Wanderfly.com beta invites for Gadling readers

by Meg Nesterov on


We hate to break it to you, but there’s only a week left in summer. Why not get a jump on planning your fall and winter travel? Wanderfly, the new travel-planning and booking site we reviewed earlier this month has just unveiled a spiffy new beta site and is offering free invites to check it out to the first 500 Gadling readers to sign up.

What’s new and improved on the beta site?

– The search functions have improved: you can search by airport, and within specific countries. You can also modify your preferences as you browse results should you decide you want to add the great outdoors to your beach and culture vacation or want to move your trip forward a month.
-Results are better too, with more accurate recommendations and enhanced destination info, including new photos and Google Maps integration.
– Better communication and sharing with Facebook Connect to see where your friends are and ability to save and email itineraries to friends or to yourself.

Want to start searching for your next trip destination? Sign up for access here with code gadling and let us know what you find in the comments!

New online tool, AvidTrips, offers adventure travel options

by Kraig Becker on

AvidTrips, a newly launched website, is giving adventure travelers a new option for finding unique places to explore and connecting them with tour operators that can help them do it. The site is currently in beta form, and still lacking a lot of travel options at the moment, but the interface shows a great deal of potential, which bodes well for the future.

Upon visiting AvidTrips for the first time, you’ll notice that it has a nice clean design that is approachable and simple to use. The site offers the ability to search by location and activity, with such options as cycling, climbing, fishing, and more. However, for even greater control over your search, you’ll want to use the advanced features of the “Trip Finder”, which allows you to filter by a variety of criteria including the dates you would like to travel, duration of trip, difficulty level, price you want to pay, and so on. Scrolling further down the page, you’ll also find AvidTrips’ top rated options for the week, as well as new additions to the site and special discounted offers.

Selecting a destination brings up a brief, but well done, overview about the country that includes climate information, currency type, time zone, and more. The destination page also allows you to see the various activities that are available there as well. For instance, visitors to Nepal can choose from trekking, climbing, safari, and world culture options. Clicking on any one of those activities will display a list of tour operators that offer those adventures in the particular destination you are browsing.

The main drawback at the moment is that the database for destinations is still a bit lacking. For instance, when you click on Africa, the only two options are Kenya and Tanzania, despite the fact that there are at least a dozen other great adventure destinations on the continent. Similarly, South America only offers Argentina and Chile, while North America doesn’t list any options at all. Given some time however, this can easily be rectified. After all, it takes time to build such an extensive database, and this project is still listed as being in beta after all.

The potential is there however, and perhaps given some time to mature, this will grow into a very useful site for adventure travelers. Once more options are available, it may even be useful for finding destinations that are a bit more under the radar, but for now, it is mostly offering up the places you would expect, albeit still some of the top adventure destinations on the planet.

Visit the South Pole with Abercrombie & Kent

by Kraig Becker on

In January of 1909, the famous British explorer Ernest Shackleton made an attempt to become the first man to reach the South Pole. He, and his three companions struggled mightily against the elements, but eventually were turned back just 97 miles short of their goal. That expedition established a new record for the furthest distance traveled south, and upon his safe return home to England, Shackleton was knighted for his efforts.

Those explorers reached 88º23’S, which just so happens to be roughly the same spot that Abercrombie & Kent’s Conquering the Final Degree expedition begins. On that trip, adventure travelers won’t walk in the footsteps of Shackleton, they’ll actually finish what he started. They’ll travel on skis to the Geographic South Pole, pulling 120-pound sleds, carrying all of their gear and supplies behind them while they go, crossing through the last great wilderness on the planet –the frozen continent of Antarctica.

The 18 day journey begins and ends in Punta Arenas, Chile, one of the southernmost cities in the world. From there, the team will catch a flight across the Southern Ocean to Patriot Hills, a campsite located on the Antarctic continent itself. When a suitable weather window opens, they’ll move on, via ski plane, to the Thiel Mountains, a remote and rugged chain of peaks that few people ever see. The journey really gets underway once they reach 89ºS, and the group transitions to their skis for the final leg of the trip. The following 7-8 days will be spent completing the “final degree” before arriving at the very bottom of the world, the South Pole, itself.

For adventure travelers, this may be the ultimate adventure travel experience. A true once in a life time opportunity. While the adventure travel market continues to explode, with new destinations and activities being offered all the time, a last degree journey to the South Pole is as authentic of an adventure experience as you’ll ever get.

There’s a (foreign) word for that

by Meg Nesterov on

When traveling to a new place or leafing through a phrase book, have you ever come across a great expression that doesn’t exist in English or perfectly describes a common feeling or occurrence? I remember learning in Chile that taco is used for a traffic jam; now I could use taco supreme to describe the city of Istanbul’s daily traffic flow.

I Never Knew There Was a Word for it, a new book by Adam Jacot de Boinod, compiles his earlier works about foreign words The Meaning of Tingo and sequel Toujours Tingo with his collection of odd or out of use English words and phrases, The Wonder of Whiffling. Gadling reviewed de Boinod’s first book and highlighted some great phrases such as the French Seigneur-terrasse (one who spends too much time but little money in a café) and the German backpfeifengesicht (face that cries out for a fist in it), and this collection provides even more linguistic fodder.

Many travelers can admit to being guilty of catra patra, Turkish for speaking a foreign language badly and brokenly. Long-term travelers may have inadvertently pulled a minggat, an Indonesian phrase for leaving home forever without saying goodbye. How about spending time in a bar with a shot-clog, a drinking companion only tolerated because he’s buying the rounds? Perhaps that same bar buddy is crambazzled, or prematurely aged due to drinking?A few more great travel-related idioms:

  • asusu (Boro, India) — to feel like a stranger in a strange land
  • wewibendam (Ojibway, North America) — being in a hurry to get home
  • far-lami (Old Icelandic) — unable to go further on a journey
  • nochschlepper (Yiddish) — unwanted follower; literally, someone who drags along after someone else
  • Tapetenwechsel (German) — wanderlust, wanting a change of scenery; literally a change of wallpaper

And one more just for the Eat, Pray, Love fans…

  • Henkyoryugaku (Japanese) — Describes young women who rebel against social norms and travel abroad to devote time to an eccentric art form, such as Balinese dancing; Literally, study abroad in the wild.

Those are a few of the wonderful words and expressions in this collection currently for sale in the UK or on Kindle. Never suffer from onomatomania (frustration in not finding the correct word) again.

Lindblad Expeditions announces upcoming Global Luminaries

by Kraig Becker on

Lindblad Expeditions has earned itself a reputation as one of the top adventure travel companies on the planet, offering a wide variety of options for travelers to visit the far flung corners of the globe. The company is well known for having some of the best trained and most knowledgeable staff in the entire industry, offering clients great insights into the places that they visit. But their “Global Luminaries” program takes that reputation to a whole new level, with a line-up of very impressive specials guest that will enhance an already great trip even further.

These dignitaries come from a wide variety of fields, but are generally broken down into four categories; World Affairs, Broadcast Journalism, Exploration, and Research. Each of the Global Luminaries will be joining guests aboard the National Geographic Explorer, one of Lindblad’s luxury cruise ships, for a specifically selected journey through a region of the world that they know well and can offer unique perspectives on. For example, when the ship visits the historic waterways of the Baltic at the end of August and Early September of this year, and again in 2011, passengers will share that journey with former Soviet Premiere Mikhail Gorbachev as well as the former President of Poland, and Nobel Prize winner, Lech Walesa.

Other famous names on the list of luminaries include well-known naturalist and television personality Jim Fowler, former astronaut Rick Hauck, mountaineer and explorer Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund Hillary, Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, and ocean rower Roz Savage. But those are just the beginning, as there are a number of other scientists, explorers, and writers scheduled to take part in the fun as well.

For the complete list of Global Luminaries, and the trips they’ll be taking part in for the rest of 2010 and 2011, click here.

[Photo credit: Lindblad Expeditions]