Jaunted

Halloween

Halloween Travel: Philly Gets Scary

October 22, 2008 at 1:00 PM | 1 Comment

The City of Brotherly Love becomes the City of Scary when Halloween rolls around. Calling itself "America's Most Hauntingly Historic City," Philly takes scaring visitors to a whole new level with some frightful offerings. Find our faves after the jump.

more ›

Southeast Asia Field Trip

SEA Field Trip: Finding the Khmer Rouge

July 1, 2008 at 10:15 AM | 0 Comments

Can't afford a European vacation this summer? Do what our contributor Claire Duffett did: Explore Southeast Asia instead.

After travels through Thailand and Vietnam, we visited Cambodia. Though all three countries can claim their share of strife, Cambodia is still reeling from its trauma. The country struggles to recover from the 1970s genocide of millions of its citizens.

more ›

Italy Travel

Doing Time to Get Your Dinner

May 23, 2008 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

If you thought the security procedures for getting through an airport were rough, there's a restaurant in Italy that you haven't tried yet. The Fortezza Medicea high security prison serves up meals for guests, lovingly cooked by long-term prisoners.

It sounds like a crazy scheme but it's working out well. Several times a year, the "prison restaurant" is open to the public for a standard cost of €35 ($55) a head. Guests have to give enough details for a background check when they reserve their table, then on the night of, they have to hand in their bags and cell phones before going through a metal detector.

As well as helping prisoners develop skills that will assist them on their return to the real world, the restaurant raises money for a charity. It might be odd to have a murderer as a server, but isn't that better than having an "actor" or "singer" bring your meal out?

Related Stories:
· Top Marks to Italian Gourmet Jail [Reuters]
· Jail Tours coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Madolan]

Australia Travel

Be Well-Behaved in the Fremantle Prison

December 3, 2007 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

Prisons might seem like solemn places, but they're also the kind of tourist attraction just waiting for endless jokes about leaving the annoying tour group member behind, or for threatening your children if they misbehave. In Western Australia, the Fremantle Prison is a historic building yet was being used for high security prisoners right up until 1991.

Hop a tour round the Fremantle Prison and you'll remember why you don't want to rob a bank any time soon. Exercise yards are tiny and the guide might show you some of the spots where the guards couldn't see; that's where the worst of the fighting took place. You can also see the gallows where the worst of the worst were hanged until Australia outlawed capital punishment.

This place still feels as creepy as a prison, but if broad daylight isn't scary enough for you, try the candlelit night tour, or get into the low boats that follow tunnels under the prison. And just remember to do what the guides tell you, or you might be distressed by the consequences. They're still carrying an awful lot of keys around.

Related Stories:
· Fremantle Prison [Official Site]
· Jail Tours Coverage[Jaunted]
· Western Australia Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Haunted-Travel

Haunted Travel: Play Pretend Prisoner

October 24, 2007 at 2:05 PM | 0 Comments

Just in time for Halloween comes the most Oscar-hyped film of cinematic achievement this year: Saw IV. (The Roman numerals lends it gravitas.) While we know little about the plot other than it's probably two hours of straight-up dismemberment, we have some ideas on where to set the stage for the undoubtedly upcoming Saw V.

Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia, is the go-to site on the eastern seaboard to find the highest concentration of ghosts who continue to torment the living. The prison, built in the mid-1800s, was one of the first and only to promote solitary confinement as a means of rehabilitation, and all the time alone apparently gave inmates plenty of time to consider how they would creep out tourists in 2007. Throughout October, the old prison, purposely kept in a state of ruin, hosts "Terror Behind The Walls," a massive haunted house on the 11-acre grounds.

Attractions include a walk past Al Capone's cell and a simulated intake process, complete with mug shots and fingerprinting, led by a nasty warden/out-of-work actor. New for this year, visitors can even pay to get locked up in their very own cell for the night. Fun... right?

Related Stories:
· Eastern State Penitentiary [Official Site]
· America's Scariest Halloween Attractions [Travel Channel]
· Haunted Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: alicemariedesign]

Celeb Travel

Jennifer Aniston Sings In The Texas Slammer

June 14, 2007 at 9:05 AM | 0 Comments

Hasn't Jennifer Aniston read the tabloids lately? Instead of running from prison, the ex-Mrs. Brad Pitt is heading straight for it with a new project about a group of singing jailbirds in Huntsville, Texas. As described in a 2003 story (subscription required) in Texas Monthly, the women's prison Goree State Farm northwest of Houston produced a country-western group in the 1940s of mostly petty larcenists, known as the Goree All Girl String Band. The Girls weren't allowed to tour, obviously, but gained millions of fans by broadcasting from inside the station although they never made a recording. Sounds like a Coen brothers movie, but it really happened! Aniston will definitely produce and perhaps star in the ensuing musical.

Goree prison still exists, although it's gone coed since those days. The town of Huntsville also holds the Texas Prison Museum, home of legacy electric chair "Ol' Sparky" as well as shotguns found in Bonnie and Clyde's car (speaking of famous prison movies...) and inmate bobbleheads in the gift shop. Unfortunately, inmate rodeos are no longer running.

Related Stories:
·Hotels in Huntsville Texas [HotelChatter]

[Photo: dorsia]