Tag: Jaunted Travel Videos

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Winging It to Costa Rica: International and Local Flights

Where: Costa Rica
August 24, 2009 at 4:54 PM | by | Comments (0)

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.

My sister and I are notoriously belated when it comes to sending birthday gifts and cards, so it probably came as no surprise to our Dad when we finally made good on the 65th B-day gift we promised him—a full five months after his 66th! For the man who already has everything, Jenn and I decided, along with our step-mom Nadine, to take Dad on a fantastic family vacation.

Because I have the most stamps in my passport, the fam decide that it automatically fell to me to decide where six adults of varying ages, activity levels and budgetary restraints should go to get away from it all—and to plan out the full details of our group adventure. Ideas were tossed out: Caribbean cruise? (Too hot in July) European sightseeing tour? (the $1,000 round trip ticket—a big turn off).

In end, we all agreed on Costa Ricaa country where none of us had traveled, but by most accounts, was the adult version of Disney World. Orlando may be the happiest place on earth for kids, but according to CNN, it’s the happiest place on earth for adults.

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Luxury Ice Capades: Deception Island

January 30, 2009 at 11:55 AM | by | Comments (3)

Matt Chesterton has returned to Jaunted with tales of his latest trip cruising around Antarctica. Every day this week, he'll be enlightening us on this luxury ice capades adventure. Enjoy.

"My God, this is an awful place!"

That was Robert Falcon Scott's final verdict on Antarctica, as recorded in his diary. You can hardly blame Scott for allowing his quintessentially stiff Edwardian upper lip to quiver for a moment. He was about to freeze to death, a state of affairs which in his view -- to paraphrase another of his journal entries -- threatened to put a bummer on the entire trip.

We on the Antarctic Dream had fewer complaints. At no point did we have to choose between starving to death or spit-roasting one of our huskies. We ate well, drank well and could watch up to four movies a day. True, we ran out of beer. That shook us. But only the Germans considered it a fate worse than death by hypothermia.

Nothing awful, then. But one place we visited was eerie, if not downright sinister -- such stuff, to adapt Shakespeare, as nightmares are made on. This was Deception Island in the South Shetlands.

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Luxury Ice Capades: Life in the Freezer

January 29, 2009 at 1:55 PM | by | Comments (0)

Matt Chesterton has returned to Jaunted with tales of his latest trip cruising around Antarctica. Every day this week, he'll be enlightening us on this luxury ice capades adventure. Enjoy.

It was the biggest piece of ice I'd ever seen in my life. A monstrous, sparkling slab of frozen bling. And to think I could only see one fifth of it! It filled me with awe -- and I'm not easily filled with anything.

I wanted to reach out and touch it. But of course I couldn’t. The bar was too wide, and Hugo the barman was keeping an eagle eye on his prize.

That's right: It was half-price whisky night on the Antarctic Dream. And each large--and I mean large, Hugo had the kind of quivery right hand you really appreciate in a barman--Scotch would be poured over a carved chunk of glacial ice, recently hauled aboard by several burly crew members.

Bacchanalian? Hardly. Poor old Bacchus never got out of the Med as far as we know. He had to settle for warm liquor.

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Luxury Ice Capades: You Asked For Penguins...

January 28, 2009 at 11:29 AM | by | Comments (3)

Matt Chesterton has returned to Jaunted with tales of his latest trip cruising around Antarctica. Every day this week, he'll be enlightening us on this luxury ice capades adventure. Enjoy.

Some people will travel thousands of miles in search of ‘fresh air’, by which they mean air that is entirely odorless. This makes no sense to me. I like the way the world smells; it keeps me grounded.

I particularly like the stench of the city. My neighborhood of Buenos Aires discharges a pungent mélange of diesel fumes, deep-fried churros, grilled sausages, burning tobacco, cheap perfume, tilo, stray dogs, and whatever it is that comes out of a 1970s automobile.

Antarctica, I was led to believe, was pristine, sterile and untainted. It would be like swimming in Evian. Happily, this is not the case. On our first excursion on the ice continent, my olfactory nerves were given the shock and awe treatment. The sea smells. The ice smells. Elephant seals – who seem to all intents and purposes to be coprophiles – really smell. And the whiff of penguin guano, which is to cow shit what cow shit is to Chanel, will stay with me forever. (As one of my shipmates, Frank, from Arizona, wisely observed, quoting Frank Zappa: "Don't eat the yellow snow.")

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On Thin Ice in NYC :: Where to Go Ice Skating

Where: 30 Rockefeller Plaza [map], New York, NY, United States, 10112
January 28, 2009 at 11:08 AM | by | Comments (0)

Oh lovely, dreamy ice skating. In Manhattan, it's like the default activity suggestion for cutesy second dates, suburban friends come to visit, and wide-eyed children. Thanks to the movies and tourist brochures, many people believe that the sunken skating rink in Rockefeller Center is the hot spot for ice, when in actuality the city is dotted with other far more affordable, far less crowded frozen ponds.

Inspired by the dry, cold weather in New York and the absence of Christmas decorations, we've revamped our list of two years ago for the best ice rinks of New York City:

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Inside a Sleeper Cabin on Germany's DB City Night Line Train

Where: Munich, Germany
October 14, 2008 at 4:05 PM | by | Comment (1)

Hey, you try filming in a space this small.

Before we vomited our way through Oktoberfest a few weeks ago, we needed to get to Munich from Paris.

Since we sometimes hate flying, we decided to take one of those overnight trains and do it up baller-style by getting one of the sleeper cabins on DB's City Night Line.

The train left Paris' Gare du Est train station at 9:45 at night. Passengers were allowed to board 20 minutes before departure time but we will warn you: The train left at exactly 9:45 pm.

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Oktoberfest Post-Mortem: The Five Things You Need to Know for '09

Where: Munich, Germany
October 13, 2008 at 4:45 PM | by | Comments (0)

Oktoberfest 2008 has come and gone--in Germany at least--but the memories will live on forever. Thankfully, the vomit is easy enough to wash away.

This is a video from inside the Hofbrau tent at the storied Oktoberfest fair grounds in Munich. You can watch "Beer Fest" as many times as you like but nothing, we repeat, nothing can prepare you for the real Oktoberfest.

So to make it easier, we've put together this handy list of rules and tips to remember for Oktoberfest 2009.

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