Travel Blog
Hurricane Dean Heading Toward Mexico’s Riviera Maya*
by Jim Benning | 08.20.07 | 4:40 PM ET
Experts say Hurricane Dean, now a Category 4 storm, could grow even stronger as it barrels toward Mexico’s Riviera Maya (pictured), where it’s expected to make landfall early Tuesday morning. According to the AP, tens of thousands of tourists are rushing to leave: “Cancun seemed likely to be spared a direct hit, but visitors abandoned its swank hotels to swarm outbound flights. Officials evacuated more rustic lodgings farther south.” How powerful is the storm? Meteorologists say Dean could become even stronger than Hurricane Wilma, which pounded the region in 2005 and prompted a Web site covering its tourism recovery, After Wilma. One travel blogger wrote today on the Hurricane Cancun blog that Cancun was “very quiet with few tourists around”—the proverbial calm before the storm.
* Update: Hurricane Dean has made landfall on the Mexican Coast Near Majahual.
Photo by *Rachel*A* via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
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Yahoo! BuzzSpace Traveler ‘Didn’t Even Visit the Moon, for Christ’s Sake’
by Michael Yessis | 08.20.07 | 3:45 PM ET
The Onion takes aim at space tourism this week with a story headlined Space Tourist Spends Entire Vacation Inside Space Shuttle. As the made-up source says about his made-up friend, the space traveler, “What’s the point of training for months and traveling 3 million miles if you’re just going to sit around some orbital craft all day?” Looks like the Onion is on the same page as I am.
Related on World Hum:
* ‘Galactic Suite’ Space Hotel Planned for Earth Orbit
* ‘Backyard Inventors’ Help Usher in the Era of Space Travel
Photo via NASA.
The Unexpected Pleasure of an International Terminal
by Jim Benning | 08.20.07 | 3:30 PM ET
After a fun and invigorating four days at the Book Passage Travel Writers conference in Corte Madera, California—the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to a travel writers’ Woodstock, complete with karaoke—I headed to San Francisco International Airport yesterday for my first flight on the new Virgin America airlines. I’d been looking forward to the flight and the highly touted entertainment system, which on the gleaming white seatbacks looks like a giant iPod. The flight and entertainment were great. I’d happily fly Virgin America again. But the highlight wasn’t the plane.
Passengers Flee Burning Plane in Japan
by Jim Benning | 08.20.07 | 12:57 PM ET
Wild scene today on the tarmac of an airport in Okinawa, Japan: A China Airlines Boeing 737-800 skidded to stop and caught fire, prompting passengers to evacuate down emergency slides and the pilot to jump from the cockpit window. The plane then “burst into a fireball,” according to the AP. Amazingly, all 165 people aboard reportedly escaped serious injury. The AP notes that the incident “is a setback to China Airlines, which in recent years appeared to have improved on a troubled safety record among international carrier.”
Virginia Tourism’s ‘Symbol of Love’ Actually Symbol of Chicago Gang
by Michael Yessis | 08.20.07 | 8:06 AM ET
Oops. An advertisement (pictured) developed by the BCF agency of Virginia Beach for the Virginia Tourism Corp. features two hands coming together to form the shape of a heart, a playful reference to the state’s long-time slogan, “Virginia is For Lovers.” The gesture, however, is also associated with the Gangster Disciples, “one of the most violent of four African-American gangs that hang out on the south side of Chicago,” according to an FBI report. The FBI also notes: “They are known for their violence and the distribution of crack cocaine.” Apparently Virginia does not want to associate itself with gun play and illegal drugs, and thus will be removing the image from its new “Live Passionately” campaign, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
The Upscaling of Khao San Road
by Michael Yessis | 08.20.07 | 7:57 AM ET
In yesterday’s New York Times, World Hum contributor Newley Purnell highlights all the ways travelers can now blow their budgets on Khao San Road, Bangkok’s famed backpackers hangout. The once dingy “decompression chamber for those about to leave or enter Thailand,” as Alex Garland described it in “The Beach,” now contains a spa offering body wraps and salt scrubs, as well as a Starbucks, Purnell writes. The changes should come as no surprise, particularly in the wake of Khao San Road’s central role in “The Beach.”
The World Hum Travel Zeitgeist: From Machu Picchu to Provence
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.07 | 12:28 PM ET
In the wake of Wednesday’s 8.0 earthquake, Peru topped the minds of travelers this week, along with France, Japan and one famed guidebook writer. Here’s the Zeitgeist.
Most E-Mailed Travel Story
New York Times (current)
Machu Picchu, Without Roughing It
Most Popular Page Tagged Travel
Del.icio.us (recent)
Lost America: Roadside Gallery
* Terrific photography of the “Abandoned West” at nighttime
Most Popular Travel Podcast
iTunes (current)
Beautiful Places with Tony Farley
* This week: North Dome
Most Viewed Travel Story
Telegraph UK (current)
Provence Life Tastes Sweet
Most Popular Travel Story
Netscape (this week)
ACLU Charges TSA Official and JetBlue With Racial Profiling
* It stems from the “We Will Not Be Silent” T-shirt incident we covered last year.
Most Read Feature
World Hum (posted this week)
Rick Steves: Reflections on Three Decades of World Travel
Most Read Weblog Post
World Hum (posted this week)
Elliott: Five ‘Ridiculous’ Travel Rules That Should Be Abolished
Most Popular Travel Story
Iloho (this week)
Tote a Small Library to the Beach
* Note: Iloho is like Digg and Netscape, but exclusively travel.
Travelers Respond After Peru Quake
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.07 | 12:15 PM ET
The horrors of the 8.0 earthquake that struck the southern coast of Peru Wednesday continue to mount. More than 500 people are known to be dead, and more than 17,000 have been displaced, according to the latest update from the New York Times. Among those put in danger were many travelers from around the world.
German Travelers Urged to Pester ‘People in Authority’ Abroad About Human Rights
by Michael Yessis | 08.17.07 | 11:21 AM ET
Germans, as many travelers will attest, are everywhere. With their mandated multiple-week vacations and desire to see the world while sometimes wearing dark socks and open-toed footwear, they are among the world’s most avid travelers. And, according to the German government, that helps make them excellent candidates to “pester staff in foreign airports and hotels about human rights concerns.” German foreign ministry’s human rights envoy Günter Nooke said so this week, according to a Financial Times story by Hugh Williamson. Nooke had a lot of ideas for the estimated 44 million Germans who travel abroad each year.
New York’s JFK vs. Frankfurt Airport
by Jim Benning | 08.17.07 | 8:29 AM ET
Thomas Swick recently flew home from Europe, passing through Frankfurt airport and New York City’s John F. Kennedy International. According to Swick, they couldn’t have been more different. In Frankfurt’s airport, he encountered an inviting rustic tavern, walked among large windows looking out onto sun-lit planes and watched an international crowd of travelers passing Hermes, Boss and Swarovski and chatting in the Goethe Bar, near a statue of the writer. And it was only 7 a.m. “I had never seen such a wide-awake airport at such an early hour,” he writes. “It felt as if the world had left home.” And what of JFK, where Swick landed nine hours later?
New Travel Book: ‘In Europe’
by Michael Yessis | 08.16.07 | 3:29 PM ET
Full title: “In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century”
Author: Geert Mak, a Dutch journalist, historian and the author of “Jorwerd: The Death of the Village in Late Twentieth-Century Europe” and “Doomed to Vulnerability”
Released: Aug. 7, 2007 (English translation)
Travel genre: Modern history/column collection
Territory covered: Europe
Travelocity Fined $183,000 for Selling Cuba Trips
by Jim Benning | 08.16.07 | 1:19 PM ET
In what’s believed to be the first penalty of its kind for an online travel provider, Travelocity has been fined nearly $183,000 for booking nearly 1,400 trip to Cuba between 1998 and 2004, violating the U.S.-Cuba trade embargo. Travelocity officials say the bookings were the result of a technical glitch and that the company never intended to sell the trips. “Travelocity’s penalty comes amid conflicts over foreign arms of U.S. firms selling trips into the popular Caribbean vacation spot,” the Miami Herald reports. “And it touches on the complications of isolating a country commercially amid an increasingly global and digital economy.”
Related on World Hum:
* Duo Charged With Inventing Fake Religious Organizations to Facilitate Travel to Cuba
* Did Hemingway Really Drink Mojitos at La Bodeguita del Medio?
Take a Vacation. It’s Presidential.
by Ben Keene | 08.16.07 | 10:19 AM ET
Love him or hate him, our commander-in-chief, George W. Bush, can teach Americans at least one lesson: how to vacation. With only a few weeks of summer remaining, President Bush, like many other world leaders, is trading the stress of executive office for some rest and relaxation. And he’s leaving the majority of U.S. citizens in his Texas dust. Actually, if a survey conducted by a global human resources firm is accurate, even the average Finn, Israeli or Lithuanian would have a hard time keeping up with his seven-year vacation-time total. Because whatever President Bush may lack in creativity—he’s taken 65 trips to Crawford, Texas since entering office—he more than makes up for in number. According to the Houston Chronicle, G.W.B. is well on his way to claiming the White House record for time off, rapidly closing in on the 436 days Reagan racked up during two terms.
‘European-Style’ Topless Swimming Pools in Las Vegas
by Jim Benning | 08.16.07 | 7:07 AM ET
Last week, we noted a guide to the top family friendly pools in Las Vegas. This week in the San Francisco Chronicle, World Hum contributor Matt Villano offers a guide to a very different Las Vegas pool experience: the topless pool. A few high-end Las Vegas resorts are now offering such pool areas—often set back behind foliage—for what can be a pretty hefty charge. “Dubbed ‘adult bathing,’ this phenomenon is an attempt to bring ‘European-style’ topless tanning to age-appropriate Vegas pools,” Villano writes. “Properties such as Caesars Palace, the Mirage and Mandalay Bay each have opened venues in the past 18 months; admission ranges from free to $30 for women and as much as $50 for guys, depending on the day.”
Tiki Revelers to Celebrate ‘Tiki Oasis 7’ in San Diego
by Jim Benning | 08.16.07 | 6:53 AM ET
My interview with “Tiki Road Trip” author James Teitelbaum only deepened my appreciation for all things tiki. So if I wasn’t going to the Book Passage Travel Writers Conference this weekend, I would undoubtedly be sipping mai tais at Tiki Oasis 7 and Hawaii-A-Go-Go, a tiki gathering taking place Thursday through Sunday in San Diego. Tiki aficionados from around the country are expected. Exotica and surf bands will play, including King Kukulele. Vendors will sell tiki idols. Festival-goers will relax at the Crowne Plaza Hotel’s tiki lagoon and pool in Mission Valley. And a party will be held at Bali Hai, a terrific old tiki bar and restaurant on Shelter Island offering views of San Diego Bay, and potent drinks—the mai tai I had there recently is something of a blur.
Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with James Teitelbaum: Escape to the Isle of Tiki
* Four Tiki Books: James Teitelbaum’s Picks
Photo by jurvetson via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
