Travelistic’s The Map Show

by Erik Olsen on

A little ways back we did a podcast with Nicholas Butterworth, the CEO of a new travel video company called Travelistic. I’ve been checking in every so often with the site and am so far quite impressed with the quantity and quality of material they’ve got online.

It’s a bit of a no-brainer to say that people will increasingly turn to video as they make travel plans, but it bears keeping in mind. I can easily imagine putting together a trip to, say, the British Virgin Islands and then finding real use in this new show from Travelistic called The Map.

The composition (sound/editing) is a bit amateurish, but that’s the point, I suppose. It gives the show a more personal quality, like you’re getting the real scuttlebutt, as opposed to a more stale corporate feel, a la some of the stuff on the Travel Channel. Overall, it’s pretty cool and a sign of things to come.

World Wide Resource for Smoke-Free Locations

by Neil Woodburn on

If you are as much of an anti-smoker as I am, you begin to seek out places where smoking is prohibited. Sometimes, it’s entire countries.

Living in California I often forget that smoking is allowed in so many indoor locations throughout the world. It always initially shocks me when I sit down in a café in a place like Moscow and the person at the next table lights up. I haven’t gotten to the stage yet where I will refuse to go to a country that allows smoking indoors, but I will pick and choose the bars and restaurants I frequent while there.

Things are getting better, however. Much of Europe, for example, is slowly outlawing indoor smoking. I was in Ireland when this first happened and the Irish were fuming at the time. It was so very nice, however, to sit in a smoke-free pub. And suddenly, with one act of legislation, Ireland became all that much better in my opinion. England will soon follow, kicking off their smoking ban July 1, 2007.

For those of you interested in seeking out smoke-free environments while traveling abroad, Smoke Free World has a great little website detailing anti-smoking legislation in countries throughout the world. The site also provides recommendations for smoke-free hotels and restaurants in those countries which lack indoor smoking laws. It is not as thorough and detailed as it should be, but at least it is a start.

Photo of the Day (12/31/2006)

by Erik Olsen on

How could I resist a shot of fireworks going off for the last photo of the day for 2006? Let us bid farewell to a fine year with this photo from rvnix that appears to show fireworks exploding near the Millennium thingamajig in London. Happy New Year y’all. See you in 2007!

iPod Listening When U Travel

by Erik Olsen on

Like a lot of people, I have fallen so in love with my ipod that, after my wallet, it’s the one thing I HAVE to carry with me when I leave the house. And before I go, I always make sure that it is loaded up with the most recent podcasts from NPR, as well as my Charlie Rose subscription on Audible.com AND many audio books from audible. I was happy to see Iva blog about audible’s content, especially about Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between, which I actually have in its atom-based, tree-pulp form and am enjoying immensely.

But for those who travel and are looking for walking tours and such to put on their ipods and other listening devices, here are a couple of ideas.

A company called AudioSteps offers audio walking tours of various cities around the country including New Orleans, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. For the internationally-inclined, especially those traveling to London, a company called BlueBrolly has a fine selection of audio walks for areas including Westminster, Soho, Chinatown, Greenwich, Covent Garden, St Paul’s and other spots around the English capital. Finally, PodGuides takes a step further and offers digital maps and small pictures, along with the audio tracks. A fine idea, and one I’m sure we’ll be seeing a LOT more of.

Wistful Wishes of Whiskey-filled Weekends

by Iva Skoch on

UK’s The Independent had a good bunch of suggestions for folks who love the sweet, hot, aromatic burning sensation of the world’s greatest whiskeys. Now, distilled spirits may have originated in the Middle East, but the British Isles are the home of fine scotch. And what better for a connoisseur than to stay at or near a fine distillery?

The article lists examples of five lodges where you can stay, close to some of the world’s best distilleries. For example, you can rent small cottages at Scotland’s the Glenmorangie House for as little as 160 pounds ($313 USD) per night, full board.

“Within easy staggering distance” of the Bushmills distillery in Northern Ireland is the Drum Lodge, a 200+ year old drum-shaped, gothic-styled lodge. (Yes, yes, it’s Irish whiskey, but it sounds cool anyway.)

Or try the island distillery of Bowmore, on Islay, where you can bring up to 11 of your friends to rent a cottage for as little as 440 pounds ($860 USD) per week. And there are seven more distilleries on the 25-mile-long Scottish island. It’s a mere four-hour, car-plus-ferry trip west of Glasgow.

Scotch fanatics may recognize the names here, but I can tell you, from the pictures I’ve seen of these places, they look beautiful and worth the trip…even if whiskey’s not your bag, baby.