Australia plans world’s largest marine park

by Grant Martin on

An area the size of Germany and France combined is about to become the world’s largest marine park off of the north-east coast of Australia. Including a broad swath of the Coral Sea (where the Great Barrier Reef currently resides), the massive area is home to some of the most exotic sea creatures in the world as well as several important shipwrecks from World War II.

The protection afforded from the creation of this park will guarantee that the floral, fauna and archaeological species will continue to thrive unhindered by manmade causes, and will almost definitely pave the road for further tourism in the region.

Announced late last week, the Guardian indicates neither name nor official boundaries for the park as of yet. The government of Australia will release further deals within ninety days.
Superlatives are a bit of a speciality for us at Gadling — there’s something tantalizing about hearing about most outrageous roller coaster or the largest pretzel stand or the drunkest airline passenger in the world. So when we heard that Australia is planning the worlds largest marine park, our fingertips started tingling. Australia — the land of furry creatures and meat pies is going to establish the largest marine park in the world. Awesome.

The area to be protected lies in the Coral Sea off the northeast coast of Australia, where the G

Pipilotti Rist’s innovative video installations give audiences an “Eyeball Massage”

by Jessica Festa on

Don’t worry, nobody will physically be touching your eyeballs. However, you will be taken on a unique sensory journey through dazzling color, perceptible images, and hypnotic music.

Until January 8, 2012, the work of Swiss Artist Pipilotti Rist will be featured at the Hayward Gallery in London in “Eyeball Massage“. Through this exhibit, viewers can see Rita’s work from the 1980’s to the present, including videos, sculptures, and installations. Spectators will see a lot of experimental video work that plays around with color, noise, and bleeds. With sculpture, Rist combines everyday objects with video and gives them life as well as a chance to tell their stories. Moreover, her art installations are not just splashes of color and pictures to look at but instead a parallel dimension that visitors will become immersed in. According to the event page, “Rist wants the exhibition to provoke feelings of energy, serenity and enlightenment, and hopes that her work makes visitors smile”.

For a preview of what you can expect check out this video. While there’s something a bit eerie and overwhelming to it, you can also appreciate the creativity behind it:


Deep discounts on luxury travel from Abercrombie & Kent

by Melanie Renzulli on




Have you always wanted to go on safari in Kenya, tour the colorful markets and Mughal palaces of India‘s Golden Triangle, or explore the mysterious Incan settlements of Peru and do so in style? Beginning on Cyber Monday, Abercrombie & Kent will begin its Six Days of Holiday Savings sale, during which 10 luxury trips of a lifetime will be on sale.

Starting at 9am CST on November 28 and running through 1pm CST on December 3, Abercrombie & Kent is offering substantial mark-downs on trips from Amsterdam to Tanzania. Some A&K luxury travel packages will be on sale at a 50 percent discount. The best deals are an 11-day tour of India priced from $2,455 per person (originally $5,595); a six-day journey to Peru and Machu Picchu from $2,395 (usually $5,095); and an eight-day Thailand temple trip priced from $1,660 (was $4,295). You can also choose from Paris in the spring (from $2,495 for six days), a five-day jaunt to Florence and Chianti (from $1,395), and five other “guided independent journeys” starting from $1,795.

All of the packages included in A&K’s six-day sale must be booked by December 3 and take place in spring 2012. So, your chance to become a luxury traveler – or to surprise a loved one with a truly one-of-a-kind gift – is just a click away this Cyber Monday. Visit abercrombiekent.com for details.

Stop motion travel through Google Street View

by Grant Martin on

Stop motion is always a creative way to mobilize inanimate objects in real time, and when you mix in the miracle of Google Street View there’s a clever story in the fold. In Address is Approximate, Vimeo user The Theory captures the lonely life of an office desk toy rekindled with the use of a few local props and a large screen monitor. It’s a beautiful product, and perhaps the best video that we’ve ever seen hosted at Vimeo. Nice work.

[Via Photographyblogger and Reddit]

One luxury and two budget hotels in Amsterdam

by Sean McLachlan on


Visitors to Amsterdam are spoiled for choice when it comes to hotels. From flea-bitten junky flophouses all the way up to five-star luxury accommodation, hotels in Amsterdam offer something for everyone. Picking one can be tricky, though. Here are three places I’ve stayed at.

The four-star Hotel Estheréa is a good choice if you want to splash out. Its location on a broad canal in Amsterdam’s historic district is perfect. The immediate neighborhood is packed with restaurants, bookshops, antique stores, the flower market, and a few laid-back coffeeshops. It’s much quieter than the neighborhood closer to Centraal Station but only a short tram ride away.

The interior of the hotel is brightly decorated and there’s a huge (and very trippy) fish tank in the lobby. The rooms are spacious by Amsterdam standards and many offer a beautiful canal view plus lots of amenities like a safe and voice mail. Service is excellent and there’s a hearty breakfast every morning in the dining room shown above. Rates run from 185 euros on up.

My only complaint about this place is that you have to pay for Internet.I don’t mind so much for hotels catering to business travelers since they’re just going to put it on expenses anyway. As far as I could see, though, the Hotel Estheréa mostly caters to tourists. There are two free computers in the lobby, but chances are you’ll have to wait to use them.On the cheaper end is the Hotel Hermitage Amsterdam at Nieuwe Keizersgracht 16. As the name suggests, it’s within sight of the Hermitage Museum Amsterdam, a wonderful art gallery with world-class exhibitions. The hotel–a converted old canal house–offers singles to quadruples and family rooms too. The rooms are on the small side as is common with in Amsterdam and there’s no elevator. Climbing steep Dutch stairs with a heavy suitcase is a bit of a journey! Prices range from 49 euros on up.

A short walk away on Prinsengracht 1051 is the ITC Hotel. This is slightly closer to the center of town and slightly older and more cramped than the Hotel Hermitage. If you’re not looking for luxury accommodation and don’t mind climbing some pretty steep stairs, this is a perfectly good hotel. It’s housed in a historic canal house and has a variety of rooms, not all of them en suite. The free internet is a nice plus. Prices range from 49 euros on up.

All of these hotels are close to tram lines and are on canals. I suggest you get a canal-side room because the views are lovely. If you do this, ask for a room on an upper floor because the canal side is the noisier side.

Don’t miss the rest of my series: Lowdown on the Low Countries.

This trip was partially funded by Amsterdam’s Tourism and Congress Bureau and Cool Capitals. All opinions, however, are my own.