Travel Blog
Saving ‘Cleopatra’s Beach’ and a Jewel of the Aegean
by Joanna Kakissis | 04.03.09 | 11:15 AM ET
I’m not surprised that the beautiful Gulf of Gökova off the southwestern coast of Turkey has practically been loved to death. The Aegean blue water and soft beach sand (which Mark Antony allegedly imported to Gökova from Egypt for Cleopatra) is the stuff of sea-loving tourists’ dreams.
Over the years, yacht tours polluted the bay, illegal fishing depleted its marine life, and all those sunbathers started eroding that queenly beach sand. The European-funded Gökova Integrated Coastal Management program banned the sunbathers from the beach in 2007 and is now working to support sustainable fishing, protect the bay’s natural flora and fauna, and keep the Gökova waters clean. (Via Treehugger)
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Yahoo! BuzzThe Telegraph’s Top Hotels on Film
by Eva Holland | 04.03.09 | 10:16 AM ET
The Telegraph rounds up 10 real-life hotels that have taken starring turns in major films—and from where I’m sitting, it’s a very good list, with a nice mix of classics and more modern fare. My favorite? Tokyo’s Park Hyatt, which played such a crucial role in creating that bang-on sense of travel’s isolation and disconnectedness in “Lost in Translation.”
Ken Burns on National Parks
by Sophia Dembling | 04.03.09 | 9:46 AM ET
Photo courtesy of PBS. This week, President Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, which designates more than two million acres as wilderness and creates new scenic, historic and recreational trails. His stimulus plan also includes sinking some badly needed money into our national parks.
Interview With James Wallace: Reflections From an Aerospace Reporter
by Rob Verger | 04.03.09 | 9:26 AM ET
Photo courtesy of James Wallace. Award-winning reporter James Wallace covered aerospace for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for more than 12 years. He worked for a total of 27 years at the paper, which recently stopped printing and transitioned to an online-only version with a comparatively tiny reporting staff. When that happened, Wallace’s job disappeared.
Wallace, who wrote a goodbye blog entry, is the author of two books, “Hard Drive” and “Overdrive,” both about Microsoft.
I caught up with him over the phone to hear about his years on the aviation beat.
World Hum: You covered aerospace for 12 years. How have you seen commercial air travel change during that time?
Morning Links: The ‘Paperclip Armrest Concept,’ Unsung Travel Heroes and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.03.09 | 8:13 AM ET
- Neil Young’s new album was inspired by his electric-car project. It’s streaming at MySpace.
- Will the “Paperclip Armrest Concept” end the battle for airplane armrests? Interesting idea, but it looks like this just makes the battle about the best real estate up top.
- Slate’s Explainer explains why the most totalitarian countries always have the most democratic-sounding names.
- Paris is feeling “clobbered” by the economic climate. (via Gridskipper)
- Jane Wooldridge looks back on traveling to (almost) 100 countries.
- The latest issue of Perceptive Travel is up.
- Love this opening image from Timothy Egan’s dispatch from Ireland: “Under a sky that looks like a late-winter coat of sheep fleece…”
- Here are some unsung heroes of travel, as selected by USA Today readers.
- Naturists rejoice! They’re banning clothes at a German hotel.
- Finally, Tim Patterson has a word for backpacker girl: Put some damn clothes on!
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Jamie Oliver to G20 World Leaders: You’ll Eat British and Like It!
by David Farley | 04.02.09 | 4:13 PM ET
In the 1970s and ’80s, Great Britain had a reputation for bad teeth and even worse food (I wonder if there’s a connection?). Dentists were finally imported from parts of the erstwhile empire while British chefs began looking outside Britain for influences. They found it in France, the Mediterranean and even Southeast Asia. The results, however, were anything but British. Nonetheless, it helped bring England out of its culinary cellar. Five years ago, Gourmet magazine proclaimed London to be the best food city on the planet. This wasn’t a surprise to those who had been paying attention to global dining trends, but most people were caught unaware of London’s “new” prowess in the dining sphere.
The Deep-Sea Discoveries of Papahanaumokuakea
by Pam Mandel | 04.02.09 | 2:32 PM ET
The submersible plunged into the deep waters of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in 2007, but it’s only recently that we’re learning about what was found there. Seven new species of bamboo coral have been identified in the protected area northwest of Hawaii’s main islands. Researchers also located a coral graveyard that might have died a million years ago. The NOAA site has some pictures of the coral, the submersible used for exploration at depths of over 5,000 feet and, whoa, cool, that’s a robot arm poking a sponge. And, uh, a milk crate? Whatever is best for science, I guess.
Manga Madness
by Julia Ross | 04.02.09 | 1:14 PM ET
For all you manga fans out there, here’s a round-up of breaking news from both coasts. A San Francisco-based publisher recently released seven translated volumes of the classic Oishinbo series, which follows the adventures of a young food journalist as he searches for the “ultimate menu.” (Tintin meets sashimi?) The New York-based Japan Society is running an exhibit called “Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Manga + Video Games” through June 14. And in Washington, D.C., the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is showing “The Tale of Shuten Doji,” an exhibit of scrolls and screens depicting the popular Japanese folk tale as action thriller—an Edo period art form considered a forerunner to manga.
See This Now: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House
by Jim Benning | 04.02.09 | 12:16 PM ET
Will T.C. Boyle’s new novel, The Women, and Nancy Horan’s novel, Loving Frank—both about Frank Lloyd Wright and the women in his life—boost interest in Wright’s architecture and visits to the houses he designed? Perhaps, but Wright’s buildings are hardly hurting for visitors.
Wright’s Fallingwater house, which Time magazine declared his “most beautiful job” shortly after it was completed in 1937, has seen millions of visitors over the years. Located 50 miles from Pittsburgh, it’s worthy of adoration, spanning a waterfall and still somehow blending nearly seamlessly into the landscape. By all accounts, it was the inspiration for Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. The New Yorker once called it “Wright’s extraordinary essay in horizontal space.”
Filmed Here: ‘Men in Black’
by Eva Holland | 04.02.09 | 12:15 PM ET
Photo by Eva Holland I celebrated the spring weather this week by heading out to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, aka “the Central Park of Queens,” for a wander in the sun. I didn’t know much about the park, beyond the name of the nearest subway station—so imagine my surprise when I walked through the gates and saw ... an extra-terrestrial spacecraft?
More precisely: what I saw was the observation tower of the now-abandoned New York State Pavilion (a relic from the World’s Fair), which served as a murderous alien’s would-be get-away vehicle in the climactic scene of the 1997 Will Smith flick, Men in Black. I’d seen the movie before, of course, but had never known where that final battle was set. Coming across the “space ship,” and the nearby Unisphere (which also plays a role in the battle), got me thinking about action movies and the major landmarks they use as props.
Help for Hungry Travelers Who Can’t Handle Gluten
by Jenna Schnuer | 04.02.09 | 11:15 AM ET
Having grown up with a sibling who has a major food allergy, I give a huge thumbs-up to anybody who helps ease the way for food intolerant folks on the road. Fellow travel writer (and friend) Hilary Davidson does just that on her Gluten-Free Guidebook. Her latest piece discusses Philly tourism’s online guide to gluten-free restaurants.
Know of other online guides for allergic eaters around the U.S.? We’d love to hear about them.
Chinese Tourists Deluge Taiwan
by Julia Ross | 04.02.09 | 10:13 AM ET
It got off to a slow start, but a long-awaited travel agreement between China and Taiwan, forged last summer, has finally yielded a huge bump in mainland tourists traveling to the island.
Morning Links: For the Love of Fugu, Chocolate Sherpa and More
by Jim Benning | 04.02.09 | 9:26 AM ET
- Do you fugu? According to this Japanese chef, the potentially deadly blowfish is getting a bad rap.
- Chocolate Sherpa is making the Himalayan world a better place, one chocolate bar at a time.
- Concierge has the lowdown on getting high on kava in Fiji—and details on a few other mind-altering vacations.
- The Frugal Traveler loves him some Twitter travel help.
- What happened when Bangladeshi immigrants tried to carve a Little Bangladesh out of the middle of Los Angeles’ Koreatown?
- The Las Vegas Sun has a graphic map showing the evolution of the Las Vegas strip, decade by decade, since 1930.
- Here’s one writer’s take on how glossy travel magazines are—or are not—adjusting their coverage amid the economic troubles.
- The newly minted YouTube Symphony Orchestra is going to play Carnegie Hall. Rock on.
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The ‘Remasculation’ of Travel Literature?
by Eva Holland | 04.01.09 | 3:45 PM ET
The folks at Bookninja have jumped into action in response to a recent survey suggesting that women read more than men: they’ve launched a contest to “remasculate” the literary scene, by issuing new titles and basic story lines for existing books, with the macho factor cranked up.
Air Travel Now, in Numbers
by Rob Verger | 04.01.09 | 1:51 PM ET
- Percentage of fewer passengers who will fly domestically on U.S. airlines in 2009, according to an FAA prediction: 8.8. (The Middle Seat Terminal reacts to the prediction.)
- Average recent cost of a domestic round-trip ticket over Memorial Day weekend, according to Travelocity and USA Today: $295.
- Percentage decrease of the cost of that Memorial Day weekend ticket from last year: About 10.
- Amount the International Air Transport Association predicted the world’s airlines could lose in 2009: $4.7 billion.
- Amount the world’s airlines lost after September 11, 2001: $23 billion.
- Number of planes American Airlines announced it would make Wi-Fi available on: more than 300.
- Number of miles a JetBlue employee traveled while in the cargo hold of an Embraer 190 after reportedly falling “asleep in a cargo bin” and accidentally traveling from New York to Boston: 200. (Reuters reports that he was “unharmed and not charged with any crime.”)
