So the U.S. House of Reps rejected the $700 billion bailout package and the DOW crashed 777 points. Wall Street is crushed that it won’t be getting a free lunch after having gambled (and lost) other peoples’ money on leveraged derivatives and junk mortgage securities. Asian markets are tanking and the Europeans have their cockamamie heads […]

Posted on September 30th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: New York, Vacation | No Comments »

Rhode Island vacations are about to get a lot more popular, because Robert D. Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, seems to have scored a coup of sorts when he won the ‘Travel Personality of the Year’ award at the World Travel Awards, held on Sept 6 2008 at the Swan Hotel & Convention […]

Posted on September 29th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: News | No Comments »

Holy mother of theme parks! Seems Hard Rock Park, the Myrtle Beach, SC Rock n’Roll theme park which opened to much fanfare earlier this year at an estimated price tag of $400 million has been shuttered for the winter, and has filed for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy.
They’re blaming the bad economy as a reason for […]

Posted on September 26th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: News | 1 Comment »

Here’s a question most of you will never have to answer. What are the family things to do in New York City if you want to keep the kids happy and entertained while your wife is zipping across the City in a motorcade guarded by the Secret Service and escorted by the NYPD and chit-chatting with […]

Posted on September 25th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: NYC, News | No Comments »

In 1973, Paul Theroux (www.paultheroux.com/) set out from London to travel Asia by train, and then wrote about  his journey through Asia and in 1975, published a book bsed on his writings called The Great Railway Bazaar, which basically triggered a seachange in travel writing, making it more personal, more commercialized and more kitschy. Meaning that from then on, […]

Posted on September 24th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: World | No Comments »

No time like the present for Chicago vacations, cause Chi-town is dancing to a different beat until Sept 25th 2008. That’s for the city-wide, multi venue 10th annual World Music Festival Chicago 2008, which began on Sept 19th.
Organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), the Festival, which showcases both traditional and contemporary music […]

Posted on September 23rd, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Chicago, Festivals | No Comments »

Wanna book your travel plans solid for the next 5 years? How about five free trips for two (one per year), to the world’s topmost natural wonders and wildlife parks?
All you have to do is win the Wild Wonders Sweepstakes from Natural Habitat Adventures (www.nathab.com/). Photo copyrights - Natural Habitat Inc.
Here’s what you could win:
1. […]

Posted on September 21st, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: News | No Comments »

On Sunday, 21st September 2008, people will be doing 108 Sun Salutations at parks in major cities across the world as part of the Yoga for Peace events, a project of New York CitiWorks, Inc. and organized by Global Mala, a non-profit. The countries listed include Argentina, Canada, Croatia, England, Holland, Italy, Puerto Rico, Tanzania and the […]

Posted on September 20th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: News | 2 Comments »

I’ve seen a heck of a lot of bungled burglaries and robberies in my time. And almost every other day, some smart-aleck art thief comes up another new way to hit well guarded museums and art collections. But I’ve never seen anyone bungle a job as bad as 25 year old Richard Anthony Smith. Photo copyrights […]

Posted on September 19th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Art & Museums | No Comments »

Ok. So there’s this hotel in Marmaris, Turkey, where it seems there was a lotta hanky-panky going on between the hotel’s male staff and the female tourists who were guests at the hotel. Finally, the hotel manager couldn’t take the sexcapades between the mostly British and Russian female tourists and the hotel staff, and fired every […]

Posted on September 18th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: Hotels | No Comments »