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Tags: North Korea Travel / Travel News / Dangerous Travel / Package Tours / → All Tags
Start Planning Your North Korea 2010 Trip Now, Or Else
They won't take our advice, but they'll still take our money: Despite an absence of diplomatic relations between the countries, Americans can still travel to North Korea, so long as you go when they want you to go, and with whom.
Visiting North Korea is allowed only during the annual Mass Games involving thousands of North Koreans performing complicated choreography and moving into intricate patterns like a college marching band on steroids. The games are normally held August through October, during which Westerners can travel with a tour group—since the government will assign you an escort to make sure you only see the North Korea they want you to see. Now is the time to start planning and booking those trips.
Tags: Dangerous Travel / Cruises / Ships / Boats / → All Tags
Golden Princess Cruise Ship Makes A Daring Sea Rescue
We’ve got some more news from the Pacific Ocean, but this time it isn’t as successful or cool as those two dudes who decided to take a rowboat across the ocean. This story involves an ocean rescue and a couple of people that might want to reconsider their new career opportunities before they even began.
Two people from Seattle were rescued about 400 miles outside of Hawaii when their boat hit some rough seas last Friday. The winds were whipping and the waves were easily 40 feet high, and to make things worse, the two had to look after their dogs as well—don‘t worry they had life vests for their furry friends. Everything turned out well in the end as they signaled the Golden Princess cruise ship, and the vessel was glad to give them a lift. No word on whether they were allowed to eat in the dining room without formal attire.
Tags: War Zones / Dangerous Travel / Tourism Boards / Iraq Travel / Iraq Tourism Board / → All Tags
We Wouldn't Want to Work on the 'Visit Iraq' Ad Campaign
A Saddam Hussein-regime building along the water.
It might seem incredulous but in Iraq there is an actual working tourism board and even more unbelievable, they want you to visit. The BBC reports that the head of the Iraqi tourism board has attended the World Travel Market in London to promote the country as a new vacation destination.
"Tourism will help regenerate Iraq," says the tourist board chairman, Hammoud al-Yaqoubi. "We want to prove that Iraq still exists and maybe we can change people's minds about it."
In fact, there is one British company, Hinterland Travel, that has begun offering tours of Iraq in March and has at least five more planned through 2010. The company had to stop around 2003 because of escalating violence but today a nine-day tour in Iraq will cost you £1,600 per person.
Tags: Middle East Travel / Beirut Travel / Lebanon Travel / Dangerous Travel / → All Tags
Is Beirut The New Dubai Or The New East Timor?
Everyone wants to be on the edge of a comeback these days. The city of Beirut isn't releasing a new single or belatedly confiding in Diane Sawyer, but that hasn't stopped the Guardian from proclaiming that Lebanon's capital is "back... and it's beautiful." We'd feel guilty reading this objectifying headline in a different context, but we guess it's okay to do to a city.
Writer Carole Cadwalladr has a bit of history with the old lady, having written a guidebook to the country with her friend back in 1995. Now she declares it "the Elizabeth Taylor of the Mediterranean... if you replaced the words 'alcohol' with 'Israel' and 'a string of unsuitable marriages' with '15 years of civil war.'" That's a comeback? Oh wait, and it has two new hotels and the seal of approval of the New York Times, which is where the metaphor begins to fall apart.
Tags: Cruises / Oasis of the Seas / Cruising / Dangerous Travel / Royal Caribbean / Seasickness / Motion Sickness / → All Tags
New Oasis of the Seas Hits Monster Waves in First Transatlantic Crossing
The brand new, unbelievably huge Oasis of the Seas cruise ship has been rocked by some serious waves on its first voyage. As USA Today points out, the 5,400-passenger vessel encountered hurricane-strength winds and waves over 60 feet high in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. Fortunately for the cruise line, there aren't any passengers on board, as Royal Caribbean is merely transporting it from the shipyard in Turku, Finland to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for its inaugural cruise. But while many passengers would have likely gotten seasick, they wouldn't have been in any serious peril, as the ship has weathered the waves quite smartly. For maximum stability, Captain William Wright has slowed the world's largest cruise ship down and steered it head-on into the waves. He probably wouldn't admit it, but I bet he's having fun.
Tags: Superyachts / Megayachts / Hot Yachts / Yachting / Boating / Dangerous Travel / → All Tags
Somali Pirates to World: You Brought This On Yourselves
If you're like me, you can't wait for the winter yachting season to begin, but before you don your monocle and climb aboard your megayacht, you'd better plot your sun-seeking itinerary carefully. Just last week, pirates kidnapped a British couple from their yacht, the Lynn Rival, as they sailed off the coast of Somalia. As the AP points out, Paul and Rachel Chandler had been sailing to Tanzania when they activated their yacht's emergency beacon on November 23, 2009, and the British navy found their empty yacht on Thursday.
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.
Tags: Revolutionary War / American Revolutionary War / History Travel / Dangerous Travel / The British Are Coming / Getting Shot by a Cannon / Historic Reenactments / → All Tags
Revolutionary War Drags On as British Soldiers Blast Dude With Cannon in Upstate New York
Most people think the American Revolutionary War ended with the surrender of General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, but there appear to be a handful of British holdouts still battling from a fort in in upstate New York. As msnbc.com points out, an American tourist and his wife were recently shot by a British cannon as they enjoyed a picnic lunch on the southern shore of Lake George.
Tags: Dangerous Travel / Wild Animal Travel / Sharks / Cape Cod Travel / Beach Travel / → All Tags
Late-Summer Arrival To Cape Cod Beaches: Sharks!
After a quiet summer, the sharks are taking their revenge: The normally bucolic beaches of Cape Cod have been cruised by up to 20 sharks looking for a delicious seal dinner and scaring the living daylights out of the last summer's swimmers.
There has not been a fatal, unprovoked shark attack in U.S. waters since last year, and no attacks recorded this year in Massachusetts at all. But a seal colony in the town of Chatham, Mass. has caused the city to close their beaches indefinitely since Labor Day because great whites can't resist those baby seals—and both species are protected, so they can't be moved from their habitats anyway.
Tags: Weird Travel / Lists / Travel Boycotts / Dangerous Travel / Arthur Frommer / → All Tags
Top Five States Travelers Should Avoid Due To Crazy Laws
Topless shenanigans in New York City's Washington Square Park fountain
Last week, travel guru Arthur Frommer announced that he's boycotting travel to the state of Arizona on account of their lax gun laws.
Because of such (lack of) laws, protestors at an Obama speech were allowed to carry guns, including assault rifles, and Frommer worried about safety. Even some commenters piped in to talk about machete spotting in Arizona and another boycott of a rude and scam-ridden town in France.
Inspired and equally creeped out, we've compiled a Top Five list of some other states you can add to the boycott list on account of their crazy rules. While they might not be as disturbing as Arizona, there are nude boobs (SFW) and dead Senators involved. Enjoy and be sure to let us know if you've got a few more juicy ones to add.
Top Five States Travelers Should Avoid Due To Crazy Laws, after the jump.
Tags: Open Threads / Dangerous Travel / Arizona Travel / Arthur Frommer / Travel Boycotts / → All Tags
Frommer Announces Arizona Travel Boycott; Do You Agree?
Travel guru Art Frommer proclaimed on his blog recently that he's putting a moratorium on vacationing in Arizona because of its lax gun laws. To clarify his position, Frommer said he was alarmed that the state's gun statutes allowed about a dozen armed people, including one toting an assault rifle, to sit outside a place where President Obama was speaking to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He said:
I will not personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there. And therefore I will cancel any plans to vacation or otherwise visit in Arizona until I learn more.
Tags: Sharks / Killer Beaches / Animals / Dangerous Travel / Beach Travel / California Travel / → All Tags
Sharks Close Down Cali Beaches, But Not On Porpoise
For those planning to splish splash with their flippy floppies this weekend in Santa Cruz, the plans have changed. Apparently Shark Week just doesn't want to end, but instead of it being in high definition, it’s being played out for real off the coast of the Golden State.
This week, a hungry shark proceeded to nom nom nom on a porpoise. The poor porpoise washed ashore, and researchers are trying to figure out what kind of finned critter exactly was responsible for the attack. Obviously with beach visitors spotting sharks off shore, people are being kept out of the water.
