Cool Capitals

by Erik Olsen on

A lot of Flash interfaces for travel sites are too heavy and very confusing. Flash designers are often more self-involved with the design of a site rather than the functionality. I came across a site this morning that surprised me by its usefulness. Called coolcapitals, the site’s reach is limited as they only cover a few European cities including Amsterdam, Antwerp, Vienna and Zurich, and I hope they decide to expand, because the site is very informative.

So you click into one of the capitals and you find information on fashion, food, nightlife, hotels, etc. The interface is cute, with little people walking around and blocky little 8-bit buildings. Very cool.

How to Get It All Into One Bag

by Erik Olsen on

If there’s one thing even the most seasoned traveler often has trouble with, it’s packing. The problem is a lop-sided one, too. You pretty much never have a problem packing too little. It’s always wanting to cram too much into your suitcase (or suitcases…or duffel, or backpack) that creates a problem. Well, if the Internet is great for one thing, it’s for allowing people with a littlest of concepts to create a site dedicated to that wee little idea.

Thus, I offer you Onebag.com, a site dedicated to helping you figure out how to reduce everything you own, or at least that you want to carry with you, to just one little bag. A nice concept, I admit. And the site says that learning to pack light will offer you security, economy, mobility, serenity. How nice.

The key principles in packing one bag, says the site are what to take, followed by what to take it in and how to pack it (particularly the folding of clothes). Seems pretty simple, but you’ll be surprised what you can learn.

Cool or Lame: Get Your Passport for Canada?

by Erik Olsen on

It might be a good time to get yourself a passport, if you are one of those tens of millions of Americans who doesn’t already have one. Sure, you may not be planning a trip anytime soon to Europe or another continent, but beginning on December 31, the United States, which now requires only a drivers license to visit the Caribbean, Bermuda, Canada and Mexico, will be requiring passports for travel to these places. Kinda sucks, huh? I mean, how many times have you bolted for the border on a whim without bringing along your little blue book? The new rules are part of the 20054 anti-terrorism bill and will apply only to air and sea travel (for now, but stay tuned). The headache will get worse at the end of next year when the Department of Homeland Security will demand you show your passport at every border crossing. Yuck.

Flight Aware

by Erik Olsen on

Ever wonder how crowded the airspace over the United States is on an average day? Or were you just interested in the traffic to or from a particular airport. I stumbled across a pretty cool site just now called Flight Aware that is loaded with these kinds of statisitics. Check out the video here, which shows traffic over a 24 hour period.

It’s neat, especially for flying buffs.

Yotel Hotel

by Erik Olsen on


A cool concept in the hotel arena. A new hotel…it bills itself as a “radical hotel” is to open at Heathrow Airport for all those poor folks with absurd layovers (and you know and I know how absurd they can sometimes be). Called Yotel, you will be able to check in for “blocks of four hours” (at 25 pounds each) or to stay over night should your layover be THAT bad.

But this is no run-of-the-mill rent-by-the-hour flophouse. No, you will bask in sybaritic luxury, with a “Techno Wall with desk” that will allow you to charge and listen to your ipod, a flat screen TV with surround sound speaker system and (of course) free Internet and Wi-fi.  There’s more to the concept, but let me not spoil it for you. Go and check it out yourself.