Save 15% off your fall Southwest Airlines travel with this coupon

by Grant Martin on

If you have the foresight to have your fall travel already planned, Southwest Airlines just released a coupon code that will get you 15% off between August 23rd and October 30th.

Use coupon code DING15 to get your discount, but hurry — the coupon code is only valid through April 21. Much of Labor day is also blacked out, so if you want to travel over that weekend make sure you take a couple of extra days off and be flexible.

Still not good enough? Keep your ears tuned to Gadling. I hear we might have some tickets to give away in the next few weeks.

Earth Day Kite Flying: 10 suggestions

by Jamie Rhein on

Every year when the temperature warms and the wind picks up, we buy a cheap kite to fly for a day or two before we get too busy to head to an open field. As an Earth Day Celebration, what could be more environmentally friendly than kite flying? Except, of course, for the gas to get to a place with wind and enough space.

Open fields are among the best places to fly a kite if you live in an urban area. Think the middle of a high school track for one option. Look out for power lines, though. Kites and power lines are not a good combo. If you live near a coast or a large lake, head to the beach. Other places to consider are fields in city parks.

One thing I like about kite flying, once you have a kite, it’s free. It’s also participatory. What a great way to join in with humanity in environmentally friendly fun. Here are suggestions–some based on personal experience, what people have told me, or in this article, “The Ten Best Places Around the World to Go Fly a Kite”:

1. Central Park in New York City. There is an Earth Day Celebration on April 20, this Sunday, at Rumsey Playfield. Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder are on the line up of entertainment. The park is also on the Holden Caufield tour of New York City.

2. Fano Island, Denmark. With Denmark being the happiest country in the world, flying a kite can only make some one happier than happiest. The family I lived with, when I was a student in undergraduate school, took me here as part of a weekend trip. It was gorgeous.

3. Great Wall of China, China. With China as the country credited for the invention of kites, the Great Wall is an interesting option for kite flying. Here’s an account of one family who found this to be the case. When I went to the Great Wall, it had just snowed. Then it was a place for building snowmen and sliding down the steps on ones bottom.

4. Jaipur, India. Even though the kite festival happened in January, this is a wonderful city to spend some time. A place to launch a kite is from the top of a roof. It’s not uncommon for hotels to have a roof-top terrace restaurant. I never tried it, but I bet roof-top kite flying would be a conversation starter. India is one of those places where everything and nothing is out of the ordinary.

5. Long Beach, Washington. I posted a video taken at the Washington International Kite Flying Festival. It’s not until August, but kite-flying is good anytime.

6. Mission Bay Park and Mission Beach, San Diego, California. When I was walking the boardwalk at Mission Beach last month, the kite fliers were braving chilly weather to send their massive kites sailing. By now, I bet the temperature is perfect.

7. Nan-Liao, Taiwan. This harbor town, a bus ride from Hsinchu, where I used to live, is a popular weekend spot for kite flying. We did fly kites here and ate squid-on-a-stick that we bought at the nearby market. Andrew Zimmern gushed about this popular street food on the last Bizarre Foods episode on China.

8. Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. One of my cousins and his son bought a kite to fly here. When they stopped some place for lunch, they tied the kite to a bike rack so it would stay airborne. They left it behind so someone else could have it. While they shopped they could see it dipping and weaving.

9. Venice Beach, Venice, California. Also a great place to see kite-flying or fly one yourself in the midst of the cacophony of humanity. Check out the drum circle Neil wrote about when you are there.

And a place I haven’t been, but it was recommended in a comment on the 10 great kite-flying places article.

10. El Morro National Park in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. There is a kite flying festival here in March, although, the commenter said it has great kite flying conditions most of the year. As a bonus, this is also a World Heritage Site.

RovAir.com: Single day wireless card rentals

by Justin Glow on

How do you connect to the Internet when traveling?

If I’m abroad, I’m at the mercy of the hostel or hotel I’m staying at. If their connection is shaky or non-existent, I don’t get online without finding a cafe. When traveling domestically here in the U.S., I use my Blackberry as a phone-as-modem (via USB) which offers decent speeds in metropolitan areas. Even in the sticks it works well enough to check email and browse the web. But it’s expensive — there’s no way I use it enough to justify the cost. But the convenience outweighed the high price, so I signed my data plan contract and use it when I’m on the road.

But that was before I knew about RovAir.com. Billed as the “business traveler’s best friend,” RovAir offers single-day data card rentals starting at $5.95 per day. Once you sign up for an account, they overnight the card to you. You plug it into your laptop (via USB), and off you go. Our friend Christopher Elliott had a chance to test it out on a trip to New Orleans. Here’s what he had to say:

“In terms of performance, the card worked flawlessly every time and offered a lighting-fast connection. I Skyped my family using video, and there were no noticeable delays. One of the things I really liked about the card is that it worked anywhere – in the hotel, the cab to the airport, at the airport. Really, anywhere I could open my laptop, I could connect.”

Read his entire review here.

I really wish I would have known about this service before signing my data contract with Sprint. I could have saved a bundle of money.

RovAir.com

Rest in peace, Lonely Planet scandal: A final note from Thomas Kohnstamm

by Aaron Hotfelder on

[Over the past few days, I’ve been in contact with former Lonely Planet author Thomas Kohnstamm via e-mail discussing the recent controversy surrounding him. Since he believes he’s been unfairly criticized, I offered him the opportunity to share his side of the story on Gadling, as he’s already done on World Hum. Here’s what he wrote.]

“When I was discussing some of the difficulties faced by guidebook writers, I explained that it was often difficult to visit every establishment and remote town in person. The journalist asked me if sometimes people never visited the countries at all. I said that there is such a thing as a “desk update,” which is somewhat common in the whole travel publishing industry (although very infrequent at LP).

He asked if I had ever done something like that and I explained that I had written about Colombia even though I had not gone there for the project. He asked why and I explained that there was not enough money for it (my advance was less than the cost of a flight down). Therefore I did a desk update, which was sanctioned by Lonely Planet. They made the decision that I was to write about it from home, not me.

I did normal research and got additional details from the Colombian girl I was dating at the time. Any professional travel writer out there knows that desk updates happen and are sanctioned by the publisher. It is a budgetary reality.”

[Hi, Aaron again. I’d like to, if it’s okay with everyone else, pronounce this “scandal-but-not-really-but-maybe-it-is” officially dead and buried. Rest in peace.]

Best cities for a pub crawl?

by Abha Malpani on

On holiday, it’s not uncommon to consume large quantities of toxic beverages. An attempt to check out the city’s nightlife = an all-nighter pub crawl.

Some cities are just geared to allow for the most memorable crawls (assuming you remember stuff post getting plastered, which of course, isn’t the objective). Here are the Lonely Planet blog’s idea of a what entails a good pub crawl, here are mine:

  • A number of bars in the same area, so you can walk the whole way (or even crawl if necessary!).
  • No dress code. You have to be allowed to enter the places without stuck-up bouncers. Preferably, there shouldn’t be bouncers at all and you should be able to enter with flip-flops.
  • Cheap. Getting drunk, not remembering anything, AND not having any money left — not a good combination.
  • The places should be filled with locals rather than tourists.
  • Friendly bar tenders. Rude bar tenders with a chip on their shoulder for anyone out having fun while they are working, can ruin your night.
  • Bars with games, happy hours, and music. A little bit of research and you can find a cluster of bars with special drink offers and games to win them alongside music and/or jam sessions.

Basis these criteria, my favorite cities for a pub crawl — that believe it or not, fulfill at least 5 of the 6 points above, are:

  • Valencia, Spain
  • Madrid, Spain
  • Wollongong, Australia
  • Phi Phi Island, Thailand

What are your favorite cities for a pub crawl?