Travel writing not only has the potential to compete with novels on literary merit, but to excel. After all, it’s potentially got everything: exotic locations, true adventure, multiple story lines, peak emotion, honest reflection, and poetic insight… for starters. So why is most of it—in short (magazine) form, anyway—so bad? Follow the money. No other literary genre is expected to sell peripheral products—tickets and tours and gear and (gulp) insurance—in addition to magazines and books.
“How much onion?” “It says about half.” “A half, a whole; onions are good for you. Let’s use the whole onion.” “It says a teaspoon of paprika.” “This looks like about a teaspoon.” And so it went. One of us chopped, one sautéed, another mixed. All the tools were there, all the ingredients ready to go. And so we created. The Wine Council made the perfect dishes to pair with some outstanding wines from the La Rochelle and Steven Kent Wineries. Three hours, six dishes, six wines. A trul
When New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui (right) fractured his left wrist making a catch in 2006, the Japanese baseball star apologized (!) to teammates and fans, promising he would do everything possible to heal as quickly as possible. Or even more quickly than possible. And he would not let pain or the rigors of rehabilitation stand in his way.
Ganbatte! Persist! Do your best! Many parents, teachers, coaches, and office managers in Japan exhort their charges to work hard, to be determi
The Central Pacific region of Costa Rica is one of my favorite places in the country. Glittering jade and turquoise on the Pacific Ocean, Manuel Antonio is the Central Pacific’s crown jewel of destinations.
Why is this area so intensely popular? Easy. You can find so many of Costa Rica’s top activities and attractions all in one jaw-dropping, gorgeous place. Thick, verdant rainforest spills down steep hillsides to white sand beaches and the azure Pacific Ocean. A scalloped coastline begets coves,
Buddhist cave art was first developed in China during the Northern Wei Dynasty around 400 A.D. The thousands of caves held temples and intricately detailed statues of Buddha and his disciples that ranged in size from the length of a finger to the size of four story building. The carving frenzy continued until the Song Dynasties hundreds of years later. Once a place for worship, these caves are now a major destination for art fans and history buffs from around the world. Of the surviving caves, t
Kos forms part of the Dodecanese archipelago and is the third largest island after Rhodes and Karpathos. It is actually the result of a range of mountains sinking, following a colossal seismic shift back in the distant past. The nearby islands of Kalymnos and Nyssiros share the same origin, being remnants of the same mountain ridge.
The lovely climate, with the sun shining all year round, and above all the beautiful beaches, make Kos one of the most appealing destinations for travelers.
The
Gapping season has arrived, and adventurers from across the globe are now looking forward to twelve months of unabated thrill seeking on distant shores. According to Acacia Africa, a growing number of independent backpackers are opting to add in a group tour – overland expeditions, voluntours, and small group safaris proving popular with gappers.
Arno Delport, Sales & Marketing Manager for Acacia Africa comments, “Social networking has played a huge part in this trend, and it’s no longer group e
Costa Rica posee 27 parques nacionales, 58 refugios, 32 áreas protegidas, 15 humedales pantanosos, 11 reservas forestales y 8 reservas biológicas. La totalidad de territorio protegido representa el 25% de su extensión geográfica completa. Un lugar especial dentro de estos lo ostenta la Reserva Natural Absoluta de Cabo Blanco. Esta forma parte del Área de Conservación Tempisque, en la provincia de Puntarenas. Cuenta con una superficie terrestre de 12,7 Km.² más 17,9 Km.² marinos. Fue la primera z
In a region where you wouldn’t find even a stray camel, naming a road after the ungulated dromedary should have been the work of some intrepid imagination. Or a distinct lack of it. During the British Raj both were in abundance. But whatever the Camel’s Back road lacks in nomenclature aptness, it makes up with sheer panorama. The four kilometres of clean air, good health or introspection winds serenely from Library Chowk to Kulri Bazaar in Mussoorie, the popular hill destination in the northern
The case involves Mr. Ziggy Hussain who runs the popular Ziggy's Spice House in downtown Halifax (Nova Scotia), Canada.
According to the Halifax Courier, TripAdvisor summarily removed 280 reviews after its "fraud detection system indicated suspicious activity."
The result: Hussain's restaurant was demoted from the number one position in the town to the bottom of the list. Worse, TripAdvisor actually claimed the restaurant was engaging in "criminal activities" by breaking the law in publishing fr
Estamos acostumbrados a ver fotos espectaculares de aviones. Ya sea en tierra, despegando, aterrizando, en crucero (volando en altitud de crucero), en hangares o en pistas, de día y hasta de noche, muchas veces nos sorprenden porque no somos capaces de averiguar desde dónde han sido tomadas.
Los spotters, son fotógrafos en su gran mayoría amateurs, cuyo hobby es el de fotografiar aviones. Para ello buscan los lugares más recónditos para tomar la mejor instantánea, normalmente desde los aerop
Quebrada de San Lorenzo Nature Reserve
By Roy Heale
The charming Villa San Lorenzo is located in the Lerma Valley at the foot of the Eastern Cordillera Andes foothills just on the edge of the city of Salta, Argentina. This leisurely village is a popular vacation destination where visitors can combine outdoor nature activities with city attractions nearby. Villa San Lorenzo offers a natural environment ideal for adventure tourism activities and eco-tourism in the mountain forest. Its landscape, m
Five decades ago, my Louisiana grandmother traveled to Wynola, minutes from Julian, to find one of her favorite, and rare, treats: pickled pig’s feet. Now, we can go to Jeremy’s on the Hill for gourmet, farm to table, house made pork sausage, pancetta, and other delectable meals.
Le Cordon Bleu
Cordon Bleu dining is heralded by the crest on the sign at Jeremy's on the Hill (www.jeremysonthehill.com), on Hwy 78 in Wynola, 4 miles north of Julian, California. Chef Jeremy Manly brings gourmet farm
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a beautiful small country in South Asia at the eastern ends of the great Himalayas. It is extremely popular among tourists because of its natural beauty, scenic landscapes, cultural features and architecturally beautiful monuments especially Buddhist temples, monasteries and Dzongs. You will see several architectural monuments including monasteries, Dzongs, fortresses, temples, chortens, gateways, etc through out the entire Bhutan. One of the One of the most prominent an
Back in 2004, I worked as a tour guide in Palestine (that shot at right is of Hebron, on the West Bank). My clients were, for the main part, politically engaged people of diverse backgrounds, mainly from Europe and the USA, who had been involved with Palestinian solidarity campaigning back home and wanted to see the situation for themselves.
Just a year before, Rachel Corrie had been crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer, and Tom Hurndall had been shot by an Israeli sniper, dying si
Osh Bazaar was a hive of activity. Endless arrays of fruit and vegetables, clothes and mops, electrical components and everything else the people of Bishkek could want were on offer. It also had a contingent of policemen, two of whom were watching me, though I didn’t know it at the time.
I spotted what I was looking for - a stand peddling kumis, fermented mare’s milk. Peering into the large urn, I mimed to the lady in charge that I’d like a cup of Kyrgyzstan’s national drink. After the usual con
If it were 25 years ago, you wouldn’t want to go to San Lucas Island. The small, forested island in the middle of Costa Rica’s Nicoya Gulf was the roughest jail in the country. Being sent to San Lucas Island was a terrible prospect; prisoners’ lives were short and often spent in torture.
Thankfully, today, the prisoners are gone and San Lucas Island has been transformed into a national wildlife refuge to protect the island’s ecosystem, its wildlife, the historic buildings of the penal colony, and
Here's another key question that I have been hearing a lot (both in emails and the comments on this blog) and give you a couple more examples of social proof (video testimonials). The question is this:
“What about traffic to my web site?”
In other words, how do you get people to your website?
This is a great question, and I am really pleased that so many of you are asking it – it shows that we have some really sharp readers. 
You see, in the beginning of the Internet, we were in the “build it and
In our second instalment of West Africa’s best adventure travel destinations, we explore Ghana, a Land of sunshine and reputed for the friendliness of its people. Rich in history, and home to the Ashanti Kingdom, a once prosperous and powerful dynasty, this country is a great place to start of in Africa due to its ‘user-friendliness’ and offers a great deal of opportunities for the demanding traveller looking for the next best beach, the most succulent dish, the intense cultural encounter, or th
It's official: gastronomy is overtaking gambling as Vegas' highest grossing attraction. Most of us want a sure bet these days and our palates rather than the comp card increasingly drive the buying decisions. Thanks to celebrity chefdom and farm-to-table ethos, our awareness of fresh ingredients and demand for exquisite dishes prepared by culinary artists has risen meteorically.
Venetian-Palazzo, a raging culinary flashpoint on the Vegas strip boasts the highest number of James Beard chefs togeth
