’s first trip to Asia, but she and I had also never traveled together,” he writes in the Los Angeles Times. “And although she had been to Israel and Europe, including Russia, India was something else entirely.”
