This summer London is bursting with festivals. As a prelude to the Royal Diamond Jubilee Parade and Olympian sports, a cultural bonanza takes place in the one Square Mile of the ancient city of London. Anyone can tickle the ivories of 50 Golden Street Pianos or partake in a Golden Honey Feast from local hives as part of the more alternative programme.

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Comes word this morning that Virgin Atlantic has become the first British airline to allow in-flight cell phone calls. The AeroMobile service which debuted Tuesday on Virgins New York to London service is available on the airlines A330-300s to fliers who get their phone service through O2, Vodaphone and T-Mobile.

According to ABC News, the airline said this likely annoyance is intended for use in exceptional situations, when passengers need to send a [text], make a quick call or access an e-mail on a Blackberry.

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Many restaurants in the state are farm to table, which means they have partnered with specific farms for their produce to provide the freshest ingredients possible. Some have gone even further to grow some of their own vegetables or herbs on-site like Bachelor Farmer in Minneapolis with their rooftop garden.

Below is a list of my favorite vegetarian-friendly restaurants which tend to cater to vegetarians and vegans, but also have animal products as well. Read full post…

The Clark family has had an unlikely run of popularity with the Great British public. First there was Lord Clark who made a landmark TV programme called Civilisation. Then came his son the politician, diarist and energetic lothario Alan Clark.

And then there was Alan’s brother Colin Clark who has successfully eclipsed both of them through his liaison with Marilyn Monroe. H

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Despite economic uncertainty, those operating at the top end of the market are still seeing good profits.

Many people across the UK are currently still facing a degree of economic uncertainty, largely brought on by the fact that they have insecurities about the future of their job, or struggle to find a position in the current climate.However, it has been revealed that there are still some tourists, largely unaffected by the economic downturn, who are happy to spend big when jetting off with their travel insurance to find some of the worlds more favourable destinations.At the end of 2011, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) released its latest Travel Trends Report, in which it predicted that those who are looking for summer jaunts abroad this year will either be heading for budget holidays where they can visit the beach on the cheap, or the sort of break where they can find something different, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get away at a high cost.This is a notion which has now been backed by top end travel agent Ventura, which said that those who have less fears over things such as fuel costs, energy prices and the loss of their jobs are still looking to partake in more adventurous and attractive holidays away this summer.”Whether its a desire to explore new lands, reconnect with loved ones or seek new adventures, Virtuoso advisors collaborate with their clients to plan the ultimate travel experience.  The Luxe Report is an extension of that relationship and those ongoing advisor-client conversations,” said Virtuoso chairman Matthew D. Read full post…

Lombard Street … the crookedest street in San Francisco

Serious about suspension of disbelief, about immersing yourself in the reality of imagination? Movies are a good place to start. Better yet, the real, live on-location sites where your favorite scenes were shot.

To that end, there are few more iconic places to see original locales than San Francisco and the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

In San Francisco you can see:

- The spot in the Hitchcock classic Vertigo where Jimmy Stewart jumped into the water to save Kim Novak.
– The house where Robin Williams’ family lived in Mrs. D

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The real question we always want answered is pretty simple and always something like I want to fly from somewhere within a couple of hours of where I live to somewhere within a couple of hours of my destination.

For example, if we are flying to, say, Scotland we arent too bothered whether we leave from Bergerac, Toulouse or Bordeaux and not too bothered if we arrive in Glasgow or Edinburgh but we are sure we want a bargain price or well wait for another time.

Im guessing almost everyone has the same general challenge no flight search that I know of reliably says why not fly from Toulouse at 4pm instead of Bordeaux at 5pm and you can get a flight for £50 instead of £150.

The problem has been partly solved by a new search from skyscanner which lets you specify a destination and will then give lots of options of where you could fly from at lowest cost, so solves half the problem try it here if you are planning to visit France this summer

but it still doesnt guarantee that I will see if a flight is available for half the price if I am more flexible with my plans.

Does anyone know a better flight search or a better way to say I want to go to London for a weekend in March whats the cheapest way to travel?

Joshua Ledet, a Season 11 American Idol contestant from Westlake, La., is experiencing that void now. A couple of weeks ago, in front of Idol’s national television audience Joshua expressed to judge Randy Jackson—another native Louisianian—how much he missed Louisiana food, especially boiled crawfish.

We heard his call and last night, with the help of the Louisiana Seadfood Promotion and Marketing Board, Randol’s Seafood Restaurant and American Idol producers, we surprised Joshua with 60 pounds of fresh Louisiana boiled crawfish. Joshua was

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Can you stay healthy and fit while traveling? What are our travel health secrets? How do we eat healthy and cheaply? Does organic and raw food make a difference? Is being a vegan healthy for everyone? Is the China Study fact or fallacy and should one look deeper? Can Vegetarian diets be harmful or dangerous? Today, eating healthy can mean different things to different people and there is a ton of conflicting ideas and ways to eat. We have always been into healthy eating. We are from Santa Cruz, California after all, which probably has more health food stores, farmers markets, health spas, chiropractors, acupuncturists and eating fanatics per capita than anywhere else in the world.

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Those of us who work with Facebook Pages are already used to the incessant changes that Facebook has introduced over the years.

However, many were startled after the latest change was announced.

When Facebook finally decided to unveil its new Timeline for company pages, they gave page owners (marketers, to be more specific) a whole new playing field with lots of new tools and only 30 days to adapt and adopt the new format.

For those who had already prepared long-term plans for Facebook marketing at the beginning of the year, this radical change must have made their familiar football pitch appear like an ice-skating rink during the half-time break.

Admittedly, Facebook is trying to make things easier by allowing page admins to preview the new look of their pages before the new design goes live for everyone without exception.

The countdown is well underway and on March 30 all Fan Pages will be converted, permanently, to the new Timeline.

With such a slew of changes and new features being introduced with this update, it would be advisable to review all critical aspects of the transition before moving to Timeline.

To make this transition easier, weve created a selection of the Top Eight things travel marketers must know about the new Facebook Pages.

The first and perhaps most eye-catching change is the introduction of a large cover image identical to the one already available on personal profiles of Facebook users.

Although it may seem like the perfect place for an advert, Facebook makes it clear that it cannot contain price or purchase information, contact details (like a web address), reference to user interface elements such as like or share, nor any call to action.

Think about it like the painting behind your office reception while itll be an image that resembles your brand, it certainly cannot be salesy.

Moreover, your profile picture cannot be a long rectangular discount offer, but a small, square logo that appears as a 130x130px image when viewed.

Perhaps waking up to the fact that one of the ways Twitter scores over Facebook is by allowing brands to privately interact with their users, the new Page, by default (it can be disabled), will allow users to send direct messages to the company.

It should help by creating a new, private, communication channel and also reduce the chatter on the Wall (referred to as Timeline or Page henceforth).

Of course, while private interaction might be welcome relief for the airlines and hotels that get lots of rants on their pages, dont forget to continue providing real-time, reliable and essential updates to your followers publicly on the Timeline.

Another area that is likely to be a bit of challenge for Page Admins is what used to be the Pages tabs and apps sections. In t

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The OTAs, which, according to analytic site Compete, depend upon Google for between 10 to 20 percent of their traffic, say the mega search company is reneging on its promise to the Department of Justice—made when the DOJ was doing an antitrust review of Google’s pending purchase of ITA Software—that it would make travel data available to competitors.

Even before Google unveiled its anxiously awaited Flight Search, in July the company debuted Hotel Finder, which allows users to choose a city and draw a shape around the area where they want to stay. Concerned

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When it comes to making memories, not all trips are created equal.  As I think back over a lifetime of travel, there are just three trips that, for different reasons, I still think about all the time:  Maui, Utah, and Turkey.  But thats a post for another day.

When my family and I went to Galapagos in December, we hadnt been on North Seymour Island for more than five minutes when I knew this was going to be one of those trips.

Why we went with Lindblad Expeditions

Back when I started planning the trip (18 months ago), I considered a handful of tour companies.  I knew I wanted a boat-based trip, so that narrowed the field slightly.  Besides Lindblad Expeditions, I seriously considered going with Geographic Expeditions or Abercrombie and Kent.

Do you know what these companies have in common?  Thats right: theyre not cheap.  My husband and I used to have more time than money, but not anymore.   Every vacation day has to count.  I cant say for sure if Galapagos is a you get what you pay for destination, but we didnt want to take the chance.

In the end, any Galapagos vacation decision comes down to three factors:  size of ship (big ships go faster and feel the waves less, but big is a relative term no ship is allowed to carry more than  100 passengers in Galapagos), itineraries (not all companies have equal access, or good landing times), and quality of guides (hugely important, and sort of hard to evaluate up front).

How we got there

Most people assume that Galapagos is hard to get to; maybe because its so remote.  Not so.  From San Francisco, we flew nonstop to Miami.  Because of the time difference, we checked into an airport hotel, ordered room service and a pay-per-view movie.

The next afternoon, we took a 4-hour flight from Miami to the coastal Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, arriving late in the evening (though we were still on Pacific Standard Time, so it wasnt at all tough).  We were met by a company representative and transferred to our hotel.  Again, a cushy overnight.

The following morning, we flew out to the islands (on a nice, sturdy jet, I might add, for the benefit of my soul mates who share my anxiety about small planes), where we were met and transferred to the ship via buses.

The wildlife

But enough with the boring transportation details!  As a volcanic archipelago, Galapagos is geologically fascinating.  Historians will find a lot to love too with all the Darwin stuff Galapagos is the origin of On the Origin of Species, after all.  We came for the animals, though.

Within moments of stepping out of our first zodiac onto dry land, we were surrounded by hundreds of pelicans, frigate birds, and blue footed boobies some courting, some nesting, some just sitting there watching us watching them.

The wildlife in Galapagos has evolved for millions of years without land-based predators.  Think about that for a second.  It means that the animals arent afraid of people.  The only animals that didnt trust us were the skittish Sally Lightfoot crabs, who probably thought we were hungry birds.  Fair enough.

Park rules forbid getting closer than two meters to any animal, but many animals ignore this rule especially the notoriously impish sea lions.  We walked among marine iguanas, giant tortoises, Galapagos land iguanas, lava lizards, and more birds than I could possibly name here.

In the water, we snorkeled with penguins, stingrays, white-tipped reef sharks, green sea turtles, more sea lions, an octopus, and some very funny flightless cormorants who were rooting around under rocks for snacks.

Galapagos really is a living museum.  Trust me when I tell you I dont think well ever be impressed with another wild animal encounter again.

The staff

The days were busy, but staff were very good at giving us options without overwhelming us.   On our sailing, a lovely expedition leader named Paula gently woke us every morning with a public address announcement regarding breakfast and morning outings.

There were constant updates throughout the day, but it was actually kind of strangely soothing it was like a vacation from thinking.  Instead of memorizing the itinerary, we just waited for an announcement telling us what we could do.  For a more long range view of the day ahead, daily schedules appeared in our room every night, and included island information, available activities, meal times, weather, tides, sunrise, and sunset.

Every time we left our cabin, it was straightened, cleaned, aired out, or turned down.  This was wonderful because we were way too busy to do it ourselves.  Not only were we constantly hiking, snorkeling, and riding in zodiacs, we were also changing clothes, stuffing kids into wetsuits, and sunscreening little faces all day long.   There wasnt a lot of time lef

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Yesterday’s dramatic news story about film director James Cameron’s plunge to the deepest point on Earth will have provoked a variety of responses in those who read it.

The first must be raw surprise that a man can descend by himself, as Cameron did, to the bottom of the Marianas Trench – a netherworld a full seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean – and return unharmed. Then there is curiosity as to what you might find (other than thick, thick darkness) at a depth of 10,898 metres – an incomparable figure which ensures that, were you to drop Mount Everest into the Trench, its summit would still sit a mile below the waterline. Utter ind

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Honestly, there are few places I wouldnt go if given the chance. But theres a handful of destinations, trips, experiences that I cant seem to get out of my head. Some of them I cant afford yet. Others are just waiting for me to make them happen.

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The Upcoming 2012 Green Expo

Yi-Lan has always been famous for its picturesque natural scenery and comfortable living. Starting March 31, with the theme of experiencing the natural beauty and local unique agriculture, the forthcoming Yi-Lan Green Expo will showcase the unique lifestyle and farming methods of the Taiwanese traditional agriculture. At the same time, the visitors can experience the fun of harvest by picking the Yi-Lan shallots, cabbage, and organic vegetables and fruits. 

From March 31 to May 20, the 13th Yi-Lan Green Expo will hold its 51-day activities in Wu-Lao-Keng Scenic Area, Yi-Lan county.

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