Cancún for Anti-Tourists
– “36 Hours: Cancún” (NYT)

India
– “Surfacing: Hyderabad, India” (NYT)

Kabul
– “The Mysteries of Kabul” (NYT)

Nepal
– “Nepal at peace” (LA Times)

Northwest Skiing
– “A whimsical, wintry world apart” (Houston Chronicle)

Sardinia
– “Italian dining and decadence in Sardinia” (Times of London)

Scotland
– “A wee dram on a Scottish whisky trail” (Times of London)

Bargain Shanghai
– “In Shanghai, Balancing the Past, the Future and a Budget” (NYT)

South Carolina Kayaking
– “ Heaven and High Water in South Carolina’s New Wilderness” (NYT)

Whatever your story of Thanksgiving travel woe this holiday weekend, the LA Times wants to remind you that it could always have been worse. In honor of the busiest travel days of the year, they asked their regular writers to weigh in with stories of their worst travel experiences. Their tales range from a snowstorm in the Canary Islands, to a two-week road trip through strip-mallandia in a 37-foot RV with plumbing problems, and will leave you feeling that nothing complements Turkey leftovers like a side of schadenfreude.

Travel Turkeys
– “37 feet of sheer agony”
– “Saving her clutch from their clutches”
– “Sure was a swell time (for her foot)”
– “Feeling flurries of panic”
– “If you can see it, you can eat it”
– “After ‘I do,’ trip doesn’t”
– “Honey, saddle up the spider”


Enjoy the long weekend everyone, I’ll be back with new posts on Monday.

Travel with a DIY streak seemed to be on the minds of travel editors near and far this weekend. The Washington Post turned in a piece on top hostels, as chosen by readers, and the Houston Chronicle and Boston Globe both headed for the hills, with pieces on hiking between the mountain refuges of Norway, and up a newly opened, limited-access trail on Mount Saint Helens, respectively. The London Times’ editors took it upon themselves to vet the Good Hotel Guide’s picks for the top 10 independent small hotels of the year, and find out if they’d earned the accolades.

On a slightly different note, the SF Chronicle did a nice job of combining news and travel coverage in a special section on Mexico, that looked at the post-hurricane redevelopment of Cozumel and Cancún, and the truth behind recent reports of violence and unrest across the country. This excuses them for laying on the “Mystical Mexico” treatment a little thick in a piece about the tradition of brujeria in Veracruz. The LA Times also did their part for informed tourism, with a piece about Art Nouveau architecture in Budapest, which dispelled the idea that the recent protests should prevent anyone from visiting.

Budapest
- “Budapest, so Nouveau” (LA Times)

Hiking
- “Hiking hut to hut” (Houston Chronicle)
- “Moon walk” (Boston Globe)

Hostels
- “High on Hostels, From Farmhouses to Chalets” (Washington Post)

Hotels
- “Small wonders” (Times of London)

Mexico
- “The magic of Los Tuxtlas” (SF Chronicle)

- “Protests, passion part of Mexican culture” (SF Chronicle)

- “Winds change Cancún’s course:
Resorts renovated after Wilma steer clear of spring-break image” (SF Chronicle)\

- “Cozumel rebuilds, new ports sought” (SF Chronicle)