Quirky Tour Option: The Flying Outback Pub Crawl

by Jessica Festa on

If you’re interested in exploring South Australia‘s Outback in an unusual way, now is your chance. Goin’ Off Safaris is offering a Flying Outback Pub Crawl where visitors will fly around the Outback in a turbo prop plane stopping at local pubs.

The quirky pub crawl leaves out of Adelaide, and takes you through many different areas of the Outback. Along with drinking Cooper’s Ale, you’ll also explore Australia’s first official mosque in Marree, learn about Australia‘s historical Cooper Creek, canoe in Innamincka, take a walking tour of the famous Birdsville and more.

As of now, scheduled pub crawl dates include:

Price per person for the excursion is $3,130, all inclusive. For more information, click here.

Alaska Airlines Passenger Sparks Airline Backlash With A Facebook Post

by Jessica Festa on

A longtime concert promoter and Oregon native has sparked heated backlash against Alaska Airlines through social media. After a disturbing airport experience, Cameron Clark logged onto Facebook and described the airline as “the worst of humanity.”

According to USA Today, Clark witnessed a disabled man miss his flight because the numerous airport personnel wouldn’t offer him extra assistance. The man had late-stage Parkinson’s disease, and even after Clark brought the situation to the airline staff’s attention, they refused to help. Because he wasn’t able to make his flight, the disabled man missed a limited window of time he had to meet his daughter in Bellingham, Washington.

Clark wrote: “what happened to our collective sense of decency, of compassion, of our disposition to help those in need of extra help. alaska airlines. you broke a man’s heart today. you maintained your policy, and ignored an opportunity to do the right thing. you broke my heart too.”

Although Clark didn’t intend for it to happen, the post went viral. Now, angry people are putting pressure on the airline to change their ways and hold themselves accountable.

Alaska Airlines has a different view of what happened. According to spokesman Paul McElroy, the man never mentioned he was disabled and, when staff smelled alcohol on him, assumed he was intoxicated. Although the man has not issued a formal complaint, the airline did refund his ticket and put him on a different flight.

[Photo via philosophygeek]

When Living Out Of A Suitcase Becomes A Way of Life

by Dave Seminara on

After four months of living out of a suitcase, I should be eager to go home. But the truth is that I’m quite content to be on the road and free. My wife and I and our two children, ages 2 and 4, moved out of our home and put all of our things in storage on April 1, in order to spend three months traveling in Europe.

We’ve been back for a month, and plan to relocate to a new home, but have been procrastinating settling back down again. The truth is that the traveling lifestyle can be addictive, and once you get used to living with only your essentials, you don’t miss very many of your possessions.

I’ve moved more times than I care to count since leaving college many moons ago, and every time I’m tasked with boxing up my things, I come to the depressing conclusion that I have way too much stuff. So I sell and give plenty away, but then inevitably start accumulating again at the next destination.As I’ve written before, if you’re planning to move, it’s a great time to put your things in storage and hit the road prior to settling in your next destination. But be careful, because you might not want to settle back down again.

On our trip, we brought just two large suitcases for a family of four, but my wife and I also left two smaller suitcases at a relative’s house in the U.S. so we had some other items not locked away in storage. I recovered the second suitcase a month ago, and haven’t even bothered to open it since. It’s amazing how little you really need and when you evaluate all of your worldly possessions, most of it begins to feel more like a burden than a blessing.

What do I miss? My books. Sometimes I miss my Tempurpedic mattress, and, when I’m watching sports, my DVR, which spares me from watching commercials, and allows me to fast forward if my teams are losing. But that’s about it. As a family, we have 7,400 pounds worth of stuff in storage, and I only kind of sort of miss about 10 percent of it.

My wife jokingly remarked the other day that we should just move and start all over again. Leave all of our stuff in storage and let the guys from Storage Wars bid on it. She was kidding but it was kind of tempting.

How do we stay sane on the road with two small children in tow? Most of the time we’ve been in holiday apartments and hotels with at least two separate rooms, which helps. Still, there are days when we’re all sick of each other, but we manage to coexist, somehow, and have actually grown closer together. In some ways, toddlers are kind of like high-energy dogs. Get them plenty of exercise and good food and they’re fine.

You can tell a lot about travelers by how much baggage they’re dragging around. With kids, we can’t travel anywhere near as light as we’d like to, but we still do our best to stay lean and mean. The great thing about travel is that every time you consider making a purchase, you’re forced to ask yourself: do I want to carry this thing around with me. In most cases, at least for me, the answer is no.

Travelers who want to prepare for every eventuality by dragging around an enormous amount of luggage are missing one of the real delights of travel: learning how to live with less.

For a few blissful months, I had no mobile phone, no bills, other than credit cards, and no home address, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The truth is that the longer you travel, the harder it is to settle back down again. In some ways, it’s because being settled represents commitments and responsibilities – scary things for a restless traveler.

Soon we’ll be moving into a new home and, like it or not, dozens, if not hundreds of boxes of stuff will arrive at our new doorstep. But every time you leave home for a long time, you come back a little different. In life, I’ve made a few bad choices and, like Sinatra, I have at least a few regrets. But I’ve never taken a trip that I later regretted. Travel is always money well spent, especially when it teaches you to spend less at home.

[Photos by geishaboy500 and Dave B on Flickr]

How To Decide Between Slow And Rapid Travel

by Jessica Festa on

One of the toughest decisions when planning a trip is deciding whether to get to know one or two areas extensively, or pack in as much as you can at a rapid pace. As someone who has taken both types of trips, I can appreciate the benefits of each. It all depends on your travel philosophy and what you want to get out of your trip.

The Benefits Of Slow Travel

If you’re unsure of what slow travel is, it’s traveling slowly both in pace and in your mindset. This type of traveling involves taking your time to really appreciate your surroundings. The thinking is that you would rather get to know one place fully than more places a little bit. When you slow travel, you get a more in-depth knowledge about the culture. And for many people, gaining a broad understanding of a place and its inner-workings is more meaningful than seeing extra cities.

This thought occurred to me recently when I was at a BBQ with a friend of mine who has lived in various cities all over the world teaching English. When another attendee who was the same age as my companion began rattling off the over 150 countries he’d visited, my friend turned to me with a sad expression and said, “He’s traveled everywhere and I’ve only been to a handful of places.”Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side, and I had to explain to him that this person probably visited so many countries because he stayed in every city for a few nights, learning only surface information about the food, customs, language and daily rituals of the people.

I had my most memorable slow travel experience when I stayed in Ghana, Africa, for a month. I home-based in the village of Achiase, staying with a family and volunteering at a local orphanage. During the experience, I got to spend a lot of time with locals, learning about social etiquette, typical dress, how everyday foods were prepared and what kinds of topics the children learned at school. Because I also wanted to see some of the historical and nature sites outside of the village, I went on weekend trips to other cities via the tro-tro. Because of the pace I traveled at, I never experienced any travel fatigue, a common side effect of long trips.

If you are taking an extended trip and traveling slowly, I highly recommend doing a homestay, as that’s the best way to get to know the culture first hand. Moreover, don’t pack your days with endless activities. Instead, take it all in slowly and enjoy every second.

Along with the benefit of cultural immersion and less travel fatigue, it’s also easier on the environment and your wallet. Staying in one or two places means using less fuel, and overall just leaving a smaller carbon footprint. And, you won’t have to spend as much money on transportation and site entry fees.

Slow Travel On A Short Trip

While many people talk about slow travel on extended trips, it is also possible to travel this way on shorter trips. Again, try to focus more on learning and experiences and less on sightseeing. Your first step is to choose your home base. Try to pick a city that has much to do or an interesting cultural aspect, as well as one or two interesting day trips. If you have a laundry list of sights to see, cut it in half and fully experience just a few. Moreover, instead of staying in a standard hotel, try to stay somewhere where you’ll feel at home, like an apartment, short homestay or with a local on CouchSurfing. Cozy bed and breakfasts can also be a good option, especially if you spend time chatting with the owners.

Another good decision is to find one or two establishments you love and become a regular at them. Of course, eating at the same restaurant for dinner gets boring when on vacation; however, choosing a favorite coffee shop or ice cream parlor will help you establish a similar routine to that of a local.

If you have a specific interest, one idea that can be helpful is to choose a destination that caters to it and fully immerse yourself in learning all you can. For example, if you’re interested in wine you may want to head to Napa Valley, Burgundy or Mendoza, stay on a winery and get to know local viticulturists and what they do. Personally, I love giving myself missions like this on my trips because it helps lead to deeper discoveries than most tourists get to make.

The Benefits Of Rapid Travel

While slow travel wins the argument for cultural immersion, sustainability and budget-friendliness, there are many reasons to opt for a rapid travel trip. First of all, if you don’t get to travel very often, you may want to consider seeing as much as you can in one shot. Moreover, if you have a certain travel goal that requires seeing many different cities, like visiting castles, hiking various terrains or seeing historical sites, you may want to stick to an itinerary that allows for a broad diversity.

My favorite rapid travel trip was through Patagonia. I stayed two, sometimes three, nights in each city, making my way from Bariloche down to Ushuaia and over to Chile. The quick-paced style worked in this case because my main travel goal was to hike as many different landscapes as possible. And, because each area of Patagonia offers contrasting scenery, I loved being able to see as many as possible.

The truth is, not everyone travels to experience culture and to learn deeply. There are travelers who love city hopping, taking in the major sights and experiences and then moving on. If your restless legs start itching after a few days in one place, you may be better off with a rapid travel itinerary.

Rapid Travel On A Short Trip

I will admit, this can be tricky. Personally, I recommend fast travel only if you’ll be somewhere for at least two weeks. That is, unless you want to spend most of your vacation on public transportation. However, it’s not impossible, and if you can plan a good route that doesn’t require too many lengthy train journeys, go for it. If opting for this, your best bet is to plan a detailed itinerary out in advance. Make sure all accommodation and flights are booked and that you know exactly what you want to do in each city. Once this is sorted, book any tours beforehand, or as soon as you arrive to the destination to avoid any time-wasting hassles.

The Verdict?

Personally, I love both travel styles, and incorporate both into my trips. I often switch back and forth between slow traveling in one destination, then rapidly traveling from city to
city and country to country on another. It all depends on what you want to get out of your experience.

[Travel Salem, taylor.a, roger4336]

Backpacker Left Blind After Drinking Cocktails In Bali

by Jessica Festa on

If you’re planning a trip to Indonesia, be careful what you drink. Recently, a 19-year-old backpacker was left with permanent vision damage after consuming 8 to 10 cocktails containing methanol, a substance used as antifreeze, fuel and windscreen de-icer.

According to news.com.au, the cocktails contained a mixture of Arrack, which is produced commercially and illegally in Indonesia. This combines coconut flower rice, sugarcane spirit and fruit juice. Most likely, however, the drink also contained local “moonshine” alcohol tainted with methanol.

When the traveler arrived home to New Zealand, she felt short of breath and had impaired vision. Although she was treated at Christchurch Hospital emergency department for methanol poisoning, her vision continued to deteriorate over the next month.

Dr. Paul Gee and Dr. Elizabeth Martin from the hospital explained it’s not uncommon for methanol side effects – which include nausea, vomiting, anxiety, headache, weakness, blurred vision, seeing spots, photophobia and loss of vision – to take up to 50 hours to show. When consumed, methanol can lead to coma, blindness and death.

Sadly, this isn’t the first case of methanol poisoning in Indonesia. For example, last year a 25-year-old Australian nurse suffered brain damage and kidney failure after drinking Arrack. Moreover, in 2009, 25 tourists were killed after drinking a batch in Bali.

[Image via indi.ca]