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

Travelistic

by Erik Olsen on

With the explosion in online video, it’s a bit of a surprise that we’ve seen so few companies dedicated to travel vids. There’s Travel Channel which for the most part repurposes stuff that they’ve put on TV. There’s Turnhere, which is a fine site, but also hit or miss when it comes to quality. Also, their films…a generous term…focus on specific cities and destinations. Other than these two, not a lot of serious players have emerged.

Until now? (yes, that’s a question)

It looks like the former CEO of MTVi (MTV‘s former dot-com division), a gentleman by the name of Nicholas Butterworth (of the syrup dynasty?), says he is in “stealth mode” (meaning it’s not ready yet) to develop a new online travel channel called Travelistic that he describes as “YouTube meets the Travel Channel meets YouTube”.

Whether that sounds exciting depends, I suppose, upon how much you enjoy watching people’s lousy home movies or the Travel Channel, and whether you believe that a mix of these two things creates “synergy”, to use a little industry vernacular. Personally, I sometimes find the Travel Channel unwatchable, and YouTube’s offerings work for me about .056 percent of the time. But the online video thing is changing damn awful fast, and someone is going to score big in this arena, so we’ll keep an eye on this one.

The Doctor is Out

by Iva Skoch on

Thailand used to be a destination for exotic travel, perhaps even for sex travel. Now, it is a well-established member of the ever-increasing ranks of surgery destinations. Yes, travel is not just for the well or even the well-heeled, now it’s for the wellness-seeking. too. It’s not just cosmetic surgery, either. While cosmetic surgery comprises about 80% of the travel, laser eye surgery and fertility treatments make up reasons to travel, too.

A while back, our own Erik Olsen blogged about a crazy offer to get extra frequent flyer miles to get your eyes done, and also posted an article by Casey Kittrell about medical tourism. Then, earlier this year, I wrote an article about growing cosmetic surgery tourism to the Czech Republic. Since then, the pace of this traffic has exploded, and the places have gotten even more exotic. So much so, it’s worth revisiting this issue: according to the National Coalition on Health Care, over half a million Americans left the country last year for medical or dental work. A recent article even noted a man sent by his North Carolina company to New Delhi, for gall bladder and rotator cuff surgery, to save $50,000!

Tired of travelocity? A host of surgery-tourism companies have set up shop all over the internet. Costmeticsurgerytravel.com squatted on a good web address, offering “medical travel concierge” service, as well as assurance that the doctors in foreign lands are “appropriate for your procedure or treatment.” Prague a little to run-of-the-mill for you? Try Tunisia, for example, through Cosmeticatravel.com. Or Turkey or El Salvador, through Medretreat.com. Or Brazil, through Medicaltourism.com. A quick google search turns up a page-topping, paid ad for medical tourism to “Bumrungrad” hospital. Is that where you get that hemorrhoid treatment done?

Follow up: The NY Times just posted an article on the same topic.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of October 1

by Adrienne Wilson on

Buckle down everyone and grab some hot cocoa. It’s time for another weekly dose of Gadling’s Take Five.

5. Shrink is Located in Terminal A:
Fear of flying? Get help and get over it! Iva brings a great piece from USA Today which talks of Buenos Aires response to those who are afraid to fly. You can now find a shrink in the terminal. Can someone say “hooray?”

4. America’s Best Restaurants:
Eating is one of our favorite past times and can be especially delightful while on the road. That is unless you are eating junk 24/7. Skip the ick food and swing into America’s 50 Best Restaurants as found in Gourmet Magazine.

3. Hidden Gems: Pamir Botanical Gardens:
Tour the world’s second highest botanical gardens found in Tajikistan or specifically in the Pamirs. Take a look at photos and my first hand experience traveling through parts of Central Asia where little is known.

2. Playboy Club Reopens:
I’m sure heels are clicking somewhere over this news provided by Neil. The new Playboy Club have reopened in Las Vegas’ Palms Hotel starting today. Fella’s beware of any women dressed as bunnies and remember always to behave.

1. Space Tourist Anousheh Ansari Blogs:
Envious – indeed we are! How I’d love to travel to space and I’m sure there are many folks who feel just the way I do. Until we can afford it, I mean, until we get our chance there are other outlets. In the meantime we can read the blogs of the most recent tourist to soar out of this world, Anousheh Ansari.

Last Best Places

by Erik Olsen on

We post a lot here about various things to see on the net that we know will be of interest to those with a passion for travel. And occasionally those posts contain some activist aspect since, let’s face it, travelers tend to be curious, passionate people who share an interest in preserving the wondrous places around the world that always inspire us. Well, I’d like to direct you to one of the better sites I’ve seen in a while that mixes travel with environmentalism. This wonderful interactive and educational series over at the Minneapolis Star Tribune should be viewed by travelers with a green sensibility.

Called The Last Great Places the site offers vivid photography, audio slide shows, and thoughtful commentary on three places that best represent a specific type of ecosystem. They are: Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Grand Canyon. You can spend a solid spot of time here, and I suggest you give it a spin, as you will undoubtedly learn a few things you didn’t know about each of these places, including insights into science, travel and policy. It’s been a while since I’ve come across something so well put together, not to mention inspiring from a travel point of view.

Best American Travel Essays

by Erik Olsen on

I blogged a bit about a story in this book the other day, but realized the entire book itself is worthy of a quick post. I haven’t actually got my hands on it yet, but every year I do, and always I find it the most wonderful reading. I am talking about the series called Best American Travel stories. It is part of a much wider series of Best American books that cover essays on everything from science to mystery to crime and sports. In the case of the Best American Travel Stories, it is basically a hand-picked compendium of what the editor decides are the travel essays published in a particular year.

Last year’s book was edited by Jamaica Kincaid and featured contributions from luminary scribes like Jim Harrison, Madison Smartt Bell, Pam Houston, Simon Winchester, and John McPhee. This year’s promises to be a real treat. It was released just a week or so ago.

Edited by the always entertaining (and talented) Tim Cahill, the book features wanderlustful tales by the likes of Gary Shteyngart, George Saunders, Alain de Botton and (always funny) P.J. O’Rourke. The 2006 edition also seems to place special emphasis on food with an essay by Chitrita Banerji’s about a Calcutta wedding feast and Calvin Trillin’s New Yorker piece about spending a week in Ecuador indulging his love for “thick and hearty” fanesca soup.

I recall reading a couple of these stories over the year in mainstream rags like the New Yorker, but the cool thing about the Best American series is that they usually select a number of essays from spunky little literary mags that you’ve never heard of. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to get my hands on it ASAP.