Travel like Bourdain: the ‘No Reservations’ host gets his own travel app

by McLean Robbins on

Fans of Anthony Bourdain‘s no-holds-barred style of travel can rejoice because the next best thing to taking a trip with the famed Travel Channel host is finally here. Today, the Travel Channel launched a “Layover Guide with Anthony Bourdain,” which offers tools to help travelers create their own Bourdain-inspired experiences.


Geared towards armchair travelers, or those with more of a “get up and go” mentality, the app ($1.99) repurposes content from “The Layover” and “No Reservations” to allow travelers to customize trips in ten featured cities, including: Amsterdam, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Rome, San Francisco and Singapore.

The app allows travelers to plan an afternoon excursion or a weeklong journey, all focused on Bourdain’s signature love of food.

What do we like about the app? It offers curated content from a certified travel professional – if you like watching Bourdain’s show, chances are you’ll love his suggestions in app form, adding the ability to “mix and match” as well as customize a trip to fit within a dedicated time frame.

The integrated “timeline” feature allows users to plan their own itinerary using Bourdain’s POIs, automatically estimating the amount of time needed to do each activity to build a custom itinerary. The app uses Google Maps to estimate the time between distances, to make sure that you won’t cross from one side of town to the other and back.

We also like the app’s customized video intros and notes about each city from Bourdain himself as well as the personal list of travel “Do’s and Don’ts” anchored by the host.

Of course, half the fun of travel is getting excited about the trip. The app offers “inspiration lists” created by Bourdain to help set the mood. His recommendations vary from watching the Steve McQueen classic, “Bullitt,” before heading to San Francisco to studying the “Au Pied de Cochon” cookbook by Martin Picard while planning a trip to Montreal.

As would be expected, there’s social integration as well, including checking-in at locations, earning badges and sharing to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Have you downloaded the app? What do you think?

Students travel to Japan, help recovery efforts

by Chris Owen on

Travel to Japan was disrupted last year when a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11. The disaster brought an alarming death toll, fear of nuclear explosion and travel alerts cancelling hundreds of flights and stranding tens of thousands of travelers. But that disaster also elicited enormous response from people all over the world who pledged their help to the affected area. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the tragedy, recovery is well under way but there is a lot of work to be done. One of the organizations helping in the effort has students traveling to Japan for an immersive foreign travel experience like no other.

People to People Ambassador Group will be sending over 100 students to Japan in July for the first time since the devastation. These students were so committed to traveling to Japan that they’ve waited a full year to be able to make this trip.

People to People’s Spirit of Japan program puts student ambassadors in the heart of Japan, on an immersive itinerary that provides an immersion in a rural Japanese community where students will work at local schools and farms in the ravaged Tohoku area. The idea is to lend a hand to a host community, providing much needed help doing everything from assisting farmers in clearing their fields to teaching local students English. Working side by side with local citizens during a home stay with a Japanese family is part of the experience as participants offer up close and personal time with those actually affected by the natural disaster.

It is all part of People to People’s mission to get students involved and raise their global awareness with immersive experiential learning through travel.”In our interconnected world, we cannot be isolated-our decisions have an impact on other people, sometimes even those who live half a world away. Global citizens are people who accept a responsibility to others in their local and global community,” says People to People on its website.

Conditions in the affected area were so bad last year that it was unsafe for People to People groups to travel there. Both Narita (NRT) and Haneda airports (HND) which handle international and domestic flights for Tokyo were closed; leaving 14,000 passengers stranded. Sendai airport (SDJ), 300 kilometers to the north, was virtually destroyed by the tsunami.

Many travelers around the world felt the effect of Japan’s airport failures combined with a huge increase in demand for flights into Japan that had a cascading effect on travel. Airports from Canada to London saw delayed flights as the U.S. issued a travel alert urging U.S. citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Japan.

Here, some of the survivors look back-



Image provided by People to People

Texas authorities urge students to avoid Mexico

by Libby Zay on

As spring break draws near, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has issued a warning that advises college students to stay away from Mexico. The warning cites ongoing drug cartel violence as the main reason to avoid going south of the border, but also mentions criminal activity including homicides, gun battles, kidnappings, carjackings, rapes and more.

Popular resort destinations such as Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas and Tijuana are not exempt from the warning, which states these areas “can be havens for drug dealers and petty criminals.” Although the DPS acknowledges that many travel to Mexico without incident and that the Mexican government has made strides battling the cartels, it encourages travelers to carefully research any planned trips and always check the U.S. Department of State website for up-to-date information on security issues in Mexico.

Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of State issued a new Mexico travel warning that advised against nonessential travel to areas within 16 Mexican states. According to U.S. Department of State numbers, 120 U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico during 2011, a number that has increased dramatically since the tally was at 35 in 2007. All U.S. citizens living or traveling in Mexico are advised to register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

Spiderwebs blanket Australian tourist stopover

by Libby Zay on

Unless looking to relive a scene from Steven Spielberg’s “Arachnaphobia” (1990), travelers should be wary of a visit to Wagga Wagga, Australia anytime soon. One of several towns affected by the recent floods in southeast Australia, Wagga Wagga is experiencing a curious phenomenon: thousands upon thousands of spiders looking for higher (and drier) ground are working together to weave massive webs across sticks and bushes. In some cases, the webs have grow so large they cover entire fields.

The strange spiderweb blankets were first reported by the BBC. According to the news outlet, approximately 9,000 people in Wagga Wagga been forced to evacuate due to flooding. Wagga Wagga is a popular stopover for people heading between Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne. What would you do if you were on the road and survived a flood but were then greeted by thousands of hairy-legged spiders? Just the thought gives us the creepy crawlies.



Photos by Lukas Coch, EPA / Landov.

New Expedia study finds that travelers are still venturing out, despite economy

by McLean Robbins on

Expedia‘s American Traveler Survey reveals that the economic downturn has not affected leisure travel as much as one might expect. Data collected in late February suggests that leisure travel has remained “business as usual,” particularly for those between 35 and 44 years of age (46%). A percentage of young men (13%) and women (14%) aged 18 -34 are taking more trips these days, perhaps because a down economy prompts travel destinations to sweeten deals.

“We believe that Americans are proving to be resilient in a down economy, by driving instead of flying and taking more frequent, shorter trips,” said Joe Megibow, vice president and general manager, Expedia.com.

An old fashioned road trip
It’s interesting to note that a full 41% of Americans – and nearly one in two men (49%) – have driven across the United States at some point. Just under one in four Americans (23%) and one in three students (31%) are “at least somewhat likely” to travel internationally in the next year.

Eighty-one percent of Americans have visited at least one of twelve major U.S. landmarks in their travels. Approximately one third of people have visited the National Mall in Washington D.C., the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Grand Canyon, while approximately one in four have visited the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Route 66, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the Alamo.

Social media keeps travelers connected
Travelers are also social in nature – 75% use social media, while more than half stay connected while on a trip, although not surprisingly, this usage is higher amongst 18-44 year olds than those 45 and older.

Social media may, but is not likely to, decrease travel to visit family members, however, with only 12% saying that they are less likely to visit their family in person thanks to social media. In fact, 25% say they are more likely to visit family in person.

What about you? Planning a road trip anytime soon?

[Flickr via -snugg-]