Jaunted

Travel Guides / Vikings / Arthur Frommer / Books / Guidebooks / Grjotgard / → All Tags

Attention Medieval Vikings: Visit Skotland At Your Peril

The modern travel guidebook genre is usually traced to Arthur Frommer's seminal 1957 book Europe on 5 Dollars a Day, but tips on making the most of your time abroad have been published in some form or another for centuries. A 13th century Viking travel guide, for example, highlights some of the potential pitfalls of visiting Scotland. A nifty story in the Telegraph points out that the Norse Vikings, as fierce as they may have been, were no match for some of the rougher tribes of Scotland and Ireland, who were said to butcher invaders on arrival.

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Technology / Flickr / Travel Guides / Travel Gear / → All Tags

Scientists Milk Flickr Archives for Sweet, Sweet Tourism Data

We've already tried to sell you on the virtues of Google Earth as a trip companion, but now a new study by a group of Cornell scientists promises to take the idea of web-assisted travel planning to a qualitatively higher level.

As part of developing and demonstrating new algorithms for photo analysis, the scientists downloaded over 35 million Flickr images from more than 300,000 users. They then analyzed and compiled the photos in all kinds of mindbogglingly complex ways, before finally doing a bunch of datamining to come to some high-falutin, scientific conclusions about our travel photography habits.

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Rick Steves / Travel Guides / Travel Shows / Iran / Books / → All Tags

The Appreciation: Rick Steves

After I graduated from college in 1992, I moved to Latvia for a couple of years to do the expat thing. As I criss-crossed the continent in search of further adventures, I held my trusty copy of Let's Go: Europe close, relying on it to point me toward the best hostels, museums, and cheap restaurants. Let's Go served me well, and I won't speak ill of it, but when a fellow backpacker shared with me an early copy of Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, I never looked back. I felt Steves' Back Door guides not only contained better practical information, but helped me become a better traveler myself.

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Travel Guides / New York Curiosities / Weird Travel / → All Tags

Weird Travel: Uncover the Empire State's Oddities with New York Curiosities

Journalist Cindy Perman's new book, New York Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, and Other Offbeat Stuff, probably has a lot of area travel writers smacking their foreheads and wishing they'd thought of it first. After all, she got to spend the better part of a year crisscrossing the state and checking out some of the most interesting and unusual people, places, and things it has to offer.

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Travel Guides / Where's Waldo / Eurail / Let's Go / → All Tags

Where's Waldo? Probably Eurailing and Enjoying a Beer

Waldo, the elusive traveler made famous by the Where's Waldo? book series, is turning 21 years old on Sunday, September 21, 2008, marking a coming-of-age for the bespectacled young man whose knit cap and red-and-white striped shirt blend in all too well in crowd scenes around the world. To celebrate the milestone, Waldo's bosses are launching FindWaldo.com, which has reports from Waldo's latest travels, a variety of Waldo games and activities, and links to Waldo pages on social networking sites.

Sensing a connection with Waldo's college-aged peers, the Let's Go guidebook series is providing a blog of travel tips on the site, with pointers on places Waldo is likely to visit as he sows his wild oats across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Have a good time, Waldo. Just don't live it up so hard that you can't live it down.

[Photo: WheresWaldo.com]

Related Stories:
· FindWaldo.com [Official Site]
· Elusive Waldo Turns 21 [USA Today]
· Travel Guide Coverage [Jaunted]

Guidebooks / Travel Guides / Travel Writing / Travel Media / → All Tags

Share Your Travel Scam Stories for Cash and Fame

If you cashed a check for a Nigerian prince and you're still waiting on that payout, then have we got an offer for you!

World Swirl Press is looking for stories related to all kinds of travel misfortunes. If you've been pick-pocketed, scammed by your travel agent, kidnapped or were positive that he was a she or she was a he, then they want to hear from you. You'll even get paid if your story is selected, but just how much hasn't yet been decided.

Don't forget the details, as they want to know about every little miserable misfortune of your personal travel hell. If you've got a winner just bop on over to their site and submit away. They're accepting stories through the end of this year and hope to go to print sometime in 2009.

Related Stories:
· World Swirl Press [Official Site]
· Travel Writing coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jepoirrier]

Lonely Planet / Guidebooks / Travel Guides / Bars / → All Tags

Lonely Planet Not Exactly Inspiring Sympathy

In the wake of Thomas Kohnstamm abusing them for publicity, Lonely Planet has decided to show how classy an outfit it is with... a recipe for world-class pub crawls?!

We know most of the people who are dumb enough to tote an LP guidebook--besides those nice new National Parks guides of course--will probably rate getting wasted in a foreign pub as the greatest thing ever. But do lager louts really deserve a play-by-play?

For a great pub crawl, you need a few ingredients:
· a city with pubs in profound proximity
· a forgiving transport environment (you don't want cars bearing down on you as you stumble towards your goal)
· good weather (try crawling on ice--not fun!)
· an established drinking culture (you don't want to be the boorish outsider who's annoying the locals)

There you have it, Lonely Planet-carrying tourists: No boorish outsiders, please!

Related Stories:
· World's Greatest Pub/Bar Crawls? [LP]
· One Travel Writer, at Least, Might Just Go to Hell [Jaunted]
· Lonely Planet coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Kirstysplodge]

Lonely Planet / Guidebooks / Travel Guides / Colombia Travel / → All Tags

One Travel Writer, at Least, Might Just Go to Hell

Uh-oh. Guide book writers tell lies. Not a big surprise to us, but poor Lonely Planet must be decidedly unimpressed by what former author Thomas Kohnstamm has said in his soon-to-be-released book Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?

LP must surely be wishing that Kohnstamm would go to hell, because he's claiming, among other things, that he wrote a guide book to Colombia without ever setting foot in the country. He claims he wrote the guide in question from his base in San Francisco, getting info from a girl he was dating who happened to be interning at the Colombian consulate.

The story goes that Lonely Planet--and probably a whole heap of other guide book companies--don't pay their writers enough to actually research everything that needs to go into a book, and their policy is not to accept any freebies. Whether this news goes down as a "we can't trust Lonely Planet" or a "Kohnstamm's a big cheat with a newly released book to sell" story remains to be seen, but if you're heading to Colombia, perhaps some other guide book might be a better choice?

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet Reeling After Author's Fraud [news.com.au]
· Lonely Planet Writer Doesn't Bother Going to Colombia [Lost Weekend]
· Lonely Planet Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Blacknell]

Language / Languages / Travel Guides / Phrasebooks / → All Tags

Just One Look: Lingolook Flashcards

We're always on the lookout for the next travel tidbit that's going to ease our trip. If you're headed abroad for a holiday getaway in France, China or Japan, look into getting yourself some spiffy Lingolook Flashcards. The size of a passport, Lingolooks offer travelers the most useful phrases to help them get by in a language that might not necessarily be their native tongue.

The cards are double-sided and fan out neatly in your hand, making them discreet enough to carry, but easy enough to refer to if you get really stuck.

Inspired by a moment when they were lost in Japan, Lingolook's founders realized that asking strangers for help from a 10-point font guidebook on the street is, well, just awkward. The cards are easy to understand and you'll likely remember the 75+ included phrases quicker too.

Buy a set for $12, and you'll also get a free e-version, which is perfect for displaying on Blackberries, iPhones and PDAs. Italian and Spanish versions are on the way in '08. Just imagine, you'll blend right in with the locals--at least linguistically.

Related Stories:
· Lingolook Flashcards [Official Site]
· Me No Wanna Speak Chinese [Jaunted]
· Languages coverage [Jaunted]

Websites / Pubs / Bars / Travel Guides / → All Tags

Trust the Swiss to Find You a Pub

A bunch of Swiss computer geeks who also love their pubs are about to launch a website that they think will change our traveling lives. Or at least that part of traveling which involves finding a pub that suits our tastes.

Localina aims to use a database of 100,000 bars, pubs and clubs from across the world along with international Location Scouts to help match you to your kind of pub. That means that you can input the details about your favorite local pub back home, plus the destination you're traveling to, and it will spit back a recommended pub to match your taste.

It's reminiscent of Amazon.com's attempts to recommend books, CDs or DVDs you might like, judging by your previous taste, and it might just work. Sounds great in theory, but we're a bit wary. If you travel to another country and end up sitting in a pub just like your local, maybe it would've been easier if you'd just stayed at home?

Related Stories:
· Finding a New Local Pub Gets Easier [Ananova]
· Localina [Official Site]

[Photo: formfaktor]

Lonely Planet / Travel Guides / Guidebooks / → All Tags

Encounters On Our Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet's busily launching another slant on their popular travel guides with the Encounters city guide series. A bunch have just been released, including Barcelona, Hong Kong, London and Las Vegas.

The big slogan for the Encounters series is "Discover twice the city in half the time": yep, they're aimed at busy travelers, short breakers and anyone who gets bored fast. Lonely Planet calls these people "urban adventurers" but that seems to be taking things a step too far. The new guides feature a pull-out map and a schedule of festivals and other events that get a city shaking.

We accept that some people really do only have "half the time" to spend in a city, but it sounds a bit like these guides will push you to an "attraction one, click, attraction two, click" snapshot travel mentality. And surely urban adventurers are guys who abseil down skyscrapers, not ones that rush around following the pull-out map?

[Photo: Lonely Planet]

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet's Little Nations [Jaunted]
· Lonely Planet's Cities Book [Jaunted]

Travel Guides / DK Eyewitness / Travel Contests / Travel Giveaways / → All Tags

DK Eyewitness Wants To Send You On A Pretty Trip

DK Eyewitness, king of pretty, giant glossy travel guides, has re-launced their website.

The new site allows for you to make your own travel guide, picking and choosing from destinations and locations, and have the resulting travel mashup guide bound and sent to you via snail mail. Cool.

To kick off their re-launch the company is running a £10,000 dream trip contest.

To enter the competition, simply choose 5 dream destinations. Then follow the instructions to submit your choices in the drawing. YOu will also have to subscribe to the sites newsletter to get a chance at the dream trip.

To get you in the mood for both St. Patrick's Day and the DK Eyewitness contest we have added one of those pretty photos we were talking about above.

Contest ends March 31, 2007.