Intergenerational Travel

by Adrienne Wilson on

MSN went digging when they found this piece which originally appeared in Travel Leisure’s April 2003 issue and I can’t think of a better travel related topic to revive than traveling with grandparents. While we may have mentioned family travel directed towards parents and their children we never touch on intergenerational travel. The article points out 35 percent of grandparents traveled with a grandchild in 2001, up from 29 percent the previous year. Not sure what the stats look like for the more recent years, but if you’ve got a granny and a grandpa why not surprise them with a specially created vacation without your parents this summer? There are several outfitters that cater to grandparents looking to travel with grandkids and trips include bike rides through Holland from Elderhostel.org, river rafting in Alaska provided by Grandtravel, and summer retreats at Great Camp Sagamore to name only a few.

If my grandparents were still around I’d most certainly take to the streets or explore the off-the-beaten-track just hear stories of the golden yesteryears. Think – a little bit adventure, history, and family packaged together for one grand ole’ time. Talk about an experience!

Photo of the Day (4/19/06)

by Karen Walrond on

I
love caves — there are several on an island just offshore of my homeland of Trinidad — so I couldn’t resist posting
this one of the Skocjan Caves in Slovenia.  Besides, the photographer, trentstrohm, says the shot was taken illegally, since photography
isn’t allowed in the caves.  For that alone he deserves to have this be the photo of the day, don’t you think?

If you’d like one of your travel photos to be featured in our Image of the Day, be sure to visit our Flickr Pool, and upload your best shots there.  Every day we’ll
pick one to be featured here on Gadling.  Thanks!

Man Eats Frogs and Lizards to Survive

by Erik Olsen on

Talk about your new-fangled diets.
Judging by the photo in this story,
this one seems to be really effective.

Here’s how he did it: Ricky Megee first got himself lost in the
Australian outback, no one is quite sure how or why, and then he ended up surviving out there by eating leeches,
grasshoppers and lizards. Yum. When he was found, the 35-year-old was discovered looking like a "walking
skeleton". Now, lots of questions surround what he was doing out there in the first place, but it seems that he
had set off on a 3,500-mile journey in order to start a new job in a place called Port Hedland. Then it is murky
whether he was drugged or beaten or whatever. The whole thing sounds a bit fishy. But he did say that at one point he
found himself asleep in a ditch, and "what woke me was that there were four dingoes scratching the rocks to try to
get at me."

He was also very enterprising when it came to his food, as he later described to
reporters how he had left frogs on the roof of his makeshift shelter to go "a bit crispy" before he ate them.
Double yum.

Adventure Tours

by Neil Woodburn on

The centerpiece of this year’s Men’s Journal Adventure Issue is the adventures
themselves.  The May issue highlights a great selection of
“Classic Adventure Trips” and tells
us how to do them right.  Although I’m always a little skeptical when such articles point us directly to
tour outfitters who will help us do such things, the writers have at least included enough information to whet
appetites and get the old adventure spirit pumping.

While some of the Classic Adventures can be accomplished easily enough on your own—diving the Great Barrier
Reef, cycling through Tuscany, and surfing Scorpion Bay in Mexico—others are far more involved and you might do
well to consider some of the tour operators even if you hate this type of organized travel as much as I do. 
Let’s face it; you’re never going to raft the Zambezi River or race a sailboat across the Atlantic on your
own. 

Where's Walrond?: Arriving

by Karen Walrond on

(Written at 6:30 a.m. this morning)

Want to know what the height of insanity is?

The
height of insanity is when, after a long, brutal journey to your destination, your husband decided to wake up at SIX
A.M. on the first morning of your vacation, and bang around the room preparing to go snorkeling — even though: 
(a) the fish aren’t going anywhere, (b) the beach certainly isn’t going anywhere, and (c) you’re booked in for a dive
trip later this afternoon.

sigh

Anyway, we’ve made it here, and the truth is, even
though it’s 6:30 a.m. as I type this, I feel well-rested and in good spirits; this, despite the fact that it took two
hours to get through the hot sweaty immigration hall (and we landed at the smaller of the island’s two airports!), and
we almost didn’t make it to our hotel in time for dinner.  No matter:  it’s a new day, our resort is
beautiful (as you can see in the picture, above, taken from the balcony of our room, and below, taken on the beach in
front of the hotel), and the day’s diving looks promising.

So far, we haven’t run into any weddings — since
this island is a hot wedding location — but from checking out the vacationers who are staying at this resort, I’m
guessing there are a lot of honeymooners around.  (There are also a lot of kids around, so I’m not sure how much
of a honeymoon these couples are having!).  Also, in looking at the activities the resort has to offer, I’m pretty
pleased with what I read:  there’s hiking in the mountains!  Jeep safaris!  Whale and dolphin
watching!  As we haven’t planned anything yet for tomorrow, the mind boggles.  It’s going to be hard to
figure out what we should do!

Okay, so back to the contest.  To refresh your memory, yesterday’s clues
were:

  • It’s great for diving;
  • It’s a great place for lovers;
  • Its name is
    often mispronounced.

Today’s clues:

  • It’s an island;
  • There are two
    airports — one large, one small;
  • In addition to diving, you can hike and watch the whales and
    dolphins.

Remember, I need city and country.  If the clues seem too tough, trust me — I’m
running out of obscure ones, so take heart!

Good luck!