Travel News Round-Up: NY Times, SF Chronicle, Guardian, Sydney Herald, more…
What is the travel world buzzing about this week?
Try as I might, I can’t find a unifying theme for the New York Times Travel section this week. Maybe it’s post-holiday fatigue. Or maybe our favorite newspaper travel editors are more clever than I realize. (If you see a theme or unifying feature, let me know.) Top of the Times is Kabul, Afghanistan, purely for the armchair traveler. Next up is Shanghai (China). On the world stage Shanghai is a major actor in politics, economics and now travel. Is it possible, could it be - is Shanghai the new Prague? Rounding out the Times’ travel coverage are good articles on Cancun (Mexico) and Athens (Greece).
The San Francisco Chronicle Travel section has a pleasantly provocative story on Las Vegas and its multiple opportunities for excess — if you can afford a penthouse suite. They have video of the ‘5 most outrageous suites’ in Las Vegas that makes me wish I could afford $2,500 a night on accommodation. More down to earth is Rick Steve’s guide to hiking the pilgrim’s trail to Santiago de Compostela (Spain). I’m also excited to see that a Mavericks ‘Big Wave’ alert has been released. This means that anytime between now and March 31 the insane, big-wave surfing contest that is Mavericks can be held on 24-hour notice. We’ll keep you posted.
In the UK the Guardian travel section is featuring 20 Hotels in Paris for less than £100. This couldn’t come at a better time - by coincidence I’ve had two travel colleagues ask me recently about low-cost yet stylish places to stay in Paris and I was flummoxed. But no more. (On a related note, we’ve seen a big jump in bookings for Paris tours this month on Viator.com, so make your hotel bookings early, it looks to be busier than normal this coming spring). The Guardian also has a stack of travel tips for Berlin, which has got to be one of the best weekend getaways in all of Europe. You haven’t been to Berlin recently? Please stop reading this blog and go book your tickets to Berlin immediately.
The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne’s The Age drop the bomb on UK backpackers in Australia. Apparently the Brits drink twice as much when traveling in Australia then they do back home. Which is a scary thing, because I’ve seen how prodigiously they can drink back in jolly ol’ England. The Down Under perspective this week also includes features on Belgium and New Zealand.
The global news round-up finishes this week in Turkey, where the Turkish Daily News has a fascinating article on how Turkey has evolved its modern identity since it became a nation in the 1920s. The article puts a spotlight on the SS Karadeniz, which set sail from Istanbul in 1926 and visited 16 cities in 12 countries, all to show the world how modern Turkey had become. Fast-forward 90 years, and maybe Turkey needs a repeat voyage to show Europe that Turkey is modern enough for the EU. But we’ll leave that hot-potato debate for another day.
PS: Somehow I’ve been reading the Sydney Morning Herald online for the past few months and have not come across its travel blog. Here’s a link to it, it’s got some good info on it. We’ll start including it in future travel news round-ups.
Get articles like this one delivered to your favorite RSS feed reader. Subscribe to Viator Travel Blog now.