Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Delta Sued by Another Delayed Passenger
by Michael Yessis | 07.25.08 | 9:28 AM ET
The last lawsuit we noted was for $1 million. This guy is suing for $5 million.
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Yahoo! BuzzHole Opens in Qantas 747 During Flight
by Michael Yessis | 07.25.08 | 9:17 AM ET
The plane was traveling from Hong Kong to Melbourne today, and safely landed in Manila. All passengers and crew were reported to have been uninjured, though the memories of the hole and the decompressed cabin will surely linger. An airport official in Manila estimated the size of the hole at 7 1/2 feet to 9 feet in diameter. Qantas, of course, famously has never lost a jet in a crash.
Q&A With David Del Vecchio: A Travel Bookstore First for Manhattan
by Kelly Amabile | 07.24.08 | 10:53 AM ET
Photo of Idlewild Books by Frank Murray.
In the first half of this year, World Hum lamented the closing of several independent bookstores, including D.C.‘s travel-themed Candida’s. For a change, we note a new store opening: travel-themed Idlewild Books in New York City.
World Hum Travel Movie Club: National Lampoon’s ‘Vacation’
by Eli Ellison, Eva Holland | 07.23.08 | 11:31 AM ET
Twenty-five years ago this month, Clark W. Griswold first bumbled across theater screens on a quest for the ultimate family vacation. Starting line: Chicago, Illinois. Destination: Walley World, California. The results? Hilarious! Or were they? Eli Ellison revisits an old favorite; Eva Holland takes her first trip down “Holiday Road.” They exchanged emails and debated the virtues of this travel-comedy classic.
Philadelphia Welcomed Record Amount of International Visitors in 2007
by Michael Yessis | 07.23.08 | 11:09 AM ET
More good news for the City of Brotherly Love, which, as we noted, recently shook off “its regular litany of national ranking dishonors.”
Denali National Park Buses Going Hybrid?
by Michael Yessis | 07.23.08 | 10:05 AM ET
Tests have begun to replace Denali National Park’s fleet of “noisy, carbon dioxide-spewing diesel” engine buses, as the AP puts it, with new hybrid vehicles. If they’re adopted, it would improve what’s already one of the most impressive outdoors experiences in the U.S. Except for a few days a year, visitors can only travel the Denali Park Road in one of the park’s 110 buses.
Baggage: Check It or Ship It?
by Eva Holland | 07.23.08 | 10:03 AM ET
Most folks have thought about shipping extra baggage home by mail at one time or another—especially when the souvenir shopping gets out of hand. Now that free checked baggage is going the way of the dodo (or should I say, the way of in-flight meals, movies and complimentary beverage service?) the postal alternative is likely to become ever more popular. Wired blogger Dave Demerjian breaks down the numbers on both options.
Related on World Hum:
* Beware the Carry-On Baggage Bulge
* American Airlines Announces $15 Fee For Checking First Bag
Disaster Destinations: Roadside Attractions With an Extra Dose of Destruction
by Elyse Franko | 07.23.08 | 9:27 AM ET
From the ever-burning coal pit in Centralia, Pennsylvania, to the giant circle of trash floating in the eastern Pacific, this tongue-in-cheek article from Good magazine offers a travel guide to the many man-made disasters in America, conveniently spread from sea to not-so-shining sea. Take this excerpt on the Salton Sea in California: “Chemical reactions turn the surface red and lime green, causing massive, odiferous fish die-offs, and sick fish poison the more than 400 species of birds that live here.”
Related on World Hum:
* Japan’s Mount Fuji: Icon, Garbage Dump
* Illuminating ‘Dark Travel’
Photo of Salton Sea by mst7022 via Flickr, (Creative Commons)
Where in the World Are You, Valerie Conners?
by World Hum | 07.22.08 | 5:17 PM ET
The subject of our latest up-to-the-minute interview with a traveler somewhere in the world: a new addition to the World Hum editorial team, Valerie Conners.
Where in the World Are You?
A Night in the Young-at-Heart Hostel
by Eva Holland | 07.22.08 | 12:15 PM ET
Forget about the “youth” in youth hostel. Last weekend I spent a night in an HI hostel in the 1000 Islands region of upstate New York, and to my surprise, all my dorm-mates were septuagenarians, in town for a local festival. The next 24 hours were an exercise in expectation reassessment. For example, instead of going to bed at 9 p.m., my roomies sat up until all hours in the kitchen, swapping tales about their hosteling adventures from the past several decades.
In Kabul, Watching ‘the Drama of Ordinary Lives’
by Michael Yessis | 07.22.08 | 10:31 AM ET
Don’t let all the buzz about David Carr’s heartbreaking book excerpt in the latest New York Times Magazine distract you from another terrific story in the same issue, Kristin Ohlson’s Lives piece Watching TV in Kabul. Ohlson, co-author of “Kabul Beauty School,” reveals a slice of life in a Kabul kebab shop, a scene that reveals “the drama of ordinary lives that rocks households but doesn’t blow buildings or buses apart.”
Hay Hotels: Count Your Sheep—and Sleep Like Them, Too
by Elyse Franko | 07.22.08 | 9:03 AM ET
Eco-conscious travelers might be pleased by the new accommodation trend that’s spreading through Europe: the hay hotel, which, as far as I can tell, is just an old barn that’s been freshened up a bit and (hopefully) doesn’t smell strongly of manure. Travelers sleep in a dormitory setting atop piles of hay. No pillows. No blankets. Just hay.
Pulling the Plug: PDA-Free Holidays
by Eva Holland | 07.21.08 | 2:43 PM ET
No, I’m not talking about the “get a room” variety of PDA. According to the Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman, an increasing number of hotels and resorts are offering BlackBerry-free zones, and even packages where hotel staff will ensure that guests don’t make or take any calls and emails—for their own good, of course.
Lack of Tourists Hurting China’s Panda Center
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.21.08 | 11:17 AM ET
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding didn’t suffer physical damage from the deadly earthquake that left 90,000 people dead or missing earlier this year. But spooked tourists cancelled trips to the region, leaving only about 300 people visiting daily—about one-tenth of the normal volume, NPR reports.
A Cross-Country Tour of a Fast Food Nation
by Joanna Kakissis | 07.21.08 | 11:13 AM ET
Krispy Kreme was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Pizza Hut and White Castle both began in Wichita, Kansas. Subway kicked off in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Kentucky Fried Chicken in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Hooters in Clearwater, Florida. If you string together all of Walletpop’s 39 listings of fast-food chain birthplaces, you could road trip through the hardened arteries of (mostly) small-town America. You might want to crank up Tom Waits’ Eggs and Sausage for some ambience. (Via Slashfood)
Photo by chleong via Flickr (Creative Commons).
