Travel Blog
Jon Stewart on the Zagat Prison Guide
by Jim Benning | 02.22.06 | 2:27 AM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzTop 10 Apres-Ski Spots
by Jim Benning | 02.21.06 | 2:25 PM ET
I love snowboarding, but I probably love kicking back afterward even more. There’s nothing like that feeling of exhaustion and satisfaction after a long day on the slopes, when it’s time to soak in the hot tub, reward yourself with a great meal and relax by a crackling fire. So I was happy to see MSNBC.com offer a list of the top 10 scenes to do just that. Aspen makes the list (Hollywood stars, great restaurants). So does Killington (check out the Wobbly Barn and the Pickle Barrel) and Lake Tahoe (casinos galore). Internationally, Cortina in Italy and Argentina’s Bariloche are included. And so is Chamonix-Mont Blanc, my personal favorite. MSNBC cites its “location on the crossroads of France, Italy, and Switzerland that makes it a natural multicultural mecca for serious skiers and serious partiers.”
U.S. Air Travel in 2005, By the Numbers
by Jim Benning | 02.21.06 | 12:48 PM ET
It wasn’t always pretty flying the top 20 U.S. airlines in 2005, according to Department of Transportation statistics reported on CNN.com.
Lost or damaged baggage reports: 9,735 a day (up more than 20 percent from 2004).
Delayed arrivals: More than one in five flights (up 3 percent from 2004).
Flight cancellations: 366 a day (up almost 5 percent from 2004).
Airline with most lost baggage reports per customer: Atlantic Southeast Airlines, with 17.4 lost bag reports per 1,000 customers.
Singapore, United Arab Emirates Jump Into Space Tourism Race
by Michael Yessis | 02.21.06 | 12:35 PM ET
Space Adventures announced plans yesterday to open a spaceport in Singapore by 2009, just three days after releasing plans for another spaceport in the United Arab Emirates. The news escalates a race between Space Adventures and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to be the first company to offer commercial space flights. The Independent’s Justin Huggler writes that Space Adventures has a slight lead. It has sold a Chinese businessman, Jiang Fang, a place on a sub-orbital spaceflight next year. Branson’s outfit plans to send its first passenger to space from a spaceport in Roswell, New Mexico by 2008.
Three Travel Books: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Picks
by Frank Bures | 02.20.06 | 8:12 PM ET
Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. World Hum reviews the book this week, and we asked Gilbert for three travel book recommendations. Here’s what she told us:
The Meadowlands by Robert Sullivan.
Gilbert says: “Proving that you don’t have to go a million miles away to find extraordinary adventure, danger and wonder, Robert Sullivan spent months in a canoe exploring the strange and history-drenched water and weed of the New Jersey Meadowlands (that’s right—just alongside the Turnpike). A beautifully written, deeply intelligent journey.”
A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne.
Gilbert says: “Definitely one of the first travel books ever written in English (the Greeks and Romans had their own guides earlier, I suppose), this terrifically entertaining read by the author of ‘Tristram Shandy’ was published in the 1760s, about Sterne’s journeys through France. Hilarious and bawdy and wonderful.”
The Companion Guide to Rome by Georgina Masson.
Gilbert says: “Don’t go to Rome without it. Seriously—don’t even get off the plane in Rome without this book in hand. It contains over a dozen guided walks through the city, along with dry, witty, scholarly, brilliant prose by its English author, whom one can imagine walking right next to you, in her tweed skirt and practical shoes, knowing EVERYTHING about everything…this book really was my best friend during my time in Italy.”
Bernard-Henri Lévy to Garrison Keillor: Bring it On!
by Michael Yessis | 02.20.06 | 12:03 AM ET
Lake Victoria
by Ben Keene | 02.17.06 | 1:05 PM ET
Area: 26,564 sq. mi. (68,800 sq. km)
Coordinates: 1 0 S 33 0 E
The shriveling Aral Sea made the news first, followed soon by Lake Chad, which, in 2001, researchers reported had shrunk to 1/20th of its former size. According to the International Rivers Network (IRN), a nonprofit organization monitoring rivers and their watersheds worldwide, Lake Victoria’s water level has also dropped sharply in recent years, reaching its lowest point since 1951. Lake Victoria is the largest such body of water on the African continent and the source of the Nile, and this finding certainly has seriously implications for some 30 million people in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda who rely on its resource. The study cited by IRN contends that human activity, namely the building of a large dam, and drought conditions have contributed to the receding shoreline.
—.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) is the editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World.
Swart: “Ironically, Travel Literature Doesn’t Cross Borders Easily”
by Michael Yessis | 02.16.06 | 12:31 PM ET
It doesn’t? That’s news to me. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Genevieve Swart makes the odd statement in relation to the lack of praise for Tim Moore’s travel books in an otherwise straightforward profile of three “stand out” travel writers: Moore, Eric Hansen and Jan Brokken. Each writer talks about how he got his start in the business, the difficulties of sustaining a career, and the evolution of travel witing.
Talking Travel Writing and Poetic License with Michael Shapiro
by Jim Benning | 02.16.06 | 2:00 AM ET
Are You Ready For Some Hot Pundit on Pundit on Pundit Action?
by Michael Yessis | 02.15.06 | 12:41 PM ET
Peter Hessler on His Chinese Hutong
by Michael Yessis | 02.15.06 | 12:38 PM ET
Translation: his alley. The 80th anniversary issue of the New Yorker features a terrific story by River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze author Peter Hessler about the unnamed, centuries-old alley he lives on in Beijing, about a mile north of the Forbidden City. It’s unavailable online, but highly recommended.
It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s…a Flying Cruise Ship?
by Jim Benning | 02.14.06 | 12:59 PM ET
In fact, “a sort of flying Queen Mary 2” is how writer Joshua Tompkins describes the Aeroscraft, a wild-looking airship now being developed by a California company called Worldwide Aeros Corp. The airship, which would dwarf most airplanes, would transport vacationing travelers across oceans or nations as they live the good life and take in the sights below. According to the company’s owner, Igor Pasternak, a prototype is scheduled for completion in 2010.
Chinese Cyclist Aims to Ride Solo Around the World
by Michael Yessis | 02.14.06 | 11:52 AM ET
The Olympic spirit has really gotten into Yang Guangwen. The 46-year-old plans to ride his bike around the world beginning in March, visiting the cities that have hosted the Games since their modern inception. Beijing will host the 2008 Games, and Yang wants to do his part to promote the Olympics through travel.
Pico Iyer on “Implication”
by Jim Benning | 02.13.06 | 3:22 PM ET
One of our favorite sometime travel writers, Pico Iyer, has a whimsical commentary in today’s Los Angeles Times lamenting was has become of Implication. You have been wondering about Implication, haven’t you? (Not to mention Ambiguity and Subtlety, too.) It’s not the kind of piece one can quote from terribly effectively, so I won’t try.
Eva Airways Harnesses the Power of Hello Kitty
by Michael Yessis | 02.13.06 | 12:09 PM ET
Oh, those toys do get around. While Barbie’s man Ken was off backpacking through Tibet, Hello Kitty was flying around Asia. Taiwanese airline Eva Airways recently painted an Airbus A330-200 with images of Hello Kitty and dressed up its flight attendants in Hello Kitty-themed outfits. It turns out the ever-popular cartoon cat sure can sell airline tickets. Since Hello Kitty made the scene, bookings are up 13 percent, the New York Times reports.
