Discovery Channel Gets Into The Travel Business

by Kraig Becker on

The Discovery Channel has announced that it is getting into the travel industry by launching “Discovery Adventures” later this year. The intent is to offer adventure travelers the chance to visit the places that often are depicted on the channel’s many outdoor related television shows.

Discovery has joined forces with established adventure travel operator G.A.P. Adventures and will soon be offering 30 trips to destinations around the globe. The website for Discovery Adventures is expected to go online in July, allowing travelers to begin booking trips at that time.

This new move from Discovery is in keeping with a strategy they announced some time back to extend their brand away from just television and into markets that make sense for their demographic. For example they intend to launch a line of outdoor gear under the Discovery Expedition label as well.

Personally, I’m big fan of the Discovery Channel. What adventure traveler isn’t? Hopefully they aren’t just slapping their logo on to existing tours from G.A.P. and calling it a “Discovery Adventure”, while charging customers an extra fee. I fully expect that these trips will come at a bit of a premium, but hopefully the Discovery brand will add something as well. For example, who wouldn’t want to explore the backcountry with Bear Grylls? The meals would be interesting at the very least!

Survivorman Calls it Quits

by Josh Lew on

Filmmaker and Discovery and Science Channel star Les Stroud, known for his show, Survivorman, is calling it quits after three seasons. The 47 year-old Canadian earned street cred amongst survivalists by filming himself completing various week-long survival challenges. Unlike Man Versus Wild’s Bear Grylls, Stroud traveled without a camera crew and survival experts. I, for one, found his solo approach to film-making and survival refreshing compared to Grylls’ preening in front of the camera.

Stroud explained his decision to call it quits to Reuters: “You can only do seven days surviving without food a certain number of times a year. I’m pleased with what I have done, I’ve been copied around the world, but 25 times I’ve not eaten anything for a week while sleeping on rocks. I need to move on.”

Filming for the third, and now final, season is wrapping up in Papua this month. Though the tag Survivorman will probably always remain with him, Stroud plans to move on to other projects. He is writing a book about wilderness survival and is planning a new show where he will follow in the footsteps of famous explorers.

Gadling Take FIVE July 25– August 1

by Jamie Rhein on

Since I missed last week’s Gadling Take FIVE, I am including posts from before last Friday and including more than five. As usual, it’s hard to pick.

  • Start off with Iva’s post about her trip to the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize. Like she said, don’t let the mosquitoes stop you.
  • Scott personally tested Travelon toiletry sheets. After reading what he wrote, I think these would work great in a pinch.
  • Josh sniffed out airfare deals to get you to Asia and the hotel room bargains to be found in Las Vegas.
  • After reading Jerry’s Talking Travel interview with Adelle and Ron Milavsky, authors of Take Your RV to Europe, you might find yourself considering this interesting travel option, particularly if you have a few months at hand.
  • If busy airports are not your thing, check out Jeffrey’s post on the busiest to know which ones to avoid. Atlanta’s Hartfield’s International Airport is first on the list.
  • Anna passed on the news that TSA shoe scanners are being tested at LAX so that passengers may not have to remove their shoes anymore.
  • And, in case this slipped past your radar, even though it was just posted today, Discovery Channel has a casting call for an Alaskan adventure TV show. You might have to beat out Aaron, though. He wrote up the post, and I think he should totally go for it.

Is Discovery’s Man vs. Wild a Hoax?

by Justin Glow on

Just the other day, my girlfriend and I were watching Bear Grylls on the Discovery Channel’s Man vs. Wild and commenting on how crazy he was — eating spiders, sleeping with snakes, and climbing up and down waterfalls while battling a massive case of diarrhea. Maybe he’s not so crazy?

The New York Post is running an article that questions the reality of Man vs. Wild, saying, “On the program, Grylls appears to camp out in quickly-built shelters deep in the wilderness while battling hypothermia and dehydration. But when the cameras stop rolling, Grylls has actually moved to luxurious hotels.”

Mark Weinert, “an Oregon-based survival consultant,” is claiming that producers for the show hired him as a consultant. “According to Weinert, while filming in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains – an episode in which Grylls, 33, is seen biting off the head of a snake for breakfast – Grylls actually spent some nights with the show’s crew in a lodge outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.”

I don’t doubt Grylls’ ability to sever the head of a snake with his teeth for a quick snack — that stuff seems true enough — but what goes on behind the scenes is anyone’s guess. Here’s what Discovery had to say:

“Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the ‘Man vs. Wild’ show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field.”

Previously: Gadling writer Erik questions the reality of the show almost a year ago.

Sad really. [via]

Jesus’ Bones Tour

by Iva Skoch on

If you missed the press conference at the New York Public Library, where filmmaker James Cameron announced his new Discovery Channel movie, you might want to read up and do a little digging yourself.

If you hadn’t heard the hype, Cameron’s movie The Lost Tomb of Jesus, airs this Sunday. In it, he apparently argues that a couple of caskets, ossuaries actually, once contained the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Not only that, but, ala Dan Brown, he suggests they were a family…with children. The ossuaries made the trip for the press conference (hopefully not on JetBlue), as did a few experts.

Now, the discovery of the ossuaries is not new. They were found in 1980 in a Jerusalem ‘suburb’ of Talpiot. And, forgetting the multiple controversies that surround the whole thing (including the assertion by the lead archaeologist that the movie’s claims are baloney), you can visit the town yourself.

The modern town is pure 20th century, and includes a vibrant club culture (where you can shake your own bones), but there’s also more distant culture and history. For example, walk along the Haas Promenade for sweeping views of the old city.