Intelligent Travel

Legality of Fireworks by State

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fireworks_map_legend.jpgCrossing state lines this holiday weekend? If you're planning to set off a fireworks display of your own making, then be sure to check out the laws regulating firework usage in each state. The National Council on Fireworks Safety reported that 9,800 people were injured using fireworks in 2007, so please don't become a statistic. We all know that fireworks can be dangerous, so be smart and use the proper techniques to keep yourself safe. Have a fantastic fourth!

How do you feel about consumer fireworks?

Map: Sarah Aldrich

Great Places to Watch Fireworks this Fourth

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Fireworks in D.C.Being in the nation's capital for the Fourth of July is one of those experiences that you never forget. Something about watching the fireworks with the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Capitol as the backdrop is thrilling.

My favorite spot to watch is directly beneath the show. I tell everyone I know to bring a blanket and grab some room underneath the Washington Monument facing the Lincoln Memorial. The fireworks are shot from the reflecting pool so from there you feel every loud "boom" in the bottom of your gut as they're set off. At the same time, music from the National Symphony Orchestra plays over loudspeakers in time with the fireworks display. It's always packed, but there's a buzz of excitement that emanates from the massive crowd, who naturally are all adorned in red, white and blue paraphernalia. The Washington Post put together a great map that shows other places to sit and watch the fireworks.

Everyone has a different place that they think is great, so I asked some of the staff at National Geographic Traveler to share their favorite spot to watch, whether it be in D.C. or elsewhere in the United States.  Read on to get some new ideas for you and your family and friends, and share your own favorite spots in the comments.

50 Books of Summer

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435-reading-under-tree.jpgRenting a villa in Umbria this summer? Perhaps you're hiking in Nepal or just lazing on a Bermuda beach. Or you may be taking the kids on their first U.S. road trip. Whatever your plans, we have a book for you, selected from Traveler's online Ultimate Travel Library of classic and new reads with a great sense of place. Each of these books will illuminate your destination, give you unexpected tips on what to see and do, and keep you turning pages during that long flight or that sunny poolside afternoon.

[50 Books of Summer]

Photo by Hans F. Meier/iStockphoto.com

Sears Tower, ChicagoOne of my favorite things to do when I arrive in a new place is go to the highest point, it helps me get my bearings and lays out the landscape in front of me like a huge buffet table that I'm eager to dig into. But I do admit to the occasional bout of vertigo when it comes to actually looking down. So my stomach feels a little queasy right now just thinking about "The Ledge," the new glass-enclosed feature of the Skydeck in the Sears Tower in Chicago, which opens today to the public. These new glass balconies are suspended 1,353 feet (412 meters) in the air and extend 4 feet (1.22 meters) from the Sears Tower's 103rd-floor Skydeck. According to the Sears Tower:

The inspiration for The Ledge came from hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week. From the memorable scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off to curious children going right up to the window, visitors are constantly trying to catch a glimpse below. Now they have a unique and unobstructed view of the city.
"The Ledge" is made from three layers of half-inch thick laminated glass, and each of the panels weighs 1,500 pounds. Apparently (and thankfully for the cleaning crew) the boxes are retractable, so they're able to be pulled into the building for easy maintenance. Because if this slide show from the AP is any indication, the number of forehead prints they're going to have to deal with will exponentially increase.

What do you think? Would you stand on "The Ledge"?

[Sears Tower Unveils Glass Balconies on Skydeck]

Photo: AP

Bike Florida: Trail Boosts Sustainable Tourism

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Bike Florida Trail.jpgWhat better way to explore some of the country's greatest natural treasures and historic sites than a bicycle tour through the back roads of Florida? And now, you can do it any time of the year! In an effort to help make Florida tourism greener, non-profit organization Bike Florida is bringing back year-round, long-distance bicycle touring for the first time in 25 years.

To inaugurate the new initiative, Herb Hiller and Linda Crider, co-founders of the modern-day Florida bicycling movement, will lead a week-long bicycle tour this October 10-16, starting and ending at Palatka, a rural county seat by the St. Johns River in northeastern Florida.

"For too long there's been no organized comfortable cycling way to discover backroads Florida," says Crider.  "These tours are organized for that, but also for fun."

I Heart My City: Lindsay's Pittsburgh

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559774398_32e72d6dee.jpgGreetings, city-lovers! Lindsay Welsh calls Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home, and she's got heaps of advice on what to see and do in the city.

Want to see your city on IT? Copy and paste our list of fill-in-the-blank questions into an e-mail, fill in your answers, and send your responses to IntelligentTravel@ngs.org. And if you're still waiting for us to feature yours, fear not! We're going to keep posting as long as we keep getting them (please include photos and links!).

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is My City
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The first place I take a visitor from out of town is
The Strip.

When I crave Middle Eastern cuisine I always go to Ali Baba's in Oakland.  This place has been here for years and so has the decor but the food is great and service is quick.  BYOB

To escape the hustle bustle I head for a walk in
Frick Park

If I want to people watch I go to the
Beehive in Southside or Kiva Han in Oakland.

Daily Radar: 07.02.09

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purplekangaroo.jpgPhoto: Roocatcher

We Heart National Parks

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National Parks HubJust launched today: Traveler's quick and easy guide to ten of our favorite national parks. Each guide includes great hikes, scenic drives, natural wonders, insider experiences, photo ops, and strategies for getting the most out of your visit. And as a bonus, we went back through the archives and assembled two fantastic slide shows of classic Yellowstone and Yosemite photographs. Pick your park and go! And stay tuned for ten more parks in September.

[National Parks]

Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. We just put a new batch of images up on our website, and here's one of our favorite picks:

World in FocusThis image, by Alasdair Turner, is of four climbers descending Washington's Mt. Baker in very high wind. Click here to view more images, vote on your favorites, and submit your own photos to our contest.

[World in Focus]

Staying Healthy on a Kenyan Family Safari

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It's less than a week until senior editor Norie Quintos's trip to Kenya with her teen sons. In this posting, the third in a series of blogs on her trip, she covers vaccinations/medicines. Find the first and second posts here.

Kenyan SafariThe glossy catalogs filled with pages of majestic elephants, lions in mid-roar, or huggable baby cheetahs rarely, if ever, mention the vaccinations or medications you'll need for an African safari. The catalogs' job is to romance and seduce, and not until you have fallen hard for Africa do you receive the get-down-to-business, no-more-cute-animal-photos information packet with "optional, recommended" travel health precautions against the scary tropical diseases you could catch.

The list of vaccinations is daunting, and includes Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Typhoid, Rabies, and Yellow Fever. The vaccines are also eye-poppingly expensive and not generally covered by insurance. The good news is you may not need every single one; it depends on your specific itinerary, your length of stay, your planned activities, and your health. To suss this out, you'll need the help of an experienced travel clinician. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website details recommended vaccines and links to an external clearinghouse of travel clinics.

A Galactic Vacation

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SPA_Aerial_BLUE_TAG 2.jpgFor those travelers who feel like they have done it all, a new out-of-this-world opportunity will soon be available--for a price. On June 19, New Mexico unveiled plans for the nation's first commercial spaceport, Spaceport America. The spaceport, estimated to be completed by 2010, would take travelers up 50,000 feet, break out of the Earth's atmosphere, and then fly up to 62 miles above the Earth.

The $200 million project is being fronted by the state of New Mexico in hopes of creating jobs and increasing tourism. The spaceport will work with Virgin Galactic, who will supply the space vehicles. Spaceport America is anticipating launching one Virgin Galactic flight per week, and each will hold six passengers.

If you want to be on one of the tours, you will have to add your name to the waiting list of over 45,000 other travelers, and be willing to dish out $200,000.  Passengers must also attend three days of training to prepare for the trip. The total travel time is around two hours with five minutes of weightlessness.

What do you think? Is the flight worth the price?

[Spaceport America]

Photo Courtesy of Spaceport America

Daily Radar: 07.01.09

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2258892214_0a19c00e6e.jpgPhoto: Wolfgang Staudt via the Intelligent Travel Flickr pool

Your Photos, Your Issue

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Images can create intrigue, bring wonder, and cause laughter or inspiration. They're something we're known for here at National Geographic, and since March 2006, we've enabled our readers to share their own visions of the world with us through our "Your Shot" online gallery.

So we're excited to announce that National Geographic's Your Shot Special Issue hits newsstands today (June 30), featuring 101 brilliant images submitted by readers. And over at NGM Blog Central, Oliver Uberti shares how he and photo editor Susan Welchman chose from among the hundreds of thousands of images to create the issue, and the two of them talk (eagerly, passionately) about some of their favorites.

Order your own copy of the issue now, and get it personalized with your own photo on the cover.

[Why We Love Your Shot(s)]

GrassRoutes Travel with Serena Bartlett

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serena_bartlett.jpgThe East-Coast-in-Seven-Days tours are the stuff of my nightmares: traipsing from monument to monument at the crack of dawn, shoveling in food at all-too-crowded restaurants with the entire entourage, and learning about dead people rather than meeting live people.

Enter Serena Bartlett, a seasoned traveler from Philadelphia who has lived in and visited over 25 countries and currently resides in Oakland, California. Like many other travelers, she had trouble getting the bigger picture from the regular travel books - so she decided to pen an original series of urban eco-travel guides, GrassRoutes. The first two in the series, Oakland & Berkeley and Northern California Wine Country, will be released July 7. The Grassroutes San Francisco guide will hit bookstores August 1.

For travelers looking for the real deal, these books introduce local eats, shops, and more for a dynamic experience. Barlett's creative and engaging activities are organized by states of mind, like "Up Early" and "Learn." The idea, as Serena tells Traveler, is that "there are lots of ways to be on vacation no matter where you are" without much environmental and social cost.

Here, Serena reveals the inspiration behind her guidebooks and gives Traveler readers tips on how to discover authentic culture.
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Sound Tracks: Swedish Hip Hop

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Every trip should have a soundtrack, so we've asked CJ Fahey with Nat Geo Music to select artists from their catalog whose songs will inspire you to get going.

 

Last week a friend took me to a party at the stunning Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC, so I've been feeling in a Swedish mood ever since. And considering its small population, Sweden has made a disproportionate contribution to global music. Most famous are guilty-pleasure groups like ABBA and Ace Of Base, but recently it seems that every other indie rock sensation comes from Sweden. And then there's Stockholm-based producer Max Martin who is responsible for massive hits by Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, and the Backstreet Boys. I took a course on Scandinavian literature in college and the professor suggested that Sweden owes its laudable artistic output to precisely the thing that would inspire me to do nothing: their long, dark winters.

One thing that all famous Swedish music groups have in common is that they sing in impeccable English. It makes sense for two reasons: it opens their music to a wider market and much of the music that inspires these rock and pop groups is sung in English. But the lack of internationally successful native language singers from Sweden is one of the things that makes me love so much the Swedish hip-hop group Snook.
 

My Favorite Place on Earth: Deepak Chopra

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To compile his new book, My Favorite Place on Earth, Jerry Camarillo Dunn Jr., interviewed dozens of famous people -- from Natalie Portman to the Dalai Lama -- about the places they loved most. He's been guest-blogging about his experiences here on Intelligent Travel. Click here for recent posts.

Deepakface.jpgWhat makes a place memorable? Often it's the people who live there, or did long ago: Think of Egypt, Mesa Verde, or Angkor Wat. It may even be a single person, as mind-body medicine pioneer Deepak Chopra discovered in Jerusalem. Here's part of his story from My Favorite Place on Earth:

"One day I walked down the Via Dolorosa, the street in the Old City where Jesus carried the cross. The stations of the cross are marked out, and I began my walk where he was sentenced, at Pontius Pilate's court. The second station is where Jesus was flagellated, the third where he fell and was helped up. And I ended at Calvary, the hill where he was crucified.

Daily Radar: 06.30.09

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fourthofjulyparks.jpgPhoto: National Park Service
Traveler and Photo District News are currently hosting our annual World in Focus Photo Contest, and this year we're letting readers preview the submissions and vote on their favorites. We just put a new batch of images up on our website, and here's one of our favorite picks:

contest-wk6-06-600.jpgThis image, of Isla Palenque, Panama, was taken by Adam Elliott. Submit your photos now for a chance to win fabulous trips, gear, and other prizes.

Jenss Family Travels: Costa Rica

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Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

Red Eyed Frogs.jpgWhen our TACA flight from Lima finally touched down in the capital city of Costa Rica, it marked just the first time on this entire world tour that we arrived in a new country without any game plan whatsoever. Admittedly, we aren't exactly backpacking it around the planet, so this was new territory for our family. This was also intentional because we wanted to add a twist to the final month of the trip so we wouldn't get too caught up in counting down the days until we had to go home. The only arrangements we had made were to spend a day in San Jose with a Lonely Planet guide to get our bearings and devise a strategy for the next two weeks.

The first of many spontaneous decisions was made before we even checked into the hotel. Driving from the airport, I noticed several street vendors selling Costa Rican soccer jerseys. The taxi driver explained that the U.S. was in town for a World Cup Qualifier match that very night, and the stadium was only 10 minutes from where we were staying. Never one to pass up an opportunity to attend a major sporting event, I scalped myself a ticket and jumped right into the local culture by watching Costa Rica embarrass the U.S. 3-1 in front of a jubilant sold-out crowd.

To my surprise, there were more than a handful of Americans in attendance, a precursor of sorts to the large number of U.S. tourists and expats we would encounter throughout our stay. I subsequently found out that a sizable contingent of Americans have come down here in recent years to retire, start up businesses, or relocate to a tropical paradise. Their large presence also served as a reminder that we were not too far from home anymore, a thought that didn't actually excite us. For this reason, we made a conscious decision to try to avoid the more commercialized and developed areas of the country and stick to the more natural, unspoiled terrain.  

The Costa Rican tourism business seems to cater to three distinct groups of travelers: eco-friendly, wildlife enthusiasts; adventure seekers; and sea, surf and sand lovers. The latter has certainly contributed to the increased number of tourists and resident expats from the States. It's also blamed for transforming several of the country's laid-back beach communities into Miami Beach-style resort towns.  Although many people like ourselves could easily fall into two or more of these categories, we opted to pursue the exotic wildlife and natural beauty that put Costa Rica on the tourist map in the first place, while sprinkling in a little adventure and surf every now and then for good measure.    

The Elliott Interview: Scott Booker of Hotels.com

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Scott Booker is the aptly-named chief hotel expert and guest advocate for Hotels.com. I asked him about this summer's unprecedented crop of hotel bargains and how to take advantage of them in a recessionary economy, plus the outlook for new hotel fees.

Picture 27.pngCan you give me a sense of how inexpensive hotels are this summer, compared with summers past?

This is absolutely the summer of the deal, and bargain pricing is just about everywhere. For instance, we have a three-star Ramada near Universal Studios in Southern California starting at $76 that typically runs for $109. It's $50 lower than other three-stars in the area, and includes breakfast. The Walt Disney World Swan, which typically has rates in the $250 range, has rooms starting at $180. The Hotel Valencia Riverwalk in San Antonio has rooms at $142 that typically go for more than $250. But it's not just about an inexpensive nightly rate, but the value travelers are getting for their money. Properties are making the trip more affordable overall with promotional offers like gift cards, dining and spa credits, and free nights with a multiple night stay -- these are quite common right now.

Where are the best deals to be found? And which destinations are still pricey?

Deals are literally everywhere -- I think it's harder to find a city that's not on sale. We're seeing amazing values in places like Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Phoenix, and San Antonio. New York has a sale now with more than 60 deals in the market. In Los Angeles, we have a brand new five-star property, Terranea Resort, at 50 percent off, with rates from $145. This is more than $300 below other five-stars in L.A. In Vegas, the Trump International Hotel has the lowest rates among the five-star set at $99 a night, plus a $50 spa credit. New York has the Park Central with rooms from $137, and the St. James at Times Square from $109.

Other than booking a hotel through your site, how do you land a deal this summer?

Even though that's the best way to find a deal, I'd recommend two additional points: Read as much as you can about the destinations you want to visit. And, look at package deals that can bring the overall cost of the vacation.

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