See New York through the Gossip Girl lens

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Soak in the sights, sounds and smells of the good life on the latest television tour of Manhattan. The new Gossip Girl tour runs 3 ½ hours and leads fans through the locations used to create the on-screen phenomenon that features the decadent lives of poor little rich kids.

Buses cart fans to the New York Palace, on Madison Ave, home to the Bass and van der Woodsen clans – as well as the Henri Bendel store on Fifth Avenue and The Plaza Hotel‘s Oak Room on the southeast corner of Central Park.

Fortunately, the cost of the tour isn’t commensurate with the lifestyles of the show’s characters. At $40, you’re paying less than the “help” commands. Afterward, be sure to grab brunch at Norma’s where hopefully you can get a look at one of the performers!

Playing for Change sets new fall tour

by Brenda Yun on

If you haven’t heard of “Playing for Change” or its international renditions of “Stand By Me,” “One Love,” or “Don’t Worry,” you no longer have to worry: the documentary’s favorite musicians are coming to a U.S. city near you this fall for one month (between October 20 – November 19) only!

Kicking off on October 20th in Alexandria, VA, the PFC Band is going to be performing in over 20 cities in the US and Canada, finally ending up in Vancouver, CA on November 19th. Tickets are on-sale now, and are going fast. For a complete listing of dates, venues, and links to purchase, visit the Playing For Change Band page.

If you want to get a taste of the tour, check out this combo of live performance clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and artist interviews from the Playing For Change Band’s 5-city promotional tour earlier this year.

Additionally, the documentary film, Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is now available for purchase HERE and will ship on October 13th, should you be interested in watching how the PFC movement began.

Dive the Great Wall of China with Urbane Nomads

by Katie Hammel on

Did you know that parts of the Great Wall of China are underwater? Yeah, me neither. But according to Urban Daddy, one particular section of the wall has been submerged under a lake since the 1980’s. And now a luxury tour company called Urbane Nomads is offering the first-ever guided diving trips to the hard-to-reach spot.

Guides will carry your gear to the submerged portion of the Wall and direct you to the coolest underwater spots, where you’ll see “Ming-era stone carvings, some intricate tunnels and a tight-squeeze guard tower”. The “Diving the Great Wall” package includes two dives at the site plus more exclusive activities like a guided tour to the unrestored parts of the Forbidden City, usually off-limits to tourists.

The group at Urbane Nomads calls themselves “travel mixologists” creating unique itineraries that customers can tweak according to their preferences while still keeping the main ingredients. There’s definitely an emphasis on luxury here, though the company claims that, unlike other high-end tour operators, their tours seek to connect visitors with the local culture (in a way that is not staged or touristy) rather than isolating them from it. In addition to China, they offer tours to over 30 destinations, including Spain, South Africa, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Oman, Thailand, Turkey, Laos, Morocco, and Argentina.

Travel to Cuba legally with New York art museum package

by Katie Hammel on

Travel to Cuba is still illegal for most Americans, but if you don’t want to challenge the law or take your chances sneaking there and back, you can still arrange a visit. The Katonah Museum of Art, in Katonah, New York, has been authorized to lead a tour group to Cuba.

Participants on the trip, which is scheduled for January 17-23 of next year, will visit Havana and learn about Cuban culture through visits to museums, holy sites, and the homes and studios of 14 Cuban artists. The package costs $4,400 per person for double occupancy($4,600 for singles) and participants must also pay a $700 tax-deductible membership fee to the Katonah Art Museum. The price includes airfare from Miami to Havana, five nights at a five-star hotel in Havana, ground transportation, daily breakfasts and lunches, several dinners, all group activities and sightseeing, and insurance, taxes and visa fees.

Reservations for the trip must be made by October 19 and the Museum does expect the tour to sell out.

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[via Matador Pulse]

Indian company offers “divorce tourism” package to quarreling couples

by Katie Hammel on

For many happy couples, a trip is taken to commemorate joyful events, like a marriage or the impending birth of a child. Then there are other couples – the ones who certainly aren’t happy but who aren’t quite ready to rush off to Vegas for their divorce party. For them, there’s “divorce tourism”.

The Daily Mail reports that a company in India, called KV Tours and Travel, is offering packages to destinations like the Maldives aimed at helping couples on the brink of divorce to reconcile. India has typically had a very low divorce rate – only about one out of every 100 marriages end in divorce – but in India’s largest cities, it is becoming more common. The company offers a few different packages, ranging from local stays to more expensive exotic destinations. Vijesh Thakker, the company’s chief executive told the AP, “We’re trying to send them where they have not been before, where there are not many people – and no relatives”. For couples that don’t want to invest in saving their marriage, the company reaches out to family members and asks them to foot the bill on the couple’s behalf. Experienced marriage counselors accompany the couple on their trip and help them work through their issues and determine if they want to stay together or go their separate ways.

Can a seven-day vacation save a marriage? Not likely, which even the concept’s creator admits. “We’re not destiny changers,” Thakker said, but “we want them to treat the trip like a second honeymoon”.