South America

Travel through South America by country:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

Travel through South America by popular city:

Bogota, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro

Travel through South America by popular things to do:

Adventures in the Amazon, Falkland Islands, Iguazu Falls, Tierra del Fuego

Photo of the Day (3.28.09)

by Brenda Yun on


Talk about a gorgeous night skyline. The red hues of Skye Bar at the Hotel Unique in Sao Paulo are set perfectly against the looming gray urban night. There’s something very alive about this photo, from the reflection of red lights in the pool to friends lingering under glowing umbrellas.

Our Photo of the Day comes to us from wesleyrosenblum, who has some pretty awesome shots of sites all over South America.

If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

Amazing Destinations That Can’t Be Reached By Car

by Kraig Becker on

Modern transportation has made it extremely easy for travelers to get to just about any place in the world. Each day there are international flights that can take us to the four corners of the globe and modern roads and trains will deliver us to the best sights and monuments to be found at our destination, before whisking us back to a comfy hotel, complete with hot and cold running water, room service and a big comfy bed.

But not all of the world’s great places are accessible by vehicle. There are still some amazing destinations that fall way off the beaten path, that will force us to work a little harder to take in their splendor. The Times Online has put together a collection of these places, which they’ve dubbed “Holidays you can’t reach by car“, with a variety of unique locations that you’ll have to trek, paddle, or both if you plan to ever see them in person.

One of the more intriguing places to make their list is the Source of the Ganges River in India. The famous river which plays such an indelible part of Indian culture gets its humbles start at the foot of the Gangotri Glacier, located in the Himalaya at 12,600 feet in the Garhwal region. Anyone wanting to make the journey should be prepared for a ten day trek that will take them high into the mountains, past ancient caves where Hindu practitioners still meditate in their search for enlightenment.
The Omo River in Ethiopia is yet another interesting destination to appear on this list. The 470 mile long stretch of water drops more than 6000 feet over its length before emptying into Lake Turkana, while passing through rocky gorges and over beautiful water falls, offering up great whitewater in the process. The trip can only be made by raft or kayak, and along the way travelers will encounter crocodiles, hippos, and remote villages that still remain mostly untouched by the outside world.

There are plenty more similar treks, climbs and other adventures on the list as well, offering up great destinations that don’t just fall off the beaten path, they leave that path far behind. But for the adventure traveler, there is plenty to like here, with some ideas for your next trip that you may not even have considered before.

Ten Must See Monuments

by Kraig Becker on

BootsnAll brings us another excellent list, with the intention of adding yet more destinations to our ever expanding “life lists”. This time it’s their selection of ten magnificent monuments, amazing structures from around the globe, that inspire us to travel thousands of miles just so we can take them in ourselves.

Some of the selections on the list are centuries old, such as the Nubian monuments found in southern Egypt or Stonehenge in England. Others are relatively recent in their construction, like the Washington Monument in D.C. or the Brandenburg Gate in Germany. These monuments were built for a variety of reasons, some religious in nature, like the Reclining Buddha in Thailand, others to commemorate a particular person or event, like the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico. Each of the places on the list include a photo and a nice description of why it deserves your consideration as a travel destination.

One thing that I like about this collection is that not everything on it is well known. For instance, the obvious choice for Egypt is the Great Pyramids or the Sphynx, but BootsnAll went with the temples located in Abu Simbal, far to the south, and far less visited by tourists.

For the traveler who has been everywhere and seen everything, perhaps this list will give you a few new ideas for future adventures. For those just setting out on their travels, this is a great list to start with.

Earth Hour on March 28

by Brenda Yun on

Get ready to celebrate Earth Hour 2009 next week on March 28. Wherever you are in the world, you are encouraged to participate in this effort to raise awareness of climate change by turning off your lights for an hour at 8:30 p.m. local time.

Earth Hour has been encouraged by the United Nations (as seen here in the video), and is sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund, an organization that continues to seek solutions to solve our planet’s critical environmental challenges. Looking over Abha’s report on the same event last year, Earth Hour has grown substantially in just a year. According to the Earth Hour website,”1,760 cities, towns and municipalities in 80 countries have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, as part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.”

I just heard the song “We are the World” on the radio, so I’m feeling pretty inspired, aren’t you?

Top 10 best beaches in the Caribbean

by Karen Walrond on

I grew up in a little fishing village, as did my husband — and so now that we both live in the city, about every 12 months or so, we both crave the ocean. It’s like a sickness, really: unless we get an opportunity to breathe in some salty air, we start to get all crabby and out of sorts.

Or maybe that’s just my excuse for wanting to get away to a beach vacation.

In any event, my yearning for the ocean hasn’t eased any by this recent post on AquaTerraSky, listing their favourite top 10 beaches in the Caribbean. Perusing the list, I’m surprised that there aren’t very many I’ve been to — although admittedly, I was pleased to see that Englishman’s Bay, from my home country of Trinidad and Tobago, made it to number 7.

Looks like it’s time to start planning that Caribbean vacation. And now’s a good time, too: after Easter, most of the hotel and resort rates in the Caribbean drop for low season.