Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Calcata: ‘This May Be the Grooviest Village in Italy’
by Michael Yessis | 01.29.07 | 8:25 AM ET
The fresco of Jimi Hendrix on the wall of an 18th-century building in Calcata helps give it away. Then there are the art galleries, aging hippies and, oh yeah, the Holy Foreskin. David Farley, a World Hum contributor, tells the tale of the one-of-a-kind Italian hill town in Sunday’s New York Times. “You could walk around here in your pajamas holding a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and no one is going to judge you because you(tm)re not tied to the proper Italian way of doing things,• restaurateur Pancho Garrison tells Farley. “That says a lot about the place.” So does Garrison’s restaurant: It serves nouvelle Italian food, writes Farley, and it resides in a mosaic-lined cave.
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Yahoo! BuzzSweden Reveals Embassy Plans for Second Life
by Michael Yessis | 01.29.07 | 8:07 AM ET
Second Life has at least one virtual hotel, a travel guide and some virtual tourists, so why not a virtual embassy? Sweden thinks it makes sense— promotional sense.
Was Your Hotel Room Coffee Maker Used as a Mini Meth Lab?
by Jim Benning | 01.25.07 | 4:30 PM ET
If it has reddish-orange stains and your room smells of chemicals, then the answer just might be yes. Gross.
R.I.P. Ryszard Kapuściński
by Jim Benning | 01.24.07 | 12:26 PM ET
The acclaimed Polish journalist and author died Tuesday in Warsaw at the age of 74. This morning, Poland’s parliament remembered him with a moment of silence. Kapuściński is the author of “The Soccer War,” among other books, which ranked fourth on our list of the top 30 travel books of all time. We’ll have more on Kapuściński soon.
Macau Surpasses Las Vegas as Gambling Mecca
by Michael Yessis | 01.24.07 | 9:20 AM ET
The numbers are staggering: Macau’s gambling revenue rose from $2 billion in 2001 to $6.95 billion in 2006, and this year analysts predict a take of $8 billion. Las Vegas took in $6.5 billion in 2006. Why is Macau booming? According to a New York Times story, liberalized Chinese travel policies have helped spur growth.
UK Guidebook Writers: ‘Readers are Getting a Poorer Experience’
by Michael Yessis | 01.24.07 | 8:33 AM ET
Maui Locals to MTV: We’re Not All White Deviants Who Prey on Tourists
by Jim Benning | 01.23.07 | 2:48 PM ET
‘Paris Syndrome’: The New York City Strain?
by Michael Yessis | 01.23.07 | 1:00 PM ET
The New York Post had some fun with a recent story about Japanese tourists in France who succumb to Paris Syndrome. The paper titled its piece Paris Leaves Japanese French Fried. Now the New Yorker’s Lauren Collins is on the case, wondering if there’s a New York City version of the syndrome that leaves travelers to the City of Light overwhelmed and in need of psychological treatment. An officer at the Japanese Consulate “does not believe in the existence of Paris syndrome, or, for that matter, a New York strain,” Collins writes, but she does report that Japanese visitors to the Big Apple do have certain traits.
The Norovirus Strikes Again
by Michael Yessis | 01.23.07 | 8:03 AM ET
Cruisers didn’t take the hit this time. Hotel guests in Virginia did. From the Associated Press: “The Hilton hotel near Dulles International Airport has been closed for a top-to-bottom scrubbing after more than 100 guests were sickened by the highly contagious norovirus.” The norovirus notoriously plagues cruise ships.
‘The Soccer People’: Heartbreak and Triumph in Clarkston, Georgia
by Michael Yessis | 01.22.07 | 8:47 AM ET
We write often about how soccer explains the world. Here’s another post, one that tells the story of an amazing soccer team based in a small town near Atlanta. Team name: The Fugees. “The Fugees are indeed all refugees, from the most troubled corners—Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burundi, Congo, Gambia, Iraq, Kosovo, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan,” writes Warren St. John in a front-page story in Sunday’s New York Times. “Some have endured unimaginable hardship to get here: squalor in refugee camps, separation from siblings and parents. One saw his father killed in their home.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Wanderlust and WiFi
by Michael Yessis | 01.19.07 | 9:35 AM ET
This week, travelers are looking for a taste of luxury and a nice beach to catch some rays and ... surf the Internet? We’re off to Hermosa Beach, Aspen, Walt Disney World, Mount Everest, Hawaii and one dirty hotel in Virginia.
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (current)
Top 10 Beaches With WiFi Internet Access
* Not the kind of surfing we prefer at the beach.
Dirtiest Hotel in the U.S.
TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards (2006)
Tropicana Resort Hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia
* One quote on TripAdvisor: “This had to be the toilet bowl of Virginia Beach.”
Most Viewed Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
‘Has the Romance Gone Out of Travel?’
* Let’s not ask the travelers who stayed at the Tropicana in Virginia Beach.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
FlightStats
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Beneath the Glitz, a Middle-Class Aspen
Most Read Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Top Luxury Attractions at Disney World
* Plus, a slideshow.
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2007 by Bob Sehlinger with Len Testa
Top Travel and Adventure Audiobook
iTunes (current)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Travel With Rick Steves
Most Dugg Travel Podcast
Digg (current)
Martin Sargent: Web Drifter
* The podcast described: “Journey with me now as I visit the physical loci of the most outrageous, surprising, intriguing and important websites I’ve bookmarked during my years of furious Internet surfing, actually going ‘behind the websites’ to get to know, and learn from, the time travelers, shamans, UFO cult leaders and other geniuses who created them.”
The Critics: ‘Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration’
by Jim Benning | 01.19.07 | 7:16 AM ET
Writing a sweeping history of world exploration sounds like no easy feat. Doing it well sounds even tougher. But the critics are raving about Felipe Fernández-Armesto’s new book that attempts just that, Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration. The New York Times calls it a “brilliant and readable book,” adding that it’s “an illuminating and, at times, stirring examination of the divergence and convergence of cultures, a rich study of humankind’s restless spirit. As intimate as Alexander the Great’s deathbed wish and as vast as human migration, this book explains who we are as much as what we have done.”
Youth Travel On the Rise
by Jim Benning | 01.18.07 | 9:38 PM ET
Good news. According to a Detroit Free Press report: “The student and youth travel market is a huge 20% segment of all the travelers in the world. Among the fastest-growing segments, it includes not only college students age 25 and under, but increasing numbers of middle- and high-schoolers and even elementary children on group day or overnight school trips for band, choir, church, sports or science, civics and language classes.” While the article doesn’t identify a study to support the data, it also insitsts: “Children who start traveling when they are young become lifelong travelers. They are more likely to travel in high school. They’re more likely to study abroad in college. And they’re more likely to carry their love of travel into adulthood.” Ah, addicts, just like us.
R.I.P. Art Buchwald
by Jim Benning | 01.18.07 | 12:08 PM ET
The famed humorist, who died Wednesday at the age of 81, got his start writing abroad. He once wrote a column called “Paris After Dark” that featured “scraps of offbeat information about Parisian nightlife” for the New York Herald Tribune. His goodbye video (“Hi, I’m Art Buchwald, and I just died”) is up on the New York Times website.
Hotel Guests Love Watching ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ Will They Love Live Sex On-Demand Even More?
by Michael Yessis | 01.18.07 | 9:28 AM ET
“The Da Vinci Code” may have been the official most-popular in-room movie of 2006, but how would it rate against, say, live sex on-demand? Soon we may know. At least one entrepreneur has proposed offering live sex programming to guests in U.S. hotels.
