Blogs

Sitting among the bluffs of the Missouri River is the quaint little city of Weston. Now the streets are always bustling with tourists and shoppers making their way to shops such as the Celtic Ranch and the Bella Company. What a lot of people do not know is that the town of Weston has ties to the likes of Buffalo Bill Cody and descendants of Daniel Boone, and was once a major river port that supplied Fort Leavenworth.

Although business is booming in Weston it was not always the case. The Missouri

If you are like a lot of travelers – me included – you generally tend to plan where you are going on any trip, as far as location is concerned, and probably also where you will stay. And unless you are going somewhere for a specific activity, or on a planned itinerary holiday, you tend to leave the “what will I do” part until you get there.


That’s all well and fine, but it also means that you’re often left wondering how to get the best information on the top attractions, sights and tours in your

Yes, Bhutan is a happy place. I mentioned before that the government actually does a yearly census to evaluate the level of happiness and look for ways to make people even happier, now THAT is a wonderment.

I also mentioned that there is a US$250 “tariff” you must pay to visit Bhutan. This is actually a good deal because it includes everything except beer and souvenirs. So, it cost us a bit more  . That tariff is actually in place to keep Bhutan from becoming over run with back packers like what

The Mongol Run. Photo: The Adventurists

INTERVIEW: The Adventurists' press chief on adventures, 
risks, attitudes – and how to make the world less boring

ADVENTURE TRAVELS. A 15,000 kilometer drive from Europe to Mongolia in a crappy, practically worthless car. Or what about the Rickshaw Run, a “3,500 km pan-Indian adventure in a 7 horsepower glorified lawnmower”. Or why not try out the rock-hard Ice Run: A journey across a “frozen Siberian wilderness on old school Ural motorbikes to the only town

What do you think the most immediate post vacation activity is?

It’s not paying the bills, but is, in fact, posting photos to a social network: 76% of us do that first thing after we unpack.

Does this matter? Yes, because the travel business has never been better, says Hotel Marketing.com. The savvy web site predicts $162 billion in revenues for 2012, up 74% since 2007.

And Social Media is playing a major role in upping these numbers.

Consider, says Hotel Marketing, that more than half of al

What Is It: An oblong inflatable travel pillow designed to help you achieve some peace in a cramped coach seat.

Price and Where to Buy: I bought mine on Amazon for $26.95; the product is eligible for free Super Saver Shipping. You can also order it directly from on the Travelrest website for the same price, but you'll have to pay extra for shipping.

Pros: I have the ability to sleep on planes. I'm often in dreamland accepting a Pulitzer before the plane's wheels have folded back into the undercarr

Pull on your bobby sox, step into your saddle shoes, roll up those jeans and dig out those poodle skirts! It's time for Hot August Nights in Reno, Nevada.
Every year, Reno hosts one of the biggest and best car shows in the country. A 10 day extravaganza of cars, cruising and rock and roll!  Stand on any street corner in Reno or Sparks during those 10 days in August and it seems that just about every third car on the road is a classic, as participants and car enthusiasts roll through town from al

Never have I traveled to a place so unprepared.

I barely touched any guidebooks. Nor did I look up information online. Few of my friends had ever been to South Africa, and none that I knew of had been to Botswana. I'd been traveling long enough to not trust the media, or unverified word of mouth.

What little I knew came indirectly. Last summer, in Indonesia, at the sparse, overpriced bookstores, I found several cheap copies of Nelson Mandela's biography, Long Walk to Freedom. I read it just a few

Everywhere we went in this expedition across Asia, we felt quite welcome!

Our five weeks in Asia started in Kathmandu

We are lucky enough to be able to refer to this as our return to Kathmandu. Dear readers, you really need to be able to look beyond the obvious and not be distracted by the oblivious to enjoy this city. I will not belabor my love for Kathmandu, I explained it all in this post. In a city this old, in a country without a functional national government, nothing much changes so my two

Today’s travel agent is more akin to an advisor or consultant than the booking agent of the past.

Makes sense.

If you wanted to travel say to the mountain village of Chefchaouen, Morocco, in the Riff Mountains (enjoy the blue houses and weavers), then wanted to spend a few nights in Tunisia’s Sidi Bou Saidbefore heading for some Sahara Desert camping, which online sites would you use?

Probably none.

The smart thing would be to visit a travel agent with in-depth North African experience.

Are there any

Road trips the perfect travel format as far as I'm concerned. They give you flexibility and a glorious sense of independence and freedom. Whether you're driving across America like someone out of a Kerouac novel or touring Europe, driving is the way to go. But no road trip is ever complete without a matching soundtrack. A mix CD is the heart and soul of any half decent road trip. Here are some songs that need to be in any mix cd.

1. 500 Miles, The Proclaimers - The ultimate road trip song. It's

Costa Rica 
wins top tourism honors again! 
Costa Rica 
nabbed 
12 out of 25 spots 
for “Top 25 Destinations in Central America” in the
 2012 Trip Advisor Traveler’s Choice Awards. The internationally renowned travel web site gave 
Costa Rican establishments
 11 awards for “Top 25 Hotels in Central America.”
 And coming in at 
Number One for “Best Beach in Central America” is the country’s newly famous
Santa Teresa Beach! This makes it the second year in a row that Santa Teresa has placed in the

Before the Olympics started, I wondered here on tripatini if Londoners knew how lucky they are right now. Well, it seems having the torch relay in London the week before, then the spectacular opening ceremony, and finally landing in third place in the medals tally have brought some positivity to the masses. That and a break from the near continuous rain we had endured for months.

Me dancing in the opening ceremony

 
Team GB fans cheered up when we got our first gold in women's rowing on 1 August,

Free is good and in Annapolis the free things are great.  Check out eCruiser. Historic Annapolis is a walking city but when you don’t want to walk call the eCruiser. The fun, hip, and cool 100% Electric Low Speed Vehicles (LSV) are tourist and eco-friendly. Drivers work on “tips only.”  There is also the free Annapolis Circulator that will take people to a variety of locations in the city.

And, there are more cool things to do for free. Visit the Annapolis Museum near the City Dock and see the

Afrikaners (including the Boer subgroup) are a Germanic ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from Dutch (including Flemish), French and German settlers whose native tongue isAfrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages. Mainly Christian, Afrikaners developed in much the same way as the New England colonies in North America. The original South African Boer republics were founded on the principles of the Dutch Reformed Church

Back from a brief breather in London to attend Olympic festivities, candidates from both the Pro-Doily and the No-Doily parties are back on the Doily Decision 2012 campaign trail.  Going after one another with campaign ads and media appearances, the fight to the finish sees no sign of diminishing until the end.  B&B industry journalists and media are captivated by the duel of the doilies, speculating that contemporary styling will trump traditionalism at inns and B&Bs in Doily Decision 2012.

“It

Wayanad is a South Indian district in northeast Kerala. The name of a hill station, Wayanad derives from two words: Vayal Nadu. "Vaya" meaning field of paddy (rice), so the word "Nad" is a South Indian name for land. Lavish paddy fields and moreover other plantations like tea and coffee are a regular view in Wayanad. Even noteworthy are the mountains and moreover forests where a large number of diverse creatures live. Contributing to the beauty is the pleasantness of weather year-round.

A visit t

 So I was watching 60 Minutes or was it Dateline or was it 20/20 or Anderson Cooper 360 or are they all really one show about slightly different views on the same stories?

Yes, if all they write about are places they travel to.  It seems the traveling public is more interested these days in travel ideas, trends, travel news and technology, than in destinations.

Travel writers love to travel. That’s why most of them are in the business.

But it that the right reason?
I don’t think so.

Matador Notebook points out that the world is so thoroughly Googleized that the tradition of destination travel writers may be coming to an end.

Historically, authentic travel conte

For travellers bound for the Emerald Isle, picking up a car hire in Ireland can be a great way to explore, particularly if you wish to go out into the countryside and not be confined to a single location. Now, driving in Ireland can seem like a no brainer. After all, how different can it possibly be from driving in the UK? The main language spoken is the same, people drive on the same side of the road (the left!), and there's no reason to suppose that driving in Ireland would be any more difficu