National Geographic Film Festival

by Neil Woodburn on

The All Roads Film Project is one of those very special, very wonderful National Geographic events which any traveler worth their salt will truly love.

The project was launched four years ago “to provide an international platform for indigenous and underrepresented minority-culture artists to share their cultures, stories, and perspectives through the power of film and photography.”

Man, you can’t go wrong with that mission statement.

And, National Geographic hasn’t.

The spectacular results of the project can be seen this upcoming weekend (October 4-7) at the All Roads Film Festival being held at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C.

The festival will feature films from Finland, Bolivia, Kurdistan, Denmark, Australia, Ethiopia, India, Mexico, Tonga and many more places on this planet you might only be able to visit through film. But, if you miss it in D.C., don’t worry; you can catch the festival next month in Sante Fe, New Mexico starting November 28.

In Search of Tijuana’s Golden Days

by Neil Woodburn on

For as long as I remember, Tijuana has been an absolute joke.

This Mexican border town, just south of San Diego is the armpit of Mexico where under-aged American high school students go to drink beer and frat boys go to watch donkey shows. The place is smelly, rundown, dangerous, and nothing like the rest of Mexico. Its name alone has become synonymous with cheap dives and armpits in general.

This wasn’t always the case, however.

I had no idea, but smelly little Tijuana was once the playground of the rich and famous long before the days of Las Vegas. During the 1920s and 1930s, the border town offered up cheap alcohol, casinos, prostitution and horse racing–all of which were impossible to find in California at the time. As a result, a bustling Vegas-style metropolis exploded (and along the way, gave birth to the Caesar salad and the margarita).
Baja’s Atlantis, a very cool West Magazine article by Christopher Reynolds explores this fascinating history of Tijuana and takes the reader along in search of architectural relics of this era, such as the opulent Agua Caliente casino, reputed to be the finest in the world outside of Monte Carlo.

Wow, I had no idea. Talk about a boom-to-bust! Once Vegas opened and prohibition ended, Tijuana withered away to the miserable excuse for a city it is now. I will, however, look upon it with fresh eyes the next time I pass through–thanks to Reynolds’ quest to unearth this fascinating history and teach us something so many of us didn’t know.

Photo of the Day (9/29/07)

by Justin Glow on

One day my dog will ask me, “Daddy, where did I come from?” And I would be forced to reply, “Son, you were purchased out of a bag from a man wearing stone-washed jeans on the side of the road. I pulled over to pay a toll in Mexico, and there you were.”

Gadling reader Sir Isaac Lime snapped this shot outside Puebla, Mexico. I wonder if he took one home?

If you’d like to contribute a Photo of the Day shot for consideration, please visit our Gadling Flickr pool and upload your favorites.

Mexico Named Best Place To Retire

by Martha Edwards on
Been to Mexico? I have a few times and I love it. It’s not just the hot weather and the gorgeous beaches — Mexico is a really friendly, vibrant place with a lot of energy and culture. At least what I’ve seen of it. Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is to write about how Mexico was named the best place to retire by an annual retirement index in International Living magazine. It used to be that Panama held this coveted title, but housing prices have since sky-rocketed — I hope this doesn’t happen to Mexico too!


Want to see what all the fuss is about? Check out our Travel Guide for Mexico. Not interested in Mexico? Learn more about Australia or South Africa.

What are some other great places to retire? Ecuador, Italy, Australia, Malta, Spain, South Africa, Malaysia, France and Thailand all made the list. The US came in at #19, while the UK ranked at the very bottom.

I couldn’t find a copy of the whole list — I wonder if my native Canada made the cut? There are definitely some retirement-worthy places here too. But given the choice between Mexico and the prairie winters, you know which one I’m going with.

(Of course, there are plenty of great places in the U.S. to retire. Check out Money & Finance’s great retirement spots in the U.S. and decide if any of them are for you.)

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World’s Sexiest Beaches 2007

by Justin Glow on

Each year, our friends over at Concierge.com put out a list of the world’s sexiest beaches, featuring the best places to “flirt with millionaires, lick the salt off a margarita glass, siesta in a hammock, and gaze at blood-orange sunsets night after night.”

If these don’t make you wish you were somewhere else, you’ve either got your toes in the sand right now, or you’re dead to the world. Here is 2007’s sexiest beaches:

  • Caprera Island, Sardinia, Italy — “La dolce vita meets Euro bling.”
  • Salvador da Bahia, Brazil — “Slow, happy, and inexpensive.”
  • Cousine Island, Seychelles — “Me Tarzan, you Jane!”
  • Playa de los Lances, Tarifa, Spain — “Surf hard, play hard. Flirt even harder.”
  • Pink Sand Beach, Harbour Island, Bahamas — “Colonial swagger with high society tennis games at dusk.”
  • Kuta Beach, Bali — “Beachcombing boho chic.”
  • South Beach, Miami, Florida — “Nightlife hub, arts mecca, de facto capital of Latin America, Miami is all sexy, all the time.”
  • Pigeon Point Beach, Antigua — “British aristos meet Hollywood movers-and-shakers for a love-in, colonial style.”
  • Bodrum, Turkey — “European? Asian? Yes”
  • Santa Maria Beach, Ilha do Sal, Cape Verde — “The calm before the storm.”
  • Laguna Beach, California — “California lovin'”
  • Ihuru Island, Maldives — “Just say no to shoes.”
  • Playa Tamarindo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica — “City kids get physical in a tropical playground.”
  • Paradise Beach, Mykonos — “You’re only young once. If you’re not, keep drinking-you’ll feel young soon enough.”
  • Grande Plage, Biarritz, France — “Beach bums meet fashion plates.”
  • Kaanapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii — “The vibe: Chilled-out aloha spirit.”
  • Cabo San Lucas, Mexico — “It was this big-honest!”
  • The Similan Islands, Thailand — “Wash my hair tonight? Why bother?”
  • Motu Tane, French Polynesia — “Fashionistas air kisses and catwalks on the beach.”

For detailed information on each of these beaches, including the best places to stay, visit Concierge.com.