All this week, Amanda Pressner will be bringing us reports from her recent trip to Costa Rica with her entire family. Any questions about traveling to Costa Rica or family-oriented activities to do while you're there? Let us know.

With just four days to spend in the Costa Rican jungle, my family and I wanted to pack in as much pulse pounding excitement as we possibly could—and what better way, we figured, than to set up base camp just down the slope from an active volcano?

Arenal (the name of the volcano, a lake and a region in Costa Rica) is one of the country’s popular destinations—and for very good reason. Not only is it possible to see the fiery red lava flow at the top of the cone on a clear night (usually from the comfort of your hotel room) but there’s no shortage of ways to experience the nearby rainforest and cloud forest and the rivers that cut through them.

In fact, according to Elaine Knight, owner of the Lost Iguana Resort & Spa, the biggest mistake people when planning their trip to Costa Rica rushing to hit too many different destinations and booking too few nights in Arenal.

In an email before the trip, she encouraged our group of six to spend four nights, and four days in the local area. If figured that she might be a tad partial, but in the end, I’m so glad we followed her advice.

]]> The Lost Girl 2009-08-25T17:06:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/7/21/73056/7458

This month’s copy of National Geographic has some great reading for those headed out to Yellowstone National Park this summer. However, it’s the kind of information that you may not want to hear if you’re a worrywart. Apparently the volcano supervolcano that created one of the country’s best national parks isn’t as sleepy as researchers once thought.

Although researchers aren’t trying to terrify us, there is some evidence that the volcano has been inching upwards in recent years. It’s doming, it’s growing, and researchers refer to it as a caldera at unrest, which sounds a little unsettling to us. Especially when you consider some of the suspected supervolcano eruptions that have taken place in the planet’s history. About 2.1 million years ago an eruption at Yellowstone left a hole in the ground as large as Rhode Island.

For now, researchers seem to agree on one thing: they aren’t sure what will happen and when. An eruption could wipe out much of the human race and next week we could be plunged into a volcanic winter for 100,000 years, or never at all. All we know is we better go see Old Faithful before it's upstaged by something a little more extreme.

Related Stories:
· When Yellowstone Explodes [National Geographic]
· Tonga's Underwater Volcano Might Affect the Fiji Beach Scene [Jaunted]
· Science Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of Mud Volcano at Yellowstone: enyacologne] ]]> kjb 2009-07-21T14:19:21-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/18/95117/0465

And here we thought cancellation due to regular thunderstorms was already a nightmare, but it turns out that being unable to fly through crowds of volcanic ash tops our list of freaky flight delays reasons.

This is exactly what is happening in Vancouver, as Russia's Sarychev Peak on the remote Kuril Islands started spewing massive clouds of ash and smoke on June 12, and Asia-bound airplanes aren't risking flying through the grit.

Currently affected by the explosive fun of Mother Nature are flights between Vancouver and Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Flights were canceled all the way up until yesterday, and now flights are attempting to adjust routes to avoid the 30-mile large cloud of leftover ash.

If this little rural earth-shaking affects major transpacific travel so much, we can only fear for any major belching from Mount Rainier, seeing as how it's some several hundred years overdue for a cataclysmic explosion. Perhaps airports need to practice for volcano drills?

Related Stories:
· Vancouver To Asia flights cancelled because of volcanic eruption [CBC Canada]
· Volcano delaying Asia flights [Shanghaiist]
· Volcano Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Gary DeLong]]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-18T10:47:13-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/12/7388/82481

If you’ve been paying attention to all the hype, you’d know that now is a great time to visit Hawaii. The state is hurting since a lot of tourist money has dried up, but that’s good news for budget-conscious travelers who've always dreamt of getting lei'd. With a little patience, scoring a great hotel and airfare deal is totally possible. If for some reason you need more urging to visit the Aloha State, consider that you might just get to see Kilauea getting a little feisty.

Over on the Big Island, things have been a little more active than usual for the last week or so at the Halemaumau crater, and the glow of lava can easily been seen overnight from the viewpoint at the Jaggar Museum. Scientists are pretty hot and heavy about what could happen next, but they’re unsure if lava will ever erupt in a fountain out of the crater.

The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has limited access to the summit vent, just in case things get a little too exciting a little too quickly. Right now, it’s estimated that molten lava is only about 300 feet below the crater flow—which, in relative terms, is extremely close. Although there’s always something cooking deep inside the earth, it’s been since October 2008 since Madam Pele has been this active. If you go at active times like this, there's no need to enter the dangerous zone in order to see volcanic action; so get there while the lava getting's good.

Related Stories:
·Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park [Official Site]
·Scientists Eye Glowing Volcano Crater In Hawaii [AP, via Google]
·Halemaumau Lava Lake Bubbling Up? [KHNL]
·Jaunted In Hawaii coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo from 2008: NDomer73] ]]> kjb 2009-06-12T09:32:10-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/30/172052/129

With so much travel news raining down on us, we don't always have time to give every story its own forecast. Here's more of the day's news, in brief.

· Earthquake in Bay Area: A 4.3 earthquake occurred today but there's no major damage. [SF Chronicle]

· Passport Cards for Limited Travel: We aren't totally in love with the idea of passport cards because we prize our passport books so much, but if you only travel by land or sea, these could work for you. Also of note: Happy Traveler (pictured above) DOES not look like he was born in 1981. Just sayin'. [AJC]

· LA's Cupcake Challenge is Ferociously Delicious: LAT has some tasty photos of the cupcake challenge that went down at the Hollywood Renaissance hotel over the weekend. [LAT]

· Mount Redoubt Re-Erupts, Re-Cancels Alaska Airlines FLights: Mount Redoubt's Volcano is still spewing ash, forcing the Anchorage airport to cancel flights. [AP Video Essay]]]> juliana 2009-03-30T17:20:52-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/23/91830/0986

Not to be outdone by the underwater volcano in Tonga, Alaska's own Mount Redoubt has erupted four times last night, spraying ash nine miles into the air but fortunately sparing the nearby city of Anchorage any immediate ashfall. However, Alaska Airlines canceled 19 flights in and out of the Anchorage airport because of the ash and meteorologists do expect ash to begin falling later today.

Geologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory have been closely monitoring the 10,200-foot volcano which is located in the Chigmit Mountains, about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage. It lasted erupted in 1989 and actually caught a KLM plane in its plume. Thankfully, the plane later landed safely at Anchorage but now we understand why Alaska Airlines was quick to ground their flights.

The AVO has (not surprisingly) been Twittering the volcano's activity and their last update from 38 minutes ago says, "Another large explosion is occurring at Redoubt." Yikes. But the last time Mount Redoubt erupted, it did so for about four months. So we could be in for the long haul here, folks. Alaska Airlines does have an advisory note on its website so check your flight status regularly if you think you might be affected.

Related Stories:
· Alaska volcano Mount Redoubt erupts 4 times [AP]
· Alaska Volcano Observatory [Official Site]
· Tonga's Underwater Volcano Might Affect the Fiji Beach Scene [Jaunted]]]> juliana 2009-03-23T09:25:20-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/19/9207/77663

If you're looking to suntan on the beaches in Fiji in the very near future, just beware of pumice from a underwater volcano that's been erupting in Tonga. Yes, an underwater volcano in between two of Tonga's volcanic islands has been shooting smoke, steam and ash into the sky, causing scientists to travel to the site today to see what's going on.

Right now the eruptions are not dangerous to any of the coastal villages nearby or to the fishes despite the presence of volcanic ash on the ocean surface. However, neighboring island Fiji could be hit with "large amounts of pumice" on their southern coast islands, making for a very gritty sort of beach day.

The Volcanism Blog has a great satellite shot of what the underwater volcano looks like but for the real shock and awe check out the video above from Live Leak.

Related Stories:
· Tongan inspection team heads to undersea volcano [AP] ]]> juliana 2009-03-19T09:22:52-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/