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Tags: Top Chef Travel / Top Chef / Food Travel / Restaurant Travel / Atlanta Travel / Atlanta Restaurants / → All Tags
Flavor is the Focus For Top Chef's Eli Kirshtein at Atlanta's ENO
Spiky-haired, bespectacled Top Chef contestant Eli Kirshtein garnered the ire of Tom Colicchio after serving up what the judge deemed "raw lamb." That's no mark of a master chef, but as we know, even talented artisans are prone to missteps, perhaps owing to the pressure of a major prize and a national audience in the millions.
Off the show, Kirshtein serves as the Executive Chef of Atlanta's ENO Restaurant and Wine Bar. No relation to Brian Eno as far as we can tell, although that would make it infinitely cooler. Like many of his competitors, he's a locavore, sourcing ingredients for ENO's menu from farms and specialty stores around the great state of Georgia.
Tags: Movie Set Travel / Jaunted On Location / Savannah / → All Tags
'The Conspirator' Descends on Savannah
Savannah locals have become accustomed to sharing the streets with horses and buggies over the past few weeks. But they aren't just another tourist attraction; they're actually props for The Conspirator. Robert Redford is directing the film, which is set in 1865 Washington, D.C. and re-creates the trial of Mary Surratt, the only woman among those executed for conspiring to kill President Abraham Lincoln. He's brought an all-star cast along with him too. Robin Wright Penn is playing Mary Surratt and James McAvoy plays her attorney, Frederick Aiken. Justin Long, Alexis Bledel, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline and Evan Rachel Wood have all joined the cast as well.
Savannah's historical look lends itself well to the period piece, though they've still had to make some small changes along the way. For instance, while filming last week, the cobblestone streets in Savannah's historical district were covered with dirt and period flags and signage were brought in for accuracy. The city's famous squares have come in handy too. The Campion-Fowlkes House on Oleans Square has already been used in a party scene and nearby Chatham Square was used for exteriors. Today, Redford continues filming in Savannah's historic district, along West Bay Street.
Tags: Emergency Landings / Delta / ATL / Bad Ideas / → All Tags
Delta Flight Lands On Atlanta Taxiway, Narrowly Avoids Disaster
You know what? Landing your airplane on an airport taxiway is not a good idea, even if you have a "medical emergency" onboard. This is exactly what happened at the consistently busy Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on Monday, when a Delta flight inbound from Rio de Janeiro phoned in their emergency and then landed on the wrong stretch of tarmac.
Luckily for this plane and all the passengers on it, there were no other airplanes waiting on the taxiway to cause a collision, although there easily could have been what with Atlanta's congestion. The Delta flight should have landed on the runway, which is larger and longer and labelled as a runway, that sits parallel to the taxiway. Both the pilot and co-pilot have been relieved from flying while the investigation is pending; it's still not known what the medical emergency was. The FAA is concerned, and a spokewoman noted that "it was 'very, very rare' for a plane to land on a taxiway rather than the runway. 'None of us here, anecdotally, can remember this happening.'" Hopefully it won't happen again either.
Related Stories:
· Delta Flight Lands On Taxiway Instead Of Runway [AJC]
· Delta coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Jaunted]
Tags: Television Travel / Georgia Travel / Vampire Travel / Movie Set Travel / → All Tags
Check Out The Real Hometown of 'The Vampire Diaries'
The CW recently jumped on the vampire bandwagon with The Vampire Diaries. The series was destined to be hit as it is executive produced by Dawson's Creek head honcho Kevin Williamson and is based on a series of popular teen novels. It also has all the ingredients of a great teen drama: a girl who is grieving the recent death of her parents and who deals with two brothers who are both into her and have been waging a war against each other for most of their lives, which equals about 150 years since they also happen to be vampires.
The show is set in the small town of Mystic Falls, VA but is filmed in Convington, GA. The pilot was filmed in Vancouver but Georgia's film tax incentives lured the production back to the U.S., which is just as well; there are already enough vampires in Vancouver.
Tags: TSA Airport Security / TSA / Airport Security / TSA Theater / → All Tags
Internet to Atlanta TSA Agents: Sorry About That!
Gosh it's hard to be objective, and no fun at all. On Friday, a travel blogger named Nicole White posted a harrowing account of being detained in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport by TSA Agents. Entitled TSA Agents Took My Son, her post alleges, among other things, that a male TSA agent separated her from her 16-month-old son for a private pat-down, which is against TSA procedures. Christopher Elliott picked up the story on Elliott.org, and despite his sage counsel that we withhold judgment until all the facts come out, the commenting classes rose to the defense of White.
Tags: Best Factory Tours / Best-Factory-Tours-Map / Coca-Cola / Atlanta Travel / → All Tags
Head To Atlanta For All The Coke You Dare To Ingest
Become an informed consumer while still on vacation! Check out Jaunted's newest series of the Best Factory Tours the world over, and let us know if we missed any.
The World of Coca-Cola is probably the closest real equivalent to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, except you don't need a Golden Ticket to attend. The Atlanta tourist attraction re-opened in 2007 after the company dropped $97 million on a facelift, and even if you don't particularly enjoy its sweet ambrosia, it's worth a visit.
Originally invented as a medicinal tonic, Coke is now the biggest-selling soft drink ever, and the World of Coke is the golden altar to that success. Watch the bottling process, then check out antique Coke ads that reflected how the beverage was sold to us until we learned to love it. The international bottles display showing what the rest of the world is drinking (from Coca-Cola Inc.) and a "4-D" film will take you, no, not back in time, but on a jolting trip through distribution. To go back in time, check out the shrine to New Coke.
Tags: AirTran Airlines / Airlines / Airline News / Atlanta / Football Travel / LCCs / Sports Travel / → All Tags
AirTran Goes For The Touchdown With New NFL Affiliations
If Southwest is secretly dreaming of swiping the Atlanta market from AirTran—and they are—they're going to have to do it without the help of the hometown Atlanta Falcons. The NFL franchise just sealed a partnership with AirTran that's expected to go several years and will include joint advertising and promotions.
AirTran already has partnerships with individual Falcon players. Under the new deal, that arrangement expands to the entire organization, with the usual flood of mutual branding to follow. On the airline's side, expect to see a Falcons-themed Boeing 717 and advertising featuring Falcon athletes in full uniform. For their part, the franchise will be erecting "prominent signage at the Georgia Dome."
Tags: Airline News / Airport News / Southwest Airlines / Atlanta Travel / ATL / → All Tags
Southwest Still Jonesing To Get Their Hands On Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport
As a result of losing the bid on Frontier to Republic Airways, Southwest Airlines has also lost its hopes of entering the Atlanta market by taking over Frontier's Hartsfield gates. Perhaps they haven't lost all hope yet, as industry watchers are convinced that the world's largest low-cost carrier isn't done with the world's busiest airport quite yet.
Southwest originally upended the airline industry by ignoring the traditional hub-and-spoke model, focusing instead on underexploited "point-to-point" routes. Recently the airline has seemed intent on challenging legacy carriers on their own turf, entering markets outside its traditional southwest and northeast strongholds. Having invaded other big markets, it now may have its eyes fixed on the mega-delicious Hartsfield. Says the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
Tags: Rock Slides / Water Sports / Active Travel / Georgia Travel / State Parks / → All Tags
A Hike Into A Georgia Gorge Awards You With A Water Slide
If you're not into the water park scene, then it seems like Georgia is the place to cool off in the summer. We’ve already told you how to get down in The Hooch, and now we’ve found another rock water slide to entertain on a warm summer afternoon. The two sites are actually pretty close to one another, so if you’re really into water sports, you can go for a double-header.
Tallulah Gorge State Park has a lot to offer. There’s campsites, hiking trails, and waterfalls to help fill your day with fresh air and sunshine. Just try to keep your cool when you cross over the rickety suspension bridge as it sways above the bottom of the gorge. All that other stuff is fine and dandy, but the best part of the park is the natural rock water slide.
Tags: Best Tubing Spots / Tubing / Rivers / Water Sports / Georgia Travel / → All Tags
Get Ready To Float Down The Hooch In Northeast Georgia
If you’re looking to beat the heat and humidity of the nation’s Southeast, then Helen, Georgia should be on your shortlist. Not only does the town traditionally feature cooler summer temperatures thanks to its location within the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it also does its best to recreate an alpine village; zoning laws ensure that the town’s buildings feature a little bit of Bavaria, including architecture from the old-world and cobblestone streets. It’s not quite the Alps, but it is the Appalachians.
Once you’re done touring a little bit of faux Europe, you’re probably going to want to cool off from all that excitement. Grab a tube and plop your butt into the Chattahoochee River. There’s two different river courses to choose from, but definitely go for the longer 2.5 hour journey. A bus will load you up and take you up river, so when you’re all done you can be fully prepared to peruse the gift shop or chow on some picnic foods.
The Cool River Tubing Company will be floating people down the river all summer through Labor Day. It’s only $5 for adults, and if you want to go all day a pass only costs $9. This is definitely a sweet deal for an afternoon filled with splashes and sunburn. If the river ride gets a little boring they have a waterside too, but that’ll cost you a few extra bucks.
Related Stories: [Photo: Official Site]
· Cool River Tubing [Official Site]
· Hot Dogs And Hot Tubing Between Different States [Jaunted]
· Tubing coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Celeb Travel / Miley Cyrus / Nick Jonas / Greg Kinnear / Savannah / Tybee Island / Georgia / Movie Set Travel / → All Tags
Are Miley and Nick Rekindling Their Romance in Georgia?
Miley Cyrus has arrived in Georgia for her next movie, The Last Song, and already locals are in a tizzy over the teen. Although The Last Song doesn’t officially start production in Savannah and nearby Tybee Island until next week, the film's stars are already in town prepping for their roles and enjoying a little R&R.
Miley’s definitely having a good time so far, tweeting earlier in the week, “in love with Savannah.” Tuesday, she was spotted by several locals on a jet ski with ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas, who reportedly flew in to work a “duet” with the tween idol, a likely story from a guy who promised his mom he’d stay a virgin and a girl who just broke up her boyfriend. But we’re not buying it, especially since two of them were spotted flirting over the weekend in Malibu.
Tags: Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Georgia Travel / → All Tags
Pining For Gold Mining: Some Real Peaches in Georgia
It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.
As any visitor to Tennessee tourist towns will know, gold mining isn't just an activity left to the Southwest states. In fact, the first major US gold rush happened in Dahlonega, Georgia in 1828— the town's name even means "yellow money" in Cherokee. Although most of the big stakes were cleaned out by the US Treasury back in the day, the rebranding of the area as a wine country has reinvigorated tourist gold mining as a secondary activity.
The king of mining in Dahlonega is undoubtably the Crisson Gold Mine, which offers treasure hunting activities for every level of fortune-seeker. From metal detectors and panning to using a trommel—machines that effectively pan for you, and at a faster pace— Crisson offers some of the most tourist-friendly gold hunting around. The quarry out back even boasts old mine machinery and a quartz stamp mill for the the historically curious.
Gold ore is available in two ways at Crisson: fresh from the earth and ready to be panned or trommelled, or "salted," which is essentially more expensive ore as it has been purposefully peppered with possible finds. And if you can't make it down to Georgia anytime soon but want to try your hand at panning, the mine offers 1 gallon of the "super high grade gold ore concentrates" for $125, shippable to your house. What an idea for a summer backyard BBQ party!
Related Stories:
· Crisson Gold Mine [Official Site]
· Panning For Gold Makes a Comback [Jaunted]
· Gold Mining Coverage [Jaunted]
[Quarry photo: Crisson Mine; Gold photo: aresauburn]
