Tag: Landmarks

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This Trip Costs $1.5 Million and Takes Two Years to Complete

March 25, 2013 at 9:24 AM | by | Comments (0)

Lately we’ve been featuring some ideas on where to spend your tax refund, but this one might just be the best option out there. However, this assumes that you pulled some shenanigans with your taxes, because we’re pretty sure no one scores this much cash back from Uncle Sam.

VeryFirstTo is a site that sells all kinds of luxury goods, experiences, and other designer niceties. While we do think their $2,400 Oliver Ruuger umbrella is worth every penny (sike!), it’s the vacation package that we have our eyes on.

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We Want to Go to There: The Giant Roller Coaster Staircase

November 15, 2012 at 2:08 PM | by | Comment (1)

Is it a roller coaster? Is a staircase? Um, well, what you see above is actually a combination of both. Oh, and it's also an artwork.

Blog Spot Cool Stuff spotted this...cool stuff...and now we're obsessed.

Sitting in the German town of Duisburg, about an hour outside of Düsseldorf, this interactive sculpture encourages the public to get up and walk its rails. There'll be no roller coaster cars barreling down the track towards you, as the entire thing consists of good old steps. In fact, the piece's name, "The Turtle and Tiger," plays with this:

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Lady Liberty is Just Another Victim of Hurricane Sandy

November 6, 2012 at 10:28 AM | by | Comments (0)

Before Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy roared into the area last week, the Statue of Liberty was just recovering from her most recent nip-and-tuck. Her interior visitor areas were closed for about a year for the extensive renovation and upgrade, but now it looks like the Statue of Liberty is closed for business once again as a result of the recent weather.

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After Decades of Delays, NYC's Newest Park is Ready for Picnicking

October 18, 2012 at 9:35 AM | by | Comments (0)

It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like New York City’s newest memorial is finally ready for the masses. It may be decades overdue, but yesterday officials cracked the champagne bottle over the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, right in the middle of the East River.

Designed by Louis I. Kahn long before his death, the project was kind of in an off-again-on-again situation for many, many years. The finished park sits right at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island—of course—smack dab between Manhattan and Queens. In total the new memorial takes up a good chunk of real estate, as it’s about four acres surrounded with around 120 trees.

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Road Tripping to the 12 Apostles Down the Great Ocean Road

October 10, 2012 at 5:43 PM | by | Comment (1)

Let's take a trip—a road trip. Most of our stories have a common theme revolving around airports and planes and seats and in-flight meals...but this one's about driving. It's the good ol' fashioned American road trip with one caveat: this one takes place in Australia. We're heading way South to the Great Ocean Road to stand amongst the 12 Apostles.

Functioning as the world's largest war memorial, the Great Ocean Road is in remembrance of the ANZAC (Australia/New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers who fought for freedom in World War I. The returning soldiers were tasked with building a road to serve as a link to smaller coast towns for the timber industry and tourism.

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The Daytripper's Quickie Guide to Belfast

August 31, 2012 at 1:53 PM | by | Comment (1)

Although most people associate Belfast with war and strife, the city is one of the UK’s hidden treasures. Though there are reminders of The Troubles throughout the city, there are also charming cafes and gorgeous local landmarks that you can enjoy in a way less crowded atmosphere than London or Dublin. The compact nature of the city also means that you can fit a lot into one day. If you only have 12 hours to spend in Belfast, here are a couple of places you can’t miss:

Common Grounds Café
In a place like Belfast, the name Common Grounds is no coincidence. The peace-centered café is also a nonprofit that gives away money to organizations that fight poverty around the world. You can get coffee, tea, or a can’t-miss cinnamon scone, then follow the café on Facebook to find out where the cost of your breakfast went.

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Even Singapore's Famous Merlion Statue Goes on Vacation

Where: Singapore
August 16, 2012 at 12:54 PM | by | Comments (0)

The Merlion. It's arguably the most iconic bit of Singapore, a statue that practically protects the city from the famed Marina Bay. Tourists flock to see the Singaporean symbol and, of course, get their photos in front of it while it continually spouts water into the bay.

Standing on the banks of the marina and in the shadow of the skyscrapers, the Merlion marks where the city began. Its mythical animal figure—a head of a lion and body of fish—hearkens back to when the metropolis was a mere fishing village called Singapura, meaning "lion city" in Sanskrit.

In all there are 5 such statues around the city, but the original is large and in charge, located in Merlion Park just in front of the historic Fullerton Hotel.

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More Ways to Get Vertigo Coming to the Seattle Space Needle

June 21, 2012 at 8:57 AM | by | Comments (0)

When you think of Seattle, you're probably likely reminded of the rainy weather, Starbucks, and probably the Space Needle. Well the city isn’t doing anything about the weather and Starbucks is here to stay; however, they are looking to upgrade the city’s most famous architectural icon in hopes of scoring a few more tourist dollars.

Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but officials are prepping a plan to add some kind of unique observation deck to the city’s tower. In celebration of the needle’s 50th birthday, The Space Needle would like to add three glass cubes to the structure high in the sky.

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An Awesome Day on Bali: Stumbling upon the Starbucks Temple

April 24, 2012 at 12:02 PM | by | Comments (0)

BALI. For some, the word conjures up images of infinity pools, surfing beaches and tropical temples. For others, it's a nightmare of topless tourists and sweaty sightseeing. Well, we just got back ourselves and we, with the help of tips from friends and locals, did something in between...something that turned out to be awesome. Put on the SPF, hire a car* and join us this week as we reveal an An Awesome Day on Bali (Jaunted-style).

Our awesome day on Bali continues with a wander around Jalan Raya Ubud (Ubud's main street) and a visit to the Pura Taman Saraswati temple behind Starbucks (yes, Starbucks)..

Alright, so now that you've breakfasted at Biku, it's time to hop in that private car* and hightail it almost two hours north into the cultural heart of Bali, in the town of Ubud. We recommend going there in the morning, because the afternoon brings the tour buses and floods the sidewalks (already barely wide enough for one) and many, many temples with vacationers who stop, stare, photograph, bargain for tchotchkes and sweat down the backs of their T-shirts.

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Even the Space Shuttle Gets Delayed When Trying to Land at JFK

April 23, 2012 at 9:16 AM | by | Comments (0)

The Space Shuttle is on the move during its retirement, and most recently one of the shuttles hitched a ride atop a modified Boeing 747 to be delivered to Washington, DC. Before its delivery, the piggybacked plane with the shuttle on top did some fancy flying around the nation’s capital, with dips and dives through the city and near some pretty famous monuments. Well now it’s New York’s turn to get its very own shuttle, but unfortunately even NASA and the Space Shuttle aren't immune to weather and airport delays in New York.

Today was supposed to be the day for Enterprise, but it looks like today’s rainy and windy weather will postpone things. We’ve been there before, so we feel for the pilots and crew transporting the shuttle from Washington, DC up to the Big Apple. At least they won’t be stuck at the airport watching the satellite weather feed with spotty WiFi and limited seating.

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The Metal Castle in the Middle of the World: Bangkok's Loha Prasat

April 4, 2012 at 1:21 PM | by | Comments (0)

Just in time for the Thai festival of Songkran, we're sharing a secret favorite Bangkok spot with you...

Imagine the world as a maze—one of those thickly bordered, medium-difficulty mazes from the pages of Highlights—and though the paths dead end at various destinations, there still has to be something in the very center. Whatever it is has been sitting there your whole life, waiting for your travels to eventually loop around enough so that, one day, you are there with the sense that all along, the world has been twiddling its thumbs in anticipation for this moment.

I've had pages and pages of such mazes in my travel history, but none so literal as the journey I made through Bangkok, Thailand to reach the Loha Prasat, or "metal castle."

The Loha Prasat usually doesn't get much of a mention (if one at all) in guidebooks. In fact, I only knew about it from a haunting description in a novel I read months before even setting off for Bangkok. The memory of the pencilled underline of the passage popped up on what was one of my final days in Bangkok, and I set out armed only with a screen shot of Google Maps on my iPhone.

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The Four Most Annoying Tourist Photo Poses

Where: Santiago, Chile
February 20, 2012 at 1:20 PM | by | Comment (1)

So you want a photo of yourself in front of [insert name of famous international landmark], but you're not sure how to pose. Smile and snap? Jump up and do the mid-air thing? A casual lean? Whatever you do, don't do these, the four most annoying tourist photo poses of all time. We've spent this week in Santiago, Chile forcing our friend, Jared Hatch, to act them out...solely for illustrative purposes of course. Enjoy.

The Peace Sign:
Most commonly seen among packs of Asian tourists, the Peace Sign has managed to spread worldwide, infecting even suburban American teenagers posing for souvenir theme park photos. Our belief is that it originated from the desire to "do something with your arms" in a photo, and not look so awkward. Unfortunately, unless you're a cute and young girl, it usually ends up pretty awkward.
The photo: An elephant at Santiago's Zoologico Metropolitano

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