North Carolina readies for ‘Hunger Games’ opening

by Chris Gray Faust on

Anticipation for the movie version of “The Hunger Games,” which will be released next week, has been building for more than a year – and no more so than in North Carolina, where most of the film was shot.

At the North Carolina Governor’s Conference on Tourism this week, Governor Bev Perdue cheered the first movie of the dystopian saga, which stars Jennifer Lawrence as the rebellious Katniss fighting for her life. While “The Hunger Games” has become North Carolina’s largest film set on site (previous biggies were “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Dirty Dancing”), another 119 films are being shot in the state, Perdue said.

If you’re looking to follow in the stars’ footsteps, you’ll have to rent a car; shooting sites range from Charlotte (a stand-in for The Capital) to DuPont State Recreational Park, site of the Arena, to the tiny town of Shelby, where the Reaping scenes were filmed. During the shoot, the stars were based in Asheville, in the western part of the state.In anticipation of visiting fans, the VisitNC website has put together several “Hunger Games” resource guides, including a four-day itinerary and a Pinterest board. While businesses such as the Nantahala Outdoors Center in Bryson weren’t used during the filming, the state is cleverly tying them in with the movie’s survivalist message (you, too, can train like Katniss!)

So will the movie generate the tourist dollars that the state hopes to receive? The odds are ever in their favor. Just look at the boom in visitation that a certain Washington town named Forks received after the “Twilight” movies came out.

Travel writer Chris Gray Faust covers value luxury vacations on her award-winning blog, Chris Around The World.

Comedic team of ‘Portlandia’ set to create an off-beat Portland, Oregon, guidebook

by Jessica Festa on


Are you bored of the usual travel guidebooks aimed at everyday tourists? If you’re interested in Portland, Oregon, and would rather learn about funny, fictional places that could exist rather than the Oregon Zoo and the Portland Art Museum, you should put “PORTLANDIA: A Guide for Visitors” on your shopping list. Set to debut in November of 2012, the book is being created by the team who brought you the hit comedy series “Portlandia,” starring Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, which takes you on an off-beat tour of Portland while poking fun at the city.

“It will be written like a Fodor’s or Lonely Planet guidebook, but full of fake, made-up, humorous stuff that could easily exist in a place like Portland, but doesn’t,” explains Ben Greenberg, the executive editor of Grand Central Publishing who will be producing the book. “Everything will be a bit off.”


To get an idea of the team’s humor and what to expect, check out the clip above from “Portlandia” on the Independent Film Channel (IFC).

Video: “Stuff” skiers say

by Laurel Miller on

I’m in Lake Tahoe–California and Nevada’s premier ski destination–visiting my brother and his family. My teenage nephew, a member of the Olympic Valley Freeride & Freestyle Team, turned me on to this farcical video about things skiers say. If you’re a skier–or snowboarder–you’re fully aware that there are certain phrases ubiquitous to those who spend their days on the slopes–even if the language between the two sports differs slightly.

Even if you don’t dig snow, you’ll likely appreciate this. And if you’re a flatlander heading to the mountains for a weekend of shreddin’….please…don’t act like a gaper. “Now go get your sesh on.”

Warning: this clip contains language that may be offensive to some.


Video of the Day: Guam, where America’s day begins

by Jessica Marati on

Each year, more than a million people visit the Pacific island of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States located in Micronesia. This video shows why: breathtaking sunsets, beautiful beaches, fantastic diving, a vibrant tourist district, tropical flora and fauna, and a unique culture influenced by Spanish colonization, Japanese occupation, and now American control.

I’m also biased; as a native Chamorro who was raised in Guam, I am well familiar with everything my home island has to offer.

Despite the fact that tourism is Guam’s largest industry, not too many people outside of the main tourist markets of Japan and East Asia are familiar with the island. In the United States, most people I encounter know that Guam is home to major American military bases, but not much else. This video, combined with the photo gallery below, provide a brief introduction.

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Chinese tourists chart a new European Grand Tour

by Jessica Marati on

According to BBC Travel and the China Daily, approximately 70 million Chinese nationals traveled abroad in 2011, up from 10 million in 1999. A chunk of this new crop of Chinese tourists is traveling to Europe, but their itinerary veers a little off the trodden path.

BBC Travel outlined some of the historical highlights of the “new” European Grand Tour: cities like Trier, Germany, the birthplace of Karl Marx and home to the Karl Marx Haus Museum, and Montargis, France, where a small group of Chinese youth studied in the early 1900s and lay the foundation for the Chinese Communist Party. Many tour groups also make a stop at King’s College in Cambridge, England, to visit a willow tree mentioned by Chinese poet Xu Zhimo in a famous poem called On Leaving Cambridge.

According to the article, Chinese travelers also seek out culture and shopping when visiting Europe. That brings them to Bonn, Germany, to visit the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven, and Verona, Italy, backdrop of Shakespeare’s famous Romeo and Juliet. Shoppers apparently go crazy on High Street in London, at Louis Vuitton in Paris, and at the Hugo Boss factory outlets in Metzingen, Germany (who doesn’t love a great bargain?).

The Chinese may have the right idea when it comes to off-the-beaten-track European itineraries, which tend to be cheaper and less crowded. Start creating your own with these top underrated European travel destinations.

[Thanks, BBC Travel]