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).

Tropical Island Paradise | Yacht Island Design I know this has made the rounds a bit, but I finally got around to checking out Yacht Island Design and their insane luxury yacht concepts. In reviewing their offering, I have a couple of observations: I enjoy that their ridiculous, never-to-be made island yacht designs are based on a “Philosophy.” I also like that they offer “Bespoke Yacht Island Design” — as if anyone who might fork over a few hundred million dollars to buy one of these would just purchase an “off the shelf” yacht island. This is obviously absurd, but it’s also real. Which begs the question: Does the target market for this consist solely of the Saudi royal family and the Sultan of Brunei?
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Tropical Island Paradise | Yacht Island Design

I know this has made the rounds a bit, but I finally got around to checking out Yacht Island Design and their insane luxury yacht concepts. In reviewing their offering, I have a couple of observations:

  1. I enjoy that their ridiculous, never-to-be made island yacht designs are based on a “Philosophy.”
  2. I also like that they offer “Bespoke Yacht Island Design” — as if anyone who might fork over a few hundred million dollars to buy one of these would just purchase an “off the shelf” yacht island.

This is obviously absurd, but it’s also real. Which begs the question: Does the target market for this consist solely of the Saudi royal family and the Sultan of Brunei?

Move | Film by Rick Mereki

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..

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 Best Hotels 2011 | Travel + Leisure The magazine has released its annual list of hotels that most of us are never likely to stay in — including top rated U.S. hotel Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana, where cabin rates start at a measly $750 per night. Photo: Triple Creek Ranch | Darby, Montana
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World’s Best Hotels 2011 | Travel + Leisure

The magazine has released its annual list of hotels that most of us are never likely to stay in — including top rated U.S. hotel Triple Creek Ranch in Darby, Montana, where cabin rates start at a measly $750 per night.

Photo: Triple Creek Ranch | Darby, Montana

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

Jack Kerouac’s On the Road | A Penguin Books Amplified Edition for iPad I don’t have an iPad, but if I did this would probably be the first ebook I’d buy. Not because I’m some Jack Kerouac freak. I like his work well enough and loved On the Road, but I hardly consider him one of America’s great writers. This just seems like everything a book for the iPad should be. It includes the original book, of course, but also tons of supplementary material including audio clips of the author reading a few chapters, pages from the actual travel journal he kept, “side-by-side comparisons of Kerouac’s famous original scroll draft and the published text,” and “pages from the journals Kerouac kept while on the road.” And much more, too much to mention. But I will note the “Fully interactive map of the now legendary trips from 1947, 1949, and 1950 taken by Dean and Sal in the book.” Now that’s the kind of thing an ebook of this legendary novel should include.
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Jack Kerouac’s On the Road | A Penguin Books Amplified Edition for iPad

I don’t have an iPad, but if I did this would probably be the first ebook I’d buy. Not because I’m some Jack Kerouac freak. I like his work well enough and loved On the Road, but I hardly consider him one of America’s great writers. This just seems like everything a book for the iPad should be.

It includes the original book, of course, but also tons of supplementary material including audio clips of the author reading a few chapters, pages from the actual travel journal he kept, “side-by-side comparisons of Kerouac’s famous original scroll draft and the published text,” and “pages from the journals Kerouac kept while on the road.” And much more, too much to mention.

But I will note the “Fully interactive map of the now legendary trips from 1947, 1949, and 1950 taken by Dean and Sal in the book.” Now that’s the kind of thing an ebook of this legendary novel should include.

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.