Sweden's ICEHOTEL Celebrates 20 Years
COOL PAD: Exterior walls of the ICEHOTEL, Sweden (Håkan Hjort)
Thirty-nine carefully selected artists have gathered in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, a small village north of the Arctic Circle to begin construction on this winter's version of the ICEHOTEL. In preparation for the hotel's 20th anniversary, two of these artists, Americans Andre Landeros Michel and Dennis Rolland, will have two and a half weeks to transform their winning "Gotham on Ice" design into an ICEHOTEL suite. Like the rest of the hotel, the room will be constructed solely of snis (snow and ice) and their particular room will reflect inspiration from New York City's skyline, the music of Cole Porter, and memories of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The hotel is under construction during November and December and will open for overnight guests in January. The hotel can remain open to visitors through mid-April before the summer sun begins to melt the world's first and largest hotel made of ice. Accommodations vary at the ICEHOTEL, including 62 guest rooms, one deluxe suite, three group rooms, nine snow rooms, 29 ice rooms, and 20 art suites. A night in a deluxe suite will run you around $1,000 per night. Beyond the hotel's chilly walls, visitors can stay entertained with activities including dog- and reindeer-sledding, snowshoeing, moose tours on horseback, ice driving, and dining under a grandiose starlit display put on by the Northern Lights.
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November 16, 2009
The African Renaissance Statue in Senegal
I've never had a first impression of a country quite like when I arrived in Senegal. Towering over the capital city of Dakar is the African Renaissance Monument, a 160-foot statue depicting a man rising triumphantly from a volcano with his outstretched arms wrapped around his wife and child. The monument, designed by a Senegalese artist but constructed by North Korean workers, is a symbol of Africa's rise from centuries of intolerance and racism. It is set to be officially dedicated on December 12. Apparently, I got to Senegal a month too soon.
Like the Statue of Liberty and the Washington Monument, this bronze statue is sure to serve as a regular background in photos of smiling tourists for decades to come. The site has exhibition, multimedia, and conference rooms, and a top-floor viewing platform. And since Dakar is the westernmost point of Africa, it's only a 7.5-hour plane ride from Washington D.C. now that South African Airways flies directly there.
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November 11, 2009
Google Announces Free WiFi for the Holidays in Select Airports
Google announced yesterday that it's partnering with 47 airports around the U.S. to offer free WiFi to travelers during the busy holiday season, as well as on every Virgin America flight. The search-engine giant is working with Boingo, Advanced Wireless Group, Time Warner Cable, Electronic Media Systems, Lilypad, as well as numerous airports that provide wireless services themselves to power this free holiday e-giveaway. The complimentary Internet connectivity runs from November 10, 2009 through January 15, 2010 (in the airports listed below the jump). But while the Mountain View, California-based company is happy to rebrand itself as Google Ho-Ho-Ho, some commentators are criticizing this as a evidence of a sinister market-research ploy on the part of Google. Whatever the motives, expect a deluge of 140-character "My flight's delayed... again" tweets.
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October 27, 2009
End the Ban on Travel to Cuba Today!
The Pasarela Hemingway Pier extends out into the clear blue waters of Cayo Guillermo, located on Cuba's northern coast. (Jeremy Woodhouse/Digital Vision/Getty)
In May 2009, online travel agency Orbitz.com (of which Away.com is a subsidiary) spearheaded a push to end the travel ban of U.S. citizens to Cuba. Today, the OpenCuba.org campaign has collected almost 100,000 signatures in support of a petition to end the ban. In addition, 180 U.S. Congressmen and 33 Senators have sponsored the bipartisan Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which seeks to open up travel to Cuba for all U.S. citizens. If you have not yet signed the petition, please do so today, plus be sure to encourage at least three of your friends and family to sign the petition via the easy-to-use "tell-a-friend" page. The petition is open to people from anywhere in the world and is not just limited to U.S. citizens.
Discover the many faces of Cuba in this photo gallery from Away.com.
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October 08, 2009
Colorado's Loveland Resort Opens!
Yesterday at 9 a.m. Colorado's Loveland Ski Resort became North America's first resort to open for the 2009-10 season, boasting an 18-inch base and a hearty group of ski enthusiasts ready to link 2009's first turns down the 1,000-vertical-foot, top-to-bottom run off Chair 1.
And so it begins...
Check out our detailed Ski and Snowboard Resort Guide.
Photo credit: First tracks of 2009 at Loveland Ski Resort (courtesy, Colorado Ski Country U.S.A.)
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October 07, 2009
"K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain" by Ed Viesturs On Sale Next Week
K2, originally uploaded by toufeeque (Flickr.com)
Mount Everest may be the mountain of all mountains, but Pakistan’s 28,250-foot K2, the world’s second-tallest peak, is considered by many professional climbers to be the world’s ultimate mountaineering challenge. It’s also the world’s most dangerous summit, claiming the lives of 77 climbers since 1954, including 11 who died in a 36-hour period in August 2008. Ed Viesturs, America’s most prolific high-altitude climber, chronicles this and five other of the most dramatic campaigns on K2 in his new book, K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain, on sale October 13. Set in northern Pakistan’s Karakoram Range, K2 tops a snow-capped forest of black-rock peaks that includes five more of the world’s 17 highest mountains. As Viesturs notes in his new book, “K2 still has not developed anything like the guided-client scene on Everest. The world’s second-highest mountain is simply too difficult for beginners.”
Want to know more about Ed Viesturs? Then read GORP.com’s 2003 Expeditionary Forces profile, which unpacks Viesturs' most celebrated climbs, the gear that goes into his backpack, and what keeps this high-altitude dynamo going when the chips are down.
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October 06, 2009
World Monuments Fund Announces Its 2010 Watch List
Cordilleras rice terraces in the Philippines (Photodisc/Getty)
David Farley—author, New York Times blogger, and friend of the Away.com Travel Blog—writes today on the NYTimes.com "In Transit" blog about the World Monument Fund's biannual release of its list of the world’s most endangered cultural sites. Ninety-three sites in 47 countries are listed as being under threat from neglect, overdevelopment, or mass tourism, among them Peru's Machu Picchu, the rice terraces in the Cordilleras region of the Philippines, and Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.
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October 03, 2009
Get a Free Day at Disney by Volunteering Your Time
Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World, Orlando (courtesy, Walt Disney News)
Disney has just announced a new "Give a Day, Get a Day" program that will reward up to one million people who volunteer a day of service in participating programs with a free one-day admission ticket to a Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort theme park. The program kicks off next year on January 1, but you can sign up now at www.DisneyParks.com.
Interested in giving back when you travel? Visit Away.com's Volunteer Vacations Guide to learn more.
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September 25, 2009
New Program Pairs Bike Rentals With Local Rail-Trails
BIKE THE SITES: National Mall and U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. (Nathan Borchelt)
Isn't it great when the dots connect? Particularly when it comes to putting more bums on bike seats and getting them onto the tens of thousands of miles of bike-friendly trails around the country. RentaBikeNow.com, which debuted to consumers at the beginning of 2009, and Rails-to-Trails Conservancy have just announced a partnership that pairs the ability to find bike rentals around the United States (and Canada) with over 15,000 miles of rail-trails and other bike-friendly paths. As a regular bike commuter in the Washington, D.C., area, I can attest that there's no better way to explore your surroundings (not to mention, escape the nation's fourth-worst case of urban gridlock).
In other bike-related news, The Washington Post Travel section just published a bumper Biking Issue that offers a slew of great two-wheeled touring options from L.A. to Cuba to Kilimanjaro.
Got the biking bug? Browse our Top 10 Rail-Trails for Fall, brought to you in association with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.
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September 23, 2009
Video: Desert Dust Storm Blankets Sydney
Residents of Sydney awoke this morning to an eerie scene as a massive dust storm, the city's worst in 70 years, blew in clouds of fine red sand over Australia's largest city. Check out the video below:
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