The name of the Travel Channel’s recently launched broadband venture is so thrilling, so future-forward: “Travel Channel Beyond.” Unfortunately, there’s currently not a whole lot of content available “beyond” the clips that were already posted on the station website. The best of the bunch are the “Vacation Ideas,” videos grouped by loose themes — Beach, Cuisine, Parks — and the web extras for 5 Takes, No Reservations, Stranded, etc. If these shows, and the upcoming 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, are any indication of the direction the Travel Channel will be taking in the future, you may want to stay tuned.

Previously:
– “5 Takes”
– “No Reservations“

Pointing to a majestic site in peril is a great way to drum up sympathy for your cause, be it ecology or historic preservation, but that doesn’t make what the New 7 Wonders foundation is doing any less compelling. A Swiss organization that’s also gathering support to rebuild the Buddhas at Bamiyan, the foundation is currently holding a public competition to come up with a new set of wonders – sites that we can celebrate while we still have them, and which represent a global, rather than Classical, heritage. Anyone can vote online or by phone for one of the 21 finalists until July 7th of next year (07/07/07, of course), when the process will conclude with a big ol’ telecast to announce the winners.


Elsewhere:
– Wired News: “Rebirth of the Afghan Buddhas”

Previously:
– “Blame the Tourists? Nah.“

For those of you determined to run the European travel gauntlet this summer, save a few pennies to compensate for pocket-gouging euro prices by downloading the free mp3 guides at iaudioguide.com. Currently there are guides for London, Paris, and Barcelona, with more cities to follow. The podcasts cover all the major sites, with a culturally attuned spin. Plus, this way, you can look like you’re having a musical communion with the Eiffel Tower or the Sagrada Familia, instead of bumbling around with a guidebook or pamphlet in your hand like everyone else. (via Gridskipper)

As if the ever-shrinking coach-class seat weren’t already cramped enough. The NYT reported today that Airbus has been covertly offering the possibility of “standing-room” seats to Asian airlines on their new, massive A380 double-decker jets. According to the report:

“Passengers in the standing section would be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, according to experts who have seen a proposal. With a typical configuration, the A380 will accommodate about 500 passengers. But with standing-room-only seats, the same plane could conceivably fit in 853 passengers, the maximum it would be permitted to carry.”

Apparently the idea was to make the A380 more appealing for short-distance use, but none of the airlines approached have bitten.

Of course, this story has been spreading through the travel Web like the flu in a pressurized cabin. And why not? It has all the makings of a melodramatic blockbuster: “See the wealthy “Upper Class” passengers frolic in the gym, casino or beauty parlor, while the less-fortunate are stacked like human dominoes below!” Airbus is trying to keep the situation grounded, however, as they issued a statement to CNN denying there was any truth to the Times’ report at 8:43 this morning.


Elsewhere:
– The Guardian: “Standing-room in planes. Will it fly?”
– Houston Chronicle: “Airlines ponder how to pack ‘em in”
– Sydney Morning Herald: “Stand up and prepare for take-off”
– DailyIndia: “Airlines mull standing passenger tickets”
– Jaunted: “Stand Up for Your Rights”
– Gridskipper: “SRO Airplane “Seats“

Americans, undaunted by all the reports of spiraling fares and overcrowding on flights to Europe this summer, coupled with an unfavorable exchange rate, are setting their jaws and vowing to join the annual tourist crush anyway. How else to explain the glut of Europe-on-the-cheap coverage this weekend?

Surviving the Euro:
– Chicago Tribune: “Be prepared: How to cope with Europe”
– Chicago Tribune: “Paris, London, Rome: Budget sleeps in the Big Three”
– SF Chronicle: “Paris Lodgings for savoring romance, saving euros” (note repeat copy from the LA Times’ Susan Spano, tsk-tsk)
– NYT: “Affordable Europe”
– NYT: “A Family Vacation in London, Guided by Scrooge”

Alternate destinations:
– NYT: “Going To: Glasgow”
– LA Times: “Ancient art of idling” (Hvar, Croatia)

On the other hand, if you’re itching to spend an obscene amount of money in one of the most impoverished countries on earth, you can take a tip from USA Today’s article about a rare opportunity to visit North Korea. The government in Pyongyang is allowing a limited number of capitalist lapdogs to spend their greenbacks to attend this summer’s Mass Games.

– USA Today: “Drab North Korea is a Hot Ticket“

In honor of Earth Day, I’d like to direct your attention to the very excellent, all-things-green blog Treehugger. Whether you’re of the birkenstocks-and-bulgur-wheat set, or more of a gourmet-slow-food-and-sustainable-design type, they probably have something filed away in their eco-travel archive that will meet your vacationing needs, from all-yurt resorts, to design hotels and spas, to eco-friendly sex clubs in Japan. Their handy compendium of green travel resources is a good place to get started with trip planning, and there are several posts about “carbon-offset” programs that will help you balance out all the fossil fuels burned by your last flight or rental car through tree-planting, or donations towards alternative energy research. They’ve also recently started uploading weekly video posts, interviewing experts on various different aspects of green living.

In other news, the broadband world has a brand-spanking-new cable channel, Green.tv, dedicated exclusively to environmentally concerned content. Sponsored by UNEP, the site already has tons of clips filed in seven different categories (air, land, water, species, climate change, etc.) and has apparently already logged 250,000 viewers in its first week of life (huzzah!). I’ll leave you with this link as a taster: a mini-doc about the Eden Project in Cornwall: the world’s largest greenhouse, a sustainable site, and one of the top tourist attractions in the UK.

Other organic food for thought:
- grist.org: online mag for green news and culture
- NPR’s audio archive of all things eco.
– Gorp.com goes for a quiet walk with an “acoustic ecologist” in Olympic National Park.
– ecopanorama – one French designer’s world quest to meet the best minds in sustainable design

Extreme-travel guru Richard Bangs has parlayed his role as a founding partner of Mountain Travel Sobek into a career as a one-man adventure travel brand. After countless articles, nearly as many books, and previous Web outings with Slate, MSNBC and Expedia, Bangs has teamed with Yahoo and launched a web-only TV series called (shock!) Richard Bangs’ Adventures. 5 trips have been posted since the site started in November, with more to come, and the goings-on all sound suitably exotic and/or death-defying. Thus far, armchair adventurers can follow along through trip logs and video clips, as Bangs or his cohorts -”>follow the River Jordan from its source, trace -”>encounter sea gypsies in Thailand, and get misty over mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

Dreaming of being a reality-TV “star,” or just looking for a way to get someone else to foot the bill for your fantasy vacation? Travel + Leisure is currently holding a contest that will give 10 lucky winners a crack at the trip-of-a-lifetime. The catch? They’ll be tailed by cameras, and then have their adventures edited down to a one-hour episode for T+L’s foray into television this fall with a mystery-date “national cable channel.” Unsurprisingly, they’re interested in creating some good TV moments — if you’re looking for a dramatic setting for a proposal, or you’ve always longed to take grandma back to the old country, this could be the way to do it. Then again, if you don’t mind throwing your vacation under the microscope in exchange for a shot at that all-expenses-paid tour of the South Pacific, you can apply <a href=”
http://www.travelandleisure.com/contests/dreamtrips/”>here. At least you can’t be voted off your own trip. (via Gadling)

Like a slice of roadside Americana gone global, PBS’ web-only feature “Off the Map” tours 10 artistic oddities in the US, Africa, Asia and Europe. An offshoot of the great Independent Lens documentary series, the site takes a close look at the creators of obsessive, “visionary” art projects like Simon Rodia’s famous Watts Towers. The travelogues, photos, videos, and interviews offer some great insights into what would drive someone to create 300-ton Victorian-era spacecraft in surplus yard in Wisconsin, for example. If you like what you see, “Off the Map” is up for a Webby in the Art category, so hie yourself over there and vote.

Elsewhere:
Roadside America – highway oddities across the US and Canada
American Museum of Visionary Art – located in Baltimore, MD
Raw Vision – journal of outsider art

Image courtesy of beecoterie’s photostream

Everyone loves comeback stories, and this weekend’s travel coverage is full of them.

As the 100th anniversary of its 1906 quake nears, San Francisco gets top billing as the toughest little city that could:
- LA Times: “A city of great magnitude”
- SF Chronicle: “The Great Quake: 1906-2006” – walking tour, there are also podcasts available
- SF Chronicle:”1906 Earthquake Anniversary”
– Chicago Tribune: “100 years after: Life on the fault line”
– MSNBC: “3 days adrift”

Other destinations on the rebound:
- NYT: “Jerusalem, Now”
- NYT: “U Street: The Corridor is Cool Again” (DC)
– Times of London: “Albania, Europe’s last secret”
– The Guardian: “A star is reborn” (Acapulco)

At the Thai restaurant where I ate last night, a woman in traditional dress was rinsing everyone’s hands with rose water with petals floating in it before they sat down to eat, a lovely bonus, really. It was, she said, in honor of Songkran, or Thai New Year, which takes place April 13 – 15. Apparently, water and cleansing are symbolically important during the celebration. This rang a bell. A Lonely Planeteer-type Brit I encountered while traveling in China this winter had talked my ear off about a “water festival” that he’d been to in Thailand. “Can’t remember what it was all about,” he said, “But it was like the Tomatina, you know? Only everyone’s in the streets throwing water, f%@*ing wicked!” Surely they weren’t one and the same event? But indeed they are. Judging from this video report from Reuters, the festivities are one-part holy day, one-part nationwide wet-T-shirt contest. Happy Songkran everybody.

Elsewhere:
– Channel NewsAsia: “Songkran ‘water’ festival cools Thailand’s political temperature”
– LA Times: “Bam! Splat! Getting soaked in Bangkok”
– The Thorn Tree: “All this water throwing…“

The snows of Kilimanjaro are melting, Machu Picchu is about to slide into the abyss, and tourists are carting off pieces of the temple at Luxor on a daily basis. The latest International Newsweek cover story—The 7 Most Endangered Wonders of the World—gets off to a pretty glum start. Among the 17 pieces in the issue, there’s some frank discussion of how tourist development can help or harm a destination—e.g. how the UNESCO World Heritage designation can bring thousands more visitors to a site, but comes with next to no cash attached to help support that level of interest. From there, however, things devolve pretty quickly into a hedging-their-bets apologia to the tourism industry for running the cover in the first place. Concerned about where you will vacation once Venice and the Maldives finally succumb to rising ocean levels? Never fear: you can always see one of the new “Wonders”, such as Lakewood Evangelical church in Houston (wha?), clearly an acceptable substitute. Why bother even leaving your own country, actually, when savvy entrepreneurs are building indoor ski-slopes in Dubai and tropical lagoons in Germany. “Location” is all just an abstract concept, anyway.

Elsewhere:
-If you’re looking for a better list of jaw-dropping new man-made spectacles than Newsweek dredged up, try this year’s (you guessed it) “Next 7 Wonders” from Condé Nast Traveler’s April issue.

Time was, the hitchhiker by the side of the road was as much a symbol of Americana, in his own way, as the Marlboro Man. But, just as the cowboy has galloped off into a wheezy sunset, the hitchhiker has become a boogeyman, more Jeffrey Dahmer than Jack Kerouac. The spread of highway/strip-mall culture, endless bad horror movies, differing state regulations, our general culture of paranoia, and legitimate fears about violent crime for both drivers and hitchers have pretty much done away with any kind of hitchhiking culture in many parts of the U.S. The folks at digihitch.com would like to change that: since 2001 they’ve dedicated themselves to creating a community of people who hitch (or hop trains) to share the realities of their experiences and counteract negative stereotypes. An online portal for travel-by-thumb the world over, digihitch has forums, tips for how to both pick up travelers and hitch safely, detailed info about local laws, likely spots for rides and lots of other useful info for those who want to take travel into their own, er, hands.

Elsewhere:
- CBS4 Denver: ‘Hitchhiker Says Ride-Sharing is Safe Way to Travel’

Image courtesy of sunflowerandcoconut’s photostream

You too can have a view like this all to your lonesome, if you’re willing to pay a few (or many) extra króna for it.

A recent story from CNN Travel, has me thinking that Iceland — party location du jour for global hipsterdom via its affiliation with Björk, Sigur Rós, badass Viking design symbology, and a reputation for unhinged nightlife — may have finally jumped the fermented shark as a destination.

In 2005, 370,000 foreigners visited Iceland, more than the country’s population. The top three points of origin were Britain, the United States and Germany…

Like many other visitors, we felt relaxed and had a good night’s sleep after swimming in the Blue Lagoon and rubbing some of its white silica mud over our skin. The only drawback was the price—$44 each for the entry fee and the bus ride from our hotel. “Wow, we’re staying here all day just to get our money’s worth,” Peter Rowan, 38, who works for a bank in London, said in the Blue Lagoon’s restaurant. He and his wife, Natalie, were each limiting themselves to a sandwich and a cup of tea.

“This country is beautiful, the people are wonderful, but the prices stop you in your tracks,” he said.

Yesterday’s stories are a lesson in the range of emotions one can experience while traveling:

– The LA Times and the NYT get spiritual in Antigua, Sedona, and Goa

– The SF Chronicle is disgusted in the Caucasus Mountains

– The Globe and Mail could eat its way through Spain

– The Washington Post feels lusty in Xian

– The FT has future shock in Shanghai

Jacques Cousteau progeny Jean-Michel has a new, glossy, HD series of his own underwater adventures, that debuted on PBS this week. Ostensibly about the degradation of the planet’s liquid realm, the show is still a good ad for its cause, including much gorgeous footage of remote islands and reefs—check out this preview of the first episode, in which the intrepid crew of his ship “The Searcher” heads for the farthest extent of the Hawaiian archipelago. You might think that after Wes Anderson’s little movie they would have toned down trademark Cousteau gonzo nauticality a bit, but you would be wrong. The only thing that’s missing here is the jaguar shark.

Elsewhere:
-CNN Video: “Cousteau’s Ocean of Love”
-NYT: “Voyage to Kure”
-Orlando Sentinel: “Like Father, Like Son: Cousteau Goes Deep“

Despite a freak snowstorm in NY yesterday – it’s finally spring. And if you live in DC, spring means hordes of people gawping at the cherry blossoms, which are in bloom until April 9th. Thanks to the Post, the deskbound can partake as well.

If, like the writers of New York magazine’s recent “why-bother-with-anywhere-else?” travel issue, you believe that cities really don’t get any better than NYC, Gotham’s other hometown rag has a video archive of city tours designed just for you. Check out the 36-hour guide to downtown, and their series of postcards of staff favorites throughout the five boroughs.


Previously: Travel Section Roundup 4/03/06

There are plenty of classic forums on the interwebs for those seeking travel savvy for their next trip (BootsnAll and Thorn Tree- I’m looking at you) but there are a few next-generation bulletin board sites that stand apart from the text-only herd for their breadth, bells and whistles, and overall user-friendliness. Today’s targets are (in my humble opinion) two of the best.

First up, IgoUgo, which recently made Forbes’ list of the best travel sites (for what that’s worth). Sort of like TripAdvisor, but for destinations, IgoUgo has thousands of reviews of what’s best to do in countless spots around the globe, written by people who’ve actually been there, done that, and posted their photos. Users can divide their advice into categories – activities, lodging, nightlife – or write longer, journal-style entries. There’s certainly plenty of information to get anyone started on trip planning, with member-based rankings to help sift through it. Editors also review and rank the content, though, and their ratings are what will make any posting the first or last thing listed in your search, so be warned, because their tastes tend to skew to whatever is the most enthusiastic, not necessarily the most critical or informative.

43 Places has a much simpler, more direct approach. An offshoot of 43 Things, which uses tag-based searches to connect members of its community to others who can help them accomplish 43 things they want to do or learn, 43 Places applies the same concept to travel, linking users with questions about a particular locale directly to those who live there, or have been there, and can give them answers. The site is free from banner ads and tie-ins with trip-planning sites, and has nice design features like the click-and-zoom world map on the opening page, and the linked photostreams from flickr throughout. All in all, it adds up to an appealingly idealistic package – think the friendster of the online travel world.

In the travel pages this week:

– The NYT and Washington Post give second cities top billing with stories on Yokohama, and Tulsa, OK. Apparently, in the Manhattan-centric worldview of New York Magazine, London, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles, Sydney and Miami also constitute second cities.

– The Boston Globe and SF Chronicle are feeling Chile right now.

– The Financial Times goes on a pilgrimage through the Arabic-speaking world, from Morocco to Syria, and stops over in Israel for good measure.