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Tame Winter Pushes Canadian Festival Organizers to Buy Snow

There’s no business like snow business ©blmiers2 Countries all over the world are singing praises of what seems to be a record winter with less snow and warmer temperatures. But the milder season isn’t helping Winnipeg, Manitoba. With less snow than usual, the city had to buy 200 loads of snow to accommodate their annual [...]

Tigers Attack Tourist Bus in China

Bengal Tiger ©Paul Mannix A group of tourists visiting Jinan Wildlife World in eastern China narrowly escaped after Bengal tigers attacked their bus. The incident occurred when the worker in charge of the enclosure was on his lunch break. While visitors hid under their bus seats and attempted to call emergency services, eight tigers circled [...]

NYC Hotel Maids Armed With ‘Panic Buttons’

Hotel room © The Doyle Collection In a move that brings new meaning to the “housekeeping” knock on the door, New York hotel maids are now being aided with security devices. While the security measure hasn’t been linked to French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accused incident with a hotel maid last May, the panic-button devices are [...]

Times Square Celebrates Love This February

Times Square ©Bernt Rostad Times Square is embracing Valentine’s Day with a month-long celebration dubbed “Free Love in Times Square.” This month couples can renew their vows in the square. Also, couples can they can declare their love at the Crossroads of the World, and the declaration will be projected on a flashing digital billboard [...]

Coach Class No Longer the Culprit of Blood Clotting

You are now encouraged to move about the cabin © Gene Eaton “Economy class syndrome”, the nickname that suggests Coach seating causes blood clots, is in fact not true. New guidelines state that the real risk of deep vein thrombosis during plane travel is from not getting up and moving around enough during long flights. [...]

Spanish Museum Reveals Mona Lisa Copy

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci ©Oh Paris Spain’s Prado Museum has a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa that was most likely painted alongside the master in the same studio. The Mona Lisa immitation has been part of the Prado collection for years and has been displayed occasionally to the public but it [...]

Untie the Knot With a Stay at the “Divorce Hotel”

Wedding Cake ©Kim Marius Flakstad In the Netherlands you can pair your next weekend getaway with a divorce. Entrepreneur Jim Halfens is the mastermind behind the dutch “Divorce Hotel.” The idea came to Halfens when he recognized a gap in the market in the Netherlands, where the average divorce can easily run into five figures [...]

Rowdy Kiwi Expats Spark Complaints to High Commission

NZ flag ©michaeljohnbutton The behavior of participants in the 13th annual Waitangi Day pub crawl in London, England has sparked a complaint to the New Zealand High Commission. Waitangi Day is a New Zealand public holiday held each year on the 6th of Febuary to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s [...]

Virgin Galactic Space Ship Reservations On the Books for 2013

Specifications of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo © virgingalactic.com Virgin Galactic is aiming to become the first commercial space liner with the first flights proposed for 2013. The company’s SpaceShipTwo will zoom to an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) to the edge of space, then freefall to Earth to give passengers a few minutes of weightlessness, [...]

Miami Named Most Miserable City in the U.S.

Miami Beach, Florida © kleerteam Sorry, Miami. According to Forbes magazine, the Florida hot spot hit the top of the miserable list due to a high crime rate, housing crisis and long commute times. Miami has sun and beautiful weather but other things make people miserable. You have this two-tier society: glitzy South Beach attracts [...]

Poll Reveals Most Reassuring Airline Pilot Accent

Cockpit ©kudumomo A recent poll conducted for the Business Travel Show in London found that a pilot with a Home Counties accent to be the most reassuring accent for passengers. A Cockney accent was chosen as the least trustworthy accent, followed by a Midlands accent. Given the results of the poll, airline expert and travel [...]

Cute Pandas Send Edinburgh Zoo’s Numbers Soaring

Panda ©Chi King Since the arrival of two very cute giant pandas, visitor numbers at the Edinburgh Zoo are up 200 percent. Around 70,000 people have visited the new zoo residents since December–more than three times the number who visited the zoo during the same period in 2010. The two pandas, named Tian Tian and [...]

Cold Temperatures Stop Noted Belgian Statue From Peeing

All dried up © julie-n-clarke The famed “peeing” Manneken Pis statue in Brussels is having a bit of a dry spell. Thanks to sub zero temperatures in Brussels this week, the flow of water to the statue has been temporarily shut off to prevent damage to the internal fountain mechanism. The Manneken Pis is one [...]

Dirty Diaper Grounds Qantas Flight

colorful diapers, colorful skies ©simplyla More than 160 Qantas Airlines passengers were delayed about an hour when the flight they were on was forced to make an emergency landing at Mount Isa. Qantas Flight 825, between Darwin and Brisbane, was grounded due to a “strange smell” that was wafting from the front of the cabin. [...]

Ecuador City Seeking Retirees to Live Abroad For a Month

Laguna de Quilotoa, Ecuador © ch.deff The city of Cuenca, Ecuador is hoping to become a new retirement destination and is seeking volunteers for a month-long stay, courtesy of International Living magazine. Applicants must be near retirement age, from the United States or Canada and be willing to relax, explore, shop, try local restaurants, maybe take [...]

Spirit Airlines Charging Passengers New “Unintended Consequences Fee”

Spirit A320 ©PhillipC A change in Department of Transportation regulations is being blamed for a new $2 Sprint Airlines fee. The regulation requires airlines to allow passengers to change their flight within 24 hours of booking without paying a penalty. The new fee has been dubbed the “Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences Fee,” by Spirit [...]

Germany Returns Ancient Afghan Sculpture

And you think it’s bad when a friend forgets to return one of your books © Reuters.com A pre-Islamic sculpture traced back to the second century AD, was returned to its native Afghanistan this week. The sculpture was looted during the Afghan civil war in the late 1970s and eventually traced to Munich, Germany last [...]

Rio Statue Replica Causes Uproar in London

Christ the Redeemer ©David Berkowitz The statue of Christ the Redeemer with open arms in Rio is seen around the world as a symbol of peace and friendship. But residents of a posh north London neighborhood are up in arms at the possibility of the Brazilian national tourist board erecting a temporary replica on the [...]

British Teens Barred From U.S. Entry Due to Twitter Feed

Just a casual reminder to protect your Tweets © Twitter.com Before making their way to Los Angeles, British teens Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting littered their Twitter accounts with comments such as “free this week for a quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?”. Much of the teens’ other Twitter posts were taken out [...]

Hong Kong Tourists Trapped in Gondolas Over New Years Holiday

Ngong Ping 360 ©Robert S. Donovan In what has to be a sign of bad luck for the upcoming year, about 800 passengers on Hong Kong’s Ngong Ping 360 gondola were left hanging in the air for over 30 minutes during the very busy Chinese New Year Holiday. The passengers had to endure temperatures below [...]

Sea-Tac Airport Featuring Musicians in PSAs

Ben Gibard of Death Cab for Cutie, one of the featured PSA artists © msnbc.com This past weekend, Sea-Tac International Airport launched a series of new airport PSAs featuring all Northwest-based musicians. Travelers were greeted with messages such as this: This is Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains reminding you that smoking is allowed on the [...]

SFO Opens Yoga Room

Just say ‘Om’ to the new yoga room at SFO © lyn tally Yesterday SFO opened the very first airport-based yoga room. Stressed out travelers are free to come in and practice independently. The room is open during operating hours of Terminal 2, where it is located. The new yoga room is bathed in calming blue [...]

Sinking Cruise Liner Couture

zazzle.com.au ©zazzle.com.au Australian company zazzle.com.au is capitalizing on the now (in)famous tirade again the captain of the sunken Costa Concordia by selling t-shirts quoting harbor master Gregorio De Falco. The shirts–which apparently are already all the rage in Italy–carry the phrase “Vada a bordo, cazzo!” which translates to “Get back on board, dick!” De Falco [...]

Airlines Start Posting Airfares With All Mandatory Fees and Taxes

You are now flying the honest skies © √oхέƒx If you searched for airline fares as of Tuesday and noticed that fares looked significantly higher from Monday, don’t be fooled. The Department of Transportation’s new price advertising rule requires airlines to display fares including any mandatory per passenger taxes and fees. For the consumer, this makes [...]

Oscar Nominated Films That Inspire Travel

waipio valley ©paul (dex) Unless you’ve managed to avoid tv, internet and newspapers over the past couple of days, you’ve probably heard that the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday. And while all the award buzz may be about the actors, directors, writers and producers of the nominated movies, travelers may [...]

Multiple Flights Diverted Due to Solar Storm

Solar flares from the Sun © telegraph.co.uk Delta, Qantas and Air Canada diverted flights yesterday evening due to a very powerful solar radiation storm. The blast of energy from the storm can cause fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field, temporarily affecting navigation, power, satellite and communications systems, according to the space weather center. Most of the flights [...]

Woman Claims Airline Lost Deceased Husband’s Ashes

Luggage © cpmcpm72 En route to England after the funeral for her husband, Angeline O’Grady had plans to scatter his ashes in his native land. But getting the box containing his ashes there, was the difficult part. O’Gray was stopped by TSA agents while carrying the box of ashes through security. After the agents wouldn’t [...]

Disney Changes Rules and Lets Employees Sport Facial Hair

Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle ©Sean MacEntee Soon Disney theme parks will allow employees to wear goatees or beards–putting an end to a rule banning facial hair that dates back to the founding of Disneyland in 1955. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts announced the changes to the guidelines known as the “Disney Look” in a memo [...]

Poland Hopes to Lure Tourists By Revamping Hitler’s WWII Lair

Wolfsschanze ©vmario The Polish forestry office is inviting new management to take over the 250 hectare site of Hitler’s former command headquarters in northern Poland. The Wolfsschanze (Wolf Bunker) served as Hitler’s command complex for much of the war, and is best known as the site of the failed July 1944 bomb plot against him [...]

Big Ben is Leaning and the UK Parliament is Sinking

Big Ben ©apdk Rumors about the architectural stability of the famous UK parliament building and it’s iconic tower have been making the rounds this week. The 96-meter tall clock tower, which houses the bell nicknamed Big Ben, leans about 46 cm to the left of its peak. In response to concerns, a spokesman for the [...]

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