Category: travel

Hipmunk – new airfare search site

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travel1 Comment

Have you noticed that airfare search websites like Kayak, Mobissimo, etc. are no longer improving?

… Or getting worse?

Steve Huffman, co-founder of Hipmunk:

… “There are dozens of ways of buying tickets online, all of which, in our opinion, are equally bad and painful,” says Huffman. …

“We try to present the results in a useful way,” explains Huffman. “So instead of a wall of text that might span 35 pages, we have one simple clean interface where you can see the flights. You can see how they compare to one another and how long the flights are. But we also remove a lot of listings from the results–usually around 70 percent right off the bat.” Hipmunk smartly removes obviously undesirable flights, and you can also plug in your preferred airline so it will always appear in your results. …

Robert Scoble – Hipmunk takes the pain out of finding and booking flights

This is completely different. Check it out for yourself on hipmunk.com

Those sites still don’t have the charter airlines. I’ll be going to a travel agent, no doubt.

Tuscany … have you heard of it?

On By Rick McIn travel1 Comment

I visited this neglected, backwater region of Italy.

Lovely.

… But don’t tell Clooney. We don’t want the suitcase bus tours to discover it. That would be awful.
🙂

Duomo di Siena, Italy

Sienna cathedral (Duomo) Romanesque-Gothic architecture (1380)

more interesting photos of Sienna

… it’s 1984 in Rome

On By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

I stopped in Rome for one night to take care of some errands.

A picnic of Gorgonzola, marmalade and baguette at the Trevi fountain was a highlight.

Trevi Fountain II

I’d not been to Rome for over 30yrs. It was completely unfamiliar.

Surprisingly the main attractions are quite compact, walkable.

Surprisingly the city is quite civilized. People wear the mandatory murdercycle helmets. They stop at red lights. The streets are not much littered.

Best was the Roman Forum at night. Very quiet.

The biggest surprise to me was the internet. You must log in with a passport or driver’s licence. That’s big brother.

"The Trevi Fountain" (detail)

places not to live – UNDER the volcano

On By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

Mount Vesuvius (Italian: Monte Vesuvio, Latin: Mons Vesuvius) is a stratovolcano on the Bay of Naples, Italy, about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) east of Naples …. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting. …

Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. …

The last major eruption was in March 1944. …

Next time?

The PLAN is an emergency evacuation of 600,000 people.

Paradiso – Positano, Italia

On By Rick McIn food, travel4 Comments

In the frozen wasteland that is my homeland, most people envision HEAVEN as looking like this, Positano:

Perfect climate: never too hot, never too cold. Fantastic local wine, food, fruit, bread and vegetables. You can’t get fat because it’s a 1500cal expenditure just to walk up from the beach to the hostel.

Here’s the view from Brikette.

La vita è bella.

… another rosso vino, Cosmo …

cycling Naples, Italy

On By Rick McIn cycling, travelLeave a comment

HOTS loaned me a mountain bike. And gave me recommendations on where to go.

My favourite man made structure here is the Galleria Umberto.

Naples : Galleria Umberto I - 5/5

Happily it was a lazy Sunday. And there was an important futball game on TV. The roads were, for once, not busy.

I set out along the Bay, Vesuvius in the distance.

Naples, Italy

The highlight was vistas out over the sea from Virgiliano Park.

Magari fosse mio...

That’s Nisida island.

Tramonto

Most of those are not my pics which, sadly, did not turn out all that great.

But you can see more interesting photos tagged Naples on Flickr.

Naples – first impressions

On By Rick McIn food, travelLeave a comment

I’m reminded of all the reasons why I can’t live in Europe.

Yet I’ve always had a soft spot for Italy.

The loud, enthusiastic, gesticulating people. The gorgeous landscapes. The food, vino and gelato.

… I could almost live in Italy.

The only other time I’ve been close to Naples, I was 18yrs-old. We drove past en route to the Isle of Capri. It took hours as traffic was terrible … in 1976.

Traffic is worse now.

Naples is one of the oldest cities in the world, and looks it.

It’s one of the richest cities in the world (richer than Zurich, for example) yet you could film a movie set in a 3rd world hellhole, if you wished, here.

Graffiti? … Must be an Italian word. … Invented in Pompeii. That’s my guess.

Jetlagged, I checked in at the friendly Hostel of the Sun. My host, Luca, insisted I visit the hot spot in old town, for my first meal.

pizza - Sorbillo’s, Naples
Sorbillo’s, Naples

Gorgonzola, ham, mushroom. Fantastic. And inexpensive.

That’s a tasty first impression.

arrived Naples …

On By Rick McIn hiking, travel1 Comment

I love the redeye charters from North America direct to Europe, arriving early morning. That way you can connect to your final destination arriving same day.

Last year I got to Cortina, Italy in the daylight.

This year to Napoli, Italia just at dusk.

Famed for its cousine, there are only two kinds of restaurants here: pizzerias and non-pizzerias.

I’m here to hike the Amalfi coast.

shop your local airport

On By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

At the Calgary airport you can buy confiscated Swiss Army knives for $2 … and many other items every Tuesday morning starting. It’s a charity fund-raiser.

items confiscated at Calgary Airport

Dangerous weapons … and toys that might hold dangerous fluids:

items confiscated at Calgary Airport

Check your local airport to see if they do the same thing.

(via BestHike)