Spring-Break Inspiration

Here's my Guideposts interview about some inspiring destination ideas for spring break: Mexico, Kansas, using local sports as vehicle to meet locals, and helping communities recovering from natural disasters.

76-Second Travel Show: 'The Real Orlando'

Episode #040
F E A T U R I N G * 6 0 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

I met up with a number of travel insiders recently and Orlando came up. 'Awful city.' 'Hate that place.' And around the circle went a chorus of dismissive nods of approval.

It's an easy reaction to a place famed for amusement parks (and I've shared it at times), but travel usually knows better. And when I went last month -- to attend the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter -- I stayed in town, and carved out time to see the city, and ask locals what the 'real Orlando' is. People like Bob Kealing, who wrote 'Kerouac in Florida,' about the beat writer's surprising connection with the Sunshine State. (Read Thomas Swick's excellent take on Kerouac's Orlando.)

And I liked it. A lot actually.

Favorites:

* 'Little Saigon' (or ViMi) around Mills and Colonial has excellent cheap Vietnamese restaurants -- as good as any I've had outside Vietnam.
* The 'naive art' of Earl Cunningham at the Mennello Museum, who painted scenes to scale of his interest (houses and people usually very small, birds very very BIG).
* The wee 'Milk District' at Robinson and Bumby has a handful of bars/eateries (great beer selection at the Social Chameleon) in the shadow of a milk processing plant.

Oh, and the Simpsons ride at Universal -- the best of all time.

76-Second Travel Show: "Potter versus Potter"

Episode #038
F E A T U R I N G * 8 5 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Andrew Potter calls travel the 'quest for difference,' and that the more different the better. Sure about that? I think it comes a lot closer to home that too. And his case that searching for authenticity is a 'hoax,' which comes as a 'betrayal and sin' against humanity and modernity, comes a little thinly argued -- to me. At least once he moves from art and marketing to travel.

I decided to put his Authenticity Hoax to the test versus another Potter: Harry. At the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando.

In the end, I'm not sure who won, but I had fun -- particularly mixing with people whose ongoing search comes with shrieks, delirium, personal financial sacrifice and a joy that rubs off.

Why You Should Still Go the Gulf Coast

A week after my research trip to Florida's Gulf Coast -- driving between Pensacola and Panama City -- oil has finally splashed on the same beaches. But I still think visitors should go the region, as I explained in this blog entry for the Huffington Post.

Harry Potter Opens in Orlando

The complete opposite of being at the Florida Gulf Coast? That'd be the opening of the Universal Studio's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Unreal. Standing a few feet from the cast, seeing teens in school uniforms squeal Ed Sullivan Show-like, and trying to drink the 'butterbeer.' Here's my take on opening day for Lonely Planet. And a few photos. Video to come...

76-Second Travel Show: 'Gulf Coast Tribute'

Episode #037

I will not forget my few days in the Florida Gulf Coast anytime soon. Most valuable lesson learned from locals: see it while you can.

76-Second Travel Show: 'How to Meet People Flash Cards'

Episode #025
F E A T U R I N G * 2 3 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Some spring breakers think you have to go to places like Cabo, Padre or Panama City Beach to meet people. With the 76-Second Travel Show's 'How to Meet People' Flash Cards, in this video, you can meet people anywhere.

Also see how one spring break changed my travel life.

Spring Break Changes Everything

Spring break, as we know it today, kind of turns 50 this year. In 1960, the surprisingly frank film Where the Boys Are ignited a tourism boom of Fort Lauderdale, which gradually ballooned into a messy drunken sprawl of university students until the city said 'enough' in the mid '80s and forbid alcohol on the beach.

Then the party moved to Panama City Beach in the Florida panhandle.

Most people's idea of spring break -- beer, beach, ballyhoo (and jocks) -- was always about the opposite of my idea of a worthwhile travel experience.

During my senior year in college, I passed on South Padre Island invites from fellow University of Oklahoma students, and spent my memorable spring break on a long road trip through the plains of West Texas. Stopping at the dry town of Lubbock to see Buddy Holly's statue, past Odessa where a cop with crooked teeth and a dizzy look gave me a warning for speeding (despite the Oklahoma license plate!), playing pool at a weird bar in weirder Marfa, and spending a few days at wonderful Big Bend National Park.

Me, and the handful of Okies I coerced into going, began by pouring over the park's campsite map and simultaneously zeroed in on the same one: Mt Nugent. From our Nuge base, we lazily filled the days soaking in hot springs, boating across the Rio Grande to a crappy Mexican pueblo (the border closed after 9/11), and hiking through free-boulder zones that look out of Land of the Lost.

It changed how I saw travel. Every year before that trip, I joined overnight caravans to Colorado ski resorts for my spring break vacation. I've not been on a full-fledged ski trip since.