“Border Crisis” tour shows realities of life on Arizona-Mexico border

by Melanie Renzulli on


No matter what side of the fence you may be on regarding the U.S. immigration debate, there’s a tour in Arizona that wants to show you what migrant life is like along the U.S.-Mexico border. Gray Line Tours of Arizona now offers the tour Border Crisis: Fact or Fiction, which is designed to give travelers an apolitical look at a very sensitive subject.

Gray Line’s Border Crisis tour will take visitors to see the border fence, a pedestrian bridge connecting the United States and Mexico, and a working ranch that straddles the border. Travelers will get to watch Customs and Border Protection Agents in action and take a walk through the desert where hundreds of migrants try to cross into the U.S. each year. Another stop on the Border Crisis tour introduces travelers to 65-gallon plastic tanks installed by Humane Borders, a humanitarian organization whose “sole mission is to take death out of the immigration equation.” “It’s a hundred-and-something degrees out here. You’re dying of thirst. That’s what this is for, with or without a map, whether you found it on purpose or whether you stumbled across it,” says tour operator Bob Feinman in this CNN article about the tour.

Border Crisis: Fact or Fiction begins today and operates approximately every two weeks through next spring. The cost is $89 and it includes lunch.

Photo courtesy Gray Line Tours

Gawker’s Worst 50 States

by Elizabeth Seward on

I’ve been following Gawker’s newest series, The Worst 50 States. I’ve been enjoying following this series. In an effort to pin down not only the best states in the US of A, but, more importantly, the worst states, Gawker compiled a Gawker-invented rating system in order to rank our fair fifty. Granted, this rating system consists solely of the viewpoints of those on staff for Gawker, so the viewpoints are just about as biased as you would deem Gawker (Which might be not at all according to you!), but there’s some interesting stuff in there. Yes, they’re focusing on the bad more than the good, those damn pessimists, but all in all, fact or fiction, the commentary on the 50 states is makes me laugh. And, I’ll just throw this in there, I’ve been to 48 of the 50 states and much of every summary they make rings true to me. They’re not done wrapping up the states yet, but check out their analysis of most of the states here.

If you’re inflamed, saddened, or curling over with laughter after reading what’s so bad about your home state, come back here and tell us in the comments how Gawker made you feel.

The 5 ugliest states in the country

by Meg Nesterov on

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. San Francisco Examiner writer and occasional Gadling contributor Bob Ecker doesn’t behold much, at least for a few unlucky states. Ecker previously named the prettiest US states including coastal California, exotic Hawaii, diverse New York, historic Virginia, and verdant Washington. He’s now determined the unfortunate ugliest states, measured by landscape, not people:

  • Connecticut: the Constitution State is called a “suburban hell”
  • Delaware: small and boring
  • Kansas: land-locked and a “throwback,” in a bad way
  • Nevada: outside of Las Vegas, it’s a “desolate and forbidding wasteland” (what about Lake Tahoe, Bob?)
  • Oklahoma: another flat, hot, and boring state (don’t tell Lonely Planet’s Robert Reid, an OK native)

Obviously the article is tongue in cheek — there are beautiful corners in every great state in this country — but Ecker’s skewering provides a good starting point for thinking about vacation destinations. Do these places deserve to be called ugly? What do you think the ugliest states are?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Gage Skidmore

Visa-free travel by the numbers

by Alex Robertson Textor on

Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.

The Henley Visa Restrictions Index Global Ranking 2011, excerpted in the Economist last week, was just published by Henley & Partners, an international law firm specializing in “international residence and citizenship planning.” Henley & Partners divide the world into 223 countries and territories.

And who gets to travel with few visa restrictions? The best citizenships for visa-free travel belong to nationals of Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, at 173 apiece. On their Nordic heels is Germany at 172 and a mess of countries (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom) at 171. The United States isn’t too far down the list, tied in fifth place with Ireland at 169. The US comes in ahead of Switzerland (167), Canada (164), New Zealand (166), and Australia (166).

Some of the least lucky countries, according to the Henley Visa Restrictions Index survey: India (53), China (40), Iran (36), Lebanon (33), and Afghanistan (24).

[Image: Flickr | megoizzy]

Classic Italian car race comes to California

by Melanie Renzulli on

Fans of classic cars and rally enthusiasts take note: “the most beautiful road race in the world” is coming to California. The Mille Miglia, the Italian car race that elevated driving to an art, will makes its American debut in California from October 25-29 in advance of the Santa Barbara Concours d’Elegance. In the spirit of the legendary Italian race, which followed scenic routes that circled from Brescia to Ferrara and Rome to Florence, Mille Miglia North America will begin and end in Santa Barbara, in between making a 1,000-mile loop along California’s coastline. Cities and sites along the route include San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey, San Francisco, and Napa.

All cars racing in the Mille Miglia North America will date from 1927 to 1957, the time period during which the original race was run. Cars expected to participate include vintage models of Aston Martins, Alfa Romeos, Fiats, a 1952 Jaguar XK120, a 1957 Thunderbird, and more. The public can get a glimpse of the classic cars at car shows in Santa Barbara before and after the race. And, of course, there will be spectator spots along the route when the race is underway. Stay tuned to the Mille Miglia website [www.millemiglianorthamerica.com] for more information on spectator locations as they become available.




[Image credit: Flickr user Roberto Ferrari]