Jaunted

New Routes

Porter, The Little Airline That Could, Adds Boston Route

June 30, 2009 at 9:02 AM | 0 Comments

This is the story of a little airline that could; Porter Airlines has expanded service against all odds. Their original route, from Toronto City Airport to Newark, has sprouted into a full few destinations from Toronto including Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and more. They even made the jump across the border last fall with the addition of service to Chicago-Midway.

This month brings some new meat for Porter fans to chew: they'll begin flights to Boston-Logan from Toronto three times daily on September 14.

Long a favorite airline of Monocle magazine, Porter seems to favor slow and steady expansion. We've been dying to try them out, but we're going to need a better reason to head to Toronto than "just cause" if we're paying $99+ each way without taxes and fees ($306 total).

Related Stories:
· Porter Airlines Announces Service To Boston [Porter Airlines]
· Porter Airlines Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Eric Begin]

Literary Travel

Reading One Heck Of a Huge Book For One 'Infinite' Summer

June 24, 2009 at 2:07 PM | 0 Comments

Pick a long enough book to take on your next trip and you'll have fodder for every pit stop and flight delay. This week marked the launch of Infinite Summer, a group reading project designed to get people to tackle one of those major doorstops of a book which might be sitting on your shelf this very moment. The choice book is David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

At 75 pages a week, infinite summer-ers [Ed note: count us among them] who start this best known novel from the late author will finish the week of September 21, fitting it thus to the solar definition of summer. Set in a dystopic future America, the book nevertheless adopts some locales from Wallace's life, from suburban Boston to Tucson, where he studied philosophy and fiction writing respectively. This great photo set points Boston visitors to the locales that inspired Wallace for the book's scenes there.

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Food Travel

Mark Your Calendar For The Ice Cream Event of the Year

May 19, 2009 at 9:31 AM | 0 Comments

Casual ice cream connoisseurs may get revved up about Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day, but real ice cream fanatics know the frozen dairy event of the year comes a little later in spring, at the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl in Boston.

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Bus Travel

Megabus Upgrades To Double-Deckers

May 14, 2009 at 10:26 AM | 5 Comments

Megabus might be beating out their bus buddy Boltbus when it comes to the competitive New York to Boston route. Starting this week, the WiFi equipped coach service is upgrading all buses on the Big Apple to Beantown route with double-decker buses.

The new buses hold 81 passengers, which is about 25 more than the usual ones. Some of these new buses even feature a 51-inch-wide glass ceiling up top, so try to snag one of those skylight seats. No word on whether the extra availability will improve our chances of scoring one of those $1 fares.

The new double-deckers are also a little bit taller than the traditional coaches. The extra 18 inches in height means that they can’t fit in South Station, so their new stop will be at Back Bay Station. If you’re heading to New York you’ll be dropped off at Penn Station.

At this point, is anyone actually still taking Fung Wah?

Related Stories:
·Megabus Builds Up Buses On Busy Route [Boston Globe]
·Boltbus to Baltimore For a Buck: A Success Story [Jaunted]
·Bus Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Sidddd]

Jaunted On Location

Watch Ben Affleck Film in Boston, Then Eat a Cupcake

May 14, 2009 at 9:56 AM | 0 Comments

Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and their two kids, Violet and Serafina, have been spotted around Ben's hometown of Boston recently. But Ben isn't in town visiting his old neighborhood, he's actually working on a new movie, "The Company Men", also starring Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner, as workers trying to survive a workforce reduction at a large corporation.

Today, they are filming at 5 Union Park on Boston's South End. We watched Tommy Lee Jones film a scene at this location a few weeks ago. The PAs wouldn't let us get too close but it looked like his character was having his car repossessed.

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Food Travel

Eat Your Way Through Boston's Little Italy

May 8, 2009 at 10:30 AM | 1 Comment

Of all the Little Italys in the northeast, Boston's is probably the one least decimated by gentrification. That's not to say this nabe doesn't have its fair share of yuppie cafes and tourist traps, but they don't totally drown out the sweet sound of "uno cannoli, per favore."

You'll still find narrow cobblestone streets lined with hole-in-the-wall eateries, decades-old businesses which make up a part of an ethnic fabric and give the neighborhood a personality and attractions above tourism. Many of these places just happen to be amazing restaurants, and let's face it, you're really only going to come here for one overarching reason: the food. To ease the stress of deciding, we'll let you in on a few of our favorite stops:

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Street Art Travel

Where to Find Shepard Fairey's Posters in Boston

April 27, 2009 at 4:10 PM | 0 Comments

By now, most people know Shepard Fairey as the street artist who created the Obama "HOPE" posters. Fairey is also celebrating his first major exhibit, "Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand" at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art through August.

To keep his street cred, Fairey "poster bombed" the streets of Boston with his images. If you have a keen eye, you can spot his work on billboards, buildings, and scaffolding throughout the city. If you want to get in on the action, the ICA sells stickers of Fairey's iconic "Obey" image in their gift shop. Just don't get caught, because unlike Fairey, you won't have the city's permission.

GO HERE for some of Shepard's posters and their locations that we spotted around Beantown to get started on your own search of Fairey's hidden treasures.

Related Stories:
· Fairey is a Giant in Boston [Jaunted]
· Hope' Poster Artist Drops Into Renaissance Boston Waterfront [HC]
· Street Art Coverage [Jaunted]

TSA Watch

Guns or Knives? TSA Accidentally Says Yes To Both

April 22, 2009 at 9:26 AM | 0 Comments

Boy, are y'all feeling punchy this week, or what? Two episodes just this week of passengers with major weaponry -- one the TSA caught pre-flight, one they didn't -- have us wondering if all of America doesn't need a little ice cream, lollipops and sunshine.

A US Marine was arrested Monday for, as we mentioned earlier this week, checking explosive-filled bags from Las Vegas to Boston. The funny part of this story, if by funny you mean horrifying: 22-year-old Justin Reed wasn't even supposed to get his bags re-screened in Boston because he was just on a layover en route to Charlotte, except a baggage handling error sent them to baggage claim. No wonder our bags keep getting lost.

Reed also had an undeclared checked semi-automatic as well as bullets and model rockets, and was charged with "possession of an infernal machine," a phrase we plan to appropriate for those danged kids on their cell phones.

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City Tours

Get To Know Boston's Kitschy Side

April 21, 2009 at 11:37 AM | 1 Comment

Most tourists in Boston walk the line or catch a game, but the city has a few hidden, kitschy treasures that are worth seeing too.

The Ghosts and Gravestones Boston Frightseeing Tour will take you on a 90 minute tour of the city’s most haunted sites by foot and trolley. The stroll brings you through 400-year-old cemeteries, haunted spots like the Omni Parker Hotel, and some of Boston’s most chilling murder locations.

Here’s where the kitsch comes in: Every tour is guided by a “character” like the cursed privateer, a pyromaniac circus ringleader, a demon spat out of the pits of Hades, a homicidal opera diva, or a deranged nanny. Tickets can be purchased online for $32.50.

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Back Of The Envelope Guides

Find Your Favorite Wahlberg Brother at the Boston International Film Festival

April 16, 2009 at 9:31 AM | 1 Comment

Not to be left off the film festival circuit, Boston created their own international film festival six years ago. The fest actually has an impressive line-up this year including "What Doesn’t Kill You", a movie getting a lot of buzz despite the fact it was co-written by Donnie Wahlberg. Here’s a guide to attending this year’s festivities in Beantown.

Where to Stay:

Most of the films are being screened at the AMC/Loews Boston Commons, 175 Tremont St. The Lenox Hotel offers luxury accommodations starting at $245 a night, just a few blocks from the theater. You can even request an upgrade to a hypo-allergenic room for an additional $24.

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TSA Watch

Scabies Alert: Don't Touch Anything At Logan Airport This Week

April 15, 2009 at 10:35 AM | 1 Comment

A lot of what the TSA does makes us itchy, and this week their blog gave us even more reason to be paranoid: The Evolution of Security blog took on several recent cases of scabies at Boston's Logan Airport and, um... can you come over here and look at this rash for us?

Scabies is caused by a parasite and can be passed on easily through whatever the infected person touches (ticket counters, X-ray bins, security screeners' gloves... ick!) Containment and cleaning is really the only prevention for the bug, which once caught can be treated topically. The slightly-less-horrible news is that only five cases coming out of Logan have been confirmed as scabies, and the Boston Public Health Commission is on the case to help keep that number down.

Still, we are not reassured by the blog's mention that while screening areas at Logan were professionally cleaned, TSA employees were just told to wash their work clothes and belongings themselves at home. Anyone could have brought in the parasite, but it's up to those who get the closest to the most passengers to keep the problem from getting worse.

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New Routes

Southwest Announces Its Boston Flight Schedule

April 14, 2009 at 9:48 AM | 0 Comments

Like all good airline nerds, we've been eagerly anticipating Southwest's flight schedule out of Boston and today we're happy not only to know where SW is flying from Beantown but also when.

Starting on August 16 the airline that LUVs its customers will be departing from Logan Airport ten times per day. They're going to head to Chicago's Midway Airport five times daily, while another another five planes fly down to Baltimore-Washington Airport each day as well. Since these are both major hubs for the airline, you'll pretty much be able to get anywhere you'd like.

Fares for these new routes will start at $89 each-way from Chicago, and $49 each-way from Baltimore. To take advantage of these opening day rates you need to book them by April 20, and finish your trip before October 29. Of course taxes, fees, and other stuff is extra—Fridays and Sundays are excluded from the deal.

Now, let's just hope they have some new in-flight WiFi news up their sleeves soon, we're dying to know more over here.

Related Stories:
·Southwest Airlines Announces Fares and Flights To/From Boston Logan [Official Site]
·Southwest To Begin Service to Boston [Chicago Sun-Times]
·Southwest coverage [Jaunted]