Travel Blog
The Wi-Fi-in-the-Sky Wars
by Rob Verger | 05.15.09 | 10:46 AM ET
AirTran fired off a powerful volley this week in the competition between airlines to provide wireless internet access on flights. It kicked the service off with a flight on Tuesday, and says that all 136 of its planes will have Wi-Fi by the end of July, making it, as USA Today reports, “the first large U.S. airline to offer wireless Internet access on every flight nationwide.”
As Ben Mutzabaugh put it in another story in the same paper, “AirTran’s promotional flight points up how fast airlines are racing to provide Wi-Fi capability on their planes after experimenting with it for more than a year.”
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: Thanksmas, Stonehenge, Hollywood’s own Wax Museum and More
by Eva Holland | 05.15.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- Today in random airport cruelty: an EasyJet agent told a 6-year-old child in Glasgow that her teddy bear would have to be checked as excess baggage, and make the trip, as the girl’s mother put it, “in the big, dark hold.”
- Brave New Traveler asks: Why do bad things happen to good travelers?
- National Geographic has put together this fun map of Native American place names—and their English meanings—across the United States. (Via Intelligent Travel)
- There’s been a breakthrough in the ongoing struggle over plans for a new visitor center at Stonehenge. The Guardian has reaction.
- Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson plans on putting a stop to the proposed British Airways/American Airlines merger—and Jaunted is ready to fight by his side.
- Biographer Claire Tomalin tells Intelligent Life about the seven wonders of her world.
- Good news for lovers of foodie travel writing: New York Times restaurant reviewer Frank Bruni is shifting gears, becoming a writer-at-large for the Times magazine, “where he will have license to follow his appetites ... wherever they lead him.” (Via @davidfarley)
- The holiday season is months away, but I’m sure some travelers are already dreading it—luckily, the Daily Deal blog has a solution: Thanksmas.
- At long last, Madame Tussauds is coming to Hollywood. I can’t think of a better home for celebrity wax—is anyone else amazed that it took this long?
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A First-Hand Look at Some Desperation Deals
by Eva Holland | 05.14.09 | 2:52 PM ET
There’s been a lot of talk about tourism numbers contracting during the economic crisis, and plenty of observers—our own Rolf Potts included—have pointed out that for the budget traveler, with the travel industry running scared and handing out deals left and right, there’s no better time to hit the road than right now.
Still, until I arrived in Barbados this week and started making some bookings for a visit to Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent, I didn’t fully understand the extent of the bargains out there.
Lessons From The Dancing Chickens
by Sophia Dembling | 05.14.09 | 1:44 PM ET
Photo by Sophia Dembling When I heard about the Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival in Woodward, Okla., my mind went directly to funnel cakes, face painting, and maybe a parade with a Lesser Prairie Chicken Queen. Sign me up, I said! I love small-town fests.
I’m kind of a moron sometimes. It wasn’t until I had my trip planned that I fully understood that a bird festival is where bird watchers gather to watch birds—in this case, lesser prairie chickens. Not only was funnel cake not part of the event, but the centerpiece of the weekend involved waking before dawn to spend three hours in a field watching chickens dance.
The Critics: ‘Up’
by Eva Holland | 05.14.09 | 11:01 AM ET
Pixar’s “Up,” an animated travel movie that we’ve been keeping an eye on, opened the Cannes Film Festival in 3D last night, making history in the process. Today, the reviews are rolling in—and, for the most part, they offer two thumbs, er, up.
Morning Links: Prince Harry in NYC, a Swimming Kangaroo and More
by Eva Holland | 05.14.09 | 8:15 AM ET
- Get ready, teen girls of the five boroughs: Britain’s Prince Harry will be making a formal visit to New York City at the end of May. Harry plans on visiting Ground Zero and participating in a polo match on Governors Island.
- NPR talked to Doug Gollan, editor in chief of Elite Traveler, about the “PR problem” wealthy travelers face, and why it’s important that they keep spending; here’s the transcript.
- And speaking of PR problems: Hospitality and tourism industry leaders were in Washington this week, asking Congress to lay off the harsh criticism of recession-era business travel.
- Australian travel headline of the day: Man saves kangaroo from shark infested waters. (And yes, there’s video.)
- Hard-traveling “Survivor” host Jeff Probst spills to USA Today about his favorite spots around the globe, and why he has nothing against penguins.
- Budget Travel picks the most beautiful ferry rides in the United States—check out the slideshow.
- A new air quality report shows traces of cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid in the air in both Barcelona and Madrid; the article notes that both studies “were carried out close to universities.”
- Remember “Supertrain,” the short-lived 1979 TV series about a nuclear-powered express train? Jason Kottke does—and he points the way to some online clips.
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NYC Raises Subway Fares; Sky Falls
by Eva Holland | 05.13.09 | 2:50 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland After months of ominous foreshadowing, New York City’s transit authority finally did it: Effective June 28, subway and bus fares will jump from $2.00 to $2.25. Reaction has been swift and snarky—check out this satirical subway advisory, for instance. Said one commenter on this Jaunted post about the hike: “Yet again NYC trumps all when it comes to being plain expensive.”
Whoa, hold on a minute. Sure, nobody likes a price increase, especially when consumers aren’t expecting to see improved service in return—the move is an effort to stop the bleeding, not rejuvenate the system. But New York City’s public transit is still cheap compared to what’s available in other big cities, and—much like the city itself, which I will always maintain is a fantastic budget destination—it remains a great value for money.
Maui vs. the Moorhen
by Pam Mandel | 05.13.09 | 10:20 AM ET
The fluffy little chick paddling in the pond at Waimea Valley didn’t look like much of a keeper of fire. She was all black fuzz and pathetic peeping. The endangered ’Alae ’Ula chick—or Hawaiian Moorhen—was the last of a brood of three that hatched this spring. There are only about 300 of the birds left, according to a State of Hawaii fact sheet.
Morning Links: Travel Phobias, a Walt Disney Museum and More
by Eva Holland | 05.13.09 | 7:29 AM ET
- Myrtle Beach’s short-lived Hard Rock Park will reopen as the more “family-friendly” Freestyle Music Park, says USA Today. Sounds like Led Zeppelin is out, and the Monkees are in.
- Christopher Elliott names the top five travel phobias, and offers some advice for handling them.
- Check out this cool short video, mapping all Tweets that began with “Just landed in ...” or “Just arrived in ...” over a four-hour span.
- Long live the railway cafe! The Guardian picks 10 of Britain’s best.
- Jaunted looks forward to a new Walt Disney museum, one that “isn’t supposed to be a whitewash or a vanity project.”
- Pixar’s “Up” debuts tonight in 3D at the Cannes Film Festival. The Times Online goes inside Pixar headquarters to learn more.
- Several U.S. airlines have in-flight wi-fi programs in the works; the Boston Globe rounds up the latest news.
- The cockpit transcripts for the plane that crashed in Buffalo this past winter have been released.
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Hunter S. Thompson’s Puerto Rico
by Eva Holland | 05.12.09 | 4:31 PM ET
Johnny Depp’s been on the Puerto Rico set of “The Rum Diary” for about a month now, and interest is building in the film, an adaptation of an early Hunter S. Thompson novel. The story follows journalist Paul Kemp (played by Depp) as he flees New York City for a small newspaper on the island, where hard drinking and treacherous expat intrigues ensue.
The Subtle Bouquet of Cat’s Pee and Other Wine Aromas
by David Farley | 05.12.09 | 2:29 PM ET
In the 1980s, the University of California, Davis gave a gift to wine snobs everywhere by creating the “Aroma Wheel, ” a lexicon that allowed your average wino to stick his nose deep into your long-stemmed Riedel and then emerge using words like grapefruit, blackberry, banana, black pepper and oaky.
Some of the Wheel’s vocabulary bordered on the undrinkable-sounding: sweaty, barnyard and wet dog, for example. Which allowed for descriptions like this: This deep red blend offers an intense bouquet of wet dog balanced by hints of banana and sweaty barnyard with a body robust enough to be, as the Italians would say, perfectly corposo.
A Poet’s Last Words: Haikus for the Traveler
by Julia Ross | 05.12.09 | 12:05 PM ET
Sad news from the world of poetry: University of Wyoming professor and award-winning poet Craig Arnold, who disappeared last month while traveling in Japan on an arts fellowship, is now presumed dead. Japanese rescue teams have called off their search on the assumption that Arnold fell from a cliff on the volcano where he was last seen hiking.
I’m not a huge poetry reader and hadn’t heard of Arnold before his disappearance made the news in recent weeks, but I was charmed when I read some of his recent blog entries. The haikus he wrote to accompany his posts—some lighthearted, others contemplative—are a nice way to chronicle the Japanese experience and now resonate as the last impressions of a traveling poet.
Luau Chow: Chicken Long Rice
by Pam Mandel | 05.12.09 | 10:33 AM ET
I admit it: I think you should go to a luau at least once. You need to see one of those big showy events where the dancers make you think impure thoughts with their suggestive hips and a shirtless guy twirls fire while drums pound. Also, there should be a huge buffet where a roast pig comes out of a hole in the ground and poi is dished up in polite amounts for the malahini (foreigners) and there’s a big gooey pan of chicken long rice.
Morning Links: Boutique Hostels, an Airport’s ‘Wildlife Management Canine’ and More
by Eva Holland | 05.12.09 | 8:44 AM ET
- As the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, Berliners are having some regrets about how thoroughly it was wiped off the cityscape.
- Manhattan’s travel-themed Idlewild Books is celebrating its first birthday this Friday from 7pm to 9pm. Friends and supporters are welcome to stop by.
- Budget Travel offers up 7 ways to annoy a flight attendant. (Confession: I’m guilty on #6, every time.)
- Amid fears over bird strikes, the airport in Bend, Oregon has hired a border collie named Filly to serve as a “wildlife management canine.”
- But can she herd baggage carts, too? A Japan Airlines flight was disrupted yesterday when one of the plane’s engines sucked up and “ingested” a metal baggage container during push-back. No one was hurt.
- Like your hostels with a bit of style and a few perks? The Guardian has just launched an interactive map of boutique hostels worldwide.
- Eurocheapo offers five handy tips for cheap eating in Rome.
- A light at the end of the Airworld tunnel? The FAA is at work on a new navigation system that should cut down on weather delays and reduce flight times.
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Dhani Tackles Poetry: ‘Greater Than…’
by Dhani Jones | 05.11.09 | 4:08 PM ET
Photo by Red Line Films NFL linebacker and Renaissance man Dhani Jones hosts the Travel Channel show, Dhani Tackles the Globe.
Like any good Renaissance man, he’s writing poems inspired by the travel experiences featured on each show.
The topic of tonight’s journey: New Zealand.
