Summer Travel Plans Include Solo Experience For Some

by Chris Owen on

Summer travel plans have a majority of Americans on the road and in the sky this year and in greater numbers than in the past. A recent report says 59 percent of Americans will travel this summer, primarily in the United States. Also up is solo travel as single travelers plan engaging vacations more than in the past.

“Consumers want deeper, richer experiences when they travel,” said David Patron, vice president of American Express Travel in a Wall Street Journal report. “When a traveler visits a destination they want to understand the local traditions and feel like they are getting a true insider experience.”

USA Today reports sixteen percent of 1,500 U.S. adults recently surveyed by American Express say they will take a trip alone, up from 12 percent last year

“People who have never traveled alone often describe their first solo trip as an almost religious experience,” says Independent Traveler. “To take in new surroundings unfiltered by the prejudices, tastes or preferences of a traveling companion can be heady stuff. Traveling alone gives you the chance to indulge yourself fully.”Independent Traveler also offers a variety of tips for solo travelers, urging caution while enjoying the freedom and flexibility that solo travel offers.

“One of the best reasons to travel alone is to meet new people, but this also makes you more vulnerable,” says Independent Traveler. “It’s okay to hang out, travel and share with new friends, but you might not want to ask them to hold your money. Scam artists can often be the most charming companions you’ll find; you want to be open-minded, but keep your guard up enough to ensure your safety.”

See more tips for solo travelers at Independent Traveler.

[Flickr photo by mikebaird]

8 Cool Cities For Summer

by Rachel Friedman on

Many people’s winter vacation plans understandably revolve around sand and sun and colorful cocktails sporting tiny umbrellas. But summer in the states can be just as oppressive, whether you’re battling sweat-inducing humidity, malodorous public transportation, or overzealous mosquitoes. So for those who want to skip the sunscreen (I know, I know, you’re supposed to wear sunscreen all year round) and instead wrangle that favorite fuzzy sweater out of storage, here are eight cooler cities to visit. A few are in the Southern Hemisphere, offering a double helping of winter. Others have an Arctic vibe. And some made the cut because they stay relatively chilly all year round. Forget endless summer and embrace its polar opposite.

Anchorage, Alaska
Explore the U.S.’s northernmost city this summer by walking or biking the 11-mile Tony Knowles trail. The paved path curls along the spectacular coastline where you might even catch a glimpse of beluga whales along the way. And, since temperatures stay pretty cool, you won’t even break a sweat doing it.

St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
If you think Canadians in general are nice, Newfoundlanders will blow your socks off – and then give you their own socks because your feet might be cold. St. John’s, the capital, is the foggiest, snowiest, wettest, windiest and cloudiest of the major Canadian cities. Have I sold you on it?Katoomba, Australia
Only an hour from Sydney, Katoomba is the main town in the Blue Mountains region – a wonderland of eucalypt forests and gorges where Aussies often vacation. Katoomba is also the home of Yulefest, where, throughout July, the entire place pretends it’s Christmas. Area restaurants and hotels serve up multi-course traditional holiday meals, even hiring local carolers and Santas to complete the picture.

Galway, Ireland
Summer temperatures in this west coast city don’t typically top 65 degrees and nights are frigid enough to justify rounds of Guinness at the local pub. At the end of July, Galway hosts an awesome Arts Festival, not to mention an incredibly popular seven-day horse race, the longest in all of Ireland. Be sure to ask a local lady’s help picking out the right fascinator for the event.

La Serena, Chile
Located 300 miles south of chaotic Santiago, La Serena is Chile’s second oldest city. A normally overpopulated beach town during the summers, La Serena transforms into a friendly, laid-back locale in winter, making it the perfect time to visit this “City of Churches.” There are more than 30 of them, many dating as far back as the late 16th century. Where better to keep warm?

Reykjavik, Iceland
It might be the land of the midnight sun, but you definitely won’t overheat in Reykjavik. Arrive by June 21 for summer solstice festivals that take place around the city, including ones where residents wear traditional Viking garb. Don’t think that you can shirk your sartorial duties just because it’s chilly, though; Reykjavik residents dress to impress when they go out no matter the season.

Queenstown, New Zealand
Known as the “adventure capital of the world,” spend your Kiwi winter skiing, bungee jumping, mountain biking, skydiving or paragliding. You can even go canyon swinging if choosing from several ways to launch yourself off from a 100-meter-high, cliff-mounted platform sounds appealing. I hear it’s easiest if you just let someone push you off the edge.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sure you can tango, eat the world’s best beef and load up on all kinds of leather goods, but you can do that any time in Buenos Aires. So instead check out a distinctly winter event this July: the Annual Buenos Aires Chili Cookoff. This ex-pat organized affair has quickly become a must-attend for locals, too. And word on the street is they still need judges.

[Flickr image via Unhindered by Talent]

Photographers Launch Postcards Across America Project

by Meg Nesterov on

If you think postcards are a lost art, you may want to follow a photography project covering America this summer. Starting tomorrow, two Brooklyn-based photographers will set off on a three-month road trip across the country, sending original postcards with their photographs from each state. Going Nowhere was originally a project to visit all 48 lower states, sharing their experiences via photographs and hand-made postcards.

Funded through Kickstarter, backers could pledge as little as $2 to cover the cost of printing and postage (the trip itself will be paid for by the photographers themselves), but after reaching their original $7,500 funding goal, they decided to hit up Hawaii and Alaska too. Original backers will receive a postcard created, self-printed, and mailed from each state, and box sets of 10-50 postcards will be available after they finish the trip in September.

Follow the journey and photo updates, or buy a box set of the postcards on Going Nowhere.

Vanishing America: The Drive-In Theater

by Sean McLachlan on


It’s one of the icons of American civilization, combining Hollywood with car culture. The drive-in movie theater was once a mainstay of every American city, and plenty of small rural towns too. In the 1950s there were more than 4,000 of them. They were a place for families to enjoy a night out together, and for teenagers to be initiated into the games of adulthood.

Now the drive-in theater has fallen on hard times. According to The United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, there are currently only 366 drive-ins in the United States with a total of 606 screens. The states with the most theaters are Pennsylvania (33) and Ohio (31). Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii and Louisiana sadly have no drive-ins. Many other states are in a precarious position with only one or two.

Competition from cable TV and movie rentals along with rising real estate costs have seriously hurt the drive-in theater industry, yet it clings to life. It’s gone from that great American hero – the success story – to that other great American hero – the underdog.

The first drive-in opened in New Jersey in 1933 and the idea soon caught on. Their heyday came in the economic boom years of the 1950s and ’60s. They began to feel the pinch in the 1970s with the spread of more TV channels. With VCRs and cable TV becoming popular in the late 1970s and early ’80s, things got even worse.

%Gallery-155976%Now most drive-ins are gone. Others have remained as spooky abandoned lots that offer the photographers in this article’s gallery the chance to lend atmosphere to their images. Visiting a dead drive-in theater is a bit like visiting a ghost town. It leaves you wondering about the people who used to spend time there.

Unlike with ghost towns, many of us can remember being one of those people. I remember going to the DeAnza Drive-in in Tucson, Arizona. My friend and I used to put a futon on top of her VW van and watch movies under the Arizona starlight. The DeAnza is gone now, and all that’s left is a webpage of memories.

But don’t despair, movie fans, there’s hope. The remaining drive-ins are keeping the flame lit. There are places like Hollywood Drive-in, which has been showing movies on Route 66 near Troy, New York, since 1952. New technologies like video projection are making it easier to open up drive-ins in any location where there’s a blank wall or the space for a screen. My favorite indie cinema, Ragtag Cinema in Columbia, Missouri, has done some outdoor shows in a nearby parking lot. Check out the photo gallery to see a cool Belgian drive-in using an inflatable screen.

As the great Joe Bob Briggs always says, “The drive-in will never die!”

(Clarification: The Hollywood Drive-in is on New York State Route 66, not the more famous Route 66. Plenty of businesses in New York like to play off the Route 66 designation, though, and why not? Retro entertainment is more important than nitpicking!)

Should Hunting Be Allowed In America’s National Parks?

by Kraig Becker on

Should hunting be allowed inside America’s national parks? That’s the question that the U.S. Senate will soon be dealing with as they debate the merits of HR 4089, better known as the Sportsman’s Heritage Act. The controversial bill was passed by the House of Representatives in April and could be coming to the floor of the Senate as well. If it does manage to become a law, HR 4089 would open most of the National Park System to hunting, trapping and recreational shooting.

Since their inception, the national parks have been designed to protect America’s heritage and natural landscapes, and those protections have always extended to the wildlife that roamed those regions as well. In the past it has taken – quite literally – an act of Congress to allow hunting within a park’s boundaries, but with this new bill hunting, trapping and sport shooting could become commonplace.

In addition to the traditional national parks that we all know and love, such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, the park system is made up of a number of other entities as well. These include national monuments, memorials, military and historic parks and more. All of them could potentially fall under the jurisdiction of this new law, allowing hunting in such places as Gettysburg or Valley Forge for example.The Sportsman’s Heritage Act does have specific language written into it that provides for exemptions to the law in parks and monuments specifically. But those exemptions need to be decided on an individual basis, which can be a time consuming and costly affair. Furthermore, the wording of the bill fails to mention the other park units such as memorials, historic parks and the other places mentioned above. In other words, it would encompass each of those places unless they are specifically singled out for exemption.

The National Parks Conservation Association has worked in conjunction with the law firm of Arnold & Porter, LLP to examine the legal ramifications of the bill, and they’ve found that it could be quite costly as well. HR 4089’s approach to opening the park system up for hunting, trapping and sport shooting means that each of the units will have to do their own individual study to determine if they should allow those activities or not. Considering there are 397 units within the system, that could mean a lot of money spent on conducting that research.

The NPCA is also quick to point out that the bill would allow for the use of off-road vehicles wherever they are needed by hunters and trappers to engage in those activities. Most of the parks don’t currently allow the use of 4×4’s off of pavement, but this would open it up for their use in many other places. Considering the damage that they can do to the environment, their use seems to run counter to the idea of actually protecting these wild spaces.

As a traveler, i personally enjoy exploring the national parks because they are beautiful, serene environments. I can’t imagine visiting Rocky Mountain National Park for example, spending hours scrambling to the top of the famous Longs Peak, only to be greeted by gunshots from elk hunters. Or as a parent, can you imagine having to explain to a young park visitor why the vehicle sitting next to yours has a deer strapped across its hood? The parks are places of refuge and in my opinion they should stay that way. There are plenty of other places in the U.S. to hunt and trap, but we should keep those activities out of the parks themselves. If you agree, click here to express your concerns to your local congressman.