Posts from ‘Destinations’
Destination Tuesday: Angkor Wat
Destination Tuesday: A series celebrating world travel destinations. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
If you’ve never been to Switzerland, here’s your reason to go – and it’s not for fondue.
Celebrating 80 high-altitude years, the Glacier Express gives riders the Swiss alps, on a platter. Even if you’re normally put off by enterprises set up solely for the tourist, the passage will probably impress you. It’s hard not to be humbled by a majestic mountain landscape no matter where it is. Dramatic, steep, snow-covered and picture perfect.
Not an “express” in the formal sense of the world, the train takes passengers from the foot of the Matterhorn in Zermatt to the Engadin ski resort in St Moritz in about 7 and a half hours, crossing 291 bridges and 91 tunnels in the meantime and vaulting over the Oberalp Pass at 6,670 feet.
![Presidential Office Building [ Taipei ] by d'n'c.](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3066/2745512285_ef01ae8a0d.jpg "Presidential Office Building")
It’s a sad and unfortunate fact that many travelers don’t put Taiwan high on their travel wishlist; it may be the most underrated of all the South East Asian countries. To highlight the missed opportunities of skipping a connection in Taipei, this Wednesday we’ve put together enough things to do in Taiwan to keep you busy for half a day or half a year. If you’re on your way to Asia and are even mildly adventurous Taiwan will quickly surprise you.
Situated 80 miles off the coast of mainland China, the city is abuzz with what’s new and not so new. Surely, the past 50 years has had an adverse effect on the popular opinion, with its perceived endless sprawling factories, electronics assembly plants and swatches of endless neon glowing menacingly through some kind of dystopian gloom.
While the western half of the island may be somewhat overdone with urban sprawl there’s so much to do in the country you’ll forget the reputation and leave comfortable, relaxed and delighted you came, likely with a memory card full of photographs. Mist-covered mountains, hot springs, national parks and a culture as ancient and rich as any in the entire eastern hemisphere.
Taiwan offers visitors a hypermodern skin, an ancient Chinese skeleton and an aboriginal soul. And more than that, Taiwan has some of the world’s warmest people, affable to a fault and so filled with rénqíng wèi (which, roughly translated, means “personal affection”) that few who come to Taiwan a stranger leave that way. ~ Lonely Planet
The around the world travel idea has been popping up a lot lately, and outside its admittedly tight-knit circles. More and more people are pushing the comfortable borders of Europe when not more 
than 20 years ago only the most adventurous American would consider traveling elsewhere. These days anywhere is fair game.
Yes, people are finally envisioning a vastly larger destination palate. Landscapes with hugely exotic sights and sounds are available without the extra effort that was formerly obligatory. The digital age has shown us just how small our world can be and our ability to get there is changing Disney World into Real World with an ease our parents would have been jealous of.
New Zealand has been appearing in my consciousness a lot recently — a couple of my friends just returned from there and at least one fellow travel-blogger has written from there recently. Why? Call it synchronicity, or perhaps it’s the summer weather or the overall draw of this amazing nation.
There’s no denying the splendor, diversity and beauty of New Zealand. This Friday, take a trip through the scenery by way of the following adeptly put-together travel video by the NZ tourist bureau.
A handful of optimists out there are saying the Great Recession is winding down. But for many of the penny-pinching masses life still isn’t all caviar and yachting. Quite the contrary—budgets are still very much in fashion. But since travel never seems to be far off the lifestyle radar, how people 
travel has been angling more toward the new era. To help those who are augmenting their travel funds with ramen-noodle and tap-water dinners, I’ve put together a list of top places where the US dollar will make the most noise, the ones with the highest bang-for-buck quotient.
Generally speaking, your first-world money tends to deliver best results in developing nations, places like Central America, South East Asia and destinations such as Eastern Europe and India, where the local economy must support people who make less money. Of course some will argue that traveling to these places creates an ethical disparity since you may be contributing to the economy only to take advantage of it. I tend to disagree – most of these places are downright stunning. But even with the uneasy philosophical arguments echoing, in terms of traveling experiences, they really can’t be beat.
Image by d'n'c's
In his Jan 14 post, travel blogger Keith Jenkins from Velvet Escape listed a series of “10 Incredible Bridge Walks” around the world. Since I’m an admitted RTW-ophile, I couldn’t help but envision the bridges as a theme trip. These beautiful open-to-pedestrians bridges, when assembled in a series, would make one amazing round the world trip, and not necessarily just for bridge enthusiasts.
For continuity, I took the liberty of adding in a crazy bridge in Singapore that would fill in the South East Asia gap nicely.
So, starting in New York City here is Keith’s bridge-lover’s around the world trip. Check out his original post for lovely pictures of these bridges.
There’s a lot to be said for Number 2. It can even outshine Number 1 simply because it’s passed over by those looking for “the best”. Number 2 is your own private experience, the choice without the noise and chaos that comes from being on top.
Okay, the title of this post may be a little misleading. I certainly don’t mean to say that the common stops should be omitted because they’re popular. The reasons for going there leap out at you in full color from brochures and posters everywhere. But while the Number 1s may have time-tested reasons to visit, those looking for authenticity may end up disappointed. Expectations are tough to live up to when cutting through the masses of other travelers—the mobs and the industry built to accommodate them can taint your experience pretty quickly.
I’ve put together a list of commonly requested cities in RTW itineraries, followed by those you should visit as an alternative (or even an addition).
While these recommendations may be more expensive to have in your itinerary (major cities tend to have least impact on price) the experiences gained by visiting these alternatives can be priceless and should make any added expense completely worthwhile.
Part IV of our series of guest posts from San Francisco native Susan Coss as she returns to Mexico after a year-long hiatus. Missives from Oaxaca documents her month-long stay in the southern Mexican town. Click to read part I, part II and part III.
And so it is the eve of my departure and of course the city decided to turn on its charm to the thousandth degree this last week…
The weather has been unseasonably warm, which has been fantastic, though of course it makes the return to cold that much harder. As is abundantly clear by now, from my missives this year and last year, I am head over heels in love with this place. I am blessed to have been able to return to spend yet another month discovering more, meeting more people, eating more food. It is not perfect here – I could bitch forever about the disorganization, the blatant government corruption, the stupid sidewalks, the traffic. The rose colored glasses slip from the eyes occasionally. And yet I will miss it all, the good and the bad.
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