Top Ten Landscapes of the Silver Screen | Away.com

Author Laura Kiniry offers her choices for “must-see locations forever linked with their movie roles.” It’s good list with a few obvious choices (Salsburg and The Sound of Music), as well as less obvious ones (Bodega Bay and The Birds). If I were to create my own list I think I’d have a hard time leaving Lawrence of Arabia off of it, being quite possibly the most distinctive visual epic, and I would add the old Vienna of The Third Man.

That obviously begs the question of what I’d remove. I think I’d drop Star Wars and Tunisia from my list because Lawrence of Arabia offers a similar landscape and the Tatooine sequences in Star Wars were clearly inspired by David Lean’s masterwork. I’d probably also remove Petra (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) because it is very much a “set” in the film. It’s not Petra in the movie, so feels more like a movie location than one where the actual place is central to the story (as it Vienna very much is in The Third Man).

9 Best Foodie Walking Tours | AOL Travel

Here’s a little something for the gluttons. AOL highlights its favorite places in the United States to wander around and gorge yourself on fine food.

The Most Overrated Places in Southeast Asia | Adventurous Kate

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy Adventurous Kate. If she makes a list, it’s actually a useful one. Not only does she steer you from overrun destinations like Koh Phi Phi, but steers you towards other places you might have not otherwise considered like Koh Lanta.

World’s Prettiest Lighthouses | AOL Travel I find lighthouses sort of irresistible. I think it’s maybe because they seem quaint and anachronistic and yet still serve a vital purpose even in our technologically-advanced age. No one seems to have come up with a simpler or more reliable way to signal vessels that land is approaching than a light on the shore. And there’s something comforting about that. Photo: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina | By Razvan Orendovici
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World’s Prettiest Lighthouses | AOL Travel

I find lighthouses sort of irresistible. I think it’s maybe because they seem quaint and anachronistic and yet still serve a vital purpose even in our technologically-advanced age. No one seems to have come up with a simpler or more reliable way to signal vessels that land is approaching than a light on the shore. And there’s something comforting about that.

Photo: Cape Hatteras, North Carolina | By Razvan Orendovici

8 Destinations for the Solo Traveler | AOL Travel As with everything else, traveling alone has its pros and cons. Pros: No scheduling conflicts, you can choose every meal, not to mention grab all the glory of travel triumphs (and pitfalls) all to yourself. Cons: Safety is paramount, and there is the ever lingering feeling of loneliness that can turn a fabulous, delicious dinner into a slow form of torture. AOL’s suggestions aren’t all that adventurous. I’m not sure even one would qualify as “exotic,” although you could make an argument for Singapore, I guess. Still, there are some worthwhile suggestions. I can personally vouch for Norway’s solo travel virtues. When AOL writes, “Scandinavians love Scandinavia — particularly when they’re showing you around and lauding the delicious food and fascinating cultural scene,” they could not be more accurate. Despite stereotypes of stoicism, there is likely no more welcoming bunch than you’ll find in Norway. Conveniently, most of them speak better English than the average American. And while culturally it is notably homogeneous, the country is impossibly beautiful and varied. Case in point: On a train from Bergen to Oslo years ago, I met a girl on her way from Lapland to Oslo to attend university. She had lived in the far north of the country her whole life and this was her first time away. She was on that train for six hours, she told me, before she encountered her first tree. Yes, her first tree. This wasn’t like the first time someone saw snow or the ocean. This was a tree. Trust me, there are a lot of trees in Norway. Timber is one of Norway’s primary natural resources. And yet, because this girl had lived all along in Lapland, essentially in the Arctic Circle, she’d never seen a real living one with her own eyes. Remember, she was on her way to college. She was eighteen. Photo: Aker Brygge | Oslo, Norway | by The Wandering Chicken
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8 Destinations for the Solo Traveler | AOL Travel

As with everything else, traveling alone has its pros and cons. Pros: No scheduling conflicts, you can choose every meal, not to mention grab all the glory of travel triumphs (and pitfalls) all to yourself. Cons: Safety is paramount, and there is the ever lingering feeling of loneliness that can turn a fabulous, delicious dinner into a slow form of torture.

AOL’s suggestions aren’t all that adventurous. I’m not sure even one would qualify as “exotic,” although you could make an argument for Singapore, I guess.

Still, there are some worthwhile suggestions. I can personally vouch for Norway’s solo travel virtues. When AOL writes, “Scandinavians love Scandinavia — particularly when they’re showing you around and lauding the delicious food and fascinating cultural scene,” they could not be more accurate. Despite stereotypes of stoicism, there is likely no more welcoming bunch than you’ll find in Norway. Conveniently, most of them speak better English than the average American. And while culturally it is notably homogeneous, the country is impossibly beautiful and varied.

Case in point: On a train from Bergen to Oslo years ago, I met a girl on her way from Lapland to Oslo to attend university. She had lived in the far north of the country her whole life and this was her first time away. She was on that train for six hours, she told me, before she encountered her first tree.

Yes, her first tree.

This wasn’t like the first time someone saw snow or the ocean. This was a tree. Trust me, there are a lot of trees in Norway. Timber is one of Norway’s primary natural resources. And yet, because this girl had lived all along in Lapland, essentially in the Arctic Circle, she’d never seen a real living one with her own eyes. Remember, she was on her way to college. She was eighteen.

Photo: Aker Brygge | Oslo, Norway | by The Wandering Chicken

7 Frequent-Flyer Tricks Worth Learning | Frommer's

Usually these sorts of articles are useless to all but the least experienced travelers, but this one actually has some worthwhile stuff buried in it. I found the section on finding “secret ways to book award seats on partner airlines” particularly helpful.

What America Looks Like: On the Ohio River, Addicted to Pills | The Atlantic This is a story about drugs, family and absence along a bend in the river. Travis Simmons is attempting to move past his addiction, and despite prison, parole, parents, and his devotion to his daughters, he cannot stay out of trouble. The ongoing feature “What America Looks Like” on Conor Friedersdorf’s blog at The Atlantic has been consistently fascinating, and this installment is perhaps the best yet.
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What America Looks Like: On the Ohio River, Addicted to Pills | The Atlantic

This is a story about drugs, family and absence along a bend in the river. Travis Simmons is attempting to move past his addiction, and despite prison, parole, parents, and his devotion to his daughters, he cannot stay out of trouble.

The ongoing feature “What America Looks Like” on Conor Friedersdorf’s blog at The Atlantic has been consistently fascinating, and this installment is perhaps the best yet.

The 25 Best Places to Photograph on Planet Earth | PopPhoto Looking for inspiration for your next adventure? PopPhoto has compiled a list of its favorite places to take photographs. It’s broken down into categories (which aren’t, strictly speaking “places”) including Ancient Worlds, Exotic Animals, Far Flung Destinations, Festivals and Natural Phenomena. It’s worth checking out, if only for the photographs themselves. Photo: Highland Sing-Sing Festival | Papua New Guinea | by Chris McClennan
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The 25 Best Places to Photograph on Planet Earth | PopPhoto

Looking for inspiration for your next adventure? PopPhoto has compiled a list of its favorite places to take photographs. It’s broken down into categories (which aren’t, strictly speaking “places”) including Ancient Worlds, Exotic Animals, Far Flung Destinations, Festivals and Natural Phenomena. It’s worth checking out, if only for the photographs themselves.

Photo: Highland Sing-Sing Festival | Papua New Guinea | by Chris McClennan

10 Weekend Getaways from Los Angeles | AOL Travel I was born and raised in Southern California and am still amazed by all of the truly worthwhile places to visit that are easily accessible by car from LA. AOL Travel offers a curious list of choices considering a few of them are actually in Los Angeles itself. They highlight obvious places (like Santa Barbara, San Diego and Big Sur) and some less celebrated locales (Ojai, Paso Robles), but don’t even touch on any of the nearby parks like Joshua Tree, Death Valley or Yosemite, or mountain towns like Big Bear and Mammoth. And they just as easily could have ventured out of state to Las Vegas, Scottsdale or Sedona, all of which are not terribly long drives. Photo: Novo Restaurant | San Luis Obispo
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10 Weekend Getaways from Los Angeles | AOL Travel

I was born and raised in Southern California and am still amazed by all of the truly worthwhile places to visit that are easily accessible by car from LA. AOL Travel offers a curious list of choices considering a few of them are actually in Los Angeles itself. They highlight obvious places (like Santa Barbara, San Diego and Big Sur) and some less celebrated locales (Ojai, Paso Robles), but don’t even touch on any of the nearby parks like Joshua Tree, Death Valley or Yosemite, or mountain towns like Big Bear and Mammoth. And they just as easily could have ventured out of state to Las Vegas, Scottsdale or Sedona, all of which are not terribly long drives.

Photo: Novo Restaurant | San Luis Obispo

Great Scenic Train Rides in Europe | Fodor's

Whether it’s a loop ride on a steam train or a practical means for getting from Amsterdam to Brussels, Europe is full of train routes with amazing scenery. Thanks to the amazing Fodor’s community, we’ve compiled some great train trips by country.