An open letter to Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Dear Mr. Zimmern,

First allow me to congratulate you on the premiere of your show’s second season tonight (10 pm EST on the Travel Channel). Despite what your critics may say– that Bizarre Foods is a gross-out rip-off of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations— I usually find your show interesting and your interaction with locals entertaining.

Now, having said that, there is one piece of advice– unsolicited though it may be– that I think you need to hear. I’ll boil it down (cooking metaphor!) to two words: wear pants.

Pants. As opposed to shorts.

Whether it’s guinea pigs in Ecuador, cow’s hearts in Morocco, or balut in the Philippines, there you are, flouting the local conventions and wearing shorts. Do you notice you’re the only one with exposed legs?

Sure, it’s boiling hot in some of these places, but everyone else seems to be enduring it in long pants. C’mon, you’re in pretty good shape, man– you can handle it.

Okay, I realize you’re not going to disguise yourself as a local no matter what you wear, especially considering there’s usually a camera crew following you around. But perhaps it would reflect better on yourself, your show, and your fellow American tourists, if you dressed a little bit more in the custom of your host country.

On a final note, despite the snark, I enjoy your show immensely, you seem like one hell of a nice guy, and keep up the good work. And remember, if they look like long pants, wear ’em!

Best,

Aaron Hotfelder

Top six reasons to travel off season

by Grant Martin on

As busy working Americans, it can be difficult to tear yourself away from your desk, routines or children’s schedules for a few weeks during the normal calendar year. When all of your variables come into line those one or two times, you often find yourself in the middle of summer heading out for a quick week of R&R before you’re back at your kid’s soccer practice.

The problem is, every other family in America and Europe is thinking the exact same thing and the market knows that. Demand goes up, prices skyrocket, availability goes down and you spend 98% of your vacation finding hotel rooms, booking airplane tickets, mitigating canceled flights, wading through throngs of tourists and chasing after the kids. In the end, you don’t really get any time to relax at all. Admit it, you’ve been there, and you’ve uttered the words “I need a vacation from vacation” before.

What many people don’t realize though is that most of the stress from travel comes from operating at peak times. Think about it: wouldn’t getting through the airport to catch your soon-departing flight be easier if you didn’t have 700 people in the security line in front of you? Couldn’t you spend more on your prawns at dinner if you didn’t get gouged on your plane tickets?

Here at Gadling we’ve compiled a list of top reasons why it’s great to travel OFF-season, while the kids are still in school and while it’s still cold outside.

  1. It’s cheaper. If nobody is on vacation, demand and prices are both low. One can easily fly from the East Coast to Europe for under 400$ during the winter months, while summer prices can be up in the thousands. Hotels will follow the same formula.
  2. It’s less crowded. Explore the Vatican or Acropolis at your own pace without getting swallowed by an army of tour groups. It’s amazing what you can take in when you’re not suffocating.
  3. The weather is probably going to be better. If you’re from the north or east parts of the country, where ever you’re going is probably going to be more temperate than your home during the winter months. Michigan in Feb: 15°. Rome in Feb: 55°.
  4. Locals are more welcoming. Dealing with tourist after tourist during high season will wear on the local populous. After cooling down a couple of months, wait staff and service people are going to be immensely friendlier.
  5. It’s safer. If there are fewer people to pickpocket and less of a crowd to disappear into, thieves will be less active.
  6. It’s less stressful. Keeping your budget straight while keeping track of your belongings and family while navigating through a city are all easier without the crowd and while knowing that you saved a few bucks.

The trick to pulling this all off is to actually come to terms with the fact that you have to take time off of work. Your kids might miss some school too. It’s ok — they’re smart, they’ll make it up. When you experience a vacation free from the hassle of peak travel, you’ll never go back.

Cash Passport lets you store (travel) money in Euro and Pounds

by Grant Martin on

Travelex, the foreign currency exchange company that you’ve probably often seen at your local international airport, just announced that it’s offering up a new product called Cash Passport, where you can purchase all of your travel money in Euro or Pounds and put it on a Visa or Mastercard before you leave. Their added security and features make it kind of like digital travelers check’s.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that I can buy a cash card with ten thousand Euro and wait while the dollar sinks through the toilet. Indeed, last week the dollar hit another all time low against the Euro at over 1.5€ = 1$. But I suppose you could always use this is a short term option while you’re traveling so your dollars don’t take a further hit while you’re abroad.

The real question is about what sort of exchange rate and egregious fees that Travelex is going to sock you with. I know that I never exchange currency at the airport kiosks because the rate is so terrible. Will they give us the same crummy rate on their prepaid cards? Their website is naturally tight lipped about the topic.

I suppose from an ease of use standpoint this might make budgeting your travel easier with less paperwork. I’m going to stick with my ATM card for now.

Ticket prices to England just went down

by Grant Martin on

I’m not sure if there’s a secret sale going on or someone at US Airways messed up the feed today, but ticket prices to the UK for summertime travel just went down. This means that instead of paying 1200$ for that ticket from Chicago to London you now might be able to get away with about 600$. Quite an excellent price for summertime travel.

The fare sale seems to be centered solely around US Airways routes between the United States and London (LON) and Manchester (MAN) with travel between Monday and Thursday. If you’d like a dandy tool to check availability, use this Farecompare link to view a calendar. Plug in your favorite airport in the departure box to check if the fare is available from your city.

London not where you want to go? Consider booking your transatlantic leg into London then booking a separate ticket from there to your final destination (it’s called nesting). You can either go through a canonical search engine like Kayak or Opodo, or try your luck at a Low Cost Carrier via flylc.com.

Happy summer travels.

Passport photos for cheap

by Anna Brones on

Passport photos seem to be one of those things that you always have to get when traveling. They aren’t just used for your passport; you need them for visas, international driver’s licences and other random forms of identification. I remember when I studied abroad in France I had to supply 15 passport photos for all kinds of different paper work and ID cards. The problem is, they don’t run cheap.

Nora Dunn over at Vagabondish wrote Passport Pictures for Under a Dollar, explaining how to make your own passport photos with your digital camera. Keep in mind that not all places will accept homemade passport photos, but according to Dunn, she’s already managed to use these photos for several forms of ID.

Anyone else made their own passport photos?