Travel
New to the Travel Guide: Swimming Holes
An extensive list of swimming holes, courtesy of reference library.
GreatOutdoors is all about hiking, climbing, cycling, paddling, running and snowsports.
Northern Michigan: Sleeping Bear Dunes.
The most expensive vacation? The Emirates Palace in Abu Dabi is a Seven Star Hotel that caters to wealthy travelers, even if you can’t afford the $1 Million for the star package.
Nathan Myhrvold visits Iceland and Greenland.
Ever want to travel by train and cargo ships around the world. Start here: They warned us. They warned us about the food. The freighter agency literature mentions several times that the food may not be what Americans are accustomed to — for example, it says, “there may not be dessert.” The first morning’s breakfast is called “Hunter’s Toast,” which turns out to be toast smothered in something like liverwurst and topped by a fried egg. Breakfast is usually one part egg, one part meat, and one part toast except when it is sausage and a puddle of tomato sauce. Breakfast is served from 7:30 to 8:00am, which means arrive at 7:30 and leave at eight. One pot of coffee and one pot of hot water sit on the table next to the basket of tea bags and peanut gallery of condiments.They warned us. They warned us about the food. The freighter agency literature mentions several times that the food may not be what Americans are accustomed to — for example, it says, “there may not be dessert.” The first morning’s breakfast is called “Hunter’s Toast,” which turns out to be toast smothered in something like liverwurst and topped by a fried egg. Breakfast is usually one part egg, one part meat, and one part toast except when it is sausage and a puddle of tomato sauce. Breakfast is served from 7:30 to 8:00am, which means arrive at 7:30 and leave at eight. One pot of coffee and one pot of hot water sit on the table next to the basket of tea bags and peanut gallery of condiments.
10 Back Yard Paradises (OffTheMap).
Burton Holmes, Extraordinary Traveler. He created the Travelogue. If this is your kind of entertainment, try a more modern variation: Trails of the Mountain West.
20 Craziest Party Hostels Around The World
Ride the World’s Greatest Motorcycle Roads (Wired)
Train-In-Vain (Good Magazine). Ask around onboard almost any Amtrak train, and you’ll get a pretty short list of reasons why people ride the rails. In the café car, chugging along one of the country’s oldest routes, I counted four types of passengers. There are thrifty ones looking to save a few bucks on plane tickets. There are those who are scared of flying, a group that has no doubt grown in recent years. There are the zealots—without exception, older men—who describe themselves with charming lack of inhibition as “rail junkies,” “railroad nuts,” “train buffs,” or, my personal favorite, “railfans.” The rest—indeed the majority—say they’re here for “the experience.” Good thing for Amtrak, that romantic notion of the rails is alive and well. Naturally, it’s something the beleaguered rail company promotes to death. The experience is an important sell; nobody ever mentions reliability or practicality.