Outside magazine’s inaugural ‘Travel Awards’ winners

by Laurel Miller on

With twenty-three categories and every continent up for consideration, the competition is fierce, but today Outside magazine released its picks for its new Outside Travel Awards. The winners include everything from travel companies and locales to cameras, suitcases, hotels, and apps, road-tested by those in the know (you know, those people).

Amongst the chosen is Seattle-based Mountain Madness, a mountain adventure guide service and mountaineering school, for its new Tsum Valley trek in Nepal, named “Best Trip in the Himalayas.” Known in sacred Buddhist texts as the “Hidden Valley of Happiness,” the Tsum Valley lies on the edge of the more visited Manaslu Conservation Area, which opened just three years ago to tourism.

Best travel company Geographic Expeditions (GeoEx) has “consistently taken travelers to the most remote regions of the world, from Everest’s north side to Patagonia’s glaciers to the far reaches of Papua New Guinea. This year its trailblazing new terrain with a 27-day trek to the north face of K2 ($11,450).” Bonus: “the price of every GeoEx trip includes medical assistance and evacuation coverage from Global Rescue and medical-expense insurance through Travel Guard.” Not too shabby.

Also making the list: Myanmar is the “Best New Frontier;” Canon Powershot G-12 makes the “Best Camera;” the “Best New Adventure Lodge” is the Singular, outside of Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile; and the “Best Eco-Lodge” is the architectural marvel, The Mashpi in Ecuador.

[Photo credit: Flickr user tarotastic]

Photo of the Day: Horse in Torres del Paine

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, located at the southern end of South America, is the kind of place you romanticize when you think of wild, unspoiled nature. I’ve never been, but I have a vision in my head of towering pinnacles of rock, windswept fields of grass, and serene babbling brooks. It turns out the real thing is just as beautiful – Flickr user LeaningLeft snapped this wonderful shot of a horse bathed in sunlight, set against the park’s majestic mountain-scape.

Taken any great photos during your own travels? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

A story for tomorrow

by Grant Martin on

I will do little to distract from the beauty of this piece filmed throughout South America but to say that this is maybe the best travel video I’ve seen in the last year. It’s a combination of several things — the narrative is rich and well timed, the landscapes are beautiful and lush — but I think that the most important thing is the way in which it appeals to the traveler. In a way, we’re all looking for some sort of solution when we travel, and the joy and energy in this production seems to hint that there’s actually an answer somewhere out there. Personally, I’ll take this as justification to keep searching.

Hilton launches “Authentically Local” programs in the Caribbean and Latin America

by Libby Zay on

Can a mega-corporate hospitality chain with 3,750 hotels provide authentic local experiences to travelers? Select Hilton Worldwide hotels are giving it a shot with the just announced “Authentically Local” packages. Available through the end of the year in the Caribbean and Latin America, the packages are aimed at introducing travelers to local cultures and languages through experiences such as dinners featuring local flavors, dance lessons in the local style, destination and tour suggestions hand-picked by locals, and more. There is even the opportunity for hotel guests to choose wearing a “language immersion pin” that identifies them as someone hotel employees will only speak to in the local language.

Options under the new package include tasting conch at the British Colonial Hilton Nassau in the Bahamas, learning rumba at the Hilton Cartagena in Colombia, snorkelling in the clear waters at the Hilton Curaçao off the coast of Venezuela, or touring the Mercado Municipal when staying at the Hilton São Paulo Morumbi in Brazil. The hotel chain also says culture consultants will be avialable at each participating property (full list after the jump) to help guests learn about the most celebrated experiences in the destinations.

So, is Hilton’s new initiative to help travelers partake in authentic experiences when staying at their hotels a way the chain is reaching out to the community, or is it just a marketing ploy? It could go either way, but no matter what it’s nice to see more travelers will be learning about local cultures.PS. For those interested, the “Authentically Local” package is being offered at the following locations: Hilton Buenos Aires, Argentina; Hilton São Paulo Morumbi, Brazil; Hilton Belem, Brazil; Hilton Bogota, Colombia; Hilton Cartagena, Colombia; Hilton Garden Inn Santiago Airport, Chile; Hilton Los Cabos Beach & Golf Resort; Hilton Mexico City Reforma; Hilton Villahermosa & Conference Center, Mexico; Hilton Garden Inn Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico; Hilton Papagayo Costa Rica Resort & Spa; DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Central Pacific – Costa Rica; DoubleTree Cariari by Hilton San Jose, Costa Rica; British Colonial Hilton Nassau, The Bahamas; Hilton Barbados Resort; Hilton Curaçao; Hilton Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Hilton Trinidad & Conference Centre.

[Photo: Man selling conch shells in Nassau, Bahamas by Libby Zay]

Flying a dream: Urban Side

by Chris Owen on


In this flying video we see Jean-Baptiste Chandelier who has been a paraglidiing pilot since 2004 and wants to inspire us all.

“My goal is to share my paragliding universe with my videos, for make everyone dream of flying,” says Chandelier on his website.

Specializing in acro flight, Chandelier flys through Peru, France and Chile using a variety of aero-acrobatic maneuvers and stunt flying, taking advantage of thermal properties of air by bodies of water, beaches, mountains and urban city areas.

“I am happy to present you a video really important for me, the Urban Side. In this video i flight on some really interresting places, and i play with the people. I hope the people inside and out of the paragliding world will like it and share it.”

Urban Side from Jean-Baptiste Chandelier JB prod on Vimeo.