The beer hall, one of New York’s latest bar trends, is an ideal spot for the traveler to the city looking to make new friends. With their long, communal tables, laid-back atmosphere, and oversize steins of beer, solo or small groups of newcomers will find it near impossible not to strike up a conversation with their tablemates.

Budget Travel recently visted some of their favorite beer halls in the city, including such staples as the East Village’s Zum Schneider and Astoria’s Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden — a hallowed spot for those longing to grab a beer with a few hundred of their closest friends (or those looking to relive the best of their college years).

Some of the new kids on the block they spotlight include Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s own forays into the drinking trend (where there’s a drinking trend, there’s Williamsburg). Radegast Hall & Biergarten — a former candy, tobacco, and spices storage facility — is one of the more popular, and for good reason. A huge selection of quality draft beers that vary by season, Radegast also keeps their grill fired up, serving a selection of kielbasa, sausage, and pulled pork. Lorely, long in the Lower East Side, has also entered the fray, opening up a branch near the scenic Brooklyn/Queens Expressway in East Williamsburg, and also offers a full German food menu along with 12 imported draft beers from Germany and wines from the eponymous Lorely region. All perfect cures for the Oktoberfest hangover.

Are you one of those people that takes the time to pick and choose their seats when booking a flight? Want to find out which seat is best for you depending on your needs? (I’m a window guy myself — usually for sleeping on.) ABC News has some things to keep in mind when doing so, like suggesting the front of the plane as the best choice for those with nausea issues (there’s less turbulence up front, not to mention fewer bathrooms). The best part? They point out you’re more likely to survive a plane crash sitting up front! (Is this because, as we saw in “Lost,” that the back half of the plane usually breaks off and falls into the ocean in extreme turbulence?)

They also point out how — if you’re not getting charged extra for the privilege — seats at the emergency rows and bulkhead offer more leg room. Also, check out who you’re flying with before springing for the “priority” seating, some airlines will offer the same seats at the same price, you just don’t get to board first.

Words leave you winded. Some days, you will be walking down the street and hear something that punches you in the stomach. Other days, you will be reading a phrase that leaves you speechless. With increased international interactions, we are more aware that language has the ability to take our breath away.

We each react and adapt accordingly. Some find fascination in the meaning of sentences whereas others pick up on the inference of gesticulations — paying attention to the talky hands. Some absorb both. It’s evolutionary.

I recently read an article on World Hum about Frank Bures’ dissection of humans as lingual creatures. On his travels, he picked up words and phrases that reflect different meanings. To him, “[w]ords in other languages are like icebergs: The basic meaning is visible above the surface, but we can only guess at the shape of the vast chambers of meaning below.”

It’s as though phrases and words also have cultural implications: they seem to represent a people’s general ideology. Cross-culturally, studies have found that children raised in independent societies (like North America) tend to use the first person more often as opposed to interdependent cultures (like in those classified as “Eastern”). That was before globalization. (more…)

“Like Phuket before it became Phuket.” Anyone notice how this saying is quickly becoming the de facto description to use to describe an island in Southeast Asia that is, amazingly, undeveloped and seemingly undiscovered by tourists? (I recently wrote about this article about Boracay, Philippines — an island that also got the Phuket treatment). This description also popped up in this recent LA Times article about Phu Quoc, the small Vietnamese island that straddles the border with Cambodia.

“Phu Quoc, once known mainly for its pungent fish sauce and wartime history, is the hottest new tourist destination in Vietnam, a slice of tropical perfection with mile after mile of wide, uncrowded beaches, dense jungle, virgin rain forests and a lazy, laid-back atmosphere that reminds a visitor of what Phuket, Thailand, was like a generation ago.” (more…)

Looking for a little Twitter travel inspiration? The other day I came across this helpful list from TweepML of some of the best and most popular travel-themed twitters on the web, including bloggers, corporate types, media, and freelancers. Many of these tweeters you’re probably already following, but it gives you some good ideas to round out your travel list a bit. You know, so you have something to do while at work.

Given the fact that Malaysia is made up of mainly Malays, Chinese and Indians — three of some of the best food cultures in the world — it’s not surprising that a trip to the country will likely turn out to be one long, unforgettable gastro-fest. To test out this theory a summer expat, Karen Pinchin, recently partook in a summer feeding frenzy and submitted this story to Gadling, consisting of her memories of eating her way through the country.

This included everything from eating fish curry mixed with bread for breakfast, heading to lunch in an open-air food market in Taman Tun for some char kway teow — a pad thai-like dish with caramelized noodles — and asam laksa, a “a spicy fish gravy soup with chewy shrimp cake, round udon noodles and hunks of tart pineapple, with a dusting of cilantro, peanuts and dried anchovies,” and even having a dinner feast with an actual princess. For this meal they ate “stuffed, grilled fish, at least five of them, alongside metal plates filled with curries, vegetables, and a strangely scented green pod called petai (or, as we found out later, ‘stinky beans’) that was mixed with the chef’s own belachan. This latter concoction was a blend of chillies and dried shrimp paste that, even today, makes my heart beat faster.”

I just ate a burrito from Chipotle and then read this article and got sad. I think I need to get to Malaysia.

[photo by malaysianyc/flickr]

As if I needed any more reasons to avoid organized tours, Budget Travel recently published this tour guide’s exposé, revealing some of the tricks and truths about the trade.

Ever notice how tour guides conveniently happen upon quaint gift shops or authentic restaurants toward the end of the tour? Not surprisingly, many are on the dole, receiving kickbacks from the owner. Ever wonder to yourself how the tour guide seems a little too knowledgeable about every aspect of whatever it is they’re showing you? Truth is, they’re probably picking facts out of the air. Even if someone does check their facts afterward, who cares, the tour’s over? Think that TripAdvisor is an accurate guide to the best tours in town? Well, it’s an unwritten rule that many companies (as well as everyone else it seems) attempts to game their rankings, forcing guides and friends to artificially inflate the scores.

Which is not to say there are no good tour guides, or that tours are never helpful, I just feel that the best experience is the honest one. I know it’s a tough gig, and that hat being passed around for tips isn’t exactly paying for anyone’s retirement, but at least tell me that so-and-so pays you to bring visitors to their restaurant, and you’d appreciate my business. Or if you don’t have an answer to a question, that’s fine, just be upfront about. Chances are, the tip’s going to be much bigger if I don’t feel like I was just robbed.

[photo by backprop/Flickr]

Today, I am in wonder of the world. In a good way.

I saw an article in a newspaper at work. I had to sit down a minute and really think about what it was that shook me. The headline read: “Paris Introduces Sparkling Water Fountains.” I then found a similar article in the Guardian.

My first reaction was, mmm, delicious. I like sparkling water because it is the salty, boring version of sweet sodas. My second thought was: why was I taken with this article? I read on. In France, the people drink a lot of the fizzy stuff. Perhaps it’s a cultural thing, but whatever it is, the waste produced from the consumption needed to be addressed (262,000 tons of plastic waste in 2009 alone). (more…)

There’s no question Anthony Bourdain reigns king over everything travelers dream about — getting paid traveling around the world with a film crew documenting it all. His snarky personality and textbook Kung Fu displays create perhaps the purest travel show that exists. When the Travel Channel was bought by the the owners of the Food Channel (and if you read The Expeditioner with any regularity, you have followed our collective thoughts about this), you can imagine our concern over the future of their programming. We feared Tony would become Emeril, and we’d be stuck watching Samantha Brown-turned-Rachel Ray until the slow and painful death of the travel show faded into nothingness. Now we have Food wars . . . and Man v. Food. Hardly a window into the culture of places we hope to tread one day.

I realize that simply eating food is not traveling. I also realize that stuffing your face until you are, generally, the size of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, doesn’t fill the pages of guidebooks with facts of an area. Perhaps, and I’m just throwing this out there, Adam Richman is some kind of magical face-stuffing Tinkerbell who has figured something out the rest of us are in the dark about. Let me explain.

(more…)

Every find yourself flying out of PEE (Russia’s Bolshoye Savino Airport), POO (Brazil’s Poco De Caldas Airport) or FAT (Fresno, California) and wonder how in the world these airports were assigned those initials? Well, as usual, blame Canada. As this ABC News article explains, turns out the Montreal-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) is in charge of doling out these acronyms, usually (and logically) based on a city’s name, like Boston (BOS) or Miami (MIA). But when all else fails, they just make it up!

Turns out things get a little tricky when airports used to be known by their former two-letter weather initials (like Los Angeles and Phoenix). To fix this, the airports simply tacked on an “X” to conform to three letters (usually when the logical three-letter combo was already taken), hence LAX and PHX. Other airports were named after someone, hence their three letters are someone’ name, like New York’s JFK or Knoxville’s TYS (named for Lt. Tyson, a downed WWI fighter pilot whose mother donated the land for the airport).

Now the fun begins. Want to see what swear words and dirty intonations you’ll be reading when you fly around the world? Check out World-Airport-Codes.com and let the fun begin! Here are some starters for you.

And here are my top five favorite codes (you can either guess or click to see): (more…)

You find them lurking everywhere: on the corners of dimly lit streets, in the goopy hands of people, in your freezer. You can hear the icebox-toting vendors screaming its name, beckoning for your business, “Helado! Heladoooo!”

Ice cream. It is a cross-cultural thing.

When venturing into Buenos Aires, some fantasize about steaks and tango, gauchos and gourds of mate. Yet, the unexpected afternoon delight that melts your heart is this dessert.

Growing up as a North American kid, my experience was different. I remember the jingling bells of the bicycle-propelled dickie-dee and the creepy carnival music that played from the white, square truck. Kids would run from their front doors to scoop up a soft serve with their saved pennies. That is my nostalgic ice cream culture.

It was nice to read an article in the NY Times that highlights how Buenos Aires is combining two of their passions: ice cream and dulce de leche, a creamy kind of caramel. I remember trying this frozen post-steak treat for the first time, my mouth shriveling at its sweetness. It’s an acquired taste, one that today’s porteños have had nearly a century to get used to. (more…)

Colombia’s Caribbean coast is in the news big time this week, with article in both the Financial Times and the NY Times. Gone are the days when the region’s checkered history scared away tourists. Now, for better or worse (better if you’re a local depending on travelers), you’re more likely to run into a yacht-owning Colombian than a drug runner.

I’m not really sure what the significance of all the coverage is, other than the obvious fact that the face of travel to Colombia is changing, and changing quickly (as evidenced by the 17% uptick in travel there last year). A few years back the NY Times took a look at travel to Tayrona National Park, and this week they headed back to the region to stop in at Santa Marta, a sleepy coastal town who many would agree saw most of its best years back around the 17th century.

Many, that is, except those who’ve visited recently. I mainly remember flooded streets and empty beaches, but the city is starting to grow out of what many once saw, as the article points out, as simply “a stopover point for visitors looking to trek through Tayrona National Park or hike to the Lost City, a well-known archaeological site nearby.” (more…)

Deadline Hollywood has announced that travel bloggers and recent authors, The Lost Girls, whose eponymous book was release earlier this year, have inked a deal to send their story to Hollywood. As reported: “ABC has given the company and Warner Bros. TV a put pilot commitment for an untitled hourlong project based on the blog and the book The Lost Girls.” If you’re wondering, a put pilot is Hollywood for a virtual guarantee that a pilot will air or the network will incur a substantial penalty. No word yet on the details of the show.

Congratulations ladies, this is very exciting news. Now all I have to do is go buy a T.V. before the start of the 2011 season. (And be sure to read Amanda — 1/3 of The Lost Girls — whose writing will be appearing as part of the upcoming “The Expeditioner Guide to the World”.)