Awesome Video That Will Make You Want to Go Hiking In Southern Portugal

by Anna Brones on

I don’t speak any Portuguese, but this video makes it pretty clear that I want to now go and hike in Southwestern Portugal.

A tourism video for the Rota Vicentina, a long distance path that totals 350 kilomters of trails, showcases a look into all the gems that the area has to offer, and a reminder of the importance of slow travel.

A Portuguese friend sent it to me, and I didn’t even realize that I could have watched it in English from the beginning. Granted, you could watch the English version of the video to have a better understanding, but I think it loses its charm. Five minutes of this and you’ve got your hiking trip to Southwest Portugal nailed down: you will get to see beautiful coastline, you will meet locals who will most likely serve you amazing food, you will get to play with cute baby lambs, you will get to go cliff jumping and you will see surfers in a Volkswagen van.

Now you just need to go and pack your hiking gear.

Traveling The West Coast: Stop-Motion Video From Amtrak’s Coast Starlight

by Anna Brones on

The West Coast might not be known for its train service – it doesn’t have the extensive network that the Northeast has – but if you’re traveling in Washington, Oregon or California and haven’t considered making the train part of your travels, you’re missing out.

Portland to Tacoma used to be a regular travel stint of mine, and quite frankly, I’ll take sitting on a train overlooking the Puget Sound over sitting in I-5 traffic any day.

But it’s not just the short distances that are noteworthy in this area of the country. Although it takes much longer than driving or flying, for those with time, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight is everything a romantic train ride should be. Just watch this stop motion video filmed by Kyle Hanson McKee and you’ll see what I am talking about. It’s the love of train travel wrapped up in less than a minute.

“Locomotive” from Kyle Hanson McKee on Vimeo.



Via: Amtrak

How Far Can You Get On Three Wheels? Piaggio Ape Adventures

by Meg Nesterov on

“Taurinorum Charity Rally 2012 – APEMAYA Official trailer” from Taurinorum Travel Team on Vimeo.

On my recent trip to Italy, I fell hard for the tiny Piaggio Ape (say AH-peh, means bee in Italian, for its pleasant hum), a glorified Vespa scooter with a truck bed or a back seat attached. In Italy and India, you see the adorable vehicles everywhere, outfitted as delivery trucks or touristy rickshaws. With its small footprint to park nearly anywhere, high fuel efficiency and low city speeds, I think the Ape might be the perfect car for a New Yorker who just wants it for IKEA runs and those times you find a really amazing coffee table on the street.

Researching the viability and legality of these cars outside of Italy (maybe okay in America, if you don’t take it on the highway), I found the Taurinorum Travel Team, a group who has been raising charity funds with some incredible adventures. They started in 2009 in West Africa, touring in a comparably large Fiat Panda. The first Piaggio Ape trip was in 2011, from Quito, Ecuador, to Machu Picchu, Peru, for the centennial celebration of the ancient city’s discovery and to support biodiversity (watch the little trike car make it over 4,000 kilometers here). The ApeMaya trip last year went through Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize, ending in Chichen Itza to combat violence against women. The 2012 trip was designed to coincide with the end of the world as prophesied by the Mayans, but the tuk-tuk survived the 3,000-mile trip. Check out more of their beautiful footage here.

No news yet on their 2013 trip, but I hope they can stop by Brooklyn so I can take it for a test drive.

Video: Everest In Time-Lapse

by Kraig Becker on

We’ve seen some truly amazing time-lapse videos in recent months but it is difficult to top this one. It was shot on Mt. Everest this spring and delivers a true sense of the scale of that mountain. Many of the images were captured at various campsites along the route up to the summit and feature some stunning shots of the night sky above the tallest mountain in the world. It is a short, but beautiful film that will leave you in awe of our planet.

“Everest -A time lapse short film” from Elia Saikaly on Vimeo.