One Orange in New Zealand

by Adrienne Wilson on

HotelChatter is probably one of the better
hotel blogs out there if not the best. They continuously
keep me informed, enlightened and in-the-know about hotels worthy of all our attention and
those where the bed bugs bite, a lot. Ouch. Today’s
find from their awesome little space on the web is a place called
One Orange in Gisborne, New Zealand. As one of the
first cities on Earth to see the sunrise, HotelChatter calls One Orange sort of a sunrise tribute hotel
where the One Orange web site notes the experience as raw untouched beauty at the edge of the world. Breathless
yet?

When I saw the picture of the digs I thought it looked like a colorful recreation center set against a very dry
mountainside, but the closer you look the high design hotel is really a comfortable and luxurious hotel. Silly me,
right? Activities aren’t hard to come by though. They are conveniently located next to some of the best
surfing beaches in New Zealand and offer trout fishing trips with a local expert on the sport. Other things to
note about One Orange is the opportunity to become a real piece of caged shark bait, but I’ll let you find out
more about that one on your own.

Welcome Slashfood

by Erik Olsen on

You know, the blogosphere is growing so rapidly it’s damn near impossible to keep track of
all the new blogs out there. But of course, when it comes to new blogs on WIN, well, we have to pay attention, if only
because we KNOW the blogs are going to be good. Across the board, the folks who write for WIN — as disparate and
diverse a group as we are — are good writers who are passionate about their work.

This remains the case with the newest blog in the WIN family, the aptly named
Slashfood, which is about, no surprise here, food. But here’s something you
MIGHT find surprising: everyone NEEDS food. Yup, to paraphrase the Blues brothers: you, me, them, everybody,
everybody!…um, needs food. And here’s another interesting thing about food: some people actually enjoy it. Yes, there
are many of us misfits out there who find in food not only nourishment, the daily means by which we keep active, but
also savor the flavor, as it were. And this blog is for folks like us.

So enough rambling (it’s late on a Friday afternoon, call me a bit slap happy), let us welcome the Fabulous Foodies
over at Slashfood.

Snap Guides from Budget Travel

by Erik Olsen on

Budget Travel is a great magazine for finding trip ideas for
cash-conscious people who are looking for useful details on where to go, where to stay and how to get there. I always
check out the magazine and have developed a particular fondness for their
Road Trip series. Now they’ve
started a new feature that is especially cool. They call them Snap Guides, and they are downloadable, very
elegant and informative guides to cities around the world.

This one, their
newest, is about Paris, and is a must-read if you’re heading to the City of Lights and don’t know much about it.
(and I assure you that even if you are a Francophile, you’ll find useful items in the guide). The 8-page guide to Paris
provides tips on places to see (museums, cathedrals, cultural spots), restaurants, taxi tips and a whole lot more.
There are also guides to
London,
Santa Fe and
New York. I
highly recommend these for your next trip. Besides, their FREE!

The guides are provided in Adobe Acrobat to maintain their elegance and to make them easy to print.

Gatorama: See & Taste Alligator

by Adrienne Wilson on

Something about eating alligator meat comes off real disturbing for me. They say it tastes more
like pork than chicken and I’ve got no problem with pork, but it’s gator folks. I’m no
vegetarian, so I love a nice well-done cut of steak and my lemon marinated baked chicken breast for dinner,
but what do you do with alligator? How do you cook it? According to this piece from
Sunday’s Miami Herald there is a high
demand for alligator meat at Gatorama, a roadside attraction in Florida where the animals can be seen and the meat
can be purchased. The owners aren’t as into selling the meat as much as they’d like the place to be a big boom
tourist destination, but making money seems to be a bit harder that way. Most of it is sold over the counter, but
overnight mail orders are excepted too.

As a day-trip there is much to keep one’s eyes peeled on. There are nearly 4,000 alligators and crocodiles at
Gatorama which are kept apart as the crocs are a little more feisty. With the crocs being an aggressive and
protected species, their meat is not for sale. Everyone can get the chance to hold a tiny gator and croc while learning
the differences between the two little reptiles. That part sounds like something I can handle, but the sound of
eating the critters still gives me scales of my own.   

Details can be found at the Gatorama web site.  

Vermont Farmstays

by Adrienne Wilson on

What better way to bring in the fall watching the seasons change on a grassy hill under a shady
little tree overlooking a beautiful Vermont farm? Whether you want to milk a cow, pick
apples, or roll around in a hay stack all your wildest and tamest barn yard wishes can come true during your farm
stay. I was really surprised to see how detailed the web site for the
Vermont Farms Association is at listing the many farm stays available in the
state. I didn’t realize there was such a variety amongst the state’s farming industry. Silly me, right? You can stay at
a small hands-on alpaca breeding farm at Parris Hill Farm, a working
dairy farm at Liberty Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast, or have a full maple
breakfast with delicious maple syrup at Couture’s Maple Shop and
Farmstay. And that’s only a few of the farms.

Personally, I would love to stay at a farm. I’ve never experienced a real farm, the smell,  and the simplicity
of it all. I’d imagine the environment to be incredibly different than my regular day-to-day doings and would
probably give me a huge appreciation for the many early morning breakfasts I’ve had in the past. Whether you are a
veteran to farm life or a newbie like myself, it sounds like something to tack onto the ever growing travel to-do
list.