We can barely stretch a buck, let alone a Euro, so we were excited to see the New York Times' practical travel guru, Michelle Higgins, take a stab at surviving the exchange rate.
Mostly, though, her tips are no-brainers: Fly coach and pick a budget carrier, use mass transit and heck, pack dinner instead of lunch. As usual, we found the down-and-dirty commenters had some pretty valuable tips of their own.
We've all be trapped between the incessant talker and the guy with a stinky sandwich. Marathon flights across the country or across the sea guarantee obnoxious seatmates. You can forget the friendly skies, and forget catching some Zs. You're lucky to make it to drink service holding onto your sanity between a screaming kid and the woman eager to become your new best friend.
But this weekend's NY Times Travel section has got the tips you need to avoid the hassle, get a decent seat, and if you're lucky, even enjoy a little shut eye.
Want a taste of the Gray Lady's advice? Reporter Michelle Higgins says to take the road less traveled (we're pretty sure she borrowed that advice from some guy named Robert Frost), and book your flights on unexpected routes. Or better yet, be a guinea pig on new flights to new locations.
If all else fails? Stuff in the ear plugs, pull down the eye mask, and keep your fingers crossed that the guy with the B.O. isn't seated next to you.
This weekend's New York Times travel section was all about photography, and after wading through the personal essays and self-indulgent itineraries, we learned some things about the gaggle of photosharing sites out there on the Interwebs.
Writer Michelle Higgins breaks down the new offerings of sites like Flickr and SmugMug, notably their new geotagging capabilities. In other words, not only can you add descriptors like "over-hyped" and "under construction" to your photos of Six Columbus, you can also add it's address: "6 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019." Once your pics are tagged, you--or anyone else--can look them up on a map. Michelle had a really good take on how tourists could use geotagging:
Fans of graffiti can search the word, "graffiti," and "New York City," at Flickr.com/map, and pull up photos of freshly painted tags, all plotted with pushpins on a clickable Yahoo map. A search for "Dumbo Brooklyn graffiti," for example, finds some 99 photos, including the infamous "Neck Face" tag, spray-painted on a brick warehouse at Jay and Front Streets in Brooklyn. Try finding that in a guidebook.
We're still mystified why she didn't mention the Jaunted Flickr photo pool. It's chock-full of candid travel snaps. You have added your photos to our group, haven't you?
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by jnaw
