Gadling readers compile U.S. road trip must-sees

by Brenda Yun on

Gadling would first like to congratulate Karin V, Arti K, and Benderillo, who are the lucky winners of our Road Trip USA giveaway! A copy of Road Trip USA, Route 66, and the Pacific Coast Highway are heading to your doorsteps as I type this.

Here are our winners’ road trip destination descriptions:

from “Road Trip USA” winner Karin V:
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is a must see! It seems that most people opt to head to the South Rim. The North Rim is a little out of the way and a bit more isolated, but that is what makes it so wonderful. There is a wonderful lodge just outside the park in the Kaibab forest that is a fantastic place to stop and spend a little time too.

from “Route 66” winner Arti K:
I was returning to California after finishing graduate school up in Illinois – so I decided to do a road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles, via Seattle. Logical, I know. =). But the biggest highlight was driving through South Dakota, seeing signs for a ‘scenic detour’, and quite literally stumbling on the Badlands National Park. The majesty of the place can’t be exaggerated, and it is such a shocking change after the rolling plains of South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and onwards to the east. It is absolutely a must-see! I missed out on seeing the ‘Going To The Sun Road’ (Montana) and Mt. St. Helens (Oregon) as these are at higher elevations and I was traveling around the end of May. These are next on my must-see list.

from “Pacific Coast Highway” winner Benderillo:
Redwood National Forest. A walk amongst the Giant Trees is something that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

(find out about the Gadling Readers’ Road Trip after the jump)
I was so blown away by the fantastic suggestions for places to visit in the U.S. before we die that I compiled some of the best descriptions below, as well as a handy Gadling Readers Road Trip GoogleMap should you feel compelled to hit the asphalt and check out some of America’s best attractions.


View Gadling Readers’ Road Trip in a larger map

In case you don’t know how to use GoogleMaps, click on any pin to view a Gadling reader’s description. You can also retrieve directions to and from any destination.

Enjoy the road and don’t forget to buckle up!

Mexico and being “Mexican Enough”

by Brenda Yun on

As the scare over the swine flu escalates and the border regions grow increasingly violent, it’s about time we put some perspective on what exactly is going on in Mexico. Just two months ago, I contemplated whether or not Mexico was a dangerous travel destination, and the thread of comments to the article sparked even more interest for me to see and experience Mexico for myself.

I’m talking about the heart of Mexico, mind you, not the touristy coastal towns or culturally rich Oaxaca. I want to see the part that few talk about, the REAL Mexico, where the social and political struggles are transparent, and the people are living and breathing Mexico in all its raw glory.

That’s exactly why I picked up Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s recent travel memoir, Mexican Enough. Having seen Griest read from this book last year, read and reviewed her other books (Around the Bloc and 100 Places Every Woman Should Go), and spoken with Griest over the phone, I felt I could identify with Griest as a solo female traveler paving her own path in wide open world. If I can’t right now travel to Mexico myself, I wanted to read about it from someone I could trust.
Griest’s own journey to Mexico took place over the course of several trips to various parts of the country between 2004-2006. While she had been so daring to travel to such countries as Russia, China, and Cuba, Griest had an overriding fear of her half-motherland. As a bi-racial child growing up in Mexico, Griest felt she was never quite Mexican enough, and opted to avoid traveling to Mexico altogether until she realized she was running away from her own half-reflection.

Mexican Enough covers such potent topics as being bi-racial, social politics, gender roles, and immigration. Griest is able to confront her Mexican heritage and accept that she is, in fact, Mexican enough. She enters parts of Mexico during a Red Alert, witnesses the post-election riots, and investigates the disturbing violence against gay and women rights movements throughout the country.

I really enjoyed Griest’s ability to weave together these different threads into an interesting — at times humorous, at others heartbreaking — tale. There’s much to be learned from reading Griest’s memoir, but most of all, Mexico clearly remains a fascinating and culturally rich place that everyone should experience at least once in their lives.

A friend of mine is a traveling nurse and has been spending the past three years on the Arizona-Mexico border, witnessing the devastating drug-related violence there. When I asked him if I could go down with him some time to see it for myself, he responded, “I don’t care if you interested in the air rescue that saves lives, the drug cartels, or the human casualties at the border, but the pain and suffering that goes with it would probably be enough for a normal American to go crazy. It’s not worth going down there for the story. It’s only worth it if you’re willing to risk your life to see just how precious life is and how peaceful it could/should be but is not.”

Luckily, Griest’s latest memoir helped to satisfy my thirst for the real Mexico. I’ll wait for my chance to see Mexico one day when it’s just a little safer.

Amazing Race 14, recap 10: Swimming like Michael Phelps isn’t easy

by Jamie Rhein on

If there was one episode of Amazing Race14 that could get your sympathy genes going, this was it. Certain parts were downright pitiful. “You poor, poor thing,” I kept saying to Jen. I could have cried myself. I was even rooting for Jaime in this episode, even though she has not been my fave from the beginning. And Victor and Tammy, well, they are just stellar people.

Kisha & Jen did have me turning a little against them at the beginning of the airport episode by the way they were acting towards the ticket folks at the Guilin airport and how they talked about people in China as having dumb looks.

After last week’s episode, I didn’t feel that harshly towards them after their run in with Luke and Margie, but their attitude had me changing my mind a little.

But, the truth is, I’ve felt that way about people when I’ve tried to get help and I have been unable to easily–particularly when I’ve been road hashed. I think that the teams have probably used up a lot of their good humor and have arrived at the place where patience is wearing thin. Plus, they can taste that million dollars. At the beginning of the race when people were still yukking it up, a win was possibly a pipe dream.

The episode started out with all four of the remaining teams heading out on the same flight to Beijing from Guilin, and dashing off in taxis lickety split to find the Liangzi Jian Guo Men Dian foot massage spa, the worst foot massage in the planet. If they knew the pain that was to come, perhaps they wouldn’t have been in such a hurry.

Tammy and Victor, of course, were feeling downright pleased that they’d be able to speak Chinese all the live long day which they felt would give them an edge. Plus, they’ve been to Beijing. They know Beijing. They’re comfortable in Beijing. Keep that in mind, because Chinese is not the skill you need most in the Amazing Race–at least not in Beijing. Plus, not all places in Beijing are comfortable.

Jaime and Cara arrived first at the torture chamber, also known as a foot massage parlor. I’ve had a Thai foot massage and it’s heavenly. The Chinese version, like Victor said, won’t “kill you,” but it can make you cry in pain and bite your lips so you don’t scream. The faces on the Chinese women who dug their fingers into the bottoms of the feet of the team members who agreed to the procedure looked almost maniacal. If I were to end up at this foot massage parlor, I wouldn’t be fooled by the soft lighting and I’d be mighty careful what type of massage I ordered up. There’s definitely a difference between the Chinese to the bone foot massage and the Thai version that makes a person feel like purring.

During this part, I felt very warm towards Tammy who held Luke’s hand while he was writhing. You have to like a person who can feel empathetic and reach out to a rival.

After the foot massage, the teams were off to the Guangcai Natatorium for what turned out to be a true test of mettle for two of the teams. Margie & Luke and Cara & Jaime were not daunted by the task of jumping in an Olympic size pool to swim freestyle, or whatever way they could in a relay race. In the swimming task, team members were to take turns swimming 200 meters (up and back the length of the pool) in a medley until each swam two times for a total of 400 meters, one right after the other. The idea of the race was to match Michael Phelps’s individual medley–kind of- when he tore through the water to add to his neck bling.

Although swimming wasn’t a problem for those two teams, no one was thrilled to swim in the Speedo laser suit that was the kind Phelps wore.

Tammy, not the best swimmer, turned out to not be the best high diving board jumper either. She & Victor opted to try the second option which was to do a synchronized jump off two high diving boards. To get a score of 5 which would allow them to move on to the Pit Stop, they had to enter the water at exactly the same time. They almost got it once, but couldn’t manage to come close the rest of their attempts. I’m not sure why they didn’t yell “one, two, three JUMP” and figure out their strategy beforehand. Instead, they jumped willy nilly until they were wiped out and decided to do the Michael Phelp’s swim which turned out to not be all that bad after all.

Then there was poor Jennifer who doesn’t know how to swim at all. First, she decided to try jumping, but found out that she couldn’t make herself jump. Then it was a try at swimming. After she watched Kisha struggle to swim down the lane and back, she decided this was a no go too. So it was back to the diving board. The two sisters did jump in a couple of times which traumatized Jen so much she was in the hall sitting on her haunches crying and saying she wanted to go home. Sister, I’ve had that feeling and it stinks big time.

Finally, in a huge fit of resolve and due to Kisha’s stellar behavior as the best sister in the whole-wide-world EVER, Jen pulled on that skin tight laser suit, slipped on the orange life jacket and headed off into the pool matching Michael Phelp’s style. Let’s say matching Michael Phelp’s style when he as a toddler, perhaps. Still, go Jen go was my reaction. It was almost as good as watching Susan Boyle sing “I Had a Dream.” Imagine if that song would have been playing when Jen swam. I would have been bawling for sure.

In the meantime, while Victor & Tammy and Jen & Kisha were struggling to find the right combination for what would get them out of the water, Jaime and Cara and Luke & Margie were heading for the gorgeous Drum Tower, the site of the Pit Stop. The Drum Tower, built in the 12th century is one more indication of emperor glory days in China. Every hour, on the hour, 24 drums were beat to announce the time of day during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

Luke needs to heed the adage, “Pride cometh before a fall,” because he is way too involved in the idea of Kisha and Jen’s life being a living hell. I’m hoping that his heart would have melted a bit if he saw Jen crying, paralyzed in fear and Kisha telling her, “Let’s finish this strong.” Seriously, how can someone not feel moved by that?

The taxi rides across Beijing took awhile which did give the impression that Beijing has a massive sprawl. It is huge and it does sprawl. Other than that, there were shots of the Bird’s Nest, the main stadium of the Olympics and neon. What I noticed missing were the throngs of people on bicycles that I saw in the 1990s. Perhaps this was because most of this episode happened at night.

As for the end of the episode, Jaime and Cara were so wanting to come in first that I wanted them to come in first for a change myself. Jaime didn’t act mean, Cara put up with that foot massage, and the two of them swam their hearts out. But, there was Phil all by his lonesome at the Pit Stop mat. There weren’t any cute older Chinese people eating noodles this time. There wasn’t a congratulations and you’ve won a trip for two to the vacation of your dreams message.

Nope, there was none of that. Instead, there was Phil with a serious face holding out a yellow envelope saying, “Here’s your next clue.”

That was cold. Very cold. And the episode, as it turns out, is “To be continued.” Let’s see next week if Jaime and Cara will ever get a break and if Luke has to eat some humble pie.

As Victor has learned already, the Amazing Race does humble a person.

Travel guidebooks: Choosing the one that’s just right

by Brenda Yun on

My Cuba travel companions and I accomplished the ultimate travel guidebook experiment during the first week of our travels. We each decided to bring a different Cuba guide with us to test which guidebook reigned supreme (kind of like the Iron Chef: Cuba). I was never a good science student, so I apologize for the rudimentary experiment form that follows…

Objective:
To identify the guidebook that provides the most comprehensive and useful information for travelers to Cuba.

Participants and their respective materials (guidebooks):
Lora – Lonely Planet Cuba by Brendan Sainsbury
Frank – Frommer’s Guide to Cuba by Susan Boobbyer
Peter – The Rough Guide to Cuba by Matthew Norman & Fiona McAuslan
Brenda – Moon Handbook Cuba by Christopher P. Baker

Procedure:

1. Carry each book with us every day while sightseeing in Havana for one week in April 2009. (I unfortunately didn’t bring my Moon Handbook with me to Cuba, but have since browsed through it carefully. The other three we humped everywhere. Only the Havana sections were thoroughly utilized, as well as general tips for other destinations such as Trinidad.)
2. Identify travel guidebook components and assessment criteria.
3. Use assessment criteria to rank the usefulness and/or accuracy of the guidebook components.

Hypothesis:
Before the trip, most participants’ top guidebook choice was Lonely Planet. Personally, I permanently dissed Lonely Planet when I was writing for Viva Travel Guides in Colombia last year and found out that LP’s Colombia guidebook writer, Thomas Kohnstamm, researched his book (with LP’s consent) from the States. Despite these sentiments, I suspected we would likely discover that, while LP’s information would be quite useful, it would also be the most used guidebook in Cuba, thereby making it an overexposed travel resource.
Assessment
What follows is our assessment of the important guidebook components.

  • Author: There’s really no doubt about the most experienced Cuba author in the bunch. Moon’s Christopher P. Baker has been traveling to Cuba for nearly 20 years — once by motorcycle. And he’s met Fidel Castro. (Read my “Talking Travel” post with him HERE).
  • Country overview and history: Lonely Planet always does a fantastic job with the informational section to country guides, and this one is full of well-written, helpful history and facts.
  • Suggested itineraries: LP’s Brendan Sainsbury also puts together some really original trip ideas like “Roads less traveled” and “Bird-watchers dream.” However, the one problem with these is their length. Sainsbury has several trips of up to two months, but tourist visas expire after 30 days.
  • Maps: Lonely Planet, hands down. Their maps are not only accurate but extremely handy.
  • Accurate information: Moon Handbooks is chock full of accurate and insightful info. Spot-on addresses, up-to-date phone numbers, and exact hours of operation are all there.
  • Size: Frommer’s Cuba is the lightest and most travel friendly. It’s not realistic to carry around a hunking travel guide like the Rough Guide to Cuba or Moon Cuba.
  • Cuba-specific issues we encountered: The casas particulares information in all of the books just aren’t useful — the reason being that casas, with their two-guestroom per night limit, can easily become full.
  • Online tools and information: Moon Cuba has the richest online resource, with information drawn from Baker’s guidebook as well as a cool blog updated by Baker himself. Be aware, however, that Internet is expensive in Cuba (US$8 per hour). Do your research ahead of time, and leave your time there for travel.

Conclusion
Based on Christopher P. Baker’s wealth of experience in Cuba, Moon is a sure thing. Sainsbury’s Lonely Planet Cuba is also a rich and trusty companion. Frommer’s Cuba, though the most recently updated (in January 2009), provided the most basic travel and destination info. We didn’t use the Rough Guide to Cuba at all; it was unjustifiably heavy and difficult to follow.

I think it’s worth mentioning that too many people carry the Lonely Planet guidebook around — not just in Cuba but around the world. In Cuba, it’s the only one I saw in at least five different languages (the content is the same). While useful, Lonely Planet is suffering from a unfortunate hipster effect: the same restaurants, hotels, and sights are becoming overrun by “budget backpackers,” and travelers are relying too heavily on LP-specific travel tips and suggestions.

Cuba is a really easy place to travel without a guidebook, but few tourists are willing to trust themselves and explore the place emptyhanded.

Please keep in mind that this experiment was based purely on our experience using Cuba guidebooks in Cuba and that our collective experience using these guidebooks should be taken as lightly or seriously as you deem worthy.

Gadling Take FIVE: Week of April 18– April 24

by Jamie Rhein on

When I read through Gadling posts each week, there’s this potpourri of options. Jon Bowermaster has traded Antarctica for the Maldives, Tynan has been roughing it on a cruise ship and Mike has the scoop on the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. This week let’s hone in on places one might not think of to head to for a good time.

This week ,Brenda finished up her series Cuba Libre series that highlighted what a traveler might experience in Cuba. Her take on traveling as a female is that be prepared for whistling and catcalls, but otherwise, she felt safe.

  • This post from Grant certainly caught my eye. He wants to know whether he should stop over in Algiers or Tripoli on his way from Paris to Dakar. Please let him know.When I did this flight, I went through Madrid and Cape Verde. I’m jealous Grant”s going to Dakar regardless of how he gets there.
  • Alison dropped a surprising bit of news. Turns out Four Corners where four U.S. states meet is a sham. Not on purpose, but the boundaries are off so the tourist attraction is not accurate.
  • There’s yet another way to tour New York City. Annie has details about Gossip Girls tours where those who partake see where the TV series is set.
  • Tom”s post on art hotels in Orlando shows an aesthetic side of this city that is more commonly linked to Disney World.
  • In Egypt, there’s another pyramid that will be open for visitors’ soon. Kraig has the details about the Bent Pyramid that has been around for 4500 years but hasn’t been a tourist option up until now.