TRAVEL NEWS

Your VPN – Don’t leave home without it

When traveling, you should never forget to pack the one item that can keep your personal data and online activities safe: a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN is an application that runs on any computer or phone, encrypting your data and hiding your location. That way, it’s much more difficult for unauthorized individuals to…

Amsterdam seeking to more closely regulate tourism growth and nuisance

Amsterdam is making a major push to rid the city of its reputation as a hub for excess. The Dutch government’s latest proposals are aimed at curbing bad tourist behavior, particularly around drugs, alcohol, and sex. The measures include limiting the number of river cruises, introducing earlier closing times for bars, clubs, and window brothels,…

10 Tips for Travelers Who Love to Cruise with a Camera

If you’ve ever used a Kodak Retina folding camera or a Rolleiflex twin-reflex, you’ve been obsessed with photography for a long time. Retinas were to Eastman Kodak what Cadillac was to General Motors. For 55 years, from 1934 to 1969, these German-made 35mm folding bellows cameras were at the top of the camera food chain.…

You’d Better Watch Out – Krampus is Coming to Town

You’d better watch out. Krampus is an iconic creature of Central and Eastern Alpine folklore in Europe. During the Advent season, he is said to visit children who have misbehaved to scare them into changing their ways. Most commonly, Krampus is depicted as a horned figure with a demonic face, long tongue, and cloven hooves.…

In Search of Winter Sun

Brrr, it’s getting cold outside! The temperatures are dropping, the days are getting shorter, and keeping warm inside the house has become a top priority. But fortunately for travelers who are seeking a winter vacation, there are destinations where temperatures are well above freezing.  So, where can you go? Well, there are five continents to…

Why travel advisors are back in vogue

Here’s a fact seldom discussed when the topic of travel agents arises. When the airlines began cutting commissions to travel agents in the mid-90′s, the real problem wasn’t commissions. No, the airlines had another reason for wanting travel agents out of the picture. Travel agents told clients how to obtain the lowest fare. Call American…

The Eternal Mystery: The Statues of Easter Island

Here, the winds speak. And the spirits speak if you listen for them. Lying 2,300 miles away from Chile, the country that governs it, it’s the most remote populated island on Earth. The nearest populated “neighbor” is Pitcairn Island (yes, that Pitcairn Island, of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame), in the South Pacific – 1,300…

Turkey – tea with the locals

Yes, the British and the Japanese have their tea customs and rituals, and I wouldn’t want to take away from the special nature of either of those cultures. But if I had to choose where I would most like to have a cup of tea with the locals, it would be Turkey. Tea shops are…

The greatest wildlife show on earth

Africa’s great migration. Photo by Herd Tracker The annual migration of almost two million wildebeest across the Serengeti is the most spectacular wildlife show on Earth. It’s an amazing sight, with animals filling the vast plains of Africa from horizon to horizon, following an instinctive, primal pattern in the Great Migration. Walking for months as…

Roving Iceland’s Golden Circle

Midnight in Reykjavik It’s just after midnight on June 21st, and I’m standing on the street outside the Reykjavik pub from which I have just emerged.  The sky above is clear and bright.  Perhaps not as bright as when I went into the pub three hours ago but, then again, neither am I. In the last…