Intelligent Travel

Borderline Loco

IT hears about some pretty strange travel trends, but when we read about a simulated border crossing tour in Harper's July 2006 issue, we thought we'd better delve deeper. "Parque EcoAlberto, an eco-resort in central Mexico, aims to replicate the experience of illegally crossing the border to the United States," states Harper's, "Mock border agents are employed to prevent 'successful crossings,' loading those they catch onto trucks." Was this something morbidly akin to Houston's Enron tours and New Orleans' post-Katrina disaster tours?

We found our way to the resort's website, all in Spanish, where we located and translated the following: "Visit EcoAlberto to help the sons of our [indigenous] Hñahñu brothers. They do not have to live apart, with their bodies in a neighboring country and their hearts in El Alberto." From our reading, it seems the tour is less for ambulance-chasing tourists than a way to acknowledge the hardships undergone by local emigrants attempting to fulfill an American dream (and bring money into their home community so that they don't have to leave).

While IT's not quite ready to hop a plane to Mexico City, drive over an hour to the resort, and pay $100 to get chased "across unfamiliar terrain littered with obstacles" by border control, we can think of a few people we'd like to send in our place...

Are We There Yet? A Family Travel Report from the Road

Unlike your unencumbered bloggers, not all of Traveler's staff travel with only their lightly packed bags for company. Associate editor Susan O'Keefe recently took a trip with her family, and gave us the following report:

Just back with my three kids from the Tides Inn in historic Irvington, Virginia, a charming town on the Rappahannock River (a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay) in Virginia's Northern Neck, where the setting, pace of life, and activities recall summer vacations of the past. From croquet on a bluff overlooking Carters Creek to the swimming pool complete with a metal shade awning, towel cabana, and plenty of water floats for the kids, the Tides is unpretentious and fully welcomes kids, even misbehaving ones (take my word for it, breakfast one morning turned into a nightmare, and a waiter averted disaster with miniature, palm-size pinball games). And unlike so many resorts that have programs for kids—tidy, nowhere-to-be-seen facilities to store tots for the day—the Tides's Crab Net Kids program is chock-full of activities that actually take in the inn's surroundings and can include crabbing and fishing on the river, golfing and playing tennis.

How Sweet IT Is

In case anyone was in doubt, last week's heat wave was a clear reminder of just what season is upon us. Since we already gave you the lowdown on how to find a pool near you, this week IT will explore another favorite means of summer temperature reduction: ice cream. Or, to be precise, our favorite frozen subgenre, gelato.

Beyond the heat, the inspiration for this entry was our recent discovery of Ciclismo Classico's Giro del Gelato biking tour of Italy, which includes all-you-can-eat binges, gelato-making lessons, and best gelato competitions on its two-week itinerary from Venice to Gaeta via Florence and other cool-treat hotbeds. We got to thinking that there are more ways to experience this Italian delight than struggling to choose between 218 different flavors or navigating display cases where velvety vanilla neighbors bright blue Viagra, and found a few to share with you.

In Search of the Perfect Loo

Here at National Geographic Traveler, we're always looking for stories that promise an intriguing conceit and/or superlative claims. So, when intern Allison Busacca (a self-proclaimed hater of unsanitary bathrooms) pitched this potty post, we had to give her the green light. She reports:

The sixth annual America's Best Restroom Contest, sponsored by Cintas, a bathroom products provider, recently ranked the top five public restrooms across the nation that, due to high cleaning standards and technological advancements, help make the entire restroom experience a little more enjoyable.

This Week's Bloggers

For Emily King, Traveler's assistant to the editor, a waffle cone of coffee ice cream with chocolate fudge chunks is the cool-down method of choice. Researcher Jessie Johnston spends summer days pining for a cup of the sweet chestnut crème glacée she fell in love with one summer in Provence.

IT Gets Around

IT's sometime correspondent Andy Isaacson has sent us his latest observations on transportation, though in slightly less exalted fashion than his previous post:

As if carrying a map and gawking didn't already label you an out-of-towner, more offbeat ways to sightsee can seal your tourist identity. In spite of staring locals, these alfresco and eco-friendly alternatives to bus tours, rental cars, and public transportation can almost pass as cool, even if a tad unusual.

IT Travels with Jerry Sealy

National Geographic Traveler art director Jerry Sealy put his jetlag to good use last week by writing us a blog entry at 4 a.m. the day after he returned from France:

Even a missed flight has a silver lining. When I found myself with an unexpected extra day in Paris (let's not talk about how a travel professional can be so disorganized as to have a 'lost flight,' as the French say, or, ahem, get off at the wrong Greek island as I did last summer), I quickly boarded the RER train from Charles de Gaulle Airport (a bargain at just over $10) and headed back to the city I love most. I had been caught up in World Cup frenzy the previous day (as was the entire republic), and had missed taking care of some last-minute shopping and museum-going, so I was happy for the opportunity for another 24 hours in Paris.
 

Schmap IT

IT's always keeping an eye out for new guidebooks, so when Schmap sent us the beta (trial) version of their new product, we were excited and, equally, impressed. A digital collection of interactive guidebooks, Schmap mixes maps with content, virtually allowing users to read about places while simultaneously seeing their locations on a map. Because you download the Schmap Player as a desktop application, you can use the guidebooks without an Internet connection, i.e. putz around the sprawling metropolis of Houston while at cruising altitude. For each destination (by November, the company promises to have a total of 95 international and 82 domestic cities), Schmap includes a thorough introduction, history, and recommended attractions—plotted on the map, of course—like galleries, churches, restaurants, hotels, and parks. The content is somewhat dry and not Schmap's own: they pluck info and reviews from Wcities, maps from Tele Atlas, and photos from Flickr. But, by aggregating community content, Schmap becomes a very useful piece of freeware. For now, the software works only on PCs or Macs equipped with Boot Camp. Come November, Apple-users (like yours truly) will be able to join in the fun.

IT's Reader Roundup

As the most well traveled of any group of travel magazine subscribers, our readers have a fair amount of mileage under their collective belt. So it's only natural that they'd have fabulous and helpful recommendations to share with both us and you, their fellow travelers. This week, IT presents our first roundup of tips sent in by readers. Enjoy!

Subscriber Jill Colpak, of Concord, Massachusetts, tipped IT off on tasty Italian tours: "Bluone runs wonderful food and wine tours in Italy. They have scheduled trips, but they specialize in custom tours. The couple who own and run Bluone are caring and well-informed Bologna residents with long experience in travel and food. I have traveled with them twice, once to Emilia Romagna and once to Le Marche, and both were fantastic experiences of traveling with a small group that included cooking in a home kitchen, tasting wines at the vineyard, seeing how parmesan cheese is made, and learning how prosciutto is cured."

Sojourn in Squagonna

Fresh from their recent flirtation with tropical storm Alberto, chief researcher Marilyn Terrell and her intrepid family took on another enemy of travel during their stay at a house they'd rented in central New York state last week:

The owners of the house showed up to welcome us, and so did the mosquitoes. It's hard to shake hands and swat flying insects at the same time. Inside, the house swarmed with small, breakable objects displayed on every available surface—all for sale, the owners told us. It's a good thing we decided not to bring our dog Sully, although the owners would have welcomed him (for a fee). One swipe of his tail could have added considerably to the cost of our weeklong stay.

Ahead of the Pack

IT admits to frivolous packing. After all, who hasn't wound up in the Caribbean with a wool sweater and leather boots? But thanks to more restrictive baggage rules and Mass Transit Rule #6 in our manners post (don't carry huge bags on the subway), we feel the need to perfect our practice.

Good packing techniques can make the night before your trip less stressful and the trip itself more enjoyable. Thus we share words of wisdom from travel writer John Flinn, a six-pack version of his original list as published in the San Francisco Chronicle:

* The amount of stuff you think you need is directly related to the size of your luggage. Get a smaller bag and you'll make do with fewer things.

Manners Matter

New York Magazine recently published the Urban Etiquette Handbook, which lays the ground rules for public behavior in, well, New York. But with summer travelers crowding most places, from Jackson Hole to Savannah, IT thinks these tips apply everywhere. We've jotted down a few of our favorites.

On busy sidewalks, keep the following in mind:
1. Babies in strollers have the right-of-way.
2. Not everyone wants to pet your poodle.
3. Only little kids are allowed to bicycle on sidewalks.
4. Don't smoke. Secondhand smoke can kill pedestrians, too.

A Reader Writes

Way back when we launched IT, we promised to include tips from our staff, contributors, and savvy readers. Faithful followers may have noticed that we have yet to follow through on the savvy reader part of the bargain. We didn't forget about it though. We hope that today's posting from subscriber Patricia Tuck-Lee will be the first of many reader tips to grace this space:

Your article about staying at monasteries in Spain ["Spain's Heavenly Retreats," Hotel Central, April 2006 print issue] was of particular interest because my husband and I stayed at a few during our 25th wedding anniversary trip in 2003. We stayed at the Abadía de Montserrat, and what a treat it was to listen to the boys' choir in the evening after all the tour buses had departed. The church was packed during the day when the choir sang and we were disappointed by the performance. However, the evening service was a treat with both the boys and monks singing. The early morning service, which is held behind the altar in a small chapel, was also very private. After, we were able to go behind the altar to touch the Madonna without any line-ups at all.

This Week's Bloggers

Emily King, Traveler's assistant to the editor, handles the D.C. heat well. She refuses to go outside and keeps her thermostat at 71. Researcher Jessie Johnston sniffs out local pools on the Internet and spends the oppressive summer days doing cannonballs off the high dive boards.

Look IT Up

With summer officially here, IT's mind turns to beloved warm weather activities. Among them, swimming is very much at the forefront. And, thanks to a website we recently found, we'll never be pressed to find a pool. Swimmers Guide is an online database of publicly accessible, year-round pools worldwide. It currently includes over 18,000 pools in 156 countries, from Andorra to Zimbabwe. Listings include the cost of admission, the pool's dimensions, whether there are diving boards, and links to the pool's website and online maps if available. Most listings are public pools or in hotels, and include facilities in airports, hospitals, and pool-cum-bowling-alleys. Our only complaint? The requirement that facilities be open a minimum of eight months a year to be listed means some of our all-time favorite outdoor pools will never make the cut.

Euro Trip 2006

Before settling into her cubicle at Traveler, intern Allison Busacca took a three-week, six-city backpacking tour through Europe. She reports:

Wanting desperately to flex our art history muscles, my three friends and I originally planned on doing a European mega-museum tour. However, we found that most paintings faded into the background as we experienced the many other forms of art around us.