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- Biggest travel rip-offs
- Top tourist destinations for 2012 named. Will you be there?
- Hot in Thailand: Drag shows, zip lines and fancy backpacker digs
- I ordered a margarita and I got vegetable soup
- CNNGo TV in Taipei: The secret side of the city
- And the world's most lucrative airports are ...
- Love for sale at Tokyo's most romantic shrines
- 6 best day trips from Taipei
- World's 10 toughest golf courses
- Tightfisted travel poll reveals cheapest trips
- See Skytree for free from the Asakusa Panda Bus
- In defense of rainy days -- why drizzle shouldn’t ruin travel
- Bye-bye, squatters: Thailand issues public toilet decree
- 40 Taiwanese foods we can't live without
- Antarctica: The final frontier of travel
- It's official: Jinro soju is the world's best-selling liquor
- Most popular brewery tours: What you see when big brands open their doors
- Is this the inventor of bubble tea?
| Posted: 14 Jun 2012 09:20 AM PDT Travel is a big decision because it can mean big expenditure. While I am all for paying an honest price in return for a vacation that makes me hate life a little less, some travel-related charges just don't make sense. Here are the worst value-for-money travel expenses that need to go away right now. What do you think is the worst travel rip-off? Let us know in the comments box at the bottom of the page.
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| Top tourist destinations for 2012 named. Will you be there? Posted: 13 Jun 2012 11:23 PM PDT If you're planning to visit London this summer, you won't be the only one. You probably figured that already. You might not have known, however, that some 16.9 million visitors from around the world will descend upon the 2012 Olympic city, making it the planet's top travel destination this year, according to the Worldwide Index of Global Destination Cities issued by MasterCard this week. The Summer Olympics will run from July 27 to August 12. The index is based on international flight-capacity information provided by aviation data provider OAG Global. read more    |
| Hot in Thailand: Drag shows, zip lines and fancy backpacker digs Posted: 13 Jun 2012 10:16 PM PDT by CNNGo staff Trade fairs are generally joyless affairs. All those meetings. The speeches. The social networking lunches. The hangover after a night of dancing in the hotel bar with that cute office supply rep. Unless you're hawking the world's favorite commodity: travel. A visit to a tourism trade fair can provide insight into the state of the travel industry and some of the options consumers will soon have when planning their own holidays. Bangkok recently hosted the annual Thailand Travel Mart Plus (TTM Plus), which brought in more than 1,000 tourism buyers and sellers. read more    |
| I ordered a margarita and I got vegetable soup Posted: 13 Jun 2012 08:45 PM PDT by CNNGo
The reigning Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year, Manabu Ohtake, is in Hong Kong demonstrating his award-winning skills at the Masters of Mixology event in the Landmark Mandarin Oriental. Ohtake won the coveted title in 2011 for his "Japanese-style work with a foreign presentation," bringing theatrics and showmanship to Japanese precision. Also on CNNGo: Secret revealed: How to be the world's best bartender So we were prepared for the sight of his Green Salad Margarita. read more    |
| CNNGo TV in Taipei: The secret side of the city Posted: 13 Jun 2012 06:55 PM PDT Taipei, for anyone that knows it, will conjure up visions of countless food streets and the Taipei 101 landmark. But did you know about the hidden tunnels and the artist village? From the oldest to the latest, above the ground and beneath, CNNGo TV uncovers the little-known side of Taipei with local song-writer, Sandee Chan(陳珊妮) and indie music sensation Crowd Lu (盧廣仲). read more    |
| And the world's most lucrative airports are ... Posted: 13 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT by Frances Cha There's just something about an airport duty-free store that makes travelers suddenly go mad for perfume and face cream, regardless of all the airport security hurdles they now have to jump through to lug them to their destinations. A new report says the spending craze was particularly true at airports in Asia starting in 2011. According to the Tax Free World Association (TWFA) -- the world's largest duty-free and travel retail association -- Asian airports are now recording more duty-free sales than European airports for the first time in the industry's 60-year-old history. By the numbersIn 2011, 35 percent of the US$46 billion in global duty-free and travel retail sales was generated in the Asia-Pacific region, beating 34 percent in Europe and 23 percent in the Americas. Worldwide, 31 percent of sales were recorded in the fragrances and cosmetics category, with wine and spirits coming in second at 17 percent. read more    |
| Love for sale at Tokyo's most romantic shrines Posted: 13 Jun 2012 02:55 PM PDT by Gail Nakada We all know it -- Tokyo's so-called "cool factor" draws travelers eager to explore the quixotic mixture of traditional and pop culture that defines the city and its people, we're told. So much yadda yadda, we say right back. What if you've come here looking for something else? Like, say, romance? Steady now ... Forget the sticky back alleys of Shinjuku's Kabukicho or rowdy Center Gai street in Shibuya. Instead, take your lonely heart and do with it what the Japanese do -- go to the shrine. But not just any shrine. A Love Shrine. Love shrines have nothing to do with those charge-by-the-hour temples to Eros crowded onto the hills of Shibuya. read more    |
| Posted: 13 Jun 2012 02:19 PM PDT by Nick Kembel Taipei City offers one of the widest selections of cheap and easy day trips out of any Asian metropolis. The Taiwanese capital at the northern tip of the island is right next to incredible natural escapes as well as boisterous towns and markets. Everything is just a short train or MRT ride away. We've narrowed it down to our favorite half-dozen low-maintenance daycations from Taipei. Did we miss your favorite Taipei day trip? Share with us in the comments field below. 1. Steamy getaway: Beitou
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| World's 10 toughest golf courses Posted: 13 Jun 2012 09:01 AM PDT by Tony Smart Golf can be beautiful. More often that not it's an exercise in damage limitation. No matter how good your last shot, you could screw it all up with the next. So while Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy et al are headed to San Francisco's Olympic Club today to discover who'll be this year's U.S. Open victor, we thought we'd take a look at the courses most likely to leave the rest of us blubbering, defeated wrecks, promising next time we'll do better, or at the very least not take it so seriously. Also on CNNGo: World's 18 most beautiful golf holes 1. The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, South Carolina, United States
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| Tightfisted travel poll reveals cheapest trips Posted: 13 Jun 2012 06:19 AM PDT Of all the joints in all the world for a romantic overnight break for two, it seems London is the most expensive, while Hanoi offers the best value for money -- all worth knowing when counting the pennies and pondering where they might take you and yours this year. That's according to TripAdvisor's TripIndex 2012 annual night-out rankings, published this week. The travel site released its findings Wednesday, comparing the cost of an overnight stay for two people (it doesn't have to involve romance, FYI) in 48 cities around the world. The modest-sounding sojourn includes one night in a four-star hotel, cocktails, a two-course dinner with a bottle of wine and the cost of taxis for the evening. Hanoi proved to be the most affordable at a touch over US$141, while London turned out to be the priciest at a comparatively eye-watering $518. We can't say we're surprised. read more    |
| See Skytree for free from the Asakusa Panda Bus Posted: 12 Jun 2012 09:34 PM PDT by Gail Nakada What is it with panda-themed transportation? You wait a lifetime for a black-and-white, bamboo-eating ride to come along, then two turn up at once. Going head-to-head with London's new Panda taxi cabs, Tokyo has its own fleet of Skytree-circling, two-tone conveyances cleverly branded the Asakusa Ueno Panda Bus. From Asakusa, through the maze of backstreets, all the way to the new Skytree complex, this panda goes everywhere you want to be in the city's busiest tourist area -- for free. No tickets required, no reservations needed; just hop on and hop off, seven days a week. (No pressure to mate in the public eye either, in case you're wondering.) Despite the mixture of anticipation and humiliation you might feel in boarding a form of transport with a giant panda head on the front, this is a great sightseeing choice if you have older, younger or very hungover members in your party. read more    |
| In defense of rainy days -- why drizzle shouldn’t ruin travel Posted: 12 Jun 2012 09:22 PM PDT
Not the prancing, pouting Korean pop phenomenon. Though no doubt he too has wrecked a road trip or three. I mean lower-case rain, the water that falls from the sky and turns normal people into whimpering abjections cowering under their umbrellas as if frizzy hair is a sign that you a) are ugly, b) have a bad boyfriend who won't buy you the US$45 rainproof hairspray and c) can't afford a taxi. Shock. Horror. Shudder. Granted, getting wet when you would prefer to stay dry can be a nuisance. read more    |
| Bye-bye, squatters: Thailand issues public toilet decree Posted: 12 Jun 2012 06:19 PM PDT Good news, lady and gentleman travelers. (Especially ladies.) Newcomers to Thailand may soon be able to avoid the painful process of figuring out how to use a squat toilet -- which is essentially not much more than a bowl in the floor -- without splattering urine onto their calves/feet. On Tuesday, Thailand's Health Ministry announced it will replace squat toilets with the sit-down version at all public facilities. Thailand English daily The Nation reported that Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon said the program is necessary to assist the country's aging population. By the year 2015, 14 percent of the population will be over 60 years old, according to the United Nations Population Fund. So what is a public toilet? By some definitions, it's a toilet the general public can use freely, regardless of payment/non-payment to access the premises. That includes train stations, bus stations and roadside rest stops. read more    |
| 40 Taiwanese foods we can't live without Posted: 12 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT by Hiufu Wong Small eats are the big thing in Taiwan where the philosophy is eat often and eat well. Sure, there's the internationally accepted three-meals-a-day format of dining, but why be so limited when you can make like the Taiwanese and do some gourmet snacking at any time of the day, all day, every day? The capital Taipei has around 20 streets dedicated to snacking. Every time you think you've found the best streetside bao, the most incredible stinky tofu stand or mind-blowing beef noodle soup, there's always another one that surpasses it. Taiwanese food is a mash-up of the cuisines of Min Nan, Teochew and Hokkien Chinese communities, as well as Japanese cuisine. read more    |
| Antarctica: The final frontier of travel Posted: 12 Jun 2012 09:06 AM PDT When it comes to adventure travel, there's the world of zip lines, kayaks and mountaineering beloved of those rugged outdoors types. And then there's Antarctica. A frozen, inhospitable wasteland twice the size of Australia, the planet's southernmost continent might as well be in outer space for all it's got in common with the rest of the world. To start with there's no government. And why should there be? No one lives there. A few thousand scientists visit every year to study everything from fish with clear blood (the cold makes oxygen dissolve in their blood so they don't need hemoglobin) to meteorites (the snow and ice that cover 98 percent of Antarctica's 14 million square kilometers make it easy to find big, black rocks), but there is no permanent or indigenous population.
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| It's official: Jinro soju is the world's best-selling liquor Posted: 12 Jun 2012 12:15 AM PDT by Max Kim When we saw this on the Korean news, we blinked. Then cracked up. The Millionaires' Club, an England-based catalog that ranks brands, liquors and spirits, pinpointed Korea's Jinro soju as the world's best-selling brand of liquor, based on data collected in 2011. The rankings are based on yearly aggregate sales in units of nine-liter cases. In order to even make it on to the list, brands need to sell at least 1 million cases a year -- no easy feat. Some 61.38 million cases of Jinro soju were sold last year, easily making it the world's most heavily consumed brand of liquor. The numbersJinro soju's landslide victory over a long roll of better-known global liquor giants might be something of a shock: the local Korean distilled rice liquor manufacturer outsold runner-up Smirnoff vodka more than twofold, the latter falling considerably short with 24.70 million cases sold. Lotte Liquor soju was third on the list, at 23.9 million cases. Further down the list of 180 brands, Bacardi rum (No. 5) sold 19.56 million cases, Jack Daniel's whiskey (No. 19) sold 10.58 million cases and Jim Beam whiskey-bourbon sold 5.86 million cases (No. 37).
And though we all like an underdog success story, believe it or not, this isn't even Jinro soju's inaugural or record-breaking win -- it's the untoppled eleventh. What's more, Jinro sold 75.99 million cases in 2008. That means that based on numbers from the last few years, 2011 actually marks a new low in sales. The reason for the dip? As Drinks International explains in its Millionaires' Club brochure, "Jinro suffers from being the dominant brand in a slow growth market." More on CNNGo: World's 50 best beach bars Most popular unknown liquor in the world So what do Jinro's eyebrow-arching numbers mean, especially considering that most people outside of Asia have never heard of the drink, let alone the brand? Jinro doesn't publish a breakdown of percentages of consumption by country, but does say that most of its orders come from Korea (obviously), then Japan, followed by the United States/Canada and Southeast Asia."As you know, there aren't that many spirits with medium-level alcohol content," said a Hite-Jinro representative. "That, along with the fact that Jinro's Chamisul soju is a moderate 19 percent alcohol by volume, explains how Jinro has already made a name for itself by being substantially cheaper than other liquors." read more    |
| Most popular brewery tours: What you see when big brands open their doors Posted: 11 Jun 2012 07:34 PM PDT by CNNGo staff A cold bottle of Chang on a Thai beach. A pint of Guinness in an Irish pub. For many travelers, swilling the local barley soda is just as important as sampling the national cuisine. For truly passionate beer geeks, brewery tours take that enjoyment to the next level. The latest big brand to open its brewery to tours is Singapore's Tiger Beer. read more    |
| Is this the inventor of bubble tea? Posted: 11 Jun 2012 02:55 PM PDT There's much speculation on the Internet and elsewhere about the origin of bubble tea. But one tea shop and one woman are generally accepted as being the true, bona fide creators of this most popular drink. As a lifelong fan of bubble tea, I was thrilled to meet this woman when I visited her place of work, and the source of all bubbles teas it would seem, at Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung, Taiwan. The founder, Liu Han-Chieh, first came up with the idea of serving Chinese tea cold in the early 1980s after visiting Japan where he saw coffee served cold. This propelled his fledgling chain into Taiwanese teahouse folklore. Then, in 1988, his product development manager, Ms. Lin Hsiu Hui, was sitting in a staff meeting and had brought with her a typical Taiwanese dessert called fen yuan, a sweetened tapioca pudding. Just for fun she poured the tapioca balls into her Assam iced tea and drank it.    |
PTSD from surprise roaming charges takes a long time to heal.The roaming charge for your mobile phone is probably the world's greatest travel rip-off of all time.
The Green Salad Margarita: Too good-for-you to be true.
Beitou's famed sulfurous waters are hot as hell.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that rain ruins holidays. 
You know you're not in Waikiki when the scenery looks more like this.
The latest advertisement for Jinro soju. It's clearly working. 
Lin Hsiu Hui says she invented bubble tea when she poured fen yuan into an iced tea drink in 1988.| You are subscribed to email updates from CNNGo.com To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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