Travel Blog
Travel Auctions to Benefit Hurricane Katrina Victims
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.05 | 11:56 PM ET
Right now eBay is hosting dozens of travel auctions to benefit the American Red Cross and relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims. Among the items up for bid: every room in the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire for the night of November 9. Luxury Link is also auctioning trips to benefit hurricane victims. If you’re planning a trip and want to support the cause, have a look.
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Yahoo! BuzzHe’s Got Reservations About Anthony Bourdain’s Ad
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.05 | 11:17 PM ET
Rolf Potts has a problem with the magazine ad for Anthony Bourdain’s new show on the Travel Channel, Without Reservations. The ad features the tagline, “Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist.” Potts writes in his weblog: “[T]o imply that one can shed the ‘tourist’ mantle by watching a television show is positively idiotic.” See here for the offending ad and the rest of his analysis.
Brazil. It’s Totally Devoted to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Favorite Body Part
by Michael Yessis | 09.13.05 | 4:13 AM ET
Midway through yesterday’s Los Angeles Times story about tabloid publisher American Media’s efforts to suppress Playboy’s “Carnival in Rio” travelogue video hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger—it shows the Gov “grabbing a scantily clad woman and making other sexually suggestive gestures”—comes this passage:
The Quest For Remoteness
by Michael Yessis | 09.13.05 | 4:05 AM ET
Katherine Tanko takes a look at the desire to get far, far away from it all in an International Herald Tribune story. “In a world increasingly traveled, the remote destination has become the holy grail of the adventurous traveler,” she writes. “Even Mount Everest, the Antarctic and space (once the final frontier) can be yours if your pockets are deep enough.”
Following Bob Dylan, and Maybe Even Bono
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.05 | 4:20 AM ET
In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan recalls spending an evening with Bono and telling U2’s singer that he should take a trip through Minnesota to the birthplace of America, following a road along “the river up through Winona, Lake City, Frontenac.” What Dylan didn’t reveal is what Steve Dougherty figured out when he opened a road map.
Calvin Trillin in Ecuador
by Michael Yessis | 09.12.05 | 4:16 AM ET
The September 5 issue of The New Yorker is billed as the food issue, but a couple of the stories would fit nicely into one of the magazine’s travel issues. My favorite piece is Calvin Trillin’s Speaking of Soup, which chronicles his visit to Cuenca, Ecuador to study Spanish and eat fanesca—“an exceedingly thick and hearty soup, heavy on the beans.” World Hum contributor Newley Purnell, who lived in Cuenca for a year, calls Trillin’s story “funny and poignant,” but he’s got a few quibbles.
Touring “Paris, Paris”
by Jim Benning | 09.12.05 | 4:14 AM ET
Travel writer David Downie is touring the U.S. in support of his new book, Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light. The book features a collection of Downie’s stories about the city. He couldn’t have asked for a better review: Jan Morris called it, “Perhaps the most evocative American book about Paris since ‘A Movable Feast.’” Downie will appear in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday and in Seattle on Friday and Saturday. Information about other dates is available here.
Update: The San Francisco Chronicle features a story by Downie about Paris’ Marais district in Sunday’s paper.
Hanging Ten at Sea
by Jim Benning | 09.09.05 | 1:24 PM ET
The cruise industry’s efforts to appeal to younger, hipper crowds have taken a new turn. Royal Caribbean announced recently that it is opening “surf parks” on the decks of future ships. According to USA Today, the parks will feature a 32-foot-wide FlowRider pool with an artificial wave. Future riders should start practicing now. I rode a FlowRider in San Diego earlier this summer for the L.A. Times. It’s not easy.
International Travel Film Festival Opens Friday In Kerala
by Michael Yessis | 09.08.05 | 12:37 AM ET
The first International Travel Film Festival kicks off three days of travel movies September 9 at the Kalabhavan Cinema Theatre in Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, India, and it looks like none of Rex Pickett’s road movie picks made the final cut.
“The Amazing Race”: Handicapping Season 8
by Michael Yessis | 09.07.05 | 4:55 AM ET
I was so busy handicapping the race to see who would be selected to compete in the ninth season of the CBS reality show “The Amazing Race” that I didn’t notice that the network has announced the teams for the upcoming eighth season, which premieres September 27 at 9 p.m. The hit show, which usually features teams of two in a frantic race around the world, will feature four-person families this time around. I’m not going to handicap the competition for this season, but teletart at blogcritics.org did.
British Tabloid Travel Headline of the Day: “Fattie Ordered Off Ship”
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 11:55 PM ET
That would be 24-stone Mark Wyatt of Folkestone, Kent, who was recently ordered to leave the Arctic-bound cruise ship Voyages of Discovery, according to a Sun report.
Out: Dingle. In: An Daingean.
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 5:19 AM ET
Earlier this year, the Irish government changed the name of the heavily-touristed city of Dingle to the Gaelic An Daingean on all of the country’s road signs and paperwork. It’s part of an effort to reclaim the nation’s native language in the wake of the British imposition of English, and it’s creating controversy among some Dingle/An Daingean residents, partially because they’re concerned that the name change will befuddle visitors.
Rex Pickett on Road Movies
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 4:07 AM ET
Sideways novelist Rex Pickett, whose book was adapted into the acclaimed film of the same name last year by Alexander Payne, has revealed his all-time top-10 road movies on Fandango.com. His picks include The Motorcycle Diaries, The Last Detail, Kings of the Road and…Sideways.
Q&As with Peter Moore, Elliott Hester
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.05 | 1:15 AM ET
The San Francisco Chronicle’s John Flinn has an interview with “Continental Drifter” author Elliott Hester in Sunday’s paper, and Rolf Potts recently posted a back-and-forth with Peter Moore, author of “The Wrong Way Home” and other books.
“I Get to the Point That if I See Another Body Shop or Gap, I’m Going to Puke”
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.05 | 10:45 PM ET
Larry Bleiberg has an interesting column in the Dallas Morning News about shopping while traveling. He quotes travel-shopping guru Suzy Gershman, who has been writing books on the subject for more than 20 years. “When you go to a foreign country and you go to a market, you see how people live, what they buy for dinner,” she tells Bleiberg. “You learn more about the culture than you will in any museum.”
