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Tags: Travel Deals / Rio de Janeiro Travel / Travelzoo / Labor Day Travel / → All Tags

Head To Rio's Copa, Copacabana Over Labor Day For $599

This is how we want to spend our Labor Day weekend: kicking it in Rio de Janeiro and staying only two blocks away from the famous Copacabana Beach. And only $599 for a four-day trip with airfare, hotel and breakfast included? We'll be there with yellow feathers in our hair and a dress cut down to there.

Vacation-planning/tour-guide company Gate 1 teamed with Travelzoo to run the holiday special, which includes round-trip airfare from New York City to Rio (other departure cities are available, but you have to check with Gate 1). The airline that will swoop you off to Rio depends on availability; we tried booking the package several times and both American Airlines and Delta popped up as our carriers. With taxes and fees (and a "package airfare" charge of $362.44), the final price is $1,068.14.

To take advantage of the deal, you have to start your extended Labor Day vacay on Sept. 3, though you can opt to leave Sept. 10, 17, 24 for an extra $50.

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Tags: Flight 447 / Air France / Tragedies / → All Tags

$24,500 For Families of Air France Victims, But Still No Black Box

With just over a week left to retrieve the black box of Air France Flight 447 before it gives up the ghost, search teams and airline authorities are beginning to wind down and instead turn their focus onto the families of the victims.

Although they've recovered approximately fifty bodies of the 228 on board and whole sections of the aircraft's galley, CNN reports that the "head of the French accident investigation board, Paul-Louis Arslanian, said this week that there is a chance the entire aircraft may never be found." Aircraft wreckage or not, Air France will begin compensating the families of the deceased, to the tune of $24,500 per victim regardless of class flown.

In addition to the money, Air France has sent counselors to the aid of some 1,800 relatives of the victims, who were of 32 different nationalities. The Wikipedia page on the tragedy has a graph of these nationalities and how many were on board, showing some from Gabon, Estonia and Lebanon even. This next week should bring the conclusion of major searches, but we're far from having questions answered.

Related Stories:
· Air France pays $24,500 to crash victims' families [CNN]
· Air France Black Box Search Borrows The Titanic's Sub [Jaunted]
· Flight 447 Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: AP]

Tags: Flight 447 / Air France / Tragedies / Submarines / → All Tags

Air France Black Box Search Borrows The Titanic's Sub

It's been exactly a week now since the mysterious disappearance of Air France Flight 447 somewhere off the coat of Brazil. At first, it seemed as though the search parties were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, with no definite search area and not even a solid guarantee that the flight had hit the ocean.

Earlier last week, what appeared to be debris from the fatal flight had been found, but this was determined to be run-of-the-mill ocean trash on Thursday. As of this weekend, be-logoed Air France airplane pieces have been found along with the bodies of 17 passengers, therefore confirming that the plane met with a tragic fate.

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Tags: Breaking News / Tragedies / Air France / Flight 447 / → All Tags

Air France Flight Missing Off Brazilian Coast; Search Underway

This morning's beautiful weather quickly turned sour as the world learned of the possible loss of Air France Flight 447, traveling from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris with 228 people on board.

Around 10pm EST, the twin-engine Airbus hit turbulence caused by storms over the Atlantic Ocean, causing an automatic message "signaling electrical circuit malfunction" to be sent out from the airplane. According the AP, there has been no other information regarding the fate of the plane except for the simple admittance that Brazil's air force has begun "searching near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha," an area 1,500 miles northeast of Rio.

Flight 447, which was supposed to have arrived at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport at 5:15am EST, is feared to have been hit by lightning. If lost, this possible crash would be the first for Air France since the tragedy of the Concorde's 2000 crash, which killed 113 people. Now however, we're looking at double the loss of life and a much more difficult location and recovery area.

We simply can't hold back: is anyone else thinking of Oceanic Flight 815? We'll be hoping for the best and watching the news as it rolls in, attempting to banish thoughts of Lost from our heads.

Related Stories:
· Air France Missing Plane May Be First Fatal Loss Since Concorde [Bloomberg]
· Missing French jet hit thunderstorms over Atlantic [AP]
· Tragedies Coverage [Jaunted]

[Air France photo: caribb]

Tags: Bike Sharing / Rio de Janeiro / Brazil Travel / Bicycling / → All Tags

Rio de Janeiro Sambas Into Bike Sharing

If cities like Milan, Shanghai, and Mexico City can enjoy successful bike rental programs, then we've been wondering when a South American capital would climb aboard the eco-friendly trend. As it turns out, Rio de Janeiro quietly launched their own bike sharing program last November, which welcomes tourists with open arms (or handlebars).

Appropriately named Samba, which in Portuguese conveniently means "Alternative Mobility Solution though Bike Renting," Samba is using this spring and summer to build up to 42 stations with 500 total bikes by the end of the year; it's a small number compared to Paris' Velib and its 20,600+ bicycles, but nonetheless a great start.

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Tags: Airport WiFi / Airport-WiFi-Map / BSB / → All Tags

Brasilia Has Airport WiFi But At a Hefty Cost

None other than Prince Charles headed to Rio de Janeiro last week, less out of a desire to get in some post-Carnival celebration than to raise awareness for global warming. The royal used the backdrop of Brazil's Amazon rain forest to argue for preservation of virgin timber and supporting research into biofuels.

Yeah, this time of year, we'll take just about any excuse to head to South America, too. But we'll have to go unplugged because at Brasilia's President Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport, WiFi doesn't come cheap: You can purchase a Boingo monthly pass, or a four-and-a-half-hour pass for €30. Maybe we should launch a campaign to save the wireless.

Save us some money: Let us know where to get Free Airport WiFi

Related Stories:
· Prince Charles heads to Brazil with eco-warning [AFP via Google]
· Brazilian Modernism [Jaunted]
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]

Tags: Plastic Surgery Travel / Recessionomics / Celeb Travel / Usher / → All Tags

Discount Plastic Surgery Abroad is Still Not a Good Idea

Thinking of coming home with a more permanent souvenir from your next vacation? It may be even more of a temptation in this economic climate, but the case of Tameka Raymond -- who was all smiles in the Sao Paulo airport yesterday -- is a valuable reminder that not all beauty bargains are created equal.

Usher's wife, who gave birth two months ago, headed to Brazil for liposuction a few weeks ago. Some consider the South American country the "plastic surgery capital of the world" for the amount its residents go under the knife, but Raymond had a heart attack while entering anesthesia and never ended up having the procedure done. Not a common occurrence, but she had to be placed in an induced coma and later moved to another hospital -- probably a better one than her doc had picked out.

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Tags: Azul / New Airlines / New Routes / David Neeleman / E-190s / Skyteam / → All Tags

Azul Is Flying And Now Looking For Friends

It’s been just over a month since Azul began flying around Brazil, but they’re already looking forward to bigger and better things. Not content with serving only domestic routes, the airline is reportedly looking to buddy up with the Skyteam alliance.

Although nothing is official yet, this would possibly allow for international connections and would certainly strengthen Skyteam’s network in South America.

Unfortunately, we haven’t heard any first-hand reports of flight experiences on David Neeleman’s new baby. We know there’s no TVs yet, so at least the trip reports won’t include complaints about the service dropping out and people missing their favorites telenovelas.

Have your own trip report to share? Send it our way.

Related Stories:
·Crisis May Reduce the Azul Fleet [Portal Exame]
·Neeleman's Newest Carrier Takes Off [Jaunted]
·New Airlines coverage [Jaunted]

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Tags: Travel Photography / Travel News / Active Travel / International Party Time / → All Tags

Good Morning: NYT Goes With the Brazilian Bikini Babe Photo for '44 Places to Go' Story

Robust offerings from the travel section of The New York Times this weekend, who sagely went with the Brazilian bikini babe photo to lead its 44 Places to Go in 2009 coverage. We're in a major recession here, and it's below freezing outside, so you might as well bring on the flesh. The suntanned, tattooed dancing lady holding a ... what is that, ginger ale? Anyway, she's in Florianópolis, Brazil, and in the uncropped photo that accompanies the article she's surrounded by three equally fit dudes wearing snug shorts and smoking cigarettes. Isn't it great how travel stories can always get some extra oomph from using sexy photos, because they can simply argue that they're capturing the essence of the destination?

In any case, Florianópolis does seem like a pretty great place to party the North American winter away, with more than forty beaches and scores of stylish restaurants and bars, but we're a bit more interested in destinations like Zambia. As the paper of record points out, Zambia is emerging as a safari capital to rival the big three of Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, and the new Toka Leya Camp - well positioned just seven miles from Victoria Falls - is leading the charge. I've seen the falls, and they are indeed spectacular, so to combine that experience with some safari action (and a comfortable bed) would indeed be transcendent. As far as über-luxury escapes that we can't quite afford right now go, there's Phuket, Thailand. With "some of the most luxe accommodations on the planet," we'll have to settle for looking at the pretty pictures.

[Photo: The New York Times]

Related Stories:
· The 44 Places to Go in 2009 [The New York Times]
· International Party Time Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Holiday Charity / Celeb Travel / Madonna / → All Tags

Madonna Gives One Lucky Model A Happy Hanukkah

It's a holiday miracle! Madonna finally found someone more deserving than A-Rod to share her post-divorce phase.

Amid rumors that the Material Girl is going to adopt another child with her pet Yankee, she apparently got distracted when paired with Brazilian model Jesus Luz for a photo shoot. We think the price of Guy Ritchie's silence just went up.

Related Stories:
· Madonna in a Brazilian Fling [NYP]
· Madonna coverage [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Superficial]

Tags: New Year's Eve / Iemanjá / Religious Festival Travel / → All Tags

The Holy Beach Of Rio

Everyone should spend at least one New Year's Eve mingling on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Despite the massive crowds and the often underwhelming concerts, the cheers at midnight are joyous and the sights are fantastic. But if you're in town earlier in the evening, take a walk on the beach to catch the offerings to Iemanjá, a folk tradition honored at the end of every year on the beach.

In the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion, Iemanjá is the goddess of the sea and the protectress of women and fertility. Umbanda practicants dress in white to bring flowers, build altars and set out floating candles for Iemanjá, a rite practiced on New Year's Eve in Rio but a few weeks earlier in Salvador de Bahia and in February in Rio Vermelho, where the local Catholic church has rededicated her as Our Lady of the Seafarers. The cachaça will wait, we promise.

Related Stories:
· Rolling Stones Hit The Great Wall [Jaunted]
· Copacabana Palace Still Rules Rio [Jaunted]
· Rio's Saucy Postcards Over [Jaunted]

[Photo: zeiger]

Tags: Television Travel / Survivor 18 / Jeff Probst / → All Tags

Survivor 18 Goes Brazilian

Its official: "Survivor 18" will take place in South America. "Survivor: Tocantins, The Brazilian Highlands" will be the title and location of the show’s 18th (!) season.

The show’s host, Jeff Probst, made the announcement during Sunday night’s season 17 finale. According to Reality World, Probst told the audience that this would be one of the most rugged locations yet, promising:

Scorching temperatures, torrential downpours [and] dangerous wildlife.

The exact location of the show is unknown, but it'll most likely be somewhere near the Rio Novo River in the Northern Brazilian state. And Probst's promise that danger is lurking has some basis in fact: During a scouting mission for the show in September, a crew member drowned in the river while swimming on a lunch break.

Related Stories:
· Survivor: Tocantins [Wikipedia]
· CBS Confirms "Survivor 18" to Be in Brazil [Reality World]

[Photo: Survivor Daily]