U.S. National Park Fees Leap Higher Overnight
Posted on 06/01/2018, 9:00 AM
When Americans woke up this morning (June 1), they discovered it would cost them a lot more to enter their national parks.Nearly all the major parks hiked their entry rates by a hefty $5.Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands (pictured), Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, Olympic, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion—all of them, and many more, saw their prices jump $5, regardless of whether it's for a vehicle or...
Singapore Airlines Bringing Back the World's Longest Flight
Posted on 05/30/2018, 5:45 PM
Singapore Airlines has announced plans to resume nonstop service between the Asian city-state's Changi Airport (pictured above) and Newark Liberty International Airport just outside New York City—a flight that will cover more than 10,000 miles and last just under 19 hours, making it the world's longest.The carrier previously offered this route up until 2013, when it was decided that planes would li...
How Bad Will Hurricane Season Be This Year?
Posted on 05/29/2018, 8:00 PM
Hurricane season officially starts Friday, June 1, but the first named storm of the year has already arrived. Subtropical depression Alberto made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Memorial Day and continues to bring the threat of heavy rains, wind gusts, and flash flooding as it moves through the Southeast. The Weather Channel predicts the storm could last through late Wednesday, as what remains...
Bad News for the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Posted on 05/28/2018, 4:45 AM
Pearl Harbor's world-famous memorial (pictured above) that straddles the submerged wreck of the USS Arizona has been closed indefinitely.The trouble began May 6, when cracks were discovered in its structure at a point where it meets the loading ramp from its boat dock. Repairs were carried out, but hours after the platform reopened on May 23, the fissures were seen again, which indicated a more ser...
Seattle's Space Needle Gets a Glassy Makeover
Posted on 05/25/2018, 8:00 PM
A $100 million update to Seattle's skyline-defining Space Needle is just about finished. But don't worry, purists: The 605-foot retro-futuristic tower still looks like something dreamed up by the animators for The Jetsons—or, as the Frommer's guide puts it, "like a flying saucer on a tripod." Some sprucing up here and there aside, the most dramatic changes can be found on the observation deck, whic...
New Ferry Links Spain with Ireland, Thanks to Brexit
Posted on 05/22/2018, 1:00 PM
Something brand-new happened this month: A new ferry service between Ireland and Spain was inaugurated.Why? Because as the United Kingdom proceeds with Brexit, its half-baked plan to secede from the European Union, the border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, which remains in the EU, will become much harder to cross. The new ferry service allows Irish and Spanish people to pass easily bet...
Hello Kitty Bullet Train to Make Japan Even More Adorable
Posted on 05/21/2018, 8:00 PM
We're just going to leave this right here.On June 30, 2018, a brand-new bullet shinkansen service will make its debut in Japan: a Hello Kitty train. The Hello Kitty Express, as we're calling it, will link Osaka and Fukuoka, two cities that are about 400km (250 miles) apart, but as of today, are at the center of our hearts.Everything will be pinker than a debutante, washed in the blush tones of Japa...
Thanks (and No Thanks) for the Memories, Bob Hope
Posted on 05/20/2018, 8:00 PM
The National World War II Museum in New Orleans—truly one of the best, most thorough, and well-funded historic museums in the United States, and deeply underrated—is adding a special new exhibition through the end of 2018 and into early 2019.It's all about Bob Hope, the comic megastar whose association with the USO was a defining feature of both that war and his career. The exhibition, So Ready for...
Florida's SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Will Give Away Free Beer Again This Summer
Posted on 05/16/2018, 8:00 PM
This post, originally published May 1, has been updated below.When the all-American brewer Anhueser-Busch opened Busch Gardens amusement park in Tampa, Florida in 1959 (other locations preceded and followed it, but only the Tampa park and another in Williamsburg, Virginia remain), the main focus was, naturally, marketing the brand's products. To that end, "hospitality houses" (Tampa's is pictured a...
American Airlines Cracks Down on Support Animals
Posted on 05/15/2018, 3:00 PM
Emotional support insects are no longer welcome on American Airlines flights.Whoever heard of an emotional support insect, you ask? We have two words for you: Jiminy Cricket.In addition to keeping your helpful, devoted, and musically gifted bugs from the passenger cabin, the carrier's newly revised animal restrictions, which go into effect July 1, ban goats, hedgehogs, amphibians, ferrets, reptiles...
