Travel Blog
Trip Planning: Museums on Twitter
by Jenna Schnuer | 04.15.09 | 9:34 AM ET
The experiment: ignore various, er, discussions over whether Twitter is good, distracting, or evil and find other ways to use it to enhance future travel experiences and planning. Since I tend to like museums big, small, and flat-out odd, I figured I would see what some U.S. museums are doing with it.
I’ll admit, I didn’t use the most scientific of methods. I searched Twitter for the term “museum” and, click by click by click, signed up for the first couple dozen on the list.
The information started to drip, drab, and, in some cases, flow in. Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum, famous for its jars of medical oddities, was (and I love this!) offering free health screenings (@MutterMuseum); Northport, Alabama’s Kentuck Museum (@KentuckMuseum) wanted you to put its April 24 poetry festival on your calendar; and Baltimore’s Walters Museum (@walters_museum) offered up a behind-the-scenes photo of an intern working on a Roman sarcophagus and an invitation to its college night with “mash-up DJ artists, tours, & more!”
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: Mileage Runs, Life in a Finnish Mökki and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.15.09 | 8:07 AM ET
‘Adventureland’: Hooked by Travel Writing and the Adventure of Summer Jobs
by Eva Holland | 04.14.09 | 12:06 PM ET
Publicity still via IGN I can tell you the exact moment I came off the fence and really fell for Adventureland, the theme park-set comedy romance that hit theaters last weekend.
Early on, not long after starting his grim summer job as a games operator at the local amusement park, protagonist James tells love interest Em what his earnings are for: he wants to move to New York City, complete a master’s in journalism at Columbia University and become a travel writer. But, he’s quick to add, he wants to write travel stories about “real life,” like Charles Dickens.
I’m not far removed from my own dreamy undergraduate perusals of the Columbia website, and I love a good real-life travel story, too—so naturally, I was hooked.
Hawaii to Obama: Save Our Business Travel!
by Pam Mandel | 04.14.09 | 10:36 AM ET
According to Hawaii tourism leaders, “Workers who attend meetings in Hawaii are happier, more productive and more focused afterward.” That quote (from lots of sources, including the Los Angeles Times) is part of a campaign Hawaii has launched to further promote the islands as a business travel destination. Is anyone surprised to hear that a business trip to Hawaii cheers a lackluster worker right up?
But here’s the catch, courtesy of the Honolulu Star Bulletin: “Public anger at extravagant spending by companies receiving bailout tax dollars has extended throughout corporate America and created a sharp decline in travel to meetings in Hawaii, described as junkets. The state’s tourism industry is suffering as a result and faces a huge challenge in trying to revitalize business travel to the islands.”
Morning Links: Cuba Travel, Tiger Tourism, Nanobots and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.14.09 | 8:30 AM ET
- The Obama administration announced anticipated changes to U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. Are commercial flights in the works?
- World Hum contributor Michael Shapiro gets “wedged under a 40-foot parade float featuring biblical all-stars” during Semana Santa in Guatemala.
- GlobalPost looks at tiger tourism in India.
- The Travel Weekly virtual trade show will feature a session with Nancy Novogrod of Travel + Leisure, Nina Willdorf of Budget Travel, and Wendy Perrin of Conde Nast Traveler. The show takes place today and tomorrow.
- Another Burger King ad has stirred up anger and charges of cultural insensitivity, this time in Mexico.
- In this economic climate, luxury hotels are “just getting killed.”
- Marriott has stopped automatic newspaper delivery to guest rooms.
- G. Y. Dryansky says, “Now that we’ve forgotten about freedom fries, our American tolerance and curiosity about the French is back to what it was.”
- GOOD magazine asks Ray Kurzweil, “Will travel be altogether obsolete in the future?” His answer involves nanobots.
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Dhani Tackles Poetry: ‘The Dancing Leprechaun’
by Dhani Jones | 04.13.09 | 4:29 PM ET
Red Line Films/Travel Channel, L.L.C. NFL linebacker and Renaissance man Dhani Jones hosts the new 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: Spain’s Basque Country.
The Dancing Leprechaun
In the blink of an eye, the bullet passing by, I’m amused at the compilation,
the assortment,
the distraction which is the ballet written on the granite wall.
The pelota, considered what some might suggest,
is the test,
to defy gravity and bend with the basket.
I lean on life like I lean on the court for support it keeps me lifted. My feet move quickly like a dancing leprechaun not far away searching for the pot of gold.
For in the stands mama y papa bet at hand the game they wish to unfold. The odds the bookie takes pacing the people as they consume tapas and xcholi galore.
The Basque country,
the Basque region,
its passion,
pride and legend they consider and more.
I am a man who has traveled so far to reach this point of flexibility. The ocean of San Sebastian, consider its beauty and amongst those that fight for immortality.
Yet, you can reflect while chewing chuleta. Indulge while chorizo is on the mind.
But never not now, will you ever forget that very first time.
Makalani ‘09
Carpe Diem ...
Wine and Dumplings: An Overlooked Match?
by Julia Ross | 04.13.09 | 12:34 PM ET
When I’m out for Chinese food, I don’t think twice about my drink order: it’s almost always a Tsingtao. But cooking school owner/author Jen Lin-Liu says beer doesn’t have to be the default accompaniment every time you pick up chopsticks.
For a piece in the New York Times, she recently convened a group of Chinese tasters and found that semisweet Rieslings were the best all-around choice for spicy dishes with strong flavors, while a Pinot noir paired well with twice-cooked pork.
For Sale: One Pocket Globe, Complete with History Lesson
by Pam Mandel | 04.13.09 | 11:27 AM ET
Like most travelers, I’m a sucker for old maps and other travel ephemera. That’s why I spent way too much time clicking through the catalog after reading about the collection of Hawaii artifacts that went up for auction last week. The items included “an early issue of Ke Kumu Hawaii, the first newspaper printed in Honolulu; a copy of Lili’uokalani’s translation of the Kumulipo genealogy chant; and a 19th-century Hawaii flag hand-painted on silk.”
The Littered Beaches of Britain
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.13.09 | 10:13 AM ET
As depressing as I find many British beaches, I was appalled to read that visitors are practically treating them like landfills. Reuters reports that the Marine Conservation Society, who recruited 5,000 volunteers to help clean up the shores, discovered an average of 2,195 pieces of trash per kilometer of beach—an increase of 110 percent since 1994. Food wrappers and cigarette butts make up about a third of the litter, the group says. Trash dumping on British beaches has doubled in the last 15 years to reach the highest level in history.
Morning Links: The Most Mailed-In Travel Column Ever, the Travel Situation in Thailand and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.13.09 | 8:31 AM ET
- We have Andy Rooney to thank for the most mailed-in column about travel ever published.
- World Hum contributor Tony Perrottet ventures into “America’s Outback,” aka Southern Utah. There’s also a slideshow.
- The Washington Post’s Time Zones spends a few hours in Tel Aviv.
- The U.S. welcomed a record amount of travelers last year.
- Did you hear yet about Woody Harrelson and the zombie at LaGuardia?
- The situation in Thailand has grown dangerous for travelers, according to many governments. World Hum contributor Newley Purnell is updating news and posting on-the-ground reports via Twitter.
- Have all those TV shows about Alaska helped tourism in the state? (via Fark)
- The AP wonders if Cuba “is ready for an onslaught of Americans unseen since the days of Meyer Lansky and Al Capone.”
- A man CC’d The Consumerist on his complaint letter to United Airlines. A ticket agent allegedly stopped his girlfriend from catching a flight and seeing his dying mother because it was time for her break.
- Stan Stesser looks at the state of “The ‘36 Streets’ of Hanoi’s Old Quarter.”
- Larry Habegger goes shopping for shirts in Egypt.
- Finally, Saudi Arabia has banned some “offensive” license plates. Like one with the letters “USA.”
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What We Loved This Week: Beijing Street Food, a Cupcake’s Journey and More
by World Hum | 04.10.09 | 3:34 PM ET
Photo by Terry Ward Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days:
Terry Ward
Snacking my way through my last day in Beijing with my friend Lilian Chou, a former food editor for Gourmet magazine. Everywhere we saw a line at a restaurant or food stall, we filed in and ordered whatever the locals were queuing up for, which included some surprising “Chinese” fare—custard tarts similar to pasteis de nata (Portugal’s mark on China), little glass jars of creamy yogurt and sweet potatoes roasted on a brazier streetside. “We need two stomachs” was Lilian’s passionate refrain as we carried on noshing, day into night.
Frank Bures
I loved this study proving what we already know: Investing in experiences makes you happier than buying a bunch of crap. More evidence here and here.
Woodstock: Disneyland for Hippies?
by Eva Holland | 04.10.09 | 2:23 PM ET
Well, the 40th anniversary of the mother of all music festivals may still be a few months away, but the “reflecting on Woodstock” pieces are already cropping up. This week, Rock’s Backpages digs up a vicious Rolling Stone piece—circa 1999—from David Dalton, eviscerating the festival as the death of the ’60s dream.
Here’s a sample: “Woodstock, if anything, amounts to the Disneyfication of the entire hippie enterprise—a just-so story about generational togetherness, a sort of temporary ’60s theme park that (alas!) has become an annual institution.”
American Regionalisms Redux
by Jenna Schnuer | 04.10.09 | 1:33 PM ET
We know that loads of you take notice of regional speak as you do your state-to-state wandering. So you’ll definitely want to know about this. But even if you don’t normally listen up for regionalisms and English is your first language, you’re still not off the hook when it comes to Frank Bures’ recommendation that travelers tote along a dictionary on trips.
No, thanks to several decades of work by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there’s a nearly-complete multivolume dictionary that will help you understand what’s going on when you get invited to a “pitch-in” in Indiana or which “scrimptions” you should save down South.
A Solar-Powered City to Debut in Florida
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.10.09 | 12:22 PM ET
Photo by albertheaps via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Hey, if the United Arab Emirates can build a giant eco-city in the desert, then sunny Florida should do just fine with a solar-powered town near Fort Myers, in the southwestern portion of the state.
Reuters reports that the developers of the planned $2 billion Babcock Ranch—an environmentally friendly city of 19,500 houses and some six million square feet of space including retail and offices—say it will run on what they bill as the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant.
Let’s just hope the Sunshine State’s sun city isn’t underwater by the end of the century.
Is Whole Body Imaging Coming to an Airport Near You?
by Rob Verger | 04.10.09 | 10:49 AM ET
Will full-body scanners eventually replace the traditional metal detector as a primary screening device at U.S. airports? It seems likely, reports Joe Sharkey for the New York Times. “Robin Kane, the agency’s acting chief technology officer, said that the initial results from pilot tests at some checkpoints at 19 airports in the United States had been so good that the idea of using the machines as the standard checkpoint detectors made sense,” Sharkey writes.
“Assuming tests continue to be positive,” Sharkey adds, “the machines will eventually be used at most domestic airports.”
