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Travel Leisure
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Jun 29, 08 2:02 PM CDT
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The scenery is spectacular, but lofty mountaintops, stiff trade winds, and abbreviated tarmacs make for teeth-clenching landings at the world’s most harrowing runways, per Travel and Leisure : Paro Airport, Bhutan: Surrounded by 16,000-foot-high Himalayan peaks, what could possibly go wrong? Barra Airport, Scotland: Hold on tight. The roughness of your sandy landing is determined by the outgoing tide.
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CW2 News
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Jun 26, 08 5:00 PM CDT
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Denver has a pretty lax marijuana policy (small amounts are legal) and pro-pot advocates are wondering whether, after a recent rash of "air rage" incidents, such permissiveness shouldn’t extend to the city airport’s smoking lounge, CW2 News reports. “This madness has got to stop,” said a proponent. “And we're providing a very viable solution.”
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Travel Leisure
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Jun 25, 08 2:03 PM CDT
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From Parisian sewer guides to a coconut safety engineer in St. Thomas, some travel industry jobs straddle the line between necessary and absurd. Travel and Leisure highlights some of the strangest. Tourism ambassador, Japan. Diplomacy never looked so soft and cuddly after Japan appointed elder statesfeline Hello Kitty for PR duty in Hong Kong and China.
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Wall Street Journal
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Jun 24, 08 5:56 PM CDT
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Fred Astaire he's not, but Matt Harding sure inspires the masses. The globetrotting former video-game designer, whose goofy dance set the Internet abuzz, is back at it. His latest video shows him dancing—OK, maybe flailing— with fans from Seattle to Fiji to Rwanda, and it's approaching 2 million hits on YouTube, Michelle Kung notes in the Wall Street Journal .
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Travel Leisure
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Jun 21, 08 1:39 PM CDT
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A great pleasure of this wide world of ours is the multiplicity of cultures and customs. That diversity can also get you into a heap of trouble. So, when traveling, here’s what not to do, and where not to do it, from Travel and Leisure . Touching: Too intimate in Asia. And steer clear of that baby’s head in Thailand! Eating with the left hand: a no-no in Africa. That hand’s for wiping.
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New York Times
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Jun 21, 08 10:10 AM CDT
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With fuel prices soaring, travelers are increasingly turning to Amtrak, which posted a record for passengers in May—not usually a big travel month, reports the New York Times . But the struggling rail service has shrunk so drastically since it was created in the '70s that it won't be able to respond to the passenger surge very quickly. “We’re starting to bump up against our own capacity constraints,” says an Amtrak rep.
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Chicago Tribune
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Jun 20, 08 7:59 PM CDT
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With gas prices up and on the rise, your Winnebago may soon be stuck in park—but the fall of car culture's ugliest offender will force us to reconnect with better pastimes, writes Garrison Keillor in the Chicago Tribune . “Banjo sales will pick up,” Keillor writes. “The screened porch will come back in style. And the art of storytelling will burgeon along with it.”
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Wall Street Journal
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Jun 19, 08 2:32 PM CDT
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Now you can manically check your inbox from 40,000 feet, reports Walter Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal . Certain American Airlines routes between New York and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami will offer in-flight WiFi starting in July, and Virgin America will have it later in the year. The service will cost $12.95 for longer flights, and $9.95 for shorter ones.
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Travel Leisure
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Jun 19, 08 7:46 AM CDT
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With $4 gas, shrinking competition, and airport fees, finding an affordable road-trip rental can be challenging. Travel and Leisure offers these tips to curb costs. Avoid airport rentals: Rent your car from downtown and avoid airport fees that add 25% to 45% to your bill. Ditch the rental specifics in favor of Hotwire or Priceline’s reservation roulette, in which you pay without knowing which rental agency you're dealing with.
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BusinessWeek
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Jun 18, 08 8:45 PM CDT
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Before it was the last word in gastronomy, the Michelin Guide was a free book designed to spur travel, and hence sell tires. Now, it’ll be free once more, thanks to a revamped Web strategy, BusinessWeek reports. Michelin’s redesigned site will not only give away more content, it’ll also include web 2.0 features to let amateur gourmets get a word in.
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Foreign Policy
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Jun 14, 08 4:53 PM CDT
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Here are top spots for an exotic foreign trip—except that Washington has labeled them off-limits or far too dangerous. Foreign Policy lists five: Mt. Kumgang is North Korea's "unspoiled spiritual retreat," but Americans will be quarantined by Pyongyang if they can even get in.
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Reuters
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Jun 13, 08 4:41 AM CDT
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The first talks between China and Taiwan in almost a decade have yielded a historic travel agreement, reports Reuters. Regular flights between the two will begin next month for the first time since the Communists won China's civil war in 1949. Relations between the rivals—still officially at war—have thawed rapidly since Taiwan voted in a more China-friendly president in March.
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BBC
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Jun 12, 08 5:20 PM CDT
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Tourists could soon have a new accessory to add to travel-sized toothpaste tubes and electrical adapters: an anti-diarrhea patch. A new US study shows that travelers wearing a “transcutaneous immunization” patch, loaded with E. coli toxins, reliably protected wearers against diarrhea and vomiting, the BBC reports. Those who did get sick bounced back much more quickly than a control group.
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Travel Leisure
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Jun 11, 08 1:39 PM CDT
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Forget museums and street markets. To truly understand a culture, travelers should take in its bizarre traditions. From fire walking to tomato hurling, Travel and Leisure looks at the world's most off-the-wall celebrations. Lopburi Monkey Buffet in Thailand: Each November, Lopburi's residents lay out a feast to appease the city's greedy monkeys.
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San Francisco Chronicle
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Jun 9, 08 5:36 AM CDT
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Once known for its Rat Pack-style homophobia, Las Vegas has become a getaway hotspot for gays and lesbians—even more popular than San Francisco, one study says. Among its gay attractions are a bar on the Strip, a mayor who marches on Gay Pride Day, and a slew of fabulous shows from Bette Midler to Elton John to Cirque du Soleil, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
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New York Times
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Jun 6, 08 8:40 AM CDT
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In the 30 years since Congress deregulated airline travel, the country's major carriers have operated on a bigger-is-better strategy: fly more planes to more routes and you'll come out on top. But with fuel twice as expensive as a year ago, airlines are not just raising prices, they're radically changing their business models. Less is more is the new philosophy, writes the New York Times . “Air travel will be less democratic from here on out,” said one travel expert.
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Bloomberg
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Jun 3, 08 4:14 PM CDT
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Desperate airliners are doing everything to cut fuel costs, scaling back on water and snacks—and adding a fee for overweight passengers could be next, analysts tell Bloomberg. "Nothing is beyond their imagination," one says of CEOs. "They have already begun to think exotically." Fuel costs, nearly triple since 2000, account for as much as 40% of operating expenses.
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ABC News
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Jun 3, 08 3:18 AM CDT
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Visitors to the US who don't need visas will have to register personal information online before traveling this summer, reports ABC News. The information will be used for background checks and scrutiny of travel plans. European officials have threatened to introduce similar rules in retaliation. The new regulations would apply to travelers from 27 countries operating under the visa waiver program.
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