Vacations Blog

Last week, I was asked to select my favorite submissions to the weekly Travel Blog Carnival, organized by Darren from Travel Rants. This week, he asked me again! A plethora of new content this week, and lots of interesting ones to boot, I had fun choosing!

Barbara over at Hole in the Donut writes about the dangers of Zimbabwe and her personal trip to this area in 2007. I don’t know if she was a fearless adventurer or just in the right place at the right time, but her experience sounds exciting and diverse. Now that Zimbabwe has been put on the list of dangerous places to visit, Barbara’s account might be the closest we all get to visiting!

Claude from Les Explorers showed us the pitfalls of the current hotel search system, and how he managed to find the lowest rate for his upcoming stay for ITB PhocusWright in Berlin. What a nightmare to go through, there is definitely an opportunity for innovation here.

Over at Yearn To Travel, Medelise talks about the Stowe Derby, the oldest and most unique ski race in North America. While not a skier myself, I was fascinated by her description of the terrain. Definitely sounds like a “crazy” race!

And finally, Brian over at International Listings put together a very detailed list of the top 25 castles in the world. The pictures are outstanding, and based on his descriptions, my favorites would have to be Kolossi Castle in Cyprus and Himeji Castle in Japan. Even our lovely Hearst Castle in California is included!

Wonderful submissions, thank you to all who took the time, I enjoyed reading and getting to know some new bloggers. If you would like to participate in a future carnival, please send your submissions to travelblog.carnival at gmail dot com.

I am a stickler for lists, so when I was asked by Darren of Travel Rants to choose three blogs from this week’s carnival submissions, it seemed easy. Then I read all the blogs! They are all good, and it was great to be transported elsewhere for a moment in my busy schedule, but tricky to choose my favorites. After reading them all, I decided that lists it was and chose these three from the submissions:

Barbara over at Hole In The Donut compiled a great list for the solo traveler. I actually found it to be outstanding for anyone traveling, offering advice on everything from notifying your credit card and bank about your upcoming travels to using your webmail accounts to keep copies of important documents. My favorite tip? While visiting in a country where you don’t speak the language, pick up several business cards from your hotel with the name and address. Just hand it to a local taxi driver when you are ready to return to your hotel and there will be no problem with the language barrier!

Over at Cruise Bug Chatter, I was offered tips for a successful trip to Mexico, whether by land or by sea. Some were the usual reminders, cautioning you to avoid tap water, dressing appropriately when visiting churches, and learning a few words of the local language to ease your trip. Also discussed was the best way to bargain so that everyone feels good. Of course, my last trip to Mexico (on a cruise ship no less!) involved a visit to the local WalMart, which I found to be pretty similar to the one at home. I know, that is like eating at McDonald’s in Paris, but sometimes you get homesick!

Finally, Fox Nomad brought to my attention that Delta Airlines is unveiling a training system for their passengers, claiming that airlines have not properly prepared passengers for what is to be expected aboard a plane. Fox Nomad pulled together a list of basics, including using your manners (Please and Thank you go a long way), limiting the amount of chatter with your seat mate (unless you are related or really getting on well) and avoiding overindulging in the little bottles of love the flight attendants bring around. Drunk in the air is quite different than drunk on the ground. All good advice for anyone who flies!

And even though it did not fit into my theme of lists, I also want to give a shout out to Family Travel at Away.com for the piece on Nordic Skating. I enjoyed this since I had just finished reading The Greatest Skating Race by Louise Borden, to my kids. After reading the book, which describes a long distance ice skate adventure from Belgium to Holland during WWII, I was interested in finding out more about doing that here in North America. Family Travel outlined a couple programs in New England and eastern Canada, and I look forward to making the trek with my family one day.

Thank you to Darren for organizing this carnival, and if you would like to participate, you can submit any travel related posts which you’ve written in the last 7 days to travelblog.carnival(at)gmail.com.