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Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Kudos for the Global Nomad

Mark Evans
Director, Community

One of the PlanetEye’s most exciting features is the Global Nomad blog written by Brendan Powell, who is spending a year traveling around the world with his girlfriend.

Vagablogging, one of the leading travel blogs, was kind enough to put the spotlight recently on the Global Nomad:

“His writing is revealing and fun, and he’s good with photos. A must check out!”

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008

The Dream Job

Mark Evans
Director, Community

If you work within the travel industry, Matt Harding probably has the best gig going as he roams around the world. Renown for his bad, but endearing, dance style, Harding is still going strong.

Here’s a video of his latest adventures.


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

Are You Taking a Staycation This Summer?

Mark Evans
Director, Community

With gasoline prices on the rise, many people are taking another look at their travel plans this summer.

Rather than traveling hundreds or thousands of miles, some people may be looking to travel just a few kilometers and check out the attractions and restaurants close to home. According to a survey done by Kayak.com in the U.S., nearly two-thirds of respondents plan be tourists within their home state or a three-hour drive from home.

The upside of a “staycation” is it encourages people to explore places around the corner as opposed to around the world. The iconic tourist attraction that you enthusiastically encourage visitors to see but you never actually seen yourself can be a pleasant surprise. And the best thing about being a tourist in your own city is you get to sleep in your own bed after a great day of sightseeing.

At PlanetEye, we’ve been long-time believers in the staycation (as well as farther flung adventures!) because we believe there’s no lack of hidden treasures and nice surprises wherever you are. Whether it’s a terrific restaurant the locals love or a great people-watching patio or a fun walking tour, there is always something new to discover wherever you happen to be.

Note: The term “staycation” was reportedly created by Brent Leroy, a character on a Canadian sit-com called Corner Gas. For some good tips on how to enjoy the perfect staycation, check out Hotel & Resort Insider and About.com.

More: For a look at the pros and cons of staycations, check out the Viator blog.

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Thursday, June 5th, 2008

Global Nomad Added to Alltop

Mark Evans
Director, Community

One of the gems within PlanetEye’s growing collection of valuable and useful content is our Global Nomad blog, which is written by Brendan Powell as he and his girlfriend travel around the world this year.

Brendan’s posts reflect his writing skills but also his enthusiasm and passion for travel, and his interest in discovering the unique, out-of-the-way, undiscovered places that make a good trip great.

Having Brendan within the PlanetEye community is a great fit because his writing and approach to travel reflect the type of information that we want to provide to travelers.

It is gratifying and exciting that Global Nomad has been added to the travel section of Alltop.com, alongside respected blogs such as Travel Rants, Lonely Planet, Peter Greenberg, Write to Travel and The Lost Girls.

If you’re not familiar with Alltop, it’s sort of a like a “digital magazine rack” where you can quickly get information on a wide range of topics. Each blog or Web site listed on Alltop includes headlines for the last five posts/stories. Check it out.

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Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

The Nuances of Discovery

Mark Evans
Director, Community

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This a guest post by Matt MacGillivray, our lead developer:

I attended the “Does Location Matter” panel, hosted by Nora Young with special guest Bill Buxton at mesh on Tuesday. It was a different discussion than I was expecting, but in a good way. While the conversation focused on the concept of ‘telepresence‘ , it was an interesting usability discussion.

At the heart of the conversation, Bill, a usability researcher, drove home the idea of building systems that adhere to existing social protocols. What does this mean? Let’s try to understand this by way of an example Bill used.

If I wanted to speak to someone who was already having a conversation, I would approach them in a way that they could see me in their periphery. I would generally wait for a visual cue that would indicate whether they wanted to engage in a conversation, wait or to come back later.

Within the online world, we have chatting and video conferencing. When a conversation is initiated, a high contrast window generally appears on your desktop immediately. Imagine someone putting their face 6″ from yours, while waiting to engage in a conversation. It’s very distracting, and doesn’t allow you to easily ignore, acknowledge or reschedule a conversation.

Does it make sense to ignore the social protocols that have already been established? Is it easier for users to understand, or interact with a particular application if it extends or builds on existing social nuances?

What nuances exist within the discovery, planning and taking of a trip? How can we leverage these nuances to make the experience more compelling?

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Follow Our Global Nomad

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Picture 3-14
A few months ago, I found out that Brendan Powell, a friend of brother’s, was planning an around-the-world, 10-month trip through South America, Asia and Europe.

My first reaction was envy, following by a tinge of jealousy and then some inspiration. Given Brendan’s approach to travel aligns perfectly with PlanetEye’s, it would be great to create a PlanetEye blog where he could write about his adventures and illustrate them with amazing photographs. (For the record, Brendan is a former travel guide with terrific writing and photography skills.)

This led to the creation of the Global Nomad blog, which, in my humble opinion, has become a must-read for anyone interested in travel that often falls outside what is featured in a guidebook.

Brendan’s most recent blog post on a visit to a shanty town, in Rio de Janeiro is a perfect illustration of why his insight and approach to travel is so interesting. The idea of visiting a shanty town may not appeal to every tourist but those curious enough will not be disappointed.

For more on Rocinha, check out this article from Wikipedia, as well as this photo essay by Nat Friedman.

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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Alltop Travel is Tops

Mark Evans
Director, Community

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As you can probably appreciate, I spend a lot of time reading travel blogs - looking for interesting stories, new places and good writers.

For anyone interested in travel blogs, the best resource is AllTop Travel, which provides a user-friendly summary of 60 blogs. It’s like traveling around the world in less than 10 minutes.

Aside from the depth of content, a feature that is particularly useful is a summary box that appears if you hover over a blog post. It’s a great way to get a snapshot of a post before deciding whether you want to click through to the blog itself.

Not sure how AllTop compiles its blog line-up but here’s hoping that with a little effort and creativity, we can get PlanetEye’s blog in there some day.

For more on AllTop Travel, check out Sandwagon, which has some nice things to say about it.

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Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Put That Blackberry Away on Vacation

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Blackberry-3
I came across an interesting promotion while reading A Luxury Travel Blog about how the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers wants to help Blackberry users break their Crackberry addiction.

To encourage/convince Blackberry users not to check their e-mail while on vacation, the Sheraton is offering to lock your Blackberry in a safety deposit box. The first person to not use their Blackberry for 48 hours will receive a complimentary three-night stay plus dinner for two at the hotel’s famed Shula’s Steak House.

Fact: 83% of people check their e-mail at least once a day while on vacation.

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Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Making Travel Planning Simple

Butch Langlois
President & CEO

If you’re like me, you read a lot of travel and food magazines and come across a lot of material on the Web that talks about the great things to do here, there and everywhere.
Ashford Castle

The problem is most times I’m not going to that particular place anytime soon, or if I am, I don’t know about it yet. But I do know that if I make it to Madrid soon, I want to scope out the tapas focused restaurants in the Las Letras neighborhood, especially Casa Alberto,

I got to thinking more about this problem while reading the latest annual magazine of Real Simple Travel, One of the articles talked about traveling to three places for under $1,000. In each summary, the author/traveler mentions clipping out reference material and saving it in their California manila folder (i.e I pulled out that article from Bon Appetit seven months ago, etc.)

There’s some other great content from Real Simple Travel, and I’ll share more on that in a minute but I wanted to speak about how PlanetEye will be helping you capture and access this information when you actually need it.

One of the central ideas around PlanetEye is aggregating all the relevant travel media available today, and presenting and personalizing it for you exactly when you need it (e.g. When you’re planning a trip.) We have some exciting new features rolling out soon to make this process much easier and more powerful.

In the meantime, back to the great content in this month’s RealSimple Travel. I’m going to add the seven castles they identified as “Castles You Can Sleep In” into the PlanetEye database for future reference.

To be honest, the thought of sleeping overnight at a castle doesn’t sound that appealing to me, but my 10-year-old son, who seems to want to spend less and less time with his Dad every day, might find it cool enough for us to have a bonding weekend some time in the future. When the day comes for Dad to pull that great weekend out of the blue, I’ll know just where to go.

You can check them out here.

Ashford Castle, (the photo above) County Mayo Ireland, Doubles from $358

Castello di Ripa d’Orcia, Ripa d’Orcia, Italy, Doubles from $138

Chateau de Salettes, Cahuzac sur Vere, France, Doubles from $192

Inverlochy Castle, Fort William, Scotland, Doubles from $585

Pousada do Obidos Castello, Obidos, Portugal, Doubles from $278

Schoenburg Castle, Oberwesel, Germany, Doubles from $234

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

Getting the Best Bang for Your Travel Buck

Mark Evans
Director, Community

Bargains
It’s great to get away but getting away without spending an arm and a leg is even better.

For people looking for bargain destinations, FoxBusiness has compiled a list of places where travelers can find great deals. These destinations include: the Caribbean, Mexico, China, Indonesia, Eastern Europe, Argentina, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

My good friend, Arthur Frommer (who I’ve actually yet to meet), also weighs in with a list of “20 Travel Bargains for 2008″.

Here’s Arthur’s top-five:

1. China. Despite a slowly strengthening currency, China remains available at unbeatable rates (including airfare) from Chinafocus.com, Chinaspree.com, Rim-Pac.com, RitzTours.com, PacificDelightTravel.com, China-Discovery.com (Champion Holidays), ChinaTravelService.com and many others.

2. Vietnam. Its touristic cost of living is remarkably low, and its shopping prices are minor miracles (like custom-tailored suits made in Hoi An). A great many independent travelers simply book a direct United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City (via Hong Kong), and then pick up accommodations as they tour the country.

3. Panama. It’s the fastest-developing country in Central America, receiving ever-growing numbers of cost-conscious vacationers, as well as U.S. retirees looking for a cheap second home. The skyline of Panama City is beginning to resemble Hong Kong or New York’s financial district — except that those skyscrapers are residential condos.

4. Nicaragua and Honduras. Both are coming up fast as favorites for adventurous tourists. Honduras’ offshore island of Utila (for scuba diving) is the latest discovery. Nicaragua’s prices for lodgings and meals surely are among the lowest in the area.

5. Costa Rica. It remains immensely popular, and though it’s gaining swanky accommodations, it remains inexpensive for the tourist who searches out low-cost lodgings, like those available from Bells’ Home Hospitality in San Jose.

If you’re looking for beautiful photographs of any of the destinations above, check out PlanetEye.com.

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