Chinese Tourists Try to Copy Superstar’s Honeymoon

by Martha Edwards on

If tourism in Europe soared to all-time highs in August, they have Yao Ming and his new bride, Ye Li, to blame. The Chinese superstar basketball player married Li, also a basketball player, in China in August and promptly whisked his new wife to Europe for the honeymoon. The result was many adoring fans trying to book a trip similar trip to Europe, hoping to bump into the new couple or at least copy a piece of their seemingly ideal life. Here’s the thing though: no one knows exactly where the couple went. Many flocked to Europe nonetheless.

The same thing happened after Brad and Angelina inadvertently boosted tourism to Namibia just by virtue of being there, but I for one don’t understand the desire to travel somewhere just because a celebrity has gone there.

Travel to Africa?

by Erik Olsen on

We try to cover Africa here as best we can. Adrienne has done many a “Word” feature on the continent, and we have some favorite places there where we’ve been (Morocco) and some where we’d LIKE to go (Namibia). But the unfortunate fact is that Africa is in the news a lot these days for a lot of nasty things. Starvation, war, genocide. Yo might say Africa is in a world of hurt. But is that really so?

I saw an interview recently with Paul Theroux (and I can’t seem to find it on the Web) where he talks about the bad press Africa gets. That it’s not nearly as nasty as folks would have us believe. The reality is, he says, Africa can still be a decent place to travel. We tend to look at the continent holistically, as if the devastation and misery we see on TV and in the paper affects every country. That’s not true.

And so with that in mind, here is a travel primer for Africa that helps you decide where to go (first choose the part of the continent you want to visit), helps you figure out what you’ll need in terms of both packing supplies and inoculations, and provides tips on clearing customs and so on. If you are heading to do a safari, there’s help on the site to do that as well. It is a very handy guide, expertly written and comprehensive, and has sections worth perhaps printing out to help you figure out your Africa trip.

Namibian Dunes

by Erik Olsen on

Something in me wants to make a dumb joke about “The Spice”, perhaps to drop a name like Muad’Dib and see how many people get it. My suspicions are that we don’t have a HUGE number of Dune fans out there, but I’ll have to confess I was a passionate, rabid devotee of the Frank Herbert series. All of which leads me to this article from Namibia, which has nothing to do with worms or oil or Muadib, but rather with sand, large, lovely mountains of sand.

The writer Joan Scobey takes us to the Namib Desert, a long, thin strip, some 120 miles wide, along Namibia’s 800-mile Atlantic coast between South Africa and Angola. There, she dines on oysters, rock lobsters and fresh asparagus and gazes up at the Southern Cross in a rather wonderful sounding journey published in the Washington times. I confess to a somewhat painful twinge of jealousy as I read this, as a friend of mine, travel writer Andrew Tarica once told me that Namibia is one of the best places he’s ever been. One interesting bit I gleaned from the piece here is that this region is populated by Germans, who arrived to Africa rather late to the region during the great colonization boom (the whole unification thing preoccupied them for a while in the late 1800’s). So, all’s I got to say is, check it.

Top Ten Scenic Routes from the Sky

by Neil Woodburn on

I’m not a window guy. At 6’4″ I find it horribly uncomfortable to cram myself into the window seat. When I do get stuck there, however, I spend most of the flight with my face pressed against the window like a ten-year old on his first flight.

Naturally some flights are better than others for sightseeing. The Telegraph (UK) interviewed ten pilots to find out which routes were their favorites for exceptional views from high altitudes. The pilots were also asked (less interestingly) to name their favorite hotels and restaurants they frequent after arriving at the destination.

Naturally, the results covered the globe. One of the most fascinating was the journey from London to South Africa where window sitters can marvel over the Nice Riviera, Atlas Mountains, oil refinery fires in Nigeria, and sand dunes in Namibia.

New Delhi to Bagdogra also sounds appealing; the route passes through the Himalayas and offers passengers on the left side of the plane a view of Mt. Everest.

I’d like to add my own favorite to the list as well: Los Angeles to Seattle. This route passes over Yosemite Valley and a handful of volcanoes in the state of Oregon.

Helicopter Safari Africa

by Adrienne Wilson on

Just like Neil’s Machu Picchu piece some folks might debate doing the whole African safari thing by helicopter, but I’m totally a fan of helicopter sightseeing. For one, my last trip to Hawai’i had me foaming at the mouth to shoot more aerial photography of the places we so often see from one perspective. Now am I suggesting going out to see the Big 5 by helicopter only – of course not. This type of deal found at Distinctive Africa is for luxury travel folk who want the comforts of a tailored-made helicopter and I can promise you I don’t fall into that category of travelers, but if I had the dinero I’d do it by jeep and air.

Distinctive Africa operates out of southern Africa in Botswana, Namibia, South African and southern Mozambique. Worth a look if you’re planning your next safari in the continent.