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Filed under: North America, India, Mexico, United States, Middle East

You can run, walk, hike, climb, swim, surf, and scuba your way to new experiences, but even the most active traveler needs a brief moment of zen every now and again. For those who need more than a few seconds of “Om” to get through their day, check out some of these top spots of yoga around the world:

1. Present Moment Retreat – Troncones Beach, Guerrero in Mexico
If you happen to be down in Guerrero don’t miss the chance to visit the Present Moment Retreat for a yoga vacation you won’t soon forget. Complete with a private beach for meditating and yoga workshops by the ocean. You’ll have the privacy of a deserted Island and the accommodations of a five star hotel. With it’s diverse yoga, meditation and healing workshops this is the perfect place to reconnect your mind, body and soul.

2. Himalayan Institute – Honesdale, PA
You don’t need to be familiar with founder Swami Rama to benefit from the many programs offered at this retreat, set in the rolling hills of the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. You can choose to stay for a weekend, a week, a month or even a long residential stay, where you will encounter a serious approach to hatha yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, eastern philosophy and meditation. Expect zero luxuries other than vegetarian meals, a peaceful setting and authentic, carefully crafted treatments.

3. Esalen Institute – Big Sur, CA
The Esalen institute with its 400 plus workshops, is designed to maximize the human potential. Located in the Santa Lucia Mountains on 27 acres of Big Sur Coastline this retreat offer the perfect atmosphere serious retreaters. Esalen’s unique blend of Eastern and Western philosophies give it a dynamic insight that opens the mind and cultivates the soul. Most people experience Esalen through a weekend or five-day workshop, where you can pick form subjects such as Yoga, somatics, dreams, shamanism, biofeedback, hypnosis and more. You can enjoy the hot springs and bodywork by appointment.

Continue reading Travel fitness: Top 10 spots for yoga around the world

Travel fitness: Top 10 spots for yoga around the world originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Paddling, North America, United States, Camping, Ecotourism, Budget Travel

Another bald eagle. Yawn.
I had just completed a tranquil, one-hour paddle from Whidbey Island’s Dugualla Bay, to Hope Island State Park. This dollop of land is a 106-acre marine camping park, reachable only by boat. It boasts a hiking trail and just four stunning, primitive, beachfront sites hidden amongst ferns and old-growth Douglas-fir forest. As we approached the island, my guide, Simon, and I watched six eagles alight on the tops of the tallest firs. Maneuvering our kayak almost beneath one of them, we then spent the better part of an hour entranced by the giant bird of prey. Meanwhile, a curious harbor seal bobbed and dipped around us.

At 45 miles in length, rural Whidbey is the longest island in the lower 48 (Long Island having been ruled a peninsula). It’s just 30 miles from Seattle, making it an easy, economical, uncrowded alternative to the San Juan’s farther north (although Anacortes, on Fidalgo Island, off Whidbey’s northern tip, is the ferry dock for San Juan-bound visitors). Whidbey juts into Puget Sound like a bent, bony finger, its western coast also accessible from Pt. Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. Whidbey is one of the oldest agricultural regions in Washington state, and family farms, farm stands, and mariculture operations are still prolific on the island, although it’s also become a haven for artists. The only real-world distraction on Whidbey is the Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor, at the island’s southern tip.

Continue reading Sea kayaking off Washington’s Whidbey Island: easy Labor Day getaway

Sea kayaking off Washington’s Whidbey Island: easy Labor Day getaway originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gear, Hotels and Accommodations, Internet Tools

We make it a priority at Gadling to ensure our readers are equipped with the best travel advice, travel tips and travel amenities (including gear, gadgets and more) before setting out on their journey. However, we also know that some people just don’t listen. For those people (and you know who you are) technology is a wondrous invention.

Even though we’ve told you over and over again to always include a business card from your hotel, or a matchbook with your hotel’s address on it in case you get lost, you didn’t listen, did you? And what happened? You got lost, and your cab driver didn’t speak English and took you for a bit of a ride, didn’t he? Did you learn your lesson? Probably not, but the Langham Hotels group has created a little ditty that might just help you.

Langham Hotels International recently launched Langham Touch – the first hotel iPhone application that offers voice-enabled travel phrases in a variety of languages so you’ll never get lost again (at least not in a city where there’s a Langham property). The voice-enabled phrases include directions to the hotel from virtually anywhere in the city and if you just can’t make it work, then there’s a hotline to the local Langham property where they will surely help out.

The app includes a mini-city guide of your destination and recommendations to cultural must-do and sees around the city including top attractions, restaurants and bars. Of course, the iPhone app also includes hotlines for room reservations and allows guests to access hotel information, as well as the ability to order room service, ask for a wake up call and make restaurant reservations.

The best part? It’s free, so you really have no excuse for getting lost now.

Langham Hotels International launches voice-enabled iPhone app originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: North America, United States

The Main Street Electrical Parade, which was slated to end its run at the Magic Kingdom on Aug. 14, will continue at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom indefinitely.

The Disney Parks blog says the Main Street Electrical Parade has gotten high ratings from guests since it returned in June. Disney executives call it “an overwhelming success.”

It has been a Disney classic since 1972, but it hasn’t been seen at the Magic Kingdom since 2001. I remember watching from atop my dad’s shoulders, waving at the Disney characters as they rolled by. So, I was excited to share the Main Street Electrical Parade with my daughter this year.

Nostalgia like mine is apparently driving a lot of the parade’s popularity. I have talked with numerous Walt Disney World guests thjis summer who came traveled to Orlando to pass the parade tradition on to their children.

Even many Disney employees have been excited to share the parade with a new generation.

Disney Ambassador Clay Shoemaker remembers first watching the Main Street Electrical Parade when he was 6 years old.

“I can remember seeing the lights coming closer and closer, and then Cinderella waved at me,” Shoemaker said. “You wouldv’e thought I was the only child in the park.”

Continue reading Nostalgia reigns: Main Street Electrical Parade to remain at Walt Disney World indefinitely

Nostalgia reigns: Main Street Electrical Parade to remain at Walt Disney World indefinitely originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Greece

As if Greece didn’t already have enough worries, its 30,000 licensed truck drivers have decided that the middle of the tourist season would be the best time to go on strike, effectively shutting down many parts of the economy.

Without truck drivers, there are no tanker trucks on the roads, which means gas stations are almost all out of gas. And without gas, tourists can’t go anywhere.

The strike is taking place because of an argument about truck licenses. For forty years, Greek drivers were unable to get new permits, so the existing permits sold for about $390,000 on the open market.

As part of the massive bailout from the European Union, the Greek government was told that this system has to come to an end, which means anyone with the correct experience can get a truck license.

Crete, Corfu and Rhodos all say they are most likely going to go bankrupt in weeks unless the federal government puts an end to the strike. Thousands of tourists have already canceled their trip, and on Crete, 100’s of rental cars have simply been abandoned with empty gas tanks. Yesterday, the Greek government ordered the truck drivers to return to work, but they have refused, and made it clear they will not deliver anything until the licensing changes are rolled back.

[Photo credit: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images]

Greek tanker truck strike strands thousands of tourists originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: North America, Canada

Inglewood street scene.

A little neighborhood adjacent to downtown, Inglewood has emerged over the last several years as one of Calgary’s most dynamic ‘hoods. Inglewood is the oldest neighborhood in a city full of new builds financed by oil revenue. Happily, the neighborhood carefully safeguards its buildings, and the façades of Ninth Avenue SE, its main strip, are in no danger of being smashed by a wrecking ball. Inglewood’s old-fashioned core is a world apart from Calgary’s go-go downtown skyline.

Inglewood is also an important neighborhood in Calgary’s cultural calculus. It is home to the Calgary Sunfest and the Calgary Fringe Festival, and sits adjacent to the Calgary Stampede, the enormous rodeo and exhibition that takes place every July. It’s also close to the Calgary Zoo and the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.

Inglewood’s contemporary retail profile is a fascinating tangle of old-school antiques stores, new upscale home furnishings shops, and quirky outlier businesses. The area has gentrified slowly and unevenly. Many locals cite the most recent oil boom and the migration of street prostitution away from the ‘hood as essential to Inglewood’s more recent transformations.

Inglewood is home to Rouge (1240 Eighth Avenue SE), which came in at Number 60 this year in the S. Pellegrino World’s 100 Best Restaurants List. That I did not have time to have lunch at Rouge on Wednesday will haunt me for quite some time. Rouge ranked higher than any other Canadian restaurant on the 2010 Best Restaurants List.

There are other culinary delights in Inglewood. There’s the simple, organic-minded WilderNest Dream Café (1209 Ninth Avenue SE), which serves delicious breakfasts of farm fresh eggs and drip coffee delivered in little French presses. There’s also Choklat (1327A Ninth Avenue), which does a thrilling trade in chocolate and other cocoa products. The one-stop shop does everything in house, from bean to final product. The caramel and chocolate shortbread is ridiculous, as is its line of exquisite chocolate bars.

There are anarchists in Calgary, too.

Continue reading Neighborhood watch: Inglewood, Calgary

Neighborhood watch: Inglewood, Calgary originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We featured Farryn Weiner in this week’s NileGuide 5 because we love her attitude, amazing taste, and serious jet-setting cred (goats in the Himalayas, anyone?). She’s also a serious connoisseur of all things fun, and this weekend Jetsetter will be featuring some of her ultimate party destinations.

For those of you who live under a virtual rock and haven’t heard of Jetsetter, their exclusive access to the world’s greatest properties at essentially unheard of low prices has caused many the NileGuide staffer to drool over private villas and cocktails in the sand. We’ve even had one of our very own use Jetsetter to book her honeymoon!

Starting today on Jetsetter, you can take advantage of Farryn’s party prowess and Jetsetter’s incomparable access to all things awesome to check out deals on some of the best properties in Ibiza, Cartagena, Miami Beach, and Monte Carlo. Just in case you aren’t convinced, check out Farryn’s take on Miami:

I’m a Miami native, so maybe I’m biased, but the city comes to life in the summer. With its mix of art-deco glamour, over-the-top nightlife and spicy Latin culture, Miami is the perfect place to get away with friends for the weekend. The Miami Heat just got LeBron James, so the city is feeling pretty good these days. The energy is contagious.

So check out Jetsetter today and tomorrow to get access to some of @jetsetfarryn’s party picks!

Image: David Boyle in DC/Flickr

Filed under: History, Learning, Africa, Europe, Gambia, Senegal, Ireland, United Kingdom

Every year thousands of tourists flock to Stonehenge, the iconic stone circle on Salisbury Plain, England. While so much attention is focused on this site, especially with the recent discovery of another monument near Stonehenge, people often forget there’s more than a thousand stone circles in the British Isles and Continental Europe. Built during the Neolithic starting about 5,000 years ago, these sites are beautiful and have gathered a lot of strange folklore over the centuries, like the mistaken belief that they were built by Druids or giants. Here are five of the best.

The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney Isles, Scotland
The windswept Orkney Isles north of Scotland are covered in prehistoric remains. The Ring of Brodgar, seen above in this photo courtesy of Beth Loft, is built of thin, tall stones on a narrow isthmus between two lochs. Its architects obviously had an eye for dramatic setting. It dates to between 2500 and 2000 BC, a boom time for monumental building in the Orkneys. It’s the northernmost stone circle in the British Isles and also the third largest at 104 meters (341 ft) in diameter. Like many major circles it’s part of a network of sites, with tombs and single standing stones scattered in the area around it. Legend has it that the Vikings were so impressed with the Ring of Brodgar when they arrived in the ninth century AD that they worshiped their gods here. Some Viking Runes carved into the stones may support this theory.

Avebury, England
Bigger than Stonehenge, the site of Avebury just 17 miles north of Stonehenge consists of a massive stone circle 331.6 meters (1,088 ft) in diameter with two avenues of stones leading to a pair of smaller stone circles. Construction began around 2900 BC, roughly the same time as its neighbor. Other monuments, such as the mysterious artificial mound of Silbury Hill and the West Kennet Long barrow, an ancient tomb, are an easy walk away. During the Middle Ages the locals got religion and decided this pagan monument needed to go. They knocked over several stones until one fell over and crushed one of the vandals. Everyone thought this was just a legend until modern archaeologists dug up a fallen stone and found the skeleton of a man underneath with some 14th century coins in his pocket!

Continue reading Five stunning stone circles (besides Stonehenge)

Five stunning stone circles (besides Stonehenge) originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gadling’s Daily Deal

Here are the hottest gear deals for today, Friday July 30, 2010. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.

Today’s first deal is for the musicPower Encore 2-port USB charger. This smart charger can power 2 devices at the same time off AC, or off its internal battery pack. On sale for $9.99 over at Big Daily Sale.

Today’s second deal is for the Microsoft wireless mobile mouse. This compact travel friendly mouse is on sale for $12.94, but only if you don’t mind settling for pink. Click here for this deal.

Next up is a refurbished Insigna NS-NAV01 GPS unit. This GPS navigator was originally on sale at Best Buy for $100, but is now on clearance at MidnightBox for just $34.95, making it one of the cheapest GPS units on the market. Click here for this deal.

And finally in today’s lineup is the Samsung WEP460 Bluetooth headset. This no-frills headset comes with a travel charger, and runs for a week on a full battery. On sale for just $11.99. Click here for this deal.

Daily gear deals – $10 USB power pack, $35 GPS unit and more originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Arts and Culture, Hiking, Festivals and Events, North America, United States

The second annual Acadia Night Sky Festival is scheduled to take place in Bar Harbor, Maine this September, offering a chance for stargazers to take in the most spectacular views of the night sky along the entire eastern seaboard – from one of the most spectacular national parks in the entire U.S. no less. The event will offer both day and night time activities, with plenty to offer the entire family.

Official activities will get underway on Thursday, September 9th with a panel discussion, photography workshop, and stargazing at the Jackson Laboratory. The festival really gets going on Friday, September 10th however and will continue through the weekend, ending with the sunrise creeping over the 1532 foot tall Cadillac Summit on the morning of Monday, September 13th. In between, you’ll find seminars on understanding our universe, photography exhibitions and classes, picnics, star parties, and much more. Some of the events will be conducted by rangers from Acadia National Park who will offer insights into how to navigate by the stars and what it’s like in the park after the sun goes down.

The festival is used to raise awareness of the increase of light pollution in the U.S. as it is a celebration of the wonderful night skies over Maine, which has the most star filled skies east of the Mississippi River. With urban sprawl continuing to grow, and more urban centers sending light into the heavens, our views of the stars are becoming more and more impeded all the time. The Acadia Night Sky Festival hopes to remind us just how amazing those views above us really are.

Acadia Night Sky Festival scheduled for early September originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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