Travel Blog
Slate Explains Why Congress Gets so Much Vacation
by Michael Yessis | 07.30.09 | 11:35 AM ET
Members of congress get a lot of time off each year, and it’s not entirely unjustified. I live in the D.C. area, and I applaud anyone who can manage to escape the oppressive weather by disappearing for August.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzFinding Leonard Cohen in Montreal and California
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 10:03 AM ET
In the latest issue of Geist, Ann Diamond tells the story of her series of near-encounters with Leonard Cohen—with 1970 Montreal, in the midst of the October Crisis, as the grimly compelling backdrop. And if that’s not enough Cohen-related, travel-esque writing for you, check out Pico Iyer’s 1998 essay about visiting the poet/rocker at a Zen Center in the San Gabriel Mountains, outside L.A.
‘The Hangover’ Gets Bollywoodized
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 4:18 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN Here’s an unexpected bit of cross-cultural synergy. This summer’s funniest travel movie involving a Vegas bachelor party, Mike Tyson, and a tiger—OK, OK, this summer’s only travel movie involving all of the above—is getting its very own Bollywood remake.
After he had time to think it over, Get the Big Picture’s Colin Boyd decided he approves. “You’ve seen ‘The Hangover,’ right? It’s full of non sequiturs from Mike Tyson to the chicken to the tiger in the bathroom to the baby to the missing tooth,” he writes. “And where better to find humorous non sequiturs than Bollywood?”
U.S. Airports Antsy for Cuba Access
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 3:19 PM ET
Several U.S. airports—Tampa’s, Key West’s and Houston’s among them—are angling to be added to the list of locations from which flights to Cuba are permitted. Currently, only L.A., New York and Miami are allowed to handle the charter flights that carry Americans with the appropriate permits to and from the island, but with an easing of travel restrictions seemingly on the horizon, nobody wants to be left out. Said Key West International’s airport director, Peter Horton: “[T]he last thing that we want is to get lost in the shuffle as people scramble to try to fly there.”
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Transatlanticism’ by Death Cab for Cutie
by Alicia Imbody | 07.29.09 | 2:08 PM ET
Tipping Around the World
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 1:15 PM ET
Sure, we can all agree that tipping is not a city in China—but beyond that the practice does vary considerably from place to place, so what’s a well-meaning but confused traveler to do? Luckily, Conde Nast Traveler has just come out with a remarkably detailed guide to tipping practices in more than 35 countries, broken down by hotel, restaurant, or driver/guide. There’s even a handy PDF version. (Via Jaunted)
National Geographic on ‘Vanishing Venice’
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 12:22 PM ET
The latest issue of the magazine includes a lovely story on the city, and the rising flood of tourists that threatens to destroy it. (Via @italylogue)
Photo We Love: Unruly Umbrella in Mumbai
by World Hum | 07.29.09 | 11:25 AM ET
REUTERS/Arko Datta
A woman tries to control her umbrella along a stormy seafront in Mumbai, India.
New Travel Book: ‘Oxford Revisited’
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 10:42 AM ET
Justin Cartwright’s new travel memoir, about returning to his alma mater in an effort to understand how it shaped him, lands in bookstores next week. Bookslut has a mostly positive review.
Chelsey Philpot writes: “As a young man arriving from South Africa, Cartwright recounts how he was romanced by Oxford even as he still felt himself to be an outsider. His winding tour of old haunts and Oxford landmarks is interrupted by his memories as well as philosophical ruminations ... Under a less skilled writer, such leaps would be clunky. However, Cartwright manages to meld both grand themes and small observations by remaining unabashedly cerebral even as he discusses drunken girlfriends or the tourist appeal of J. R. R. Tolkien (one of Oxford’s celebrated professors).”
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Transcendental Blues’ by Steve Earle
by Michael Yessis | 07.28.09 | 4:08 PM ET
30 Great Vacation Songs (Not Including the Go-Gos’ ‘Vacation’)
by Eva Holland | 07.28.09 | 3:24 PM ET
That’s the fun premise for this list of travel songs from Rock’s Backpages. I was surprised to find almost no overlap with our own top 40 travel songs of all time—and the takeaway from that? There’s certainly no shortage of great road tunes in the world.
Simon Calder: Travel Industry Needs an ‘Outbreak of Common Sense’
by Eva Holland | 07.28.09 | 1:30 PM ET
In the wake of last week’s news about British airlines requiring doctor’s notes from passengers with potential swine flu symptoms, the Independent’s Simon Calder calls for some common sense. “A decade ago the tourism industry worked itself into a frenzy predicting the likely effects of the “Millennium Bug”, when the clocks driving primitive computers ticked over from year 99 to 00,” he writes. Of course, we made it through that scare. But then, he goes on: “[J]ust when you thought it was safe to go on holiday, the front-page headlines this week threaten the plans of anyone with a sniffle.”
Calder finds the common sense he’s seeking from, of all people, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who offered reassurances that his airline wouldn’t be hunting down every passenger who sneezes in the security line: “Our staff are not medical experts,” he said.
Here Come the ‘Grown-up Gappers’
by Michael Yessis | 07.28.09 | 12:38 PM ET
Reuters reports that, because of the recession, Britons “aged 30-55 [are] more than twice as likely as 18-24 year-olds to take time out to travel.” Where do they say they’re going? Canada tops the list of destinations.
High-Speed Rail Watch, Midwest Edition
by Eva Holland | 07.28.09 | 11:42 AM ET
The governors of eight Midwest states are on board with a proposal for a monster high-speed rail project that would eventually link cities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, with Chicago as the hub. The group would be aiming to land stimulus money for the project, but, like the Californian proposal we’ve been following, it’ll be in a tough fight for funding—a whopping 278 high-speed rail plans have been submitted for consideration, according to the AP.
Rick Steves and David Sedaris, Redux
by Eva Holland | 07.28.09 | 10:55 AM ET
This weekend on his radio show, Rick Steves re-played an entertaining interview with David Sedaris on his time as an expat in Paris and Tokyo. In case you missed it when it first aired last fall, here it is in full.
