We never have enough time or space to get to all the Google Travel news that we'd like. A few weeks ago we talked about their new airport maps, and a little before that we did an introduction to their burgeoning flight search service. Unfortunately Google Flight Search got dragged down by how the airline industry does business, and it has remained unimpressive.

On the other side of the success spectrum, though, developers and programmers expanded Google Earth to include games—a move that involved airlines and has implications for social media—and an MIT student playing around with Google Maps made a de facto travel itinerary checker.

But this post isn't about any of those stories. This post is about deep, abiding, biting, bitter jealousy.]]> Omri 2011-12-12T11:40:56-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/20/22038/747

Watching the movie "The Terminal" or reading the Alain de Botton book A Week at the Airport can make you have crazy ideas, like perhaps that living in an airport for a period of time would be awesome. Tom Hanks kind of finds romance, de Botton eats a ton of room service and listens to the melodramatic life stories of travelers passing through Heathrow's Terminal 5; it all seems so nice and easy.

This week however, those daydreaming about living at an airport got a wakeup call when a Japanese man was found to be doing just that in Taipei International Airport, after running out of money and overstaying his visa. Masaaki Tanaka subsisted on soy sauce and wasabi packets while searching the airport floor for loose change. Hmm—not so glamorous.]]> JetSetCD 2011-10-20T08:30:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/10/3/14339/5857

The first thing you need to know is that we checked out this story as thoroughly as we could, because we don't want to be that site that posts an Onion story as if it's real news. Here's the Kickstarter page for the art project, which is—quote—"to transform [the George Washington statue in Union Square] into a contemporary monument to tourism [with] large scale props such as an 'I Love NY' hat, camera, NYC subway map, and local shopping bags." ]]> Omri 2011-10-03T16:03:08-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/9/15/95733/0034

Happening upon a hungry Coati wasn't our only interesting animal sighting on our recent trip to Mexico's Riviera Maya. We also spotted a school of fish, only they weren't in the ocean—they were in aquariums inside the Spa at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya. These fishies aren't there for decoration, either; they're there to nibble the dead skin off your feet in what's become something of a spa trend borrowed from Asia.

Ahhh! That was our reaction, too, but you see the "fish pedicure" is quite common in other parts of the world.

]]> MsRebecca 2011-09-15T11:12:06-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/9/9/122533/2139

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

Okay so it's not technically foreign, but the Lobster Ice Cream at Las Vegas' new Lobster ME food kiosk in the Miracle Mile mall is totally worth a feature on its own. For one, it's totally Vegas in that it's something so weird, so novelty, so foreign to Vegas that's cool by default. In fact, perhaps the only people in the country who wouldn't turn their nose up at the stuff would be visitors to Vegas, open to wild and crazy new experiences (and with coin to drop on expensive ice cream).

Even a friend from Maine traveling to Vegas with us—a person who knows his lobster—refused to try it, instead opting for Lobster ME's lobster grilled cheese.]]> JetSetCD 2011-09-09T14:01:13-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/8/2/182736/0867

Could you live in a space only 10' by 6'? What about if it had an enviable view of the water and an unbeatable location? Well someone has, and someone did up until 1900 when The Smallest House in Great Britain was declared unfit for habitation. These days, it's one of two hugely popular tourist sites in the town of Conwy in North Wales.

Apparently there's only enough room inside for "one stove, a water tap, a bedside cabinet and a bed," although we're quite sure that IKEA would have something to say about it if they could get their hands on it.

The teeny-tiny red house stands on the quayside of the town, with the 8 turrets of the medieval Conwy Castle overshadowing it to the right and the town's even older defensive walls fencing it in on the left. It's quite a thing to behold—both the castle and the small house—but save your cash for going into the castle and not the cramped confines of the latter. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-08-03T10:00:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/7/18/183048/841

Fifty-eight letters and one tiny train station. Welcome to the Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which sits in the northwestern most corner of Wales on the Isle of Anglesey. Llanfairpwllgwyngyll—the short form, or Llanfair PG to be even shorter—holds the title of longest town name in the world. It would be first for longest general place as well, if it weren't for a New Zealand hill annoyingly sporting 85 letters: "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu."

In the town name of Llanfair PG, there are only 13 vowels, plus the impressive totals of 11 Ls and 7 Gs. As you can imagine, the town rides on tourism based solely on this claim to fame, and when we dropped by earlier today, the single parking lot at the train station was half-filled with tour buses and half with rental cars (our own included). ]]> JetSetCD 2011-07-19T13:14:07-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/