Travel Blog: News and Briefs
And the Eco-Vacation Oscar Goes to ...
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.20.09 | 11:33 AM ET
Host Hugh Jackman and the losers! As part of a sweet “Everybody Wins at the Oscars!” deal, tour operator Lindblad Expeditions will host Jackman, all the non-winning acting nominees and best director nominees on a 10-day trip to the Galapagos, National Geographic Adventure reports.
I’m dying of jealousy, and not because I want to hang with Brangelina and the rest of the glitterati—but with the ancient tortoises and Galapagos penguins! Hope, too, that this announcement doesn’t mean a crush of paparazzi and crazed fans trampling on these fragile enchanted islands.
How about if Lindblad just sends me and my little footprints instead?
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Yahoo! BuzzMissing Mardi Gras
by Jenna Schnuer | 02.20.09 | 10:23 AM ET
There’s a gaping evil awful hole in my collection of travel experiences: not only have I never been to Mardi Gras, I’ve never even been to New Orleans. (OK, while I’m admitting to things, I’ve never seen “The Godfather” either but I guess that’s an issue for another website.)
While I won’t be able to correct the situation by this year’s Mardi Gras, I plan to right the wrong come 2010. In the meantime, I’ll continue to obsess from afar. With a piece of King Cake and a ridiculously tall plastic cup filled with some sort of soul-drenching beverage by my side, I’m going to read and watch as much as I can about both Mardi Gras and New Orleans. After the jump, some of the goodies in my from-afar primer.
RVing on the Cheap
by Eva Holland | 02.20.09 | 9:51 AM ET
Over at Gadling, Anna Brones Alison Brick has dug up a way to go RVing for just $24 a day. The catch? You have to be headed either to or from Mesa, Arizona, where Cruise America’s headquarters are located. Check out the “Rolling into Arizona” and “Rolling out of Arizona” sections on the company’s Hot Deals page to see where the discounted vehicles are currently available; you’ll need to apply three days in advance, and all rentals are first-come, first-served.
Morning Links: 50 Great Travel Tweeters, Shark Attacks and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.20.09 | 8:33 AM ET
- Seaside vacations are down, and, therefore, so are shark attacks.
- Transitions Abroad reveals how to, well, transition abroad after getting laid off or fired from a job.
- Ryanair plans to allow mobile phone use on all its flights.
- Much of John Wray’s latest novel Lowboy takes place in the New York Subway system. In fact, Wray wrote the novel on the subway.
- Here are 71 photos of “interesting and bizarre peoples” on subways. (via Coudal)
- TSA tests full-body scanners in Tulsa.
- Among the 16 things Esquire says Canada is good at: Music that always stops just short of making you want to kill yourself.
- Larry Portzline lists 10 ways to tap into Bookstore Tourism.
- The Telegraph lists 50 great travel tweeters, including one “from the editors of the best global travel blog.” Thanks, Telegraph! Thanks and congrats, too, to World Hum’s lead tweeter, Valerie Conners!
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The Doughnut Curse
by David Farley | 02.19.09 | 5:29 PM ET
Everyone’s talking about how hamburgers have become the default economic depression meal for Americans. It’s possible we’re eating more burgers these days, but the resurgence in hamburger eating hit the American taste bud a few years before the DOW started going south.
Let me make the case for the doughnut as the Official Food of the 2009 Economic Crisis. Like dumplings and Regis Philbin, there’s a version of the doughnut in just about every culture around the world. But there’s something particularly American about those hunks of sometimes-fruit-filled fried dough. It could be the venue in which we consume doughnuts, the nostalgic, ‘50s-era quality of doughnut shops, which has quietly disappeared from our strip malls. Or maybe it’s because doughnuts have been consumed on this continent for thousands of years—archeologists recently unearthed a prehistoric doughnut.
An Oil Rig Resort and Spa in the Gulf of Mexico?
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.19.09 | 4:29 PM ET
Morris Architects won the grand prize at the 2008 Radical Innovation in Hospitality awards by using an abandoned oil rig to design a luxury resort with more than 300 suites, a fancy restaurant and ballroom, a casino and “stargazer lounge,” and a rooftop infinity pool.
Could be a great idea, though oil companies are still hoping to explore the next petroleum frontier in the deep sea of the Gulf (and through five miles of rock, salt and packed sand). But if the United States ends up embracing Thomas Friedman’s energy technology revolution (as I hope!) and the oil-rig resorts catch on, I hope they don’t end up dumping their waste into waters already plagued by “red tide” algae blooms. Eco-resorts only, please. (via Treehugger and Jetson Green.)
Nebraska! Whodathunkit?
by Sophia Dembling | 02.19.09 | 3:36 PM ET
I don’t know what became of my Nebraska sweatshirt. It vanished many years ago and I still mourn the loss.
I bought the bright red (go Huskers!), short-sleeved sweatshirt in a thrift shop and wore it for years after my first (and so far only) visit to Nebraska in the late 1970s.
Saving the Hotel Industry—With Models!
by Alexander Basek | 02.19.09 | 1:13 PM ET
It’s not all Singapore Slings over at Raffles HQ. Nope, they’re also quite proud to have made the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. That’s Raffles Canouan Island behind Bar Refaeli. (OK, it took me a little while to get my eyes off the foreground. Apologies). The hotel is also offering a package simulating the experience the models had, complete with a tour of the property where the shoots took place. Without the models on hand, it doesn’t have quite the same luster, but it’s still an interesting concept.
But is “Bar Refaeli writhed here” reason enough to visit a hotel? Unless you’re a creepy, creepy person, it is not. As nice as Canouan is—that is to say, nice enough to host a of bevy models—Raffles’ get says more about the Swimsuit Issue than anything else. It’s very hard for hotels, especially high-end hotels, to break through these days when the news is mostly bad and super deluxe amenities all start to sound the same. Having a supermodel or two in your back pocket can’t hurt, especially when Americans still stop and pay attention to SI’s annual fleshfest even as the rest of the magazine industry plummets. The lesson here? Make the Swimsuit Issue twice yearly, to save the hotel industry.
R.I.P. Sigurdur Helgason
by Rob Verger | 02.19.09 | 12:41 PM ET
Sigurdur Helgason, who died Feb. 8 at the age of 87, is credited with growing the airline that became known as the “hippie airline.”
“Mr. Helgason built up the United States market, carrying tens of thousands of budget travelers to Europe on what is known today as Icelandair,” his obituary reports.
The article quotes his daughter, Edda, as saying, “He opened up the opportunity for people in America to appreciate the value of Europe, and Europe of America, and there was Iceland, perfectly located, in between.”
Promo Videos Gone Wrong: ‘Nebraska: Who Knew?’
by Eva Holland | 02.19.09 | 12:21 PM ET
Next up in our ongoing series on unintentionally humorous tourism promo videos? An offering from Nebraska Tourism, with a slogan—“Who knew?”—that probably hits the nail a little too firmly on the head. Self-deprecation is a tricky thing for any tourist board to pull off, and I’m not sure a promo spot is the right place to remind your viewers that nobody thinks there’s anything worth seeing in your state. (Though for what it’s worth, I’ve always wanted to see Carhenge, myself.)
The clip—which, to be fair, includes some pretty impressive Great Plains scenery—is after the jump.
R.I.P. Conchita Cintron, Woman Matador
by Jim Benning | 02.19.09 | 11:38 AM ET
The Peruvian matador’s debut performance dates back to 1937. She died in Lisbon at the age of 86.
Morning Links: Haka, ‘Travel as Rehabilitation,’ Taxi Gourmet and More
by Jim Benning | 02.19.09 | 11:20 AM ET
- The Washington Post profiles Layne Mosler, the food pilgrim at taxigourmet.com.
- Oh, no he didn’t: An angry pilot at a London airport security checkpoint dropped his pants and asked, Do you want to search this?
- Can’t get enough morning links? BootsnAll has launched BootsnAll Today.
- The Christian Science Monitor profiles the creator of www.accessible.travel, the “first online booking engine for disabled travelers.” Says its founder, “I truly believe that travel is rehabilitation.”
- Coastal Living explains how to go from 0 to 200—degrees—with sauna-loving Finns at Thunder Bay, Ontario.
- The Millions on a topic we love: literature as tour guide.
- Finally, why the sour face? Oh, must be because it’s time for the haka championships.
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No One Will Ever Find Me in This Camouflaged Treehouse Hotel
by Joanna Kakissis | 02.18.09 | 1:32 PM ET
Not sure if this idea is crazy or brilliant, but I’m not surprised that it came from eco-chic Scandinavia. The Swedish architecture firm Tham & Videgard Hansson have designed a lightweight treehouse hotel with a mirrored exterior that reflects the forest around it. The mirrored cube is supposed to be invisible, but with a full set of living quarters inside, including a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette and even a roof terrace. (But a warning to the dainty eco-poseurs: scaling up here via rope ladder or rope bridge is not for the matched luggage set; pack a backpack instead.)
Filmed Here: ‘Gossip Girl’
by Eva Holland | 02.18.09 | 12:27 PM ET
So here’s the dilemma: New York’s Restaurant Week has been extended, you’ve got a friend visiting from Canada, and you’d like to take advantage of the deal as a special treat. But how to choose just one of the 150 participating restaurants before making your reservation? Well, if you’re a sucker for teen television dramas (guilty), then naturally you book at the restaurant recently featured on “Gossip Girl.” Which is how I found myself at Butter for an unfashionably early dinner on Sunday night.
(Butter, in case you haven’t been keeping track, is the restaurant where Jenny Humphrey—aka Little J, the “poor” girl who lives with her aging rock star dad in a fabulous DUMBO loft—and Blair—the teen queen of the Upper East Side—staged a major showdown on Jenny’s 15th birthday back in season one.)
Ryanair Joins the Cruise Game
by Eva Holland | 02.18.09 | 11:09 AM ET
The king of low-cost carriers has joined forces with Costa Cruises and will now be offering discounted bookings with the Italian company through the Ryanair website, the Telegraph reports. “Ryanair and Costa Cruises will reduce the cost of traditionally expensive cruise holidays and bring greater choice to those looking to beat the recession and take advantage of these great value cruise holiday packages,” said a representative for the Irish airline.
There’s no word on whether Costa will start nickel-and-diming passengers as a condition of the deal. Charges for the lounge chairs on deck? Pay-by-weight at the buffet? A steadfast refusal to offer assistance, compensation or even a refund of the measly 15 pounds you paid for your ticket after a last-minute cancellation by the airline? (Not that I’m bitter.)
