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 Citizens Guide

by Erik Olsen on

The motto of this
new group should be Be Not Thee an Ugly American. And good for them for saying so. Yes, at a time when we
really, truly need to project the very best image we can overseas, it seems many folks are still heading abroad and
wondering out loud why it is these other durn counties don’t take American dollars. Oh, please.

And so
comes the "World Citizens Guide" published by
Business for Diplomatic Action Inc. The guide offers 16 tips to behave properly when overseas. Among the tips:

  • Try to speak a little of a foreign language and respect local customs. (well, duh)
  • Be safety conscious not fearful (OK, that’s cool)
  • Dress for respect (can’t tell you how many
    dreadlocked, stinky hippie college kids I’ve seen in places like Thailand…clean up your act people!)


Anyway, a good, informative list and you
gotta give some props out to the folks that put this lsit together. Now if we can only get people to download and read
the thing.

Papua New Guinea

by Erik Olsen on

It’s one of the
most exotic places on earth. Some day there are still head-hunting tribes there, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this
was true. I mean, collecting heads, that’s fun. But to be honest, I’ve always wanted to travel to Papua New Guinea and I keep my eyes open for any
stories about the place that seem intriguing. And so we have this nice little piece on PNG from the Independent.

Turns out, says Jessica Morris,
that travel companies are beginning to organize tours to PNG, and she explains why this makes sense and why PNG is
really the new frontier for adventure travel. She heads there and finds "banks thick with mangroves" where
villages are built on stilts to built to withstand floodwaters (a not uncommon mode of architecture in this part of the
world). She encounters fisherfolk in their canoes catching dinner and where home-dried tobacco leaves are used as a sort
of primitive Off to deter mosquitoes. Does this sound like fun to you? Well, at the very least it’s adventuresome. Maybe
give the idea a try if you’re up for something on the exotic side.

Sleeping on Airplanes

by Adrienne Wilson on

Falling asleep on
moving objects has never been an issue for me. If I’m not the one in the driver’s seat it’s safe to say I’ll be out
cold until the final destination has been reached. Buses, trains, planes, you name it – sleeping on each has been
something I’ve trained myself to do. For the most part it keeps me from getting "are we there yet"
syndrome and makes time fly a whole lot faster. However, I have to admit snagging my zzz’s on planes can sometimes be a
little embarrassing. Let’s start with the strange gravitational pull that somehow keeps my mouth wide open like a
stuffed bass mounted on someone’s trophy wall. (I know I’m not the only one.) Neck pillow or no neck
pillow I always seem to become a real life bobble head and many times I find myself being nudged by the passenger next
to me to either wake up or get the hell off their shoulder. I don’t know how many times I’ve apologized in the past for
managing to sleep so well on planes at my poor neighbor’s expense, but such is my sleeping style.

Now all of
this brings me to a fine piece of ‘sleeping on plane how-to’ from Independent Traveler, who
better understands that not everyone can nap so well on board. The folks at the Independent title the time spent on
planes "a modern Purgatory for the living" and offer tips on how to close your eyes and make it all
go away. You know – crying babies, the bearded woman, or the poser pretending to chug along on his laptop for some very
important deadline. Yes, just make it go away! Here are some of their tips
with my own two cents.

  • Get seat savvy. Learn which ones are the best and worst seats for getting
    shut-eye on your red-eye.
  • Keep the carry-on luggage to a minimum since they take away from your
    precious legroom.
  • Coffee? Are you kidding! Skip it.
  • Fight for pillows and blankets if you
    have to. Board early and to get yours from the overhead bin if it’s going to help you sleep in peace.
  • Turn
    the neck pillow around for chin support. (Never thought of that one!)
  • If taking off your shoes, know the
    rules. They’ve got the basics listed.
  • Give the bookworm beside you a nasty glare if they choose to use the
    light. Make it known you’re trying to sleep.

Several others which include the use of drugs, headphones and
seat reclining etiquette are listed as well. Whether you have troubles sleeping on planes or not I encourage everyone
to check this piece out.
If you’ve got a moment share a tale from one of your flights. What’s your in-flight sleep style like?

Travel and Leisure's 50 Romantic Places

by Erik Olsen on

For the most part, I don’t do a lot
of linking to Travel and Leisure Magazine. I think it’s a fine glossy,
and I’ll often pick it up and thumb through it, but the clientele it serves, I think, tends to be a bit more, shall we
say, sybaritic, that the average gadling reader. The magazine tens to be about luxury travel, and the ideal gadling
experience, I think more often involves tents than gilded bathroom fixtures. Now that said, we are very much into
romance and love. It’s a wonderful thing to take an adventure with your spouse or significant other, and sometimes
along the road, you really want to find a place that caters to your every whim,  where you might drop a bit more
cashola than usual because you feel like you deserve it.

And so I offer this great little list of places to
go on your next romantic trip. From exotic places like the Capella Lodge at Lord
Howe island in Australia,  to the Losari Coffee Plantation Resort & Spa in Indonesia, and the Snaefell Peninsula in Iceland, there are some seriously cool recommendations here,
enough adventure, love and luxury here to experience in a lifetime.

Travel Innovators at T&L

by Erik Olsen on

Here’s one for travel buffs who are eager to know more about the folks behind the world of travel and tourism. I
didn’t think I’d find this very interesting when I first stumbled upon it over at Travel and Leisure, but I spent some time with it and
think it’s rather cool. The list here of those who are "changing the way you travel in the 21st century"
lists 35 innovators, a wide range of people who’s ideas are having amajor impact on the world of travel.

It’s an impressive group, from the guy who had the brilliant idea that it would be good to provide people with more legroom on airplane flights, to how
we’re going to all be checking email
at 35,00 feet, to a scientist who
developed a non-addictive sleeping pill, and the guys who pioneered building luxury
hotels in unorthodox destinations (about which we’ve blogged several times), it
really is a fascinating look at folks who, in some small (or large) way, affect each of us as we travel.