World Hum Travel Movie Club: National Lampoon’s ‘Vacation’

Philadelphia Welcomed Record Amount of International Visitors in 2007

Denali National Park Buses Going Hybrid?

Baggage: Check It or Ship It?

Susan Sessions Rugh: ‘The Golden Age of American Family Vacations’

Elyse Franko asks the author of “Are We There Yet?” about the rise and fall of the family vacation, segregation in travel and how family trips are changing today

As a Woman, Can I Really Travel Without Much Fear for my Safety?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

Inside Slum Tourism

With mixed feelings, Rob Verger recently signed on for a tour of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. He looks back on the experience—and the photos he was allowed to take.

Break Bread and Brie in France

Great cheese abounds in the land of Gaul, but dig in and you risk committing any number of faux pas. Terry Ward explains how to partake of the nation’s famed fromage with savoir faire.

10 Wanderlust-Inducing Summer Concerts

Call it world music or global pop or the sound of the world hum. Ben Keene reveals 10 acts on tour that are sure to transport you. Plus videos.

A Journey Into ‘The Second World’

Some bureaucrats joke that they would never claim expertise about countries they had not at least flown over. In an excerpt from his new book, Parag Khanna argues that real global understanding can only come from serious travel.

‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

Quito: No Longer Just Stopover Country

For years now, many travelers have stopped in Quito only briefly while on the way to the Amazon or Galapagos Islands, due in part to concerns over crime, writes Danny Palmerlee in the San Francisco Chronicle. But thanks to a $200 million restoration project in the city’s historic center, crime is down, beauty is up and, according to Palmerlee, Ecuador’s capital is now worth a visit in its own right: “Architects and restoration crews have completed more than 200 separate works, including the city’s cathedral; three historic theaters; the narrow, postcard-perfect street known as ‘La Ronda’; plazas; monasteries; churches; and entire blocks of colonial homes whose wooden balconies make Quito’s streets so picturesque.”

Plaza lovers will find something in Quito: Palmerlee raves about the old town’s central plaza, Plaza Grande, as well as the quieter Plaza San Francisco.

And for those who’d like to sleep in a hotel on a plaza, Palmerlee notes that the Hotel Plaza Grande is “likely the most luxurious hotel in Quito.”

I’ve stayed in hotels on plazas in Latin America and loved it, but without exception I’ve found rooms in the back of the hotel—well away from the plaza—the quietest and best for sleeping.

Related on World Hum:
* In Cuenca, Ecuador, ‘a Spare, Unhurried, Bohemian Life’
* Calvin Trillin in Ecuador

Related on Travel Channel:
* Andrew Zimmern’s Ecuador Journal
* Bizarre Foods: Ecuador Interview (video)

Photo by Steve Makin via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

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It’s true, Equador’s a lot safer now - while 4 years ago, you were advised by hotels that you shouldn’t walk a single block at night in the Mariscal, now it’s fine to do so apparently. 

Plaza Grande is a great hotel, but the Ecuadoreans love to demonstrate and go on marches - normally there’s a big one once a month or so, and it cumulates right outside the hotels door.  So there’s about a 1 in 30 chance that if you’re staying at the hotel, there will be a massive demonstation right outside your window.