Articles

Jason Cochran

Article / Passportable

#1 in #2: Japan Opens First Toilet Museum

I don't know if you've ever sat on one of those futuristic Japanese toilets, but they will change your life. In North America and Europe, toilets plug into the plumbing, but in…

Article / Passportable

Hilton Yanks Adult Movies

Not like you ever rented one, but porn movies are being eliminated from all Hilton hotels' in-demand movie selection.Said Hilton in a statement, as if it was something you might…

Article / Passportable

Airline Complaints Soar! Whose Fault Is It?

It's not your imagination: Airfares may be down (as we reported last week), but complaints about U.S. airlines soared more than 20 percent during the first half of this…

Article / Passportable

Entrancing Video Follows Luggage After It's Checked

Amsterdam's Schiphol airport wants to show you that it has put a lot of cash into building the ultimate baggage delivery system. So it produced this astonishing video by attaching a…

Article / Theme Park

America's Only Thomas the Tank Engine Theme Park Land Opens: Images

The new land, targeted to very small children and based on the wildly popular English characters, opens in Massachusetts.

Article / Passportable

All National Parks are Free (On These Days)

The National Park System is extending another gift to the American people in the form of fee-free days.And lucky us—there are two in a month, right when the weather is…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Massive Changes at Disney Parks: Two 14-Acre Star Wars Lands and Toy Story Land Coming, and More

Two of the biggest tourist attractions in the world are about to see extreme changes. Disney Parks has announced that it is planning two epic Star Wars-themed expansions for…

Article / Passportable

Q-tips: The Weirdest Flat Stanley Ever

Among product promotions, this is one of the strangest.Q-tip—yes, that thing you're not supposed to stick deep in your ears, but you do—has launched a campaign featuring the…

Article / Passportable

Pieces of Lost Space Shuttles Go On Display

The $100 million home of the space shuttle Atlantis, which opened last year, has put Florida's Kennedy Space Center back on the tourism maps. Without giving too much away, the way in…

Article / Passportable

Hurry! Everything in Canada is 25% Off!

On Tuesday, August 4, the Canadian dollar cratered, suffering its lowest value in 11 years. The loonie, which a few years ago had parity with the U.S. dollar, is now worth only 76¢.…

Article / Passportable

Poof! Kimpton Loses 7 Hotels in San Francisco

Back in December, when the hotel conglomerate InterContinental Hotels Group purchased boutique hotelier Kimpton, the executives behind the change painted a smiley face on the…

Article / Passportable

Acapulco Sets Up Special Tourism Safety Force

When gangs overtake your once-glamorous seaside city and force the military to move in and the U.S. to issue a travel warning, you've got a public relations problem.Acapulco is…

Article / Passportable

The Airlines Are Trying to Shut OTAs Down

Ryanair, the infamous cheapie European carrier, is always making headlines for doing something outrageous, and this week, it's because its upcoming website redesign will do something…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Airbnb Now Recruiting Professional Vacation Home Companies—Is it Moving Away from the "Sharing Economy"?

Airbnb search results in Florida displaying two properties not by homeowners but by established companiesThis summer, Airbnb began slipping a new type of homes into its…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

War is Brewing Over the Queen Mary: Petition Alleging Mismanagement is Launched

The condition of the Third Class Dining Room, now used as chair storage, courtesy of RMS Queen Mary Facebook CommunityThe RMS Queen Mary is a rare artifact from the golden era…

Article / Passportable

Can This 51-Year-Old Cycle Around the World?

On July 24, Scotland resident Peter Smith will set out on from Dumfries on a journey with two goals in mind: To circle the globe and wind up where he started and to smash the…

Article / Passportable

Popular National Park Site To Be Reservation-Only

The grove of redwood trees at Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, north of San Francisco, sees about 1 million visitors a year, and the roads around it can no longer handle…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

The Alamo in San Antonio Wins UNESCO Status, And It Couldn't Come at a More Embarrassing Time

The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, has just been inscribed with one of the most prestigious designations in international tourism: It and the four other San Antonio Missions now…

Article / Passportable

After an Incident, Disney Bans Selfie Sticks

Leave them at home.Disneyland and Walt Disney World—and Disney parks around the world—have banned selfie sticks. This means that the most popular theme parks on the planet have…

Article / Passportable

Popular Orlando Water Park to Close Forever

A few weeks ago, when Universal Orlando announced it was building a lavish new water slide park, Volcano Bay, for a 2017 opening, it was all over for Wet 'N Wild.The seminal…

Article / Passportable

Teachers Get 25% off B&Bs This Summer

BedandBreakfast.com, an established one-stop booking site for family-run B&Bs, has launched its annual discount program for teachers on summer break.The site has collected…

Article / Passportable

Rome's Colosseum Gets Its Lion Elevator Back

Two thousand years ago, the famous Colosseum was the biggest gathering place in the seat of the Roman Empire. In fact, it was the world's biggest amphitheatre. Over time, much of the…

Article / Passportable

South Africa's Handy Mandela Vacation App

It has been a year and half since Nelson Mandela died at the impressive age of 95, but there's no way his influence will be forgotten anytime soon. People traveling to South Africa…

Article / Passportable

Forget Bringing Your Own Bottles on Carnival

In a move touted as a measure to control contraband alcohol, Carnival Cruise Lines is banning bottled beverages of all kinds at the pier.Bringing your own alcohol aboard a major…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

The Airline Industry's Call for Smaller Carry-Ons Will Hit You in the Wallet

The International Air Transport Association, an industry group comprised of commercial airlines, has decided it's time to come up with a global standard for what size a carry-on…