Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Morning Links: ‘Starbucking,’ Aviation Biofuel and More
by Eva Holland | 05.29.09 | 8:28 AM ET
- Bill Clinton owns up to the New York Times about his love (and extensive knowledge) of local craft shops from Hong Kong to Arusha. Who knew?
- The Onion reports on Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz’s soul-searching, Slim Jims-fueled cross-country road trip.
- A British tourist had his passport stolen in New Zealand’s Milford Sound area this week. The culprit? A wild parrot.
- In a fun and thoughtful dispatch from Mumbai, Jil Wheeler looks back on her gradual acceptance, and eventual love of, the city’s distinctive brand of English.
- Smithsonian looks at the dueling mythologies of American movement—the Frontier and Ellis Island—and asks, “Is it time for them to be reconciled?”
- Forget about that Queensland gig: Orlando has launched its search for a blogger who’s ready to spend 67 days in the city’s theme parks and other tourist attractions.
- A California man has spent 12 years—and counting—trying to visit every Starbucks on the planet. He has 9,100 down, and roughly 3,000 to go. A Starbucks spokesman called the quest “flattering.”
- McClatchy checks in on the state of aviation biofuel research and finds that tests, so far, are promising, but supply could be an issue.
- Matador Trips takes a look at some of the world’s wackiest museums. I don’t know about you, but I plan on staying far, far away from the Cockroach Hall of Fame.
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Yahoo! BuzzMorning Links: Cheese-Rolling, Township Tours, Obama in Vegas and More
by Eva Holland | 05.28.09 | 8:57 AM ET
- A new, restored edition of Hemingway’s Paris memoir, “A Moveable Feast,” has been released. Christopher Hitchens dissects the fresh material in the Atlantic.
- In the Guardian, David Smith test-drives a Soweto township tour, and finds the experience awkward but enlightening.
- According to the AFP, some restaurants in Berlin have begun printing special bills for foreign tourists, with the phrase “Service not included” added in English. The catch? German law stipulates that service charges be included in the listed price.
- The Guardian’s Benji Lanyado navigates “the most futuristic hotel in the world” in this fun video.
- With Times Square gone car-free this week, Gadling’s Sean McLachlan looks back at the days when the area was “full of seedy bars, seedier adult shops, and crumbling movie houses where you could watch a double feature of martial arts films for two bucks.”
- Amid fears of earthquakes, the Chinese government plans to demolish the ancient city center of Kashgar. Critics say it’s an attack on minority Uighur culture.
- For anyone keeping up their own Barack Obama travel map (and I know you’re out there)—the President spent the night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this week.
- Gloucester’s annual cheese-rolling competition took place on Monday. The Big Picture has it covered.
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Budget Barbados: Five Free Island Activities
by Eva Holland | 05.27.09 | 3:48 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland I’ll admit, Barbados is hardly known as a shoestringer’s paradise—this isn’t $5, $25 or even $100 per day territory.
But still, after a couple of extended visits here, I’ve learned that it’s not all pricey cocktails, rooms with a view and chartered yachts, either. There are affordable accommodation options and wallet-friendly meals to be found—and, best of all, some of the island’s most memorable spots are free, or close to it.
See America, Too!
by Sophia Dembling | 05.27.09 | 12:08 PM ET
Morning Links: Swimming With Dolphins, the Elgin Marbles and More
by Eva Holland | 05.27.09 | 8:39 AM ET
Cheap Tickets to Hawaii, Costa Rica and More
by Rob Verger | 05.26.09 | 4:27 PM ET
Every few weeks here, I round up some of the best air travel deals I can find.
Want to visit the Pacific? Alaska Airlines has an insanely good deal to Hawaii. They are advertising $169 one-way fares from Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon. You need to buy your tickets before June 3, and you must travel between July 3 and September 30. If you play your cards right, you can fly to Hawaii and back for a total of about $360 after taxes and fees, round trip.
Also, Air Tahiti Nui is advertising round-trip fares, after taxes and fees, of about $731 between Los Angeles and Tahiti, but it’s for a maximum stay of four days only.
The Secret World of Airline Food
by David Farley | 05.26.09 | 2:45 PM ET
A friend of mine recently recalled a story about booking a trans-Atlantic flight for someone else. She was gleeful about it. That’s because she pre-ordered the “kid’s meal” for her adult friend.
I laughed out loud when I heard about it, imagining an airline attendant setting down a colorful “Happy Meal”-like box in front of a grown man, saying, “Here is your children’s meal, sir.” Inside the box, he was likely to find a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a pack of M&Ms and, perhaps, some French fries. Which might actually be better than the glop we’re usually relegated to eating on airplanes.
Morning Links: Naughty Nuns, the Las Vegas Sign Turns 50 and More
by Eva Holland | 05.26.09 | 9:05 AM ET
- In London, an Israeli tourism ad that showed the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights as being within the country’s borders has been pulled from the tube after prompting more than 300 complaints.
- The Telegraph has a fun slideshow homage to the American West.
- Over at the Daily Dish, guest blogger Lane Wallace ponders the ways in which we assess risk, particularly in an adventure tourism setting. Here’s the research paper that’s the basis for her post.
- The much-photographed “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign has landed on the National Register of Historic Places. The sign is 50 years old this year.
- In the Washington Post, World Hum contributor David Farley looks at the rise of the New York City gastropub.
- An iPod-sized universal voice translator could be coming soon to an electronics store near you: both Google and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are on the case.
- Budget Travel has the details on three crafty travelers who bartered for their holidays this year, trading labor or goods for air miles and accommodation.
- Ugly Tourist Item of the Day: 17 Brits were arrested in Crete this weekend “after they paraded themselves dressed ‘in nun attire and naughty lingerie,’ police said.” They’ve been charged with insulting the Catholic Church, and are likely to be fined but not jailed.
- Finally, who knew a McDonald’s billboard could be so much fun? Every tourist in Piccadilly Circus, apparently.
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What We Loved This Week: Bequia, Bon Iver, ‘Ask the Dust’ and More
by World Hum | 05.22.09 | 1:02 PM ET
Our contributors share a favorite travel-related experience from the past seven days.
Rob Verger
I loved seeing penguins, sea turtles, and oodles of fish and jellyfish at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Mass.
Terry Ward
Hearing Justin Vernon’s Wisconsin accent in Hamburg. I caught Bon Iver live at Grosse Freiheit 36, one of the city’s best live music venues, located on the same street (Grosse Freiheit) where the Beatles played their first gig in 1960. There’s already some YouTube coverage up from Wednesday night’s show, but I like this intimate footage shot in a Paris apartment even better.
When Scrimping on the Road Goes Too Far
by Eva Holland | 05.22.09 | 11:47 AM ET
We all like to save a buck when we travel. But at what point does cost-cutting cross the line?
That’s the question Carlo Alcos posed over at Brave New Traveler recently, in his look at some questionable (but common) money-saving tactics on the road. A few of the tricks listed: posing as a student or a local for admission-fee purposes, fare-dodging on public transit and inventing complaints—and then demanding compensation. After the run-down, he concludes: “I would say there is a line to be drawn. Not a black and white Sharpie fine line, but a blurry, wavy, grey line that is dependent on the circumstance.”
Goodbye to my Mickey Mouse, Wayne Allwine
by Jenna Schnuer | 05.22.09 | 11:31 AM ET
For so many, the first true travel excitement comes compliments of Mickey Mouse and co.
A few years ago, I talked to my nieces on the phone just before their first trip to Disney World. The little one, just shy of four, didn’t usually have much patience for phone conversations. That day, she just kept talking and talking, offering excited (and rather detailed) explanations of all the things she wanted to see. Both girls were delighted when I told them about my own visits to Disney World as a kid. We all got kind of giddy thinking that, just maybe, there was some slight chance they would end up riding in the same It’s a Small World boat I sat in 30+ years ago.
New Travel Book: ‘The Wall Street Journal Guide to Power Travel’
by Rob Verger | 05.22.09 | 10:09 AM ET
Most of us who fly are curious: we want to know how the system that is transporting us from our homes to a new destination works, and there may be no system more opaque than air travel. For those of us who want to not only understand the system, but also figure out how to get the best deals, I highly recommend Scott McCartney’s latest book, The Wall Street Journal Guide to Power Travel. (You can read my interview with McCartney, the Journal’s Middle Seat columnist, here.)
At first glance, a book advertising “power travel” may seem not to appeal to someone who, in the spirit of World Hum, is probably less interested in “powering” through a travel experience than trying to enjoy every moment of the journey. But we all have a desire to get through the air travel segment as efficiently and cheaply as possible, and I love the way this book explains the complicated world of air travel.
Morning Links: Vocation Vacations, the World Beard Championships and More
by Eva Holland | 05.22.09 | 9:25 AM ET
Checking in at the Boone Tavern
by Alexander Basek | 05.21.09 | 3:33 PM ET
Photo by Alexander Basek Swinging through the positively quaint town of Berea, Kentucky, last week, I had the chance to stay at the refurbished Boone Tavern. The hotel, which is owned by Berea College, just across the street, celebrated its 100th anniversary this year with some renovations that are now more or less complete; they were laying a snazzy brick design in the parking lot turnaround when I was there.
Museums on Film: Three Memorable Moments
by Eva Holland | 05.21.09 | 1:24 PM ET
With Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian set to open this weekend, I’ve been thinking a lot about museums and the movies. The first Night at the Museum, released in 2006 and set at a fictionalized version of the American Museum of Natural History, raked in money at the box office and is credited with increasing attendance at the real-life Upper West Side museum by as much as 20 percent. According to USA Today, the Smithsonian is hoping to see similar benefits from its featured role in the sequel.
The two Ben Stiller vehicles may be remarkable for the amount of traffic they’re driving to museums, but they’re not unusual in their choice of setting. Museums and galleries have played prominent roles in any number of films and television shows over the years. Here, with apologies for my clear bias towards New York City and romance, are three of my favorite museum movie moments.
