Intelligent Travel

Hotel Confidential: Dislocated Hip

Travelers tracking the hot hostelry usually brace themselves for a haughty hotel staff who specialize in putting the "snoot" in snooty. From South Beach to downtown L.A., a chilly check-in can strangle delight no matter how many Aveda amenities appear by the sink. So it's a pleasure to come across a hotel that's both stylish and friendly. Downtown San Diego's 10-month-old Ivy (600 F Street; +1 619-814-1000) will make a guest feel both fussed over and cool at the same time.

As luck had it, I spent my two-night stay in a handicapped-accessible room. Usually a design afterthought, my room at the Ivy was certainly the coolest one I'd ever been in. (Though it lacked the funky design flair in the hotel's 6th-floor suites, with their see-through shower panels between bath and bedroom. Those frost up at the flick of a switch for the more shy among us). But my room more than sufficed, what with its fresh fruit, complimentary copies of Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone and the Keurig coffee machine, an idiot-friendly device that dispenses shots of Green Mountain dark roast with a flourish. So intent on playing barista, I almost didn't notice the wall-mounted HDTV.

Cinematic Road Trip: Idaho

John Ur is back this week with the next stop on the Cinematic Road Trip. This time it's Idaho. Sweet!

A confession must be made. The amount of time that I’ve spent within the borders of the state of Idaho between birth and the present day total approximately ninety minutes – eighty of which were spent in the car driving between Montana and British Columbia. But cry not, native Idahoans! For I am aware of the tragedy of my limited visitations to the Gem State.

Any avid reader of adventure and backpacking magazines could rattle off a number of great locations in Idaho that deserve your outdoor attention: Snake River, Hells Canyon (the deepest canyon in the U.S.), Shoshone Falls (higher than Niagara Falls), and Borah Peak (the highest in the state, and which has a number of peaks running through the Rocky Mountain Range), to name a few. You can check out some of the great, natural areas of Idaho here, in panoramic photos no less.

Idaho's 80 recognized mountain ranges stretch across much of the north and southeastern part of the state. The majority of the cities lay in the Columbia Plateau, a region that follows the Snake River through the center of the state. This region is also the home to the farms that make the state famous for its potatoes. And potatoes are the main ingredient of Tater-Tots, a small cylindrical side dish made from deep fried, grated potatoes.

Barcelona: Be Green, Be Cheap

Planning an España getaway this summer? If you're headed to Barcelona, be sure to check out the new Barcelona Urbany (opening June 1), which claims to be the country's first eco-friendly hostel.

What makes this hostel eco-savvy? It will recycle and reuse 50 percent of the water and use a rainwater harvesting system. It will also use low-consumption lamps and "more environmentally friendly and less aggressive materials." Sounds pretty good to us.

But just because Urbany is greening its quarters doesn't mean it is lacking in 21st-century amenities. Not only will the hostel have a swimming pool, BBQ area, free guest kitchen, and spa facilities, it will also offer breakfast and Wi-Fi free to guests.

The 13-story hostel will include about 400 beds in both mixed and female shared rooms, as well as individual and double rooms for those not wanting to put up with snoring strangers (you can check out some current construction photos here). And all rooms also have en suite bathrooms, which is the definition of hostel luxury.

Read more: IT got the goods on some U.K. hostels' efforts to go upscale, and on an eco-savvy hostel-on-wheels.

Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/bcnbits via Flickr

Twin Cities Bars Smoke the Smoking Ban

We knew Minnesota's Twin Cities were pretty serious about their theater (bragging more live theater per capita than anywhere outside New York). Even so, our eyebrows are sufficiently raised at hearing that bars across the metro area there were staging "theater nights" to bypass the statewide smoking ban.

The Star Tribune explains:

Dozens of bars are expected to stage "theater nights'' this weekend in which patrons are dubbed "actors". The law, which went into effect in October, permits performers to smoke during a theatrical production. "Two weeks ago, we had one bar doing this,'' said Mark Benjamin, a criminal defense attorney who launched the theater-night idea. He estimates 50 to 100 bars could be on tap for theater nights this weekend based on phone calls, e-mails and requests for the how-to-stage-a-theater-night packet that he's devised.

Lisa Anderson, owner of Mike's Uptown bar, told the Star that her "theater night" last Saturday drew four times the usual crowd. She plans to continue to host similar themed nights, at least until state health department officials pull the plug on the loophole.

Global Eye: Hapert, Netherlands

De Hapertse Molen, Hapert, Netherlands

Photographer: Arnoud Augustinus, Eersel, Netherlands

Details: One of my hobbies is Kite Areal Photography (KAP). The picture shows the corn mill ("de Hapertse Molen") in Hapert and is made with a camera lofted from a kite.

Getting the shot: At the end of this winter period, we had a couple of days almost wind free. Only this weekend in February, the wind was just enough to lift my camera about 100 meters (328 feet) above the mill.  In these conditions I used an eight-foot Rokkaku kite, a reliable lifter for low winds. The camera is mounted in a construction giving it the ability to shoot images in different angles, controlled from the ground.

We like the unusual view of the Netherlands' landscape. Have your own bird's-eye, Global Eye view of the world? Share your photos in our Flickr group.

Photo: Arnoud Augustinus

Strange Planet: Running of the Reindeer

We were asked to update readers on last weekend's Running of the Reindeer in Anchorage, Alaska. During the annual Fur Rondy festival, 1,000 men and women ran down Anchorage's Fourth Avenue with 12 reindeer in the inaugural Running of the Reindeer. Before the race, handlers and participants were afraid that the normally docile animals wouldn't be up for the sprint, but fortunately for spectators, the reindeer ran with the best of them. Many runners dressed in costume (as a bull's-eye, or as carrots and lichen — a reindeer's favorite foods).

Afterwards, participants and spectators lined up at local eateries to get a taste (literally) of the reindeer. As USA Today reports:

"Normally we just eat them," said Mark Berg, a spectator who has lived in Alaska since 1967. "I just made some jambalaya the other day out of reindeer sausage. I've eaten more of their cousins than they want to know."

Less fortunate reindeer are participating in the Reindeer Sausage Eating Contest at Humpy's, held today.

Check out the Anchorage Daily News for some great videos of the event. The Fur Rondezvous festivities end Sunday, March 2.

Photo: Thomas Leach via Flickr

Marilyn's Miscellany: World Beach

Get Stoned: Artist Sue Lawty at the Victoria & Albert Museum has started the World Beach Project, which invites people around the world to create patterns with beach stones, then take a photo and upload it to their site. Each photo has a little description of the place where it was taken, and they will post it on their interactive map for others to enjoy. The design above was created recently at Seapoint, Monkstown, County Dublin by Derek, Patricia and Olivia Masetti-Nolan, who said, "We started with one single orange stone and thought it would look great on a black background! It was freezing cold but we had a lot of fun."

No Photos, Please:  It turns out those rules about no photographing in public places in NYC are a lot of hooey, according to NewYorkology, a great travel blog about New York. So if you're trying to take a photo on public property and someone wants to see your I.D., with few exceptions, you're under no obligation to hand it over.

KitKats of the World:  IZReloaded, my favorite blogger from Singapore, discovered this Flickr photoset of KitKat bars from Japan and around the world. Did you know there's a Brandy-and-Orange variety of KitKat, and a striped Choco-Banana, and Fruit Parfait?  Now you do!

Pattern and photo: Derek, Patricia and Olivia Masetti-Nolan, 2008, World Beach Project

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Neighborhood Watch: A Sign of Change in Hollywood?

One of Hollywood’s most photographed stars could be on its way to becoming just another real estate selling point if a Chicago-based investment firm has its way.

Cahuenga Peak’s 138 acres of unspoiled mountains, which stretch behind the postcard-ready Hollywood sign, hit the real estate market earlier this month for a cool $22 million—much to the chagrin of Los Angeles city officials, who reportedly have been trying to raise funds over the past several years to purchase the property. The city hoped to preserve the mountaintop and join it with Griffith Park, where the sign sits.

According to the L.A. Times, city leaders have so far accumulated about $5 million and had intended to ask the nonprofit Trust for Public Land to help negotiate a selling price with Fox River Financial Resources. A recent appraisal estimated the ridge was worth about $6 million, resulting in all-out sticker shock from Fox River’s lofty asking price.

Ironically, the glitzy relic-turned-Kodak-moment dates back to 1923, when the Hollywoodland Real Estate Group spent $21,000 on the sign as an advertisement to promote a new residential subdivision. The sign’s 13 letters (it read “Hollywoodland” until 1949) each measured 30 feet wide by 50 feet tall and were only intended to be a temporary addition to the landscape. Four thousand 20-watt bulbs glittered through the Hollywood night, visible from 25 miles away, and soon the sign became a symbol of the city's glamour. But after several years the icon fell into disrepair and was replaced with the debut of a new 45-foot-tall sign in 1978.

Words of Parisian Wisdom from Taras Grescoe

In Traveler’s March issue, renowned travel writer and former Paris resident Taras Grescoe takes readers through the streets of authentic Paris, a city through the eyes of Parisians themselves. IT had the chance to grill Grescoe on his first Parisian encounter, his favorite little rue, and how those Frenchies are holding up under the new smoking ban.

Describe your first meeting with Paris. What stuck with you? What remains the same?

I was bumming around Europe with a rapidly diminishing stock of travelers checks; Paris is where the last of them ran out. I ended up staying for four years, teaching English, living in four different arrondissements, and doing a great deal of walking.

Paris in the 1990s was a somewhat grittier place. Cigarettes cost ten francs a pack, less than two bucks at the time (now they’re five-plus euros), and people smoked everywhere—metro platforms, elevators, toilet stalls (they had convenient ashtrays set above the toilet paper rolls). There were still first-class cars on the metro (identical to second, but less crowded), and cell phones had not become the chief means of flirting and conducting a love affair.

In many ways, Paris has become greener since I lived there. Bicycles are everywhere, as are bike paths. There are far more pedestrian-only sectors, and vast new parks (like the one at Bercy). But Paris is still Paris, and there are still passages, museums, and café-tabacs I’d like to discover. I wouldn’t mind running out of money and getting stranded there all over again.

In Authentic Paris, your friend Hélène Lurçat says that, “Parisians still shop in it [Paris] like it’s a village.” What is your personal favorite petite slice of Parisian “village” life?

I always make a beeline for the Rue Montorgueil in the second arrondissement. It’s a pedestrian street near the former site of Les Halles food market, and it’s full of fishmongers, cheese shops, bakeries, pastry shops. I grab a seat at a café terrace some time before noon (if I can find one—competition can be fierce) and watch the parade: check out which pattern of scarf everybody seems to be wearing this year, which breed of dog is fashionable.

Eat and Shop Better

For eager wanderers like us, browsing a bookstore’s travel guidebook section tends to stir raw and conflicting emotions: lust, for the thrill of a new adventure; ennui, for the too-often trite content; and angst, for the endless options from which to choose.

After all, no matter how off-the-beaten-track you consider your destination, chances are likely the bookshelf holds at least a handful of guidebooks promising to be your travel bible. And while we strongly believe that the best way to experience travel is by immersing yourself in a place full-throttle—not with your nose in a book—there’s no denying the added confidence a guidebook provides in unfamiliar territory.

So when we heard about Portland-based eat.shop guides, we were eager to learn more. The guidebook series only features local shops and restaurants—such as Manhattan's Saxelby Cheesemongers (pictured) in Essex Street Market—so you can support establishments with local color instead of generic big-box stores and chain restaurants and hotels.

“We believe that for travelers, patronizing locally owned businesses is so integral to the real experience of any city,” eat.shop’s Emily Mattson explained to us. “Especially in the U.S., it's too easy to stay within your comfort zone while traveling: drinking Starbucks, for example, because you recognize the logo on the street. Why not go to Ristretto Roasters here in Portland, for example, where the owner, roaster, and barista are passionate about what they're serving you?”