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

World Map Quiz Game

by Adrienne Wilson on

For those who like testing their geography skills on a regular basis, try this World Map quiz from GameDesign.jp. The goal is to place as many of the 20 countries given during each quiz countries on the very blank map within an allotted time. I’ll confess my score was horrible. (Here is where I try to justify why a travel blogger of all people did so badly on the quiz.) I’m blaming it on my eye sight for one. I knew the general area for all the places given during my own quiz, but couldn’t pick them fast enough. Some of them looked so tiny and I was afraid using the zoom in feature would suck up some of my time. For instance Croatia was one I missed along with Austria an numerous others. On the flipside I was able to place Rwanda, Chile, Dominican Republic, Estonia and Japan in the time allowed.

Thanks World Hum for bringing my attention to this and yes, I’m already addicted.

25 Tips to Help Make Your Flight Better

by Adrienne Wilson on

James Wysong seems to constantly be searching for more ways to make a more comfortable situation when cruising 35,000 feet in the air. Last year he posted a list of 12 tips for a better flight, but he’s back again this year with 25 tips! After polling the masses he came up with a list of general travel advice like wearing comfy clothing and making notes of important info like where you parked the car. Other parts of the list include some very uncommon methods to helping stay happy while in flight. For example, one suggestion to handling the whiny, non-stop, crying baby or bratty kid situation is to hand them a sick bag and some crayons (because everyone knows to pack crayons) and tell them to make a puppet. Not too sure how to feel about that one. I don’t have children, but I don’t know if I’d want some stranger handing them items to make a puppet. I wonder how often that works.

Another person suggested bringing your favorite hot sauce with you to help make a culinary delight out of boring in-flight food and airport food. Now that one was obviously written before the whole liquid ban because hot sauce isn’t going to fly – not with you and not in America at least. Under mental health they follow the do unto others type of rule by stating: ‘Be the person you would most like to fly with.’ And in humor they suggest the ladies with battery operated massage devices take the batteries out before the screening process or it could end up very embarrassing. Hmm…

via MSNBC

World AIDS Day

by Adrienne Wilson on

December 1st is recognized as World AIDS Day and as a traveler of this great big planet I saw it fit to post a short something on the deadly epidemic which has killed 25 million people to date according to the United Nations. Yahoo News has an article that summarizes the very basics on areas with high HIV numbers, how you can lend a in helping eliminate AIDS or find a cure. Fighting the battle against HIV/AIDS doesn’t have to involve a coach class flight into Africa to help and teach orphans or teens about the disease, you can start right here, right now, where ever you are. I think many Americans are starting to discover AIDS is hitting a lot closer to home than they previously thought. Wake up and be smart folks. That’s my word and now I’m off to the Red Hot & Riot show at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

US Worst in Travel Headaches

by Erik Olsen on

It’s such a bummer that America’s image in the world has suffered lately. I’m constantly meeting people who tell me that while they once had nothing but admiration for America, their esteem has declined significantly since, well, you know. Recently, I’ve heard an earful from people who came here merely for tourism, who were brought nearly to tears describing the hassles they had to go through just to visit and see the country. One of my friends came with his family, and their top priority was to see Disneyland. They made the visit, but said the whole experience was soured by how hard it was to get through security. Turns out these problems were not isolated to them.

According to a new study of international travelers by a tourism business lobby, the United States visa and immigration entry system was rated the “world’s worst.” Interviews with 2,011 non-US. residents who had traveled outside their home continents over the last 18 months. So what are people all huffy about? Well, the rating was based on the ease of obtaining travel documents and the “respectfulness” of immigration officials. Rather sad and certainly interesting. But in regards to the later issue, I do have to wonder whether many of these folks just happened to come through New York, in which case immigration officials have pretty much always been that way.

BT’s Movies That Inspire Travel

by Erik Olsen on

My favorite movie of all time also happens to be one of the movies that most inspires me to travel: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, I may be giving away state secrets here, but that movie rocked my world as a youngster and filled my head with notions of far off lands as places where exotic tribes keep hidden treasures and every encounter is fraught with excitement and a splash of danger.

But this is not the only film that gets me thinking about travel. There is also the English Patient, numerous Bond films, the Beach and Easy Rider, all of which use the particular place as a character in the set, the establishing stage upon which the events in these films transpire. Only one of these films I mention here made it onto Budget Travel’s list of great travel movies, perhaps a reflection of varied taste or just the sheer magnitude of possibilities, since so many films are shot overseas these days. But whatever the difference, I won’t quibble for the most part with what they’ve selected here.

It’s a fine list that includes both new films and old. And for me, at the very least the list made me realize I need to finally see the Whale Rider shot in New Zealand) since that makes the top spot on the list. Check it out for yourself here.