24Apr / 2013

This Mother’s Day, Give the Gift of Travel

Finding the perfect gift for someone can be exciting, annoying, frustrating, or downright difficult – especially when that person happens to be your mother. Countless times we’ve given our mothers a day at the spa, flowers or a framed photo. While the gifts are always appreciated, they just don’t seem to convey exactly how much we love our moms. What is the perfect gift that can show mom just how much we love and appreciate her? We say travel.

Giving the gift of travel is actually gifting someone with a unique and memorable experience. Whether a trip to Paris, New York or Hawaii, each holds the possibility for memories to be made that are guaranteed to be cherished. Seeing a gorgeous sunset in Bora Bora or eating the best gelato in Rome are some of the types of memories that we fondly remember when we speak about our travels. Giving someone the opportunity to experience a new city or country is a gift that quite doesn’t compare to a dozen roses. But what may even be better than sending your mom on a relaxing beach vacation, is actually going on a trip with her.

We think that giving the gift of travel is overlooked. We can all get caught up in our day to day, and when the moment comes, it’s easier to send a bouquet of flowers than it is to plan a memorable trip for that special woman in your life. But we challenge you to think about giving travel. To help inspire you, some of our Facebook fans shared with us how they have given the gift of travel to their mothers.

So this Mother’s Day, we encourage you to think about giving the gift of travel – whether a weekend getaway or a two week safari – we’re certain this gift won’t compare with others.

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18Apr / 2013

Surreal “postcards” from Google Earth

This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads.

Sometimes even Google makes our world look even crazier than it actually is, as evidenced by these surreal and quirky screenshots of Google Earth collected by Clement Valla. In his own words:

“I collect Google Earth images. I discovered strange moments where the illusion of a seamless representation of the Earth’s surface seems to break down. At first, I thought they were glitches, or errors in the algorithm, but looking closer I realized the situation was actually more interesting — these images are not glitches. [...] These uncanny images focus our attention on that process itself, and the network of algorithms, computers, storage systems, automated cameras, maps, pilots, engineers, photographers, surveyors and map-makers that generate them.”

For the full collection, see Clement’s site Postcards from Planet Earth. For more about this collection and why the images are as skewed as they are, see this great Rhizome magazine article.

-Jodi

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13Apr / 2013

Vegetable vendors, Hanoi-style

This is a Hipmunk post from Jodi Ettenberg of Legal Nomads.

One of the fun things to see in Vietnam (and elsewhere in Asia) is how incredibly piled-up the bicycles and motorcycles are, packed high with whatever vendors are selling. During Lunar new year, people were transporting big kumquat trees across town on bicycles and motorbikes, and in Hanoi I spotted this fabulous bicycle full of vegetables, as tightly-squeezed as I’ve ever seen. Love!

-Jodi