Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Happy 75th to the Great Smokies
by Jenna Schnuer | 03.06.09 | 1:30 PM ET
Photo courtesy of the National Park Service. Great Smoky Mountains National Park turns 75 this year. So go there and take a hike (or listen to some mountain music or check out the wildflowers or…) Then, come back and tell us all about it. Or, of course, if you already have a tale of the Smokies, share away.
My favorite memory of the Smokies: seeing evidence of the lives lived there before the land was designated a park. While on a horseback ride in the park, my guide pointed out a nearly perfect square of bright pink flowers. Though the cabin they had been planted around was long gone, the flowers have returned year after year to give a pretty tip of the hat to the woman who used to live on the land.
Email to friend
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! BuzzHope for Clean-Energy Road Trips (Neil Young soundtrack included)
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.06.09 | 12:44 PM ET
I had to cheer when I read about the members of the Indian Youth Climate Network driving across 3,500 kilometers of the subcontinent in three electric Revas, a plant-oil-fueled truck, a van run on vegetable oil and another van with solar panels. They passed 15 major Indian cities to promote climate change awareness, while also advertising the effectiveness of clean-energy road-tripping. Hurray!
Momentum is definitely with them, and so is Neil Young, a master of great road songs who is transforming his 1959 Lincoln from a gas-guzzler into an electric vehicle. He’s even written a soundtrack for his electric-car project, which could inspire some clean-energy road-tripping on this continent. (Via Inhabitat)
Ryanair ‘Serious’ About Charging for Bathroom
by Rob Verger | 03.06.09 | 12:03 PM ET
The AP reports that the head of Dublin-based Ryanair is indeed “serious about making passengers pay for the right to relieve themselves on flights—and is flush with interest in the idea of mounting credit card-operated toilets.” Charging by credit card is logistically easier than charging by coin, as had been suggested earlier, which “wouldn’t work in part because Ryanair operates heavily in areas using both the euro and British pound.”
I’ve said it before about Ryanair (when they had some not-so-nice words about bloggers) and I’ll say it again now: oy vey.
What about someone who needs to go, but doesn’t have a credit card?
Morning Links: Paris Celebrates Voids, Favellywood, the Travel Bug and More
by Jim Benning | 03.06.09 | 11:03 AM ET
- Gotta love diplomatic pressure: Iranian officials say they’re going to free American freelance journalist and NPR contributor Roxana Saberi.
- Slate’s Jack Shaffer visits Africa a few times a week—thanks to the New York Times’ man in East Africa.
- Paris celebrates the art of the void at the Pompidou Centre.
- The Telegraph has put together a fine list of the 20 best travel books, including some fiction. Your assignment: Compare and contrast with our list of the best 30.
- Busted: Catalonia’s tourism officials, who used a photo of an Australian beach to represent Spain’s Costa Brava.
- Rio’s favelas + Hollywood film crews = Favellywood? One neighborhood where crews can “shoot without getting shot.” Ugh.
- Is San Diego the new super-yacht capital? I’m hanging with the wrong crowd.
- And finally, from the Travel Channel home offices in Chevy Chase, Maryland: Do you have the travel bug? Pay a visit to the Travel Bug Treatment Center. I was diagnosed a “Trailblazer.” What form does your bug take?
Got a suggestion? .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) your link.
Searching for the Strudel Man of Zizkov
by David Farley | 03.06.09 | 10:39 AM ET
It might have looked that way, but my Czech friend Milos and I were not aimlessly wandering the hilly streets of Prague’s Zizkov (pronounced: Zheezh-kof) neighborhood. We had a destination in mind. A few minutes earlier, the excitable Milos suddenly got an idea: “Strudel,” he yelled out. “There’s a guy somewhere in Zizkov who’s been selling the best apple strudel in Prague from a tiny shop in his apartment building. We must find him. Now.”
My stomach, which had been rumbling just a few minutes earlier, agreed. Milos began accosting people on the street with the frantic demeanor of someone who’d just realized their child had gone missing. A mother and daughter carrying plastic shopping bags pointed down the hill. A few blocks later a sinewy bearded guy walking a dog pointed up the hill. A gypsy woman standing on the street corner, inexplicably holding a plate of sauerkraut, pointed in a completely different direction. Finally we were crossing Konevova street, the busy dark avenue that splits the valley in Zizkov.
Nothing Breaks the Ice Like a Travel Trivia Game?
by Eva Holland | 03.05.09 | 4:31 PM ET
When I first heard about Wanderlust, the new series of singles events from New York’s travel-focused indie bookstore, Idlewild Books, I was intrigued. After all, frequent travelers might well have a different set of expectations, relationship-wise, than the stay-at-home crowd; isn’t it logical, then, that New York’s most eligible travelers would want to meet other like-minded passport holders? Well, sure. It’s a grand idea in theory. The reality, though, when I arrived at Idlewild last night to check things out, was not so glamorous.
The Man Behind the ‘Greenest Luxury Hotel’ in the United States
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.05.09 | 3:27 PM ET
Chris Colin has a glowing profile in SFGate about Phil Sherburne, the developer of the newly-opened Bardessono Inn and Spa in Yountville, California. Though Sherburne has opened his multimillion-dollar luxury resort in the Napa Valley during the worst economic stretch since the Great Depression, “Bardessono has emerged a working laboratory where best practices are developed for sustainable building,” Colin writes.
About Mr. Brown’s Carbon Footprint ...
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.05.09 | 12:25 PM ET
NPR Asks ‘What Makes a Good Commercial Pilot?’
by Rob Verger | 03.05.09 | 11:17 AM ET
Earlier this week, NPR’s Talk of the Nation asked, What Makes a Good Commercial Pilot? While the program began with a discussion of the casualty-free ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River, the scope quickly broadened to include general factors that have influenced commercial aviation safety over the years.
I felt most fascinated by what a guest commentator on the show, John Nance, an aviation analyst and a former Boeing 737 pilot, had to say about how air travel has changed from its “golden age.”
Promo Videos Gone Wrong: ‘Tourist’
by Eva Holland | 03.05.09 | 9:46 AM ET
OK, OK. So this isn’t precisely a promotional video from a hapless tourism board. But still, this hilariously dated trailer for a 1980 made-for-TV movie, Tourist—described as “an adventure-filled journey through the glamor capitals of Europe”—fits the bill and gets a chuckle or two, don’t you think?
Morning Links: Michael Lewis Asks About Bjork in Reykjavík, Yoko Ono’s Travel Daydreams and More
by Michael Yessis | 03.05.09 | 8:06 AM ET
Where are the Elegies to the World’s Troubled Landscapes?
by Joanna Kakissis | 03.04.09 | 4:02 PM ET
The Eagles were on to something in 1976, when they lamented the pillaging of the western American landscape in “The Last Resort.” As eco-awareness of global warming makes major headlines, and movie stars and scientists link hands to march against coal-fired power plants, I wonder: Where are the music videos? The equivalent of “We Are The World,” climate-change edition? Or at least a few elegies to the troubled landscapes of our world?
Then I came across “Uyan (Wake Up),” a song about the ravages of environmental irresponsibility released late last year by hunky Turkish pop star Tarkan and baglama viruoso Orhan Gencebay. It’s a fabulous tune, brimming with eastern Mediterranean soul and accompanied by a video (see below) featuring the sexier-than-thou Tarkan and the comfortably weathered Gencebay jamming in a cracked and desiccated land—likely a reference to the fact that great swathes of Turkey are in danger of desertification.
So, inspired by Tarkan and Orhan Gencebay, I compiled a short list of place-evoking environmental songs. I’d love to hear your picks—and if you think eco-songs can save fragile lands, or at least get people thinking that they should stop abusing them.
The Angelina Jolie of Olive Trees
by David Farley | 03.04.09 | 2:24 PM ET
If you have an extra $90 sitting around and a long-standing desire to tell people at cocktail parties that you own an olive tree in the Italian countryside (and, really, who doesn’t these days?) then this site is for you. For just under a hundred bucks per year, you can adopt an olive tree in Italy. There’s no word if the tree will send you letters telling you about its progress, but you will get some of its goods—two liters’ worth.
Feeling Seasonable?
by Alexander Basek | 03.04.09 | 11:17 AM ET
So, let’s talk Four Seasons. Not the actual seasons—we’re getting plenty of winter fun here in New York—but the hotel chain. Worldwide, the Four Seasons is luring guests with third-night-free packages at about 40 properties. The offer’s ubiquity is what makes it such a value, though you should hurry as it expires come the end of March.
Down in Texas, you needn’t even spend the night to get a taste of Four Season goodness. The Houston and Austin properties have special offers for visitors who want to check out the facilities. Austin’s package features a massage, lunch and day-long use of the steam room for about $160 bucks; in Houston, you can drop $20 for access to the pool on weekends. Depends on how much you’re spending on a day at the spa in the first place, but should your plan to survive the economic downturn involve finding a sugar mommy or daddy, the outlay may prove worth your while.
‘Model’ Behavior From Southwest?
by Rob Verger | 03.04.09 | 10:28 AM ET
Would you feel offended if your Southwest plane had an enormous decal of Sports Illustrated model Bar Refaeli on it? Or if you saw the plane in question—called “S.I. One”—at an airport?
Today in the Sky has a good roundup of some of the negative reactions the plane has generated.
A quick glimpse at the comments below a photo of the plane shared by Southwest via TwitPic reveals that some don’t care so much (one commenter wrote: “The Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition is mainstream, and hardly controversial”), some disapprove (another wrote: “Tacky and sexist. Boo”) and others just want to joke about it.
As for me, all humor aside, I say: I think it was in poor taste to put this image on a plane. It’s a step too far. (Via Today in the Sky)
