S. Floridians Second in Nation's Most Adventurous Travelers

by Adrienne Wilson on

If you’re curious to know which Americans are considered the nation’s most adventurous travelers and
seeing the world more than others, this Miami
Herald piece should shed a little light on your research. When they’re not hitting their own sunny, warm, soft,
sandy beaches South Floridians are busy taking second in the nation for travel abroad and they’re not just going to
Jamaica. According to the article South Floridians go just about anywhere from the Himalayan Nation of Bhutan to Latin
America to Africa. And when a road trip is put in effect, you can bet they won’t be stopping in neighboring Central or
North Florida cities, but they’ll be crossing the state line and heading to the Carolinas and the New England area.

What allows them travel more than other Americans? Well, some experts claim it’s the proximity to places to
Caribbean islands and Central America and others note the high number of retirees with the time and money to do spend
weeks in France. Amy Ziff, editor at large for online site Travelocity, notes
the many values and discounted fares available to South Floridians because they travel so often. Interestingly enough,
Miami ranks second in the nation for vacation days not taken. Hmm… Word hard. Play harder. I suppose.

The
San Francisco Bay Area  ranks number one in the nation.

Travel and Leisure's 50 Romantic Places

by Erik Olsen on

For the most part, I don’t do a lot
of linking to Travel and Leisure Magazine. I think it’s a fine glossy,
and I’ll often pick it up and thumb through it, but the clientele it serves, I think, tends to be a bit more, shall we
say, sybaritic, that the average gadling reader. The magazine tens to be about luxury travel, and the ideal gadling
experience, I think more often involves tents than gilded bathroom fixtures. Now that said, we are very much into
romance and love. It’s a wonderful thing to take an adventure with your spouse or significant other, and sometimes
along the road, you really want to find a place that caters to your every whim,  where you might drop a bit more
cashola than usual because you feel like you deserve it.

And so I offer this great little list of places to
go on your next romantic trip. From exotic places like the Capella Lodge at Lord
Howe island in Australia,  to the Losari Coffee Plantation Resort & Spa in Indonesia, and the Snaefell Peninsula in Iceland, there are some seriously cool recommendations here,
enough adventure, love and luxury here to experience in a lifetime.

Word of the Day: Coglione

by Erik Olsen on

Out of , we have a new word to add to our limited
Italian vocabulary…a vocabulary that has only seen some growth due to an obsession with the Sopranos.  Well, in
right now, folks are growing increasingly unhappy with their leader, the TV Magnate, all around manipulative guy, Silvio
Berlusconi. And a while back he referred to someone as Coglione. Turns out the name means something vulgar,
like "bloody idiot," "dickhead" or "moron", and is derived from a slang for testicles. So
nice. And now
everyone is wearing T-shirts with a slogan using the tasteful term. Ah, Europe.

Transylvania International Film Festival

by Adrienne Wilson on

It always does me
great pleasure to step out and away from the places I only dream of voyaging to one day to share with you my personal
thoughts on places I have seen with my own two. This happens to be the case today with Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This year
marks the 5th edition of the Transylvania International Film
Festival to be held June 2-11, 2006 in the Eastern European university town filled with amazing, rich history,
people, inexpensive food and culture. Though I have not experienced the festival itself in Cluj-Napoca, I can only tell
you checking out local cinema is
bound to be an experience beyond phenomenal. The website is slowly but surely updating info on the schedule for this
year’s event, but just so you’ll have an idea of what’s in store see what occurred last year.

If you’re
thinking along the likes of Bram Stoker, Anne Rice or those missed episodes of Buffy stick to the states and
search for YouTube clips. Romania is so much more than the folklore.

(Poster is from last year’s edition.)

Casas Rapa Nui on Easter Island

by Erik Olsen on

It seems to me the whole luxury hotel in exotic
places thing has taken a turn for the weird. Not that I haven’t always wanted to visit Easter Island, which lies
waaaaay off the coast of Chile, but it just seems kind of lame to put some luxury accommodations there. I mean, I
thought the whole point of Easter Island is its remoteness and simplicity. But maybe I’m just a reactionary. Off course
they’re going to build luxury hotels in a place like that. People will pay for it, and when people pay, they build.

And so we have Casas Rapa Nui, on Easter Island, probably the most remote speck of land on the
globe. Run by the company Explora, who also has lodges in Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park, the hotel offers nine
spacious rooms and an ornate dining room and bar that cooks up fresh fish caught that very day from the seas around you.
And yet there’s more. By the end of next year Explora will finish a 30-room lodge with a swimming pool and sprawling
terrace restaurant with gaping views.

So if you’re interested, and I confess I am, despite my grumpiness
about bulding the place, you can check out LAN Airlines and book three to seven nights
at Casas Rapa Nui from around $1,200 per person.