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Tags: Road Trips / Around The World Travel / Around the World / Dangerous Travel / Cars / → All Tags

The Ultimate Road Trip: AP Art Director Plans Around-the-World Drive

Taking the idea of the road trip to the extreme, an art director from the Associated Press is about to embark on an around-the-world driving adventure. Nicolas Rapp will be departing New York on November 15, 2009 and hopefully returning at around the same time in 2010 after having traversed more than 40 countries on his journey.

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Heading To A National Park? Leave Your Bear-Bait Minivan Behind

On your next road trip to one of the country’s national parks you may want to consider taking the Prius rather than the minivan. Scientists have revealed their findings from a recent study, and apparently bears love minivans and SUVs.

In an article published in this month’s Journal of Mammalogy we learn that black bears within Yosemite National Park prefer to steal some human snacks from the insides of larger cars. Researchers looked at data between 2001 and 2007 to see if there were any connections between over 900 car break-ins caused by black bears at the park. Almost half of the vehicles that were broken into were either minivans or SUVs.

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Where Will The Next Generation Of National Lampoon's 'Vacation' Go?

When we talk about the best road trip movie ever, nothing even comes close to the 1983 classic "National Lampoon's Vacation." You remember it: Clark Griswald drives his family from Chicago to California to have a family fun time at Walley World, but a million little hilarious obstacles occur along the route. The movie spawned sequels, like European Vacation, Vegas Vacation, Christmas Vacation, and even another sequel to Christmas Vacation. But apparently the world hasn't had enough of the Griswalds, and 26 years after the original, yet another sequel is in the works.

This time however, Clark (played by Chevy Chase) is staying home while his grown-up son Rusty, with kids of his own, strikes out on the American family road trip. David Dobkin, the director of "Wedding Crashers" is expected to at least produce, if not direct, the new movie. Right now, the ultimate destination of the road trip hasn't been named, but we have a few ideas of where the Griswalds might be heading this year century...

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Tags: Road Trips / Las Vegas / Las Vegas Travel / San Diego Travel / VegasChatter / Lists / → All Tags

Jaunted's Top Three Tips For A Desert Road Trip To Las Vegas

To save some bucks and see some great desert scenery, road trip it to Las Vegas from California. It's a great last-minute-getaway option instead of paying pricey plane tickets and bag fees, and another perk is that hotels like the Luxor and the MGM Grand offer free self-parking for guests. We recently made the six-hour trek from San Diego and came out better for it, thanks to some tips.

Jaunted's Top Three Tips For Road Tripping To Vegas:

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Tags: Rental Cars / Avis / Cars / Smoking / Travel News / Road Trips / → All Tags

Only A Few Days Left To Light Up In Your Rental Car

Anytime we have rented a car in recent memory, we were reminded early and often not to smoke in the car—even if it was just a PT Cruiser. We’re pretty sure that we had to sign something, and there was always that no smoking sticker right by the lighter where we plugged in our iPod. Apparently, smoking in your rental car is a vacation luxury that we missed out on, and now our time is severely limited.

On October 1, Budget and Avis will become the first two rental car companies to ban smoking in their rental fleet in North America. If you’re caught puffing away, you’ll get nailed with a cleaning fee of up to $250. Too bad they won’t ban fast food in their cars, as we are sick of soda stains in the seats and fries in every nook and cranny of the center console.

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Ohio Joins The E-ZPass Party For Seamless Midwest-To-East Coast Road Trips

Paying tolls on a road trip is a drag, but at least there’s E-ZPass to speed things up. With less time searching for change and waiting in line at the toll booth, there’s more time to stop at awesome roadside tourist traps. Thankfully, Ohio has finally caught up with the rest of the East Coast and Midwest as they are set to join the electronic toll collection network starting October 1.

Effective next week, the entire Ohio Turnpike will be able to take away your hard earned cash thanks to that little E-ZPass gizmo on your windshield. It cost the state $50 million to get everything ready to go if that makes you feel any better—so that’s what, like two weeks of toll collection to recoup the cost?

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Tags: Fall-Foliage-Map / Fall Foliage Travel / Fall Travel / Outdoor Travel / Road Trips / California Travel / Big Sur / → All Tags

There's Fall Foliage To Be Found On The West Coast Too

Think that all the east coasters and Parisiennes get to have all the leaf-peeping fun? Think again, because even the leaves in California have to change, and there's no better excuse for a daytrip than catching the color along the dramatic Big Sur Highway, also known as Highway 1.

As California's answer to Italy's Amalfi Coast, Big Sur is like a true scenic road trip, complete with steep rocky cliffs, impressive span bridges, blue water, and lots of greenery. Drives like this warrant the extra daily amount you'd spend on renting a convertible versus another Ford Focus.

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Chris Brown Becomes Roadside Attraction During His Community Service

Yesterday, we may have peeked in on Rihanna at the airport, leaving New York after a summer of roller coaster riding and performing at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, her ex and convicted domestic abuser Chris Brown has been enjoying a little vacation of his own; a road trip of sorts.

As his sentencing for beating up Rihanna many months ago, Brown must serve 180 days of community service. He just recently began his work near his home in Virginia, and they've assigned him to the roadside clean-up crew. Although he may not be in the same spot every day, since they can have him "washing government cars, picking up trash and cleaning up graffiti," so long as he's still a roadside attraction, he'll be a popular stop for Virginia road trippers.

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'Naked Chef' Jamie Oliver Goes Carbon-Neutral For New Travel Show

Yes, you are allowed to ask why in tarnation is Naked Chef Jamie Oliver dressed all of the Village People, all at once. The Photoshop job is actually to promote the British debut of his new travel show, "Jamie's America," where the famous TV chef skips from England to the US for a road trip through the various foods of yankee social groups.

In case you're not interested in watching yet another personality hobnob with locals around the country, trying their homefried chicken, then perhaps you'll be more intrigued by what the show is looking to do: become the first carbon-neutral travel television show.

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Brits On An American Road Trip: Five Top Tips

Planning a road trip? HotelChatter contributor London Town is on one from LA to New York at the moment. Some top tips from a week on the road…

Don’t plan ahead too far
On our last road trip, we planned our stops by the day, which made for guilt aplenty when we made unscheduled stops, and crazy-fast driving to make up the time. This time, we’ve sussed out accommodation options for where we want to be, and where we’ll likely be, and called from the road in the afternoon. As a result, we’ve had plenty detours and we’re all the better for it (if a week behind schedule).

Don’t rely on GPS
Yesterday, we asked our GPS to take us through Texas from Abilene to Austin, via Crawford, to stalk George Bush. It swore that the fastest route would go on the interstate through Fort Worth and take nine hours. Luckily, we looked at a map that showed that that would be like doing two sides of a triangle, ditched the GPS and went cross country. It took five hours.

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Tags: Dublin Field Trip / Ireland Travel / Dublin / Road Trips / Driving / → All Tags

'Stay Left!' And Other Tips For Driving in Ireland

All this week, Jaunted contributor CMB will be giving us notes on her Dublin Field Trip. Any questions or suggestions? Let us know.

Returning from our trip to Ireland last week, everyone wanted to know, “what’s the biggest difference between Ireland and the U.S.?” Here it is, drum roll please… they drive on the left. Disappointed? Yeah, we were too but it is a major difference and a tricky one for Americans in tiny rental cars. Luckily for you, we made plenty of mistakes driving on the wrong side of the road so that now you can learn from them.

First, even in if you rent a GPS with your rental car (they run around €5 a day), buy a map; better yet, buy two maps, one for the whole country and a separate one of Dublin. For whatever reason, the GPS always seems to go rogue at the worst possible time so it’s a good idea to have a backup plan.

Most rentals in Ireland are manual transmission. You will pay more for standard transmission but if that is what you drive at home, buck up and pay the extra money. It is difficult enough pulling out of the airport trying to remember what lane to be in, let alone trying not to stall, this is no time to be cheap. Outside of Dublin, there are roundabouts everywhere, remember traffic coming from the right-hand side has the right of way.

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From The Swedish Road Trip Dept.: Buy Your Volvo Here and Get a Free Vacation

Formerly boxy, now looking cooler and always safe, the Swedish automobile miracle that is the Volvo – aka the official car of the European Union - is very keen to persuade you to visit Sweden.

The tourism attack being put on by Volvo is two-pronged – and the first involves actually buying your own Volvo. This won't suit everyone, obviously, but if you're in the market for a new Volvo and you live in the US, you can order one direct from Sweden, save around 8 percent on the price, and then get a free vacation in Sweden.

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