Jaunted

Guidebook Says / Australia Travel / Beach Travel / Dog Travel / → All Tags

Guidebook Says: Visit Perth For Their Dog Beaches?

It's hard to know whether the experts are giving you useful information or just the same old song and dance. That's why we're introducing Guidebook Says to commend or correct other travel media. Feel free to commend or correct us in the comments below! This week, we zero in on Perth, the quiet but cool capital of Western Australia.

Guidebook Says: "This sunshine capital is also home to a thousand mining and exploration companies, which bring a touch of the Outback to the city. It's a friendly city, partly because of the outdoor openness and partly from the Outback influence." -- Frommers

Jaunted Says: Fact: Mining and exploration companies abound in Perth. Fiction: we've never found the touch of the Outback they bring. They seem to be about flashy skyscrapers and rich fly-in, fly-out workers and we seriously doubt any tourist would take much notice of them. The Outback's about as far from Perth as Uluru is from the ocean (that's pretty far), so we really don't know what this guidebook writer was on about.

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Guidebook Says / Seville Travel / Guidebooks / → All Tags

Don't Get Too Lost In Seville

It's hard to know whether the experts are giving you useful information or just the same old song and dance. That's why we're introducing Guidebook Says to commend or correct other travel media. Feel free to commend or correct us in the comments below! This week, we head for the sol in Seville, Spain.

Sevillemay have just been killed 4-0 in football by FC Barcelona, but it's still a major tourist destination for first-time visitors to Spain who want to get a taste of the countryside. At just a train ride away from Madrid, it imparts a vastly different sense of the country -- but what's as real as a bullfight and what's as fake as the flamenco fans they sell in gift shops? Just in time for the Feria de Abril beginning next Tuesday, we make the call with the help of a few travel authorities, below:

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Guidebook Says / Hot Dogs / Chicago Travel / Tourist Traps / → All Tags

Are Windy City Reports Full Of Hot Air?

It's hard to know whether the experts are giving you useful information or just the same old song and dance. That's why we're introducing Guidebook Says to commend or correct other travel media. Feel free to commend or correct us in the comments below! This week, we hang out in Chicago.

The Second City played host to some very important tourists this week -- an evaluation team from the International Olympic Committee taking a look at the place for the 2016 Summer Olympics. It lost the bid to London for the 2012 games, but things are looking up this year -- so long as the visitors don't get any bad advice. They got an intricately designed tour, though, and we have to rely on these guys:

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Guidebook Says / Dominican Republic Field Trip / Guidebooks / → All Tags

Disgruntled Tourist Finds More Scrutiny, Less History In the Dominican Republic

It's hard to know whether the experts are giving you useful information or just the same old song and dance. That's why we're introducing Guidebook Says to commend or correct other travel media. Feel free to commend or correct us in the comments below! This week, we zero in on the Dominican Republic, a recent Field Trip subject.

Guidebook Says... "At airports, neither immigration nor customs officials pay much attention to tourists carrying an ordinary amount of luggage." -- Lonely Planet

Jaunted Says: Our single suitcase and carry-on were much more meticulously searched in the D.R. on the way out than when we passed through customs in San Juan. Zippered pockets were opened, books were flipped through, and at one point we were asked to describe the contents of a small clutch ("Uh... lip gloss?")

Only because of the guys in front of us did we know why: They had hid what looked like either fruit or cooked meat in their checked bags (wrapped in underwear, tee hee).

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