Travel Blog: News and Briefs
The Authentic Irish Pub vs. the ‘Irish Pub Concept’
by Michael Yessis | 03.17.07 | 10:44 AM ET
Remember: Wherever you are in the world—from Kazakhstan to the Canary Islands to Dubai—a faux Irish pub awaits. And if you’re lucky enough to be in Ireland, here’s how to be a first-class punter. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all.
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Yahoo! BuzzTom Bissell: A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Man
by Jim Benning | 03.16.07 | 3:00 PM ET
Fiction and travel writer Tom Bissell, author of the new book The Father of All Things, which is about his journey to Vietnam with his war-veteran father, once again gets the profile treatment, this time in Poets & Writers magazine. World Hum books editor Frank Bures wrote the piece about Bissell, who’s also a World Hum contributor. “I’ve been reading Tom’s stuff for a long time,” Bures told me. “He just seemed like a natural for a profile. His collection of short stories, ‘God Lives in St. Petersburg,’ is fantastic, and his stories keep showing up in ‘The Best American Travel Writing.’ But his own story is a great one—the kind that gives hope to other writers.”
I Want My Book TV: Airplane Wars and the Global Economy
by Jim Benning | 03.16.07 | 12:49 PM ET
Couple of things on C-SPAN2’s Book TV this weekend that might interest to World Hum readers. Nicholas Sullivan discusses Can You Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World’s Poor to the Global Economy. Also, John Newhouse is interviewed about the book Boeing vs. Airbus, which, the cable channel notes, “explores the competition for dominance between the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers—Chicago-based Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: Moonwalkers, Stardust and the End of the Earth
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.07 | 8:02 AM ET
We’ve done the math: This week, travelers have professed their interest in the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, India, Venice, Antarctica and hotels with a certain “je ne sais quoi de geek.” Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Best Geek Hotels in the World
* Yes, that’s an equation-covered bed cover at Boston’s Hotel @ MIT.
Most Viewed Travel Story
Los Angeles Times (current)
Hey, Sin City Top This: Grand Canyon West’s New Skywalk
* Moonwalker Buzz Aldren will take the ceremonial first walk Monday. We still ask: What Would Edward Abbey Think?
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph (current)
Getting It Om In India
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (this week)
Stardust Blown to Dust
* Of course there’s video.
Most Blogged Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Making a Pilgrimage to Cathedrals of Commerce
* It’s all about the 19th-century shopping arcades of Paris.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
USA Today (current)
Miss Manners’ Venice: In a Word, Civilized
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
Antarctica: The Crystal Desert
* More on Antarctica: A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth
Best Selling Travel Book
Amazon.com (current)
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
Most Read Story
World Hum (this week)
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: ‘100 Places Every Woman Should Go’
Australia’s ‘Bloody’ Success
by Michael Yessis | 03.16.07 | 7:56 AM ET
When Australia rolled out it’s “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign last year, more than a few people claimed to be offended. Thirteen months later, “Australia has become a success story on how to capitalize in the competitive global tourism market,” according to a story by Lee Berthiaum in Embassy, the Canadian Foreign Policy newsweekly. The key, Berthiaum writes, was emphasizing Australia’s personality.
Paul Theroux, Condé Nast Traveler Nominated for National Magazine Awards
by Michael Yessis | 03.15.07 | 7:54 AM ET
Dubai on the Cheap?
by Jim Benning | 03.14.07 | 2:40 PM ET
It sounds like an oxymoron, but it seems that budget travel opportunities are at least beginning to emerge in Dubai. The Economist notes that the country’s first easyHotel is being built, promising modest accommodations at rates of up to 20 percent below its competitors. What’s more, a total of six easyHotels are planned for Dubai as part of an expansion into the region by the London-based chain. The first property is due to open next year.
U.S. Passports in Demand: Lines Look ‘Like a Rolling Stones Concert 25 Years Ago’
by Michael Yessis | 03.14.07 | 7:38 AM ET
Travelers often get their passports for summer trips during March. Couple that with the new Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires U.S. citizens to carry passports on flights to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, and travelers are now facing huge lines and waits of up to 10 weeks to get their little blue book.
Jeff Greenwald on Ethical Travel
by Jim Benning | 03.13.07 | 2:15 PM ET
Greenwald chatted with us about ethical travel years ago, but today, he explains the concept in the New York Times. Ethical travel, he tells the paper, means “being mindful of what everyone who travels, for business or pleasure, should remember. This includes knowing where your money is going, respecting local customs, bargaining fairly and remembering to pack your sense of humor.”
Related on World Hum:
* Burma’s Ongoing Cycle of Despair
* Q&A with Jeff Greenwald: Travel During War
* No. 27: ‘The Size of the World’ by Jeff Greenwald
Anne Frank’s Beloved Chestnut Tree to Fall
by Jim Benning | 03.13.07 | 1:06 PM ET
Photo by Ned Raggett, via flickr (Creative Commons).
In the Diary of Anne Frank, young Anne rhapsodized about looking out of the house where she was in hiding and seeing “the blue sky and the chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine.” It’s a tribute to the power of her writing that newspapers around the world are carrying news that the 150-year-old tree has been attacked by a fungus and will be felled. AnneFrank.org has posted a short video of the view of the tree from the house. Last year, actress Emma Thompson helped launch AnneFrankTree.com, billed as an “interactive monument.” The Anne Frank Museum plans to plant a sapling from the original in its place.
Stardust Blown to Dust
by Michael Yessis | 03.13.07 | 7:58 AM ET
Photo by heather0714, via Flickr (Creative Commons).
We said our in-person goodbyes to the Stardust last year, and now the iconic Las Vegas hotel and casino is officially no more. The Stardust was imploded early this morning—the AP has the video—to make room for Echelon, a $4.4 billion resort. The Stardust will live on in Vegas history as the city’s first low-cost, mass-market property.
Internet Phone Service: Convenient, But at What Cost?
by Jim Benning | 03.12.07 | 1:36 PM ET
Photo by ling883 via flickr (Creative Commons).
When somebody dials Clifford J. Levy’s telephone number in Brooklyn, the call is immediately forwarded to St. Petersburg, Russia. For Levy, who now resides in St. Petersburg, that’s generally a good thing. For a modest monthly fee, he can dial up his family back home, and when his daughter gets lonely in Russia, she can call friends in New York, too—all thanks to an Internet phone service. But as much as he loves the convenience of it, Levy wonders about the drawbacks, and not just when the telemarketers call in the middle of the night, which happens to be dinner time in New York. “In the past, cut off from your old life, you may have tried harder to immerse yourself in your new one,” he writes in the New York Times. “That was part of the allure of being an expatriate: learning a new language, overcoming isolation by trying to cultivate friends among the locals, making daily discoveries about another part of the world.” Now, he adds, that’s just more difficult to do.
‘Desert Louvre’ Plans Cause Uproar in France
by Michael Yessis | 03.12.07 | 7:41 AM ET
What can $1.3 billion buy? For Abu Dhabi, it’s the rights “to borrow the Louvre’s name and hundreds of its artworks, as well as treasures from the Picasso Museum, Pompidou Center, Chateau de Versailles and other French museums,” according to the Washington Post. It’s also a way for Abu Dhabi to compete with neighboring Dubai for tourists. For France, however, the transaction has brought on a heated national discussion about how to handle its renowned cultural assets.
Win a Trip With Nicholas Kristof, Take Two
by Michael Yessis | 03.12.07 | 7:29 AM ET
New York Times columnist and emancipation tourist Nicholas Kristof has announced another contest to find travel companions for a reporting trip to Africa. Last year, Missouri grad student Casey Parks joined Kristof, and she blogged, vlogged and spoke eloquently about her experiences. This year, Kristof writes, he’ll take along a student and a teacher, and they’ll report on their experiences at NYTimes.com and on MySpace. The “Win a Trip” contest is part of Kristof’s effort to expose more people to the ongoing horrors in Africa and to promote travel in the developing world as a tool for enlightenment. He writes: “Let’s face it: We’re provincial.”
Global Good Times: ‘The Rough Guide to the World’s Best Festivals’
by Jim Benning | 03.09.07 | 1:15 PM ET
With the right trip-planning (and hangover antidote), a good festival can be the highlight of a journey. So Rough Guide’s book, World Party: The Rough Guide to the World’s Best Festivals, should make a fine addition to any traveler’s reference library. Hundreds of events around the world are featured, from Rio’s Carnival to Buñol, Spain’s annual tomato-throwing bash. Jerry V. Haines notes the book in this Sunday’s Washington Post, writing: “Clever icons identify the attractions and perils of the 200-plus events: fancy costumes, parades, drugs, nudity. And party-till-you-puke alcohol consumption.”
