Archive for June, 2007

Guinness is GOOD FOR YOU

My colleague Luke and I were recently in Dublin for a series of meetings with our Viator partners. As sometimes happens, one of the meetings cancelled and we were faced with the dilemma of what to do for an afternoon in Dublin before we caught our flight back to London. Our answer: a short trip to the Guinness Storehouse.

Located in the historic St. James Gate Brewery, The Storehouse is a destination in itself. It is one of the better brewery tours around and I have been to a few. The first floors are a museum of all things Guinness with detailed information on how the beer is brewed. You end up in the Gravity Bar – a cool glass bubble at the top of the brewery where you can enjoy your free Guinness with a panoramic view of Dublin.

On the way up, there is an historical display of the Guinness marketing campaigns and promotions. Some of the more interesting ones were:

• “Guinness for Strength”
• “Guinness Makes You Strong”
• “My Goodness My Guinness”

….and my favorite: “Guinness is GOOD FOR YOU”.

I began to do a little research on the beer’s health qualities and came up with an interesting study from the University of Wisconsin, my alma mater. (See Mom and Dad – I DID get a quality education!). “Scientists” found that when Guinness Stout was given to dogs with narrowed arteries they had reduced clotting activities – a benefit similar to taking an aspirin.

The same was not true of a lager-style beer. It was thought to perhaps be the antioxidant qualities of Guinness which slow down the deposits of cholesterol on the artery walls. Guinness makes no health claims on the beer and note that they encourage “responsible drinking”. (Note - It is not clear how the dogs were fed the beer – but again this is Wisconsin and we are very clever!).

One final pointer: Luke and I recommend buying a Dublin Pass and taking public transit or a City Tour to reach the brewery. After so much focus on your health, it is not advised to drive!

-Ken Frohling

If you’re making a trip to Dublin, check out our complete list of things to do in Dublin. And keep an eye out for the Guinness Storehouse Jump the Queue tickets for sale on Viator.com starting in July.

With the latest round of changes and upgrades to the Viator.com website some new groupings of tours and activities were introduced. Some of these are really helpful, like First Time Visitors in Paris and some of these are really interesting like Something Different in London. The goal of all of them is to make it easier to find the experiences you’re interested in quickly, and to help you find new experiences you might never have thought of trying. I won’t tell you where all the new groups are, its more fun to stumble across them (just keep an eye around the Things To Do tab, you’ll see them just below there for some popular destinations). We’ll be adding more and more of these in the coming months so check back if you don’t see one in your favorite destination.

My favorite new group is Staff Picks, and I am lucky enough to be honored with having the first Staff Pick to go live on the site. We’ll be adding lots more of these, but for now, my picks in Iceland are the first batch. I am always skeptical when I see staff or company recommendations, are they just trying to push something that isn’t selling so well? Do they make more money off these? In the case of Viator Staff Picks I can honestly say that the only criteria that went into my picks (and I think will go into everyone else’s) was that I had a really good time doing it in Iceland, or I wished I had done it in Iceland (how did I miss the snorkelling??). That’s it. I have no idea how much money we make, if these choices sell well or not, and frankly, it wouldn’t matter anyway, they’d still be my picks. The Blue Lagoon is relaxing and rejuvenating and wonderful. The whale and birdwatching is fantastic — I loved the puffins! I’m actually whale watching just outside of Reykjavik in my staff picks photo. And you simply can’t go to Iceland without seeing Geysir and Gullfoss.

Hopefully you’ll find all the Staff Picks helpful as we add more of them to Viator.com, as well as all the other new groups and the gorgeous new destination photos. Happy browsing!

– Kelly G

51 words, that’s my goal for this post. Photos. Lots of them. On the Viator Flickr page. Have a look. We’re adding more photos all the time. A few examples:

• Venice
• Rome
• Grand Canyon Skywalk
• Las Vegas (check out these cool pix of a Las Vegas helicopter tour)
• Sydney
• Vietnam

Go look now. Thanks.

–Scott McNeely

Why we travel

Have you noticed the latest trend in travel?

It’s been building slowly, ever since the debut of MTV’s Real World series back in 1992. It was followed by the Survivor reality television series in 2000, and quickly followed by cookie-cutter reality shows such as Temptation Island, The Amazing Race and the latest monstrosity, Pirate Master. Arrrr.

The common thread here is an “exotic” location. Temptation Island was filmed in Belize, a Central American country few Americans could have located on a map. Yet thanks to Temptation Island, all of a sudden the idea of a Belize holiday wasn’t so far fetched.

On the face of it, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a holiday in Belize.

But TV executives know a good thing (read: money maker) when they see one, and the combination of far-flung locations and people doing all sorts of stupid things was — and still is — a tempting concept. Witness the latest crop of reality shows. I’m talking about 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, Bizarre Foods, The Best Places to Find Cash and Treasure, Man vs. Wild, I Shouldn’t Be Alive, Going Tribal, Everest: Beyond the Limit, Survivorman, and one that really gets me annoyed, the television travesty known as Edge of Existence.

Let me quote for you a description from a recent episode of Edge of Existence: “Intrepid adventurer Donal MacIntyre braves the scorching heat of the Arabian Desert to live with Bedouin tribesmen. Donal is on a mission to understand why the Bedouin choose to live in such an unforgiving place when life in the towns could be much easier.”

Actually, the show is about Donal rolling around in the sand dunes, complaining of the heat, lots of shots of him stumbling and thirsty and pushing himself to the limits of physical endurance in order to show the Bedouin how ‘life in towns could be much easier.’

I guess this makes for compelling television. It certainly does not make for compelling travel. And here’s the rub: these shows are inspiring an entire generation to make bad travel decisions. When I started backpacking, travel was all about discovering new cultures, interacting with locals, becoming better people. My generation came of age using Lonely Planet. We were all about discovering ourselves, and the world, through travel.

And today’s generation of travelers? I worry their role models are what I call extrem-elers, or extreme travelers. The new trend in travel is parachuting into inhospitable locations to see if you can survive. Interacting with locals? Only if they’re head-hunting savages. Eating local foods? Only if it includes bugs, worms or other nasties. Doing good deeds and making a difference? Only if there’s a cash prize at stake.

I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses here. When I was 18, I was not a saintly do-gooding traveler. I visited Germany (for the beer), Ireland (for the beer), Amsterdam (for the — mom, are you reading this??), Morocco (because it sounded cool), London (more beer), you get the idea. We were traveling to have fun, to meet people. Along the way we had a great European adventure and learned what it meant to be “travelers”.

And that’s why we travel. To learn. To make new connections. To gain new experiences and to grow as individuals. I worry these messages are getting lost on the current generation of young travelers. I worry that, thanks to the explosion of mediocre reality-television shows, travel is becoming a mere synonym for testing your limits. For putting yourself into extreme situations. For getting sun stroke. For eating bugs.

So here’s my proposal: If you agree with me, grab the nearest teenager you can find and start a conversation about travel. My 18-year-old sister is graduating from high school next week. Her summer travel plans include Ibiza (for dance clubs), Cannes (to meet movie stars), Prada and Fendi (it’s unclear if she believes these are small European countries or not). She’s obviously not an extreme traveler. Even so, like the rest of her generation, she can probably use some sound road-tested advice about the meaning of travel in the 21st century.

–Scott McNeely

I’m not sure how this happened, but somehow, maybe because I took the Vampire Tour of San Francisco, I have become the unofficial Viator expert on all our activities that are a little new age-y, a little occult-y, the kind of thing that might show up on the X-Files. An aside here: I love and miss the X-Files. I cried during the finale. I wish I was joking. Anyway, back to my point, I’ve had extended conversations with coworkers about Stonehenge, Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and of course, Loch Ness. I’m not a believer, but I’ve leafed through a Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown book or two and let’s just say I’m open to the possibilities. I fall somewhere between Mulder and Scully on an X-Files belief scale.

It appears that it might be time to break out the “I’m a Wee Monster” hats and t-shirts and head to Loch Ness — a 55 year old Yorkshireman visiting the Loch caught what might just be the fabled monster on video last week. The video is currently undergoing analysis by biologists and technicians at the Loch Ness 2000 center in Drumnadrochit (I can’t even guess at how to say that town’s name). The only comment so far from Adrian Shine, a marine biologist and Nessie watcher, is that “I see myself as a skeptical interpreter of what happens in the loch, but I do keep an open mind about these things and there is no doubt this is some of the best footage I have seen”.

Is there or isn’t there a Loch Ness monster? And what does this mean for Scotland and Loch Ness if it’s true? Loch Ness may petition for World Heritage site status with UNESCO (for natural beauty, not the possibility of monsters, which I personally think should be a category). I can only guess at the influx of travelers wanting to get a peek at the wee monster. Zero footprint for Nessie and the loch!

Of course part of the video is now on YouTube, so take a peek at Nessie and see if you believe. Or better yet, head out to Loch Ness yourself to get a glimpse.

– Kelly G

PS - An amendment: A UK bookmaker William Hill is offering a $2 million dollar (technically 1 million GBP) reward for proof of the Loch Ness monster. The odds are a mere 250 to 1.

On the other side of the camera, on the Brooklyn Bridge

I spent last week in New York on a media tour, talking about Viator and some survey findings we’ve just released. Inevitably I got questions about our products, and in each interview I mentioned that I was planning to try the Private New York Tour with a Personal Photographer. Now, I’m always talking about the tours and activities we offer, but I’ve never had such a strong reaction as I had to this one. Everyone agreed that this tour solves a problem: you visit a great destination, take lots of shots, but there’s always someone missing from the photos… the photographer!

Marc Samuels understands this problem, and his tour is the perfect solution. Marc is a licensed New York City tour guide, a native New Yorker, and a pretty good photographer too. I took the tour on a muggy Thursday afternoon; we started late, around 5:30, and that meant sharing the subway with rush hour commuters, but Marc’s commentary and his incredible knowledge of the city kept it all moving along at a good clip. Times Square, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge and Greenwich Village all featured before I wilted under the pressure and we retired to one of Marc’s favourite restaurants for pasta and wine, and a discussion about his tour, what people want to see when they come to “the city,” and how he builds each trip itinerary on the fly rather than sticking to a set menu of locations.

Master of his domain: Marc in Times Square

It’s hard not to be infected with Marc’s love of New York. He knows the place inside out, from where to stand on the platform for a downtown-bound N Train to when you’re likely to see the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, he’s got it all covered. As you walk and ride the subway to the various locations you’ve agreed on, he keeps snapping away — he generally takes over 100 shots during a 2 hour tour — and later that day or the next morning a CD magically appears at your hotel front desk. No hassles with copyright or any of that stuff, they’re all yours.

Marc also posts your photos on a web site where you and your friends can access them online. This is a cool idea; it means you can give your fan club back home a single web link and they can look at all the shots without you having to send attachments and all that stuff that’s doubly difficult when you’re on the road.

All in all? Great value, and more take home memories than you’ll know what to do with. But don’t listen to me: by chance, one of our customers just sent in a review and somehow it came to me, and not the review page. But I’ll publish it anyway, because it’s a pretty good summary:

Marc Samuels met us in the lobby of our hotel and took us on a wonderful 4 hours walking tour of his city. He told us the history and pointed out points of interest where we could come back to during our stay. Educated us in how to use the subway which we did successfully for the 8 days, with a Metro card which he helped us purchase making travel very cheap. He also helped us find our way to Yankee Stadium and the other places we had intended to visit during our stay. This was all a bonus when you realise he was taking some of the best photos of us in New York. There were over 150 photos taken during the tour. I would recommend this tour to people who want a special memory of New York. Marc’s photography is excellent but his personal service and pride in his city is unbeatable. I would love to go back to share New York with my husband and we will certainly be booking this tour again. –Gail D, Australia

That kind of says it all…

-Rod Cuthbert

Book for travel in June and save 20% on the Private New York Tour with a Personal Photographer. For more ideas in NYC, check out Viator’s list of things to do in New York City, from Broadway shows to Manhattan helicopter tours… and everything in between.

The term “low-cost carrier” is one that we know well here in the US. Southwest pioneered the skies years ago offering short hops, quick turnarounds, no assigned seats and just peanuts. Southwest quickly gained a loyal following and now have a market cap bigger than any of the mainline airlines. But get ready, the flying landscape in the US is about to change again with the introduction of SkyBus – a self-proclaimed “ultra low-cost” carrier. Skybus launched out of Columbus, Ohio last month with a limited schedule and with fares as low as $10 one-way. How do they do it?

Well, they fly to some out of the way places: Want to go to Seattle? Then Skybus will take you to Bellingham (about 90 minutes north of Seattle, or an hour south of Vancouver, BC). How about Boston? Skybus can get you to Portsmouth, NH, 45 minutes away. These outposts cost a lot less to fly in and out of, meaning lower overhead for Skybus.

However, the biggest way to keep your costs down is to charge for EVERYTHING! Would you like to board early? That’ll be $10. Care for a pillow, something to drink or a seat assignment? Get your wallet out. If you have $500,000 to spare, you can even have the plane painted with your company name. According to the Colmbus Dispatch, Nationwide Insurance will be the first “sponsored” airplane in the fleet.

Other carriers have also used the term “ultra low-cost” as well. Spirit Airlines flies to several locations in the US as well as launching service to Costa Rica, Guatemala and soon to South America. They have some very catchy ads and offer fares for $8 by email. On a recent visit to the Spirit corporate offices, it becomes clear what ultra low cost is…their lobby is an empty room with and empty desk and a single phone with a company directory. You dial your own party to be let in. The sign states “Spirit just saved $0.10 by not having a receptionist to greet you!” Maybe with the all the money you save, you can afford to DO more when you get there.

–Ken Frohling

Another new addition to Viator’s family of London tours is a Black taxi tour of the city. Not content with just offering the new sex theme park Amora, we are always on the look out for for fun new things to do around the world, and a Black Taxi tour of London just screams out “look at me, look at me”!

London black taxis (or cabs, whatever you prefer to call them) are an institution in the city, and unlike cab drivers in many other major cities around the world (not mentioning any names… SYDNEY?!), London black cab drivers are famous for their knowledge of the streets. Yes that’s right, they actually know where they are going, shocking I know! Not only do they know the quickest way to get from any point A to any point B in London, they also know all the interesting places in between, meaning they are the perfect people to take you to point C, D and E along the way.

If you have been to London you already know this, if not, listen up. London traffic is atrocious! I’m talking hideous, horrendous, a nightmare…call it anything you like just be prepared. Many people in one city equals many cars and buses on the road, and London is one of the densest populations in the world. Hours and hours can be spent just sitting in traffic jams if you don’t know where you are going, and the best way to get there. Here’s where local knowledge comes in handy!

The black cab drivers know how to avoid, manipulate and manouvere in the heavy traffic, and do so with a smile on their face. All the while entertaining you with random stories about the city and their lives. It’s all the stuff you will never hear about in a guidebook or from a tourism office, it’s the funny, irreverent and juicy stuff!

Next time I am in London, I will definitely be booking my seat on a London Black Taxi tour. I’m sure I can rally a few friends to join me and split the cost of the cab, making it great fun tour, and affordable.

-Kerrie O’Mahony

Taking a stroll at one of London’s many parks

Editor’s Note: This is part of an ongoing series of budget-friendly things to do in London. You can also browse Viator’s budget London tours and full list of things to do in London.

Summer in London is unpredictable, from boiling one day to freezing and wet the next. But when it is warm, it’s glorious. And there’s only one thing I want to do when the sun is shining – grab my Travelcard and a picnic and get out into the parks and villages and explore London like the Londoners do.

Villages? Yes. London is actually just a series of villages that have fused into one megalopolis. And many of them have managed to resist the scourge of the High Street chain shops to retain their beauty and character. Here are some of my favourites for a cheap and great day out in London.

Hampstead and Highgate

High up in north London, these two pretty and historic areas border Hampstead Heath, 791 acres of parkland, some of it quite wild. The Heath is a great place to walk and the view of London from Parliament Hill is wonderful. There are also the natural bathing ponds if you get hot walking around, and if you’re thirsty, I suggest the beer garden at the nearby historic Spaniards Inn (Spaniards Road, Hampstead NW3, Tube: Hampstead; tel. +44 (0) 20 8731 6571), which has hosted William Blake, John Constable, Lord Byron and appeared in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Current celebrity spotting in Hampstead includes Liam Gallagher of Oasis fame.

Highgate also has one of London’s best cemeteries. Opened in 1839 it’s still interring people today. There are cheap tours led by the Friends of Highgate Cemetery and it’s great for just wandering around; quite wild and full of cats and foxes. It’s the final resting place for Karl Marx, George Eliot and, more recently, Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame.

Regent’s Park

Closer in to the centre of London is Regent’s Park. I saw my first squirrel here so it will always remain close to my heart. Great rose gardens, a lake where you can hire a rowboat, and you can walk past the London Zoo and head up into Primrose Hill, another one of the beautiful villages on a hill, today popular with the famous and well-heeled, including Gwyneth Paltrow. As always in London, once you get here, there are cafes and pubs to sit in for a refreshing ale. Or two.

Hyde Park

Hyde Park is probably the best-known London park. Once a private hunting ground for King Henry VIII, it was turned over to the public in 1637. It’s over 350 acres of green space right in the heart of London. You can wander past Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived, and visit her memorial fountain; walk alongside the Serpentine - the famous 11-hectare lake - and visit the Serpentine Gallery; or hear anyone and everyone giving their point of view at Speaker’s Corner. And keep a look out for concerts and films in the park in summer, many of which are free. Of course, no visit to Hyde Park would be right without a visit to the statue of Peter Pan, a homage to the children’s book by J.M. Barrie.

Richmond Park

Another ex-royal hunting ground is Richmond Park. And it’s still full of deer, 650 of them roaming freely around. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw them. It’s great for cycling or for walking and is a designated National Nature Reserve. Nearby is Richmond, another lovely London village on the Thames River. Although bring a picnic here because Richmond’s cafes are not for a cheap meal, but it’s leisurely pace is perfect for lolling about in the sun with a glass of cheeky rose. Sometimes there’s even cricket to watch on the village green.

Greenwich

Further down the Thames towards the sea is Greenwich, another park and village combo. I highly recommend catching a ferry here from central London. You’ll see lots of the city on the way and approaching by water seems appropriate for this former fishing village. Sadly one of Greenwich’s most popular attractions, the tea clipper The Cutty Sark, was badly damaged in a fire in late May 2007 but there is still the Maritime Museum and Greenwich Market to visit and, of course, the thrill of being where time begins and ends, for this is the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), against which all our days are measured.

Crystal Palace Park

Lesser known, but high on my list and high on the hill in South London, is Crystal Palace Park. It’s the former home of the Crystal Palace, a metal and glass exhibition hall built in 1851 for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, then moved south in 1854 (and which burnt down in a dramatic fire in 1936 — the fire was so big my father watched it from right across London in Highgate).

Table for 4 at Crystal Palace Park

But despite Crystal Palace no longer having its palace, the area has some of the best views of London, the air is clean and fresh, and it has the piece de resistance: the dinosaurs. Huge concrete dinosaurs sitting on islands in a pond. Built in 1853 for an exhibition at the palace, they are not quite anatomically correct due to the scarcity of accurate palaeontology at the time, but that’s half their charm. And their size is awesome – a dinner was held inside one of them for the launch on New Year’s Eve 1853.

The other thing I really love about Crystal Palace is the cheeselady – not her name but it’s what I call her. She has a van in Haynes Lane Market on Saturdays and sells the best cheeses from all over Britain. And her labelling makes your mouth water – it’s obvious she used to be in publishing. My recommendation is to visit her first, stock up on cheese, bread, wine then head for the dinosaurs.

So, in these summer days of blue skies and scary exchange rates, I recommend getting out of the West End and the expensive centre of London, and go see London in all its wild and green glory. Pack a hamper and roam. That’s what I do.

–Philippa Burne

Planning a trip? Browse Viator’s things to do in London, from black taxi city tours to London shows & musicals to day trips to Stonehenge, Bath and beyond. For more information on London’s farmers markets visit www.lfm.org.uk.

Jenny, working hard & loving it

When you think about the great jobs of the world, a few spring to mind. Travel journalist, roller-coaster tester, even candy taster – but I think my job is right up there with the best of them.

What I do is try out the tours and activities we sell on the Viator.com website. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all fun and games. There are contracts that need signing, hundreds of e-mails arriving in my inbox daily, flight delays in getting to your destination and lost luggage to contend with… arriving in Puerto Rico at 2am with no luggage, after a 36-hour journey, was no fun at all. But like the professional I try to be, I was on a walking tour of San Juan the next day in the same clothes! (Editor’s note: Jenny, did you at least take a shower first?)

What’s the most fun I’ve had? That’s a tough one to answer. Honestly, I have loved pretty much every tour I’ve done, along with the opportunity to visit new places and learn about different cultures. I’ve also met some pretty cool people along the way (both the locals and the operators of our tours).

Now I’m living in Las Vegas (for work), I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of the local activities: the Skywalk at the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas shows (The Rat Pack is Back and Spamalot are my two favourites), Horseriding, the Lake Las Vegas Serenity Tour and more. And of course, a good place to have a meeting is at a local nightclub! Only in Vegas…

Rafting on the Martha Brae

But aside from the ‘local’ tours, in the past 2 years I have been to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Aruba and more. I have been swimming with dolphins in both Key Largo and Jamaica, climbed Dunns River Falls (would be just like the movie Cocktail, but unfortunately I was alone at the time), and rafted down the Martha Brae River. I did Sub Bikes and the Powerboat Adventure in Nassau (LOVED feeding the iguanas), and discovered the seedy side of Hollywood on the Dearly Departed Tour (this one was especially cool given my obsession with Errol Flynn). Theme Parks are a must, of course: Disneyland, Disneyworld and Universal Studios (both coasts). The list goes on, and I can only hope will continue to!

I’m always looking for new and different experiences that we can bring to you, our loyal travelers, so that you can try these adventures for yourself. Honestly, it’s not the plane flight, or the hotel you remember from your vacation (unless they’re unbelievably good or bad), it’s what you do on your vacation that sticks in your mind. And it’s my job to ensure that you have the most unique, most fun and most memorable time ever!

–Jenny Crossling

Editor’s Note: We are nominating Jenny as Viator’s “Traveler of the Week” for taking her job seriously enough to have fun doing it!