Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Could Google’s Self-Driving Cars Ruin the Road Trip?
by Eva Holland | 10.25.10 | 1:48 PM ET
I’d never thought about the implications of a pre-programmed vehicle doing my navigating for me, but Budget Travel blogger Nicholas DeRenzo is thinking way ahead. He outlined his concerns in a recent blog post:
Stumbling upon off-the-beaten path destinations—from random roadside attractions to gas station barbecue joints to small town drive-in theaters—is what makes road trips so popular. Unless you remember to punch the world’s largest jackalope or the Cadillac Ranch into your GPS system, you’re all but guaranteed to miss these icons of Americana if you’re in a self-driving car. In a sense, you’ll lose the ability to get lost.
A more optimistic commenter responds:
The high-speed freeways running across the country made Route 66 obsolete, but there are still those of us that make it a point to go off the beaten path and embrace the spirit of discovery. Even if the Google self-driven car becomes standard, there will be a way to “go manual”, I’m sure.
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Yahoo! BuzzNew Travel Book: ‘100 Journeys for the Spirit’
by Eva Holland | 10.25.10 | 12:19 PM ET
The new guidebook rounds up 100 destinations that feed the soul. Twenty-five of those spots get write-ups from well-known travel writers, poets and novelists, including Pico Iyer, Jan Morris and Paul Theroux. The Telegraph features several excerpts from the book—here’s Pico Iyer, in the foreword:
We all know how we can be turned around by a magic place; that’s why we travel, often. And yet we all know, too, that the change cannot be guaranteed. Travel is a fool’s paradise, Emerson reminded us, if we think that we can find anything far off that we could not find at home. The person who steps out into the silent emptiness of Easter Island is, alas, too often the same person who got onto the plane the day before at Heathrow, red-faced and in a rage.
Yet still the hope persists and sends us out onto the road: certain experiences can so shock or humble us that they take us to places inside ourselves, of terror or wonder or the confounding mixture of them both, that we never see amid the hourly distractions and clutter of home.
They slap us awake and into a recognition of who we might be in our deepest moments.
93 Years of the New York Subway, in Photos
by Eva Holland | 10.25.10 | 11:46 AM ET
The New York Times compliled a gorgeous slideshow that spans from 1917 to the present. (Via Kottke)
What We Loved This Week: The Texas Rangers, Willian Finnegan, and Lunch at Singapore’s Embassy
by World Hum | 10.22.10 | 5:07 PM ET
Eva Holland
I’ve been sifting through old travel photos this week, and I came across a snapshot that I’d completely forgotten about, from the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. I still love this quote:
Spiritual Tourism Struggling in Sedona
by Eva Holland | 10.22.10 | 12:39 PM ET
The New York Times’ Mark Lacey reports from Sedona—“Arizona’s New Age mecca,” as World Hum contributor Laurie Gough calls it—where visitors numbers are way down. Here’s Lacey:
Nobody is sure exactly what is keeping people away from Sedona’s four vortexes, swirling energy sources emanating from the earth, but the effects are clear: far fewer crystals are being bought, spiritual tours taken and treatments ordered, from aura cleansings to chakra balancings.
That an earthly power—the economy—is a culprit is not in doubt. But some do not discount the effects of an awful incident from a year ago that put Sedona’s New Age community in a bad light and that, to some degree, still lingers, despite efforts by metaphysical people to cast it away.
The rest of the story delves into the impact of that incident last year, when three tourists died in a sweat lodge ceremony. It’s a chilling read.
New Budget Bus Service: Direct From U Street to Brooklyn
by Eva Holland | 10.22.10 | 9:46 AM ET
The new service, The Know It Express, will link Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, NY, and cater to “young travelers looking to eschew Times Square and the National Mall for Brooklyn Flea and U Street’s indie music venues,” according to the New York Times. It’s already being dubbed the Hipster Highway or the Hipster Express thanks to its trendy start- and end-points and its “hipster-friendly amenities like bike storage, free Wi-Fi and on-board laptops riders can borrow for the trip.”
But don’t worry, cyclists—a company rep reassured this D.C.-area blogger that you don’t have to ride a fixie to get your bike on board.
‘We Miss the Peanuts Too’ and Other Pilot Secrets
by Eva Holland | 10.21.10 | 4:53 PM ET
Reader’s Digest has put together a fascinating collection of revelations from mostly-anonymous working pilots. The tidbits range from the worrying (“I’m constantly under pressure to carry less fuel than I’m comfortable with”) to the practical (“I may be in uniform, but that doesn’t mean I’m the best person to ask for directions in the airport. We’re in so many airports that we usually have no idea.”) and are arranged thematically. A stand-alone comment listed as a “parting thought” is my favorite:
Here’s the truth about airline jobs: You don’t have as much time off as your neighbors think you have, you don’t make as much money as your relatives think you make, and you don’t have as many girlfriends as your wife thinks you have. Still, I can’t believe they pay me to do this.
Daisann McLane: ‘Baggage is Not an Obstacle’
by Eva Holland | 10.21.10 | 1:13 PM ET
In her latest column, Daisann McLane offers her perspective on the recent No-Baggage Challenge. Her take? “A mixed feeling of awe and bewilderment.” Here’s why she could never go there herself:
I curate the contents of my suitcase with exceptional care. If you happen to meet me in an airport in Asia or on a European train, you’ll usually find me traveling lighter than light, with one small rolling Samsonite carryon, or a Patagonia “Legal CarryOn” satchel. I have lived, quite easily out of either one for over a month.
But give up baggage altogether? That’s like asking me to give up wine, or chocolate. I enjoy figuring out how to pack strategically, so I’m not bogged down with stuff but can still dress with as much elegance and local color as I can. When you travel, every day on the road is a special occasion. I pack, and dress myself to honor that energy and joy—and reflect it back at the world. It deserves no less.
A Tintin Tour of Jordan
by Eva Holland | 10.21.10 | 12:23 PM ET
The Guardian’s Georgia Brown made an unconventional trip to Petra—guided by a “Tintinologist” and a copy of The Red Sea Sharks. We’ve talked before about Tintin’s appeal to travelers, and in her dispatch Brown’s guide notes another aspect of that appeal:
Thousands of tourists visit Petra every week, but this summer I was part of the first small group of adventurers to arrive at the rose-red city in the footsteps of Tintin, led by one of the world’s leading Tintinologists, Michael Farr.
For Michael—who, dressed in beige linen suit and explorer’s hat, looks to have stepped from that golden era of travel—this is clearly part of the delight. A natural raconteur, he explains that Tintin creator Hergé’s drawings were astonishingly accurate, from his rendering of landscapes such as the Middle Eastern desert and local costumes, down to the accuracy of Egyptian hieroglyphs painted on a tomb or the Chinese lettering on a street banner. When fans of the comics see images of the real thing they perhaps cannot help but be reminded of the books in which they first saw them.
(Via The Book Bench)
Did Canaletto Paint Venice as Tourists Wanted to See It?
by Eva Holland | 10.20.10 | 4:12 PM ET
The Economist’s Prospero blogger thinks so. In a recent post, he describes a new exhibit at London’s National Gallery, Canaletto and His Rivals, as “painted propaganda,” and argues that the Venice depicted in its paintings bears little resemblance to the real deal:
The sun always shines in Venice; the sky is always blue. This is how visitors like to remember that most beautiful island city. Not coincidentally, that is how Canaletto most often painted the place. His clients, after all, were Grand Tourists, many of them back home in dark English country houses, worrying about farm rents. They longed for the gorgeous, licentious place their memories turned into paradise.
(Via The Daily Dish)
Tourism Promotion Through ... Food Trucks?
by Eva Holland | 10.20.10 | 1:10 PM ET
The Wall Street Journal notes a potential new trend: Foreign tourism boards stirring up interest abroad by offering free food-truck meals to entice potential visitors. Here’s reporter Sumathi Reddy:
Foreign countries are increasingly hoping food is the key to New Yorkers’ hearts—and purse strings. In June, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism had a Treats & Tweets truck dishing out free Junkanoo drumsticks (chicken wings), Bahamian macaroni and cheese and virgin Bahama Mamas for a week. “It was promoting tourism and travel to the Bahamas using food as a conduit,” said Chelsey Lutz, a spokeswoman for the ministry.
This is one form of promotion I can definitely get behind. (Via @collazoprojects)
A Call for Airport Outlet Etiquette
by Eva Holland | 10.19.10 | 2:26 PM ET
Jennifer Saranow Schultz, the New York Times’ Bucks blogger, thinks it’s about time for some ground rules:
At many airports, it seems as if there is an unspoken first-come, first-serve policy with no time restrictions. To me, this doesn’t seem right. With outlets in such short supply, I’d like to see use limits, say 15 to 20 minutes, become the accepted unspoken norm. Or, at the least, I’d like to see people only use the outlets for quick charging or for work they have to get done and not just to watch a movie.
I don’t see things changing anytime soon. Several NYT commenters on the post point out that packing a power strip is a good interim solution.
ExpressJet Pilot Refuses Full Body Scan, Has Job Put ‘On Hold’
by Eva Holland | 10.19.10 | 1:37 PM ET
Jalopnik has the pilot’s firsthand account. Money quote, describing a conversation with a TSA investigator who eventually arrived on the scene:
He told me he had been advised that I was refusing security screening, to which I replied that I had willingly walked through the metal detector with no alarms, the same way I always do when commuting to work. He then briefed me on the recent screening policy changes and, apparently confused, asked whether they would be a problem for me. I stated that I did indeed have a problem with the infringement of my civil rights and liberty.
His reply: “That’s irrelevant.”
R.I.P. Barbara Billingsley
by Michael Yessis | 10.19.10 | 11:50 AM ET
She most famously played June Cleaver on “Leave It to Beaver,” but we’ll always remember her for the scene she stole in Airplane! She was 94.
A Short History of Touring Dead Writers’ Houses
by Eva Holland | 10.18.10 | 4:44 PM ET
In the New York Times, Anne Trubek dissects the phenomenon, which has a longer history than you might expect—apparently, visitors were already making their way to Petrarch’s birthplace in the 1300s. But most writer’s-house visitors aren’t there for the sake of literature. Here’s Trubek on the motivations behind many visits:
According to curator and tour-guide estimates, only about half of the 2,000 people who visit the Walt Whitman House in Camden, N.J., each year come because they are interested in Whitman (as opposed to a nice historical stopover after touring the battleship down the road). Just 10 percent of the 9,000 annual visitors to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville, N.C., come specifically for the author. Most people who visit the Mount, Edith Wharton’s lavish estate in tourist-friendly Lenox, Mass., are killing time before a concert at Tanglewood (and tend not to continue to Arrowhead, Herman Melville’s modest homestead in the nearby depressed industrial city of Pittsfield). Half of the 182,000 annual visitors to Hemingway’s house in Key West say they come for the cats.
(Via The Book Bench)
