Five hot travel sites: Hejorama, We Heart, Beach Tomato, Pinterest, Sunset Travel

by Alex Robertson Textor on

These five travel sites are hot; all five are worth some serious browsing time. And while most are newish kids on the block, sustaining buzz left and right, the final of this batch is a tried-and-true evergreen, offering a sustained focus on a very popular region of the world.

Some are good for general contemplation, while others are good for thinking through potential destinations and ways of organizing future travels. These five include a community site, a lifestyle guide, a bespoke travel agency, an image creation site, and the online component of a print magazine.

1. Hejorama. A group travel community site, Hejorama is cute and spunky, though what sets it apart from others in its class is the high-quality quirk of its content. There are in-flight meal reviews, a journey to Ramallah, and an encounter with a taxi driver in Almaty (see above). Hejorama advances a philosophy of travel that is immediately compelling, quite untidy, and truly social.

2. We Heart. An all-purpose lifestyle guide, We Heart has strong coverage of innovative boutique hotels and other travel-related subjects. As far as travel inspiration is concerned, however, the site’s explicit travel content is just the tip of the iceberg. We Heart’s coverage of designers, branding projects, photographers, and design studios is a broad exercise in lifestyle inspiration that extends effortlessly to travel.

3. Beach Tomato. Those crafty folks behind the gorgeous bespoke travel company Black Tomato and the edgy expedition-led adventure outfit Epic Tomato recently launched Beach Tomato, a site that marries beach style to destination inspiration. Beach reviews, trend alerts, fashion recommendations, and even a post-beach hair care guide give the site a vibe that is distinctly girly.

4. Pinterest. Not a travel site, granted, but a gorgeous place to see beautiful images and find travel inspiration. Currently invitation-only, this image curation site is a seriously pretty procrastination aide. Pinterest’s travel category is great for daydreaming, though it’s by no means the only category of interest for travel obsessives. Browse through Pinterest and find “boards” organized around many subjects that refer to cultural exchange and any number of destinations: architecture, graphic design, even interior design.

5. Sunset Travel. We have enthused about Sunset in the past. One could reasonably spend the bulk of one’s traveling life in the western states of the US and Mexico and western provinces of Canada and never get bored. Sunset’s Travel microsite provides an awesome reminder of the dynamic nature of this exciting mega-region with its archive of very good service articles. With a beat that extends southwest to Hawaii, northeast to Alberta, and due south to Guanajuato, Sunset is a comprehensive Western travel bible.

[Image: Romain from Team Hejorama]

Record numbers of humpback whales spotted near Antarctica

by Kraig Becker on

For many travelers, whale-spotting is a moving, and sometimes life altering, experience. Those massive, yet graceful, creatures are unlike anything else on Earth, and getting the opportunity to see one up close is an experience that shouldn’t be missed. One of the more common species, the humpback whale, have recently been spotted in record numbers off the coast of Antarctica, in a display that has even left scientists speechless.

Humpbacks, like most whales, are migratory in nature, traveling as much as 16,000 miles each year. During the summer months, they’ll typically move into the colder polar regions in search of krill, tiny shrimp like creatures that are their favorite meals. Researchers often travel to those regions as well in hopes of getting the opportunity to study the creatures in their natural habitat.

Over the course of the past two years, scientists have been visiting the Southern Ocean with the hope of spotting humpbacks and observing their behavior. In both May of 2009 and 2010, they recorded record numbers of whales there, at a time when the giant mammals should have been heading for warmer waters. In fact, in one instance, they counted, 306 humpback whales in the Wilhelmina Bay, a small body of water that falls on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

While seeing that many whales in one place is indeed a stunning sight, and a fantastic research opportunity, researchers warn that it could mean dire consequences for the ecosystem around Antarctica, which is one of the bellweather locations for climate change. As the region around the Antarctic continent warms up, the sea ice is retreating very quickly. The krill use that sea ice as a nursery for their young, and without it they aren’t shielded from the massive predators that eat them by the ton. That could mean that the whales could potentially decimate the krill population, leaving themselves little to eat in the future.

But for now, it seems that the humpback population is not only healthy, but thriving, and travelers to Antarctica may have unprecedented opportunities to see them up close.

[Photo courtesy Whit Welles via WikiMedia]

25 Haunting Shipwrecks Around the World

by Chris Owen on
Twisted Sifter is a web site with three simple goals. Provide content that is interesting, funny or creative, use BIG pictures whenever possible and to keep their readers up-to-date with what’s popular online. Gadling found this gallery of 25 haunting shipwrecks at Twisted Sifter who tells us

“Fellow blogger Tom Moran from Urban Ghosts inspired this post. His excellent article on ‘Ship Graveyards: Abandoned Ships, Boats and Shipyards’ sent me on a quest to find some incredible photographs of shipwrecks around the world.

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 3 million shipwrecks on the ocean floor [Source: Wikipedia]. These once mighty vessels, both sunken and beached, are a haunting reminder that nothing lasts forever. These beautiful ships used to rule the seas they traveled. Now they serve as a window into our past.”


In the gallery below, 25 Haunting Shipwrecks From Around The World, there are shipwrecks everywhere from the Canary Islands to Grand Cayman to Portugal in all shapes and sizes.

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Juggling through 70 countries

by Grant Martin on

Some people like to take pictures of sentimental items in every country of their travels, some people dance. Luke Burrage chose to juggle. The international juggler and entertainer uploaded a video to YouTube this month highlighting his travels around the planet — 70 countries in total — where he’s juggling in each spot. We’re not sure if we’re more impressed by the beautiful range of destinations or the juggling skills of this guy, but either way it’s a great video. Check it out below.

Swedish explorer hopes to go Pole2Pole in one year

by Kraig Becker on

Earlier this week, Swedish explorer Johan Ernst Nilson set out on an ambitious, 12-month long journey that will see him travel from the North Pole to the South Pole in a completely carbon neutral manner. The so called Pole2Pole will use skis, dogsleds, sailboats, and a bike to accomplish its goals.

This past Tuesday, Nilson was shuttled by helicopter to the North Pole, where he embarked on his epic journey that will see him traveling south for the next year. He’ll start by skiing across the frozen Arctic Ocean to Greenland, where he’ll use a dogsled that to carry him to Thule Airbase on the northwest side of the country. Once there, he’ll climb aboard a sailboat and cross the North Atlantic to Ottawa, Canada, where he’ll get on a bike and ride to Tierra del Fuego, Chile at the far end of South America. Once he has completed the cycling leg of the journey, he’ll get back in his sailboat and sail across the Southern Ocean for Antarctica, where he hopes to kite-ski to the South Pole, arriving before April 5th, 2012.

When he’s done, Nilson will have traveled nearly 23,000 miles, averaging roughly 63 miles per day, without using a single bit of fossil fuel himself. The same can’t be said about his support team and the documentary crew that will be following him around. They’ll be outfitted with cars from Audi, the major sponsor of the expedition. The auto manufacturer aided Nilson by helping to design and build a new lightweight sled that he’ll be using to pull his gear behind him while in the polar regions of the journey.

This is going to be one difficult journey to make in a single year, and traveling in the Antarctic after January is always a dicey proposition. Nilson has his work cut out for him for sure, but it will certainly be an amazing accomplishment if he can pull it off.