Conservatives, Pack Your Bags! Liberal-Free Travel Has Arrived

by Megan Fernandez on

Some people like risks when they travel. Others don’t want to take any chances that their entire hard-earned vacation will be ruined by angry, bitter, close-minded companions – you know, liberals.

That’s the philosophy behind Conservative Tours, a Boston-based company not to be confused with conservation-related tourism. It’s led by political pundit Ken Chase, a 2006 Republican candidate for the Senate who lost to Ted Kennedy. Chase really can’t stand what he calls “Cambridge democrats.” He certainly doesn’t want to travel with them and figured there was money to be made by making sure people aren’t forced to do so.

In an interview with Outside magazine, Chase describes his demographic as “Americans who are easy going, affable, nice, better with their time and money, and of good humor. So, they’re kind of the opposite of the Cambridge democrat.” An avid traveler who speaks French, Chase organizes escorted tours of Western Europe for people of his political persuasion. “I wanna spend four- or five-thousand dollars on a luxury tour to be with somebody who’s pleasant,” he tells the author after combatively badgering him to say that liberals assume gay-marriage opponents are homophobes.

“You’re pretending to be dumb because you don’t want to answer the question because you know what the answer is,” Chase tells him, pleasantly.Chase assumes conservatives (and only conservatives) are interested in landmarks related to the U.S. military, so he works in visits to D-Day beaches in France and an American military cemetery in Italy. After all, he says, “You know what [liberals] think of the military.” And he avoids places that are “not the kind of destination that conservatives are attracted to,” such as Cannes. Don’t worry; his trips are more fun than they sound. “Once in a while we lighten up and have a good-old pizza night,” the company’s website says of its Italy itinerary.

Otherwise, Chase tells Outside, politics have nothing to do with the company’s travel experience, which always includes first-class airfare. It’s simply about being with “people who are like-minded politically.” Based on the interview, that means if you like to refer to our sitting president as “Barack Hussein Obama,” you’re the kind of “tolerant… normal… pleasant… thoughtful… traditional” person welcome to book with Conservative Tours.

Have an enlightening time!

[Photo credit: Flickr user Chiaralily]

France Launches New Low Cost, High-Speed Train Service

by Anna Brones on



Low cost isn’t just for the skies anymore. This week, French rail service SNCF launched its new low cost service Ouigo, a no-frills option for the traveler that wants a more moderately priced ticket but wants to take advantage of the high-speed service that France is known for. The new train service will link Paris and Lyon to Marseille and Montpellier on the southern coast of France.

Service will commence April 2, 2013, but in an attempt to woo travelers, SNCF is offering up tickets for as low as 10 euros. Eventually tickets prices will go up to 85 euros. Regular TGV tickets can often be booked for much less if you happen to score a good promotion, but French travelers will tell you that often that means booking far in advance. Have a low cost option for last minute travel is always a good thing.

As is common with low cost airlines, room for baggage aboard the new Ouigo trains is limited, so if you’re planning on taking advantage, pack light, because after your first bag, your luggage will cost you.

Sound too good to be true? As with any low cost carrier, there are some catches:

  • You will have to catch the train in Marne-la-Vallée, where Euro Disney is located, just east of Paris.
  • You can only book on the Internet.
  • There is no bar. But don’t worry; you’re in France. You’re sure to find a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew at a local market.

[Photo Credit: Train Chartering and Private Rail Cars]

Naughty Place Names You Never Noticed In Your Atlas

by Reena Ganga on

If geography has always seemed like a rather boring subject to you, chances are you’ve just been looking at the wrong kind of maps. Because one man has put together an online atlas that provides hours of giggle-inducing, snigger-triggering, head-scratching fun.

Londoner Gary Gale created a website where he brings together hundreds of rude place names located across the globe. Towns, villages and streets with less than polite monikers have all been collected in the online project dubbed “Vaguely Rude Place Names of the World.”

Some of the names on the map will no doubt ring a bell – “Titicaca” in Bolivia and “Brest” in France are among the more infamous of the bunch. But there are plenty of other dubiously dubbed towns that will leave you wondering, “What were they thinking?” Here are a few hard-to-believe ones in the United States:Intercourse, PA

Climax, MI (There are actually several towns across the country with this rather popular name)

Wet Beaver Creek, AZ

Virginville, PA

Horneytown, NC

We can only imagine the embarrassment when spelling out a home address in one of these towns!

[Photo credit: screenshot from Vaguely Rude Place Names of the World]

Budget Travel In The Midst Of Luxury: Exploring Monaco In One Afternoon

by Anna Brones on

“I have a crazy idea … lunch in Monaco?”

It was the end of a two-week documentary film production in France and we were spending the last night in Nice, so our director deemed it only fitting to grab lunch in the world of casinos and Formula One racing. When in Nice, drive to Monaco.

Opting for the scenic Basse Corniche route as opposed to the autoroute, we drove along the coastline through Villefranche-sur-Mer, a winding road that hugs the cliffs that drop straight into the Mediterranean. Terra cotta-colored rooftops pepper the coastline and bright white yachts sit moored in the various harbors along the way. It’s the kind of scene that feels like it was pulled directly from a postcard; it’s no surprise that many of the world’s most well off individuals choose to make this part of the globe the destination for their second, third or fourth villa.

The road is the kind that’s meant for a sports car. Two weeks of film production means two week’s of film gear though, so we were stuck in the silver Peugeot mini-van. At least it was a manual, so you could almost get the thrill of a quick down shift.

The budget traveler in me of course knows that Monaco certainly isn’t a destination I would normally seek out, but the chance to quickly cross a border and grab some lunch is quite another story.Monaco is one of those places that you know about because you hear the name often enough, but when you think about it, you realize that you actually don’t know very much about it at all. In fact my only relation to Monaco before this day was a couple of summers ago when I was in Sweden and got conned into watching the live stream of Monaco’s royal wedding; a royal wedding is always a big affair in Europe, no matter what the country.

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The Principality of Monaco is bordered by France on three sides and the Mediterranean on the fourth. It’s a constitutional monarchy and governed by Prince Albert II. With an area of only 0.76 square miles, it’s the second smallest country in the world. But its 35,000 plus inhabitants make it very densely populated.

Drive into Monaco and you’ll quickly get lost. It’s a city built into the cliffs, with roads intertwining like a complicated maze. Best solution: do another drive around the roundabout just to make sure you are taking the right exit. And when you park and a Ferrari is in front of you trying to back up, don’t move. In the face of opulent automobiles, avoid any risk of you hitting them.

Fortunately, we had a local to guide us around, and he took us to one of the many underground parking complexes and we climbed out and up onto “Le Rocher” – the Rock – the old city that sits atop a rocky promontory. This is where you’ll find the Palais Princier, and just like in any other country that boasts a constitutional monarchy, you can watch the changing of the guard.

From atop Le Rocher you also have an excellent view down both sides of the cliffs, one looking down into the old harbor, and on the other, a more modern collection of buildings and docks. Le Rocher is also where you will find the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium, an impressive structure that almost looks like it’s rising straight out of the sea.

To say that the streets and alleyways of Monaco are clean would be an understatement. This is an impeccably spotless place, almost disarmingly so. You get the feeling that the entire place simply drips of money. Which of course it does; the principality doesn’t charge its residents income tax, which attracts a whole plethora of glitterati.

But there’s also the charming side of Monaco that even the budget traveler can enjoy. A wood-fired pizza for lunch with a carafe of Chianti (thank the Italian influence for that) and a simple stroll up and down the hilly streets gives you a real sense of a place loaded with oversized yachts and casino action. It offers a picturesque setting, to say the least.

We walked through the tight alleyways, pink and yellow walls jutting up around us, a quaint but manicured setting. A pair of cyclists decked out in tight training gear rolled up to a door and walked their bikes inside. Japanese tourists bought chocolate at the local chocolatier.

Descending the steps next to the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium we overlooked the Mediterranean, a stormy mix of white caps and breaks of sunlight as a small storm rolled in. It started to drizzle. Whereas in most cities the raindrops would have cleaned the dirty streets, they instead just added to sidewalks that already seemed to glitter. “You know, just an afternoon in Monaco. No big deal,” said my friend as we looked out over the water.

It’s funny to go to a place known for so much wealth and instead just take in the surroundings. No casino. No Grand Prix. No luxury purse purchases. Just a moment to be in a place and remember that our world is full of these corners that we may never fully know.

We returned to Nice at dusk, the evening winter light hitting the French Riviera houses on the cliffs in a way that only a painter could replicate.

“A good afternoon in Monaco everyone,” said our director. Check that one off the list.

[Photo Credit: Anna Brones]

Good News, Ladies! Now You Can Wear Pants In Paris

by Sean McLachlan on


Are you a woman planning a trip to Paris? Well, now you can pack a pair of pants without fear of running afoul of the law. The BBC reports that it is now legal for women to wear pants in the City of Love.

The city government has finally struck a law off the books dating back to 1800 that required women to get police permission before “dressing like a man.” Around the turn of the past century, concessions were made to ladies riding horses or bicycles but in general, fairer sex had to stick to skirts.

The law, of course, has not been enforced in many years. It isn’t the only odd law on the books. Every state and city has a few antiquated regulations that the local government doesn’t remember existing, let alone trying to enforce. There are a bazillion websites on the Internet listing weird laws.

Many of these are apocryphal, however. One I heard while living in Arizona stated that it’s illegal to wear suspenders in Nogales. The law supposedly dates back to Prohibition. Nogales, being a border town, was full of gringos heading south of the border to get drunk. It still is. Back in Prohibition days, the story goes, some tried to smuggle bottles back over the border into the U.S. and wore suspenders to keep their pants from falling down from the extra weight. The bullshit-cleaning website Snopes actually checked and found that no such law ever existed.

For every old weird law that gets eliminated, a new one crops up. Live Science has a great list of weird state laws that took effect at the beginning of 2013. In Oregon, for example, it’s now illegal for employers to post job openings if they won’t consider hiring someone who is unemployed. Perverts will be disappointed to learn that it is now illegal to have sex with a corpse in Illinois. It used to be that if you got caught with a cadaver the worst you could be charged with was criminal damage to property.

Um… since when are corpses considered property? Whose property?

[Photo courtesy Procsilas Moscas]