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Straight from the keyboards of the Lonely Planet team


  • 9 November 2009
  • 12:01pm
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What’s the greatest college town?

VivekW Lonely Planet author

View of San Francisco from Berkeley

There are the big hitters – the New Yorks, Bostons, Seattles, New Orleans…umm…es.
Then there are the secondary towns – Athens, Georgia; Gainesville, Florida; Berkeley, California.
And there are the tiny towns with names like College Station, Texas.
They all have one thing in common: great college culture.
We’re on a quest to find your favorite US college town…

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  • 6 November 2009
  • 10:29am
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What’s the worst airport in the world?

VivekW Lonely Planet author

A Storm at the Airport by Stuck in Customs.

This might be a fun game.
Over at the end of our ‘Cities You Really Hate’ article, hipersons suggests that it might be fruitful to explore what our least favourite airports are worldwide. He or she submits Charles de Gaulle (in Paris) and Chicago’s O’Hare for consideration.
My most loathed airport is definitely Los Angeles‘ LAX. To…

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  • 4 November 2009
  • 6:44am
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76-Second Travel Show: “Should Travel + Time = Beard?”

Robert Reid Lonely Planet author

DARTH VADER’S INSPIRATION: MOUSTACHED HELMETS
Lonely Planet author and KillingBatteries blogger Leif Pettersen is pondering whether or not to grow a beard on the road. He worries about cleaning it and whether it will hurt his beauty appeal. So he asked the “76-Second Travel Show” to help out. We have, by looking at “beards of time”…

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  • 3 November 2009
  • 1:27am
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21 strangest things you should know about the USA

Robert Reid Lonely Planet author

CURIOS! BEHEADED PUMPKINS! FALSE QUARTERS! & OTHER STRANGE, SOMETIMES DISPUTED, ‘FACTS’

1. Yes, Kansas IS flatter than a pancake. Anyone crossing I-70 swears by it, but a 2003 study using a cross-section of a flapjack actually determined Kansas flatter. It failed to mention that Delaware and Florida are actually flatter than Kansas.

2. The streaking craze actually…

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  • 2 November 2009
  • 11:52pm
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Beat the air travel tax hike

Tom Hall Lonely Planet author

It now costs more to fly from London's Heathrow Airport

If you’re booking a flight from the UK, you may notice from 1 November that it seems a little more expensive. The travel industry’s least favourite three little words, Air Passenger Duty, is on the rise.
APD first entered many people’s consciousness when it was doubled in in February 2007 as a environmental tax on flying.…

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  • 2 November 2009
  • 11:15am
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Holy cows, step dogs & other tourist animals

markbroadhead Lonely Planet author

Very valuable ravens

Meeting locals is key to getting to the heart of destination. However, in some instances the locals aren’t human.
Many tourist sights have strong relationships with animals.
For instance, arguably the most valuable things contained within the Tower of London are not made of gold and diamond, but rather feather and bones. The crown jewels are worth a…

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  • 30 October 2009
  • 3:48pm
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Weekly travel quiz: 30 October

VivekW Lonely Planet author

Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) at sunset.

Here are the answers to the quiz. How’d you do?
1. What tasty French grape celebrates the beginning of its wine season with a weeklong festival starting on November 18?
Nouveau Beaujolais
2. What Australian budget airline informed passengers in Tasmania that their flight would be delayed for three days?
Tiger Airways
3. What US city did two pilots accidentally…

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  • 30 October 2009
  • 10:26am
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Huh? United loses ‘United Breaks Guitars’ guy’s bags!

VivekW Lonely Planet author

sleeping donkey with luggage

This has to take the cake.
Remember David Carroll, whose acoustic guitar was smashed by United Airlines’ luggage handlers? If you don’t, here’s the song he recorded, which went viral:

Well, turns out that United has yet again managed to get in David’s bad books. The airline lost David’s luggage — as he was en route to…

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  • 30 October 2009
  • 12:29am
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76-Second Travel Show: “In Pittsburgh (Cancelled)”

Robert Reid Lonely Planet author

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has to be in the running for the most improved city of the past 15 years. Once known for its smoke-belching factories, the riverfront is alive with pedestrians, boaters with beers, a couple stadiums and nearby you can walk past street art and visit the Andy Warhol Museum. Well worth a day and…

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  • 27 October 2009
  • 4:13pm
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Flying on the cheap

Luke Savage Lonely Planet author

plane_blog

They say you get what you pay for, and nowhere does this annoying old truism seem more spot on than in the stripped-back world of discount airlines. Virtually everyone who has travelled on one of these cut-price people carriers has a tale of woe involving lost luggage, non-existent service or unscheduled cancellations.
Recently, passengers on a…

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