The Art of Travel by Skootre

Hoover Dam Tours: Las Vegas Tip

skootre — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:07:41 +0000

So here’s my Viator travel tip for the day. The next time you’re in Las Vegas, looking for things to do, places to see, what’s cool and Vegas happening — catch a tour to Hoover Dam. You heard me — take a Hoover Dam tour! I mean it.

Why? Let me ask you this — did you know Hoover Dam is the largest man-made structure in the USA? Did you know it’s on the mighty Colorado River, a hop skip and jump from the mighty Grand Canyon? Did you know the dam itself is simply amazing?

No, i thought not. Have a look, it’s very cool. You will thank me.

In Remembrance of Websites Past

skootre — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:30:09 +0000

Every now and then it’s healthy to check in on websites that you once enjoyed. Sometimes they have evolved into wonderful things. Sometimes they have gone totally spammy. And sometimes, well, sometimes they are nowhere to be found in the www.

I had a nice moment yesterday, looking at websites that I once enjoyed. Surprisingly not, the sites are gone. But in there place are some excellent pages from Viator. So I guess I don’t miss them too much, it’s hard to know, I almost forget what the look like.

Anyway, for the sake of posterity, I am posting links to these sites. In case some future traveler comes across one of their old bookmarks and wonders, like I did, where the sites had gone to.

Enjoy. And happy travels.

thingstodo-amsterdam.com
thingstodo-bangkok.com
thingstodo-barcelona.com
thingstodo-edinburgh.com
thingstodo-florence.com
thingstodo-lisbon.com
thingstodo-london.com
thingstodo-losangeles.com
thingstodo-madrid.com
thingstodo-neworleans.com
thingstodo-newyork.com
thingstodo-paris.com
thingstodo-prague.com
thingstodo-rome.com
thingstodo-sanfrancisco.com
thingstodo-singapore.com
thingstodo-sydney.com
thingstodo-venice.com
thingstodo-vienna.com
thingstodo-washingtondc.com

Milan Tours, I’m feeling like the need for a coffee

skootre — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:46:10 +0000

Nice post today about doing some sightseeing tours in Milan on the Viator blog. Makes me remember why I love Italy so much in the first place. It’s the coffee. It is the coffee. Glorious cups of piping hot espresso. Maybe a dabble of milk or milk foam when the mood takes me.

None of this lowfat double macchiatio with whip cream. Ugh.

Anyway, thanks for the Italy reminder. I am ready for my Milan tour now…

Singapore Tours & Day Tours

skootre — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 06:15:32 +0000

Here’s a lesson in why a bad website can still rank well in Google.

Do a search on “Singapore tours” and look at the #2 result. Tell me if you think that website (which shall remain nameless) is worth a second look? It’s an awful design, an awful user experience, and frankly, the tours and day trips they show are overpriced and out of date.

Am I biased? Of course I am. But that’s besides the point. If you’re looking for a real Singapore tour or day tour, you know where to go. If you don’t believe me, read some of the traveler reviews of Singapore city tours on the Viator site. Case closed.

Don’t dissapoint me. You know where you should go. Seriously.

Travel Lifetips for Europe

skootre — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:29:00 +0000

Here’s an idea. Start a company that writes about anything. Position yourself as a global expert on everything. If you build it, they will come. The Europe Travel Tips is a good example. Lots of tips and travel ideas for visiting Europe. Write it, and they will come.

You get the picture.

More RSS Love

skootre — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:03:53 +0000

I wrote earlier about the RSS service called “Blogburst”. If you have a blog, you should subscribe, it’s great. And free. You don’t get much traffic, but it’s kinda sorta cool to see posts appearing on big-name websites.

For example?

Cool.

Why we travel?

skootre — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:01:56 +0000

I’m working on a long post about this. In the meantime, have a chew over this — reasons why we travel that have nothing to do with the muck USA Today is publishing about travel.

Bah humbug, I say.

Another One

skootre — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:32:21 +0000

A proliferation of names. This time it’s Viator. So many meanings. Check this one out.

It’s been a while…

skootre — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:16:42 +0000

I have no real excuses except the usual — too busy. It’s summer in North America, and there’s hardly any time to think about anything except (a) when is my next vacation and (b) is it OK to cook dinner on the BBQ again? Ahhh, summer.

And speaking of summer, two thoughts. First, as hard as it is to admit this, it was 20 years ago this month that my friend Greg and I ran with the bulls in Spain. 20 years. Ugh.

Second thought: If I could go anywhere right now, I think I’d go to Greece and Turkey. This post on the Viator blog got me all nostalgic…

Social Search Engines

skootre — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 02:34:10 +0000

I stumbled upon (sorry for the pun) yet another social search engine today. Two of them, actually. And for once I can recommend them both.

The first one is called Sproose, don’t ask me what it means because I don’t have a clue. The idea here is you can vote for a result and, by doing so, move it up or down the rankings. Ripe for abuse? Sure, at least until the get critical mass. And when they do, this will be a cool new search resource. Some examples (and while you’re there, vote for Viator!):

Engine #2? It’s called Mahalo. This engine is the brainchild of Jason Calacanis, so you can expect this is only the beginning of cool things Mahalo will unveil. The site is positioned as “human-powered search”, which reminds me of a site from the 1990s whose name I will not mention. It’s not a new idea, OK. But Mahalo does a good job, at least in the travel sections I looked at. Here are some examples:

All in all, it’s a good day in the world of social and ‘human’ search.