In 1992,
Lynn Brooks founded the non-profit
Big Apple Greeter program, to help make a visit to New York City seem less intimidating and dangerous to first-time visitors: Pick a date, time and neighborhood, and the organization will match you up with a local who will spend several hours with you, helping you find your way around, teaching you the ins and outs of subways and buses, the cool shops, the great places to eat. (Their site also has some outstanding
neighborhood profiles and
cultural attraction guides that should be of just as much interest to local residents.) The idea spread, leading to the formation of the
Global Greeter Network, which now has greeter programs in
cities all over the world.
posted by jbickers
on Jan 18, 2013 -
13 comments
Western tourists (mostly female) visiting Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, and Bali) are
ending up dead,
likely poisoned. Local officials have blamed the use of the insecticide
DEET as an exotic ingredient in so-called "
Bucket Drinks", or the use of
Chlorpyrifos in hotel rooms. But
Deborah Blum, an author and poison expert,
doesn't buy into the insecticide theories offered by local officials.
She thinks this looks like targeted murders. Since writing about the poisonings, she says she's been contacted by people who claim
poisoning foreigners is common in 5-star hotels, and the police and owners cover it up.. A
Facebook group was formed not only so that world travelers could share safe travel tips, but also so that notice of the unexplained, and
often uninvestigated, deaths could be made public.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey
on Jan 9, 2013 -
75 comments
Back in 1999,
Wandering Earl left home for a three month trip to Asia that still hasn't ended. As a permanent nomad, Earl's aim is to demonstrate that long-term travel is not a crazy fantasy, but a very real lifestyle option instead. Find out where Earl is now, and where he's been on
his blog.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Nov 4, 2012 -
64 comments
Take a holiday in Somaliland: journey to the state that isn’t. "
Positioned on the upper haunch of the Somali dog-leg the Republic of Somaliland looks initially unpromising. It is mainly dry and rocky, there are few paved roads, and the population is small and generally dispersed. ... Whilst the economy may be on the up, Somaliland still feels extremely isolated. An employee of a big international NGO who I met in the lobby of my hotel, The Mansoor, looked at me with astonishment when I said I’d come to Hargeisa for fun. 'The biggest danger here,' he said 'is dying of boredom.'"
posted by mykescipark
on May 28, 2012 -
10 comments
The Motel in America. In a different America, where the novelty of driving cross-country and the charm of the highway strip drew droves of tourists--and their automobiles--from coast to coast in the name of exploration and recreation, motels provided a home away from home for weary travelers. While many of the great motels of the mid-twentieth century have disappeared from the national landscape, the linen postcards left behind in the
Motel Morgue can give us a glimpse into what this era of American tourism and leisure looked like.
posted by sarabeth
on Feb 7, 2009 -
24 comments
My New York : artists, writers, professionals, and New Yorkers of all stripes talk about what they look forward to seeing in the city this fall.
posted by shivohum
on Oct 11, 2008 -
17 comments
Nothing To See Here A guide to "some of the world's lesser-signposted places to go - attractions that may not be all that attractive; coastal towns they forgot to close down; high streets that haven't been homogenised; oddities and one-offs."
posted by chrismear
on Mar 11, 2007 -
31 comments
That most peculiar of spectacles the
Fiesta de san Fermín (Running of the Bulls) seems to still exist and will be going ahead tomorrow. The event is held in parallel with
Feria del Toro (the Bullfighting Fair); the run itself seems to be in the interests of transporting the bulls to the fair while getting them good and
angry, confused, scared and weakened in the process. Being that the event is in honor of
Saint Fermín, when the
San Fermín church strikes 8am, the bulls are released and the runners get underway, trying to avoid them on their
just under 1km trip. On arrival at the Plaza del Toro (Bullring) they are herded into corrals and later released so the crowd can watch the matadors kill them in traditional bullfighting fashion
[wmv: 380k | 150k | 56k]. Of course, many people are
not really so keen on this event; and it seems
PETA will be holding one of their typically
daft protests.
Can't people just
throw tomatoes at each other or something?
posted by ed\26h
on Jul 6, 2004 -
6 comments
I have to travel the highways and byways of America by car and train a great deal, and its much more fun if you actually
see America on the way. Two of my favorite sites for finding offbeat attractions and tasty eats are
By The Way Magazine and
Roadside America.
posted by anastasiav
on Sep 22, 2003 -
5 comments
Sneaky! Grr . . . A few months ago, while surfing for wreck diving info, I stumbled upon
this page as a main link entitled
Nightlife in the Philippines. Because it promotes outright trafficking of women, I made a ruckus and sent an email complaining about it to the site admin and our government's
Department of Tourism. (Prostitution, BTW, is illegal in the Philippines.) Shortly afterwards, the site admin removed the main link. So how come it's still on the site via
this page? I know Southeast Asia (the Philippines second only to Thailand, I think) has a rep for cheap beer
and women, but I HATE the fact that many foreigners (like the owners of
this shop,) feel that they can buy anything they want while on vacation in third world countries, and that it's alright to perpetuate the trafficking of Filipino women under the guise of
tourism. Bah.
posted by lillitot
on Apr 13, 2002 -
31 comments
It's not germ warfare... and it's not terrorism, but it is the strongest argument to put off that Hawaiian vacation this winter to date. Nothing like a little tropical disease to take the shine off of paradise. I wonder what else is passing underneath the radar with this whole war on terror thing.
posted by shagoth
on Oct 15, 2001 -
8 comments
It turns out there are
three bike tours in New York City. You can also
run or
blade through the the city. The Super Roll is a lot less tiring than the bike tours or the marathon.
posted by tamim
on Sep 1, 2000 -
0 comments
