Actually it was called: “Travel Through the Eyes of a Travel Writers,” but I kind of like my title better.

The above clip finds moderator David Farley asking panel members Tony Perrottet, Susan Orlean, and Don George, how they go about meeting locals in the places they visit.

The common answer? Alcohol. Bars, cafes, art openings, you know, places where social lubricants go a long way in making new friends.

Susan goes on to discuss in detail one booze-free option in Japan called Homestay in Japan, where visitors can shack up with local families and get a feel for the culture from the inside, and an option that is available in many places around the world beside Japan. (more…)

New York Times travel editor (for at least one more week) Stuart Emmrich moderated a panel featuring the various [insert adjective here] Travelers, including Matt Gross (The Frugal Traveler), Michelle Higgins (The Practical Traveler) and contributor Jennifer Conlin (no adjective needed I suppose). Let’s hope they don’t run out of titles. I’m not sure I want to read anything by “The Gassy Traveler,” or “The Pygmy Traveler” (however there may be a market for that somewhere in the world).

Jennifer discussed living in Cairo, as she does now with her family, and how surprisingly interesting and metropolitan of a city it is once you get past the crowds, noise and trash that the city is otherwise known for. A must-visit for any serious traveler. (more…)

One of the booths that caught my eye this year was the one for OneSimCard.com. As you know, I normally don’t shill travel-related products on the site, but this thing makes way too much sense to not mention it to everyone.

We Americans are kind of luddites when it comes to the whole SIM card thing (having being forced into locked phones here in the U.S.). But when traveling abroad we know all too well the importance of having cheap calling plans and accessible phones.

Normally, after arriving to a new country, travelers with phones have to scramble to find a local SIM card to stick in their phone, then load it up with minutes that are often never used. The OneSIMCard guys came up with a card that works in over 180 countries and that offers super-competitive prices (and 70 countries where minutes are no charge for incoming calls), freeing you from having to constantly buy new cards or load up on new minutes everywhere you go. A great idea for those on a multi-country trek.

Of course you could just unplug from the world and not bring your phone while traveling (something I highly recommend), but this is a great option for those who aren’t ready to take that leap just yet. Now to figure out how to unlock my iPhone.

[Update: To the Apple attorney that just contacted me. TheExpeditioner.com does not endorse unlocking your iPhone or breaking your iPhone license agreement. Please do whatever Apples instructs you to do. Can you please now release my friends and family from that undisclosed location Apple?]

Day two of the Travel Show kicked off Saturday morning with none other than the emperor of excursion, the maharajah of movement, the tycoon of travel himself, Arthur Frommer, and his spawn of sightseeing, Pauline Frommer, who presented their top budget destinations for 2010.

Arthur’s number one destination this year is Las Vegas where, he noted, just this winter there were close to 6,000 rooms dumped on the marketplace as a result of the opening of City Center, the massive condo/hotel/shopping complex. Consequently, Arthur’s been watching rates plummet as the recession-hit city has had to cope with this extra supply, with luxury rooms beginning at $150/night, and basic rooms at some of the less desirable locations (ahem — Circus Circus) coughing up rooms for under $50 (with even more discounts to be had by picking up coupons on the strip). (more…)

The last thing I’d normally think to do after waking up before 7 a.m. on my day off from work and seeing over a foot of snow gathered on the streets is, “I can’t wait to go outside and trek to that paved expanse with sweeping views of New Jersey, otherwise known as the Javits Center.”

But this isn’t just any day, today’s the beginning of those three magical days in February when tourism agencies across the world unfurl their banners, make those final touches on their brochures, and unpack their countless numbers of imprinted pens, key chains, and flashlights in support of their country/province/tour company at the New York Times Travel Show.

The show actually gets going tomorrow when it opens up to the public, but I came today to take in the pre-opening lectures and presentations for travel professionals (how did they ever let me in?). Beside the excellent cheese danishes that were made available this morning, the highlight was, as it normally is, running into all those random travel folk you don’t normally get to see during the year. (Shout out to Tripfilms, The Brooklyn Nomad, GrassTracks Safari, and Jeffrey of the Essential New York iPhone app: “Aren’t you that guy that did that Colombia video?” — it’s so nice to be recognized.) (more…)

Ever since I saw the “No Reservations” Beirut episode last year, I’ve been wanting to go myself (despite the fact that half the episode was spent watching Tony try to leave the city as war was erupting outside). Who wouldn’t be curious about the “Paris of the East,” a city known for its cosmopolitan flair, hoppin’ nightlife, thriving culture, and, yeah, amazing food?

And I’m not the only one. In fact, travel to Lebanon in 2009  increased a whopping 39% from 2008, with 1,851,081 visitors entering the country.

This week the UK Times decided to check out the turnaround of fortune for this notoriously party-friendly city.

It is hard for people who visit the shiny, refurbished Beirut of today to understand how remarkable the transformation has been. The shops are back, parliament has reopened and most of the ruins on show today — with the exception of the bullet-scarred Holiday Inn — are of the Roman variety.

Rumor has it, Tony’s going back to the city this year to see what he missed. He’s not the only one.

I’m sitting on the bottom bunk of my hostel in El Calafate, home of the famous Perito Moreno Glacier, and exhausted from a days journey by bus from El Bolson, a tiny hippie-town nestled in the Andes. What was exhausting was not the 26 hours spent in a barely reclinable seat, but that there were no stops to stretch my legs nor food given to ease hunger.

Travelers beware of Taqsa, the only bus company that runs from Bariloche through El Bolson to El Calafate without taking the infamous grueling, gravel road and “ultimate experience” that is Ruta 40. Personally, Taqsa did not offer a much more comfortable ride.

Nevertheless, despite what I was told, El Calafate is all the desolate beauty that one conjures when thinking of Patagonia. Desert, mountains, a small lake in which flamingos nibble, and of course glaciers, which we are saving for tomorrow.

I wish I could write more, but the sheer energy needed to manage this French keyboard (my new travel buddy’s computer) only adds to my exhaustion.

Can’t wait to get back home in Buenos Aires, if only for rest and writing.

The only thing that bums me out about Josh’s great video on his trip to Egypt is the size of the crowd of tourists everywhere. Are all the sites like this in Egypt?

My last step on Asian soil was at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. The week before I headed home, I was soaking up as much as I could of the Japanese culture, history, sake, and food. It wasn’t long into the wide-eyed lostness of trying to find my hostel that I noticed a grumble in my belly and a waft of ramen in the air. Soon, after an overly nice stranger dropped me off in front of my destination and helped me unload my bags, I began my search for food.

I wandered back to the main drag and began scouring the store fronts and their ubiquitous plastic food displays. In between a convenience store and a sushi shop (that would have to wait for my next meal), I found sustenance in a beautiful bowl of ramen. Now, this wasn’t the freeze-dried block of tangled mess we all lived on in college. This ramen was delicately prepared, an orchestra of ingredients, and well worth the almost $9.00 USD I paid. Maybe the best money I spent in all of Japan.

My little jaunt was nothing compared to the voyage by the NYT’s Frugal Traveler not long ago. For six days, the author fully immersed himself in nothing but Japanese ramen culture; roughly four bowls a day. He described the cuisine as, “handmade and artisanal, almost everything is fresh, from long-simmered broths and hand-cut noodles to pigs raised on red wine (for an inside-out marinade).” He relished in the apparent regional variations. From a soy-enhanced chicken broth found on Japan’s main island of Honshu, to the more widespread pork bone broth from the southern island of Kyushu, or the garlicky, thicker noodled miso soup from Sapporo.

He discovers the ramen culture as more of a craze, something akin to a New Yorker’s love of pizza combined with the south’s passion for barbecue. It’s so beloved, that the Shinyokohama Raumen Museum lists over 4,100 shops selling the noodles in Tokyo alone (and I won’t even get into the books, magazines, TV shows, and movies dedicated to this dish).

I have to wonder, with all the hype and so many different gourmet versions of the brothy noodles, is there such a thing as the perfect bowl of ramen noodles?

My answer: absolutely, and I will happily keep searching until I find it.

As much as I’ve grown to distance myself from the type of travel Spring Break represents — can you say cultural isolation? Or maybe it’s cultural regression — I have to say, I loved going on Spring Break. The respite from the snowy Northeast, the chance to get away from it all for a week, the intellectual stimulation (okay, scratch that last one). Here’s TheExpeditioner.com’s look at spring break deals, 2010 edition.

Mexico for under $300: AeroMexico has some great sub-$300 deals to Cancun, Acapulco, and Puerto Vallarta from various North American cities for travel in March.

Jamaica for under $200: US Airways is offering flights to Jamaica from the West Coast for under $200. If there’s one thing I miss about my trip to Negril it’s the jerk chicken. What is it about Red Stripes and jerk chicken that make the two go together so well?

New York to Miami for $217: Expedia has some great deals down to Miami, a perhaps more upscale spring break destination (is that an oxymoron?). If I went back, I’d spend less time in Miami Beach and more time in Little Havana.

Seattle to Maui for $334: Do people go to Hawaii for spring break on the West Coast? Well they should. Maybe someone can let me know after they take advantage of this fly.com deal where flights to the 49th state are going for half off?

Travel + Leisure has come out with their list of the “World’s Ugliest Airports,” a catalog of the world’s 12 biggest visual disasters in the world of aviation. Not surprisingly, some of the world’s most trafficked hubs top the list.

Some fun tidbits:

• New York’s JFK: “Especially loathed are the Delta terminals, which industrial designer David Gresham calls ‘filthy, dilapidated, and unclear in any sense of signage or direction.’”

• Paris’ Charles de Gaulle: “[the airport] has rendered everyone who works there sociopathic. Its staff are literally unable to empathize with the appalling experiences they inflict on passengers.”

• And perhaps most damning, London’s Heathrow: “This is a terminal for a country that had lost an empire and didn’t know its role in the world, or what style of architecture would reflect this.” Ouch.

To cleanse your visual palate, you can also check out T + L’s list of the world’s most beautiful airports here.

Something you hear alot of this time of year (especially in New York) is: “I’m heading down to Boca for the weekend.” Chances are they’re probably not referring to Bocas del Toro, the Panamanian archipelago located in the Caribbean near the Costa Rica border.

Besides having a rich history (literally — guess where the Spanish exported their plunders from?), this 68-island chain is perfect for exploring unique wildlife — above ground as well as underwater in its coral reefs — as the SMH explores this week.

The islands were formed 10,000 years ago, when the polar ice caps melted. Rising sea levels separated the islands from the rest of Central America, creating a unique ecosystem with several endemic species. There is a red poison dart frog here that is found nowhere else in the world. Seagrasses, the perfect habitat for endangered sea turtles and manatees, brush against the bottom of my kayak.

What’s better than amazing wildlife and pristine tropical waters? How about really cheap flights. I remember this time last year when flights into Panama City were around the low-$300 range, and a quick check with Kayak shows prices have only risen slightly from that range for trips in the next couple months.

Bus rides from the capital to the archipelago go for only $20 (this is why we love traveling in Latin America) and get ready to settle in for an 8 1/2-hour trip. That’s not that bad, come on. When’s the last time you did anything sedentary for 8 1/2 hours that didn’t involve unconsciousness or alcoholic beverages?

I left Whistler on another gorgeous, bright winter morning. Unfortunately, obligations exist. So I headed down to Vancouver in hopes of filling my mom’s order for several pairs of those cheesy mittens and curling tickets. I spun through a mall but, alas, no mittens.

I spun through the Vancouver Olympic Center’s box office and, realizing I was in Canada still, no tickets (who doesn’t want to experience the world of curling first hand?). I decided, tail between my legs, to get started on my drive home. It must have been somewhere in the midst of Eastern Washington’s barren fields of nothingness that I thought to share some of the knowledge I gained in my ten days in Vancouver and Whistler.

1. Any and every event, regardless of how lame or amazing you may think it is, will blow any of your preconceived notions out of the water.

2. Give any German flag-bearing fan a wide berth. I took a shot upside the head, then had a great chat about Oktoberfest. I guess that’s not so bad, eh?

3. Best Whistler restaurant — Prime Tapas at the base of the Creekside Gondola. If you have a chance, order the mussels (from Vancouver Island) or the fresh Tuna. If you’re trying to . . . you know, I suggest the oysters.

4. Lindsey Vonn is gorgeous (yes, believe the hype).

5. Vancouver’s diverse neighborhoods should be a destination themselves: Granville Island’s maritime and market vibe, chic Yale Town, historic Gas Town, the most authentic and largest Chinatown in North America; with the influx of green space and parks, I can see why the city is a popular destination.

6. I can’t help but give a shout out to Bryon Wilson, the bronze medalist in the men’s freestyle moguls, and a fellow resident of Butte, Montana. That was an extra special moment for me. (more…)