Travel News
Fighting The Flashpacker Label (What Is A Flashpacker Anyway?)
When I first heard the term “flashpacker,” I instantly thought of the Bill Bryson book, “A Walk in the Woods.” The main characters are hiking the Appalachian Trail and running into people representing, more or less, a microcosm of society. One person they met was totally and utterly clueless about what it takes to complete […]
Take The Spirit Of Adventure, Leave The Bags (Rolf’s No Baggage Challenge)
Rolf Potts, author of “Marco Polo Didn’t Go There” and receiver of all questions travel-related in the column “Ask Rolf” on World Hum, has decided to pack his bags this late August and hit the road, traveling through 12 countries, five continents, and crossing the equator four times. So what, you ask? People do these […]
How To Scare People From Ever Flying Again
“This is an emergency announcement. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water.” — Announcement heard by 275 passengers aboard a Tuesday-night British Airways flight from London to Hong Kong. The message was a mistake. [Yahoo]
There’s Hope For Cruising: Libation Innovations
I’ve always taken one of my Grandfather’s saying to heart: You simply can’t make soup out of poop. He certainly had a knack for restoring things that couldn’t have otherwise been resurrected without his magic, but he certainly knew when to throw in the towel when something was beyond repair. This may not be the […]
“Eat, Pray, Leave”: Let The Backlash Begin
Seven million copies, 170 weeks and counting on the New York Times Best Seller List, and one Julia Roberts-starring movie later, Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love,” may, surprisingly, just be entering the backlash phase that was inevitable from a book with such runaway success. We’ve seen this story before: Peter Mayles helped ensure a rate […]
Bourdain Back In Beirut
Ahh, isn’t alliteration so fun? Remember that most famous of “No Reservations” — the one where Tony and crew get caught in the crosshairs of a little squabble between Lebanon and Israel back in the summer of 2006, in what turned out to be the beginning of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War, and what also turned […]
Run, Don’t Walk To Your Nearest Passport Renewel Office
You, the intrepid traveler, insider to all things travel and keen to the newest travel trends, were already smart enough to turn in your application before July 13, 2010, thus beating the clock on the recently implemented $35 increase in processing fees for renewing your passport. Huh, missed the news on that fee hike? What’s […]
A Vacation To Adulthood? The Anti-Disney Theme Park
The youth are starting to change. Walking through the streets of cities of the world and talking with locals, I have found discrepancies between my own (not-too-long-ago) childhood, and that of the “kids” today. As a young hooligan myself, I remember playing in my front yard until the street lamps came on — my informal […]
Destinations To Help Cure World Cup Blues
Now that the World Cup is officially over, outside of Spain, the world is feeling quite a void right now. One spin through your Facebook statuses will prove that. So when Team England bowed out of the tourney, the UK-based Wanderlust had more than enough reasons to create a list of destinations specifically focused to […]
Strippers On Rickshaws: Absolute Brilliance
Yup, my first post after “tying the knot” is likely to land me on the couch by new wife. During a neverending search for the ultimate bachelor party — which ended up at a martini-soaked karaoke bar in the middle of a cattle ranch — my friend happened to come across the PoleRiders blog and […]