GEARING UP
About the size of an iPod Mini and far more convenient to carry than a portable cassette or CD player, the new Playaway audio books are popping up on the ears of travelers as the hot way to listen to the latest best seller. With features such as speeding up or slowing down the reading, fast-forwarding and rewinding slowly or quickly to rehash favorite chapters and a bookmark button to keep your place, the Playaway also comes with a soft, adjustable lanyard for hanging around the neck and ear buds so that it folds up into the smallest possible stowaway for carrying on. The only downsides might be that the ear buds don’t have pads – after a while the hard plastic can make smaller ear canals a little sore – and the price: The books start at $34.95, with some popular titles hitting the $50 range. | $34.95 and up, playawaydigital.com
WEBSITE
AllSafeTravels.com
What’s not to like about a website that promises to help you “Arrive alive and stay informed”? Serving as a clearinghouse for all advisories issued by pretty much every government in the world – except maybe the ones we’re warning everyone about – AllSafe lets you search by country, by region and by nationality of origin (for instance, if there are special advisories for you, person from Australia, traveling in Afghanistan). You can also register your trip and your e-mail, and AllSafe will update you throughout your journey for alerts on new advisories. If you are in desperate need of up-to-the-minute information, you can also subscribe, and AllSafe will forever send you Emergency Broadcast alerts, in which case we don’t expect to hear back from you anytime soon.
BOOK YOUR VACATION
If you can get past the annoyance of Denver freelance writer and author Eric Peterson fashioning himself as a puking, weed-smoking Jack Kerouac-meets-Jane and Michael Stern by way of Gary Sweeney’s “America Why I Love Her,” then “Ramble: A Field Guide to the U.S.A.” ($18, speck press) has some good stuff. Namely, a listing of a lot of weird and wacky places to visit, with cool suggestions for music and movies to lay down on the way out the door on a road trip. The writing isn’t as profound as Kerouac’s, nor does Peterson have as deep a knowledge of his subjects as the Sterns. But he does have a fondness for the gross and the insane, and he tries to imbue the narrative with interesting bits of trivia, a few funky hotels here and there and some places to eat along the way. The color photos and slick pages help. Who it’s for: everyone who likes to read about puking and weed-smoking, folks looking to make pilgrimages to graves but don’t know where James Dean and Miles Davis are buried, and anyone just out of college headed out on his or her first road trip.
YOU MUST BE DREAMING
If ever there were a dream trip for ice cream lovers, this is it. Not only do you get to eat as much gelato as you want, but the trip has a built-in way to work it off: an “all-the-gelato-you-can-eat” cycling tour, Giro di Gelato, takes you through seven regions of Italy, including Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Arezzo and Sploeto, with stays in each, a north-to-south route that runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 9. A second trip heads through the southern regions of Puglia, Basilicata, Campania and Calabria from Aug. 31 to Sept. 11. Run by Boston- based Ciclismo Classico, the trips feature daily visits to the best boutique gelaterias each region offers, with Italian tour guides, behind-the-scenes tours of the gelato makers, trips to the places where the ingredients are grown or produced and rides through the scenic countrysides surrounding the towns. Groups are limited to 22 participants. Cost for the first trip is $4,959 per person; the second is $3,995. Fees include most dinners, all continental breakfasts, accommodations, two picnics, snacks and nonalcoholic beverages en route. Airfare, bicycle and helmets are not included (available at extra rental cost). Call 800-866-7314 or visit ciclismoclassico.com.
TRAVEL BY NUMBERS | Five Ways to Travel Green
Travel-related activities are estimated to contribute a third of worldwide greenhouse emissions. Consider these tips for making your next vacation less of a guilt trip:
1. Ecotour companies such as Colorado-based Natural Habitat Adventures (NatHab.com) sell travelers a low-cost “ticket” to neutralize carbon emissions produced by any of the company’s trips. The ticket represents a contribution to projects – solar ovens in Africa, for example – that reduce climate-changing emissions. Traveling on your own? Sustainable Travel International (sustainabletravelinternational.org) helps calculate and offset your trip’s emissions.
2. Eco-maps suggest low-impact activities for your trip. Green Map Atlas (greenmap.org) provides “green” maps of cities around the world.
3. Europe isn’t the only place to travel by train. Railroad shuttles along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard are quick and convenient.
4. Committed to a road trip? Buy gas from a more environmentally responsible oil company: BP Amoco, Sunoco and Shell have been leaders in their industry on environmental issues. Better yet, buy or rent a hybrid or bio-fuel car. Companies like EV Rental Cars and Fox Rent A Car regularly offer hybrids, and Bio-Beetle Eco Rental Cars offers bio-fueled vehicles. Join eco-friendly auto club Better World Club (betterworldclub.com), which offers discounts on hybrid cars and eco- travel, and even roadside assistance for bicycles.
5. If you fly, eschew individual cabs in favor of public transit or a hotel shuttle to and from the airport. Boston’s PlanetTran (planettran.com) offers a hybrid taxi service; similar services are popping up elsewhere.
Source: WordenGroup Media Public Relations, darla@wordenpr.com
GEOQUIZ
1. Which city, home to more than 2,000 shrines, temples, and gardens, was the capital of Japan from 794-1868?
2. The Krk Bridge, one of the world’s longest concrete-arch bridges, is located near Zagreb in which country?
3. In August 2004, thieves stole the famous painting, “The Scream” from a museum in a northern European capital city. Name this city, which lies on an inlet of the Skagerrak strait.
4. The Danube, Dniester and Dnieper Rivers all flow into what body of water?
5. Name the large peninsula in the Ukraine that is bordered by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
6. Name the area of the North Atlantic Ocean that takes its name from a kind of seaweed that flourishes there.
7. The islands of San Cristóbal, San Salvador, and Santa Cruz belong to Ecuador and are part of what island chain?
8. Which African city, located south of Alexandria, is home to Al-Azhar University, the chief center for Islamic and Arabic learning in the world?
9. La Scala, one of the leading opera houses in Europe, is located in Italy’s second-largest city in population. Name this city in northern Italy.
10. What ethnic group makes up the largest part of the population of Indonesia?
ANSWERS: 1. Kyoto 2. Croatia 3. Oslo 4. Black Sea 5. Crimea Peninsula (Also acceptable: Crimean Peninsula) 6. Sargasso Sea
7. Galápagos Island 8. Cairo 9. Milan 10. Javanese
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
