***Copyrighted Material: The images below are copyrighted against unauthorized use. We were granted special permission to feature them in this Matador photo essay. Please visit the photographer links for licensing conditions for each photo.***

1. Uluru, Australia
The massive rock — a.k.a. Ayers Rock — is climbed by 250 every day, despite pleas from local indigenous groups to refrain from doing so.
Photo: Chris Harrison

2. Diving with whale sharks
The whale shark is the world’s largest fish species and can grow to be longer than 40 feet. This shot was taken off Christmas Island, Australia, in January 2005.
Photo: Rob Hughes

3. Cotopaxi, Ecuador
This volcano just south of Quito reaches an elevation of 5,897m (19,347ft) — often higher than the clouds.
Photo: david_rombaut

4. Redwood country, California
Taken in Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, this picture shows me (in red) straining my neck next to the Stout Tree.
Photo: Aya Padron

5. Sea Kayaking, solo
Big water, small boat. Shot taken walking the Southwest Coast Path from Land’s End to Plymouth, England.
Photo: nixwilliams

6. Great Ocean Road, Australia
The coast along one of the world’s most spectacular roads is also good for a walk.
Photo: Andrew Ferrier

7. Ponoras Cave, Romania
Things can get large underground too. Here, spelunkers from CSA explore “Mammoth Hall” in Romania’s Transylvania region. The light trail was produced by a fast-moving caver with a headlamp.
Photo: Bela Nagy

8. Snowfields, Rocky Mountains
This is no photoshop. It’s Matador senior editor David Miller getting in some late-season turns in Rocky Mountain National Park. Read about it in The Dharma Shack Chronicles.
Photo: David Miller

9. Desert, southern Peru
Sand accumulates into massive dunes in one of the driest deserts on Earth. Notice the city of Ica, Peru, in the distance — also dwarfed.
Photo: guilherme cecílio

10. Camping under the stars
So many stars. And camping the best way to let them overwhelm you. This shot was taken near Maupin, Oregon.
Photo: Ben Canales

11. Mount Bromo, Indonesia
This very active Javanese volcano attracts lots of tiny visitors up to its steaming rim.
Photo: Jiang

12. Yosemite National Park, California
That’s me again, this time feeling very small (and a little dizzy) at the top of Half Dome. Notice the gloves — not a fashion statement, but what you use to pull yourself up the cables on the final ascent.
Photo: Aya Padron

13. Antarctica
Travelers to Antarctica report losing all sense of distance — the geographic scale is so immense and the ice fields so flat and white. This is Lake Fryxell.
Photo: Nicolas Arthur Salava

14. Preikestolen, Norway
This rock has a great view of Lysefjorden and is a good place to get close to the edge.
Photo: Sonya Kanelstrand

15. Mont Blanc, France
Europe’s tallest mountain tops out at 4,810m (15,782ft) and sits in one of The 6 Best Starter Ranges for Mountaineering.
Photo: Sarah Brigden

16. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
This salt plain is the world’s largest and traps rainwater during wet winter months, creating a tripped-out sky mirror. Find out how to get there.
Photo: Carlos Díaz

17. On a cliff ascent
This one happens to be the curved limestone face of Malham Cove, North Yorkshire, England.
Photo: Dubris

18. Iguazu Falls, Brazil
The majority of the falls lies in Argentina, but according to the photographer, “the great thing about the Brazilian side of Iguazu is that there are no limits on taking pictures at any time of day….(unlike the Argentinian side).”
Photo: SF Brit

Community Connection

Where have you felt most dwarfed by nature? Share your story (and a link to a photo if you have one) in the comments.

Photo: greg westfall.

THE PEAK FOR ME came around day 22.

We were on the road again after a week of structured living in San Francisco. We’d made our original destination but were still going. There were no plans for when to stop, when to turn around. The state highways of northern California are bordered by old-growth redwoods so tall we had to throw open the moon roof to see where they ended.

For a few days there, it was freedom — the trip had hit that space between destinations, between itineraries, when it feels like it could keep on forever, just a car and a tent and a road.

But that never lasts.

Seattle became the end point, August 14 the home date, and from there all that was left was to trace a route home and fill it with as much Western landscape as we could. Mt. Rainier National Park, eastern Washington wine country, the forested Idaho panhandle, Yellowstone and the Tetons, a tire shop in Laramie, WY (our first and only maintenance stop), friends in Denver and Breckenridge, down into the mountains of northern New Mexico, and a retrace back to Austin to complete the 7,100-mile trip.

So — season finale — here’s my takeaway for any of you who happen to pass this way:

Photo: grenade

Good Camping

Clearwater National Forest, Idaho

Highway 12 is gorgeous from Kooskia east the 60+ miles into Montana, mirroring the Lochsa River as it does for most of the ride. We stayed at Wilderness Gateway campground — the forest’s largest — but there are others along 12 and elsewhere. $8 per site, flush toilet facilities available.

Yellowstone Vacation Campground, Corwin Springs, MT

There was nothing pretty about this RV pullout. What made is special for us was that it was the only thing near Gardiner with space available. And we snagged the last tent spot ($20+tax). If you’re stupid like us and show up to Gardiner in peak season w/o reservations, head north on Highway 89 seven miles to Corwin Springs. And don’t blink.

Cooper’s El Vado Ranch, Tierra Amarilla, NM

Cooper’s is off the trail a bit, used mostly by fishermen and paddlers putting in on the Rio Chama (why we were there — my parents launched their cata-raft the next day).

Turn off Highway 84 onto the skinny 112 and follow it for about 10 miles till you see the El Vado Reservoir dam. Cooper’s is on your left. Tent camping ($10) is at the end of the road on a little spit of land surrounded on two sides by river and covered with tall trees. Unfortunately, bathrooms and drinking water are back at the entrance, and no-fire signs are posted (though not heeded).

Photo: GeordieMac Pics

Good Coffeeshops

Northtown Coffeehouse, Yakima, WA

Two levels of seating in a historic downtown storefront on First Street. The only menu item I can speak to is the iced coffee — delicious.

Break Espresso, Missoula, MT

Wow, can’t believe this place doesn’t have it’s own website! Don’t let that turn you away.

Break Espresso is the size of a warehouse and clearly benefits from the college town vibe — vegan pastries are a thing of beauty when done well. We only stopped in for breakfast but would’ve loved to have stayed all day on the laptops.

Kathy’s Koffee, Dubois, WY

The decor is wicked military-heavy, but, you know, it’s Wyoming.

Bean Cycle, Ft. Collins, CO

One of our favorites of the whole trip. Vegan food options, bicycle-part art on the walls, and they share the space with the Matter Bookstore (which, in turn, is run by the nonprofit Wolverine Farm Publishing — check ‘em out!).

Good Miscellany

Horse Heaven Hills Brewery, Prosser, WA

The building is small, hidden behind an Auto Zone, and the opaque shades on its windows make it a gentlemen’s club suspect from the outside, but what’s going on in is all good.

Our bartendress was wearing a kilt and broadsword (she’d just returned from a clan festival or something), and they’ve got signs declaring “Live long in Prosser.” The IPA was memorable.

Photo: gregw66

Boiling River, north Yellowstone

This is hardly an “insider’s secret” (it’s gotten so popular that the park’s had to throw up several signs warning people to stay on the path), but it felt like one at 8AM.

The place where the steaming waters of the Boiling River exit the earth and meet with the larger, frigid Gardiner River is a popular spot to strip down and jump in.

It’s a weird sensation, with alternating jets of freezing and boiling hitting you from upstream. A great way to start the day in Yellowstone, though.

The unmarked turnoff is 2+ miles south of Gardiner on Highway 89 (just before the MT-WY border). From the parking lot, it’s a half-mile walk to the pools.

Community Connection

Are you going to any of the places I visited on this trip (see #1, #2, and #3 for the full route)? Hit me up with questions about anything I didn’t cover: hal[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.

Photo: kevindooley

BACK IN 2008, Brave New Traveler editor Ian MacKenzie went on a Matador road trip of his own, driving down from Vancouver to “headquarters” in San Francisco.

Despite the reason for our trip (my wife’s cousin’s wedding in SF) having come and gone, we decided to take a page from the Matador annals and follow Ian’s route in reverse. We didn’t make it across the border, but we saw and learned a lot about the forests, vineyards, and vegan leanings of the Pacific Northwest.

Here’s the takeaway:

Wine Country

We got a taste for wine — and particularly wine tastings — in Mendoza, Argentina, last year. So Napa made its way onto the itinerary.

I won’t pretend to know which of the 400+ of the valley’s wineries are worth a go. But I’ve got a great tip for budgeters: Skyline Wilderness Park.

Photo: *~Dawn~*

At $15/night for tent sites, this has gotta be the cheapest place to sleep in the town of Napa. It’s only a mile off the main road (Highway 221), southeast of town, but it’s beyond the suburban sprawl.

There’s access to miles of hiking/running trails, and the Mexican grocery and taqueria nearby on Imola Ave. are great keep-it-real alternatives to the 5-star restaurants downtown.

Another sweet resource is the Oxbow Public Market on First St. It has an upscale food court vibe, with lots of local produce and wine. Easy to get a meal there for cheap. Plus they have wifi.

Mendocino

Of course, there’s more to California wine than Napa. We missed the main wine road in Mendocino (Anderson Valley, Highway 128), but I have to include here the one we did hit: Pacific Star Winery.

Right on the coast, a mellow host, and more reasonable tasting fees than in the valley. There’s also a geologic fault running through the property (the Pacific Star Fault).

Redwood Country

Several months ago, Matador co-founder Ross Borden encouraged me to research and write Guide to the Redwood Groves: Where to Find the Tallest Trees on Earth. That led me to read The Wild Trees, and ever since I’ve had big trees on the brain.

Photo: Author

Using my piece, and the excellent RedwoodHikes.com, I put together a route to visit the best-preserved parks and hike the most-recommended trails.

Of those, here are the two I liked best:

Homestead/Big Tree loop, Humboldt Redwoods SP

This is in Humboldt’s Bull Creek area, which is far from the traffic noise of 101 and the Avenue of the Giants. The relative isolation made this one stand out.

Plus I got to see the Tall Tree — at 363 feet, it’s one of the tallest whose location isn’t a carefully guarded secret.

Find more info on the hike here.

Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP

This is just a half-mile loop trail, easily accessible from a parking lot, but the grove was my favorite. Something about the flood-basin soil prevents other trees from growing, so it’s just ferns, redwood sorrel, and some of the widest redwoods in the world.

It was busy when we were there, but within the loop trail are dozens of duff-covered paths, partially obscured, that run through the sorrel. These offered a chance for quieter reflection among the titans.

Find more info on the grove here.

Campgrounds I Liked

Photo: Ben B Miller

Apart from Skyline Wilderness Park mentioned above, there weren’t many standouts. The best of our lot in redwood country was the Richardson Grove RV Park.

If you can get past the spinning cross on their website, tent sites are $22 (good value for the area), and the bathrooms smell like Christmas.

I could see the church pavilion in the center of camp getting a bit rambunctious on Sunday mornings.

Quality Coffeeshops

We racked up plenty more coffeehouse visits on this leg of the journey. It might not be the most “authentic” method for getting to know a place, but the modern freelance travel writer has few options.

Mishka’s Cafe, Davis, CA – Good use of seating space, tons of outlets, all organic. Just don’t sit with your laptop at the front 6 tables — they’re reserved for “traditional” coffeehouse use.

Napa Valley Coffee Roasting, St. Helena, CA – St. Helena is chiller than Napa in all respects. This was a nice place to work.

Photo: Christian González Verón

Di Lusso, Bend, OR – Lots of space and light in this downtown joint. According to the barista, their sandwiches are “rowdy.”

Three Friends Coffeehouse, Portland, OR – We couldn’t go wrong for coffee during our two days in PDX. But this was our favorite.

Victrola Coffee, Seattle, WA – Gourmet beans and a modern, concrete-and-glass aesthetic that fits well downtown. I had trouble with their wifi, though.

Miscellaneous Mention

As aspiring vegans, we were obscenely excited by Portland’s Voodoo Doughnuts. It’s worth the wait in line. Thanks to Lauren Quinn for the tip.

Community Connection

Have a great roadtrip story you’d like to tell? Share it in the comments!

Photo: symmetry_mind

EARLIER THIS YEAR, RoughGuides.com published a chart showing how many travel days $1,000USD will get you in different countries. (I came across the chart via our friends at TheExpeditioner.com.)

Topping the list of 18 nations is India, with 1K buying 71 days of travel. At the other end are several European countries, followed by Japan, most expensive on the chart with only 15 days for the $1,000 budget.

What kind of travel are we talking about? RG offers three criteria:

1. hostel dorms for accommodation
2. meals of street food
3. 60% of travel time spent outside major cities

So we’re talking backpacking, which I guess traditionally is the cheapest way to travel. But there are plenty of ways to cut costs even below these levels. What about couchsurfing? Wwoofing? Volunteering or working for room and board?

In fact, as Tim Patterson has shown, it’s entirely feasible to travel the world for free.

And you? How do you deal with budgets on the road? Do countries’ costs of living play a part in where you decide to travel? Share your perspective in the comments.

Community Connection

Get more ideas for stretching your travel days on our Budget Travel focus page.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, be sure to check out volume 1 of this photo essay for more.

1. Vasco da Gama Bridge, Portugal
The longest bridge in Europe spans the Tagus River just outside of Lisbon.
Photo: F H Mira

2. Ponte Vecchio, Italy
This medieval bridge in Florence shows how it was once common to combine commerce with river crossings.
Photo: rayced

3. Gateshead Millennium Bridge, England
When boats need to pass under this pedestrian bridge in Newcastle upon Tyne, it tilts up to let them through.
Photo: ahisgett

4. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, USA
Boston’s Big Dig construction fest yielded this structure on Interstate 93 downtown. Pictured is one of the bridge’s two pylons, viewed from below.
Photo: David Salafia

5. Rio–Antirrio Bridge, Greece
This one crosses the Gulf of Corinth and is the “world’s longest multi-span cable-stayed bridge.”
Photo: stefg74

6. Chengyang Bridge, China
A 1916 covered bridge in the Dong Minority Region of Guangxi Province, it’s popularly known as the Wind-Rain Bridge.
Photo: Domminikki

7. Confederation Bridge, Canada
Linking the Maritime provinces of Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, the Confederation Bridge is 8 miles long and cost C$1.3 billion to build in the ’90s.
Photo: tuergeist

8. Penang Bridge, Malaysia
At 8.4 miles, this is the longest bridge in Southeast Asia. Construction is underway on a twin crossing just next to it over Malaysia’s South Channel.
Photo: Photoholic2009

9. Stari Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The “old bridge” in the city of Mostar is actually a recent reconstruction of the 427-year-old original, which was destroyed in the Balkan conflict of the early ’90s.
Photo: faceymcface1

10. Tsing Ma Bridge, China
The Tsing Ma connects two of Hong Kong’s islands and is an important piece in the expressway that runs from Lantau to the international airport.
Photo: FHKE

11. San Diego-Coronado Bridge, USA
This 2.1-mile bridge arcs over San Diego Bay and connects the two cities that give it its name.
Photo: Lee Sie

12. Hangzhou Bay Bridge, China
Currently holds the record for longest cross-sea bridge in the world, with a total length of 22 miles.
Photo: Mr ▪ Y

13. Pont du Gard, France
An old Roman aqueduct bridge built in the first century A.D. and now a much-visited UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Photo: zak mc

14. Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, Japan
This one takes the title for having “the longest central span of any suspension bridge, at 1,991m (6,532ft).”
Photo: roybuloy

15. Kapellbrücke, Switzerland
Lucerne’s wooden covered bridge is the oldest in Europe, built for defense purposes in 1333.
Photo: bigbirdz

16. Brooklyn Bridge, USA
Stretching for 6,000ft over New York City’s East River, this was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1883.
Photo: Cyril Abad

17. Öresund Bridge, Denmark/Sweden
Copenhagen and Malmö are connected by this 5-mile bridge over the Öresund Strait.
Photo: supermaskinen

18. Teak Bridge, Myanmar
Not far outside the Burmese city of Mandalay, in the town of Amarapura, this is the world’s longest bridge constructed from teak.
Photo: Nick Kuchmak

Community Connection

Pic #17 is an example of HDR photography. What do you think of the technique — Stuff of Dreams or Satan’s Spawn?

Photo: SF Brit

I COVERED A LOT of ground during the first leg of this trip — Austin to San Francisco takes in tremendous diversity of the American landscape.

This week+ was a total gear shift. The reason my wife and I struck out in the first place was to attend the wedding of her cousin in SF. It went down July 17 at the swanky City Club, which features a stairwell Rivera fresco. It’s the first he created in the U.S. and depicts the people, history, and industry of California. Beautiful.

Before and after was tourist time, exploring the Bay Area with family. Nothing really “off the beaten” enough to report here. My general impressions: heat in the valley / fog on the bay, jackets in July, 20% grades, homelessness, a dude smoking a joint on City Hall lawn. And these 2 lessons:

1. Muir Woods is only 45 minutes from downtown, but the psychic distance is immense. This is a real city escape. The boardwalk paths are busy, but get there early and hike up the longer hill trails and you’re alone with thousand-year-old trees. The English-pub-style restaurant at Pelican Inn, in Muir Beach, kept the mellow mood going for us.

Photo: briandrum

2. Rain isn’t the only way to get soaked. We camped at the Pan Toll area of Mt. Tam State Park. A fog bank rolled up the headland during the night, got caught in the big trees, condensed, and fell as a light but continuous “rain.” The tent was soaked by morning, while the ground away from tree cover was still dusty dry.

Local Travel Secrets

Meeting Matador co-founder Ross Borden for tacos in the Mission was a trip. But our last-night dinner with five Matador contributors/staff was even better. Shaking hands with someone you’ve previously only known through blog comment fields is just wild.

Also, it gave me the chance to source some insider travel tips from locals who know what they’re talking about:

My one tip for a trip to the Bay Area is to visit the East Bay…in particular, Berkeley and Oakland! Both are overshadowed pretty heavily by San Francisco, but they’re just as vibrant without the hordes of tourists. You can eat your way through the history of California cuisine in Berkeley’s Goumet Ghetto (home to Alice Water’s Chez Panisse), hang out with hippies and vagabonds on Telegraph Avenue, soak up the art scene in downtown Oakland’s galleries and hipster cafes (check out the Art Murmur street fair every first Friday!), and hike amongst the redwoods in our multitude of regional parks.

– Naomi

Photo: rick

My advice would be to stay away from some of the usual tourist traps like Fishermans Wharf and the cable cars and explore the city’s eclectic neighborhoods, like the Mission, Noe Valley, North Beach, Hayes Valley, the Sunset and the Richmond. Even though I grew up in the area, I’m still discovering new corners of the city and continue to be amazed by how diverse it is.

- Valerie Ng

The best times to visit are mid-spring and late summer to early fall. If you must visit in the midst of the summer fog, bring layers and be prepared for chilly mornings and nights and unexpected temperatures in general.

The city has a great food culture, but if you’re on a budget, you may not have access to the good stuff if you stick to downtown or the tourist areas that surround it. For delicious eats that are kinder to your wallet, head over to places like the Mission District or Clement Street in the Richmond District.

- Ekua Impraim

If you’re interested in checking out Chinatown, head over to the one in Oakland. Larger than San Francisco’s, it offers a bigger variety of shopping and eating options and is less of a tourist trap than it’s cousin across the bridge.

- Juliane Huang, on Matador here

For the next installment, I’m gathering info on wines and redwoods. Stay tuned.

Community Connection

Visit the blog links of the folks above to find out more on the area. Or connect with other Matador members based in SF.

Pamukkale, Turkey / Photo: Vandelizer

ONE OF THE THEMES we seem to return to often here at Trips is the total bizarreness (and beauty) of Planet Earth. And it’s not only the editors that find the topic fascinating — these posts are consistently among the most popular on the site.

Last year, Photo Essay: The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth snagged a half million pageviews with its images of Bolivian salt flats, peculiar Socotran vegetation, and weird geologic features from around the world.

Contributor Ross Lee Tabak followed this up with 8 More Strange Places on Planet Earth, introducing little-discussed geographic oddities like Antarctica’s Pole of Inaccessibility and Turkmenistan’s “Door to Hell.”

We learned about the rainbow of sand colors in Photo Essay: 7 Beautifully Bizarre Beaches, and places so inherently dangerous that I had to ask, Would You Live Here?

And the list goes on. If you’re not already familiar with Trips photo essay titles like 18 Natural Wonders of the USA and Iceland’s Fire and Ice, I encourage you to visit Matador’s photo essay focus page for a more comprehensive listing.

Photo: Matthew Fry

Still more

With the growing number of travel writers and photographers out there, and the technological ease with which they can share their explorations of place, I sometimes assume there are no “amazing” destinations I haven’t heard of. That assumption is incorrect.

Just the other day, I came across a post from Aquiziam.com called Ten Strange Places. Yeah, I’d heard of a few of these bizarre natural wonders (mostly in research for the pieces linked above), but several were new to me:

• The terraced, milk-white mineral pools of Pamukkale, Turkey
• New Zealand’s “Moeraki Boulders,” the soccer-ball-esque spherical stones that cover Koekohe Beach on the South Island
• The 16km caldera of Las Cañadas, which is the cap of the volcano that created Tenerife and the rest Spain’s Canary Islands

For more of this list, check out the original post.

What’s the most bizarre place you’ve ever visited? Tell us in the comments.

Community Connection

What you consider “strange” can depend on your state of mind. Explore that idea in Peyote Perception: Searching For Truth In The Mexican Desert.

Photo: Sideshow Bruce

TRAIN TRAVEL means two things to me:

• either 1. bumming across Europe on a Eurail, riding third class, sleeping bag rolled out on the floor for the overnights, deciphering those faded yellow schedule charts at each station, 23:48 Ventimiglia -> 06:11 Port Bou.
•  or 2. “historic” tracks, often narrow gauge, repackaged for a “tourist experience,” like La Trochita — I rode from Esquel to Nahuelpan and back — with wood-burning stove, Mapuche guitarist, and mate.

Both are novel to me, probably because trains just aren’t done in modern America. I might even make a special trip to ride a good one. Below are some that would be in the running.

U.S. trains

BootsnAll threw out 7 Best American Train Trips under $100 last fall. Here’s what they came up with:

Silverton-Durango line / Photo: shellorz

1. Grand Canyon Railway – Runs from Williams, AZ, to a station at the canyon’s South Rim.
2. Alaska Glacier Discovery Train – I’ve never ridden this Anchorage-to-Whittier train, but I have spent time on the Kenai Peninsula and in the Chugach National Forest. Would be cool to see the glaciated landscape through a train window.
3. Great Smoky Mountain Railroad – I’m starting to love the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Might have to check out this train, which leaves from Bryson City, next time I’m town. Bonus that the depot is across the street from the new Nantahala Brewing.
4. Skunk Train – Built to haul downed redwoods, this re-purposed line runs from Fort Bragg on the California coast through Jackson State Forest to Northspur. Could be a nice counterpoint to the Avenue of the Giants.
5. Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited – This one’s more practical than the rest, its route connecting Chicago with NYC and Boston along the shores of the Great Lakes.
6. Silverton-Durango Narrow Gauge – I’ve actually been on this one. Originally a mining train, it now transports tourists and hikers/climbers through the mountains of southwest Colorado.
7. Arkansas & Missouri Railroad – The A&M hauls both passengers and freight, one of the last lines in the U.S. to do so. It runs from Fort Smith, AR, north to Monett, MO.

Photo: Philandthehounds {A Grandad again}

Trains abroad

The list below of The world’s greatest train trips is courtesy of The Guardian. Compare it to ours from back in 2008: The 10 Most Spectacular Train Journeys in the World.

1. Trans Siberian – A classic that I’m sure most people are familiar with. For more info, check out Carlo’s excellent pieces Why You Should Travel Independently on the Trans Siberian Railway and Trans Siberian Sidetrips: How to Break Your Train Ride.
2. Caledonian Sleeper – This overnighter connects London with Fort William, in the Scottish Highlands.
3. Venice-Simplon Orient Express – This one heads out of London in the opposite direction and keeps on truckin’ till it hits Venice. A one-way ticket will set you back £1,595.
4. Bernina Express – Its complexly engineered path through the Swiss Alps and into Italy makes it “one of the slowest expresses in Europe.” I’m guessing the views make up for it.
5. Nakorn Ping Express – For those headed from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai, this is a cheaper option than the luxury Eastern & Oriental Express. And its windows look out on the same rainforest and mountains.

Cutting edge

Despite all the narrow-gauge throwbacks listed above, technology is moving in the other way too.

Aboard the Maglev / Photo: tallkev

Japan’s bullet trains are old news. In 2006, I rode the Maglev train that connects Shanghai to its main airport.

Magnetic force keeps it hovering just above the track, and at that time (and probably still) it was the fastest passenger train in the world, hitting 431km/h (268mph) at its upper limit. The 30km journey took a little over 7 minutes.

The latest news in train travel involves talks between the British and Chinese governments over the construction of a high-speed line to link London and Beijing. According to one recent article, the 5,000 miles would be traversed in two days. No, still not as fast as air travel…but we’re getting there.

Community Connection

Before you go, read up on 6 Tips For Pain-Free Train Travel.

STAY TUNED TO TRIPS in the coming weeks for the second volume of this photo essay concept.

1. Millau Bridge, France
From the photographer: “The new Millau Bridge is considered to be the world’s tallest. One of the pillars reaches more than eleven-hundred feet into the air, making it more than 50 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower.”
Photo: tibchris

2. Puente Nuevo, Spain
Three impressive bridges span the gorge that cuts through the southern Spanish town of Ronda. The “new bridge” is the most dramatic.
Photo: papalars

3. Runyang Bridge, China
Part of the Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, crossing the Yangtze River. Fourth-longest span in the world.
Photo: sjiong

4. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, USA
At just under 24 miles, this one goes deep into water world.
Photo: Joe Shlabotnik

5. Tower Bridge, England
The Tower Bridge, just one of 214 connectors to be built across the River Thames, is the most photographed landmark in the most photographed city in the world.
Photo: Trodel

6. Kawazu Loop Bridge, Japan
A bridge in a Japanese mountain valley with spiraled entry and exit ramps.
Photo: TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋)

7. Incheon Bridge, South Korea
Providing new road access to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport, the bridge is both long (13 miles) and tall (756 feet). It’s shown here before its October 2009 completion.
Photo: Ryan Wick

8. Khaju Bridge, Iran
The Khaju Bridge, made up of 23 stout arches, was built in 1650 and connects two quarters of the old dynastic capital of Isfahan.
Photo: jeffmcneill

9. Donghai Bridge, China
For two years after its completion in late 2005, the Donghai Bridge was the longest cross-sea bridge in the world.
Photo: Wikipedia

10. Puente de la Mujer, Argentina
The condo-ified Buenos Aires port barrio of Puerto Madero is home to this artistic pedestrian bridge.
Photo: Jorge Lascar

11. Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia
A good place to watch Sydney’s New Year’s fireworks display, with the harbour bridge as its focal point, is from Cockatoo Island.
Photo: coquetboy

12. Forth Railway Bridge, Scotland
Dating to 1890, the first British bridge to be constructed of steel, and still the second-longest cantilever bridge in the world.
Photo: Brian Forbes

13. Rialto Bridge, Italy
The oldest and most famous bridge across the Grand Canal in Venice.
Photo: llamnudds

14. Bosphorus Bridge, Turkey
This bridge spans the Bosphorus Strait, connecting Asia and Europe in Istanbul.
Photo: Tambako the Jaguar

15. Erasmus Bridge, Netherlands
Pictured above is the large main pylon of “The Swan” bridge in Rotterdam.
Photo: on1stsite .

16. Kintai Bridge, Japan
A 5-arch wooden bridge, built in 1673 below the mountaintop Iwakuni Castle.
Photo: Kyle T. Ramirez

17. Golden Gate Bridge, USA
Tilt-shift of the iconic Golden Gate in San Francisco.
Photo: TenSafeFrogs

Community Connection

Do any of the photos above qualify as a travel photography cliche? Share your opinion in the comments.

Photo: Alaskan Dude

I’m driving into the sun.

Orange light streams onto the straight, flat, black-tar ribbon rolled out in front of me. I’ve got my $5 clip-on shades engaged and the visor down, but I’m blinded to the point that I can’t tell whether the dark mass uplifting the horizon 10-11 o’clock is another butte or the front end of the next thunderstorm blowing in from the southwest.

This is what I came for. The tightness in my stomach as I look side to side at unbroken plain, the grays and dull reds of earth flickering beneath the muted turquoise of desert sage. This is roadtrip.

Leg #1 took me from home and the hot Texas Hill Country, to the mesas and Apache and Navajo reservations of New Mexico, to Monument Valley, Glen Canyon, and Utah’s Zion NP, across Nevada wasteland, into the mountains and giant conifer forests of California, all the way to the Bay.

I camped on the way, discovered wifi-ed coffeeshops where I thought there’d be none, hiked where I could, and gathered a couple pieces of local travel advice. Here’s what I learned:

Photo: Author

Campgrounds I Liked

Bottomless Lakes State Park, Roswell, NM

Just 15 miles outside of town, but completely hidden in a dip in the landscape. Tent sites are $10. Not much hiking, but the chain of little sinkhole lakes and the park’s “secret-feeling” location beneath the southern New Mexico plain are novel.

Riana Campground, Abiquiu Lake, NM

This is a private joint used mainly by boaters/fishers, but its spot on a bluff overlooking the reservoir and surrounded by buttes and cliffs is very cool.

Caveats: July and August are “monsoon season,” according to the camp host. Make sure your tent fly is sealed. Also, the campground has a strict no-alcohol policy.

Snow Canyon State Park, St. George, UT

Sprawl is butting in from the south and east, but I definitely felt “away” once I got in here. Summer afternoons bake, so it’s good that the dozen or so tent sites ($16) have some shade. Several trails run across the sand dunes and volcanic pumice fields of a very “geologic” landscape.

Photo: xJasonRogersx

Quality Coffeeshops

As a freelancer, I’m only free to travel if there’s wifi. With motels out and camping in, the hunt for coffeeshops with a reliable connection and enough atmosphere to justify a few hours’ stop becomes a daily routine. Here’s what I found:

Baker Street Coffee House, San Angelo, TX – Don’t let the strip-mall location turn you away. Good sandwiches, coffee, and wifi here.

Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Santa Fe, NM – Looks a lot like a Borders cafe, but this place is local. Nice folks working the counter. Finding parking can be a pain.

Andrea Kristina’s Bookstore and Kafe, Farmington, NM – This is really the only place I’d want to stop in Farmington. Gets busy at lunch. Menu is decent.

Oscar’s Cafe, Springdale, UT – Right outside of Zion, this is a restaurant, not a coffeeshop. But they don’t mind you hanging out, sipping local brews and getting some work done. Just remember to be considerate and pack it up during peak meal times.

Stellar Brew, Mammoth Lakes, CA – One of probably many places in town, this is where I happened to land. They open at 5:30am(!). Coffee is supercharged and the music grooves.

Photo: Paraflyer

Local Travel Secrets

Glen Canyon, Page, AZ

After seeing my itinerary, a reader named Audrey commented on my personal blog, WayWorded:

…if you happen to drive thru Page, AZ I recommend to cliff jump at “the chains” and order a “rainbow” at RD’s Drive Thru! Have Fun!

I was actually in Page when I saw the comment, and went to follow up on her tip the next day. “Chains” is a park area accessed off Highway 89 just east of the Glen Canyon Dam.

Despite it being a hot as hell Saturday noon, only a few locals were enjoying the water. There are cliffs from 5 to around 30 feet, just a five-minute walk from the parking area. Confirm the safety of the higher ones with someone in the know, as water levels fluctuate. Watch out for boats.

Gas station gourmet, Lee Vining, CA

Meeting up with Trips intern Sarah Park was a bonus on this leg of the trip. She mandates a stop at the Mobil Mart at the eastern terminus of Tioga Pass Rd., where it hits 395. It’s no ordinary gas station restaurant:

Photo: wilbanks

So, maybe it’s true that the Mobil Mart’s Whoa Nellie Deli exists in a gaping culinary black hole. I could pull up to a gas station, buy a corndog and probably be pretty excited about the experience considering how sparse the options are for real, fresh, actual delicious food. And yes, maybe when I say that this is the best meal I have ever eaten inside a gas station, it doesn’t sound like much of an endorsement.

But while the Mobil Mart could still rake it in by peddling over-priced gasoline and 96-day-old Lunchables, instead they serve lobster taquitos to burly fishermen in flannel. It’s the best food you’ll eat within a 300-mile radius, plus a view of Mono Lake, a full schedule of live outdoor concerts all summer, and mango margaritas by the pitcher.

The lobster taquitos are LEGENDARY, the fish tacos are also a favorite, and if you feel like eating man-food, try the buffalo meatloaf.

Stay tuned for update #2, which is going to be packed with insider travel tips for enjoying the Bay Area.

Community Connection

Hal’s not the only Matador staffer fond of the roadtrip. Check out Joshywashington in Montana Road Trip: Yellowstone and Ian MacKenzie in The Great Matador Roadtrip: Vancouver to San Francisco.

Photo: bluebike

Google Maps for Bikes

This past March, a new Google Maps bicycle feature was finally announced. It can be accessed within the “More” section at the top right of the page, or by clicking the bicycle icon in the “Get Directions” menu.

Turn it on and boom, your map becomes a spaghetti bowl of green lines. I noticed right off that there were three “degrees” of these lines, explained by the Official Google Blog thusly:

* Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
* Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
* Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes.

I used the feature to get directions from my house to a farmer’s market ~3 miles away. Supposedly, Maps crunches a “complex set of variables,” including hills and intersection busy-ness, to determine the best route.

This did appear to be the case with my directions — I got one route for the way there that took me down the big hill on Airport, then a different one on the way back to avoid it. Neither of these was my personally preferred route (why pass up a dedicated bike path through a nearby park just because it’s a little longer?), but I was able to drag and drop the line wherever I wanted.

Google Maps Biking is currently on line in 150 U.S. cities, plus 12,000 miles of trails, like those in the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Will we see international editions in the future? Hope so.

Cycling No Man’s Land

Jaunted.com has news that South Korea is considering turning part of the DMZ — the two-mile-wide demilitarized zone that cuts across the peninsula at the 38th parallel — into a mountain bike trail for tourist use.

Photo: yeowatzup

Sounds weird, but there are already hundreds of people that visit the DMZ daily. I took a tour when I was there in 2006. It included a lookout spot where we could check out the northern city of Kaesong through those pay-per-view binoculars, and a trip underground to one of the “infiltration tunnels” the North dug to move in invasion forces.

So maybe waeguks on bikes isn’t such a stretch. But I rather prefer an alternative fate for the DMZ — nature park. Already, the thin strip of totally uninhabited land is home to many endangered endemic species.

Also, I don’t want to get shot.

Best Urban Bike Paths

Not so much a development as a handy list, and possibly a reason to visit 5 cities that I might not have considered before. Top Five Urban Bike Paths in the U.S. comes from Men’s Journal:

• Atlanta: Silver Comet Trail
• Boston: Minuteman Bikeway
• Chicago: Chicago Lakefront Bike Path
• Northern Virginia/DC metro area: Mount Vernon Trail
• Sacramento: Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail/American River Bike Path

I’ve pedaled urban trails in Burlington, VT, Seoul, and Austin, TX, but never in any of the five cities above. So I’ll have to leave it to readers to judge the validity of this list.

Need to take issue with the trails mentioned above, or anything else in this edition of bike travel news? Please do so in the COMMENTS below.

Community Connection

I ride a touring bike around town. Learn how to get your own in How to Choose a Touring Bicycle.

[Editor's note: This list is based almost entirely on reader comments from the original post, The World's Most Spectacular Roads. Plus a couple of my personal favorites.]

1. Milford Road, New Zealand
Not to be confused with the famous Milford Track trekking route, the Milford Road State Highway 94 passes through the Southern Alps of New Zealand’s South Island.
Photo: macronix

2. Stelvio Pass, Italy
48 hairpin turns up to a 2757m (9045ft) pass in the Italian Alps, and Top Gear’s pick for “greatest driving road in the world.”
Photo: Damian Morys Foto

3. Great Ocean Road, Australia
This coastal road in Victoria runs for 241km, between Torquay and Warrnambool. The car-less might consider the Great Ocean Walk as an alternative.
Photo: Stas Kulesh

4. Chalus Road, Iran
Tehran is connected to the northern city of Chalus via this road through the Alborz Mountains. Check this site for more images.
Photo: ninara

5. Cabot Trail, Canada
Wrapping around northern Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, the Cabot Trail is mountainous and windy with near-constant ocean views. I recommend biking it.
Photo: kennymatic

Photo: Hal’s

FOR THE FIRST TIME in a long time, I’ve got no international travel to look forward to. I mean, there’s always a return trip to Korea, a stint abroad in northern Europe — maybe Germany — a bike tour down Central America… But these are all daydreams. My inbox is empty of booking confirmations.

But it’s cool. Travel isn’t international by definition. I’ve already roadtripped half the U.S. this year. And now I’m ready to knock off the other.

On July 7 (or 8, depending what’s happening in the World Cup), my wife and I are throwing the tent in the car, buttoning up the house here in Austin, and hitting the road for San Francisco. We have a week to get there.

Last time, we experimented with an interstate-less route. It was fun, so we’re doing it again. The plan looks something like this:

Texas: San Angelo, Big Spring, Brownfield
New Mexico: Roswell, Corona, Albuquerque, Cuba, Farmington
Arizona: Kayenta, Page
Utah: Kanab, Cedar City
Nevada: Caliente, Tonopah
California: Yosemite, Stockton, San Francisco

Photo: Hal’s

After SF, we’ll head north — probably to redwood country, maybe even as far as Vancouver — before turning for home via Yellowstone and friends in Colorado.

I’m not packing a guidebook. Instead, I want the Matador community to lead me. My hope is to meet up with members along the way and collect their “local travel secrets” — underrated state parks, wacky roadside attractions, hidden swimming holes.

While I may not have time to follow up on each one, I’ll compile them for weekly “Roadtrip Updates” here at TRIPS.

Do you live on or near my route? Want to share your local travel secret with me (and the world)? Send me a private message via my Matador profile and we can go from there.

Community Connection

Have you spent time on the new Matadortravel.com? Check it out, and shoot me a message while you’re at it.

Photo: flickrohit

Community Connection

The Matador Flickr Photography group has just surpassed 300 members. Let’s not stop there. Join the group and start sharing your travel photos!

Photo: carulmare

CHECK OUT THE companion post today — U.S. City Rankings: Is Your Hometown “Miserable” or Just “Underrated”? — where I summarize the findings of three top-10’s of American cities. There’s the most miserable (Cleveland bagged this honor), the underrated (a list topped by Providence), and the “best for your future” (it’s Austin, baby).

If you disagree with any of this no-doubt-scientific name calling, don’t get mad at me. I didn’t make them up, I just wrote about them. But your opinion does matter…

Would you rather live in a miserable city, an underrated city, or an up-and-coming city?

I suppose a recent home purchase in Austin picks my pony for me, though to be honest I’m more of an underdog, miserable-shall-inherit kind of guy. I’m from San Antonio, after all.

Community Connection

Do you have any ideas for questions we should ask in our #traveltuesday poll series? Share them in the comments, or send an email to hal[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.

Photo: spatulated

Most Miserable

Ouch. “Miserable” is a pretty mean pigeon to be holing, but that’s what they’ve got over at EpidemicFun.com, reporting the results of the Forbes 2010 list (this is an annual thing, I guess?). Metro areas over 245,000 were eligible. And the top 5 are:

1. Cleveland, OH
2. Stockton, CA
3. Memphis, TN
4. Detroit, MI
5. Flint, MI

Okay, #’s 4 and 5 need no introductions. I thought Memphis was pretty cool, although it’s got some definite seediness in evidence just driving through on I-40.

But Stockton? I had no idea this was the 13th-largest city in California. Unfortunately, they also have one of the nation’s highest unemployment figures: 18.5%. Miserable!

And Forbes’ criteria?

Our Misery Measure takes into account unemployment, taxes (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past two years. We also factored in two indexes…that gauge weather and Superfund pollution sites. Lastly we considered corruption based on convictions of public officials…

Sorry, Cleveland.

Most Underrated

The folks at ShermansTravel take us from straight F’s to A for effort.

Photo: Skazama

To be honest, this top-10 seems stacked with cities with reputations so bad that the reality has got to be a pleasant surprise (Houston, I’m looking at you). But the supporting evidence provided has me curious, at least. Here’s a sampling:

• Providence, RI: Downtown gondola rides and a fire sculpture festival. Cool.
• Fort Lauderdale, FL: Hmm… The article says it’s had luck reforming its reputation as a spring break destination.
• Kansas City, MO: This one’s always been about the music, and I think blues and jazz are still the best reasons to go.
• Louisville, KY: Matador Nights editor Kate Sedgwick hails from here. Kate, is Louisville the next big thing?
• Sacramento, CA: A fresh foodie scene is bringing more people to California’s capital. Careful, though — Stockton is right down the road.

Oh, and how did PDX make this list? I don’t want to call it overrated or anything, but there are plenty of people out there rating it. A lot. To whoever will listen.

Future Stars

I’m pretty psyched about this one, but that’s because I just bought a house in city #1.

Kiplinger ranks these by analyzing cost of living, median household income, salary growth, unemployment, and extracurricular opportunities. Here are their 5 best cities “for your future”:

Photo: BruceTurner

1. Austin, TX
2. Seattle, WA
3. Washington, DC
4. Boulder, CO
5. Salt Lake City, UT

Austin snags the prize for high marks in all of the above, plus its hot small business and live music scenes. Personally, I’m a fan of the coffeeshops, bike lanes, farmers markets, and cultural funk.

Don’t feel bad, Joshywashington. Second place isn’t bad!

A Whole Different Ballgame

Before I get too excited about living in the next “it” spot…

According to Mercer, the London-based consulting firm, the Top 25 Cities in the World do NOT include ANY in the U.S. One explanation goes like this:

To understand these rather head-scratching results, one must look at the criteria these surveys used. Cultural institutions, public safety, mass transit, “green” policies and other measures of what is called “livability” were weighted heavily, so results skewed heavily toward compact cities in fairly prosperous regions.

Still pretty rough. I knew I should have stayed an expat. In Austria or Switzerland, apparently. Your top 3 world cities:

1. Vienna
2. Zurich
3. Geneva

Got anything to add to any of these lists? Say it in the comments!

Community Connection

More city rankings:

What’s the most photogenic city in the world?
The World’s 15 Most Bike Friendly Cities
The 10 Cheapest Cities in the World
World’s Most Annoying Cities

Back in March, Matador Abroad intern Heather Carreiro brought us Update: Pakistan’s Karakoram Highway Blocked by Major Landslide. The massive slide piled into a natural dam on the Hunza River, blocking its flow and creating a large lake that stretched seven miles up-valley.

Since then, the lake has been continuously growing and is now ten miles long and beginning to spill over the dam. Below are two aerial photos, courtesy of the NASA Earth Observatory, that show the newborn lake on March 16, and again on May 2.

This thermal emission image renders vegetation red.

Meanwhile, life for the people of the Hunza region is still totally disrupted. The Karakoram Highway, buried by the slide, wasn’t just used by tourists. It’s the only major road in the area, and the closure has meant that thousands of people are now dependent on airlifts for survival goods.

Small boats have been brought in, and bridges are being built, but now the worry is that the dam is on the verge of bursting, resulting in a flood that could be as devastating as the landslide.

Photo: www.pamirtimes.net

Photo: www.pamirtimes.net, Zulfiqar Ali Khan & Gulsher Khan

For more photos and info, check out the photo essay at boston.com, and don’t miss the excellent coverage from the Pamir Times.

Photo: lrargerich

Community Connection

Students in the MatadorU Travel Photography Program could tell you a thing or two about the leading lines, depth of field, and other compositional techniques used in this shot.

Photo: Dustin and Jenae

CARLO’S REPORTING TODAY on the legal success of a nude hiker in Appenzell, Switzerland, who was fined for “indecent behavior,” has us curious. Just how much interest is there for walking forest trails in the buff?

Quite a bit, it turns out. According to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Nude travel: holidays with cheek, nudist hiking paths are plentiful in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. There are some in Alaska and the Yukon as well (“Warning: This is bare country!”).

To find more, all you have to do is visit the Hiking Naked website. That’s right. There’s a website.

So, is this a trend Matadorians can leap into bare-ass first? Cast your vote below:

Community Connection

For more skin, check out a story of Cultural Immersion: Naked Floggings and Arctic Plunges in Russia.

1. Death Valley, California
A section of the Mojave Desert, Death Valley is the lowest, driest, hottest place in North America.
Photo: H Dragon

2. Kīlauea, Hawaiʻi
Kīlauea, on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, sends streams of lava steaming into the Pacific Ocean.
Photo: Tumanc

3. Monument Valley, Utah
The sandstone buttes of Monument Valley stand like towers in the Four Corners region of the Western U.S.
Photo: Wolfgang Staudt

4. Niagara Falls, New York
The tourist vessel “Maid of the Mist IV” does a float-by of the American Falls.
Photo: Diego_3336

5. Redwood forests, California
The tallest trees on the planet hide out in the few remaining tracts of northern California’s old-growth coastal forests.
Photo: Rhett Sutphin

6. Grand Canyon, Arizona
A mile down from the canyon’s rim, the Colorado River is still cutting.
Photo: goingslo

7. Mammoth Cave, Kentucky
Mammoth Cave National Park protects a portion of the longest known cave system in the world.
Photo: Peter Rivera

8. Everglades, Florida
The Everglades are a 60-mile-wide, super-slow-moving subtropical river covering the tip of Florida.
Photo: vladeb

9. Hubbard Glacier, Alaska
Where Hubbard Glacier meets the sea, its 6-mile-wide face calves huge blocks of ice.
Photo: Alan Vernon.

10. Black Hills, South Dakota
Harney Peak, within the Black Hills National Forest, is the highest east of the Rockies.
Photo: blucolt

11. The Mississippi
This monster river system drains 31 U.S. states and is the fourth longest in the world.
Photo: Jon Haynes Photography

12. Bryce Canyon, Utah
Bryce can be more accurately described as an immense eroded amphitheater, populated with hoodoos.
Photo: Chris Isherwood back soon

13. Mt. Desert Island, Maine
The island is protected by Acadia National Park and is all rocky shoreline and crumbly mountain woodland.
Photo: indywriter

14. Crater Lake, Oregon
Collapsed volcano, now a deep blue lake in southern Oregon.
Photo: Michael Whyte

15. Arches National Park, Utah
The park preserves land that’s home to over 2,000 of these weathered sandstone arches.
Photo: tibchris

16. Yosemite, California
Looking down Yosemite Valley, you can see Bridalveil Falls and the granite cliff of Half Dome in the distance.
Photo: *~Dawn~*

17. Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
The caverns‘ “Big Room” is the third largest cave chamber in North America.
Photo: Justin Wright

18. Old Faithful, Yellowstone
This geyser in Yellowstone National Park erupts a 140-foot spout of water at regular 45- to 120-minute intervals.
Photo: WeiterWinkel

Community Connection

Keep the nature trip going:

Photo Essay: 12 Natural Wonders of Australia
Photo Essay: 14 Natural Wonders of South America
8 Natural Wonders of Chile

Photos: LHOON

THE LOCAL TOURISM BOARD in Asbestos, Quebec, is getting creative.

They’ve decided to take the small town’s one and only marketing point — the 2km-wide Jeffrey mine, largest open-pit asbestos mine in the world — and turn it into an attraction. So says an article in last week’s Guardian.

The town and region have made headlines before, for resisting the accepted medical consensus on asbestos and continuing to export it for use in developing nations. That story itself is fascinating, but probably falls under the jurisdiction of a different Network site.

What intrigues us here at Trips is that locals seem to be taking their bucking of international health advisories to the extreme of inviting visitors to tool around in their asbestos dust. And marketing it as “healthy living and adventure activities.”

“It’s like a great big sand pit, a gigantic playground!”
- Marc Cantin, coordinator at the local tourist board

So how crazy do you think this idea is? Would you ride a mountain bike, drive an ATV, or rock climb in Asbestos’ Jeffrey mine? Cast your vote below:

Community Connection

Read about how to protect yourself against asbestos exposure in your home in Avoiding Household Dangers: An Interview With The Queen Of Clean, Alison Haynes.

San Marino / Photo: fdecomite

LAST DECEMBER, Carlo reported on Kashi Samaddar, who got himself a Guinness World Record by traveling to all the world’s countries in just under seven years. 194 countries, to be exact.

But actually, there’s no single figure for how many countries there are in the world — it depends on who you ask. Some big names on the international scene are defined as having “limited recognition,” while others you may never have heard of are accepted without question.

And then there are the “micronations,” which are basically only recognized by the people that “founded” them. Check these out:

The Tiny

These little guys might be small, but (according to both Gadling and Neatorama) they’re officially independent nations. Can you find all five on a map? I couldn’t.

Photo: roblisameehan

1. Vatican City – Just 0.17 square miles in size, this sovereign pocket in the middle of Rome is the world’s smallest and is governed by an absolute ruler: the Pope.

2. Monaco – It’s the size of NYC’s Central Park, but it’s also the most densely populated nation in the world. A rectangle of land cut from the French Riviera, Monaco used to be a great location for an offshore bank account. They’ve changed that now — you have to pay taxes on your income, unless your one of the 35,000 native-born residents.

3. Nauru – This American Life did a segment on this 8sq-mi Pacific Island, which is the only reason I’ve heard of it. You should check out the link, but in short: massive reserves of phosphates (bird shit) spurred a boom in the last century, but when the shit ran out, the government had no contingency. Now the island is turning to money laundering, telemarketing, and refugee boarding to feed its people.

Tuvalu / Photo: mrlins

4. Tuvalu – More sad stories out of the Pacific. Tuvalu, just 9 square miles large, is losing what land it has to rising sea levels. Plans are underway to evacuate. In fact, there are probably Tuvaluans who’ve passed through Nauru’s refugee camps on their way to Australia.

5. San Marino – Another island stuck in the middle of Italy, San Marino advertises its title of world’s oldest republic. It’s famous for its three mountain towers, and half the nation’s revenue comes from tourism.

The Micro

Those above are legit. Those below…not. Apparently it takes more than declaring independence in your backyard to gain international recognition.

A Huffington Post article describes 13 micronations. Here are five highlights:

Sealand / Photo: octal

1. Sealand – As mentioned in Ross Lee Tabak’s 8 More Strange Places on Planet Earth, the Principality of Sealand is an abandoned WWII gun platform in the English Channel that was taken over by a pirate radio DJ in 1967.

The “nation” is still transmitting (these days as an Internet hosting site), but you won’t find its representatives at the UN.

2. Republic of Kugelmugel – This one’s nothing more than a spherical artist’s residence in Vienna, surrounded by barbed wire. However, when Edwin Lipburger, the republic’s founder, tried to start issuing his own postage stamps, he was sentenced to prison, a definite blow to Kugelmugel’s claims of sovereignty.

3. Ladonia – When authorities tried to remove two natural art sculptures from the coast of southern Sweden, the artist occupied the land around them and declared independence. Ladonia’s 14,000 “citizens” pay their taxes in the currency of creativity, and their national anthem is the sound a pebble makes when it hits water.

Ladonia / Photo: Erik D

4. Republic of Molossia – Molossia consists of two properties, that of President Kevin Baugh near Dayton, Nevada, and that of his friend in California. There’s postal and telegraph service (within the nation), and the government holds treaties with numerous other micronations around the world.

5. Other World Kingdom – This is actually a commercial facility that for some reason declared itself independent. Services offered revolve around female-dominant BDSM for male clients. Unfortunately, the Other World Kingdom has recently joined the ranks of actual countries that have gone bankrupt.

Been to any of these tinies or micros? Tell us about your visit in the comments.

Community Connection

More bizarre trends at Matador:

Armchair Travel: Embrace the Bizarre
Three Bizarre Food and Sex Combinations for Your Next Dinner Party
5 Bizarre Local Traditions and Competitions Worldwide
4 Bizarre Prohibited Items Confiscated by US Customs Officials

Behind the wheel / Photo: a song under the sugar sugar

I’VE DONE THIS DRIVE (or its reverse), like, 9 times now. I’ve gone diagonal, right angle, and everything in between — including through eastern Canada, which isn’t really in between. Each time, I look for a new route.

For this one, I realized the only thing left was to slow down. Forget the interstates, instead stick to the state roads, the county roads.

I gave myself a week. It wasn’t enough. Those interstates are there for a reason, I guess. I made it to Virginia, then surrendered to the laser-beam logic of I-81.

But damn this country is beautiful. Sure, more so on the back roads, but even the I-’s can take you special places. Some of them were new to me, some I’d heard of, and some I’d been to before.

Here are the ones I liked best, from Austin working northeast:

Photo: jonclegg

East Texas wildflowers

Texas is a pleasure to drive in the springtime. It’s not just the bluebonnets; there are the red carpets of the Texas paintbrush, the yellows of the greenthread and square-bud primrose, the covert purple of the winecup.

Take any farm road north, south, or east and you’ll find them. I prefer serendipity, but lots of websites map and predict the best blooms.

Hot Springs, AR

To me, national parks mean hiking and camping. So I wasn’t into Hot Springs at first. But then I self-toured the Fordyce Bathhouse on Central Street, which houses the national park visitors center.

They’ve preserved all the spa paraphernalia from back when people thought soaking in natural spring water cured syphilis (1920s-30s).

All the steam cabinets, “electric baths” (genius), full-immersion therapy tubs, massage bulbs, wooden dumbbells, medicine balls, and a vintage Otis elevator.

Oh, and it’s free.

Downtown Bolivar / Photo: lucianvenutian

Bolivar, TN

I spent 2009 in South America; I’m hyper-aware of the significance of the name Bolívar. So I had to stop into a coffee shop in this town of 5,800 on Highway 64 and see if they were too.

Score. Their pronunciation rhymes with “Oliver,” but I learned that a lot of towns founded in the U.S. in the early 1820s named themselves Bolivar in solidarity with the man who liberated half of South America.

And most towns being founded around that time were in the Midwest. I passed through Bolivar, WV, later in the trip.

Nantahala Brewing Company, Bryson City, NC

It was late. I’d set up my tent in Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Deep Creek campground and headed back into town to catch the Spurs game at a bar.

The locals were sucking down Bud Light, so my order of a Harpoon IPA attracted attention. Before five minutes of game time had elapsed, I was invited into a spacious back room for a tour of the nascent Nantahala Brewing Co.

Best part was the sample of the maiden batch of their IPA (thanks Mike!).

Licenses and permits procured, they’re looking to start selling down the road to Murphy and Asheville. Watch for them in the microbrew circuit.

Blue Ridge Parkway

I’d heard of this road so many times and still didn’t know what it was. If you’ve never driven it, do it. It’s like a dedicated bike path for cars. Funnest driving I’ve done in the States east of the Rockies. And gorgeous.

Photo: Walt Hubis

Gettysburg, PA

A big tourist draw, but I’d never been. And I wasn’t prepared for the intensity of it. There’s something about the Civil War that obsesses people (Americans, anyway).

To read such detailed accounts of the action, and then look five feet in front of you to where it happened — where a shoeless Alabama recruit got his head split open by a lead ball fired from a Maine potato farmer’s gun… I stayed longer than I planned.

Allentown, PA

This town gets a shit rap, but I liked it. My pint at the Allentown Brew Works probably helped.

Matador crew at Mesa Coyoacán

Brooklyn, NYC

Ashamed to say this was only my second time and second day in the City. And my first in Brooklyn, which was awesome. Reminded me a lot of BsAs barrios.

Plus, I got to meet up with my Trips partner in crime, Carlo Alcos, and our superstar managing editor, Julie Schwietert Collazo. It was about time.

Have you been on a killer roadtrip? Share your route and its highlights in the comments.

Community Connection

Lots of Matador folk have documented their roadtrips at the Network. Here’s a sampling:

Ian MacKenzie – The Great Matador Roadtrip: Vancouver to San Francisco
Joshywashington – Road Trip Montana: Yellowstone
Sarah Menkedick – A Mexican Road Trip: Reading Sugar Cane Landscapes
Austin Chu – The Recess Ends
Eva Holland – By the Numbers: Trans-Canada Road Trip
The Team – Matador’s Top 7 Summer Road Trips in the US / Canada

Changi, Singapore / Photo: gyverchangphotos

IT DIDN’T TAKE me long as a kid to figure out that not all airports were created equal. Even quick transits through DFW and IAH showed just how dinky my home airport of San Antonio was.

From what I’ve heard on planes and in airports around the world lately, customer satisfaction with air travel is in the red. And week-long volcanic eruptions don’t help.

Maybe that’s why it was so easy to round up these best/worst lists from around the web. Here’s what people are saying, starting with some positives:

Seoul Incheon / Photo: Ryan Wick

The Good

The New York Times’ In Transit blog reported last month that, according to the 2010 Skytrax World Airport Awards, most of the world’s highest-rated airports are in Asia.

Singapore’s Changi took top honors, followed by Incheon — Seoul’s main hub — and Hong Kong. I can vouch for all of these: in terms of design, service, and high-tech amenities, these facilities are in a different category than anywhere else I’ve laid over.

Munich, Zurich, and Amsterdam are the only airports west of Bangkok to make the top 10.

Shifting focus to the U.S., a J.D. Powers survey came up with the top 5 “least aggravating” U.S. airports:

1. Detroit-Wayne County
2. Denver
3. Minneapolis/St. Paul
4. Orlando
5. Phoenix

The Bad

Continuing with the survey above, the hands-down worst airport in the U.S. is Newark, which scored poorly in everything from check-in time to parking.

Photo: Robert S. Donovan

I half wonder if any of that has more to do with the reputation of Newark in general than the airport itself. I’ve never had a bad experience at EWR, and I kinda like the smog-filtered view of the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

My mom would disagree, though. She was stuck in Newark on a flight delay last night, for the second time in a row.

Rounding out the bottom 5 in the U.S. were:

• LAX
• Miami
• Philadelphia
• JFK

My addition? O’Hare.

Chicago’s international terminal is sadly ill-equipped to handle the volume of passengers it sees. I had a 6-hour layover there earlier this month after flying in from Madrid — half that time was spent standing in the immigration line and navigating to baggage claim.

The Ugly (Literally)

And then there are the low-blow lists, picking on airport aesthetics that may have fallen a little out of date.

Heathrow Terminal 3 / Photo: RTPeat

TheExpeditioner.com looks at a Travel+Leisure article that does just that.

The list includes big names like JFK, Charles de Gaulle, and Heathrow Terminal 3, but also lightweights that you’ll probably never see: El Paso (Texas), Nassau (Bahamas), and Sofia (Bulgaria). That’s mean.

The Busy

Busier isn’t better. But I find it pretty impressive how many pairs of traveling feet the world’s most frequented airports can handle each year. Again, from TheExpeditioner:

1. Atlanta: 87,993,451 passengers in 2009
2. Heathrow: 66,037,578
3. Beijing: 65,329,851
4. Chicago O’Hare: 64,397,891
5. Tokyo Narita: 61,903,656

Ahh, so that’s why I’ve had the pleasure of sleeping on the floor at Hartsfield-Jackson.

Photo: Photocapy

Bonus Worst: U.S. Airlines

Of course, most traveler anger is aimed at the airlines, not the airports. Here’s who’s pissing off U.S. flyers most in 2010, according to the Huffington Post:

1. American Eagle
2. Atlantic Southeast
3. Comair
4. Delta
5. SkyWest

Okay, readers, you know what I want to hear. Where did these rankings go wrong? What did they leave out? Which airports make YOUR list of best, worst, ugliest, busiest, or whatever other measure? Share all in the comments.

Community Connection

There’s a reason airport talk resonates so deeply. Read about it in Now Boarding: Why the Airport is a Metaphor for Life.

Photo: Lanpernas 2.0

Latin America, under the radar

This one came out in The Guardian last fall, and I think it’s pretty cool. I hadn’t heard of most of the places on the list. I guess that’s why they’re “unspoilt.”

The Corn Islands of Nicaragua and Venezuela’s Los Roques are both archipelagos half Caribbean and half Latino. The Corn Islands especially have been talked up a lot lately, usually with the label “next big thing.”

I’d also keep my eye on José Ignacio, Uruguay. The entire country might start seeing more tourist feet now that its vecino to the south has decided to collect $131 from every American landing at Buenos Aires’ EZE.

The huge left-hand break of Máncora, Peru, and the dolphins at Pipa, Brazil, finish off The Guardian’s set.

Beaches for the cheap

Concierge.com has 13 suggestions of budget beaches, in a list that’s pretty obviously intended for frugal Americans, specifically. Here’s some of what they’ve got:

• Yelapa, Mexico: Just south of Puerto Vallarta, maybe Yelapa will be the next Mexican beach to get yacked on by spring break tourism.
• Florida Keys: The tip here is to try out Bahia Honda Key over the bigger names. It’s state-owned (cheaper), and the beach is nicer.
• Georgia’s islands that aren’t Sea Island: I appreciate this rec, because I usually forget Georgia even has a coast.
• Samaná Peninsula, Dominican Republic: Whale season just ended, but the powdery beaches are still there.
• Anegada, British Virgin Islands: It takes some effort to get to, so stay awhile.

Beaches for the rowdy

Bootsnall came up with a predictable rundown of the world’s best-known party beaches. Click the link to see for yourself, but I’m including it here for two surprises:

Photo: timparkinson

Zanzibar, Tanzania: I didn’t get the sense from Gregor Rohrig’s beautiful Photo Essay: One Day in Zanzibar that the island was in the full moon party bracket. Maybe we should ask him to head back and shoot an after-hours sequel for Nights.

Tel Aviv, Israel: Yeah, I’ve read about the border beach raves put on by Israeli-Palestinian peace activists, but I didn’t know about the more mainstream beach beats going on in Israel’s second-biggest city, which author Nellie Huang compares to Miami in her article.

Budget beaches, take II

More ideas for the cheap, but this away.com list is still a Western Hemisphere operation. It’s cool, though. Their #1 pick is Cannon Beach, Oregon. Have any non-West Coasters heard of this place?

Here are some other highlights, in descending order:

3. Placencia, Belize
4. Morro de Sao Paulo, Brazil
6. Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
7. Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Community Connection

Of course, Trips doesn’t really care what other sites think are the best beaches out there. What’s YOUR favorite beach? It can be nude, it can be family-friendly, it can be one of Bridget’s sexiest, it can be in Vietnam or Spain or Western Africa.

Share it in the comments.

Photo: loufi

1. No more travel advisory

The U.S. State Department issues travel advisories that many, including myself, feel are too conservative (the issue is discussed by JoAnna Haugen in depth in Should You Listen To Travel Warnings About Honduras?).

So if they’re willing to lift the advisory on Syria, that goes far to assuaging any safety concerns I may have had.

The NYT article linked above states that Syria is “crucial to peace in the region.” Time to get out the passport, meet the people, and promote world peace.

Photo: seier+seier+seier

2. The Dead Cities

In northern Syria, not too far north of the little pocket where the last communities of Aramaic speakers live, lie Syria’s mysterious Dead Cities, “780 abandoned settlements dating back to between the fifth and eighth centuries.”

There are also remnants of an Iron Age temple from around 1200 BC.

Several of the Dead Cities have been dug by archaeologists and are laid out for visitors with useful signs and information; others lie within modern villages: strange stone towers sprouting from gardens, fragments of carved lintels lying under the pistachio trees.

There’s so much history in Syria — Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, the Silk Road, the Crusades. But this region — probably the entire country — is seriously under-touristed. Seeing these lesser-known ruins would certainly be on my itinerary.

3. Aleppo’s rise

The Dead Cities are an easy drive south of Aleppo, one of the oldest cities in the world and a great place to see the synthesis of all the cultures mentioned above. Plus the souks, hammams, and other attractions familiar to Middle East travelers.

Photo: seier+seier+seier

As The New York Times reports, the city’s tourism industry is growing. They quote Karam Artin, a 20-year-old interior design student:

In a few years, this city will be swarming with tourists, and, hopefully, even more American visitors.

Now is the time to go.

4. Reading Matador Network content

As a Matador editor, it’s my pleasure to read (or, on a bad day, at the very least skim) every article published across the Network. I could plan an entire trip based on this content.

Matador Abroad has my back with Useful Arabic Phrases For Travelers. I’d of course check in with dwb, our destination expert for Syria.

And Matador’s other regional experts could help me out if I decided to scope 6 Under-the-Radar Destinations In The Middle East.

Where are you dying to travel to RIGHT NOW, and which online content inspired you to go? Share your stoke in the comments.

Community Connection

If you’ve traveled to Syria and blogged the experience, I’d love to read your work. Leave a link in the comments. Or better yet, post a Matador blog about it.

Photo: EduardoZ

LATE THIS PAST JANUARY, the Peruvian department of Cuzco, home to the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu, was hit with some major rainfall.

Roads throughout the region were washed away, as was much of the railway track between Cuzco and MP. The town of Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) was torn apart by the normally calm stream that runs through its center.

Over at Matador Abroad, Nicholas Gill filed a report from the ground in Extreme Weather Shuts Down Machu Picchu, explaining that Peru’s most popular tourist attraction was closed until further notice.

Photo: 3rdparty!

Shortly after, Trips published Machu Picchu after the Floods: Update and Outlook, written by Lima-based tour agency employee Matthew Barker. (If you haven’t checked out the images in this one from Flickr photographer Stephanie Lim, you’re missing out.)

After more than two months, most of the region’s tourist infrastructure has been rebuilt, and Machu Picchu officially reopens today, April 1.

However, according to the New York Times In Transit blog, full train service from Cuzco won’t be restored until June. Until then, visitors will van it to Ollantaytambo, 28km (17 miles) southeast of AC. From there, the train is up and running.

What has changed?

Loss of its biggest tourist draw has hit the local economy pretty hard. Of course, there are frequent strikes and protests that shut down roads and tracks (I experienced one firsthand), but 2+ months of no activity is something different.

According to Gadling, this has been a lesson for Peruvian tourism officials on the importance of diversification. Ever since the floods hit, they’ve been working to big up the region’s — and the nation’s — other impressive archeological sites.

These might be places like Choquequirao, on the edge of Cuzco department, the trail of ruins in northern Peru, or just the remains of Sacsayhuamán, which sits right above Cuzco city.

Spreading out the tourist boots won’t only buffer the national economy — it’ll directly benefit Machu Picchu. Concerns have been raised that the large number of daily visitors could cause vulnerable sections of the mountaintop complex to collapse.

Photo: Christian Haugen

Last year, Matador associate editor JoAnna Haugen co-founded the Karikuy-Haugen Fund, which raises money to buy Machu Picchu tickets for hard-working Inca Trail porters. (Ordinarily, they are not able to enter the site itself.)

It will be interesting to see if her organization sees any change in the numbers of trail trekkers, one possible indicator of whether the diversification campaign is working.

Community Connection

Do you have a favorite Peruvian destination that’s NOT Machu Picchu? Let us know about it by leaving a comment.

Carlo, in the deep end

Carlo says:

When I got “the call” from Managing Editor Julie Schwietert asking if I was interested in joining the team as a Contributing Editor at Trips, my first reaction was, “Holy shit!” Then that subsided and I started to think about what that meant. In truth, I had no idea what that meant. I had no idea what an editor did. For that matter, I had little idea what a writer did.

But I threw myself in the deep end anyway and was buoyed by the support of the senior editors and the entire Matador team. And now, one year later, I’m sitting here trying to find a way to thank everyone — the staff (editors, interns, ninjas…yes, we have ninjas), you (the readers), and the rest of the Matador and Internet community in general — without sounding cheesy.

Everything I come up with sounds like an Oscar speech, so I’ll just leave it at that. Keep the inspiration coming through the comments, we really do value it.

Hal says:

I second everything Carlo said, which now gives me the opportunity to go all top-10-list on y’all. Here are 10 things I’ve learned in my first year “working” for Matador:

10. There are people out there who will give you money for doing something you enjoy. Thank god.
9. Being an editor is as hard as being a writer…probably more.
8. Print is dead or dying, and I don’t really care.
7. People have a thing for nude beaches, Amsterdam, and photos from crazy places.
6. Julie was bitten by a radioactive worker bee as a child and now is able to spend 23 hours a day gettin’ shit done.
5. I have been subconsciously conditioned to write in non-transparent marketing speak. Unconditioning is not easy.
4. I need to meet more virtual peeps in person, because the ones I have are very cool.
3. No matter what the hour, there is always someone from the Matador staff awake and on the computer. Oh, and interns rock.
2. I now know how to say “cheers!” in 50 languages, where to go to grad school abroad, which tattoo cliches to avoid, where not to surf, which travel laptops are best, how to develop a personal manifesto, where to volunteer for free, whether American football or rugby is tougher, which Matador members to watch, how to travel the world for free, and where to find the best travel video on the web.
1. Ross Borden has a plan. It’s called world domination. It’s working.

Hal, hard at “work”

Community Connection

What have you learned from Matador, and in particular Matador Trips, over the past year? What have you liked/disliked? Where would you like to see Trips go in 2010-11? Join the community and share your voice.

Photo: Laika slips the lead, a member of the Matador Photography Flickr group

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Wordless Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots.

Photo: Tango0830, a member of the Matador Photography Flickr group

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Wordless Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots.

All photos: Lauren Quinn

THIS IS HOW Lauren, aka laurenq, defends her status as Matador’s destination expert on San Francisco:

Exhibit A: I was 17 before I learned that people outside of the Bay Area don’t say “hella.”
Exhibit B: I can tell you how to get anywhere in the Bay Area on public transit.
Exhibit C: I know which taquerias have the best burritos.
Exhibit D: I spent my high school Halloweens partying with drag queens in the Castro.
Exhibit E: I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the United States.
Exhibit F: As Matador’s SF Expert, I can now say “I represent the Yay Area” with no irony whatsoever.

We didn’t really need convincing, though. Matador was happy to add her to our crew of international destination experts after working with her to produce content for several Matador Network sites. Check out some of her work below:

Día de los Muertos: 5 Places to Celebrate
5 Destinations for the Tattooed Traveler
Who Defines Dangerous: Should Travelers Pay the Cost of Their Rescues?
5 Views of a Lesser-Known Morocco
My Hometown in 500 words: Oakland, CA
[Note: "My Hometown in 500 Words" is one of many assignment prompts given to the students of MatadorU, Matador's travel writing course.]

Just a couple weeks ago, Trips published Lauren’s What NOT to Do in San Francisco, a guide to avoidable Bay Area attractions (and behaviors) and what you should do instead.

There’s a lot of solid tips in there for visitors, but if you have other specific questions you’d like answered, you can connect with Lauren directly. Sign into your account (if you don’t have one, joining the Matador community is super easy), click over to laurenq’s profile, and send her a message.

And definitely make sure to check out her personal blog, Lonely Girl Travels.

Community Connection

Matador wants to fill the world with experts. If you’re interested in joining up, shoot me an email at hal@matadornetwork.com.

Photo: yoga – photowork

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Wordless Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots!

All photos: SophieR

GUIDEBOOKS MISS so much about a destination because, like you, guidebook writers are travelers, just passing through. So a conversation with a local can be worth an entire chapter of your Lonely Planet — if not the whole thing.

If Oslo is your destination, Anne-Sophie Redisch is your local. Known within the Matador community as SophieR, she’s a pro at laying out, in her words:

all the great things in the world’s most expensive city that are cheap and even free.

She did so recently in the popular Trips post What NOT to Do in Norway, helping steer visitors around amateur tourist mistakes. And then there are her insightful Matador personal blogs, including My hometown in 500 words*, a narrative examination of a nude sculpture park in Oslo.

• * This is an assignment prompt from Matador’s travel writing course, MatadorU.

Sophie blogs at Sophie’s World, and she’s also NileGuide’s Oslo expert.

Troll’s Ladder, Norway

Here’s some more about Sophie, taken from her Matador profile:

Favorite places I’ve been: Nepal, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Egypt, Mozambique, Oman, Jordan, The Azores, Ireland, Wales, Cuba and China’s Fujian province, Svalbard
I’m fired up on: Exploring new lands. There’s nothing quite like hopping off a train in an unknown city, preferably early in the morning, watching it wake up.
Why I travel: Searching for … something. Not sure what. I’ve been to more than 100 countries, and I still don’t know what I’m searching for. Differences, maybe? But somehow, the more I see, the more people I meet, the most striking discovery is how alike we all are.

Even if you’re not headed to Scandinavia, Sophie might be a good resource for you. She often travels with her two young daughters and is happy to offer advice on Travel with Kids. Visit her profile to connect.

Community Connection

Are you an expert on a particular slice of Earth? Join the Matador community, and then send me an email at hal@matadornetwork.com to tell me why you deserve the title of Matador destination expert.

Photo: The Image Street / Visit his Matador profile

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Wordless Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots!

1. Ama Dablam, Nepal
At 6,812 meters (22,349 ft), Ama Dablam is a popular Himalayan expedition peak that’s said to be a more difficult climb than Everest.
Photo: stevehicks

2. Mt. Fuji, Japan
Mt. Fuji, classically flanked by sakura (cherry blossoms), is one of Japan’s most recognizable landmarks.
Photo: skyseeker

3. Wayna Potosí, Bolivia
Rising to the northwest of La Paz/El Alto, Wayna Potosí and its jagged glacial ridges draws the title of “easiest 6,000er in the world.”
Photo: a song under the sugar sugar

4. Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Kili, an inactive volcano, towers over the Tanzanian plains and, at 5,895 meters (19,341 ft), is Africa’s tallest peak.
Photo: meaduva

5. Half Dome, California, USA
The Merced River carved out Yosemite Valley, sculpting what today is one of the main attractions of Yosemite National Park — Half Dome.
Photo: Mel B.

6. Mt. Merapi, Indonesia
Located near the ruins of Borobudur in central Java, this volcano is very active. Would You Live Here?
Photo: TRENDscout_

7. The Matterhorn, Switzerland
The iconic dagger of the Matterhorn’s peak, including its 1,200m north face, makes it one of the Alps’ most perilous mountains.
Photo: g.naharro

8. Denali, Alaska, USA
In terms of vertical rise, Denali is taller than Everest, and its bulk is certainly greater. It’s the highest mountain in North America.
Photo: Unhindered by Talent

9. Cerro Fitz Roy, Chile
Fitz Roy’s spires appear on pretty much every Patagonian ad poster.
Photo: alextorrenegra

10. Mt. Hood, Oregon, USA
Another dormant (for now) volcano, Mt. Hood is one of the tallest peaks in the Cascade Range.
Photo: Misserion

11. Mont Blanc, France
Western Europe’s highest attracts plenty of hikers, skiers, and mountaineers every year.
Photo: merlune

12. Huangshan, China
Huangshan’s lumpy granite peaks and gnarled pine trees are the stuff of Zen art scrolls.
Photo: www.seefarseeeast.com

13. Wayna Picchu, Peru
Even if it weren’t fronted by the ruins of Machu Picchu, the razor-like ridge of Wayna Picchu would be easy to pick out from the surrounding tropical peaks of Andean Peru.
Photo: Alex E. Proimos

14. Mt. Everest, Roof of the World
As seen in countless nature and mountaineering documentaries, this is the view of Everest from a base camp trek.
Photo: Ryan Kilpatrick

15. Sajama, Bolivia
Sajama’s fat triangle is the tallest peak in Bolivia, and its summit was the site of the highest soccer match ever played.
Photo: ch images

16. Machapuchare, Nepal
Known also as “Fish’s Tail” and the “Matterhorn of Nepal,” Machapuchare is considered sacred and is off-limits to climbers, but you can get a great view while Trekking the Annapurna Sanctuary.
Photo: baswallet

17. The Eiger, Switzerland
The Eiger forms another great Alpine north face, and just like the Matterhorn, it has claimed its share of climbers’ lives.
Photo: Rashley

Community Connection

Collecting these photos fired me up to do some climbing. Here’s more fuel:

6 American Mountains to Climb for Big Adventure

8 Massive Mountains That Mortals Can Summit

11 Most Dangerous Mountains in the World for Climbers

Photos: bearshapedsphere

Eileen Smith, known quirkily around the Matador community as bearshapedsphere, is a native Brooklynite who now calls Santiago de Chile home. Or would that be “hogar”?

Either way, Eileen’s our resident expert on this long, skinny, kinda funny-looking nation. Chances are you already know her, since she’s been working in community outreach at MatadorTravel for several months now. She’s even been giving me a hand here at Trips while Carlo’s away. That’s one busy lady!

Here’s some more about Eileen, from her Matador profile:

I’m fired up on: Biking distances short and long, finding the perfect ingredients and cooking for myself and friends, language acquisition, travel writing, dispensing (mostly useful) advice, walking too far for mere mortals, lying on the ground taking pictures, watching skateboarders and other extreme athletes and hoping to not see anyone get injured.

[Editor's note: Super jealousy alert -- she's off to cycle New Zealand's South Island next month!]

Why I travel: To engage my five senses, to become honest with myself, to reduce myself to the three true needs (food/drink, sleep, bathroom), to lose contact with mirrors, appearance, egotistical trappings of home.

Languages spoken, other than English: Spanish, Chilean (it’s a joke, but kind of true)

I want to make a difference by: showing generosity in the face of adversity, and encouraging others to pay it forward.

We’ve already featured some of Eileen’s sage advice in the post What NOT to Do in Chile. If you need more, all you have to do is ask:

If you’re dying to know how to get here, what to do, how it works being an expat, etc, I can answer questions. There’s still more to see, but I’ve been to the way north and the far south, and lots of places in between, and a whole bunch of it on two wheels. Ask away!

Also, make sure to check out her blog, Bearshapedsphere: Quirk. Perspective. Travel.

Community Connection

Are you an expert on the area where you live? Drop me an email at hal@matadornetwork.com to find out how to become a Matador destination expert.

Notre Dame, Street Viewed / Photo: Author

I’M IN THE MARKET for a house. Problem is, ever since I made the decision I’ve been thousands of miles from my target market. Enter Google Street View. All I have to do is plug in the address from a realtor listing and it’s like I’m standing in front of the property. What a sweet tool.

I’ve applied Street View to traveling as well. Scoping city streets, hostel addresses, and attractions before a trip helps me get an idea of where I want to go and where I don’t, and imparts a sense of familiarity to my surroundings once I actually make it there.

Now, news is out that Google has partnered with UNESCO, the arm of the UN responsible for designating and protecting World Heritage Sites, to produce Street View experiences of some of the most famous sites around the world.

Nineteen ground-level, 360-degree World Heritage views have already been released, featuring primarily European landmarks, and more are in the works. This video explains:

Expect an uptick in “virtual tourism” as a result of the partnership, but I bet UNESCO sees an increase in in-the-flesh visitors to these sites as well.

Community Connection

How long do you think it’ll take Google to make it to these Overlooked World Heritage Sites?

Photo: robertkphotographer

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Wordless Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots!

Photo: Alberto..

TOTAL GAUCHE travelers may not know Mendoza is the destination for affordable wine tourism.

But gauche or not, most backpackers passing through this western Argentine provincial capital of 110,000 end up hopping on a bike to tour the wineries and bodegas just south of town, in the suburb of Maipú.

This full-on collision of budget travel and established, upper-crust tradition is fun to partake in, but there are lots of ways to do it wrong. Here’s how to do it right.

Getting to Maipú

Maipú is about 15km southeast of central Mendoza. Taxis and remises can take you, but by far the cheapest transport (unless you’ve got a big group) is the city bus. Unlike the buses in Buenos Aires, Mendoza’s run on a card system. They accept coins too, but do NOT give change.

Photo: longhorndave

Rechargeable tarjetas Mendobus can be purchased at most kiosks in town, with a 3-peso deposit — a good investment if you’re staying in Mendoza a few days. The fare to Maipú is 4 pesos one way.

The bus you want is #10, sub-route 171, 172, or 173, which stops on Rioja just south of Catamarca. The intersection is five blocks east of the main plaza, and the trip takes 30+ minutes.

If you’re unsure where to get off, just tell the driver “camino de vino.” The main street is Urquiza, and you’ll see the dedicated bike path at the side of the road before you need to hop off.

Finding a Bike

It’s best to have a bikeshop picked out beforehand so the driver can let you off at the proper stop — they’re not all right next to each other.

The most popular are Coco Bikes (Lonely Planet’s pick), BikesAndWines, and Mr. Hugo, spaced out at various points towards the northern end of Urquiza.

Photo: A6U571N

Coco Bikes is pretty cheap (20 pesos per bike per day) and, according to LP, will shuttle you down to the end of the road so you only have to bike back up (I was never able to confirm this).

I can’t recommend BikesAndWines. I talked with a guy whose plastic handlebar had melted off after he left the bike in the sun for a while. He rented from BikesAndWine.

Mr. Hugo appears to have something of a racket going, with flyers in all the Mendoza hostels. My bus driver nodded in satisfaction when I told him that’s where I was headed. The bike was good quality, but the 30 pesos was an overcharge. Try to talk him down to 25.

Each outfitter should provide a crude map of the route and the different bodegas, along with info on how much tours cost at each and how late they’re open.

Basically you’ll be cycling south down Urquiza, with most of the stops off little side roads. Tourist police patrol the area, but if you stray beyond the final bodega on any given road, you’re on your own (there are signs warning you to turn back).

Where to Tour, Where to Eat, Where to Buy

Note: The following recommendations are listed from north to south:

1. On Montecaseros, the large-scale, old-school winery at La Rural has an interesting museum. Admission includes a tasting of one less-than-stellar wine, but it’s free.

2. A bit farther down Montecaseros, A la Antigua is my pick in the liqueur/chocolatier category. It’s a small operation run out of a residence, producing olive oils, liqueurs, hard liquors (including absinthe), and various sweet and savory spreads. The 10-peso tour fee lets you taste pretty much whatever (and however much) you want.

Photo: ricardo.martins

3. Even if this is your first day in Argentina, you may have heard of Trapiche’s wines — they export widely. Impress friends back home by touring the modern facility, which is on Nueva Mayorga, east of Urquiza. Cost: 25 pesos.

4. Farther south, on Perito Moreno, is another modern operation, Tempus Alba. Admission is a bit steep at 20 pesos, but the grounds are nice, and they offer a tasty lunch menu.

5. By far my favorite was Familia Di Tomaso, right on Urquiza. This is one of the oldest bodegas in the entire region. The 10-peso tour is great value and includes tasting of 6 wines. I also picked up 3 bottles of their 2004 Malbec reserve for just 95 pesos (~$25US) each. Delicious. And their restaurant’s outdoor seating is quite atmospheric on a sunny day. They’ve got the whole package.

6. I didn’t make it down to Carinae, the last winery on the route, but I heard good reports.

More Tips

Caveat: Don’t expect a tranquil Sunday ride. Likewise, this might not be the best outing for a first-time cyclist. The dedicated bike path you see from the bus lasts only until the first roundabout (maybe a third of the 12km route). From there, you’re teetering on the edge of a fairly busy, narrow road.

Photo: Author

Helmets are a good idea, if your bikeshop provides them. But mainly, if you go in anticipating something different, you’ll likely be disappointed. Browse blogs posts from Maipú to see what I mean.

Check the weather. On sunny days, sunscreen and ample water are needed, whereas for cold and rain (less common) you’ll want waterproof layers.

Packing tip: Make sure your purchases are well-padded and securely closed before putting them in your backpack or bike basket. I opened my pack at the end of the day to find the lid to a bottle of chili sauce had come open, painting everything a nice bright red.

And finally, if you’re just passing through Mendoza and don’t have time for the bike tour, stop by Sastre Burgos, a vinoteca four blocks north of the main plaza on Avenida Mitre. Their wines are delicious and the 15-peso tour includes a tasting of 15 of them.

Community Connection

For broader treatment of the region’s grape offerings, check out Trips’ Escape To Argentina Wine Country. Then, move on to these other Matador wine titles:

How To Drink Wine Like A Pro

Castles, Wine, and History on The Cathar Trail

10 Ways to Reuse Wine Bottles

Photo: maessive

I CAME ACROSS a handy 60-second guide to the Dominican Republic over at The Guardian’s travel section.

It’s got just enough info to introduce you to this small Caribbean island nation — a great destination to escape brutal winter temps. Here are some quick facts:

• “It’s the most diverse of Caribbean nations, with high alpine wilderness, tropical rainforest, savanna, desert and mangrove swamps, as well as the white-sand beaches.”
• “Not to be confused with the little-developed Caribbean island of Dominica, population 73,000.”
• If you decide you want something different, the nation of Haiti shares the island.

Lonely Planet offers a more in-depth look, with visa details, maps, and guides on where to work, study, or just relax.

Of course, once you’re done studying up on the cut-and-dry data, Matador can help you fill in the gaps. Our destination expert on the DR, smalldogonthego, was featured recently here at Trips and is your go-to resource if you have questions.

She’s already gotten us started on the culinary side of things with her Matador community blog post My 10 favorite things to eat in the Dominican Republic.

Photo: Mercedes.. Life as I picture it

From there, make sure to check out Matador member Ted Kerns‘ account of Swimming with Humpback Whales off the DR coast.

And then there’s Kindred Project, one of hundreds of Matador member organizations, which runs 3-4 week immersion programs,

in which participants live and volunteer internationally with the purpose of strengthening bonds to immigrant/ethnic communities closer to home in the U.S.

One of their 2009 programs took participants to the Dominican Republic.

Community Connection

In case all of the above isn’t enough, the DR also made our list of 16 Places to Stretch Your Honeymoon Dollar.

Photo: stelih

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Wordless Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots!

Photo: mrmatt

THE GRAND CANYON is one of those ultimate family summer roadtrip destinations. I can picture the South Rim parking lot filled with cars with colorful license plates, heat ripples bending up from hot metal, RVs wedged into oversized spaces, and crowds camera-snapping at the overlooks.

Okay, maybe that scene plays out in winter too. Actually, back in February of 2007, I was one of those cars, one of that crowd. So I can report that, when it comes to the through-visitor, the overlook-tourist, the Grand Canyon has no low season.

Which is one big reason why, “to experience the canyon, you have to leave the rim.”

And according to Henry Shukman, author of “Walking Into the Earth’s Heart: The Grand Canyon” in a late November’s New York Times, the best time to get down into the interior is winter. Here’s his reasoning:

• Most importantly, almost no one hikes into the canyon in winter. During Shukman’s 3-day trip with his 8-year-old son, they only saw 20 or so other visitors.
• It’s cold — as opposed to sweltering. It’s nice to walk out of the shade and enjoy the warmth of the sunlight instead of cursing its heat.
• There may be snow and ice on the upper reaches of the trails, but once you get down a ways, it’s warm and sheltered enough that slipperiness isn’t an issue.

Photo: Corey Ann

Shukman’s piece has a rundown of lodging options, including the Phantom Ranch, which has dorm beds and is actually located at the bottom of the canyon. For route info, it’d be best to check out the National Park Service’s maps.

If the idea of the Grand Canyon in winter inspires you to make the hike (I know I’m thinking about it), or if you have in the past, share your experience in the comments.

Community Connection

Find out why Trips thinks the Grand Canyon is one of The World’s Richest National Parks. You can also read one Matador member’s take on the new Grand Canyon Skywalk.

1. Iguazu Falls, Argentina
Tucked in a corner at the borders of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, the 275 falls of Iguazu dwarf Niagara and have to be one of the most amazing sights anywhere.
Photo: Carlos Adampol

2. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
During the rainy season (~Jan-Mar), the world’s largest salt flat is covered in an inches-deep pool that perfectly reflects the sky, creating a truly alien landscape.
Photo: zaturno

3. Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
This archipelago, 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, is famous for its high number of endemic species (which don’t include the green sea turtle, but it’s still damn cute) and its influence on Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Photo: blichb

4. Atacama Desert, Chile
The world’s driest desert covers 40,000 square miles of northern Chile and includes coastal plains, high volcanoes, and geysers and hot springs.
Photo: magical-world

5. Amazon River
By volume, the Amazon is far and away the largest river on Earth. With hundreds of huge tributaries (such as the Rio Negro above), its drainage basin accounts for 40% of South America’s land area.
Photo: Zemlinki!

6. Angel Falls, Venezuela
Angel Falls is the world’s highest and certainly one of the most spectacular.
Photo: Da_Vinzy

7. Torres del Paine, Chile
Daggers of mountain peaks, glacial lakes, and guanaco define southern Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park.
Photo: doug88888

8. Colca Canyon, Peru
This canyon, located 100km out from Arequipa, is about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and full of Andean condors.
Photo: gudi&cris

9. Lake Titicaca, Peru/Bolivia
The superlatives keep coming. This gigantic lake spilling over the Altiplano between Bolivia and Peru is the world’s highest navigable body of water.
Photo: soylentgreen23

10. Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina
Fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field (the third-largest reserve of fresh water in the world), the Perito Moreno Glacier is the thing to see in Argentine Patagonia. You can also trek it.
Photo: tiswango

11. Laguna Colorada, Bolivia
This shallow, algae-rich lagoon attracts plenty of flamingos and is a main stop on tours of Bolivia’s Southwest Circuit.
Photo: Carlos Adampol

12. Aconcagua, Argentina
The “Roof of the Americas,” rising up from the Andes between Argentina and Chile, is 6,962 meters (22,841 feet) tall.
Photo: machimon

13. Kaieteur Falls, Guyana
While not as high-profile as the other falls on this list, Kaieteur is still the world’s largest one-drop by volume.
Photo: sorenriise

14. Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Things get extreme at the “End of the World,” the continent’s southernmost tip. The island’s scrubby trees grow horizontally in the face of strong Antarctic winds.
Photo: reurinkjan

Community Connection

Not all wonders of the natural world are equally appreciated. Check out our list of the Top 10 Disappearing Natural Wonders.

Photo: Joi

TODAY, closing out 5 years of construction and anticipation, Dubai celebrated the official opening of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s new tallest building.

That simple title doesn’t do it justice though. The Burj is nearly 1,000 feet taller than the previous record-holder, the Taipei 101. And, as Time Magazine reports:

The building boasts the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world’s tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North Dakota. Its observation deck — on floor 124 — also sets a record.

There are lots of great images out there of this mammoth spike jutting up from the flat desert plains.

Actually, dozens of other brand-new “skyscrapers” surround the building, but compared to the Burj they might as well be sand dunes.

The Guardian has a good photo essay of the construction from start to finish. But nothing outdoes this YouTube video, shot from the very pinnacle of the tower:

Shadow of the Burj

Of course, as with most things in Dubai, there’s more to the story than the headline. This time the subtext starts with the name of the building itself.

Up until a few days ago, the world’s tallest structure was going to be called the Burj Dubai. The switch to Burj Khalifa was a gesture of gratitude to Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Less than a month ago, Abu Dhabi effectively bailed out Dubai, loaning it $10 billion to pay off its debts and work towards economic stabilization. Dubai has nowhere near the oil wealth of Abu Dhabi and has been hit hard by the global financial collapse — particularly in the real-estate sector.

Photo above and feature: Avatar/ΣΙΓΜΑ

For example, apartments in the Burj were selling for $1,900/sq.ft. back in 2008, but these days that figure is down by more than half.

The folks over at the UAE Community Blog have created a graph of the “Dubai Fortune Index,” noting similarities in the shape of Dubai’s new skyline and the spikes of the emirate’s economy.

Also, as I’ve touched on before in Dubai: A Damning Portrait, the treatment of foreign construction workers in Dubai, many of whom were brought over specifically for the Burj project, is a major stain on the regime’s reputation.

The Other Emirates

Dubai and Abu Dhabi get plenty of press, but there are 5 more emirates in the UAE. I hadn’t heard of any of them, so I found The Guardian’s recent article “The Unknown Emirates” pretty interesting. Some background:

A British protectorate for almost 100 years, the UAE came into existence in 1971 when an agreement between local leaders and the British government ended. The capital and by far the richest is Abu Dhabi, with vast amounts of oil beneath its deserts; its sheikh is the overall ruler.

A Sharjah mosque / Photo: RonDeColonia

And the 5 unknowns:

Fujairah: The first emirate to gain independence, Fujairah’s coast on the Gulf of Oman is where to find the best beaches, snorkeling, and diving in the region.

Sharjah: The focus here is on family-friendly tourism (the emirate is 100% dry), with the Gulf’s largest art museum and other cultural and historical attractions.

Ras al Khaimah: This one’s up-and-coming — “guaranteed sun without the bling” — so might be the place to score a reasonably priced stay at a luxury villa.

Ajman and Umm al Qwain: The last two are tiny and, apart from the odd white-sand beach, The Guardian doesn’t think there’s much to recommend them.

Community Connection

If you enjoyed the video embed, check out 10 Places to Catch Insane City Views, then bounce over to MatadorTV for the best travel video on the Web.

All photos: nineroots

THOUGH NOT BORN or bred in Alaska, Matador member nineroots spent several years in this vast, unknown chunk of America, both on the “road system” and in “the bush.”

I moved up to Alaska on a whim that lasted six years. I quickly fell in love with the simple, back-to-the-land, lifestyle that is inherent in such an extreme climate.

For a few years, I lived…in the amazing community of Talkeetna, known for it’s river rafting, history, bluegrass festival and for being a jumping off point for climbers to Denali. In a struggle to stay employed year round, I moved out to…a fly-in Athabascan village on the Yukon River called Galena for a couple more years.

This is where I discovered the true Alaska.

A writer, teacher, mentor, and part-time ebayer, nineroots (and her husband and daughter) has cracked the code to flexible living, enjoying the freedom to travel when and how she likes. You could call it the Matador vision.

She’s also happy to share what she’s learned about the Last Frontier with anyone heading that way.

I can give info for almost all areas on the road system including the Alaska Marine Highway in Southeast Alaska and on some of the Interior such as Fairbanks and Yukon River villages.

Each bush village is unique and expensive and difficult to reach; I haven’t been to most of them, but I’ve known someone from most of them.

Connecting with nineroots — to pose a question or just say hey — is easy. Log in to your Matador profile (don’t have one yet? sign up), visit her profile page, and send a private message.

Community Connection

If you have a destination, chances are Matador has an expert. You can browse the full list, or see some of those who’ve been featured here at Trips.

Photo: garryknight

Tibet
Lola Akinmade, Matador Goods

Tibet has long been on my radar, including inciting the post Dreaming of Tibet on my personal site. One of many dreams for 2010 would be to travel to Tibet with the nonprofit organization United Planet as a photojournalist.

Photo: ZedZap.away,Van

Cuba
Carlo Alcos, Matador Trips

Now might be the time to go. The U.S. has eased some of its sanctions against Cuba, so you could imagine a much more Americanized version of the country down the line. My wife and I want to see it before that happens. And lucky for us, we get to turn this wishlist destination into reality.

Eastern Kazakhstan
Hal Amen, Matador Trips

The fence-less plains, high mountains, and nomadic culture of Central Asia fascinate me. Kazakhstan is good to go year round. In winter there are golden eagle hunting competitions just east of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, and summer would be an ideal time for trekking the Altay Mountains in the northeast.

Madagascar
Ross Borden, Matador Co-Founder

Matador travelers have raved about it and all of the photos I’ve seen make it look like another planet. Huge baobab trees, red earth, amazing beaches and reefs, and a ton of wildlife — 80% of which exists nowhere else on Earth. Hoping to hit up World Cup 2010 in South Africa and skip over to Madagascar from there. Any advice would be appreciated! My Matador profile is here.

Photo: Blablaurgh – Carlos Ebert

Peru
Tom Gates, Matador Nights

I’ve only begun to highlight my Rough Guide but it’s already doing me in. I hadn’t even considered going to this country before but now I’m twitchy for it. I didn’t realize that Machu Picchu was only the tip of the iceberg. Given the entry fee in Brazil, Chile, and now Argentina, I’m ready to start exploring the north of South America.

Ireland
JoAnna Haugen, Associate Editor

For the last couple years I’ve had an incredible desire to cycle through the Irish countryside. Though I’d like to visit Galway, Dublin, and Cork someday, I’d love my first trip to the Emerald Isle to be laid back and touch on moments that I can relish in.

Nepal
Andy Hayes, Twitter Ninja

I can’t help but notice Nepal popping up in unusual places. And given my love for rich, experiential travel, I can think of many ways to spend my time there. I’m not looking forward to the affects of altitude, but I am sure it’s nothing an authentic spiritual journey can’t fix.

China
Ian MacKenzie, Brave New Traveler

My growing interest in Taoism is leading me back to the native country of Lao Tzu. To the Western mind, China is a mystery — a place both ancient and struggling to modernize, currently operating under the thumb of a Communist regime that has existed for a fraction of the region’s history. Given the depth, scope, and potential glimpse at enlightenment, it’s high time I experience it for myself.

Photo: reurinkjan

Xinjiang Province, China
Sarah Menkedick, Matador Abroad

Xinjiang province called out to me the whole time I was in China. My husband and I chose tropical Borneo over frigid northwest China when my sweet two months of winter vacation rolled around, but Xinjiang has continued to haunt us.

Amazon Rainforest
Abbie Mood, Intern

I’ve wanted to go to the rainforest for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I read about the deforestation and about the plants and animals that can only be found in the rainforest and since then have desperately wanted to go before it is gone forever.

New Zealand
Sarah Park, Matador Trips Intern

I’d love to visit New Zealand in 2010 to complete my very first year-long winter. And if the day ever comes when I’m sick of snow, I’ve really got to check out these penguins.

Osaka, Japan
Tim Patterson, Matador Abroad

Ryan Libre is putting on a photo show at the Osaka Nikon Gallery this summer. Titled “Portraits of Independence,” the show features photos from our time together in northern Myanmar with the Kachin Independence Army. I would love to make it to this show, not only to relive some of the moments Ryan and I shared in Kachin, but also to renew my relationship with Japan.

Photo: ianduffy

Antarctica
Adam Roy, Matador Sports

One of my favorite things with any adventure sport is looking for the extremes. Ever since I learned how to use a drysuit, scuba diving in Antarctica has been one of my dreams. Getting to jump into that totally alien world that so few people get to see — just the idea gives me shivers (for more than one reason).

Wales
Michelle Schusterman, Matador Goods

I want to be surprised. I’ve visited Scotland, Ireland, and England, but never Wales — I know a pathetic amount about it, and now I just want to jump in without giving a thought to guidebooks. I want to see the landscapes I can’t picture and eat the food I can’t imagine. I want to hear Welsh.

Benin
Julie Schwietert, Managing Editor

My beat — journalistically, psychologically, and mentally — is Latin America and the Caribbean, but I’ve been feeling pulled toward Africa for a long time. I’ve never been. West Africa, in particular, is of interest to me for its political history and its music; of all the West African countries, Benin is where I’d want to go if I had to limit myself to just one country.

Antarctica
Matt Scott, Community Manager

There’s something about being able to stand on the bottom of the earth, in a place that is truly unique. No one really knows how long Antarctica, and its wildlife, will exist in its present form, so I want to get there before it changes forever.

Photo: OiMax

Japan
Kate Sedgwick, Matator Nights

I love big cities and there’s nothing like a good culture shock to get the mind’s gears whirring again, so I’ve got to see Tokyo. I want to go into a store and have no clue what might be in a package and have no idea how to even find out. I want to be confused by street signs I can’t even begin to decipher or pronounce and get lost, lost, lost.

Mainland China
Leigh Shulman, Matador Life

I’ve been obsessed with China ever since reading Soul Mountain years ago. I most definitely see myself backpacking alone through the countryside one day soon enough.

South Island, New Zealand
Eileen Smith, Intern

Give me windswept and stark, photogenic and green apple-fresh, and I’m all over it. 2010 has already agreed to be very kind to me and whisk me to points unknown in New Zealand, where the goal is to pedal against punishing headwinds and through pelting rain into the kind of scenery where you lament that your peripheral vision simply can’t take it all in.

Photo: Ed-meister

Mongolia
Paul Sullivan, Editor-at-Large

The first time Mongolia “came to life” for me was while watching an incredible throat-singing band called Yat Kha at the Transmusicale Festival in Rennes, France. I sat in on the subsequent press conference and was really spellbound by the band’s stories of life in Ulan Bator — the isolation, scenery, folk mythologies, ways of life, the horses and yurts.

Canada
Candice Walsh, Associate Editor

After country-hopping for the past two years, my whole attitude about Canada has been, “Well, I live here, what else is there to see?” But when I took a trip to Ottawa, Ontario, this past summer, I was blown away by how different everything was in comparison to my province, Newfoundland. This year, I hope to hit up Halifax and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and I’m also planning a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, for early fall.

Socotra, Yemen
Jason Wire, Contributor-at-Large

A place that evolution forgot, Socotra seems as though it appeared out of a wormhole, giving a glimpse into some sort of human-alien hybrid world. So, naturally, that’s what I’d put on my wishlist. I should probably add good luck with weather and security through Yemen and the waters near Socotra, which are notorious for pirate attacks. Hopefully they’re still offering luxury pirate-hunting cruises.

Community Connection

Okay, lay it on us — what is YOUR Getsome List for 2010? Also, make sure to VOTE: Which Country Would YOU Rather Visit in 2010?

Photo: Kıvanç Niş

THE START OF a new year (and a new decade, nonetheless) brings out all kinds of “top destination” lists on the travel webs.

We’re taking a slightly different tack. Click over to today’s post, Matador’s GETSOME List: Our Wishlist Destinations for 2010, to find out where the members of the Matador team are dying to get to in the new year.

Now it’s your turn. Check out the 5 hot, talked-up destinations below, and then scroll down to cast your vote on where you’d like to be found in 2010.

Photo: Frames-of-Mind

1. South Africa

With the epic four-year showdown of the world’s most popular game set to go off in June, South Africa is topping all kinds of “must-see” lists. But of course there’s more than the World Cup to recommend this destination.

You can dive with great white sharks, peep penguins, and take a sunset cruise at the confluence of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The cost of visiting is also relatively low, which helped South Africa make Lonely Planet’s Best-value destinations for 2010 (although, as they point out, don’t expect deals this summer).

If South Africa gets your vote, hit up Matador’s destination expert with your pre-trip questions.

2. Iceland

Iceland is still the big story in travel-slanted economic news. Its 2008 bankruptcy shocked travelers as well as economists and led plenty of sites to advise you to Plan Your Budget Vacation to… Iceland?

Of course, everything’s relative, so for folks heading that way, Trips’ Budget Travel Guide to the country is still a good companion. On top of that, don’t miss our Photo Essay: Iceland’s Fire and Ice or tips on How to Drink on the Reykjavik Rúntur.

You’re in good company if you give Iceland your click: BootsnAll, Gadling, and Lonely Planet agree with you.

3. Panama

Underdog? Yeah, probably. Lonely Planet grabs El Salvador as their Central American representative, applying the “overlooked, under-appreciated” label. But Panama has that too. It’s also home to one of the 20 Craziest Party Hostels Around the World.

Off Track Planet selects Panama for their list in the “best beaches” category. Specifically, those of the San Blas Islands, which are reachable from Cartagena, Colombia, and where

women dress in handmade molas (beautifully colored fabrics), everyone has a natural sun glow tan and fresh fish is caught daily by locals in handmade kayak boats.

Matador’s expert on Panama, Spencer Klein, is also taken with the country, adding

Panama has perhaps the richest culture in the region; with a wide diversity of people and a strong sense of tradition, there is quite a lot to experience.

Whether you’re going or not, make sure to check out his When Maximo was our Captain: Surfing Bocas.

Photo: kkcondon

4. Nepal

From underdog to overdog — Nepal gets plenty of shout-outs. Both Lonely Planet and Gadling kept with tradition this year.

There’s a lot to big up about Nepal. Trekking, in particular — getting high in the Himalaya.

If you need more background info before casting a vote, check out A Traveler’s Guide to Culture in Nepal and a sweet travel vid, 28 days through India and Nepal, on MatadorTV.

Matador’s Nepal expert is another good resource.

5. Turkey

Another unlikely, Turkey made a short list over at dailycandy.com for its extra-euro (and hence good-value?) economy. Also, Istanbul is one of the EU’s European Capitals of Culture for 2010.

I’m including it here because I’ve been a fan ever since sourcing a photo of the Cappadocia region for a photo essay on 12 Lesser-Known Ruins of the World. Allison Grossman’s Images from Istanbul had the same effect.

Travelers looking for opportunities for long-term stays will appreciate Istanbul’s spot on our 18 Most Scenic Places For Teaching English Overseas.

VOTE NOW!

Community Connection

For more ideas on where to go in 2010, there’s The Best and Worst Destinations, According to National Geographic and 2010’s Most Endangered Cultural Sites.

Photo: NeilsPhotography

1. Ericeira: Portugal’s Surf Mecca

“The Portuguese fishing village of Ericeira harbours a secret, or — depending on how fussy you are — about 11 world-class secrets.”

2. Trekking Central Laos

“The 2-day trek through the rugged limestone mountains of Khammuan Province features magnificent scenery, lovely villages, and lots of refreshing swimming holes.”

3. Bolivia’s Southwest Circuit. Backwards.

“Colored lakes, hot springs, flamingo flocks, geysers, crazy rock formations, painted volcanoes. This and more awaits you in Bolivia’s wild southwest.”

4. Trans Siberian Sidetrips: How to Break Your Train Ride

“OK. You’ve decided you want to take the world’s longest and most famous train ride. But aside from playing cards, drinking tea (ahem, vodka), and eating noodles on the train, what are you going to do? Unless you really have to be somewhere, I highly recommend at least a few stops along the journey.”

5. Detroit Is for Lovers

“Detroit gets a lot of negative press, but despite its bad rap, the city has a lot to offer. Give it some love and it’ll love you back.”

6. Discover Your Own Machu Picchu: Choquequirao, Peru

“Did you visit Machu Picchu thinking you’d arrived 50 years too late? Wish you could’ve seen it before the tourist hordes and luxury hotel moved in? Then Choquequirao might be for you.”

Photo: Sotti

7. How to Travel to Socotra Island, Yemen

“Somewhere between 189 and 217 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen (depending on your source of information), like a tiny, glittering tongue-stud in the gaping maw of the Gulf of Aden, lies the legendary island of Socotra (Suquṭra), ancient source of ambergris, dragon’s blood, frankincense, and myrrh.”

8. The Great Ocean Walk: Victoria’s Coastal Hike

“Yes, driving the Great Ocean Road is nice. But walking the coastline is a much deeper experience.”

9. Guide to the Redwood Groves: Where to Find the Tallest Trees on Earth

“Taller than a football field. Older than Jesus. There are only a handful of places on Earth where living things fit these descriptions.”

10. In Jordan, Forget Lonely Planet. Bring a Bible.

“If you’re interested in traveling to the Middle East but aren’t sure where to begin, be like the Pope: kick-start your trip through the holy land in Jordan. With its welcoming people, small size, and manageable number of sacred sites, Jordan is the place to go biblical.”

Community Connection

When you need the lowdown on a destination, check in with Matador’s team of destination experts.

From “The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth” / Photo: Luca Galuzzi

1. The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth

The most popular piece in Trips history, with over half a million views and 140 comments, pulls together the eeriest and most eye-catching landscape shots from around the world. Many thanks to the Flickr photographers who permitted us to feature their copyrighted work.

2. Papua New Guinea

Contributor Taro Taylor profiles the firedancers of a Papua New Guinean tribe known as the Baining, including shots of landscapes that could certainly be considered “alien” in their own right.

3. 13 Places to Get Close to the EDGE

This essay seemed to stimulate vertigo in many commenters. One lucky reader nabbed a Laken water bottle for correctly naming the location of photo #3.

4. The Matador Photographers’ Animal Kingdom

As 2009 progressed, Matador became more active in the world of travel photography. One big development was the creation of the Matador Photography group at Flickr. The essay above is made up of member shots of animals from around the world.

Photo: Inti

5. One Day in Zanzibar

If you were to spend a day on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, this might be what you’d see. Of course, it’d be difficult to capture the images as masterfully as Gregor Rohrig does.

6. Exploring Morocco’s Pink City and Beyond

Matador editor-at-large Paul Sullivan uses his experience in writing and photographing two editions of the Hedonist’s Guide to Marrakech to take us on a tour of the fabled Pink City and surrounding mountains and coast.

7. Spectacular Waterfalls of the World

Waterfalls make for good photos, but it can be difficult to get a good shot — except when you’re shooting these cascades. Check out this collection of the best waterfall pics on the Web.

8. The Spirit Of Burma

Contributor Felice Willat captures some great images of the people and religious architecture of Myanmar (Burma) in this memorable essay.

9. 12 Lesser-Known Ruins of the World

We all know what Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat look like. But Khara-Khoto, Wat Phu, El Djem? This essay is for them.

10. Images from Istanbul

A collection of images from a city at the crossroads. If you can’t make it there in person, let Allison Grossman show you around.

Community Connection

Looking for a rundown of recent photography news at Matador? Check out Trips’ From the Eds: 1,000 Words.

Photo: Gustty

1. World’s Best Surf Spots for Beginners (And 5 You Should Avoid)

“These days learning to surf doesn’t have to be the fearful, difficult proposition it once was. Forgiving foam surfboards and qualified surf instructors mean standing up and riding a wave in your first session is very likely — and then you’re hooked. Read on for Matador’s list of the best surf spots to start your new addiction…”

2. Matador’s Top 7 Summer Road Trips in the US / Canada

“Summertime in the US and Canada is all about road tripping. Here are 7 of our favorites, some well known, others following country roads that only locals usually travel. All of them have plenty of room for improvisation.”

3. The Top 20 Microbreweries in America

“Twenty of the best microbrews America has to offer and the towns to drink them in.”

4. 9 Montana Backpacking Trips That Will Blow Your Mind

“From alpine tundra to lush valleys, hot springs to waterfalls, here is some of the most amazing terrain in the world and how you can get there.”

5. Go In Peace: Seven Asian War Destinations

“The 20th century was a time of brutal savagery in Asia. Warfare technology brought us Agent Orange, napalm, and the atomic bomb. And along with that, loss of human life on an enormous scale. The people of these countries haven’t forgotten their past ordeals and many sites have been erected to remind us of the horrors of war.”

Photo: linh.ngân

6. The World’s 15 Most Bike Friendly Cities

“Grab a helmet and check out these 15 pedal heavens, where drivers have actually been known to use all five fingers when they wave at you.”

7. Liberoachi, Voodoos, and Condiments: The World’s 10 Wackiest Museums

“So you’ve been to the Louvre and the Guggenheim and the MET. Bravo. Those are child’s play. If you want something truly unique and memorable, you have to check these out.”

8. World’s 8 Most Colorful Chinatowns

“Can’t be in China to ring in the Lunar New Year? Not to worry: there will be celebrations going on in Chinatowns worldwide.”

9. Matador’s Favorite Spots in Buenos Aires, Argentina

“Several members of the Matador team either are living or have lived in BsAs. These are their stories.”

10. 8 More Strange Places on Planet Earth

“You’ve walked the Great Wall, gazed upon the Pyramids of Giza, and scaled the Andes to Machu Picchu. What’s next? Earth is a mighty big place, and if you’re willing to strap on some snowshoes or trek through barren deserts, there’s a whole lot of strangeness left out there.”

Community Connection

Suspicious of lists? So are we. What did you make of LP’s Top 10 Destinations for 2010?

Photo: Jason Rezaian

One of the funnest things about editing Trips in 2009 has been connecting with destination experts from the Matador community. Nearly every week, we’ve introduced an expert on a different city, region, or country around the world.

Here’s a random, geographically diverse selection of five of them:

1. The Philippines – MichaLola

“Her goal as the Philippine travel expert is to shed light on her diverse, dynamic, and intriguing homeland made up of 7,107 islands. She aims to dispel the inaccurate stereotypes that have been attached to this nation and would be more than happy to provide tips, suggestions, and answer your every query and travel concern regarding the Philippines.”

2. Iran – Jason Rezaian

“I’m fortunate enough to be one of very few Americans able to travel freely to Iran. With that country dominating the headlines once again, there are so many misconceptions swirling around about it. I’d love to help clear some of them up. I assist journalists as well as private citizens in their travel plans for Iran, and I would love to answer any questions you may have.”

3. Antarctica – rico nico

“I’m flattering myself with the title of “expert,” but if anyone is curious about how you can get to Antarctica and be PAID for it, I’m happy to provide some useful suggestions.”

Photo: El Lobo

4. Spain – El Lobo

“Southern Spain, called Andalucía, is my specialty, as I guide cultural walking tours every summer in Sevilla, Granada, Córdoba, and the Alpujarras. I’ve lived, studied, worked, and traveled extensively in Galicia, Cataluña, Extremadura, Madrid, and the Cantabrian coast. I also spent two years living in Sevilla and Granada.”

5. Kenya – jonnyontheroad

“I lived in Kenya for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer and traveled just about everywhere in the country. If you’re looking for trip or service ideas, let me know.”

Recently, in order to leverage the knowledge of our experts to an even greater extent, Trips began posting guides on “What NOT to Do” in various destinations. This series gives destination experts a chance to get candid, outlining the avoidable attractions in their region — and what to do instead.

Photo: ajari

1. What NOT to Do in Japan

Turner Wright advises you to stay out of the pachinko parlors.

2. What NOT to Do in Paris

The view from the Eiffel Tower isn’t worth the climb, according to Matt Scott.

3. What NOT to Do in Chile

Eileen Smith lays out which Santiago-based wine tours are good to go.

4. What NOT to Do in Egypt

Nick Rowlands explains how John Wayne, legs, and camel farts might fit into your Egypt itinerary.

5. What NOT to Do in Guadeloupe

If you’re headed to this virtually unknown Caribbean archipelago, Anna Brones has the info you need.

Community Connection

Matador’s destination experts are just one resource in our vibrant travel community. Sign up today and discover the rest.

Photo: brainchildvn

Gay ski weeks…who knew? I didn’t, but I’m not sure why — there are tons on the calendar for the 2009-2010 ski season.

And there’s a lot more than powder on offer. We’re talking concerts, DJs, themed parties, comedy shows, and special packages (ahem).

Below is a selection of events from a variety of mountains and dates. To see the whole list, check out “A higher elevation” from www.dallasvoice.com.

Utah Gay & Lesbian Ski Week

where: Park City, Utah
when: January 6-10
website: GaySkiing.org

Utah starts it off. How nice of them. As the original article notes: “This is the Sundance Film Festival’s backyard, so it’s liberals everywhere for a few weeks.”

Aspen Gay & Lesbian Ski Week

where: Aspen, Colorado
when: January 17-24
website: GaySkiWeek.com

Now in its 33rd year, this is one of the biggies. Lots of music and a downhill drag race are included in the full 7 days of festivities.

Winter Explosion

where: Kerhonkson, New York
when: February 12-15
website: winterexplosion.com

The 16th annual Winter Explosion, dedicated especially to the African-American gay community, will also be its swan song. The artist Ledisi is headlining.

Telluride Gay Ski Week

where: Telluride, Colorado
when: February 20-27
website: www.telluridegayskiweek.com

This one’s been voted top gay ski week in the country. How could it not when hosting parties with names like Hump Night (on Wednesday, of course)?

WinterPride

where: Whistler, British Columbia
when: March 1-8
website: GayWhistler.com

After the Olympics shuts down, the pride party is set to hit Whistler-Blackcomb’s 8,000 skiable acres. There’s no telling which athletes might decide to book an extra week in the Olympic Village…

Community Connection

Plan out a different kind of vacation with Best American Spots for a Same-Sex Wedding and Ten of the World’s Farthest Flung Gay Bars.

Also check out Photo Essay: Gay Pride in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Photos: Mongolia-Web

It’s wicked cold for sure, and yes, there’s some snow, but Mongolia has never been associated with alpine skiing. Things change.

This November marked the grand opening of the country’s first downhill ski mountain, “Sky Resort,” situated on the outskirts of the capital, Ulan Bator.

If you’re in the mood for a review smacking of privileged condescension, head over to the post on The New York Time’s In Transit blog.

Otherwise, read on to see what Matador member akmonki, who visited the mountain in its second week, thought of Sky Resort. Akmonki is currently a youth development volunteer with the Peace Corps in the small city of Baganuur.

For a window into life in the world’s most sparsely populated country, I highly recommend following her Matador blog.

While you had to keep in mind that this was still Mongolia and there were only 3 main runs (one blue square, one green circle, and one bunny hill), it was deee-luxe. The rows of shiny ski/snowboard equipment, snow-making machines, and spacious facility made a pretty convincing case for a legitimate ‘resort’, comparable to something back in America.

And the prices were hard to beat. A half-day ski pass plus equipment rental cost only 19,000 tugriks (equivalent to about $14 USD). It was most likely over our PC-issued leisure allowance, but well worth the few extra tugriks.

Riding an unhurried chairlift up to the blue square run, I noticed that we were the only people on the lift—turned out that most Mongolians are still taking baby-steps in the world of skiing.

Most of the time we spent teaching and coaxing another volunteer friend who had never been on skis before, and therefore only managed to cruise a couple of runs. But the speed and chilly rush of those few minutes got my endorphins pumping enough to reawaken the skier in me.

*excerpt from the Matador blog post In the Big City

For more info, including a trail map, check out Ski Season in Mongolia begins this weekend at Mongolia-Web. Below is a short video from YouTube showing some of the terrain.

Community Connection

Have you added your voice to the Matador community? If not, join up, get in touch with fellow travelers, and share your thoughts and experiences in your own Matador blog.

And, for other winter-themed travel videos (and a whole lot more), pop some popcorn and head over to MatadorTV, your source for the best travel video on the web.

All photos: ethekwinigirl

2010 is almost here, and that means only six months to go till World Cup South Africa. A local’s advice could prove invaluable when you’re planning your visit. I mean, did you know you might have to be on the lookout for brazen baboons in Cape Town?

Good thing that Karen, known in the Matador community as ethekwinigirl, is as local as they come:

I live in Durban on the East Coast of South Africa. Every morning I watch the sun rise over the Indian Ocean. I have lived here in South Africa all my life and have travelled across the country, through all the game parks in KwaZulu-Natal, and spent many holidays in Kruger. I’ve been to the Cradle of Humankind and the Cango and Sterkfontein Caves.

I’ve climbed in the Drakensberg and enjoyed all four seasons in the beautiful Eastern Freestate. Seen Rock paintings by the San people; explored the winelands in the Cape; enjoyed the warm ocean on the Transkei coast.

As a writer, translator, and photographer, Karen makes a living producing content on her home country. She’s even written speeches for local politicians in Durban. Check out Why should you Travel in Africa? and visit her website and suite101 page to learn more about her work — including the upcoming publication of her South Africa-based crime fiction novel.

Karen’s written for Matador as well, sharing travel tips on her hometown in Durban, South Africa’s Playground. Here’s some more from her Matador community profile:

About me: I write for a living and I really enjoy what I do. I also enjoy taking photographs and travelling when I can afford it. I feel priviledged to be living in South Africa during this time of transformation.
I’m fired up on: I love wandering around strange cities and towns; sitting at pavement cafes with a book or a newspaper (or my laptop) and just absorbing the newness and differentness.
Why I travel: Maybe I like the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen next; the looking at everything through new eyes; the totally different sensory stimulation. I guess I live much more consciously when I travel and because it is all so different from home, it frees my head and cleans it out.

Do you have questions for Karen? Asking is easy. Just create your own Matador profile, visit hers, and send a private message.

Community Connection

Have you discovered Matador Sports? Get your stoke up for the World Cup with these titles:

World Cup Team Profile: United States

World Cup Preview: North Korea vs. South Korea

Who Will Survive ‘O Grupo da Morte’?

Thierry Henry Foul Gets ‘Heavy-Handed’ Reaction

1. Manhattan
Photo: stephenhanafin

2. Beijing
Photo: West Zest

3. Paris
Photo: ollografik

4. Chicago
Photo: johnnyalive

5. Moscow
Photo: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

6. Prague
Photo: liber

7. Stockholm
Photo: ragnar1984

8. Boston
Photo: dsearls

9. Tokyo
Photo: iMorpheus

10. Amsterdam
Photo: isabel bloedwater

11. Berlin
Photo: zak mc

12. Toronto
Photo: Jeff Karpala

13. Seoul
Photo: a song under the sugar sugar

14. Tehran
Photo: Shahram Sharif

15. London
Photo: jaybergesen

Community Connection

Have you only seen snow in pictures like this? We hope you heard the call earlier this month and entered Colorado’s Snow at First Sight Winter Contest.

Photo: Capitan Giona

Trips likes to bring you ideas for enjoying notoriously wallet-crushing destinations at little or no cost. Here’s a quick sampling of budget travel guides we’ve published in the past:

A Budget Travel Guide to Iceland
How to Enjoy Paris for Free
Sightseeing in Venice for (Almost) Free
Budget Guide to New York City
Seattle on the Cheap: 7 Tips to Save Cash in the Emerald City

Scandinavia is always way up there on the list of travel-savings destroyers, so we thought it might be handy to point out these two resources we found on About.com’s Scandinavia Travel blog:

10 Free Things in Oslo
10 Free Things to Do in Helsinki

Norway’s capital is the occasional ruler of the world’s most expensive cities ranking, and Helsinki certainly isn’t cheap, but both put on several cost-free annual events. Visiting the cities’ churches and museums can be free as well.

Photo: sidewalk flying

These pages also have links to free city maps and language resources, in addition to weather info.

Winter might not seem like the most obvious season for a Scandinavian trip, but December is actually one of its most popular travel months. There’s free ice skating in Oslo and plenty of Christmas markets to choose from throughout the region. Sightings of the Northern Lights are also common.

If your budget is less of a concern, make sure to check out the ice hotels: Norway’s got one, as does Sweden.

And finally, before you go, hit up Matador’s destination experts with your logistical questions:

Oslo - SophieR
Sweden - Anna Brones

Community Connection

For more Scandinavian fun, check out In Search of the Swedish Companion – Tunnbröd‏, a photo essay by Lola Akinmade, who happens to be another expert on Stockholm in addition to being editor of Matador Goods.

Photo: alykat

Friend of Trips Matt Stabile, aka TheExpeditioner, has tossed out some priceless (literally) travel tips for anyone heading to New York City this holiday season.

The piece, titled Top 10 Free Things To Do In New York City This December, tells you which big-name museums have free entry when, where you can catch no-cover tunes, and, of course, how to enjoy a Christmas-themed Big Apple on a budget.

Here are the pointers I’d be following if I were in town:

• Hit up the West Village’s Garage Restaurant for free jazz — any night of the week.
• Skip the symphony and head to Julliard for free performances by tomorrow’s virtuosos.
• Instead of getting jostled in Rockefeller Center, check out South Street Seaport’s big tree, plus free chorus carols on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Same deal, only with ice skating. Pass over the film-famous rinks for the one in Prospect Park. If you’re just a watcher, go this Friday (Dec. 18) for “Disco Skate.” Note: It’s not quite free; cost is $5.

For the full list, make sure to visit the original post here. Thanks, Matt!

Community Connection

Regardless of when you visit the city, take Trips’ Budget Guide to New York City with you.

Photo: Hal Amen

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Remember, we’re always accepting submissions for Weekend Wanderlust photos over at the Matador Photography Flickr group. Stop by, sign up, and share your shots!

Photo: Global Jet

America may be a young country, but a lot of complex history gets packed into 233 years of nationhood — especially when you’re talking about a place as geographically and ethnically diverse as the USA.

Understanding American heritage in its entirety is a daunting task, but here are 8 sights Budget Travel thinks will get you started:

Photo: Mike Miley

1. Sears (Willis) Tower - Tallest building in the U.S., standing in the hometown of the world’s first skyscraper.
2. Gettysburg, PA - The site of perhaps the most pivotal battle of the U.S. Civil War.
3. Yellowstone National Park - The first-ever designated national park…in the world.
4. New York Harbor - A solid chunk of American ancestry passed through here, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
5. Monticello - Thomas Jefferson’s domed house in Charlottesville, VA.
6. Graceland - A nod to pop culture, Elvis Presley’s well-touristed home makes the list.
7. Pearl Harbor - The setting of the story of how America was drawn into WWII.
8. Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church - The Atlanta church of one of America’s most revered figures of conscience, Martin Luther King, Jr.

The limits to this topic are quite broad, as Budget Travel acknowledges,

In trying to come up with a list of places every American must see, we knew we’d raise some hackles.

Here are a few from the shortlist that didn’t make the cut:

• Grand Canyon - Truly, America’s natural heritage deserves a list all its own.
• Ground Zero - Site of the latest defining moment in the American narrative.
• Trail of Tears - As any conscious celebration of Thanksgiving reminds us, there are chapters — entire volumes, really — of American history that need to be more intimately acknowledged, dragged into the light of scrutiny (Wounded Knee, SD, also comes to mind in this context).

Now it’s your turn. What places do you think every American “must see” to better understand the heritage we were born into? Tell us in the comments.

Community Connection

Does the very phrase “must see” make you cringe? Commiserate with kindred spirits in 10 Words and Phrases We Never Want to See in Travel Writing Again.

Photos: pranaforce

A Matador community member since the early days, pranaforce is our resident go-to for all things Thailand. In his own words:

I’ve been known to take off to Thailand quite a bit, though I don’t feel like an expert in my knowledge of the land of Thai’s I do feel I’ve experienced enough to give ya’ll a pretty cool perspective of where to go depending on what you’re looking to do/experience for yourself.

Diving, trekking, climbing, yoga, meditation, food, shopping, clubbing, fun scenes from downtown BKK to isolated islands with other truth seekers on the path. Let me know if I can help and I’ll do my best to assist in anyway I can. Be well~

Here’s a little more about pranaforce:

About me: Gangsta sums it up!
I’m fired up on: Punjabi, the suns energy, oceanic endeavors, punjabi.. oh and yoga; )
Why I travel: To learn as much as I can.. and teach all that I learn
Let’s collaborate: and listen!

To read more, or to pose your questions about the land of smiles, join the community and visit pranaforce’s Matador profile.

Community Connection

Matador has so much good content on Thailand. I could list my favorites, but why don’t you just check out our Thailand Focus page and choose your own?

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which despite being the most visited, still reserves space for the soloist. / Photo: Kat Martin

The mission of the U.S. National Park Service is to safeguard America’s special places “so that all may experience our heritage.” Some of that heritage is experienced more than the rest.

The LA Times Travel section has lists of the country’s most- and least-trafficked parks, using 2009 visitor numbers through the month of August. Here’s how the rankings fall:

The Packed

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN/NC

Easy access from the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest, plus a well-maintained system of roads that makes it possible to get a “park experience” without straying 100 meters from your vehicle, equaled 6.4 million visitors in the first eight months of 2009.

Of course, as with any national park, it’s also gorgeous. If you’re thinking of checking it out but are worried about getting caught in the mob, I offer some tips on my personal blog in the post Cracking the Shell: How to Enjoy Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Photo: eva101

2. Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

The attraction here is obvious, and more than 3 million people thought it was worth the journey earlier this year.

That might sound like a lot, but the canyon is 277 miles long, and there are lots of trails down into its 6,000ft mouth — plenty of opportunities to lose the crowds.

3. Yosemite National Park, CA

Yosemite is one of the world’s richest national parks, a great place to get close to the edge, and has some of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world, earning it the list’s #3 spot.

Make sure to click over to MatadorTV for the travel video Road Trip America: Yosemite with Joshywashington.

The Deserted

1. Kobuk Valley National Park, AK

Kobuk, the size of Delaware and sitting just inside the Arctic Circle, has no designated roads, trails, or campgrounds. Through August, only 1,250 people had visited for the year, mostly hardcore backcountry-ists and local hunters.

The park is famous for its caribou herds, as well as — incongruously — the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes.

2. National Park of American Samoa, American Samoa

Simple isolation accounts for this island park’s low visitor numbers (2,400 during the period in question). No doubt its reefs, beaches, and mountainous forests would draw many more were they closer to “home.”

The park was hit hard by the tsunami that killed over 100 on the Samoan islands in late September.

6. Isle Royale National Park, MI

Photo: Ben+Sam

The list returns to Alaska for the next three entries — Isle Royale is the first to appear from the continental U.S.

Again, isolation is the word on this system of islands stuck in the middle of Lake Superior between the skinny tip of Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and a scantly populated region of Ontario.

Access is by boat or seaplane, and over eight months only 12,600 people opted to visit this remote wilderness.

Community Connection

Find out which of these parks would make good stopovers along Matador’s Top 7 Summer Road Trips in the US / Canada.

Photo: muha…

Your Matador Trips editors believe a thoughtful photograph can rival a well-crafted travel tale. This was reconfirmed for me recently when I found The Boston Globe’s photo site: The Big Picture. Seriously, check these out:

On the shoreline: A celebration of those narrow lines where water meets earth.
Watching the H1Ni flu pandemic: Surgical masks, syringes, and wet wipes from around the world.
Pushkar Mela: Shots from an annual camel fair in Rajasthan, India (and some of the best photos I’ve ever seen).

We’ve brought you some pretty sweet photo essays ourselves in recent months. In fact, one of them, The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth, just surpassed half a million pageviews. Here are some other classics:

12 Lesser-Known Ruins of the World
GIANT Redwoods, the Tallest Living Things on Our Planet
Berlin 20/20: A Photo Tour of a Reunited City
13 Places to Get Close to the EDGE

Photo: meaduva

We’ve also invited everyone from the Matador Community to join in the photo fun. If you haven’t already, make sure to visit the Matador Photography Flickr group and sign up.

Carlo’s taken the initiative there, putting out calls for shots that we can use for our Wordless Wanderlust series, as well as submissions for an upcoming wildlife photo essay.

But most importantly, Matador Network has been active on this topic from the beginning, publishing some truly valuable content designed to help you step up your photog game. Have you read these?

The A-B-C-D-E of Travel Photography
What makes a photo tell a story?
Studies in Travel Photography: Perspective, Timing, and Themes

It only gets better from here. Just a couple weeks ago the news came out that MatadorU, fired up from the success of its 12-week Travel Writing Program, will be offering a travel photography course in 2010.

Here’s to more photo essays on Matador Trips, and more kick-ass photographers in the Matador tribe.

Hal Amen, Co-editor

Community Connection

Again, you’re invited to join Matador Photography over at Flickr. We’ve already got more than 100 members and hundreds of travel photos.

A los capos les gusta Matador. / Photo: ‘J’

Tom Gates, Matador Nights

Arguably the best Japanese food in Buenos Aires is at Comedor Nikkai, which is, not surprisingly, located in the Japanese Cultural Center (Av. Independencia 732, San Telmo).

The spinach appetizer still makes me drool while daydreaming. Sushi plates are fresh and generous. The chirashi is among the best I’ve ever had, and I’ve housed a lot of raw fish. Great sake and a very friendly staff. Rivals the best sushi I’ve had in New York or Japan.

Photo: Tokyo Tanenhaus

Another favorite: the Federal Police Museum. Strange and borderline terrifying.

I’ve gone twice and have never witnessed another customer, which wouldn’t be a big deal were the place not filled with creepy mannequins that could come to life at any moment.

The drug section is bizarre, especially the heroin display with a needle sticking out of a fake arm. It’s all here — re-creations of exhumed bodies, the bones of a police dog, and even confiscated gambling equipment.

An absolute must if you’re a little freaky. I wrote a post about it (with photos) called Creeped Out at Museo de la Policia Federal, Buenos Aires.

Adam Roy, Matador Sports

I’d have to go with one of three things:

* Cafe San Bernardo — a neighborhood dive in Villa Crespo, got character comin’ out the ears, complete with poem dedicated to the cafe posted on the wall, a giant, yellowing picture of Carlitos hanging above the bar, and about 20 pool tables. Also, open 24-7 (Avenida Corrientes 5434).

* El Ateneo — the friggin’ gigantic bookstore in an old theater (Avenida Santa Fe 1860).

* Bendita/Maldita Milonga — crazy, semi-spooky milonga in San Telmo, right next to Club Museum.

David Miller, Matador Senior Editor

Note: originally published as a Matador blog, 8/10/07

Street scene, San Telmo/Photo: saumilshah

Lau’s dad, Adalberto, came over yesterday and we had lunch in San Telmo, a great place called territorio at the corner of Estados Unidos and Bolivar.

Dark, high-ceilinged, and with several cervezas artesanales or microbrews on tap, it felt almost like an Irish pub except for the Brazilian breakbeats and other electronic music playing on the stereo.

Both Adalberto and I had guiso surreño, a classic meat stew, topped with rosemary potatoes, and cerveza rubio, or pilsner. Lau had an omelet with basil, tomato, and cheese that looked wonderful.

The place had an immaculate bathroom, which, as Anthony Bourdain points out, is a pretty solid indicator of how a restaurant keeps their kitchen. I also noted a special paragraph on the menu stating that territorio doesn’t serve cokes or soft drinks as the hyper-sweetened beverages take away from the food. I couldn’t agree more.

After lunch we had pear tarts and apple crumbles for dessert, plus tea and espressos. This would’ve been a $60 lunch back in the U.S. but with the exchange rate being more than 3 pesos to a dollar, it ended up costing less than twenty bucks.

A highly recommendable spot for lunch or dinner here in San Telmo. (011 4300-9756)

Kate Sedgwick, Matador Nights

I hear El Boliche de Darío has two locations, though I’ve only ever been to the one in Vélez Sarsfield (Av. Miguel Canonigo del Corro 399). But I’ve been there more times than I can count on my fingers, which almost becomes necessary after the food coma I put myself into each time I go.

For just over 30 pesos, you’ll receive an overwhelming amount of food, starting with fries, empanadas, and salads (of two varieties), grilled provoleta (a whole chunk of provolone cheese grilled like a chunk of beef), morcilla (blood sausage), and chori (or chorizo – sausage) before the meat starts coming out.

Photo: Luis Fabres

Do yourself a favor and ask for the provenzal (a salsa made of parsley and garlic) to eat with your fries, but don’t eat too much of what comes out first or you’ll regret it.

Once the meat starts appearing on stainless steel trays, your first course will be organ meat. Try it. You might surprise yourself. I’m a big fan of the molleja (sweetbreads) — tender and tasty.

Check out Asado Argentina to see what the different cuts of meat are called. Some aren’t sold or prepared this way where you come from, so be adventurous. You can make special requests and get as much as you want of what’s on offer.

Personally, I recommend the matambre, the bondiola, and the chicken.

Hal Amen, Matador Trips

I’ve got two faves, but they’re a package deal, both part of my wife’s and my Saturday morning tradition.

We start out at Palermo’s Plaza Holanda (the one with the pond in the middle). During the week, we come here to run on the cement track that circles the water, but Saturdays we move more slowly.

Dodging the joggers, cyclists, and novice rollerbladers who always seem to swerve dangerously close to the speed-walking (and speed-talking) abuelitas (¡O! ¡Dios mío!), we stroll through the rows of meticulously manicured flowers, find a pond-side bench, and break out the mate paraphernalia.

Photo: flaken

Thermos emptied, it’s off to Belgrano’s Barrio Chino (Chinatown). We like to walk (takes ~45 min.), but the barrio is serviced by tons of collectivos, including the 15, 29, 60, and 64. The subte is also close by (Juramento, line D).

Less of a China-town and more of a China-street, Barrio Chino is basically the first two blocks of Arribeños north of the Belgrano C train station. Our ritual goes like this:

* Walk up to the second block where two Chinese girls and their griddle serve up dumplings, spice balls, gelatinous goodies, and various things on sticks. Ah, street food — I’ve missed you. Or, across the street at 2212 is a shop called simply “Productos de Soja” (Soy Products), which also sells takeaway treats.

* Stomachs prepped, choose a spot for lunch. Our favorites are a veggie joint at 2127 (“Siempre Verde”), an “authentic”-tasting, grubby-looking restaurant at 2152 (uncreatively labeled “Comida China”), and a swankier option with decent pad thai at 2265 (“Lotus Neo Thai”).

* Our love of Asian tastes is such that we have to take it home, and Barrio Chino has almost as many Chinese supermarkets as restaurants. Top of the list is “Casa China,” with two locations. The one at 2173 has a huge selection of bulk dried mushrooms, while at 2257 they really do it up in sauce selection.

You can find a lot more than Asian ingredients in these places — nostalgic American favorites like salad dressing and peanut butter, not to mention bottles of precious picante to spice up the typically bland Argentine cuisine (they even carry Mexican-made salsas!).

Tag Team

San Telmo’s Parrilla 1880 has been haunted by several Matador staffers.

David loved it because he could call ahead and order a filet de merluza con papas noisette, plus a salad of beets, carrots, radicheta at 11:30 at night.

Tom Gates thinks their meat is the best in the city and misses shooting the shit with Claudio, who hovers around the tables in the back (and sneaks patrons lemoncello shots).

I first learned here that bife de chorizo can be served in a rectangular block the size of a foot and still be juicy and tender. Oh, and that tongue and sweetbreads are delicious.

And Kate, who makes a career of denying herself things, was thoroughly spoiled by Tom here with a juicy steak cooked bloody as ordered, and plans to return the favor when he makes it back Buenos Aires way.

Community Connection

Team Matador has also shared our Favorite Restaurants In The World. And by some accounts (um, ours), Matador Editors Have the Best Blogs.

Photo: mason bryant

When people talk about the tallest trees on the planet, Sequoia sempervirens is what they’re referring to.

Commonly called coast redwoods, these giants are known to reach 379 feet tall (115.5 meters; in theory, they could grow as tall as 425′), with trunk diameters of up to 26 feet (8 meters). Some standing today sprouted before the birth of Christ.

Though once occupying a much larger range, they’re now confined to a narrow strip of America’s Pacific Northwest. Lucky for amateur tree-lovers, a large selection of serious coast redwoods is easily accessible to hikers (and, in some cases, drivers).

But the real titans remain hidden within forests of fog and van-sized poison oak vines, the secret of their locations safeguarded by a small band of die-hard forest explorers. Not only that, but more are being discovered each year.

What follows is a summary of the info that’s out there.

Redwoods for Mortals

Redwood hunters should head to the northernmost coast of California. Here, close to 65 square miles of old-growth forest is protected by the Redwood National and State Parks system. There are also big trees in southern Oregon’s Siskiyou National Forest and in reserves near the Bay Area.

Redwood groves are year-round destinations; in fact, they can be at their most majestic in winter, with a lusher look and smaller crowds. Just make sure to check park websites for the latest on opening hours and services, as many California state parks have been burned by budget cuts.

Here’s a rundown of the best groves to seek out, listed in order of difficulty:

Stout Grove panorama / Photo: M. D. Vaden of Oregon

Avenue of the Giants
Location: Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Length: 30-35 miles

This 30-mile section of old Highway 101 offers an effortless option for seeing big trees. If the landscape looks familiar, it’s probably because scenes of the Ewok moon of Endor from Return of the Jedi were filmed here.

A four-mile detour down Mattole Road (where the highway crosses Bull Creek) will take you to more groves and a short hiking trail.

Stout Grove
Location: Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park
Trail length: 0.6 mile (loop)

The individual trees here may not be record breakers, but the collective aesthetic of the grove makes it one of the better known.

Montgomery Grove
Location: Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve
Trail length: 2 miles (loop)

At less than five square miles, this is a tiny reserve, but it’s pretty much all old growth. Its sole trail loops through some serious groves.

One of the tallest trees in the world lives here — off-trail and unadvertised, of course.

Homestead and Big Tree Loop
Location: Humboldt Redwoods State Park
Trail length: 2.4 miles (loop)

This is one of the hikes accessible from Mattole Road off Avenue of the Giants. Both trails in the loop pass through old growth.

Near Rhododendron Trail, Prairie Creek
Photo: M. D. Vaden of Oregon

Brown Creek Trail
Location: Prairie Creek Redwood State Park
Trail length: 3.5 miles (loop)

The Brown Creek walk accesses some super thick groves and can easily be linked with the more backcountry-ish Rhododendron Trail.

Tall Trees Grove
Location: Redwood National Park
Trail length: 3.9 miles (one way)

Tall Trees Grove is home to the Libbey Tree, which at almost 363 feet was once the tallest on record. And unlike most other trees with this distinction, Libbey is open for viewing by the general public.

Of course, this makes the grove a huge draw, and a complicated system of permits and cryptic driving directions has been implemented to limit visitor numbers. Read more here.

Boy Scout Tree Trail
Location: Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park
Trail length: 5 miles (one way)

This one is remarkable for its abundance of unadulterated old growth, which also encompasses the drive to the trailhead.

Miners’ Ridge and James Irvine Loop Trail
Location: Prairie Creek Redwood State Park
Trail length: 11 miles (loop)

This trail combo is your best option for a full-day redwood trek. It takes in several diverse ecosystems, including an undeveloped beach.

* For additional details and maps of these and other redwood trails, check out the website redwoodhikes.com — solid.

Redwoods for Superheroes (or Naturalists in the Know)

The locations of the tallest trees and most impressive groves are kept secret to protect the redwoods, their ecosystem, and inexperienced visitors alike.

In the words of Richard Preston, author of The Wild Trees:

…the truth of the matter is that redwood rainforest is exceedingly difficult to move through, physically. You get out in there, and it takes a physically fit person up to 12 hours to move two miles. You’re belly crawling, you’re crawling through thorns, your skin gets all bloody, you can’t see anything. It’s absolutely thick.

And then you come across these piles of redwood trunks that have fallen down like pick-up-sticks. These are trunks that are anywhere from eight to 12 feet in diameter piled up, and…you get a wall of wood that may be 30 feet tall. And as you climb over it, if you slip down into a crack, you can fall into the pile — 30 feet — and break your leg and never be heard from again.

Source: NPR

There’s also the fact that redwood country is bear and mountain lion country, too.

And on top of all that, trees are always growing and new groves are discovered frequently, so the official ranking of biggest and baddest is in constant flux.

Here are the most famous of the hidden titans.

Grove of Titans
Photo: M. D. Vaden of Oregon

Grove of Titans
Location: Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park

Discovered in 1998, this grove is said to have the biggest average tree size of any so far found. Its most famous resident is Lost Monarch, the most massive coast redwood known with a height of 320′ and a diameter of 26′.

According to Richard Preston, the grove lies at “the bottom of a hidden notch-like valley near a glade.”

Mario Vaden says, “Grove of Titans is across the water from the campground, on the west side of the Smith River,” and that it “extends through the confluence of valleys among flat, slopes and mounds.”

Atlas Grove
Location: Prairie Creek Redwood State Park

Knowledge of Atlas Grove dates to at least 1991. Iluvatar, currently the third-largest coast redwood by volume, is found here.

A careful study known as the Atlas Project was carried out recently in a portion of the grove to learn more about these giant trees and their habitat.

Hyperion: the tallest tree on Earth
Location: Redwood National Park

The current record holder goes by the name Hyperion and reaches a height of 379.1 feet. Standing at a remote, undisclosed location in Redwood National Park, it was found and measured just three years ago.

What descriptions there are of its position are quite vague: “in the southern section of the park,” “on a slope above a creek,” “too far from any trail to visit.” And capped off with, “Everyone who knows anything about this tree is sworn to secrecy.”

For an engaging account of one team’s search, check out Tom Clynes’ “Slippery Slope: In search of Humboldt’s giant Hyperion redwood.”

* Special thanks to Mario Vaden for allowing use of his photos here.

Community Connection

Make sure not to miss the companion Photo Essay: GIANT Redwoods, the Tallest Living Things on Our Planet

Have you hunted hidden redwoods? Stumbled on the location of Grove of Titans, Atlas Grove, or Hyperion? Trips wants to hear from you in the comments.

1. Coast redwoods don’t get as wide as their cousins the giant sequoia, but 26-foot diameters can hardly be considered second rate.
Photo: M. D. Vaden of Oregon

2. Where redwoods leave the sequoias behind is height. These are the tallest trees on the planet, with the highest so far measured reaching 379.1 feet. That’s over 70 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, taking into account pedestal and foundation.
Photo: lunaport

3. And, stats aside, they’re just awesome to look at.
Photo: mason bryant

4. “Cathedral trees” sprout from a shared base, like these in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.
Photo: rachel_thecat

5. The canopy of a redwood grove, out of sight of both earth and sky, has been described as an “unexplored ecosystem.”
Photo: *~Dawn~*

6. The locations of the most serious trees and groves are kept secret, to protect both the redwoods and inexperienced hikers who might otherwise seek them out. This is one such tree, Screaming Titans, in the Grove of Titans, Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park.
Photo: H Dragon

7. A stitch job from the Grove of Titans.
Photo: H Dragon

8. Dwarfed by nature.
Photo: Shayan (USA)

9. A stout trunk from Jedediah Smith.
Photo: joannapoe

10. We treat our redwoods better today than they did in the 1930s. Still, if you ever wanted to drive through a tree, here ya go.
Photos: lostintheredwoods (left), nagobe (right)

11. A shot aptly titled, “give up, we have you surrounded.”
Photo: adrian207

12. There’s no doubt that trees bigger than today’s record holders were logged over the last century+. It’s not clear whether this was a coast redwood or giant sequoia, only that it was ginormous (note the team of horses on top).
Photo: David C. Foster

Community Connection

Get an image of redwood stealth camping in David Miller’s 11 tracks, 3 interludes, and how they define a road / surf trip from Seattle to San Francisco.

A new addition at Hotel Costa Verde

People seem to have an innate fascination with conceptualizing wacky hotels, as well as paying hard-earned money to sleep in them.

Last year, Trips introduced you to Igloos, Castles, Sewage Pipes, and Survival Pods: The World’s 10 Weirdest Hotels. But there’s so much more material out there we felt it was time for a sequel.

Flipping the mattress on transport

Check out some of these vehicles-turned-swank-crash-pads, as profiled by divine caroline:

Photo courtesy of The Grand Daddy

* Cape Town, South Africa’s Grand Daddy hotel brings something new to the penthouse crowd. They’ve reclaimed and creatively redecorated seven Airstream travel trailers and dropped them on the hotel roof.

* In Christchurch, New Zealand, Wagon Stays offers all the perks of a studio apartment (kitchen, bathroom, bed, plus TV and Internet) in the confines of a mock-up, settler-era covered wagon.

The site is far out enough to give you “rural” views but still close to restaurants and stores. It’s marketed as “eco friendly.”

* As Tom Gates recently inquired over at Matador Nights, Pimp My Jet?

Yes, the Hotel Costa Verde, located just outside Costa Rica’s Manuel Antonio National Park, has created a two-bedroom suite out of a salvaged Boeing 727.

* Sticking to the airborne theme is Winivan, a complex of luxury cottages in Connecticut. One of their properties includes a refurbished Coast Guard helicopter, complete with kitchen, sofa, and swiveling pilot’s chair.

* Lots of trains have sleeper cars, but not like this. The Controversy B&B in Hoogwoud, Holland, has a bed made out of an old rowboat and a Jacuzzi in the shape of “a Mexican sombrero.” Check out their promo video:

Sleep with the fishes

Now over to Woman’s Day and a list of accommodations below the waves:

* Jules’ Undersea Lodge, off the coast of Key Largo, Florida, claims to be “the first and only underwater hotel” (the others in this list have yet to open). It’s also the site of ongoing marine research projects.

This place is for real — to enter, guests scuba down 21 feet to the “moon pool” entrance. Quarters are tight, with two small bedrooms and a common room available. Groups of up to six people can be accommodated.

Jules’ Undersea Lodge / Photo: Mi-Wu

* If you want under-ocean views and luxury, you’ve gotta wait till next year, when two pretty spectacular-looking properties are set to open (or so go the rumors).

The first is Fiji’s Poseidon Undersea Resort. The facility will be a mile long, decked out with a restaurant and suites all featuring windows on the water and the abundant marine life outside.

You’ll only scuba here if you choose to — access is via a more “civilized” 40-foot elevator. Guests can also tool around in a mini-sub.

* I’m not sure I could think of a less obvious location for an underwater resort than Istanbul, which is also supposedly building a submerged hotel. The seven-story structure will have plenty of windows from which to admire the average ten feet of visibility in the Bosphorus Strait.

Community Connection

How about a hostel in a jet? Check out the World’s Most Unique Lodging: A Look Inside the Jumbo Hostel.

If you enjoyed the video in this post, head over to browse the best travel video on the web at MatadorTV.

Photo: Lets Bike It

This past August, Trips introduced the World’s Best Stargazing Destinations. Included in the list was Scotland, which Matador contributor Bob Riel noted has some of the darkest skies in Europe.

Now, the International Dark-Sky Association has named Galloway Forest Park as one of only a handful of locations on Earth that deserve it’s “dark skies park” designation. Out of a 24-point darkness rating system (24 being on the level of a photographer’s dark room), Galloway got a 23.

The park also scored points for its accessible location. It may be far from any light-polluting population center, but that doesn’t mean it’s ultra-remote. According to The Guardian’s coverage of the story, Galloway is easily visited from northern England, southern Scotland, and by ferry from Northern Ireland.

For more details, such as how to plan your own Scottish stargazing trip, visit the website of Dark Sky Scotland.

Community Connection

While you’re in the land of the kilt, make sure to check out Scotland’s Carbonated Cult: Irn-Bru.

Photo: loop_oh

Their list of “World’s Best Affordable Hotels” takes on five continents (though heavily weighted towards the U.S.) and nightly rates from $40 to $150.

I’m not familiar with Budget Travel, but I know if I clicked over expecting to get the scoop on cheap hotels, $150 price tags would be pretty disappointing — no matter how many Mongolian yurt spas or swimming pool waterfalls were promised me.

Short of a press trip, I can’t envision ever staying at Hotel Contempo in Managua, Nicaragua, for $130/night. Budget Travel recommends it for its teak furniture and a staff who can arrange day trips to an eco-reserve. My guess is you could get the same at a $10/bed hostel.

Only a handful of the 31 picks are even under $100, and half of these are in Southeast Asia.

Ranting aside…

A couple entries stood out (in a good way):

Poolside at The Pearl / Photo: Catchpenny

* El Cortez Cabana Suites, Las Vegas: A renovated motel, close to the Strip, with rooms from $42.

* Camping de Bordeaux Lac, France: One-bedroom lakeside cottages from $50. Sounds sweet.

* The Pearl Hotel, San Diego: Classic films screened weekly by the pool, rooms from $79.

Also, fans of the boutique hostel might want to check out Oops!, located near Paris’s Latin Quarter.

Community Connection

What’s the upper limit of your “affordable”? Have any favorite places that fit the bill? Let us know in the comments.

Photo above: octal, Feature photo: Joi

Slow to the punch, I was recently directed to an article from The Independent published in April of this year: The dark side of Dubai.

It’s the story of a failed experiment in city/utopia building, where the global economic crisis has emptied malls and hotels and halted nearly all construction — this in a city that gave rise to the oft-repeated (and oft-debunked) factoid that it employees a quarter of the world’s construction cranes.

According to the article, Dubai has failed not only economically, but also socially. Emiratis (who make up just 5% of the population) are educated up to the PhD level at no cost, while armies of impoverished foreign laborers live in bondage and lack clean drinking water. Anyone who raises a critical voice is deported (expats), financially ruined (Emiratis), or imprisoned (foreign workers).

Jaw Dropped

It’s a shocking account. And it’s almost too much to believe.

I’ll admit my immediate reaction leaned toward skepticism. Part of it is that — to me — Johann Hari’s writing comes off scripted, the neatly framed and overly witty words of someone who knew what he wanted to write before he stepped off the plane.

And part of it is that I simply hope the picture he paints isn’t accurate.

Photo: ● Creative Ξye ●● ÂĻŜuЩaίĐί ●

* A slave labor system where South Asian construction workers and East African housekeepers are lured to Dubai by third-party recruiters, only to have their passports confiscated, promised wages halved or withheld, and every waking hour conscripted.

* A body of expats that delight in the hedonism the socioeconomic order allows them, living with a constant buzz on and complaining that there are too many Indians throwing themselves in front of their SUVs in a last-ditch effort to escape the system.

* An ocean — Dubai’s biggest tourist draw — darkened with raw sewage as the delicate, super-arid environment begins to collapse under the weight of forced modernity.

Please tell me these caricatures were lifted from some sci-fi dystopia, not the streets of reality.

Speak Up

Matador Abroad’s Tim Patterson already put out a call for on-the-ground voices from Dubai. I’d like to renew that invitation — though, if The Independent’s article is any indication, those voices will probably need to be “recently-left-the-ground.”

Have you traveled to or lived in Dubai? How does your experience square with The Independent’s exposé of the city’s “dark side“?

Speak up in the comments, or email me directly at hal[at]matadornetwork[dot]com to discuss telling your story in a Trips feature.

Photo: emutree

Getting on the water has always been a “must” for visitors to Venice, whether springing for a romantic gondola tour or simply hopping on a vaporetto waterbus. The canals define the city, and experiencing them from water level can be a lot of fun.

The company Venice Kayak has recently taken that idea in a new direction, offering guided kayak tours through the maze of waterways that comprise the floating city.

In a piece for The Guardian titled Kayaking in Venice: who needs a gondola?, Teresa Machan shares her story of paddling the Grand Canal, getting cut off by gondolas, and disembarking for gelato breaks.

Photo: ezioman

As Machan relates, the tours also take you out of the boat traffic and into the surrounding marshes of Laguna Veneta that otherwise can be difficult to explore as a tourist.

On the lagoon’s little islands are abandoned monasteries, insane asylums, military facilities, and other forgotten and slightly spooky sites to explore.

Venice Kayak’s accommodation options include camping near its headquarters on the sandbar of Lido de Venezia, a half hour paddle from the city.

Kayaking and camping…not typically what you think of for a Venice vacation.

Community Connection

While in Venice, save some euros with the tips from Sightseeing in Venice for (Almost) Free.

Photo: Cessna 206

Trips has already introduced you to America’s Most Dangerous Neighborhoods, rankings that were based on crime statistics.

Sometimes, though, people don’t need to go out of their way to imperil the lives of those around them. Mother Nature’s pretty good at that, too.

Popularmechanics.com takes up the issue with 8 of the Most Dangerous Places (To Live) on the Planet — human habitations facing very real threats from volcanoes, killer storms, desertification, and more.

Here’s what they got:

Photo: ctsnow

Mt. Merapi, Java

This active volcano’s constant smoke belching is a tipoff — it’s averaged 12 eruptions per century over the last 500 years. Still, 200,000 people live within an ominously short four miles of “Fire Mountain.”

And they’re not alone. The article claims as many as 120 million Javanese reside inside the danger zones of the island’s 22 active volcanoes.

Central Africa’s Lake Kivu is on the list as well due to the region’s seismic-volcanic instability that threatens to unleash trillions of cubic feet of poison gases trapped beneath the lakebed.

This phenomenon isn’t confined to Asia, either. For months in 2008-9, southern Chile’s Chaitén volcano blew its top. Residents of nearby Esquel, Argentina, where I volunteered earlier this year, tell of a months-long period of ash-mud raining from the sky and the necessity of HazMat suits whenever stepping outside.

Still, a handful of residents in the town of Chaitén have refused to leave.

Maldives

With an elevation peak of six feet above sea level, the 1,190 islands of the Maldives are demonstrating the effects of climate change today.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami rendered 10% of the nation’s land area uninhabitable, and since then local leaders have been hammering out plans to relocate the entire Maldivian population.

The Maldives / Photo: notsogoodphotography

The islands are still considered a beach-bum hot spot, but you’d better hurry if you want to catch a glimpse before they literally vanish.

Grand Cayman

Other potential casualties of global climate change are places already at high risk of violent storms.

That obviously includes the Cayman Islands’ Grand Cayman, otherwise known as the “hurricane capital of the world.”

For proof, you need look no further back than 2004, when Hurricane Ivan destroyed 70% of the buildings on the island and left 40,000 residents with zero power and clean water.

The Haitian city of Gonaïves also makes the list for its recent streak of hurricane bad luck, and Oklahoma’s I-44 “tornado corridor” gets a nod as well.

Verkhoyansk, Siberia

Long-time favorite exile spot for Russian czars and Soviet premiers alike, the Arctic town of Verkhoyansk is officially the world’s coldest, a distinction that carries its own terminology: the “Pole of Cold.”

The record-low temperature was mercuried over 100 years ago (long before meteorologists thought up the concept of wind chill): -90F/-68C.

Photo: Kiwi Mikex

Minqin County, China

Drought, water diversion, and a position directly between the encroaching Tengger and Badain Jaran Deserts likely spells annihilation for this section of China’s Gansu province.

The national government has been making efforts to relocate farmers to greener pastures, but the area’s population is swelling, now at 2+ million.

Have you been to any of these or other “days-are-numbered” destinations? Did you get any insight into why their inhabitants continue to live where they do? Share your stories in the comments.

Community Connection

Here are some more titles for your “most dangerous” fix:

Top 10 Most Dangerous Waves in the World

The World’s Most Dangerous Hike?

Food for Thought – the Most dangerous Cities in the Americas?

11 Most Dangerous Mountains in the World for Climbers

The Best, Strangest, and Most Dangerous Roads in the World

All photos: Mei-Ling McNamara

Each of the Matador community’s more than 10,000 members is well-traveled, whether in body or soul. But some of them really get around.

Meet Mei-Ling McNamara.

Currently based in London, she’s worked as a volunteer on projects in Thailand. At present, she’s researching a new travel guide to Senegal.

And she also happens to be our destination expert on Madagascar:

I lived in Southern Madagascar for over three years (2003-2006), working primarily in radio development and travel guidebook writing. Any queries relating to travel or volunteer work in Madagascar can be answered as best as possible!

Here’s a bit more about Mei-Ling, which you can also find on her community profile:

About me: My Chinese mother and Irish father are the opposing, complementary forces that harmonize my life. I believe that every experience, and how you react to it, changes and creates who you are, bringing a distinct energy to the world.

I’m fired up on: Local projects that empower communities; writing that snares an elusive, fleeting moment; waking to the desert at dawn; watching the Sahara at dusk; seeing the faces of my family and friends after a long journey; arriving in a new place with no plans and a wide, open mind.

I felt the most immersed in a foreign culture when: I rode on a bush taxi with eighty people across Madagascar for 72 hours non-stop. No sleep, no real food, and a lot of Celine Dion blasting out of two broken speakers. Our truck overturned into a ravine once, and we had to crawl out of the window.

Most recently, Mei-Ling was announced as the winner of Matador’s Discover Dominica contest, scoring a trip for two to the untouched Caribbean island of Dominica.

She’s also written for us, producing articles like:

10 Tips For Safe Travel as a Single Woman

Tips for staying healthy while volunteering abroad

A passion for people: Owen Beaton and The Tandroy Conservation Trust

Hands of the Child: the Diola Drummers of Casamance

I could go on. But all you need to know is this: If you have questions on Madagascar you’d like answered, you know who to ask. Help is just a click and a private message away.

Community Connection

Curious about a different destination? Chances are we have an expert for you. Find them here.

Photo: chadmagiera

For years, Iceland was considered one of the most expensive countries for travelers.

More recently, it became a high-profile casualty of the world’s financial woes, famously declaring bankruptcy just over a year ago.

Now look at it. It’s been named by Lonely Planet as the #1 economic tourist destination of 2010. Says LP,

Have you always wanted to discover this magical, mysterious country? To explore ice caps and volcanoes, and wallow in hot springs? Been put off because of the prohibitive prices? Well, 2010 is your year.

Get the full story from AFP here.

Another out-of-placer on the list is London, which — as Trips reported previously — is no longer burning through your travel dollar.

Presumably we’re working on a relative scale here (I mean, Iceland has a ways to go before hitting the bargain basement of Thailand, #2). In other words, these destinations are steals compared to what they cost just a few years ago.

So it’ll still take some careful planning to tour Iceland’s fire and ice and throw down on the Reykjavik Rúntur without blowing your budget for the flight home.

Community Connection

Will Lonely Planet’s “bargain” list influence your travel decisions? Let us know in the comments below.

At the summit of Huascarán, Peru / Photo: RastaChango

UNESCO has granted World Heritage status to 890 global “properties.” With a collection this expansive, there’s gotta be about 800 sites the average person has never heard of.

It’s a fact the Telegraph takes up with its photo essay Obscure World Heritage Sites, comprising profiles of 20 lesser-known destinations that UNESCO felt deserved the same level of protection as the Taj Mahal or Angkor Wat.

I found these of particular interest:

Huascarán National Park, Peru

The park protects the tallest tropical mountains in the world, the Cordillera Blanca, with peaks as high as 6,768 meters (22,200 feet). Glacial lakes and species such as the Andean condor and spectacled bear define the area.

As a tropical glacial region, this World Heritage Site is one of the places in the world most vulnerable to climate change.

Defence Line of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Back in the late 19th century, the plan was to seal off Amsterdam in case of attack. This would be done by flooding an intricate system of canals in and around the city.

The defence line was never used, but the moats and the 45 armed forts built to guard the system have been well preserved and can be visited today.

Photo: marfis75

Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo

Only 30,000 okapi (think body of a deer, legs of a zebra, head of a giraffe) remain in the wild, and 5,000 of these are found in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. Nomadic pygmy tribes also call this region of the Congo river basin home.

Along with the four other World Heritage Sites in the DRC, the reserve is flagged as “in danger.”

Cyrene, Libya

Though few have heard of it today, Cyrene was a major metropolitan center in ancient Greek times. Its importance continued into the Roman period, until it was destroyed by earthquake in A.D. 365. Now it’s one of the world’s lesser-known ruins.

Białowieża Forest, Belarus

Europe was once covered by old-growth forest. Today, there’s only one place you can go to get an idea of what it was like: this stretch of woodland along the Belarus-Poland border. Protected animals within the forest include wolves, lynxes, and the recently reintroduced European bison.

Białowieża’s World Heritage status goes back to 1979, only the second year in which designations were made. This says something about the significance UNESCO sees in it.

For the rest of the 20, make sure to check out the original photo essay here.

Community Connection

The Trips post 13 of Asia’s Most Spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Sites includes some places you probably have heard of. We also bring you the latest news on the subject in 13 Additions to the UNESCO World Heritage List (and One Deletion).

UNESCO isn’t the only organization making these kinds of designations. Find out what the World Monuments Fund considers to be 2010’s Most Endangered Cultural Sites.

Photo: Robert S. Donovan

Community Connection

For more cemetery shots, don’t miss yesterday’s Photo Essay: Graveyards by Night.

1. Bedfordshire, England
Photo: L-plate big cheese

2. Anonymous lonely gravestone
Photo: new chap

3. Mountain View Cemetery, Shrewsbury, MA
Photo: WhitA

4. Jewish Cemetery in Pszczyna, Poland
Photo: Jacek Becela

5. Upper Riccarton, Christchurch, New Zealand
Photo: the evil monkey

6. Monmouth County, NJ
Photo: Sister72

7. Sheffield, England
Photo: polandeze

8. Anonymous frosty cemetery
Photo: thomas.barker

9. Baltimore, MD
Photo: llimllib

10. Bedfordshire, England
Photo: L-plate big cheese

Community Connection

Creepy…spooky…scary:

Ghostbusting 101: 6 Myths Debunked by Loyd Auerbach

American Hauntings: 5 You Can Visit and Investigate Firsthand

5 Scariest Sites to Visit This Halloween

Getting into the Spirit: A Thai Halloween

How People Celebrate Halloween in Spain

Your editors, Hal (being ridiculous) and Carlo (saying wtf!?)

As the world’s largest independent travel magazine, Matador holds transparency as one of its core values.

Matador Network brings you dozens of stories each week straight from our own experiences and those of our contributors. They’re written by people who know the places and issues they’re covering, and are motivated to share that knowledge with an audience who appreciates it.

Here at Trips, transparency manifests itself in guides that cut the BS and tell you what you want to know about a destination. In other words, we’re not trying to “sell” you place, just show it to you.

We think it’s an approach that works. So, in the spirit of transparency…

We Want You to Know Who We Are

You can visit the Trips About page to learn about your editors, check out our bylines, scope our Matador profiles.

But the door opens further than that. Our web presence isn’t limited to Trips; we both keep personal blogs where we wax (usually unpoetically) about our travels, our lives, and what it’s like being an editor for Matador.

Hal’s is called WayWorded and is coming up on its two-year anniversary. Carlo maintains two: the eponymous Carlo Alcos and The Long Layover, where he’s chronicling his and his wife’s current lives in Melbourne.

And we’re not the only ones. To find links to the personal sites of everyone on the Matador team, scroll down to the sidebar list titled “Editor Blogs” on any article in the network.

We Want to Know Who You Are

Hal hiking Mt. Snowdon, Wales

That’s us. How about you?

There would be no Trips without its readers, so we want to know who you are and what’s in your head.

What Trips piece is your absolute favorite? Which article opened you up to a destination you’d never heard of or considered before? What made you laugh, sigh, smirk?

How can we improve?

We’ve put ourselves out there — now it’s your turn. Join the discussion by commenting on this or any other post, or email us your take directly at hal[at]matadornetwork[dot]com and carlo[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.

We can’t wait to hear from you.

Photo: pasotraspaso

Mumbai, India

When you add up the equation “cycling” + “urban tourism,” you often assume “= Europe.” After all, the continent is home to many of the world’s most bike friendly cities.

Photo: zedvox

Places like Mumbai are looking to change the equation.

As reported in this New York Times travel blog post, a company called Odati Adventures has put together a “Mumbai City Cycle Ride.”

The focus is on commonly overlooked attractions — fitting, for as any avid cyclist knows, two-wheeled travel opens up all kinds of experiences that get passed over by the car-bound.

Leisure cycling in Mumbai still can’t be considered safe, which is why the tours run early on Sunday mornings, when traffic is most manageable.

But who knows — a successful cycle tour program could rewrite the city’s relationship with the bike.

Blackpool, England

With London set to unveil a monumental Paris-esque bike-hire scheme next summer, you’d expect it to be U.K. bicycle tourism’s front-page news.

Not if Blackpool has anything to say about it.

Also inspired by Paris’s groundbreaking Vélib’ program, this seaside resort town of 140,000 is launching an on-street bicycle rental system that will count 500 bikes by next spring.

Tourists are the primary target of the initiative and will be able to rent for a daily fee of £8.

However, it’s hoped Blackpool residents — who apparently suffer from extremely low rates of adult exercise — will take advantage as well. Swipe cards will be made available to commuters, providing a free half hour’s ride and charging £1/hour after that.

Photo: mrhayata

Tokyo, Japan

The urban mass of greater Tokyo is tied together by one of the city’s busiest subway routes, the circular Yamanote line.

More than 3.5 million passengers use the line each day, and to complete a journey around the loop takes a little over an hour.

What does this have to do with bicycles?

The New York Times recently featured a story by Harris Salat on a wonderfully novel concept: tracing the path of the Yamanote on two wheels.

Salat rented his ride through Cool Bike and made a three-day tour out of the 21-mile route, stopping frequently to experience the teahouses, gardens, tofu shops, sumo parades, riverside paths — in short, the classic Tokyo juxtaposition of tradition and modernity — he passed along the way.

While not an organized cycle tourism “development,” per se, his account makes for a good read, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it inspired copycat tours.

Hey, I’m game.

Community Connection

Matador loves bikes. You could spend a whole day digging through our bicycle-related content. Here’s a start:

10 Long-Distance Bicycle Routes in the U.S.

6 Reasons to Go By Bike

And They Stoned Me: The Joy Of Cycling Ethiopia

How To Be Good (Better) Drivers and Cyclists

8 Quirky Bike Rides across the U.S.

Bicycling the Pacific Coast and into the Great Beyond

Photo: NASA/Sandra Joseph, Kevin O’Connell

You’ve been to remote jungle villages in Papua New Guinea, the desert expanses of the Sahara, even the frozen wasteland of Antarctica. Next, the stars?

To really experience the final frontier — today — you only have one option:

The International Space Station

Since November of 2000, the ISS has been continually occupied by rotating multinational “Expedition” crews. These men and women carry out scientific experiments and assist in the ongoing construction of the station, due to be completed by 2011.

Photo: FlyingSinger

For the most determined civilian space travelers, this is currently the ultimate goal — to journey to and live for a short time aboard the International Space Station.

In 2001, American Dennis Tito became the first true space tourist by doing just that.

He was shuttled to the ISS by the Russian Space Agency, on board a Soyuz spacecraft and with a small Russian crew, and spent seven days on the station.

A handful of other fee-paying space travelers have followed Tito, most recently Canadian Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté.

Logistics

Russia is still the only game in town for getting to the ISS. But you can’t just call the Kremlin and ask for a ride. All Soyuz trips are brokered by the American company Space Adventures.

Its space tourist program includes intensive astronaut/cosmonaut training — think zero-gravity jet flights, underwater spacewalk simulations, and spins in a high-g centrifuge — in addition to the flight and an average of 10 days on the station.

Cost

Photo: The U.S. Army

The exact amount paid by each Space Adventures client is not readily disclosed, but figures ranging from $20 to $30 million USD are most often tossed around.

For just $3 million, you can sit in on all the training, only to watch the Soyuz blast off without you.

Individual training exercises, “launch tours,” and other opportunities are available for much less.

ISS visitors are now able to participate in a spacewalk for an additional $15 million — so far, no one has accepted the challenge.

Sub-Orbital Flights

If you aren’t a dot-com billionaire or haven’t started your own interpretative circus troupe, there might still be hope for you.

Sub-orbital flights are the up-and-coming trend in space tourism, transporting passengers in small, airplane-like craft beyond the internationally recognized boundary of space (100km straight up).

Richard Branson is looking to take the lead in this. His Virgin Galactic has already pre-sold over 250 $200,000 tickets for flights that will begin at an as-of-yet-unspecified date.

Photo: Mike Miley

Virgin is the only company with the rights to SpaceShipTwo, successor to the Scaled Composites craft that won the Ansari X PRIZE back in 2004.

Weekly flights will launch from California’s Mojave Spaceport and carry six passengers to an altitude of 109km (68 miles), where they will experience several minutes of weightlessness and have views of twinkle-free stars and the curvature of Earth.

And Virgin’s not alone. Companies like Space Adventures and Armadillo Aerospace are also developing sub-orbital tourist flights to launch from spaceports around the world.

For a less elevated expedition, Incredible Adventures runs flights to what they refer to as “the edge of space” (21km/68,000ft) in a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet. While certainly not an extraterrestrial voyage, passengers do get a glimpse of black sky. Cost: $10,000+

What the Future Holds

The space tourism industry is advancing faster than most people realize. Within a decade or two, the well-heeled (and perhaps even you and I) will enjoy a variety of options for experiencing outer space. Detailed analysis of potential space tourism markets can be found here.

Photo: .Martin.

Resorts in space

One avenue being explored by several outfits, including Bigelow Aerospace and Galactic Suite, is the construction of space hotels. Bigelow already has two prototype modules in orbit.

By the time any orbiting resorts are ready for use, it’s estimated transport will cost around $20,000 per guest, plus tens of thousands more per night’s stay.

The Space Island Group takes things a step further, advertising plans to construct multiple independent orbiting “islands.” The islands will house

factories, hotels, medical centers, laboratories, zero-gravity sports arenas and satellite repair centers, along with dozens of other uses which can’t be imagined today.

They make the rather bold claim that 20,000 people will be inhabiting and working within their islands by the year 2020.

Photo: woodleywonderworks

Beyond Earth orbit

Space Adventures is stepping it up in this category as well. For a mere $100 million, you can sign up to be one of the first to take part in their circumlunar mission.

Following six to eight months of training, you’ll launch aboard a specially designed Soyuz craft and, depending on whether you make a pitstop at the ISS or not, spend 10 to 21 days in space.

The climax will come as you swing round the far side of the moon and experience the allegedly spiritual sight of earthrise.

Sound like a pipe dream? National Geographic reports this voyage could be ready to launch in three years.

The farther space tourism reaches, the cheaper the close-at-hand options will become. Here’s to adding Earth orbit to our travel itineraries within our lifetime.

Community Connection

Matador’s covered the concept of space travel in the past. For more, check out 6 Predictions For The Future Of Travel and Room for You…in Space.

Photos: smalldogonthego

Travel journalist and videographer Allison, a.k.a. smalldogonthego, has a history with the Dominican Republic going back to 2001, when she lived on the island while working on a baseball documentary.

She hasn’t been able to let go since:

I’m currently involved with a children’s non-profit…and have made a number of trips into the countryside and all over the island.

My areas of expertise would probably be Dominican baseball, Dominican food, the history of the country, getting off the beaten path, good shopping, and larimar (my favorite stone, found only in the Dominican Republic!).

Here’s a little more about this week’s featured expert:

About me: My travel essentials: yoga pants, hiking boots, running shoes, my video camera and my dog.
Languages spoken, other than English: Spanish, Italian.
I’m fired up on: adventure travel, filmmaking, yoga, running, volunteer tourism, my dog, the American Southwest, writing, working for The Travel Channel and doing what I love most!
Why I travel: because the world becomes my classroom

Visit Allison’s Matador profile to find out what you need to know before visiting the DR, or maybe just to ask about “running in the 7th inning sausage race at Milwaukee’s Miller Park dressed as a Bavarian sausage.”

Community Connection

Matador’s destination experts are just one facet of our vibrant travel community. Join today at matadortravel.com.

Photo: tinou bao

Every two years, the World Monuments Fund publishes a “watch list” of sites it deems most threatened, whether from encroaching development, global warming, or simple neglect.

The 2010 list has been released, and as Yahoo News reports, two of the more familiar entries are Machu Picchu and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia cathedral.

As Trips has discussed before, the continued existence of the ruins of Machu Picchu is endangered by the thousands of tourists that visit each day. Erosion of their mountaintop perch could cause sections of the ruins to collapse within the next few years.

Photo: Wolfgang Staudt

Gaudi’s famous uncompleted cathedral faces a different kind of threat.

A proposed high-speed underground train line is planned to run just six feet from the foundation of one portion of the massive church; the vibrations from the passing trains could do considerable damage to the structure.

The monuments fund also reaches beyond big-name sites to single out places with a more local significance. The stone bridges of Connecticut’s Merritt Parkway make the list, as does New Orleans’ St. Louis Cemetery #2 — still in need of restoration following damage from Hurricane Katrina.

Breaking down the list by country, those with the most entries are the U.S. (10), Peru (8), and Spain (6).

The World Monuments Fund partners “with local communities, funders, and governments” to protect these and many other sites, directing 85% of its revenue toward “preservation projects, fieldwork, advocacy, and educational programs.” To help them out, click here.

Community Connection

Many of Matador’s member organizations are dedicated to cultural preservation. Browse their ranks and find out how you can lend a hand.

Everyone loves lakes. / Photo: magical-world

Lakes have a lot to offer: You get all the benefits of a refreshing body of water without having to worry about tides, currents, rapids, great whites, or that scummy coating of salt.

That must have been what the folks at the Brilliant Tips blog were thinking, anyway, when they published a snapshot of 10 Unique and Fascinating Lakes Around the World.

And Trips agrees. It’s time to bigup the world’s lakes, and here are some picks from the Brilliant Tips piece to get us started:

Photo: gramz

Volcanic views

Two from the list fall into this category.

First we have Guatemala’s Lago de Atitlán, with a trio of volcanoes flanking its southern shore. A series of Mayan villages also ring the water.

And then there’s Taal Lake, on the Philippine’s main island of Luzon. An active volcano rises up from an island in the middle of the lake, and within the volcano’s crater is yet another lake, which Wikipedia describes as “the world’s largest lake on an island in a lake on an island.”
Ya follow?

Most flamingos

Tourists aren’t the only ones who can appreciate lakes. There may be as many as one million flamingos in Kenya’s Lake Nakuru at any given time, attracted by the water’s abundant algae.

Photo: caffeinated Kit

The otherworldly

Spotted Lake, in Klikuk, British Columbia, gets its double-take texture from the soup of minerals found in its water and the peculiarities of local evaporation processes.

It’s visible from a pull-off on Highway 3, just a 10-minute drive north of the Washington border — truly an alien landscape.

World’s deepest

That would be Baikal, reaching depths of 1,642 meters (5,400 feet). It’s also the world’s oldest.

The crescent blade of a lake is located in southeastern Russia and is a good choice for breaking up your Trans-Siberian rail journey.

Most floaty

The Dead Sea, on the borders of Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank, is actually a giant salt lake. It also marks the point of lowest elevation on Earth’s surface (422 meters/1,385 feet below sea level).

And people like to float in it.

Photo: auntjojo

Others?

Lake Titicaca would be an obvious addition to the list.

It’s giant, super high (one of the highest navigable in the world), and home to a collection of artificial islands made from reeds that people live on.

Oregon’s Crater Lake is another standout, with its great depth and remarkably clear waters.

Any more? What’s the most memorable lake you’ve visited, and what makes it unique? Let us know in the comments.

Photos: Travelflare

Long-time Toronto resident Lusine, known within the Matador community as Travelflare, is eager to help visitors to her city make the most of the experience.

Here’s her take on Canada’s largest metropolis:

Although this has been my home for the past 11 years, I am still finding new places and learning new things. Toronto offers great international cuisine, numerous festivals all year long, live international music, nightlife and peaceful natural parks.

Being a multicultural city, Toronto compliments perfectly my personality and background, hence I have expertise in cultural festivals, concerts, restaurants, nightclubs and touristic attractions. Ask me anything you’d like, if I am not familiar with it, I will try to ask around and find an answer.

When she’s not fielding traveler’s questions on Toronto, Lusine is busy working as a travel agent and as editor of a sweet online travel mag, The Compass, which focuses on culture and experience of place (definitely worth a look!).

She also keeps up her personal blog, Travelflare, when she can.

And on top of all that, she’s blogged about Toronto’s nightlife, Asian cuisine, and its ubiquitous hot dogs right here on Matador.

Obviously, the girl knows her stuff. Visit her Matador profile to connect.

Community Connection

Calling all experts!

If you think you’ve got what it takes to become a destination expert for Matador, read this forum post to find out more, or contact Trips co-editor Hal Amen directly at hal[at]matadornetwork[dot]com.

Winter in the Cairngorms / Photo: Murky1

For its size (on par with Oregon), the United Kingdom is one strikingly diverse nation. From mountains to beaches to rolling plains, its landscapes come in many varieties, one never more than a day’s journey from another.

Britain’s 14 national parks are tasked with showcasing this diversity, as well as protecting it. Recently, the Guardian asked travel industry leaders and outdoors enthusiasts to lay out what makes each of the 14 special. Here are some highlights:

Climbing Peak District / Photo: sharpneil

Brecon Beacons: Features an 8-day trek that takes in a historic church, Iron Age castle, and nature reserve, in addition to the high, angular terrain that dominates this region of Wales.

Peak District: Set square in the heart of England, Peak offers a range of climbing opportunities on its gritstone outcroppings — a type of rock found practically nowhere else on Earth.

Cairngorms: The system’s most extreme park by all counts (biggest, tallest, farthest north) draws mountain bikers looking to take on Scotland’s most epic trails.

Pembrokeshire Coast: Sea kayak is the vessel of choice for exploring this Welsh park and its 250 miles of rocky coast dotted with cliffs, sea caves, and marine wildlife.

Have you visited these or other UK parks? Share your experience in the comments.

Community Connection

For more national park goodness from around the world, check out these Matador posts:

Back to Nature: 13 Of The World’s Richest National Parks

Seven Best National Parks for Visiting Old Growth Forests

Guide to Kenya’s National Parks

Photo: orcmid

The Big Boys

1. TransAmerica Trail

It doesn’t get much bigger than this.

The TransAmerica was inaugurated during the 1976 “Bikecentennial,” a bicycle-based celebration of America’s 200th Independence Day. The route runs 4,262 miles from Virginia’s Atlantic coast, through the heartland of the USA, over the Rockies, and terminates at the Pacific in Oregon.

It was the success of the Bikecentennial that strengthened the popularity of cycle touring and led to the creation of many more American trails, some of which are profiled below.

Photo: billaday

2. Pacific Coast Route

Delivering what it promises, the Pacific Coast Route takes you from Washington’s border with Canada all the way down to San Diego, hugging the water practically the whole way.

Much of the 1,853-mile route is on shared roads, though there are some bicycle-dedicated stretches. Services — including top-notch campgrounds — are never far away.

For the super determined, the route can be extended beyond U.S. borders: north into British Columbia and south into Mexico…and beyond.

3. East Coast Greenway

Though currently only 23% complete, the East Coast Greenway will one day link Calais, Maine, and Key West, Florida, with a 3,000-mile, firm-surface, non-motorized trail system.

If you want to help the Greenway folks get this done just a little bit quicker, check out the details on their Close the Gaps Campaign.

The route is definitely ridable today, with the remaining 77% comprised of low-traffic roads.

4. Great Divide Trail

Challenge-seekers, this one’s for you. I’ll throw out some stats to get the blood pumping: 2,493 miles long. Mixes gravel, single-track, and converted railroad beds. Crosses the Continental Divide 50+ times. Gains more than 200,000 feet of elevation!

One of the founders of the Great Divide Trail has this to say:

People who’ve ridden this trail laugh when they hear others say the Tour de France is tough.

Photo: Jeremy & Taylor

The record time for cycling the whole thing? 15 days.

5. Mississippi River Trail

Get to know America’s Big River by cycling its length. The Mississippi River Trail follows it for 2,000 miles from its source in Minnesota, down through steamboat country, to the delta in New Orleans.

The trail includes bike-friendly roads as well as off-road paths and winds through 10 states.

Historic Trails

6. Underground Railroad

The escape of Southern slaves to the freedom of the North is one of the most tragic and heroic stories in American history. With the newly unveiled Underground Railroad Trail, you can see firsthand the routes that were taken by these fugitives.

Only, picture yourself traveling at night. Pursued. Oh yeah, and on foot.

For more info on the 2,028-mile trail, check out the four-part documentary playing on Adventure Cycling Association’s YouTube channel.

Photo: Jason Pratt

7. Lewis & Clark Trail

These were the explorers charged with mapping the land acquired in Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, and this route traces their journey through the Great Plains and into the Pacific Northwest.

Of course, the original voyage was made largely by boat on the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, so the bike route follows the water whenever possible. It extends for 3,252 miles on a mix of paved roads and multi-use trails and gives easy access to many museums dedicated to the Lewis & Clark expedition.

Short(er) and Sweet

8. C&O Canal and Towpath + Great Allegheny Passage

Though created and maintained as two separate paths, these non-motorized trails link up to connect Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, PA, running a total of 330 miles. Cycling the two takes a few days and is popular in autumn, when the leaves turn.

The C&O Towpath is the same one that was used to drag boats along the old Chesapeake and Ohio Canal until the waterway’s closure in 1924. Its route is now preserved as a park.

Photo: Ken_Mayer

In Cumberland, MD, the Great Allegheny Passage takes over. The rail trail has yet to be extended into Pittsburgh proper, but work is underway to complete this last phase of construction.

9. Green Mountains Loop

If you’re not up for driving the Green Mountain State, why not cycle it? The 376-mile Green Mountains Loop starts and ends in Burlington and threads through the small New England towns and forests that make VT so special.

Most of the route is on shoulder-less roads, though traffic is generally light. While you won’t actually be climbing any mountains, expect hills.

10. Denali Highway

The Denali Highway was once a supply route for miners during Alaska’s Gold Rush, and later the main road for visitors to Denali National Park. Those days are over, and now the highway is a prime destination for cyclers.

Though a fairly short ride at just 133 miles, there are plenty of opportunities for off-the-saddle exploration — you don’t have to look far to find a chance to hike, paddle, or camp.

The highway runs from Paxson to Cantwell and is mostly gravel.

More

A map showing several of these routes and many more is provided by the Adventure Cycling Association.

Community Connection

New to cycle touring? Make sure to check out these Matador resources:

How to Train and Prepare For Your First Multi-Day Ride

How to Choose a Touring Bicycle

Bicycle Touring: A Solid Setup

8 Steps for Successful Self-Supported Bicycle Tours

All photos: phishtopher

Long-time Matador member phishtopher, like many travelers, has a passion for things Tibetan.

But unlike most others, he’s chosen to commit several years of his life to understanding this flashpoint region firsthand, using his graduate studies to investigate “issues involving identity, memory, narratives, exile, and the ways in which Tibetans adapt to life in cities.”

Here’s a little more, in Ryan’s own words:

I have traveled many places in China, but most of my time is spent in the Tibetan west–Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan–and Xizang provinces. I often find myself staying with nomads on the grasslands and in mountain villages for research.

These places, regardless of whether they fall within the Tibetan Autonomous Region, are my favorites, as they offer the most unadulterated look at Tibetan culture available.

More on phishtopher can be found in his Matador profile, such as these tidbits:

Why I travel: to enjoy the creation of God, and to meet new people
Before I die I’d like to: set my heels to every nation’s soil and raise children who make a difference in the world
Let’s collaborate: i’m an anthropologist looking to travel, research