New tour takes visitors into LA’s ganglands

by Katie Hammel on

Tourists looking for a thrill in Los Angeles can now take a bus tour of the city’s most dangerous ganglands. For $65, LA Gang Tours takes visitors around the city, pointing out gang graffiti and stopping at sights like the Los Angeles Riverbed, Florence Avenue, and the Pico Union Graffiti Lab.

It seems tourists are always drawn to places with a dangerous auras and violent pasts, places that are the complete opposite of our comfortable lives at home. The question is, do we go to these places, places like the slums of Mumbai, the townships of Johannesburg or the streets of South Central LA, because we want to understand what life is like for the people there, or do we go to gawk or just so we can say “I’ve been there”? And do these tours actually help the communities that are put on display, or do they make them a spectacle?

LA Gang Tours was created by Alfred Lomas, a former gang member, who says the tour will create 10 part-time jobs for ex-gang members who will lead tours and share their own stories. He says his goal is to help residents of South Central,”to give profits from the tours back to these areas for economic growth and development, provide job/entrepreneur training, micro-financing opportunities and to specialize in educating people from around the world about the Los Angeles inner city lifestyle, gang involvement and solutions.”I’d actually be curious to take the tour, which is scheduled to run once per month. It sounds like, in this case, the tour may be run in a way that takes a more anthropological, rather than exploitative, look at the community. The tour bus is unmarked, and out of respect for area residents, riders on the tour are not permitted to take photos or video.

While in Cape Town, I had the opportunity to tour Robben Island, the prison where political “criminals” were held during apartheid. When the tour guide, himself a former prisoner, was asked why he would do this – lead tours and relive the pain of his imprisonment every day – for a living, he responded with two reasons. One, he said, was because he wanted people to know what happened. The second was that every boatload of tourists that came to the island meant one more person who would have a job.

Perhaps it’s naive to think that welcoming a bus-full of tourists once a month could help solve the many problems of the area. But if offering the tours keeps one more ex-gang member employed running tours and out of gang life, well, at least it’s a start.

[via Chicago Tribune]

%Gallery-13474%

%Gallery-38511%

W Hotels glams up for Hollywood debut

by Melanie Nayer on

Like any good glam girl, the W Hollywood was prepped, primped and sitting pretty for its Hollywood debut. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. rolled out the red carpet yesterday for the newest hotel in the bunch, the 305-room W Hollywood hotel.

Located a stone’s throw from some of the most famous stars in Tinsletown, (at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine) the W Hollywood opened with plenty of fanfare and some help from famous friends. Jimmy Kimmel and Robin Thicke are rumored to be stopping by the hotel today to show their support for the W’s “civic recognition event”.

The W Hollywood has been in the works since the late 1990s and reports claim it came with quite a price tag: nearly $350 million was spent building this beauty. For those guests who don’t ever want to leave, the W Hollywood has added 143 residences priced at $500,000 to $7 million.

I did a quick check on the W’s site and found room rates starting at $259 for a king-sized “Wonderful” room and $599 for a “Marvelous” room. If you want something a little more spectacular, shell out $2,000 to $4,000 for a suite measuring 1,650-square-feet.

Meanwhile, the W also unveiled its first property in Asia, the W Retreat Koh Samui. The W Retreat Koh Samui and The Residences at W Retreat Koh Samui create the first residential project for W Hotels in Southeast Asia. The property comprises 17 branded residences as well as the hotel comprising 75 villas.

Valentine’s Day specials: Four Seasons Los Angeles finds your scent

by Melanie Nayer on

What does your loved one smell like? The folks at Four Seasons are ready to find out.

We’ve published all sorts of Valentine’s Day packages, including in-room massages, breakfasts in bed and while not technically a Valentine’s Day offering, we can’t forget the human bed warmers over at the Holiday Inn. But the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills is putting a new twist on Valentine’s Day, thanks to its Everlasting Valentine’s Day Package.

Book a night with the luxe-hotel and you’ll enjoy a private “aromatic journey” with a custom perfume specialist who will help you create your very own fragrance.
Kedra Hart from Opus Oils‘ Jitterbug Perfume Parlour will introduce couples to a wide variety of scents and blend together a custom created fragrance made specifically for each couple. You’ll take home a 2 oz. Eau de Parfum spray as well as a travel size roll-on, and your secret scent will be saved on file so you can re-order when you’re running low. Of course, all this scenting goes down in one of the Four Seasons newly-renovated guestrooms or suites, and they’ve thrown in breakfast for two and your choice of a specialty Valentine’s Day cocktail.

The package starts at $535 and is available on Friday, February 12, Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14.

New York, Miami and Los Angeles most popular ports of entry

by Tom Johansmeyer on

As usual, 15 ports of entry were responsible for 84 percent of overseas entries to the United States last October. This is an increase of two percentage points from October 2008, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The top three ports were New York JFK, Miami and Los Angeles, together accounting for 39 percent of all arrivals from overseas. These three ports gained one percentage point of “arrival share” year-over-year. But, only four of the top 15 ports of entry posted increases from October 2008 to October 2009: Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale. These changes come based on an increase of 1 percent in foreign visits to the United States.

New York Times names 31 places to go in 2010

by Katie Hammel on

As the final weeks of 2009 stretch into the first few weeks of 2010, we see a lot of lists predicting the hot destinations for the next year or telling us where we should plan on going in the next 365 days. The New York Times recently put out their list, but unlike some lists that just seem to be composed at random, based on an individual’s personal travel wishlist, this list actually makes a lot of sense.

Rather than just naming the destinations, the NYT gives reasons behind each choice. For instance, Sri Lanka, where nearly 25 years of fighting has recently ended, seems poised to become a much more popular beach destination in the region. It also makes sense that Seoul, which has been named the World Design Capital of 2010 and is set to host hundreds of related events throughout the year, will see more visitors in 2010. The Times also makes the case for visiting Antarctica this year, as new rules governing cruise ship visits may make it more difficult and more expensive in the future.

Other destinations on the list include such destinations as Los Angeles Shanghai, Costa Rica, Istanbul, Colombia, and Nepal. On the list or not, where are you planning on traveling in 2010?