Off-The-Beaten-Path Latvia Nominated The Most Beautiful Country In The World

by Jessica Festa on

When many people are asked what they think the most beautiful country in the world is, they respond with popular favorites like Greece, New Zealand or Brazil. While these countries appear to be among the top in the world, a contest sponsored by First Choice is showing there are also some off-the-beaten-path destinations that many people find aesthetically pleasing.

The contest, called “Conflict of Pinterest,” asked Twitter and Pinterest users to put in their two cents on the topic. While Twitter users voted by submitting a tweet, Pinterest users created eye-catching boards for their country of choice.

So far, the top 10 countries in order are:

1) Latvia
2) Mexico
3) Turkey
4) Indonesia
5) United Kingdom
6) Italy
7) New Zealand
8) Brazil
9) India
10) Canada

To explore the votes more closely via an interactive map and cast your vote, click here.

[photo via Algirdas]

Video: Slab City And Living Without Laws

by Elizabeth Seward on

I recently discovered the VICE video series on YouTube. I like this series, which features off-the-beaten-path travel and other strange, yet fascinating topics. I watched a few videos from the VICE channel consecutively the other night before realizing how much time had passed. This video features Slab City. Residents call it the “last free place in America”. The land does actually belong to someone – well, an organization for teachers – but these folks have moved in and called the land home. Filled with hippies, veterans, drug addicts and more, Slab City isn’t your everyday California destination.

Instead Of Looking At A Map, Why Not Listen To One?

by Jessica Festa on

How many times when traveling have you looked a map and wondered what a certain area of a city was really like. I don’t mean where the nearest bakery was or how many square-feet a certain park held, but the actual ambiance of a place.

Listen Here, a product developed by University of Dundee student Nicola Hume, uses microphones and audio feed to help you get a feeling of what a certain section of a city feels like before you go. The goal is to get people away from tourist traps to experience the real culture. Listen Here uses a concept map, allowing travelers to use a stethoscope-like device to listen to what certain parts of a city sound like. Points of interest are decided by locals, who place microphones in their favorite areas, secured by bike locks.

“Using sound alone to represent environments creates a sense of mystery and encourages exploration,” Hume explains on the Listen Here website.

Of course, the product has a few flaws. The most major concern, as Natt Garun of Digital Trends points out, is the potential problem of eavesdropping. This could make Listen Here illegal in certain American states. Because of certain concerns, the potential launch of the product is still being sorted.

Is Listen Here something you would use on your travels?

Watch Desert Winds Pick Up And Move This Boeing 747

by Grant Martin on

It’s interesting seeing the fluid dynamics of modern flight turned backwards on a stationary aircraft. Normally during takeoff, an airplane flies into the wind to create as much air movement as possible over the wings. It’s a mixture of the Bernoulli effect and a variety of other physical principles, but the end result is lift as a function of air speed.

And if the aircraft isn’t moving? Technically you can still get lift with enough air speed. Youtube user CaptainHarlock999 captured an amazing video this week in an aircraft boneyard outside of Los Angeles. With winds at the scrapyard reaching over 70MPH, enough lift was actually generated by a 747’s wings to actually pick the fuselage up off of the ground, bouncing the plane around as the back wheels stayed in place.

The Southern Air 747 in question was actually scheduled to be scrapped, so the engines and much of the interior were stripped off of the airframe. Because of that reduced weight the aircraft was able to lift off the ground — so don’t worry, it won’t happen to you on your next trip!

[via Steven Frischling]

Heat-Map Shows Travelers Most And Least Frequented Destinations

by Jessica Festa on

Have you ever wondered what countries are the most and least frequented by travelers? Estonian tech firm Bluemoon has taken data from the photo sharing service Panoramio and created a heat-map based on photos. The map details which countries are the most visited (in yellow), which have a medium amount of visitors (in red) and which are explored the least (in blue). A grey area signifies that no photos have been taken there using Panoramio.

As you can see from the map, Europe is a major tourist destination, as is much of the east and west coasts of the United States and Japan. Certain regions that seem to receive few visitors include Mongolia, India and Australia. Moreover, many areas in Canada and Africa remain unexplored.

They’ve also created a map of the “world’s most interesting remote places.” It only looks at destinations away from cities with remote tourist attractions. Some examples from the data show the Greek Islands are touristy (red), the Amazon Basin has almost no tourism (green) and Ladakh falls in the middle (yellow).

For a bigger view of the map, click here.