When you hear the mention of a Viking cruise you naturally think of a river cruise. But that’s all changing because last night at an exclusive event in Beverly Hills the company announced the launch of its new ocean product line, Viking Ocean Cruises (www.vikingcruises.com/oceans). It’s marking the introduction of the travel industry’s first new cruise line in nearly a decade. Viking Ocean Cruises will begin sailing in May 2015 with its first vessel—Viking Star—embarking on maiden voyages in Scandinavia and the Baltic; and the Western and Eastern Mediterranean.

Torstein Hagen, the Chairman of Viking Cruises said “It is our view that in the race to build bigger ships, many cruise lines have lost sight of the destinations to which they sail. With our new ocean cruises, we are applying the same principles behind our award-winning river cruises to our itinerary and ship design; privileged-access excursions; and onboard experiences to make destinations the true focus.”

Itineraries will be curated for maximum time in port, often with late evenings or overnights, so guests can experience local nightlife or evening performances. Ports include both cosmopolitan cities and “collector ports,” and appeal to those with an interest in history, art and culture. In addition, all-inclusive pricing provides unparalleled value—with every cruise fare including a veranda stateroom, shore excursions in each port of call, all onboard meals, and all port charges and government taxes. Passengers also enjoy many complimentary amenities as part of their fare, including: beer and wine with lunch and dinner service; wi-fi; self-service laundry and 24-hour room service—a value of more than $2,400 per couple for an average cruise.

Viking Star

                Classified by Cruise Critic as a “small ship,” the new 928-passenger all-veranda Viking Star is engineered at a scale that allows direct access into most ports, so guests have easy and efficient embarkation and debarkation. The ship’s understated elegance and modern Scandinavian design is crafted for maximum guest comfort. Highlighted features include:

Viking Star Stateroom

• All Veranda Staterooms: Guests can choose from five stateroom categories, starting from a 270 sq. ft. veranda stateroom, all with private verandas, king-size beds, large showers, and LCD TVs.
• Explorer Suites: Viking Star’s 14 Explorer Suites are two-room suites ranging from 757 to 1,448 sq. ft. and offer sweeping views from wrap-around private verandas as well as the most amenities and privileges of any category onboard.

Viking Star Infinity Pool

• Two Pool Choices: In addition to the Main Pool with a retractable dome permitting any-season swimming, Viking Star features one of the only infinity pools at sea, allowing passengers to swim surrounded by their destination in a glass-backed pool cantilevered off the stern.

Viking Star Spa Pool

• The Spa: In keeping with Viking’s Nordic heritage, The Spa onboard Viking Star is designed with the holistic wellness philosophy of Scandinavia in mind—from the centuries-old tradition of the sauna to a “snow grotto” where snowflakes gently descend from the ceiling through chilled air.

Viking Star Wintergarden Day

• Explorers’ Lounge and Wintergarden: Spaces designed to facilitate mingling and storytelling, the two-deck Explorers’ Lounge at the bow of the ship is the perfect spot for taking in scenery through double-height windows over a glass of aquavit or pint of local craft beer; and the Wintergarden is a serene environment in which to relax and enjoy afternoon tea service complete with a curated tea selection.

Viking Star Main Dining

• Dining Choices: Viking Star offers multiple restaurant locations and food choices—from The Restaurant and the World Café, serving a variety of global cuisines and regional specialties—to intimate dining experiences at The Chef’s Table, Italian Grill and The Kitchen Table, all serving meals prepared with fresh, local ingredients. Furthermore, with multiple choices for outdoor seating during meals, Viking Star offers more al fresco dining than any other ship.
  

  Viking Star Atrium

• Enriching Entertainment: Connecting passengers to their destinations through authentic experiences is central to Viking Cruises, and Viking Star’s onboard venues include a dramatic three-deck atrium where passengers can enjoy musicians playing regional and classical music; the Star Theater, home of enrichment lectures from scholars and experts; an onboard cooking school where guests can learn local specialties; and the Viking Piano Lounge, where guests can relax, mingle, and exchange stories after a day of exploring.
• Sustainable Features: Designed with the environment in mind, Viking Star features energy-efficient hybrid engines, a hydro-dynamically optimized streamlined hull and bow for maximum fuel efficiency, onboard solar panels, and equipment that minimizes exhaust pollution and meets the strictest environmental regulations.

                The ship has been designed by experienced nautical architects and engineers, including an interior design team of London-based SMC Design, and Los Angeles-based Rottet Studios. The first of two ocean ships on order, Viking Star will be built by Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard.

2015 Maiden Voyage Itineraries

• Viking Homelands (15 days; Stockholm – St. Petersburg – Copenhagen – Bergen) – This itinerary features a blend of northern continental European cities, imperial Russia and the legendary homeland of the Vikings. The journey includes overnights in Bergen, Stockholm and St. Petersburg, plus calls in Helsinki, Tallinn, Gdansk, Berlin (Warnemünde), Copenhagen, Aalborg, Stavanger, and Flam. Introductory 2-for-1 pricing starts at $4,999 per person with discounted airfares from $895 per person.
• Passage Through Western Europe (15 days; Bergen – London – Paris – Barcelona) – The nimble proportions of Viking Star give guests access to the heart of the Continent as well as coastal cities on this cross-region itinerary that journeys from the Viking waters of Bergen to London on the Thames, down the Atlantic Coast of France and Portugal, and to the Mediterranean. Ports include Lisbon, Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Cartagena with overnights in Bergen, London, Paris (Rouen) and Barcelona. Introductory 2-for-1 pricing starts at $4,499 per person with discounted airfares from $795 per person.
• Mediterranean Odyssey (13 days; Barcelona – Rome – Dubrovnik – Venice) – Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Greece—this cruise has it all. Visit Toulon, France; Monte Carlo; Tuscany (Livorno), Rome and Naples in Italy; Corfu (Kerkira) Greece; Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia; plus overnights in Barcelona and Venice. Introductory 2-for-1 pricing starts at $3,999 per person with discounted airfares from $595 per person.
• Empires of the Mediterranean (10 days; Venice – Athens – Ephesus – Istanbul) – From ancient ruins to medieval cities, this Mediterranean journey starts in Venice and journeys to Pula and Dubrovnik in Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; Santorini, Athens (Piraeus), and Ephesus (Kusadasi), plus an overnight in Istanbul. Introductory 2-for-1 pricing starts at $2,999 per person with discounted airfares from $695 per person.

                Combination cruises of the above are also available, ranging from 22 to 50 days, and starting at $6,799 per person for introductory pricing with air specials from $695 per person.

Booking Details

                From now through July 31, 2013, Viking is offering an introductory Early Booking Discount in the U.S. market for the 2015 maiden season with 2-for-1 pricing on cruise departures and savings of $2,000 per couple on international air. The 2015 maiden season is initially being offered only in the U.S.; Viking will begin marketing the new ocean cruises in the UK, Australia and New Zealand later this year.

Viking Star Technical Details

Length overall: 745.4 ft. (227.2m); beam 94.5 ft. (28.8 m); draft 20.7 ft. (6.3 m); air draft 131.2 ft. (40.0 m); gross tonnage (GRT) 47,800 t; deadweight 3,640 t; service speed 20.0 kn; number of decks 14; classification: Lloyds Register.

Vancouverite Josh Bloomfield

Name: Josh Bloomfield

Occupation: Owner/operator/guide at Cycle City Tours.

City: Vancouver, BC

Website: www.cyclevancouver.com

Twitter:  @cyclevancity

Facebook:  /cycletoursvancouver

Short Bio: Growing up in the prairies of Manitoba, Josh is a friendly, soft spoken kind of guy who loves good music, food and the great outdoors. Armed with a degree in marketing and finance from the University of Manitoba and a backpack, Josh set off to travel the world. Over several years, his travels took him to Brazil (to study Capoeira – a Brazilian martial art/dance/music), a rural village in Japan (where he taught English), and to Cambodia (where he worked for a non-profit organization and guided his first bike tour). 

Getting tired of the same old backpacker and tourist hangouts, Josh decided to start travelling by bicycle, taking him to remote parts of Asia that few outsiders have experienced. In 2009, he made it all the way to the border of Tibet after a 4,000 km journey following the Mekong river from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The experience sealed his belief that a journey is truly about the people you meet and learn from along the way. Josh continues paying it forward, sharing what he knows about Vancouver with new friends who join his bike tours. He is particularly interested in First Nations culture and history, Pacific temperate rainforest ecology, and Vancouver’s food scene.

Josh enjoys bike touring, yoga, and studies West African percussion in his spare time, regularly playing with friends and African dance groups around town.

Best way to get to/from airport: The Canada Line Skytrain – for sure!

Best way to get to/from train station: Bicycle – it’s the only way I get around.

Favorite 5* hotel: Rosewood Hotel Georgia

Favorite Budget hotel: The Burrard. It’s well-priced and super hip.

5 Places Visitors must see:

            1. Third Beach located in Stanley Park. It’s a great place to watch the sunset.

            2. The view from Grouse Mountain.

            3. Vancouver’s Gastown neigbhourhood at night.

            4. Don’t miss the Make Music Vancouver Festival – it’s a free outdoor music festival featuring local talent, and takes place in the streets of Gastown and Yaletown.

            5. The otters at the Vancouver Aquarium.  

Best local newspaper/recommended reading (for finding out what’s going on about town): Georgia Straight

Favorite fine dining restaurant: Vij’s. Indian food that will knock your socks off!

Favorite casual restaurant: Tacofino food truck. I’m on a fish taco kick right now.

Best place to get a coffee: JJ Bean in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighourhood.

Best Music Venue/place to see live music: Rio Theatre

Favorite Museum: Museum of Anthropology

Best sports venue(s): BC Place Stadium

Most popular local food:  Candied salmon at Granville Island.

Best “locals only spot”: Grandview Park located in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood. You’ll find more characters than you can imagine, the world’s first bike polo court, and lots of musicians jamming.

To live like a local, you must have this experience: Explore the city by bike! 

Most popular local drink: Coconut water. That stuff is like healthy crack for workout junkies.

Movies/TV shows filmed in your city: So many movies/TV shows are filmed in Vancouver – it’s known as “Hollywood North.” For nostalgic value, my favorite would have to be Macgyver. Richard Dean Anderson had one of the best mullets in the business.

Best souvenirs to buy/ goods to bring home: Smoked Salmon!

Best place to volunteer: HUB

Biggest tourist trap/places to avoid and when: Granville Island is amazing, but it can get pretty busy during peak hours. Check it out in the morning, Monday through Friday, to avoid the crowds.

Best SmartPhone app(s) for your city: Vancouver Food Truck App. It’s free, and you’ll always know where the street food is at.

Best travel tip:  Rent a bike or take a bike tour, you won’t regret it!  (shameless self promotion ;-)

Name: Teresa Rodriguez

Occupation: Author of best sellers FLY SOLO: 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel alone and Body, Mind, and Solo: 7 keys to conquering the world alone.

Hometown: Benicia, California

Residence: San Francisco, California

Website: www.tangodiva.com

Twitter: @FlySolo 

Facebook: /TangoDiva 

YouTube: TangoDivaOnline

Short Bio: Teresa Rodriguez is a single mother and a jet-setter extraordinaire. She discovered that traveling can be the prefect antidote for anything ailing the soul. And, believing so, she created TangoDiva.com—a worldwide online social network women. Her dream was to connect and empower woman around the globe with the wisdom she gleaned from her solo sojourns. She authored FLY SOLO: The 50 Best Places on Earth for a Girl to Travel Alone, (Penguin) which is published in four languages. A few of her TV appearances include LIVE with Regis and Kelly, NBC-NY, FOX, CBS, and ABC. Her advice has been written up in thousands media outlets including Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ELLE, Marie Claire, Allure, SELF, SHAPE, and Real Simple. Her latest adventure Body, Mind, & Solo: 7 keys to conquering the world alone, published by Balboa Press – Hay House.

How often do you fly: 4 times a month

How many countries have you been to: 50+

How many continents have you been to: All but Antarctica

Favorite American city: Love me some New Orleans any chance I get

Favorite international city: Barcelona, Spain. The food, the energy, the beaches, Gaudi, Picasso, I just can’t get enough of that delicious city

Least favorite country: Monaco. Really, another super old man in a Ferrari with a young Russian blonde on his arm?

Favorite World Heritage Site: Great Barrier Reef

Favorite airline: Virgin America

Favorite aircraft type: Learjet 85

Aisle or window: Aisle. I need to get up and move around a lot

Favorite airport lounge: Thai Airways lounge in Bangkok has the best airport food ever

Favorite U.S. airport: San Francisco. They have done a great job with the cuisine options

Favorite international airport: Copenhagen. It is so clean, well designed, and people there are so friendly

Favorite hotel: Banyan Tree in Phuket

Do you unpack into the dresser/closet? Or live out of your suitcase? Live out of my suitcase

Favorite cruise line: I don’t cruise, but I do enjoy a well-stocked yacht

Favorite island: Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Favorite fancy restaurant: It was Cyrus in Healdsburg, but they lost their lease

Favorite hole in the wall: La Mediterranee on Fillmore in San Francisco

Favorite fruit: Mango

Favorite food: Bacon

Least favorite food: Liver

Drink of choice (In the air and on the ground) Champagne and champagne

Favorite travel movie(s): Roman Holiday and Last Holiday. But, my all-time favorite airplane move is Airplane!

Favorite travel show(s): I don’t watch television

Favorite travel book(s): Mine! Love Body, Mind, and Solo for its inspiring message to women who are not sure if they can travel alone.

Right now I am reading: Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

Top 3 favorite travel newsletters/magazines/blogs: TangoDiva.com, PeterGreenberg.com, girlgonetravel.com

Favorite travel website(s) – besides JohnnyJet.com, of course!: TangoDiva.com

Five things you bring on a plane: Monster headphone, Jurlique lavender lotion and spritzer, gum, water bottle, and a scarf

What do you always seem to forget: Earplugs, many times I don’t know exactly where I am staying and inevitably it will be somewhere noisy

What do you want your loved one to buy you from an airport duty free store? Anything from Hermes or Gucci

Favorite travel iPhone app(s): AroundMe. When I’m somewhere new and I want to eat or drink, I just tap AroundMe and it gives me places that are walking distance.

Most embarrassing travel moment: Taking my 23-month-old daughter on First Class to Cancun. She was on antibiotics and had a tummy ache. She pooped through her outfit 3 times (and on me!). Everyone in First Class hated us by the time we landed.

Worst travel moment: I was traveling through Europe for almost a month to write my first book. My last stop was Budapest. I was exhausted, and I organized a driver from the hotel to pick me up from the airport. He never showed up and they shut down the International section of the airport and it was empty. I finally found a taxi driver who took me to my hotel.

What’s your dream destination: So many!! I am saving up all my frequent flyer miles for a First Class trip to St. Petersburg for White Nights.  

Favorite travel charity: I’m digging companies who are creating volunteer vacations like www.voluntourism.org

Best travel tip: Especially for women, I recommend researching a destination before you go. We are very fortunate to live in a fairly safe society, but that is not the case in other parts of the world. Have copies of all your travel documents stored somewhere besides your person and leave a set with someone you trust.

Name:

Occupation: Freelance writer, Outside magazine correspondent

Hometown: Salisbury, Maryland

Residence: Bend, Oregon

Website: about.me/timneville

Twitter: @tim_neville

Short Bio: As a full-time writer, correspondent for Outside magazine and frequent contributor to the New York Times, I travel the world looking for beauty in unusual places and to tell the stories of people who refuse to give up. Each article—from a travel narrative to an intimate portrait—is meticulously reported and delivered with telling details, thoughtful reconstruction, and spirited, often humorous storytelling. My work has been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing and recently won a Lowell Thomas medal. I’ve been a guest on NPR, I speak four languages and love skiing, diving and all things Swiss. I’m also a pretty fun guy.

How often do you fly: Between 50,000 and 75,000 miles a year or once or twice a month.

How many countries have you been to: Fewer than 60?

How many continents have you been to: Six

Favorite American city: I love Portland, Oregon. The bridges, the great food and nature, it has a bit of everything but isn’t so big that it’s hard to make sense of it. I have a blast every time I go to New York, too, but I’m exhausted and anxious after three days. Washington, D.C.’s a favorite, too–I love American Renaissance architecture, the museums, parks and food you find around Adams Morgan–but the summer heat and the no-mountains thing keeps it off the podium.

Favorite international city: First the obvious: Paris for being, well, Paris, and Munich for sauerbraten and hefeweizen and quirky homosexual kings. You can’t beat Rome and I love Tokyo for its wackiness. I once spent an hour just walking back and forth across the busiest crosswalk with huge crush of humanity. I’m very partial to Bern, Switzerland, though (more on that later). But I’m finding myself drawn to more beat-down, obscure places these days. I’ve been to Tirana, Albania, twice now and each time I’m like, damn, this is rad–simple but super tasty food, lots of history, fun people, and everything is in such a state of change. I’m in Tirana right now and some random guy just bought me a beer for no other reason than I’m an American (they love us here) and looked thirsty, I guess. I also really like Podgorica, Montenegro. It’s kinda ugly and the people aren’t super friendly, but the mishmash of Orthodox and Muslim cultures, the cafes and sleepiness of the place really appeal to me. Walking around on a Friday night there with all the families and tacky teens in impractical garb offers some of the best people watching anywhere. It’s like an upscale Sarajevo (which I also really like). I have no idea why. Everyone else would call it boring, I bet.

Least favorite country: Venezuela. What a miserable place. And while I’m being an offensive generalist: I’m sure there’s a nice Venezuelan out there somewhere who doesn’t enjoy lying to your face but my guess is they’ve fled for a better life in Panama.

Favorite World Heritage Site: The Galapagos are otherworldly, for sure. Salt-sneezing iguanas! Turtles the size of washing machines! Sally lightfoot crabs! But the old town of Bern, Switzerland, is hands down my favorite. I lived in Bern for about 2.5 years and the view of the twisting streets wrapped by the glacial-green Aare River never got old. I see pictures of it now and my heart aches like I’ve lost my 11th grade love all over again.

Favorite airline: Understand this: I’m 6’7″ and live in a small Oregon town serviced by two major airlines. So I’m a United guy kinda by force. They get bashed all the time for, well, being United, and I get that. But those five extra inches of leg room in Economy Plus do make all the difference in the world. Once you fly a lot with them they really start to take care of you. I flew Turkish Airlines once on assignment to Kosovo and was blown away. Amazing service, great food, and they excel at something US carriers seem to have forgotten: customer service for the people who don’t fly a lot with them.

Favorite aircraft type: Puddle jumpers like Cessna Caravans. Anytime you have to stand on a scale with your carry-on luggage to get a seat assignment means you’re going someplace super cool.

Aisle or window: Aisle for “routine” hauls like transatlantic flights but if I’m flying into Mongolia I want the window.

Favorite airport lounge: The Turkish Airlines lounge in Istanbul is outstanding. I must have hit every little Turkish coffee stand in the place and eaten a dozen Turkish delights. I didn’t even get to play any pool or try the buffet. Next time.

Favorite U.S. airport: Mammoth Lakes, California. What a cool place. “Baggage claim” is outside in this little shack and you get coffee in one of those circus tent things they put up when they don’t have a real building. On the flip side, Chicago O’Hare is so slick and busy that you can help but feel a part of the global current that flows through that place.

Favorite international airport: Zurich, Switzerland. Again, I’m partial to Switzerland but I absolutely love riding the train from the gate to the main terminal and having a yodeler come over the speakers and watching the tunnel walls out the window for the stop-motion projection of Heidi who blows you a kiss. Every time I land there I bolt for the far side of the train so I can see that. I pretend she’s just doing it for me. Welcome back, handsome!

Favorite hotel: I once stayed in the royal penthouse at the Victoria-Jungfrau in Interlaken, which is this two-floor cavern set under a cupola with a private gazebo–on the roof! As much as I hate showy crap, I have to say I had a blast at the new Hard Rock Megapolis in Panama City. The music, the geode-inlaid floors, the cocktails. Wow. This isn’t a hotel but the Chalet Pelerin run by Eleven near Les Arcs, France, is outstanding. A slice of Colorado in the Alps. The Bighorn Lodge, another catered chalet, in Revelstoke, British Columbia is top notch too. I mean, you have a helipad out back for skiing!

Do you unpack into the dresser/closet? Or live out of your suitcase? Depends. If I’m there for four days or so I’ll unpack and move in. Otherwise I live out of a suitcase, sorta. I use Eagle Creek’s “Pack-It” system, which is just these “folders” and stuff sacks that allow you to break the laws of physics when it comes to getting so much stuff into a carry-on. This is particularly great when my wife and I are sharing a larger suitcase to avoid extra baggage fees. We get to a place and we each take out our own folder of clothes and away we go!

Favorite island: So the one redeeming thing about Venezuela are these islands off the coast called Los Roques, which must be the largest collection of the most beautiful beaches anywhere. Only one of them as a town on it, though “town” is a bit ambitious.  It’s just sandy streets and posadas run by a bunch of Italians. The rest of the islands are cliches of their tropical selves: tiny specks of sand surrounded by water so clear and brilliant I wanted sunglasses in my snorkel mask. I proposed to my wife on one of them, Cayo Muerto, but because it was Venezuela and I didn’t want to risk it, I didn’t bring the ring, which was my grandmother’s. So I got down on one knee and handed my wife-to-be a picture of it. She still said yes.

Favorite fancy restaurant: I once did a story for Delta’s inflight magazine about The Herbfarm in Woodinville, Washington, and I can still dream about the carpaccio. After a bizillion-course meal, the sommelier busted out this bottle of Madeira wine from 1932. My wife had a terrible head cold at the time but the food was so packed with flavor that even she could taste it, mostly.

Favorite hole in the wall: I think the name of it would be something like “Orthodox Christian Center” or something. It’s in Podgorica, Montenegro. I’m not religious at all but I was wandering around and spotted this cozy pizzeria just off the main drag. It was packed, which is always a good sign. I couldn’t figure it out exactly what it was at first–I was just hungry–but it was some sort of charity or fund-raising venture for the Serbian Orthodox church in Montenegro. It was incredible. Stone walls. Big wood tables. All of these stern saints staring you down from these recessed arches. I ordered a pizza, coffee and cranberry juice and my bill came to less than $3. There was no proselytizing or anything like that but being curious I asked. I’m still not religious but I’d go back there in a heartbeat.

Favorite fruit: Are olives a fruit? I don’t care. They’re my favorite anyway. Santa once left me a pyramid of cans of black olives. Heaven! Then, about 15 years later, I got very sick gorging on Kalamata-like olives in Bolivia. I don’t know what I expected to happen after eating 2.2 pounds of them in one sitting but I did feel bad for the other folks in the hostel who heard some guy just hurling his briny brains out later that night.

Favorite food: Olives. And sauerkraut. (My wife makes a mean chocolate-sauerkraut cake). I also love this spicy pepper and cream dish I found in Kosovo called speca n’mazë. I could bathe in it.

Least favorite food: It used to be lentils but I’m thinking I need to give them another shot.

Drink of choice (In the air and on the ground): Bourbon. Or a good G&T with oysters on the half shell but I don’t usually have oysters on the half shell in an airplane.

Favorite travel movie(s): I love the Bourne series because one minute they’re in Zurich and the next in Goa. Kinda like me. But without the neck-snapping.

Favorite travel show(s): Honestly, I think they all kind of suck. I will watch some that come out of Germany every now and then because they’re so bad they’re funny again. I did really like Michael Palin’s Pole to Pole back in the day.

Favorite travel book(s): Being a writer, I really like the Best American Travel Writing series so I can see how people who are much better at this than I am bring places to life. I also loved Robert Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts. He really gets into places and teases out their soul.

Right now I am reading: I’m a several-books-at-once kind of guy. Right now I’m down to two: The Tiger by John Vaillant, a terrible but true story of a Siberian tiger that hunts the residents of this remote area of Russia–just gripping–and L’Amazone by Pierre Ballester about his journey deep into the jungle to learn about his sister’s life with an isolated group of indians, which is just so-so.

Top 3 favorite travel newsletters/magazines/blogs: I don’t really read too many blogs or newsletters because I’m after more in-depth literary travel tales. I’m a correspondent for Outside, but even if I weren’t, I’d read it for Patrick Symmes stories. His feature about going into Khmer Rouge territory in Cambodia when it was first deemed “safe” in 2000 or so is one of my favorites. Tom Robbins at the Financial Times has this dry British humor that makes his stories sing. I also really like Joshua Hammer’s work in Smithsonian. He seems to be really good at finding amazing people and stories that are right under our noses. That’s why I like to travel, really–to get better at spotting beauty and wonder anywhere.

Favorite travel website(s) – besides JohnnyJet.com, of course!: I’m a big fan of Skyscanner. When I need to figure out who flies into Backalacadacka, they have it.

Five things you bring on a plane: Headphones, iPad, water bottle, something to read, and, hopefully, a passport. I used to always wear a bow tie but haven’t done that in a bit. I love that old-school habit that our flying forebears had of dressing up a bit for a journey.

What do you always seem to forget: To sleep. I’m like, hey! Free movies! Did they serve breakfast yet? Where are we? I’m one of those guys who flies a lot but still thinks flying is fun.

What do you want your loved one to buy you from an airport duty free store? Nothing. That’s not true. I’m a sucker for Zacapa rum or a good bottle of slivovitz.

Favorite travel iPhone app(s): Google maps, Dict.cc (a translating app), and the United app for flight management.

Most embarrassing travel moment: Checking in for a flight home from Canada I thought I’d lost my passport. The pocket it’d been in, in my carry-on, was unzipped and empty. I freaked out hardcore until I realized my carry-on had two such pockets and it was simply in the other one.

Worst travel moment: Probably being on a hellish 30-hour bus ride from Lima, Peru, to Cusco during the rainy season with a driver who was on coke and whipping around these muddy mountain roads so violently that a poor kid in front of us puked and then shat his pants, both of which then got all over my brother who was sitting next to me. He later broke a tooth on an olive pit in a pizza.

What’s your dream destination: Anywhere an editor sends me. It’s such a gift. The day I take for granted the fact that people pay me to see the world is the day I should quit. I’d really like to see more of Africa, the South Pacific, Antarctica, Romania, Turkey, Russia, the Caucus mountains, and Andorra. Seriously. I’m on a quest to see all those nano states but so far I’ve only ticked off Liechtenstein.

Best travel tip: I have two. First, you are not home, so don’t act like it. Meaning: People will do stuff all the time that can make you angry or that you just don’t get. (Like the Montenegrin waiter who took his smoke break two feet in front of my table in the no-smoking area). Just chill and chalk it up to those wacky foreigners. Being nice goes a long way anywhere. No. 2: There are a million reasons why you shouldn’t take a pleasure trip (work, money, family, too much effort) and only one why you will–because you made it happen. So if you want to see the pyramids, make it happen. OK, one more: Learn a few words of the local language. I think the guy that bought me that beer so many questions ago did so because I said hi in my really bad Albanian.

Top Travel News

• TSA Pre-Check now good for some international flights!
• Feds to debut computer kiosk for U.S. citizens entering country at O’Hare
• Spirit Airlines switches toll-free lines to not-free 801 area code
• Why UK passengers pay more on Ryanair: And why this man’s victory could open the floodgates
• Pilotless passenger planes prepare for take-off
• American Airlines Flight Diverted Because Passenger Won’t Stop Singing Whitney Houston Songs
• Qatar Airways to make Philadelphia its 5th U.S. city
• CNN: Chicago airport gets goats

More Travel News: Chicago Tribune | L.A. Times | N.Y. Times | USAToday | CNN | Frommers

Good to Know Travel News

• Summer Vacation Flight Guide
• Abu Dhabi airport installs ‘sleeping pods’ for weary fliers
• What a week’s worth of groceries looks like around the world
• Rick Steves: How to tour Europe by train
• How to Use Pinterest Analytics: 6 Metrics Worth Measuring
• Some Countries Lobby for More in Race for Visas
• How to avoid those pesky $200 airline ticket-change fees
• Travel insurance: Calculating the risk of buying or not
• Traveling with kids: Airport play areas for your next long layover

This Week’s JohnnyJet.com Stories

• 10 Reasons to Stay at the Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris
• Our Photos from Paris, France
• Paris’ Best Affordable Restaurant: Le Comptoir du Relais

This week’s contests include:

• Win a trip to Europe
• Win a VIP Trip to the U.S. Women’s Open in Southampton
• We Said Go Travel Independence Writing Contest

There doesn’t ever seem to be a shortage of unique neck pillows. Last week, we featured The Total Travel Pillow and this week we found the J-pillow. It’s a multi-positional pillow that can be used in 5 different ways. It’s made by a British company and it has won a top award at the British Invention Show. Although the J-pillow comes from the U.K., they ship to the U.S. for free. Price: $31.95.