TravelMASity
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Instead of staring at this very large United credit from our cancelled trip to the Iberian peninsula from the summer of 2020 I'm going to virtually stare at random scenes from all over the world that I can't travel to... wait this isn't making me feel better at all! But Bulgaria does look cool... -B
This is very similar to WindowSwap, which we featured way back in issue 57. Also worth a look if you missed it the first time. -C
Issue 74
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"Alone Together": Singlehanded Sailing, LA to Hawaii and Return
I don't know many of the words used in this video describing the day-to-day tasks associated with sailing (but I'm sure my inlaws do!) but I still greatly enjoyed this video of a man sailing alone. His droll commentary was particularly delightful and made this a relaxing watch with my morning coffee. -C
I would never want to do this but also the idea of a few weeks on a sailboat by yourself has a certain appeal. I really enjoyed this video. Random people posting great content to YT is something I think is dying under streamers and youtubers and YOUTUBEFACERS. And I miss it. -B
Issue 73
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Gen Z’s dream of high-speed rail and Green New Deal infrastructure
Famously, the one fan-dom you don't dare tick off on twitter is choo-choo twitter. -B
Issue 72
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Marriott’s new CEO sat down with TPG to talk Bonvoy benefits, hot breakfast and more
H/T Shaun B. Marriott owns very few hotels but provides services and branding to a collection of thousands of hotel owners. This sets up a tension, particularly as we come out of a pandemic, between the umbrella company, the owners, and you and me who happen to be the ones staying at the hotel. -B
I worry that my wife has installed some sort of tracker on my internet-enabled devices that alerts her every time I click through on an article from The Points Guy. - C
Issue 70
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The Rooftop Creatures Of Budapest
Several incredible sculptures whose purpose or intent is lost to time because someone forgot to tell someone else why they commissioned it..and a few commemorating the desire to be a myth and/or legend. - C
Budapest is one of my favorite cities I've had the pleasure to visit (I've been twice). The downtown with the river and the chain bridge and the castles and the statues and the rooftop creatures and the public baths.... man I miss traveling. -B
Issue 69
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Why doesn't the US get to have high speed rail?
I love trains. I love traveling by trains. I love train stations. I love train naps. I love train cabins and train seats and train compartments and train bathrooms and train noises and train smells. I love movies that have train scenes. I've ridden the fastest trains in the world (Shanghai, Japan, Taiwan). I've ridden crowded old trains across eastern Europe. I've ridden trains from Paddington Station out into the Midlands. I've ridden Amtrak across the fruited plains. I've been attacked by a local in an Asian train station for being too big to shove around. I've succumbed to jet lag in a train on the Iberian peninsula and been astonished to wake up and not have missed my stop. One of my bucket list items is to take the Orient Express from Europe to Asia.
So why doesn't the US have a real train network? We're too big. We're not dense enough. We all have cars. And we're absolutely ineptly incompetent at infrastructure in general (these days).
Also here's a bonus link showing what it would be like to travel on the hyperloop (if that was a thing that had a chance to ever actually be built, which it doesn't). -B
Why the US doesn't get to have high speed rail
Why the California bullet train is failing
B, why you gotta crush my hyperloop dreams??? -C
Issue 68
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5 dumb things backpack designers need to stop doing
I love bags for some reason. If you don't have water bottle pockets I'm not buying your bag. -B
I think Brian may run this website under a pseudonym. Aside from that, I own Osprey luggage that I really love, but the writer is correct about unnecessarily round things and tiny pockets being a regular feature of this brand's designs. Just, make bigger pockets, even if there are less of them. More tiny useless pockets is not superior to larger useful pockets. -C
Issue 67
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Pictures of the Collapse of Indonesian Tourism
In late March of 2020, Covid trackers sprouted on the internet like rain soaked mushrooms. One day late in that month, I pulled one up and saw red circles popping up all over the world, in Africa, South America, Australia, Europe. It was like War Games nuclear hits but with something less understandable and controllable (can't choose to win by not playing this game!). My stomach dropped and I knew at that moment that the pandemic wasn't going to fade away quickly and that we were, as the Brits say, 'in for it'.
When I read this thread by Stuart MacDonald, a travel blogger who lives in Indonesia, documenting the deserted beach bars and crumbling resort infrastructure in his area, my stomach again sinks and I worry we have no idea what the knock-on consequences of all this will be. -B
Issue 66
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America’s Cheapest Cities Where Everyone Wants to Live Right Now
I'm not 100% sure this author understands the meaning of the word "cheapest" but I guess if you're coming from San Francisco everywhere is cheap. Anyway, where is your city on this list? -B
Issue 62
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The strangest stories from the golden age of plane hijacking
Long before 9/11 a mostly benign(-ish) wave of plane hijackings roiled America with at some points more than one taking place on any given day. Almost all of them were diverted to Cuba so the hijackers could defect. Passengers were inconvenienced but otherwise unharmed (unless they always wanted to go to Cuba). Fidel Castro gleefully charged the airlines $7,500 to retrieve their airplanes. Eventually as is the way things started to get more violent and out of control and serious steps in airline security had to be taken to put a stop to the fad. -Brian
Issue 60