Rants

Where I bitch about not being able to travel enough; the wrong ways to travel; and cheap airport toilet paper that often chafes my nether bits.

Global War Against Alcohol And Fun Intensifying

© Chicago Historical Society The entire region of Spanish Catalonia has banned happy hours. Tourists were having too much fun drinking at two-for-one prices. Last week Serbia’s President was charged by the police of his own capital city for uncorking a bottle of champagne. He was toasting to Serbia’s World Cup qualification, which violated anti-hooligan [...]

Tim Leffel on Prepackaged Travel Vacations

This seems a rather appropriate complement to The Super Ultimate Definitive List of the Only 1001 Places You Need to See Before You Die. Ever.. [T]ake a look at this ad from Visa that is running … this month. It’s a vending machine filled with flag-covered countries: the UK, France, Italy, Australia, India, Mexico and [...]

7 Great Rules Of Airline Travel Etiquette

The Best of Craigslist has some real gems written by honest, anonymous folks usually with something to get off their chest. RANT: Airline Travel Etiquette makes some great points: Rule #3 – Bitch. If I’m unfortunate enough to ride bitch (aka, the middle seat) then I automatically get both armrests. It’s called making the best [...]

Dubailand: Environmental Destruction of Walt Disney World Proportions

“Go Big or Go Home.” That’s the unofficial Texas motto. And, with the immense tourism projects cropping up in the Middle East lately, it’s evident Dubai is taking a page out of the Lonestar State’s play book. Via Middle East Times: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Widely touted as the Middle East’s very own Orlando, [...]

Traveling Children Must Be Drugged

… that’s essentially the stance of one parent from a recent Wall Street Journal article and poll: One mother, on a message board attached to the poll, defended her use of Benadryl to calm a frightened toddler, asserting it’s “the right thing to do for the child, the other passengers, the flight crew and yes, [...]

A Journey to Every Starbucks in the World

I’m the first person to applaud perseverance and achieving one’s goals. Your life is your life – do whatever makes you happy and never compromise. But, seriously: what personal growth can come out of visiting every Starbucks in the world? On the heels of a measured debate on “meaningless” travel with several Vagabondish readers, I [...]

Things I Won’t Miss When I’m Gone: Stupid American Gestures

Forget gun violence and illegal immigration. We need Congress to take a look at three gestures that are ruining American culture. Three gestures with which you’re certainly familiar, either because you’ve been on the unfortunate receiving end of one or all of them. Or because you, yourself, are guilty of punishing friends and relatives with [...]

Why I Travel: Television Made Me Do It!

We provide a counterpoint to Scott McNeely’s ‘Why We Travel’ piece from the Viator.com blog.

Things I Won’t Miss When I’m Gone: Ice Hearts

As if working a 9-to-5 desk job wasn’t bad enough, we ran out of ice cube trays at work. We didn’t run out of ice cubes, but the actual trays themselves. How that’s possible, I have no idea. I imagine there’s a wild-eyed burglar somewhere sitting on a mountain of white plastic ice cube trays, [...]

Don’t Let the Things You Own Own You

In an unintentional yet timely follow-up to this past Sunday’s post, Vagablogging offers this advice via Fight Club: “You buy furniture. You tell yourself this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple of years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least [...]

Consumed by Consumerism

As my RTW departure draws nigh I’ve put everything I do, buy, eat, and consume under a microscope. At first, it was a money-saving exercise. But it’s taught me one very valuable lesson: I don’t need to do, buy, eat, or consume even a quarter of the “stuff” that I used to. I don’t need [...]

How Irish Is St. Patrick’s Day Really?

This past week, Not Your Average Travel Guide explored the five day heathen festival that is St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin, Ireland. Watching folks decked out in hokey leprechaun outfits, Irish flag colored wigs, and fuzzy brown Guinness hats, I couldn’t help but think, “Has America conquered St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland too?”. Having visited [...]

Don’t Be A Tourist #2

My lady and I are booked for a trip to Portland, Maine this weekend. So Orbitz, being the excellent travel e-business that it is, e-mails me a “reminder” today which is basically just a way for them to scam another e-mail into my inbox in an effort to upsell me on all kinds of add-ons [...]

Don’t Be A Tourist

Over on the Cheapest Destinations blog, Tim Leffel opines on the soulless, homogeneous ports of call of massive, middle America-filled ocean liners. His photos call to mind any one of several hundred ports of call in the Caribbean, littered with Subway sandwich shops, Hard Rock Cafes (shudder), Dunkin’ Donuts, etc. etc. If you told most [...]