Is Scotland the next big adventure travel destination?

by Kraig Becker on

It’s no secret that the adventure travel market is booming. It is estimated that that segment of the travel industry generated $89 billion in revenue in 2009 alone, and 2010 is expected to be another banner year. One destination that is helping to contribute to that massive revenue is Scotland, a country that already garners more than $1.4 billion in adventure travel per year, and yet analysts are forecasting an increase in the number of visitors to the country of more than 70% over the next three years.

More than 3.2 million adventure trips were booked to Scotland in 2008 and with the predicted increase for the years ahead, travel companies are already ramping up to help meet the demand. New options for hiking, cycling, and paddling in Scotland are in the works, offering plenty of active adventures for travelers looking to explore the country’s varied landscapes.

The most popular draw for adventure travelers is undoubtedly a multi-day hike through the famed Scottish Highlands. Those treks can consist of a few days of short day hikes while staying in luxurious accommodations or up to ten full days of walking during which travelers stay in simple inns each night. The trails pass through low lying mountains covered in mist and heather that are surprisingly rugged, and breathtakingly beautiful.

Many of those same mountain trails are also accessible by mountain bike, which make them a lure for an entirely different crowd. Road cyclists will find plenty to enjoy as well, albeit on the quaint roads that wind through the Scottish countryside. Kayaking and canoeing are also popular ways to explore the Highlands and the country’s famous Lochs, while the beautiful rocky coastlines offer some of the best sea kayaking found anywhere on the planet. Mix in a rich history and culture, and you have all the best ingredients for your next adventure trip.

With so much to see and

[Photo credit: Warwick Bradly via WikiMedia]

Travel Technology: No Netflix streaming outside the U.S.

by Amy Chen on

During my recent European vacation, I left my netbook at home and instead relied on my iPad for travel entertainment and on-the-road research.

With no individual in-flight entertainment screens aboard my Delta 767 flight, I was especially grateful for the TV episodes that I had downloaded onto the iPad. Other than the fact that my iPad kept toppling over when the person in front of me shifted in his seat, it was like having a personal seat-back entertainment system.

It is easy, however, to forget that the tools that I rely on for domestic travel aren’t always readily available for international travel. For example, instead of forking over $8 for the hotel’s pay-per-view channel, I often use my Netflix account to stream movies in my hotel room. (After spending hours walking around during the day, I find it relaxing to fall asleep while streaming a movie or some TV shows.)

Unfortunately, when I logged into my Netflix account from my hotel room, I received this message: “Watching instantly is not available outside the U.S. We noticed that the computer that you are using is not located within the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. Due to studio licensing reasons, movies are available to watch instantly only in those locations.”

I ended up downloading more episodes from iTunes, which was painfully slow using the hotel’s Wi-Fi.

As it turned out, Netflix wasn’t the only travel tool that was unavailable on my trip — I couldn’t access Yelp in many cities (I kept getting the message that there were no nearby restaurants even though that clearly wasn’t the case). Interestingly enough, Foursquare had a few check-ins — unfortunately many check-ins appeared to be several months old, so I didn’t feel like I could trust that as a travel resource.

Lessons Learned: Had I known that I wouldn’t be able to use my Netflix account while overseas, I could’ve saved time by downloading extra movies and TV shows before I left on my trip. I also should’ve done more advance research on where to eat instead of assuming that Yelp restaurant reviews would be available. Instead, I had to resort to Google searches, old New York Times travel articles — and following the crowds (a travel tip that never seems to let me down).

[Photo by Amy Chen]

Major new exhibition at British Museum: Egyptian Book of the Dead

by Sean McLachlan on


For four thousand years it was the cornerstone of Egyptian religion. It started as a few prayers said in prehistoric times before a body was laid to rest in the desert next to the Nile. As the civilization in Egypt grew the prayers and spells became more elaborate, as did other rites for the dead. They were written inside pyramids and other tombs. Eventually the various rituals and spells were gathered together to create what we call the Book of the Dead. It’s made up of numerous chapters in no set order. Individual chapters or groups of chapters were written on tombs, sarcophagi, and rolls of papyrus. The book survived, with various changes and variations that Egyptologists are still puzzling out, until the Christian era.

One of the foremost institutions for collecting and studying the Book of the Dead is the British Museum in London. Now the museum is opening up its archives for an exhibition of its amazing collection of this esoteric masterpiece. Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead features items rarely if ever seen by the public, including the Greenfield Papyrus, the longest scroll of the Book of the Dead at 37 meters. Other items like sarcophagi and tomb figurines will give a complete view of the ancient Egyptian cult of the dead.

The papyri are elaborately illustrated with scenes of the gods and the toils a spirit must go through in the afterlife. In the above scene Anubis leads Hunefer, a dead scribe, to a scale, where his heart will be weighed against the feather of truth. A wicked heart will be heavier than the feather and the monster Ammut, crouching below the scale, will eat it. This image is from the Hunefer Papyrus and will also be on display at the exhibition.

For a taste of what you’ll see, check out the online scan of the complete Papyrus of Ani.

Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead runs from 4 November 2010 to 6 March 2011.

[Photo courtesy Jon Bodsworth via Wikimedia Commons]

Driving from London to Cape Town for charity

by Kraig Becker on

When it comes to epic road trips, it’s tough to beat the one that Mac Mackenney, Chris Rawlings and Steve Mackenney set out on last weekend. The adventurous trio of Brits hit the road in their trusty Range Rover Discovery in hopes of breaking the speed record for driving from London to Cape Town, South Africa. In order to accomplish that feat, they’ll need to reach their destination in less than 13 days, 8 hours, and 48 minutes.

The journey will take the men through three continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa) and into 21 countries, covering more than 10,000 miles in the process. If they hope to set a new record however, they’ll have little time for sightseeing. The three men will take turns driving, and will barely stop at all along their route.

While they are undertaking their Max Adventure for the challenge of it, they’re also looking to do some good as well. Mac, Steve, and Chris are hoping to raise funds for the Help For Heroes organization, a charity foundation dedicated to offering practical assistance to British soldiers that have been injured in the line of duty. The trio hopes to raise as much as £10,000 (Roughly $15,500) during their trip.

You can follow the progress of the expedition on the team’s website, which includes two clocks, one showing the elapsed time of their drive and another showing how much time they have left to beat the old record. After a week of driving, the boys are in Africa and speeding south, but they still have a long way to go before they reach Cape Town.

This seems like the ultimate road trip to me. Lets grab some drinks and munchies and load up in the Land Rover!

Photo of the day (10.22.10)

by Alex Robertson Textor on

It’s possible, of course, that Gadling Flickr pool contributor Favio@Flickr staged this photo, but it looks to me like a random slice of Roman life: a young woman eats gelato demurely, while behind her a wheatpasted poster on a wall creates a political context. The result is a fragment of a fragment of urban life, compelling in its pleasing simplicity and strongly evocative of the city and country where it was shot.

Got a suggestive image in your personal photo archive that captures a mere wisp of a city’s essence? Upload it to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we might just feature it as our Photo of the Day.