Quiz: What’s Your Travel Personality?

by Dia Draper on

If you’re anything like me, you love a good quiz. Conde Nast has a fantastic article in this month’s issue on page 61 that explores the various types of “Travel Personalities.” Christian Wright’s “Head Trips” (also available online) is so good that even if you disagree with their assessment of your travel preferences, you’ll still be likely to forward this one around to your friends and co-workers. He describes the birth of the study of travel habits:

The scientific study of the relationship between personality and travel started more than 30 years ago, when 16 companies-including TWA and Reader’s Digest-commissioned social scientist Stanley C. Plog to find out why nearly 75 percent of the population had never flown. The airlines had just ordered jets, and their capacity was about to increase by twenty percent,” says Plog. “They were wondering how they were going to fill these things.”

What’s really impressive is that they take a stab at outlining your media, shopping and sports preferences as well as listing suggested domestic and international trips for your particular travel personality type. I was pegged for a “Centric Venturer” which I totally agree with but they were off on nearly everything else in terms of habits. Take a guess at which one they’ll peg you for then take the quiz and let us know if you agree

LP’s The Perfect Day

by Erik Olsen on

I have to say I love the fact that Lonely Planet is really branching out in the travel writing genre. Take a look at their catalog, and you can see that they’ve really moved beyond basic travel guides into vast new realms. I posted recently about the lusciously photo-illustrated book “The Middle of Nowhere” which I have right here on my shelf and which I go to whenever I need a quick inspiration for where to go next. But that book is hard backed and rather pesado, and so as I carry around a version of something similar, albeit smaller.

I just got my hands on “The Perfect Day” by Lonely Planet. The book provides bite-sized summaries of what constitutes the perfect day in multitudinous cities around the globe. From New York City to Phuket, Madrid, Dubai and so on, pretty much every major and medium city is covered. The writers are mostly LP authors and/or travel writers, so I suspect you can trust their advice. I like this book for its quick insight and it portability. It lacks a certain depth, but that’s not what it was intended for; The Perfect Day was written to whet your appetite about a place, and I think it pulls that goal off nicely.

Romania to Buy Dracula’s Castle

by Iva Skoch on

The state of Romania has made one of its first announcements as a new EU member loud and clear: they want to buy the medieval fortress in Transylvania, Bran Castle (known also as “Dracula’s Castle“) back from the former royal family of Habsburgs, Reuters reports. The price tag? 60 million Euros.

The castle was confiscated from the Habsburgs by the communists after WWII and just last year the former royal family got it back through restitution.

The fortress was never actually part of Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula”. However, Romania’s 15th century ruler Vlad Tepes who visited there, served as an inspiration for the author. The castle has been a tourist attraction ever since.

Battles over Budweiser

by Iva Skoch on

Yesterday was a good day for beer lovers. After almost a century of disagreements between Anheuser-Busch and the Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar (BBNP) over the name for their beers, the two brewers have formed an historic alliance in which Anheuser-Busch will become the U.S. importer of Czechvar Premium Czech Lager. Now that both parties have figured out a way to make money, pride suddenly went aside.

The new alliance does not stop any existing legal proceedings, but it is a step towards a reasonable agreement. Budvar cannot legally use the name “Bud”, “Budvar” or “Budweiser” (which they use throughout Europe) so they use the brand “Czechvar” in the US market. Czechs are claiming that Americans “stole the name” from the centuries-old brewery in Budweis (town in southern Bohemia). Americans, however, have invested too much into the brand to give it up. Maybe it is time that Anheuser-Busch started investing in the taste of their beer, not the name.

Chiloe Stories

by Erik Olsen on

This impressive little award-winning feature on the Chilean island of Chiloe took me by surprise. I spent a fair amount of time in Chile and remember well the unique character of Chiloe.

I always thought there was a cool documentary to be made there, but these guys have gone and made a kind of Webumentary in Flash, with photos, audio and music. The stories are varied, covering the stories of young dreamers to traditional ways, and attempt to cover many other aspects of life on the island. I’d love to see some video, really see and hear the people talking, but the audio slide show thing works well.