Where does someone who’s, say, willing to spend days in line waiting in line for an iPhone go on his or her travels? Apparently, where there’s a lot of technology and, in one case, nuclear fallout. Among the “geek vacation” spots recommended by Christopher Null in Wired’s July issue: New Zealand (for “The Lord of the Rings” movie locations); the South Pole ("Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station will warm any geek’s heart"); Tokyo’s Akihabara district (the “ultimate red-light district for gadget fetishists"); and Prypyat, Ukraine. Prypyat is “a town whose 47,000 inhabitants had to split within 36 hours of the meltdown” of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Sounds better suited for Dark Travelers.
By the way, you might ask: How do you define a geek? According to the first line of the Wikipedia definition: “A geek is an individual who is fascinated by knowledge and imagination, usually electronic or virtual in nature.”
Fascinated by knowledge. Some nice overlap there with what makes for a good traveler.
Related on World Hum:
* Antarctica: A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth
* Space Travel: Beyond the ‘Dweebs, Geeks and Dorks’
* Airline ‘Geeks’ Drop Everything for Inaugural Flights
Photo of Tokyo’s Akihabara district by heiwa4126 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
