Around The Web: This Week’s Best Travel Posts

Now this is a cool idea for a travel business that makes a difference in peoples’ lives. Mashable did a quick profile on Kenji Summers, who started a company that helps take creative-types who have never been out of the country to international destinations. This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” ideas.

And in keeping with theme of great business ideas, thanks to the awesome folks over at Vagabondish I learned that Norweigian Air Shuttle is offering super cheap flights to Scandinavian cities from the U.S. Roughly $300 to get to Stockholm? Stop it. Given my love of all things Scandi (that’s what I like to call Scandinavia), if flights with these prices existed all the time, I would be somewhere in Scandinavia all. the. time.

The goods from Vagabondish kept coming this week as Mary-Ryan Lambert wrote a piece on “What Apple’s New iOS 7 Really Means for Travelers.” I’m upgrading my iPhone to iOS7 as I write this post, and am eagerly looking forward to using the new Location Services to find new travel apps the locals use once I get to Spain next week.

Around the Web: This Week’s Best Travel Posts

For those of you who are like me and always on the hunt for a good travel deal, this week there were a couple posts that kept our wallets in mind.

Johnny Ward of One Step 4Ward had a great post on Europe’s “Best Cities for Budget Travelers.” Prague is definitely high up on my list of cities to visit. Might have to bump it up a bit higher on the list, didn’t realize it was so affordable!

Lisbon, Portugal is listed as a budget travel-friendly city, and coincidentally it’s also featured in the first episode of “This is My City: Lisbon.” This travel web series features a couple of guys on a 3-month trip around the world.

Lastly, for all you travel tech lovers, Budget Travel posted a story on “10 Travel Apps That Save You Time and Money.” I think I’m going to have to upgrade to an iPhone with more memory just to have space for all the awesome travel apps that are out there. If you can get out of the airport for a bit, Smart Layover sounds like a great way to kill some time while waiting for your next flight.

Around the Web: This Week’s Best Travel Posts

Upon entering the working world after grad school, it became apparent to me that America is full of people who rarely, if ever, take vacations from work. Some people even wear their “I don’t take vacations” status like a badge of honor, as if it makes them a better employee. Deane Alban over on Lifehacker has some tips on “How to Avoid Becoming a part of ‘No Vacation Nation’.” 

If you take most of your travel photos on your iPhone or other smartphone, like me, Lola Akinmade Åkerström from an awesome blog called Slow Travel Stockholm had a great story on Mashable about “5 Ways to Get More Mileage From Smartphone Photos.”

Apartment Therapy is perhaps an unlikely source for a good travel post, but I thought this one on “How To Truly Relax While Traveling” hit on some interesting points. I, for one, find traveling reenergizing, even when I’m stressing about whether I’m going to make it to the airport in time.

Sometimes, as good as it is to get suggestions on where to go and what to do in a city you’re visiting, it can be just as helpful to know what not to do. Conde Nast Traveler has a few words of advice in a piece called “What Not To Do In Italy, India, France, and Ten Other Countries Around the World.”

Around the Web: This Week’s Best Travel Posts

Apologies for missing this post last week.  I was at Comic-Con, the big pop culture convention in San Diego, CA. But while I was wandering around smirking at grown men dressed in Iron Man costumes, a bunch of awesome travel posts happened.

Heineken created a game I would so play. According to Seth Fiegerman over at Mashable, the game is called Departure Roulette. They set up a machine in JFK airport where travelers could press a button, and be flown off to a brand spankin’ new international destination. My only gripe in the video below is that they pretty much only gave the opportunity to dudes. Chicks like beer and travel too, Heineken!

Speaking of beer and travel, I think I’ve found where I’ll head for future Oktoberfests. The folks over at Jaunted wrote up a cool piece on “The World’s Largest Beer Garden.”  It’s Königlicher Hirschgarten in Munich, Germany, and it looks like a divine spot to have a pint. Oh, and you can surf there too!

The NYTimes featured an informative piece by Stephanie Rosenbloom on “Making Travel Connections Online.” The social networks and apps listed seem perfect for solo travel or women traveling alone. Though I had no problems turning strangers into friends on my solo Europe trip, I could’ve definitely used a few of these to search my Facebook network for friends of friends in the cities I was visiting.

I leave you now with this swoon-worthy video of Madrid, a city I’m very excited to announce I’ll be visiting this Fall. This video also comes courtesy of Jaunted via MADRIDTURISMO.

Around the Web: This Week’s Best Travel Posts

There was a great piece on New York Magazine’s site, written by Ann Friedman, called “Traveling Solo: A Manifesto for the Modern Woman.” Friedman totally nails the differences between how a man and a woman traveling alone are viewed by society. She does so with a sort of sarcastic defiance of societal expectations for women, but she’s clear and level-headed when it comes to the reality of female-specific travel dangers. It’s definitely worth the read.

Lastly, Since I’m always on the hunt for travel apps that will make life on the road a lot less hectic, and a whole lot easier, this video from Geeksugar on Travel Apps was pretty insightful. Kelly Schwarze mentions some apps like Hipmunk and Expensify that I’ve never used, but would love to try out on my next trip. Check it out!