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Europe

New York Times “41 Places” Travel Story is a Dud

The New York Times article “The 41 Places to Go in 2011″ is nothing but a guidebook to sucking money from your pockets while making you act like the docile, vacuous, stereotypical, Hawaiian shirt-wearing American tourists. It’s not worthy of what’s supposed to be the nation’s flagship paper.

Life Without the Sunset – Iceland in Summer

When you visit Iceland in summer, get ready for the shock of a sky that never really darkens. Even when you know to expect it, it is still strange and surreal.

Chipping Away at Iceland Travel Plans

Planning a trip to Iceland is really hard. Only one airline flies there, which is a major bummer (7-hour flights that don’t include meals … really?). It’s hard to get around, and prices are steep despite the favorable exchange rate. But I really want to hike Landmannalauger, tour the Skaftatell glacier and check out Dimmuborgir. And I want to eat the tasty fermented shark meat known as hakarl! I have to figure out ways to mitigate these obstacles. There are new (to me) glaciers and volcanoes waiting!
But New Zealand, stop whispering “come back and finish driving the Thermal Explorer Highway and climb Mt. Ngauruhoe again and go Schweebing – you know you want to!” in my ear. You’re really not helping.

German Metal Festival a Lure for Fans

Most of the time, I travel to get away from people. I want to wrap myself in solitude and scenery.
But I’ve been thinking lately about a little change of pace. Sure, I still love the outdoors and all the cool flora and fauna. So it might surprise you that I think it’d be really fun to go to the Wacken Open Air Festival in northern Germany.
Seeing Metal Mined the Right Way
See, we Americans rarely get to see the world’s best heavy metal bands. When they do visit, they’re often playing to crowds a tenth the size of what they’re used to in Europe. And the genre is really on life support here in the states, with most of the better domestic bands consigned to the underground.
But look at the Wacken lineup! Everything from classics like Doro and Anthrax to Epica, Gamma Ray, Hammerfall and Amon Amarth. And I’m leaving out so many! Let’s put it this way: Whether you screaming, singing, growling or grunting, there’s at least a few bands there to represent your metal sub-genre. The masters from the beginning will be there, too – all the original dudes from Black Sabbath, but fronted by Ronnie James Dio in their Heaven & Hell guise; this may seem like heresy, but I’ll take Dio over Ozzy any single day.
A Crowd to Remember
There’s something else I love about European bands: They exude enthusiasm. Most American metal bands act like playing a gig is about as fun as a difficult [...]

Arizona Tourism Boss Blows Chance to Show Vision

Sherry Henry is the new Arizona Office of Tourism director, recently appointed by Governor Jan Brewer. Her goal is to get more people to visit Arizona. She recently answered some questions posed by The Arizona Republic. I think she missed a great chance to address some real issues, so I’d have to give her a grade of C.
There were three particular questions in her interview that I wish I could’ve answered for her: Getting foreign travelers to Arizona, helping Arizona residents find more of the state’s unsung treasures and identifying her favorite place in the state. Really, I think Henry needs to think more like a traveler. She needs to better understand the obstacles people face in getting here, and she needs to know that there are many alternatives that offer much of what Arizona does – golf, shopping and sun. And those need to stop being the main weapons in her arsenal.
If Henry wants travelers to visit Arizona, she must start with Phoenix Sky Harbor International (in name only) Airport

One lousy daily flight to London along with a few to Canada and Latin America do not a true international airport make. The lack of international flights should deeply embarrass the officials of America’s fifth-most populous city.
People want to get to their destinations quickly, with as few stopovers as possible. Henry identifies her craving for French, Japanese and German tourists – but she doesn’t say “I’m going to work with Sky Harbor officials to do everything possible to get Air [...]

Grab a flight … like now!

So how many times do you talk to people about traveling, and they’ll say “I wish I could go (fill in the blank”?
Well, if there’s ever a time to do that awesome trip, this is it. Oil is cheap. The economy sucks, which means that airlines are doing all sorts of stuff to get your butt in a seat. The economy is also making it tough for those who don’t have trust funds, but seriously: prioritize. Cancel your cable for a few months. Eat a bit less sushi. Get a cheaper cell phone. Put off buying that enormous flat-screen monitor. Drink less beer. Put that bike you never ride on Craigslist. Sell your plasma. Do whatever it takes and take advantage of a nice combination of a relatively strong dollar and cheap flights.
For instance, round trips from LA to Sydney on Qantas are about $750. That’s ludicrous, and it means you can’t afford NOT to go. You’ll come away with far more memories and stories than watching HBO, that’s for sure.

The world’s coolest hotel … and one of the coldest!

About a year ago, I talked to a teenager who made an awesome visit to Sweden. He went there to stay at the ICEHOTEL, up in the very far north part of the country. He was a very clever guy who works part time as an architectural draftsman, so he was really fascinated about the idea of a hotel carved each year from ice and snow. He first learned about the ICEHOTEL in a documentary on The Discovery Channel.
It was also his first time traveling out of the country, so I have to give him a lot of credit for being bold enough to spent the better part of 24 straight hours in the air. And even better … from the airport, it was something like 30 miles by dogsled to get to the ICEHOTEL!
Here’s a bit more about the hotel:
It has some permanent, heated rooms. But the really awesome rooms are cold rooms, which workers build each year using blocks of ice from the nearby River Torne. The rooms stay at temperatures from 28 to 40 degrees F.
Each room, according to my source, had a “serene blue glow” from LEDs in the icy walls; the hotel’s silence added to the serenity. He slept on a bed made from ice covered in reindeer fur. The staff wakes guests up each day with a steaming cup of lingonberry juice, which is supposed to do wonders for keeping you warm.
There are some expeditions you can arrange from the hotel. JukkasjÀrvi [...]

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