Have Joint, Will Travel....And Travel...And Travel
Posted on 11/10/2016, 6:00 PM
Though the election was a buzz kill for many, there was a silver lining for some: a growing haze of pot smoke. California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine all legalized recreational marijuana, which led industry magazine Travel Weekly to wonder if this is now the golden age of "cannabis tourism"? As the magazine noted, both Colorado and Washington State, which legalized bud several years ag...
Free Admission at U.S. National Parks on November 11
Posted on 11/10/2016, 12:00 AM
All of us could probably use some fresh air after the contentious election season that finally came to a close this week. Fortunately, the National Park Service's last free-admission day of the year is tomorrow, November 11. The occasion is Veterans Day, but you don't have to have served in the military to get in free at any National Park Service site. Keep in mind, however, that we're tal...
Amtrak Vacations Introduces New Trip Packages
Posted on 11/10/2016, 12:00 AM
Amtrak Vacations has announced 25 new rail-based vacation packages, bringing the grand total of its itineraries to about 350. The packages can be purchased in a bundle or customized to get you to scores of locations in the 46 states where Amtrak operates. The marquee offering of the new additions is called Grand National Parks. It's a round-trip journey between Chicago and three of the coun...
White Cliffs of Dover and Other Tourist Sites Facing Extinction
Posted on 11/10/2016, 12:00 AM
Scientists revealed this week that the famous White Cliffs of Dover in England are eroding at a rate of 12 inches per year—10 times faster than they were losing ground before humankind began making changes to the coastline in the last 150 years. In case that piece of bad news has you hankering for more, Britain's Daily Mail has rounded up several more priceless world treasures facing extinct...
Survey Finds Top Houseguest Pet Peeves
Posted on 11/09/2016, 12:00 AM
Snooping around and staying for an indefinite period are the two most annoying things you can do as a houseguest, according to a survey conducted by HomeAdvisor. The house-services listings site polled 2,000 Americans to find out their biggest pet peeves related to hosting friends and family members during visits. Other top responses included showing up unannounced, bringing another guest al...
Australian Tourism Campaign Adopts Unfortunate Slogan
Posted on 11/09/2016, 12:00 AM
A new tourism ad campaign has been launched for Australia's Northern Territory (the NT), a desert region best known as the home of red sandstone monolith Ayers Rock (or Uluru). The marketing push has caused a stir on social media because of the slogan, which looks like this: (photo: Facebook / CU in the NT) In case you can't see the image on your device, allow us to spell it out for y...
Tourism Numbers Up in Greece
Posted on 11/09/2016, 12:00 AM
Tourism in Greece appears to have benefited this year from a period of relative political stabiilty and a reluctance on the part of international travelers to visit nearby destinations like Turkey and Egypt due to security concerns. Officials in Greece's tourism ministry announced this week that international arrivals were up 7% in the first nine months of the year compared with the same per...
More and More Business Travelers Using Uber Instead of Taxis
Posted on 11/08/2016, 12:00 AM
An increasing number of business travelers are making the switch from taxis and rental cars to ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, according to a report from Certify, a company that makes software for managing travel expenses. Analyzing more than 10 million receipts for ground transportation from the third quarter of this year, Certify found that Uber and Lyft accounted for the majorit...
Antigovernment Violence Threatens Ethiopia's Tourism Gains
Posted on 11/08/2016, 12:00 AM
Until this month, Ethiopian tourism had been on the upswing. The European Council on Tourism and Trade named the country the world’s top travel destination in 2015, and it was on track to receive more than a million tourists this year for the first time ever. Then, violent antigovernment protests erupted all across the country, causing the government to declare a six-month state o...
Trump Tower a Delicate Matter for Chicago Tour Guides
Posted on 11/08/2016, 12:00 AM
You can add Chicago tour guides to the list of people made miserable by the 2016 presidential election. The city’s popular architecture cruises drift past a number of pioneering buildings flanking the Chicago River. And one unavoidable skyscraper on the itinerary happens to bear the name of a certain polarizing presidential nominee spelled out in giant letters on its side. “It is stressfu...
