travelblogs

Filed under: Learning, Stories, Transportation, Budget Travel, Internet Tools

Backpacking my way through South America, I spent many hours - sometimes entire days - making my way from city to city via bus. Whether you're taking a bus, plane or train, here are 10 great apps that work offline to help you pass the time. Kindle Kindle makes it easy to stay up-to-date with your favorite books, especially when it can be hard to find novels in your spoken language abroad. Just download the app, shop when you have Wi-Fi and then enjoy the books even when you're without Internet connection. There are over 1,000 books in the Kindle store, as well as hundreds of newspapers, magazines, textbooks and PDFs. You can also sample the first few pages of books before buying, to decide if it's worth the purchase. Available on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android and Blackberry. Free.

Continue reading 10 Apps To Help Pass The Time On Long Journeys

10 Apps To Help Pass The Time On Long Journeys originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Europe, North America, United States

Often, planning a trip can call for using a travel agent. Venturing to unknown lands armed with the advice of someone who has been there before is always a good idea. Now, one travel organization is making it possible to take their agents along with you on your trip.

Continue reading Bring Your Augmented Travel Agent Along For The Ride

Bring Your Augmented Travel Agent Along For The Ride originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here at Jaunted, we spend considerable time and (virtual) ink drooling over weird food festivals. So, this summer, we've decided to visit a few. All this week our Michigan embed Lara Zielin will report back from the Empire Asparagus Festival.

I’ll be honest: If I were going to an asparagus festival and they didn’t have asparagus beer, I’d be pissed. After all, the tangy, bright flavor of asparagus is an ideal complement to beer’s bready body. So good thing Right Brain Brewery agrees with me and stocked Empire, Michigan’s ninth annual Asparagus Festival with an asparagus beer that gives you the best of a good beer without losing the flavor—and flare—of the weekend’s favored vegetable.

Right Brain Brewery’s asparagus ale is light and potable. Maybe even a little too potable, judging from the numbers of people who quaffed a glass (or five) at the festival’s Friday night kickoff, then grooved to the sounds of local musicians, The Benzie Playboyz. The band’s name is possibly awful, but you don't need another pint to appreciate the fact that they have not one but two members who play a washboard. And one of the players is under age twelve.

Filed under: Europe, Greece, Hotels and Accommodations, Budget Travel

The day before we left for Greece, the newspaper headlines made it sound as though the country was about to disintegrate. "Greece on Brink of Collapse," blared the U.K broadsheet The Daily Telegraph in a front page above the fold piece last week, after the International Monetary Fund said that Europe's leaders should prepare for the possibility of Greece leaving the Euro zone. We've been reading bad news about Greece for many months now, so the most recent news that Greece is about to hold yet another election and may very well leave the Euro zone is just the latest chapter in Greece's economic free fall. Over the last year, protesters have run wild on the streets of Athens, and other Greek cities on several occasions, but why are some tourists avoiding Greece this year? We spent most of the last month in Italy and I met several people who said that they considered the Greek Isles but decided against it based upon all the bad news coming out of Greece in recent months. A pharmacist in Kefalos named Bill, who gave my family a lift to the island's lovely "Paradise Beach" told us that he has friends around Europe who asked him if there was enough food to eat in Greece. "It's ridiculous," he said. "They see all the bad news on T.V. and think people are starving here." I have the opposite take - Greece is still safe, especially the Greek Isles, and with other tourists staying away, now is the time to visit as the crowds are thinner and the prices will probably never be better.

Continue reading What 50 Euros A Night Buys In The Greek Isles Right Now

What 50 Euros A Night Buys In The Greek Isles Right Now originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Arts and Culture, Photos, North America, United States, Video

Cory Poole put together an impressive time-lapse video of the May 20 solar eclipse. Poole captured 700 images of the solar eclipse from his vantage point in Redding, California. Through a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope, Poole caught the beautiful images. Accompanying the video is music that appears to be his own, noted as having been made using Ableton Live. If you missed the solar eclipse on May 20, this video will certainly give you a better view than you could have seen with your own eyes.

Video: Solar Eclipse Time Lapse originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you're already in Idaho, chances are you've already had your breath taken away at the hand of your surroundings. But the Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway, also known as Idaho State Highway 21, will make you fall in love with the Idaho landscape if you haven't already. Beginning in Boise, the "City of Trees," this road is carved within the Boise National Forest and the scenery here is unbelievable. Flat pastures will merge into green hills that will remind you of photos you've seen of the Irish countryside. The highway begins at 3,000 feet above sea level. You'll see the Boise River, the Boise River Diversion Dam, the Lucky Peak Dam and much more on this drive. Rocky mountains, summits good for stopping and taking in the fresh air, rushing waters and densely packed Pines make this drive worth the trip. It's best to avoid driving this route in the winter. High elevation points throughout the highway are often closed during the winter because of snow.

Iconic Road Trips: Enjoying Idaho's Ponderosa Pine Scenic Byway originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We wouldn’t really consider ourselves easy to impress when it comes to the world of travel, but we are definitely suckers when it comes to airports, airplanes, and a little sprinkle of time-lapse videography.

Things move too quickly for us to identify each and every airport, but there’s plenty of American Airlines, lots of airports, and some snazzy shots of China. Puffy clouds and clear blue skies have us dreaming of escaping to the airport this afternoon, but in the interim we’ll keep watching and daydreaming.

We’ll be sure to keep our eyes out for more options from ‪coolvid679 in the future, but if you’ve got the travel time-lapse thing down to a science be sure to share!

Filed under: News, Consumer Activism

"US News & World Report" has this week released their annual "best" list of vacation spots for your upcoming summer travels. We're always game for a trip, and this magazine, known for its endless parade of lists, seems to consistently do one of the best jobs we've seen of matching trends with traditional data analysis. "The summer vacation is an established American tradition," said Chad Smolinski, Vice President of Rankings and Reviews at U.S. News & World Report. "Taking into account over 300,000 user votes and thousands of travel expert opinions, the U.S. News vacation rankings provide travel recommendations you can trust." For the category of "Best Summer Vacation," Nice, Mykonos and Maui round out the top three. Maui also makes the top three for two other categories, including "Best Beaches in the USA" and "Best Family Beach Vacations in the USA". Budget cutting? Try Yellowstone, Santo Domingo or Lisbon, the top picks for "Cheap Summer Vacations" or perhaps Yosemite or the Grand Canyon, which, along with Yellowstone, make the list of "Affordable Family Vacation" spots. Other expected destinations, including Orlando, Anaheim and Hawaii (Maui, the Big Island and Kauai) made the top three spots on the list.

[Flickr via sunsplash]

US News Ranks Best Summer Vacation Spots originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Straight up, we're just going to say that serious coffeeshops in Hong Kong have only taken a couple years to evolve from being nonexistent, to doing brews and service to a standard beyond that of most places in the Western Hemisphere. HK just moves that quickly, and coffee is the latest focus for a city brought up on Chinese green tea and proper British milk tea.

During our most recent visit to Hong Kong, we discovered Three Coffee Shops That Get It Right. And, just as the baristas learned our name, we had to fly back home. So do stop by and have a pour-over for us, hm?

· Knockbox Coffee Jonathan waxed philosophic on the Costa Rica Finca San Francisco while preparing a perfect pour-over coffee. "It's on my secret menu," he whispered with a wink, and proceeded to share the details of a few other beans he currently had the hots for. Whatever he said about cupping and flavor hints we quickly forgot, but Knockbox on its own is a place we've nailed into our memory as an HK must-visit. The very tiny, hard-to-find coffeeshop is a single room with one table of a few chairs and two barstools for watching the action on the counter. We suggest nabbing the latter in order to be eye-level with your coffee as it bubbles up from the vacuum brewer.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Surfing

For anyone out there with a procrastination habit I apologize for ruining your next couple of weeks. In a move with the simultaneous ability to inspire and depress any desk-bound viewers, Outside Online has recently published a link to a Pinterest board put together by the New York Surf Film Festival, which features trailers of virtually every surf film ever made. For those who aren't familiar with the genre, surf films are some of the original travel documentaries in that they often delve deep into undeveloped and untraveled international locales in search of new waves and uncharted experiences. Often times, this involves going feral and stepping off of the established grid for a little while. Furthermore, with surfers seemingly pushing the boundaries of the sport with every passing year (see: "Insane Maui Surf Footage" and "Surfer Sets Record On 78-Foot Wave"), surf films also serve as a historical journey through the progression of the sport and the global hunt for waves. So if you don't see me around the Gadling offices for a little while, I blame only myself.

How To Watch Every Surf Film Trailer Ever Made originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From sometime in 2011

It's been a while since we heard of any activity from Gem Hotels but as we were scrolling through an NYC Hotel Development report, we noticed that there's plans for a new hotel in Greenwich Village from Gemini Real Estate Advisors, the same folks who run the three GEM Hotels in NYC.

Called The Jade Hotel Greenwich Village, the hotel will open on 54 W. 13th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues with 114 rooms. A projected opening date is listed for late 2012. As it turns out this is definitely the GEM Hotel Union Square, although the Greenwich Village nabe destination has us slightly perplexed.

Heading to London this summer? Yeah, so is everyone else. This week, Jaunted's London embed, Lilit Marcus, will share some definite destinations for getting out of town and out of the crowds.

Although you can’t get there from Platform Nine and Three Quarters, the newly opened Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden is an entertaining and easy daytrip from London. Despite the London address, it’s actually located in Hertfordshire, near St Albans.

The WB studio complex is home to many of the original HP sets, props, costumes and more, which makes it a worthy pilgrimage spot for a Potter nerd. If you don’t drive, the best way to get there is by taking a train from Euston Station to Watford—there are plenty, and it’s only about 20 minutes’ ride—and then taking the HP bus to the studio for an additional £2. (The bus is black and painted with Harry Potter characters, so it’s pretty hard to miss.)

Be sure that you book your tickets in advance (£28 per adult and available here) as no tickets are sold on site, and, if you try to go into the parking lot security guards will ask to see your printed-out confirmation notice. Additionally, you’ll need to arrive about 45-60 minutes before the time your tour is scheduled to start, just to make sure that you have enough time to wait in line and/or browse the gift shop.

Filed under: Europe, Airlines, Budget Travel

Ryanair, Easy Jet, German Wings and other discount airlines have changed how Europeans travel, but until last week, I'd yet to fly on a budget European airline and had no idea what to expect. After booking a ticket from Bari, Italy, to Kos in Greece several weeks ago on Ryanair, my expectations were very modest based upon a very annoying booking process and a series of warning emails I received about baggage and boarding procedures. But my interactions with live Ryanair staff were pleasant and the flight itself was smooth sailing. Here are some observations and tips for flying on Ryanair. Don't use Google Chrome. After clicking through what seemed like a thousand pages offering me everything from rental cars to luggage, I clicked "purchase" but then my browser just spun fruitlessly for hours without confirming my purchase. It was unclear to me if the purchase went through, so I had to call Ryanair, which, like everything else associate with this airline, isn't free. I was told that their site doesn't support Google Chrome and that I should try again with Internet Explorer. I did so and the purchase went through without a hitch.

Continue reading Losing My Ryanair Virginity

Losing My Ryanair Virginity originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New and improved business class seats seems to be a thing this year among airlines, and Taiwan-based EVA Air is next up, revamping their premium cabin and announcing that it'll be coming to US shores first—to New York, specifically.

As a complete service overhaul, EVA re-named business to Royal Laurel Class and will now offer a fully lie-flat seat to stretch your legs on the 16+ hour non-stop from JFK to Taipei. New modern seats, upgraded menus and increased entertainment and comfort are all part of the spruce-up.

Filed under: Asia, Burma (Myanmar)

For most of the past two decades, the only images and sounds of Myanmar that have reached the outside world is of its repressive military regime and the heroic resistance of the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. For years, travelers found themselves caught up in the debate over the ethics of traveling to Myanmar resulting in the country becoming more remote and inaccessible. Now, with extraordinary political changes sweeping the country, Myanmar is once again back on the global stage. There is a near frenzy of who gets there first, to (re)discover this ancient land lodged between India and China. Most tourists that arrive will immediately head to Bagan, a dreamland of ruined pagodas, or Inle Lake, to soak in the serenity of its placid waters and photograph the famous leg rowers. That is indeed a great choice if you want to experience picture-perfect Myanmar - the Myanmar of myth and mystique. But if instead you want to feel the pulse of Myanmar as it is today - experience the sounds, sights and smells of a living, breathing city on the move - then stay a while longer in Yangon, the biggest city and the commercial capital of the country. 10 a.m.: Visit Bogyoke Market Every great city has a thriving, bustling market to call its own and Bogyoke is Yangon's. Most still know Bogyoke by its old colonial name - Scotts Market - and come in search of crumbling colonnades and cobblestoned lanes that bulge with an extraordinary variety of Burmese specialities. You could spend your entire day here, so keep your focus. Best buys at Bogyoke: traditional longyis (the Burmese sarong that is the de facto national dress), green tea from the upper Shan States, jade Buddhas, ruby pendants and teakwood shot glasses.

Continue reading 12 Hours In Yangon, Myanmar

12 Hours In Yangon, Myanmar originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 22 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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