Oceania

Travel through Oceania by country:

Australia, Indonesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

Travel through Oceania by popular city:

Auckland, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Wellington

Travel through Oceania by popular things to do:

Cook Islands, Sydney Opera House

Travel through Oceania with our writers:

In the Corner of the World, Work and Play in Queensland

When a nation becomes a commodity: The Country Brand Index 2008

by Anna Brones on

We live in an era of global brands. McDonald’s, Starbucks, H&M, Coca Cola, Australia… Wait, what???

You read correctly, Australia recently won the top spot of the 2008 Country Brand Index. Nation branding, as it’s officially referred to, is the theory and practice of measuring and building the reputations of countries; basically applying standard commercial brand management that you’d find with commodities and using it to analyzing everywhere from Austria to Zimbabwe.

The 2008 study conducted by Future Brand, a global brand consulting firm, used rankings from 30 different categories to come up with the final index. Among the categories were History, Standard of Living, Friendly Locals and Environmentalism. It’s like a beauty pageant for countries, with the most well-rounded coming out on top. Here are the top ten:

  1. Australia
  2. Canada
  3. USA
  4. Italy
  5. Switzerland
  6. France
  7. New Zealand
  8. United Kingdom
  9. Japan
  10. Sweden

When you look at that list, referring to countries as specific brands starts to make a little sense. Don’t we all have pretty concrete associations with France for example? Wine, croissants and cheese. And what about Sweden? Meatballs, moose and blondes. Looks like what we once referred to as stereotypes has a new name.

Where to plan your next environmentally vacation: 15 green cities

by Anna Brones on

The good folks at Grist put together their own list of 15 green cities. Although their thought was probably to showcase the green efforts made by local governments and locals to make the cities more environmentally friendly, in reading it I realized it was a great list of places to chose your next eco-vacation.

If you’re looking to take public transportation, play in parks and learn more about sustainability as part of your next vacation, here are the 15 cities that made the list:

  1. Reykjavik, Iceland
  2. Portland, OR, U.S.
  3. Curitiba, Brazil
  4. Malmö, Sweden
  5. Vancouver, Canada
  6. Copenhagen, Denmark
  7. London, England
  8. San Francisco, CA, USA
  9. Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
  10. Sydney, Australia
  11. Barcelona, Spain
  12. Bogotá, Colombia
  13. Bangkok, Thailand
  14. Kampala, Uganda
  15. Austin, TX, USA

Some of the selections surprised me; Bangkok for example, but apparently it’s all about the city’s strategy to make things greener. Check out the full list with accompanying explanations here.

What green cities have you visited?

Where to find the world’s 10 best rooftop bars

by Anna Brones on

With summer in full swing it, finding good outdoor spaces to have a drink is the thing to do. Nothing says summer more than a couple of friends sitting on an outdoor terrace sharing a pitcher. But even better than your average terrace or patio has to be a rooftop.

Stopping for an evening drink is an excellent activity, but if you can find a bar on top of a tall building with an excellent view of your host city, even better. While in Vietnam last fall, my hostel in Hanoi had a rooftop bar and it seemed none of us ever wanted to leave. Our friends over at Matador Nights — part of the Matador Network — think along the same lines and have graced us with an article on The World’s 10 Best Rooftop Bars. It’s the insider’s guide to finding the best rooftop nightlife, from the ultra cool to the ultra sexy.

Here are the top five:

  1. Sirocco, Bangkok, Thailand
  2. The Penthouse, Madrid, Spain
  3. Luna Bar, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  4. Rooftop Bar, Melbourne, Australia
  5. Gravity, Dublin, Ireland

For the rest of the list and descriptions to all of the bars, read the Matador Nights article here. Do you have a favorite rooftop bar?

Denmark first in yet another survey of the world’s happiest countries

by Jeffrey White on

Back in April, Catherine posted about Denmark being ranked the world’s happiest country by the University of Leicester in England, which published its so-called Map of World Happiness.

Well, just in case you doubted that institution’s findings, another study, this one released last week by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, has also ranked Danes No. 1 in terms of happiness and life satisfaction.

The Michigan study’s overall conclusion: Happiness is on the rise worldwide.

It’s perhaps no surprise that Denmark tops the list, since it is a perennial favorite in any survey of this ilk. There is just something about life in that Scandinavian country that is apparently better than anywhere else. But a few other countries in the top 10 do surprise…at least me: Puerto Rico. Colombia. Northern Ireland.

The 10 happiest countries in the world:

  1. Denmark
  2. Puerto Rico
  3. Colombia
  4. Iceland
  5. N. Ireland
  6. Ireland
  7. Switzerland
  8. Netherlands
  9. Canada
  10. Austria

The U.S. comes in 16th on the list, not too shabby given the sad recent years we’ve lived through.

This is the 26th edition of the U of M study, which annually surveys around 350,000 people worldwide, asking them, well, just how happy they feel.

The 10 unhappiest countries in the world:

  1. Zimbabwe
  2. Armenia
  3. Moldova
  4. Belarus
  5. Ukraine
  6. Albania
  7. Iraq
  8. Bulgaria
  9. Georgia
  10. Russia

Not many surprises there.

Check out the complete U of M rankings here.

Real life ‘Open Water’ drama plays out for British diver, girlfriend

by Jeffrey White on

Anyone out there who’s seen the movie “Open Water” knows just what British diver Richard Neely and his American girlfriend Allyson Dalton went through when they were recently stranded near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef after their diving group left without them.

The couple was stranded for nearly 20 hours, in some of the most shark-infested waters in the world.

“I truly thought I was going to die. Sharks were on our mind the entire time – but neither of us mentioned the ‘S’ word,” Neely told Britain’s Sunday Mirror. “We just had to stay calm to help each other through the ordeal and not think about being eaten alive.”

How did they manage to stay alive? By tying themselves together, placing a small dive buoy between them and shouting “I love you” to each other as the night wore on.

The scariest time, Neely said, was at daybreak, the most popular time for sharks to feed.

“Because I’d seen Open Water, I was very concerned about being stranded in the same way, but I didn’t mention it to Ally. I could bring myself to mention it because that would have been too much. As a dive guide, I know the best time to see sharks out and about is the crack of dawn,” he tells the Mirror.

“I knew when the sun is rising, the sharks look up to the surface and there were Ally and I floating and splashing, with my very big yellow marker buoy splashing on the surface.We were both very well aware of that but we didn’t mention it to each other. Fortunately, we didn’t see any shark fins in the water – not like in the movie.”

The couple was rescued by helicopter by mid morning, apparently just after a poisonous sea snake began circling them.

How did this happen? The couple says they simply got swept away by a strong current, so that they were out of sight of their dive boat. However, some are questioning whether their ordeal wasn’t some big publicity stunt.

According to the Washington Post, the couple brought along a water bottle — pretty pointless with all that dive gear — and wore full wet suits, unusual for the tropical waters around the GBR. Also, they sold their story to the British tabloids for millions.

Read about their entire ordeal here and decide for yourself.

The Today show has some video footage.