GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of November 12

by Adrienne Wilson on

Settle down and settle in as I take you on a spin of our five favorite’s from the week that was… You’ll love it – I promise!

5. MTV Launches Travel Guidebook Series:
My MTV days are just about over and done, but the memories will last forever. (Not that I did any of the crazy stuff you see on the network these days.) If you’re off to Ireland and looking for some place hip, spunky, spanky, no, no, spunky and cool with more pubs than humanly possible to crawl you may want to check out this blurb from Neil.

4. Travel Insurance for the Over-65:
There are two peak times in one’s life when the opportunity to travel should be seized; in youth and old-age. During each time frame there are many things to consider before taking off into the wilderness. One of the most important is travel insurance and while you may only need it in your young age to cover really silly and naive mishaps, it’s a little different in your golden years. See what Iva found about the situation for the over 65 and start planning ahead if you don’t think they’ll be giving you a break to take a break.

3. Procreation Vacations:
We’ve talked about ‘Babymooning’ and heading out on vaca to go half on a new baby boy or baby girl, but surely it is time to think about it again. Why? Because it’s getting colder. Because the holidays are coming. Because babies are just too darn cute not to have! You decide and if you think your clock is ticking maybe it’s time for a moonlit stroll on the sandy shores of Tonga.

2. Craig Duff Blogs from Egypt:
Gadling is a travel blog and we point to other travel blogs that we like from time to time. Erik points us to his pal who blogs from Egypt. Craig is his pal and all, I’m sure, but as an outsider and unbiased set of eyes reading I’d say it’s swell. Go check it out if you need info or fuel to get your own travels to Egypt going.

1. Surfing Alaska:
Can’t say that I’ve been to Alaska or that I’ve been surfing and I can’t say that I wouldn’t try it out, but this isn’t about me. This is about an article found in Outside mag on surfers who do brave the icy waters and their experiences. If you can’t take the cold get off the board. Yuk,yuk, yuk….

101 Places To See Before You’re 12

by Neil Woodburn on

I laughed out loud when I saw the title of the book, 101 Places To See Before You’re 12.

There are simply too many publications out there telling us all the things we need to do before we retire or die. The fact that someone has so dramatically lowered the age by which we need to experience certain activities makes me feel like I’ve already missed out on so much.

Sure, the first 12 years of my life were pretty active but I never made it to many of the places listed in the book, such as prisons, forts, ghost towns, or even a subway. Oh man, am I a complete failure!

You can bet I’m buying a copy for whenever I have children so that I can drag them kicking and screaming to all 101 places.

E-book Readers

by Neil Woodburn on

As much as I love new technology, I’m a complete traditionalist when it comes to reading a book. There is something so wonderfully tactile about turning the pages of a worn paperback and effortlessly skimming the crisp lettering.

The push, however, to digitalize books and read them on a small hand-held device is, sadly enough, gaining momentum.

Sure, I understand the convenience. On my last trip through the Balkans I carried three guidebooks and two leisure books. That adds up to some hefty weight to haul around. It would have been so much easier to store these five titles, and 75 more on a handy little device like the Sony Reader.

The Sony Reader is just one of a handful of mini-computers currently on the market that allows travelers and couch potatoes alike to download and read e-books. According to a review by Neil McManus in Conde Nast Traveler, the Sony Reader with its “crisp” text and long battery life is arguably one of the best. The Samsung Q1 and Nokia 770 received less favorable reviews from McManus, but are decent products nonetheless.

As a nice little touch, McManus also includes five suggestions on where to download e-books, including manybooks.net where one can find 14,000 free titles.

Hmm… seems pretty cool to me, but I’m still not giving up my dead trees!

MTV Launches Travel Guidebook Series

by Neil Woodburn on

Here’s a slightly odd combination that just might work.

Youthful icon MTV is partnering with the guidebook king Frommer’s to bring the hip edgy world of music videos to the hip edgy world of international travel.

The two companies have teamed together to produce a series of guidebooks that will appeal to the MTV demographic. And no, the series will not be called Pimp my European Vacation.

The partnership kicked off in September with the publication of MTV Ireland. By next year the stables will also include Italy, England, Spain, France, Europe, Mexican beaches, and American road trips.

The guidebooks aim towards those traveling/backpacking internationally for the first time and promise to point neophytes towards the best sights, and of course, the best drinking holes, beaches, and clubs. I suggest they might also think about publishing Dude! Where’s my Passport?

I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy of MTV Ireland yet, but it will be interesting to see if MTV dethrones Let’s Go as the guidebook of choice for traveling American college students.

Celebrity Gravesites: Stalking the Dead

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve never understood this, but there are a handful of tourists who come to Los Angeles in search of dead people. Well, not just any dead people, but rather celebrity ones.

After searching for stars in Hollywood, purchasing maps to their homes, and hanging out with the paparazzi in front of Spago, star-struck tourists sometimes wander off in search of the one place that celebrities can’t escape their fans: their gravesites.

I’m not so sure why it’s appealing to stand on a plot of earth and say to yourself, “Wow! I’m standing 6 feet away from the decomposed corpse of Clark Gable!” And yet people do this.

In fact, there is enough of a market for dead celebrities that an entire 340-page book was been written dedicated to locating the gravesites of celebrities in California alone. Laid to Rest in California points morbid celebrity stalkers to the location of more than 1000 graves of the rich and famous.

Be sure to pick up a copy next time you visit California. And then you can swing on over to Forest Lawn and check out Liberace… decomposing. Get it? Hahahahahahahah.