Travel Blog
The Art of Tourism
by Jim Benning | 02.24.05 | 12:47 AM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzNew York Times Travel: Too Hip for its Own Good?
by Jim Benning | 02.24.05 | 12:40 AM ET
Thomas Swick thinks so. In his latest column, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Travel editor writes that the newest incarnation of the Times Travel section, which was redesigned several months ago, puts a premium on hip attitude at the expense of insightful coverage. That, he writes, “is disheartening to people who want to learn about the world.” He continues: “[T]he ideal of hip is inimical to the idea of travel. The trendy are conformist, superficial, hostile to outsiders; travelers are, by avocation, independent, philosophical, curious about others. Travel is a flight beyond borders, formulas, preconceived notions. Hip is a landlocked country with a strict visa policy and a small population of fashionable peasants.” Swick has been critical of travel writing in the Times and other U.S. papers in the past. A couple of years ago, he wrote a terrific essay on the topic for the Columbia Journalism Review. Finally, regarding the redesigned Travel section, an update: We noted when the new look debuted that editors failed to include a travel essay, which had been a long-running feature. We hoped they hadn’t ditched the essay for good. We’re happy to report that Sunday’s Travel section did, in fact, feature an essay. Perhaps travel essays are hip again?
R.I.P Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo Traveler
by Jim Benning | 02.22.05 | 12:49 AM ET
The counterculture legend and self-proclaimed “gonzo” journalist who died by his own hand Sunday is being remembered for all sorts of contributions. I’ve yet to hear anyone describe him as a travel writer, but Thompson often wrote about travel in his unique style.
Wally World, Here They Come!
by Michael Yessis | 02.19.05 | 12:53 AM ET
National Lampoon—“a company synonymous with the most disastrous vacations since the Shackleton expedition,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle—has started a travel division. The brains behind the movies “Vacation” and “Animal House” have an obvious demographic in mind for the all-inclusive packages: college students. The Bolton Common’s Fran Golden has the details.
O’Hanlon Gets His Close-Up
by Michael Yessis | 02.17.05 | 1:21 AM ET
Bravo, Jon Stewart! Monday night on The Daily Show he went where few other television hosts have gone before: he had a travel writer as a guest. Redmond O’Hanlon promoted his new book, Trawler, with tales of adventure on the high seas as well as an ancient sea creature that he presented to Stewart—in a jar, wrapped in a pair of boxer shorts. O’Hanlon, it seems, knows how to make an impression. In a profile in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, John Flinn called his travel books “among the most hilarious, most harrowing, most learned and most deliciously twisted ever written.” Flinn continued: “He’s not nearly as well known as he ought to be, but those who do what he does put him at the very top of the field. When I asked two writers I admire, Tim Cahill and Bill Bryson, which writers they admire, they both cited O’Hanlon without hesitation. Bryson calls him ‘probably the finest writer of travel books in the English language, and certainly the most daring.’ He also calls him ‘wonderfully odd.’” Anyone who saw him on The Daily Show will probably agree.
Travel Blog Roundup
by Michael Yessis | 02.17.05 | 1:20 AM ET
Travel + Leisure has a roundup of its favorite travel blogs in its March issue. BootsnAll, Fodor’s, TravelBlog and World Hum are among the sites included.
“The Possibility That Lives in the Heart of a Literary Adventure”
by Michael Yessis | 02.08.05 | 5:21 PM ET
Tim Mackintosh-Smith’s upcoming fourth book, like his third, follows the wanderings of medieval traveler Ibn Buttutah. In anticipation of the book’s release, writer Theo Padnos takes a long look at the author’s career and the history of modern travel writing in a sprawling and intriguing essay in Saturday’s Yemen Observer. Padnos explores how Mackintosh-Smith fits into the modern literary travel writing-tradition set forth by Paul Theroux and Bruce Chatwin, whose book “In Patagonia” he deems a tipping point for the contemporary travel book. “It was stranger than any novel published that year, better written, more breathtaking and much truer,” Padnos writes. “It turns out now that some of the details in the text were invented but the book was good enough to supercede the reality it described and when it appeared, readers everywhere were reminded of how exotic travel narratives might be, how capacious, strange, and authentic. That’s why it’s lasted. That’s why all the worthwhile travel books, throughout history, have lasted. Because they seem to tell us something not just about a faraway place or an intrepid voyager but about life itself. The best travel writers have almost always been aware of this, of the possibility that lives in the heart of a literary adventure, and have written their books in such a way as to play, sometimes humorously, sometimes profoundly, with the parallels: life is a journey, a journey is life.”
Where’s Travel?
by Jim Benning | 02.08.05 | 5:20 PM ET
The print media have been hyping a new literary awards show in the works called The Quills, which will be televised by NBC this fall in a “star-studded ceremony.” According to organizers, the so-called “reading public” will vote for their favorite books in 15 categories, including mystery, romance, science, health, sports and business. Some hope the awards will bring a sense of glamour and populism to the books business that other literary awards have failed to accomplish. Great, I thought as I read about this. Perhaps travel lit might even capture the spotlight for a brief moment. Unfortunately, travel is nowhere to be seen on the list of categories. I suppose there’s a chance a travel narrative could be honored in the “biography/memoir” category, but I doubt it. On the popularity scale, a book like Paul Theroux’s “Dark Star Safari” can’t compete against Bill Clinton’s “My Life,” or any one of the other countless celebrity memoirs or biographies published each year. Of course, it’s not the end of the world. But it is a missed opportunity.
The Benefits of Overpacking
by Jim Benning | 02.07.05 | 5:24 PM ET
Last Sunday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Thomas Swick wrote a column calling for a Slow Travel movement to accompany the growing Slow Food movement. The column generated two letters—an “overwhelming” response, Swick wrote yesterday, indicating readers are “following my advice and taking time to digest the idea.” So he decided to follow up yesterday with advice on just how each of us can begin to slow down. Among his unconventional tips: “Buy guidebooks with small print to discourage speed-reading” and “Note the wallpaper in the corridor.” My favorite suggestion contradicts everything you’ve heard from Rick Steves and other travel advisors. Suggests Swick: “Overpack—heavy suitcases slow you down.”
Shanghai: ‘The Playground of World Architecture’
by Jim Benning | 02.07.05 | 3:25 PM ET
Perhaps no other city on the planet offers such a dazzling display of futuristic architectural styles than Shanghai. The February issue of Harper’s features a terrific analysis of that architecture. Writes Mark Kingwell: “Shanghai is a fantasyland of architectural grandiosity where any drawing, no matter how insane or adolescent, may come to life almost instantly, without the citizens’ committees, building restrictions, and expensive labor that hamper architectural geniuses everywhere.” Alas, the story is not available online.
Thomas Swick Slows Down
by Jim Benning | 02.01.05 | 5:26 PM ET
In a thoughtful column Sunday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel travel editor champions the notion of slow travel. “In the age of The Amazing Race, there’s obviously a need for a Slow Travel movement,” he writes. “Travel for most Americans is what we do when we’re on vacation, and vacation, by definition, is a break from the marathon of our working lives. But because our vacations are so short, we often feel compelled to fill them with as much as possible, spend them in perpetual motion, which is never conducive to quiet appreciation. Many people travel with checklists (even if only mentally) and, because they’re pressed for time, they end up eating at chains. Fast travel almost inevitably leads to fast food which, some would argue, leads to fast death. And then where are you?”
World Hum Featured in Podcast
by Jim Benning | 01.27.05 | 10:11 PM ET
Of all the adjectives one might use to describe World Hum, high-tech is not one of them. So I was delighted to be featured this week as the subject of an audio interview on a decidedly more tech-savvy blog, Gadling.com. Launched by Erik Olsen, whose resume includes stints at the Department of Interior and ABC News, the travel blog features Olsen’s take on what he calls “engaged travel.” As Olsen explains on the site: “Engaged travelers throw themselves (sometimes literally) into action when they travel. Whether sea kayaking in Micronesia or learning how to cook risotto in Italy, Gadling travelers are adventurers.”
The interview with me is included in a 41-minute podcast, which sounds something like a hip public radio show: It’s The Savvy Traveler meets the blogosphere. I’m included in the third and final segment. Olsen also talks up his favorite blog items and articles in travel magazines. Listeners can easily skip sections of the show. It’s an intriguing new format.
Here Comes “Honeymoon”
by Michael Yessis | 01.25.05 | 10:19 PM ET
Franz Wisner’s book Honeymoon with My Brother, which chronicles the travels he and his brother, Kurt, undertook after his fiancee left him days before their scheduled wedding, comes out in February, but it’s already on the path to go where few travel books have gone: up on the big screen. According to the cover story of Sunday’s Los Angeles Times magazine, Wisner sold the screenplay rights to Sony’s Columbia Pictures for sum in the high six figures. Get ready, too, for the photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine and a huge publicity push. Franz and Kurt’s trip took them through 53 countries, in what the Times’s Robert Salladay says was “a sort of capitalist version of ‘The Motorcycle Diaries.’” He writes: “Unlike that of young Che Guevara’s eight-month trip through South America, the transportation was not a temperamental Norton motorcycle but a new Saab 9-5 sedan purchased in Sweden. It would take them across Europe and down through Syria. The Saab was an almost comic luxury for ‘backpackers.’ It would be ditched on a later trip in favor of sandals and crowded buses, including one with a vomiting little girl in the next seat.”
The Fat and the Learned
by Michael Yessis | 01.25.05 | 10:17 PM ET
Many Italians recognize Bologna as the country’s cucina. Jason Wilson spent 24 hours exploring it recently, eating and drinking his way through the town in the company of a DJ/university professor, a gelato machine salesman, a girl with a shaved head. The story about his whirlwind tour ran in Sunday’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
So Long, Easy Going
by Michael Yessis | 01.24.05 | 10:05 PM ET
Easy Going, the famed Berkeley, California, travel shop and bookstore, will be shutting its storefront Tuesday, February 15. Easy Going will remain in business on the Web, but it’s still a loss for the community of travel writers and Bay Area readers. Owner Thelma Elkins will be throwing a farewell/celebration at the old storefront February 14 from 1 to 6 p.m.
