Top 20 least sexist countries in the world

by Justin Delaney on

Have you ever wondered which countries are the least sexist in the world?

The Global Gender Gap report calculates such a thing. The study chronicles gender disparities and progress for rights across the sexes in several countries. It essentially gauges the treatment of women using various data points including educational attainment, health, and political empowerment. The study encompasses life in all types of cultural environments and provides a glimpse into some of the most and least sexist countries on the planet. For 2011, 134 countries were studied.

Many of the top countries for equal rights and opportunities across the sexes are European. Also, two African countries make the top twenty, South Africa and landlocked Lethoso – a small country bordered entirely by South Africa. Aside from those two countries though, African nations dominate the bottom quarter with several entrants from the Middle East as well. Iceland takes top honors at number one and is followed by three of its Nordic brethren in the ensuing spots.

Have you ever experienced sexism while traveling? Check out the full report here.

20. Canada
19. United States
18. Latvia
17. Netherlands
16. Sri Lanka
15. United Kingdom
14. Belgium
13. Germany
12. South Africa
11. Spain
10. Switzerland
9. Philippines
8. Lesotho
7. Denmark
6. Ireland
5. New Zealand
4. Sweden
3. Finland
2. Norway
1. Iceland

And the seven worst countries in the study:

7. Benin
6. Saudi Arabia
5. Côte d’Ivoire
4. Mali
3. Pakistan
2. Chad
1. Yemen

The Global Gender Gap Report 2010

Yellowstone offers unique multi-day tours this summer

by Kraig Becker on

Today marks the final day of National Parks Week, during which time visitors received free entry into each of the parks in the U.S. system. But if you found that the week went by way too fast, and you didn’t have time to visit one of parks to celebrate, than perhaps it is time to start planning your own vacation to one of the iconic destinations for the summer ahead. With that idea in mind, Xanterra Parks & Resorts is hoping that they can lure you to Yellowstone with a trio of multi-day tours designed to entice travelers of all types.

All three of the tours include four or five nights stay in the park, meals, transportation through Yellowstone, complete with an experienced and knowledgeable guide, and a variety of adventurous activities to help visitors to get the most out of their stay.

The three tours include the Couples Adventure Package which offers five nights at the Old Faithful Inn, and a host of guided hikes throughout the park. The Classic Yellowstone offering is four nights in length, with stays at a variety of inns, and features a scenic cruise on Lake Yellowstone along with comprehensive driving tours of the diverse regions of the park, including the wildlife rich Lamar Valley. And the Total Yellowstone Tour, which gives visitors the whole experience, includes a cruise on the lake, a tour of the Mammoth Terraces on horseback, a ride on a stagecoach, and a visit to some of the more unique regions of the world’s first national park. That tour is spread out over five days and stays in a variety of inns as well.

Each of these tours is available beginning in June and running weekly through October. The itineraries are specially designed to give visitors a thorough look at one of the most spectacular wilderness settings in the world, complete with snow capped peaks, abundant wildlife, and unique geological wonders that are unlike anything else on Earth.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of Yellowstone, and think that it offers the quintessential national park experience. The scenery there is breathtaking and the diversity of the animals that live in the park is unmatched anywhere else in the lower 48 states. It is a perfect setting for hikers, backpackers, families, and nearly every other type of traveler as well. It is simply a magical place for anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

How to Travel to Cuba if You Are an American

by Chris Owen on

While restrictions still apply, the long-awaited guidelines defining who can travel freely to Cuba were released and made official this week. Supporters of the changes say more exposure to Americans will lead Cubans cutting the ties with their government.

The new rules allow journalists plus religious and educational groups to travel to Cuba pretty much whenever they want to. They also allow Americans to send up to $2,000 annually to Cuba. That is limited to $500 per quarter (up from $300) and that money must be intended to support private economic activity.

One of the biggest changes brings back licenses for people-to-people educational exchanges (like foreign-exchange students) which the Bush administration suspended. Back in January the Obama administration lifted some restrictions to Cuba.

But let’s back this up a little bit. Are you looking to travel to Cuba? You can.

It is commonly believed that U.S. citizens and foreign residents are forbidden by law to travel to Cuba. This is not true. The often-misunderstood guiding legislation behind that belief is the Trading with the Enemy Act under which the restriction is not on travel but on the spending of money in Cuba.Of course one can practically equate the ban on spending money in Cuba to a travel ban because in normal circumstances a visitor must spend on accommodations, food and other necessities.Exceptions to the ban on spending money in Cuba are allowed by licenses issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department. When you see a news report of a government “sanction” against some country, these are the people that administer and enforce those economic and trade sanctions.

While specific individual requirements must be met as to the nature of your travel to Cuba, it can be done. This is a really good example of travel plans that can benefit greatly with the aid of a qualified travel professional. USA Cuba Travel specializes in travel to Cuba and arranged for over 100,000 Americans to get there last year. They urge would-be travelers to Cuba to take a very realistic view of what is ahead of them.

“Cuba which is still a socialist country, lives at a slow pace. At the same time, the country is very popular with the almost 2,000,000 tourists who travel there each and every year. In Cuba there is no central reservation system equipped with sophisticated computers that is open 24 hours a day” the company says on it’s website adding “It takes time, (up to one week) to make any reservation”

Flickr photo by twicepick

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Photo of the Day: The Adriatic Sea

by Chris Owen on

Our photo of the day, The blue Adriatic Sea off the coast of Piran, was photographed through a hotel window and comes from Flickr member SummitVoice1 who tells us

“Blue is such a soothing color, so I wanted to see if I could compile a photoblog using blue as a theme. Turns out, I only had to use about a quarter of my archives to come up with a respectable set. This shot was taken from the window of the Hotel Piran in Piran, Slovenia.”

Have you captured any unique sporting events on your travels? Add them to the Gadling group on Flickr and we might just pick one of yours as a future Photo of the Day.

Smithsonian in National Latino Musuem controversy

by Sean McLachlan on

The Smithsonian Institution is considering building a National Museum of the American Latino in Washington, DC, but is facing controversy over the idea.

The museum is planned for the National Mall, shown here in this image courtesy Andrew Bossi, and would complete a set of museums that include the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The latter museum is due to open in 2015. While a museum to the contributions of Latinos to American history and culture makes sense, it’s meeting opposition in Congress over funding and the concept itself.

Jim Moran (D-VA) says he doesn’t want each minority group going to their own museum and skipping the others. This reasoning would hold water if the other museums hadn’t been established already, but it seems a bit late in the day to be bringing forth this argument now.

The current financial crisis is a more persuasive argument against a new museum. The National Museum of African American History and Culture sported a $500 million price tag. Half of that was paid for with Federal dollars, something that’s not going to go over well in the current Congress. There’s also talk of a national woman’s museum, but that’s likely to face the same hurdles as the Latino Museum.

Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States and have been here since well before the country was founded. Many modern states, such as Florida, Arizona, even Missouri, were Spanish colonies before they became U.S. states.

Do you think there should be a National Museum of the American Latino? Should it be paid for with tax dollars? Tell us what you think in the comments section!