Over the cold MLK weekend, my kids and I headed south to meet some cousins in Washington, D.C. and had the chance to test-drive a Smithsonian Art Adventure mobile-phone-based scavenger hunt from Stray Boots.
On Sunday morning, bundled up and armed with instructions for the hunt (the company’s website calls them “interactive walking tours” and “urban games”), we headed to the designated starting point, the Smithsonian Castle, punched our confirmation code into the phone, and the questions started coming.
Players participate via text message or, by using a smartphone, type answers into a web interface. Points are awarded for correct answers and hints are available for incorrect ones, and additional interesting trivia is served up with each answer. The cost to play is about the same as joining a human-hosted walking tour, but the phone-delivered narrative allows for more pausing, food breaks, and general messing-around, which suited our group better.
Don't miss Travel + Leisure’s January Trip of the Month, Quintessential South Africa. In association with Travel + Leisure Elite Traveler, our travel club for deals on hotels, cruises, and more, the Trip of the Month offers T+L readers exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime itineraries from the world’s top tour operators.
By the age of 11, the average
kid has learned how to climb a jungle gym. But not Richard Wiese. That was the
age when the former Explorers Club president climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro for the
first time—and he’s done it 15
more times since. The Emmy Award-winning journalist/adventurer/field scientist
has also cross-country skied to the North Pole, tagged jaguars in the Yucatan
jungles, and was a member of the largest medical expedition ever conducted on
Mt. Everest. But his latest undertaking is as the host of the aptly named Born
to Explore, a new syndicated ABC travel program that highlights cultures
from around the world, including Aboriginals in the Northern Territory of Australia, Batwa pygmies in Uganda, and Mayans
in Belize.
One side effect of having a partner who is training for the New York City Marathon (Go, Bob, go!) is that it has upped my own mileage as well. I tell myself, if he is out on an 18-miler, I can certainly pound out eight. This increase in my own distance has had another unexpected and pleasant side effect: On my last trip to London, wanting to keep up my running schedule, I found myself out running around in new areas of the city I’d never seen—I was sightseeing by accident.
Stride-by-stride is such an enjoyable way to take in a new city. I suddenly wanted to run everywhere! Wouldn’t it be great to run over the Golden Gate Bridge, or through tulip fields, or by the Pyramids? During sunset on the Côte d’Azur, in cherry-blossom season in Japan, along the coast in Perth?
The Catskills Mountains are a perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of New York City, and a great place to soak in the best of fall, with picturesque hiking and horseback riding trails, quirky antique shops to explore, and gourmet restaurants and markets. But if bucolic tranquility isn’t enough to get you pumped for fall, I’ve got a suggestion for all you thrill-seekers out there.
Hunter Mountain is a popular spot in the winter with skiers and snowboarders in the northeast, but it's also home to the largest Zipline course in North America, with 4.6 miles of runs at higher than 600 feet in the air. I sought out the ultimate thrill not too long ago, with New York Zipline Adventure Tours’s Skyrider course, which includes five dual runs (so you can challenge the person opposite you to a race), a 500-foot jungle bridge, and a self-powered Zipline, where "take off" means taking a running jump into thin air on a downhill slope.
New in our October issue, on stands now: Travel + Leisure’s exciting Trip of the Month feature, Argentina: from Patagonia to Buenos Aires. In association with Travel + Leisure Elite Traveler, our travel club for deals on hotels, cruises, and more, the Trip of the Month offers T+L readers exclusive itineraries from the world’s top tour operators. What better way to kick off this new column than with an epic journey through Argentina?
Bringing social media to the skiing experience is just one of the ways Vail Resorts has stayed ahead of the curve. And they did it in dramatic fashion, with EpicMix, their app that tracks vertical feet and awards digital pins based on RF-enabled ski passes. Up to now, though, the all-important photography aspect has been missing from EpicMix. No longer.
Sure, you can snap smartphone pics, upload them to your account, and share them on Facebook and Twitter. But Vail Resorts has given the photo experience a couple unique twists.
How do you fit the scope of the world into 60 seconds? Filmmaker Rick Mereki knows, and the wanderlusting Internet world has fallen head over heels in love with his vagabond film adventures.
Our friends at MSNBC Travel are reporting that Denali National Park is maxing out on visitors.
We knew Alaska was
a popular summertime destination, but it seems travelers are turning its most famous
(and accessible) park into the next Yellowstone.
So with all the people exploring the 49th state, we thought we’d give you the heads up on a great app we
found to research your trip and use while you’re
there.
