Travel blog

Hidden Treasures of the Presidential Museums

Bing Travel — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:42:30 GMT

There are 13 of them around the country, each one housing the papers and memorabilia from a different president’s time in office.

Frequent Bing Travel contributor Harriet Baskas takes us on a tour of artifacts – some of them rare and beautiful, some of them downright weird – that the museums keep off view. Find out which president was given a centuries-old glass bead necklace from Israel, and which one hid away a portrait of himself -- painted on the head of a pin, no less -- in our latest slide show, Hidden Treasures of Presidential Museums.

Have you ever visited one of these museums? What did you think? Tell us in comments.

U.S. updates travel warnings to Mexico

HeidiS_Travel — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:47:03 GMT

There has been a steady drumbeat of bad news coming out of Mexico in the past few years, and this week the U.S. State Department updated the travel warning for the country for the first time since April 22, 2011. This new advisory lists state-by-state updates on the security situation, confirming that travel to some pockets of Mexico is still dangerous. The good news is: Many of the most popular destinations for tourists from America are as safe as ever to visit – welcome news for people planning a spring break vacation south of the border this year.

For example, the new update includes no travel advisories or restrictions for Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Riviera Maya and Tulum, Cabo San Lucas, Campeche, Merida and Chichen Itza, and Mexico City.

Here is a summary of the overall conditions in Mexico, from the U.S. Department of State:

“Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year for study, tourism, and business, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day. The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations, and there is no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) have targeted U.S. visitors and residents based on their nationality. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major trafficking routes.

“Nevertheless, U.S. travelers should be aware that the Mexican government has been engaged in an extensive effort to counter TCOs which engage in narcotics trafficking and other unlawful activities throughout Mexico. The TCOs themselves are engaged in a violent struggle to control drug trafficking routes and other criminal activity. As a result, crime and violence are serious problems throughout the country and can occur anywhere. U.S. citizens have fallen victim to TCO activity, including homicide, gun battles, kidnapping, carjacking and highway robbery.”

Places to avoid

The State Department recommends Americans avoid all non-essential travel to Ciudad Juarez, in the state of Chihuahua, which has the highest murder rate in Mexico: 3,100 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez in 2010 and 1,933 were killed in 2011, according to the Mexican government. Copper Canyon, a popular travel destination in Chihuahua, is also reporting drug-related activity.
Other states to avoid include Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon (Monterrey), San Luis Potosi and Sinaloa – and travelers should limit their travel in the city of Mazatlan to main tourist areas such as the Zona Dorada and the historic town center.

In the southern state of Guerrero, non-essential travel should be deferred, and travelers to the cities of Acapulco, Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo and Taxco should be cautious, drive only during daylight hours, and stick to main tourist areas.

For a full list of state and city advisories for Mexico, read the U.S. Department of State’s Travel Advisory for Mexico.

High-fashion hotels

Bing Travel — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:23:43 GMT

What do Christian Lacroix, Todd Oldham and Versace have in common – other than their status as haute couture superstars (and their genders)?

Hint: Put big names in fashion together with the hotel business, and you get inventively designed rooms for lucky travelers.

Check out our newest slideshow, Designer Hotels, to find out which celebrity hat designer is partial to the color pink, which one planted a stuffed wolf in one of his guest rooms, and which one looked to 500-year-old building traditions when designing his hotel in Brazil.

Ever stayed at one of these designer hotels? Do you know of any others? Tell us in comments!

Where in the world are you?

HeidiS_Travel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:30:16 GMT

One of the best things about our job here at Bing Travel is the opportunity to look at a lot of beautiful photos of places around the world. Sometimes we look at an image and instantly recognize the scene. Other times, we have to do a little digging to find out what we’re looking at. Just for fun, we decided to let you, our readers, have a try at some “mystery” photos.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, our newest slide show, Where in the World Are You?, pictures 10 of the world’s most romantic destinations in close-up. Can you guess where the photos were taken? There are clues in the text to help you, and if you want the answer, just click to the next slide. Good luck, and tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.

Cool glaciers to see before they melt

HeidiS_Travel — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:20:00 GMT

Writer Eric Lucas, author of the new Bing Travel slide show Cool Glaciers, reminisces about a recent experience up close with a glacier.

We were standing on a glacier -- a river of ice -- and water was running everywhere. At our feet, into the crevasse 6 feet away, along a crease in the ice. Water standing everywhere, too -- tiny puddles, small ponds, on-ice tarns, even larger mini-lakes whose color was gemlike. "See that one over there?" Our guide pointed to the foot of the Mendenhall Glacier at a turquoise tarn. "I swam in that one Tuesday." Yes, glacier guides are nuts.

The Mendenhall, like almost all glaciers, is receding rapidly, 500 feet a year. You can see that on time-lapse video here. Trek onto the glacier, as I did last May, and the impression is overwhelmingly one of headlong melting, even in the low-octane sun and middling warmth of Southeast Alaska. It is a poster-child for the effects of climate change. And yet people still do not accept what's before their eyes.

After my glacier walk I went over to the Mendenhall Visitor Center and listened to a Forest Service naturalist describe the glacier's retreat to a group of tourists, explaining that global warming has accelerated the retreat over the past decade.

"Don't tell me you buy into that liberal nonsense?" a ball-cap-topped visitor piped up. The naturalist sighed and went on. I wondered what the tourist will say to his grandchildren when they ask what glaciers used to look like.

Do you play the Luggage Game?

Bing Travel — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:48:30 GMT

Between the TSA grope and a long flight in a too-small seat comes a travel moment that passengers regard with equal dread – the Luggage Game.

That’s when travelers, in an attempt to bypass the check-in fee instituted by airlines three years ago, stuff the plane’s overhead bins with (technically) oversized carry-on bags – or wait to check their bags in at the gate, avoiding the fee but holding up the flight.

You can imagine the possibilities for tension here: Boarding stalls while someone tries to wrestle a too-large bag into an already stuffed bin. Then there’s the genius who, inevitably, puts his carry-on into a bin at the front of the plane instead of over his own seat – stalling boarding once more. Passengers get more frustrated in an already frustrating situation. Has a fight ever broken out during boarding?

According to Middle Seat columnist Scott McCartney, passengers keep hold of themselves pretty well, but airlines are taking steps to keep people from playing the Luggage Game. Do you play it? Ever seen anyone play the game in a way that made your blood boil? And what do you think of the checked baggage fees that started the game in the first place?

Clever ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs

Bing Travel — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:03:21 GMT

You probably haven’t thought much about do-not-disturb signs, those tags that you hang on the doorknob to let housekeeping know that you want some privacy. And why should you have? Most of them are nondescript white plastic cards with “Do Not Disturb” printed on them in block letters, as pedestrian as the hair dryer hanging in the bathroom.

But some hotels have thought a great deal about do-not-disturb signs, tying them creatively to a hotel’s theme or ambience – from sweet and homey to wink-and-a-nod racy.

Check out our newest slide show, Clever ‘Do Not Disturb’ Signs, and let us know – have you seen a funny, clever or unusual do-not-disturb tag during your travels?

What airport is the 'world's worst?'

HeidiS_Travel — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:32:00 GMT

Quick: What’s the worst airport you’ve ever encountered? It’s a tough question – these days there are so many bad airports to choose from. If you’ve traveled anywhere by air in the past few years, you’ve undoubtedly come across airports with crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded terminals, terrible weather, filthy floors, bad or nonexistent food, impossible-to-navigate layouts, baffling signage, and more.

Bing Travel called attention to the worst of the worst in our slide show, World’s Worst Airports, but we’re not alone in our schadenfreude. Each year the website Sleepinginairports.net releases its candidates for the year’s worst terminals (read about the dubious “winner” from 2011), and Frommer’s has just released its list of candidates for World’s Worst Airport Terminals (read more here). Frequent travelers will recognize some of the usual suspects: Paris' Charles de Gaulle always seems to make the top 10 list of worst airports, for good reason. JFK and LaGuardia each have their own special drawbacks, as does perennially congested LAX and Atlanta-Hartsfield.

While statistics on airport delays and bad weather can help pinpoint some of the worst candidates, picking others is often a judgment call. So, fellow travelers, judge away! We want to know what airport would top your list for:

1. Worst delays
2. Worst weather
3. Worst services / lack of services
4. Dirtiest
5. Most unfriendly
6. Worst Layout / Navigation
7. Ugliest
8. Overall just plain bad

You can read about which one topped these categories, and others, in Bing Travel's list of worst airports. Now it's your turn!

Leave a comment below and tell us what airport you hate, and why.

Great ethnic neighborhoods

HeidiS_Travel — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:01:00 GMT

Where can you get a taste of Tokyo — in Paris? Or take a ramble through Russia without leaving New York? Ethnic neighborhoods, places populated by immigrants and the children of immigrants, are in almost all major cities nowadays, allowing people of the majority culture to enjoy the riches of others.

In the new Bing Travel slide show, Great Ethnic Neighborhoods, freelance writer Pauline Frommer strolls through 12 vibrant ethnic neighborhoods around the world, from a Danish village in California to a London neighborhood where you can pay for your pub meal in rupees.

Got any tips on a great ethnic neighborhood you’ve encountered in your travels? Share it by leaving a comment below.

Cozy winter lodges

HeidiS_Travel — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:11:26 GMT

Don’t fight winter – embrace it! This time of year it’s all about snow, so find a place to settle in for a long winter’s night, preferably somewhere with a roaring fireplace. To help you out, travel writer Eric Lucas sought out his favorite hot spots for winter weekends -- cozy lodges and inns that know how to wrap guests up in fire-lit comfort when they come in from playing in the snow. In Bing Travel’s new slide show, Cozy Winter Lodges, Lucas finds perfect warm escapes from Alaska to New York and even as far as Norway.

Where's your favorite cozy lodge? Tell us about it by leaving a comment below.

Plan to boost U.S. tourism

Bing Travel — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:23:52 GMT

After 9/11, foreign travel to the U.S. dropped sharply in the wake of sweeping security (and, possibly but not definitively, visa) changes, leading to a 4.6-percent decline in its share of the global travel market between 2000 and 2010.

Bad news for the travel industry, which (according to the U.S. Travel Association) generates $118 million in taxes at all levels of government -- and supports 14 million jobs. That seemingly minor drop in visitors between 2000 and 2010 translates to $37 billion in lost tax revenue, and 467,000 never-created jobs.

In light of the big money at stake, President Obama announced in a speech at Walt Disney World that he was forming a task force charged with halting the decline.

The task force will develop a strategy that involves shortening visa wait times, expanding the visa waiver program and Global Entry (a program that pre-approves low-risk travelers for entry into the U.S.), and promoting our national parks.

“Every 35 international visitors we welcome to the U.S. generates one American job that can't be outsourced,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We look forward to working with the Administration to improve policies that would bring more international travelers to the U.S., as well as increase the facilitation of travelers within the U.S.”

What ideas do you have for increasing tourism to the U.S. – and where would you recommend first-time visitors to the U.S. go? Tell us in comments!

Best & worst airline seats

Bing Travel — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:48:00 GMT

Being comfortable on a flight matters – ask anyone who’s had to endure knees compressed by heedless recliners or any other bad behavior by jerks on a plane.

On a long flight, it matters even more, as cramped seating, lack of privacy and the near-impossibility of catching a few good Z’s start to take their incremental toll on passengers’ physical and mental well-being, turning even the most even-tempered Jane into a grump – or worse.

Luckily, some airlines do offer truly comfortable flying, even though it can come at the cost of a serviceable used car ($12,000 for a plane ticket, anyone?). We’ve gathered up a sampler of the best airline seats in the world, from plush pods outfitted with fine linens to regular seats wide enough to sleep two, so you can see just what you’re missing when you cram into coach. We’ve also thrown in a small handful of seats that you should avoid at all costs.

Check out our newest slideshow, Best and Worst Airline Seats, and tell us – do you have any good-seat stories? Bad-seat stories? Leave ‘em in comments!

World's sunniest places

HeidiS_Travel — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:47:00 GMT

Sometimes, in the dark, short days of winter, all you need is some sun. Just a little bit. Anywhere. As a longtime Seattle resident, I can remember many evenings in January and February looking for last-minute tickets to Arizona or California in the desperate attempt to seek out a sunny spot. Knowing that I’m probably not alone, I decided to find out where in the world the sun does shine – a lot. Surprisingly, there’s no one single source of “sun data,” or at least data that show which cities around the world are the sunniest. I had better luck finding the number of hours of sun a place gets per year using various sources, including the website Current Results, and sourced information from Wikipedia.

Some destinations that get a lot of sun are not exactly hospitable (think the Sahara Desert), so from the list of cities I found I picked the ones that had something interesting to offer: beaches, wineries, golf – in one case an intriguing bridge. The result is the new Bing Travel slide show World’s Sunniest Places. Almost all of the locales featured get at least 3,000 hours of sunshine a year, so if you really, really need to see the sun, pick a spot and grab your sunscreen!

Where’s your favorite sunny escape? Share it by posting a comment below.

Underwater travel

HeidiS_Travel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:24:27 GMT

You don’t have to be a scuba diver to enjoy the fun and adventure of underwater attractions – far from it. Maybe you’ve tried snorkeling on a tropical vacation and really liked what you saw: colorful fish, vibrant coral, and swirling sea creatures (nurse sharks and stingrays, perhaps?). Well, here at Bing Travel we thought we’d help you out with new ideas for experiencing what’s just below the water’s surface – and in some cases, what can be found much, much deeper than that.

Check out the options we found in the new Bing Travel slide show Underwater Travel, which includes boarding a mini-sub for a peek at the wreckage of the Titanic, and getting up close and personal with whale sharks. Not all of these activities require travel to exotic locales, by the way; you’ll even find amazing underwater fun in Las Vegas!

Have a favorite diving or snorkeling spot? Tell us about it by posting a comment below.

Happy Travels!

12 destinations for 2012

HeidiS_Travel — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:11:00 GMT

Where are you going in 2012? If you’re like us at Bing Travel, you have a long bucket list of destinations that have caught your eye. But so many places, so little time! How do you prioritize where to go?

We asked globetrotter extraordinaire Pauline Frommer to scan the map and recommend places that will be hitting their peak of interest next year. As she puts it, “Like fine wines, vintage is important. Choose the right year to visit and you can elevate a standard vacation to one that’s truly memorable.”

Read Pauline’s top 12 list in the new Bing Travel slide show 12 for 2012: Destinations for a New Year. Like sports? London is for you during the summer Olympic Games. Feeling adventurous? There’s never been a better time to visit Myanmar. Have kids? Tour America’s poignant battlefields during the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Or, do something truly historic and fly to Australia to witness the complete solar eclipse.

Wherever you choose to go, drop us a comment and let us know where you’re going and why!

Happy travels!