"Travel in and of itself is not derogatory information." —That's your chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, talking about why Tamerlan Tsarnaev didn't get interviewed again after his trip to Russia. (He either was or was not one of the 745,000 people listed in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment.)
"[T]ravel with handsome luggage, as schlepping around a lousy, ugly, torn and/or unpractical bag is depressing."
The American photographer Paul Caponigro famously said, "It's one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it's another thing to make a portrait of who they are." The same can be said of cities. After all, cities — like people — contain their own identities, histories and secrets. And a good photo captures the essence of a place beyond mere appearances.
As part of an ongoing experiment to unlock the potential of the digital medium in photography, Samsung gave the new GALAXY Camera to 32 photographers to prove that their city is the most photogenic in the world.
Meet Giacomo Por from Milan. Giacomo seeks to [...]
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Portland, Maine, was my first city. I grew up outside it, in Cape Elizabeth, so I always think I know it, but every time I go home, I find it slowly turning into a better place than I remembered, maybe even the place I’ll want to return to someday. What I loved about Portland growing up is still true: there are lots of bookstores, especially used ones, old bars and vintage shops that are nearly junk shops. It is still quiet, with beautiful skies, and [...]
I have a recommendation as to where you should go for lunch: Charleston, South Carolina. Now, unless you're in Hanahan or Folly Beach or Mt. Pleasant, it could take you a long time to get there. So you might want to leave soon. But you really should go, because Charleston has some of the very best food you will ever eat anywhere. There is a place there called Jestine's Kitchen, which has become quite famous, and so often has a line of people waiting outside, and so also has lots of people who like to talk about food on the internet dismissing it as a "tourist trap" and inferior [...]
"It used to be thought of as a black spot on the family, but now it's become trendy to have a convict in the past." -Tasmanian tourism spokeswoman Mel Percival discusses the Australian island's new travel promotion, which they are referring to as 'convictourism.' "Intended for Australians and Europeans with convict ancestors, as well as the odd tourist from around the world, convictourism will allow visitors to 'follow the convict trail and trace their ancestors back in time.'" There is also a good story about a convict who disguised himself as a kangaroo in an attempt to escape the brutal conditions that are now being celebrated with a package [...]
Low-fare carrier Spirit Airlines will start charging $45 for each piece of luggage passengers bring on the plane with them. The airline bills it as a way to "reduce the number of carry-on bags, which will improve inflight safety and efficiency by speeding up the boarding and deplaning process, all of which ultimately improve the overall customer experience." Meanwhile, budget Irish airline Ryanair is replacing all the toilets in its fleet with coin-operated models that will cost about a buck and half to use. Ryanair hopes that the move will "change passenger behaviour so that they use the bathroom before or after the flight. That will enable [...]
"The Q&A column on March 10 with the travel blogger Matt Kepnes, about tips on keeping to a budget while on the road, sought his suggestions on which credit cards to use. One card he recommended was the Starwood Preferred Guest card from American Express. After the article was published, editors learned that Mr. Kepnes has a business deal with a vendor for the card in which he receives a payment every time someone is approved for the card through a link on his Web site. Had editors known of this relationship, they would not have included his suggestion." (via)
Ugh. Terrible traffic on BQE. Definitely missing my flight to San Diego.
— John Carney (@carney) February 13, 2013
There's nothing I hate more than being stuck in traffic on the way to the airport, losing minutes and the probability of catching my flight.
— felix salmon (@felixsalmon) January 31, 2013
There's an epidemic of smart people messing up their travel plans. (To be fair, Felix was not in NYC during that tweet, but he did ask "Is there a good guide for how long it takes to drive from Manhattan to JFK at various times of day/week?" the other day.) Yes, New York City [...]
The first in a pair of essays today on being an expat in Berlin.
When I first moved to Berlin this summer, there was a big piece of graffiti in the courtyard next to my front door. "Tourists fuck off," it said, in cheerful blue spray paint. It didn't really bother me at first—I wasn't a tourist, I was moving here; I speak German and have a German passport. And who loves tourists anyways? In New York, where I'd lived for the past six years, hating on tourists was part of what defined you as a New Yorker. Being rude to slow-walking Scandinavians wasn't just a way of [...]
A column that compares different aspects of New York City to cities elsewhere. For this installment, we asked Alexander Basek and Paul Brady to weigh in. Alexander is a co-founder of the travel planning service Fortnighter. Paul is an editor at Huffington Post Travel. They both could point out the differences between an Airbus 320 and a Boeing 737, but they won’t because you don’t care that much.
Paul: Before we get into the whole New York v. The World debate, shouldn't we talk about which one of the airports that serve New York best represents the city? A lot of people gloss over the fact that [...]
If you subscribe to Jauntsetter this week—it's the once-a-week email about local and fun travel!—you could win, of all things, a heart-shaped 2-quart LeCreuset casserole dish, and there is nothing I want more, so win it and give it to me.
A plane fueled only by solar power conducted a successful test run today in Switzerland, gliding at about 4000 feet for an hour and a half. The pilot was mostly pleased with the results, but did complain about having to pay to use the solar-powered toilet.
The Plaza de la Revolución fills much the same role in Havana as the National Mall does in Washington. It lies in the shadow of the city's tallest monument, constructed to honor the memory of the country's great revolutionary hero. Huge crowds, sometimes topping a million people, have crammed onto the concrete square to partake in patriotic ceremonies, concerts, or speeches by Fidel Castro or the Pope.
When I visited Cuba earlier this year, the Plaza was eerily empty. Dozens of vultures circled patiently overhead, as if waiting for the 83-year-old Castro and his 51-year-old revolution to succumb to the steady march of time.
Chances are you have at least a couple of Lonely Planet guides on your bookshelves, or in a box in your parents' garage along with very thin tax returns from the 1990s or early 2000s. I still have a couple of very outdated books—not for the informational value today, which is minimal, but because they're time capsules of how those countries were when I was traveling around years ago. And now BBC, which has owned the independent travel guide since 2007, is selling the brand at a big loss to some American billionaire who may also have fond memories of the densely packed books.
The books still sell pretty [...]
There are those who say that leaving ironic product reviews on Amazon is proof that we have ultimately failed in our haphazard pursuit of a higher purpose, but those people would be wrong. What was Jonathan Swift's famous op-ed about eating dead Irish babies if not a proto-Amazon review done in irony? Is the Book of Revelation anything more than a parody of Roman imperial politics and luxury obsession? Anyway, here's a Playmobil playset that Amazon doesn't even sell, and the Freedom Writers are leaving some very biting fake reviews that are probably really more about their unhappiness with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
10. Southwest
9. Virgin Atlantic
8. Frontier
7. Alaska
6. JetBlue
5. American
Why does it seem to take longer to get there than it does to go back? "[P]eople are typically too optimistic about the initial trip, which then takes disappointingly long. So when they return, they're now anticipating it will take a long time. But compared to this expectation, the return trip does not seem as bad." Okay, I'll buy it. I also would have accepted "something something jet stream."
"Mass fever screening already exists." Uh oh. Soon The Machines may be telling you if you're well enough to travel: "Feverish subjects are instructed to 'please wait here for an attendant.'"
"She told me that he was elderly and frail and also very tired, so I would have to lift him out of the taxi and into the wheelchair. I immediately felt unsure about the situation but I did my best to help by carefully lifting the man from his seat. To my horror his face fell sideways against mine – it was ice cold. I knew straight away that the man was dead but they reassured me that he always sleeps like that. So I placed the body into the wheelchair and pushed the man to the back of the easyJet queue." -Andrew Millea, a worker at John Lennon [...]
