Geography: Without Knowledge of It, Your Vacation will be Horrible

Thomas Cook Vacations fields complaints from its customers.  Some of these complaints only exist because of the geo-illteracy of tourists.

“I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.”

“It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallarta to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should be banned.”

“On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”

“The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.”

“We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.”

“It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair.”

“There were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.”

“I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.”

(Hat tip: Seth Dixon)

Fall Foliage Map 2013

Stormfax has a great webpage and map of fall foliage color changes.  They also link to various states' tourism offices that handle foliage tourists.

Mid-Atlantic Region:
 PENNSYLVANIA  Fall Foliage/Events Hotline  1-800-FALL-INPA
 NEW JERSEY  Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-VISIT-NJ
 DELAWARE | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-441-8846
 MARYLAND | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-LEAVES-1
 VIRGINIA | (alt) Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-434-LEAF
 WEST VIRGINIA Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-CALL-WVA
 NORTH CAROLINA Fall Foliage/Events  1-800-VISIT-NC
New England Region:
 CONNECTICUT Fall Vacation Hotline  1-800-CT-BOUND
 MAINE Publicity Hotline  1-800-533-9595 or 1-888-MAINE-45
 MASSACHUSETTS | (alt) Fall Foliage Hotline  1-800-227-MASS (6277)
 NEW HAMPSHIRE | (alt) Fall Color Hotline  1-800-262-6660 or 1-800-258-3608
 NEW YORK | (alt) Fall Foliage Hotline  1-800-225-5697 or 1-800-CALL-NYS
 RHODE ISLAND | (alt) Fall Vacation Hotline  1-800-556-2484
 VERMONT | (alt) Fall Foliage Hotline  1-800-VERMONT or 1-800-828-3239
Midwest, West & South:

 ARKANSAS | (alt)  Fall Foliage  1-800-NATURAL
 CALIFORNIA | (alt)  Fall Foliage  1-800-354-4595
 COLORADO | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-COLORADO
 GEORGIA Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-864-7275
 ILLINOIS | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-2CONNECT
 INDIANA | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-888-ENJOY-IN
 KENTUCKY Color Connection  1-800-225-8747
 MICHIGAN Foliage Hotline  1-800-644-3255
 MINNESOTA Foliage Hotline  1-800-657-3700
 MISSOURI Fall Report  1-800-NATURAL
 MONTANA | (alt) Travel/Events Hotline  1-800-847-4868
 OHIO Foliage & Travel Hotline  1-800-282-5393
 OREGON | (alt) Foliage Hotline  1-800-547-5445
 TENNESSEE Fall Color Hotline  1-800-697-4200
 TEXAS | (alt) State Park Hotline  1-800-792-1112
 WASHINGTON State Foliage Information  1-800-354-4595
 WISCONSIN Foliage Hotline  1-800-432-TRIP
 WYOMING | (alt) Travel Hotline  1-800-225-5996

Maps of the Sex Industry Worldwide

The sex industry worldwide is huge.  About forty million people (0.5% of the world's population) are prostitute and three-forths of all prostitutes are between the age 13 and 25.  The United States has one million prostitutes, the same as Nigeria, while East Asian countries rank first with the amount of prostitutes.

Click to enlarge

The international sex tourism industry meanwhile is a pure Western phenomenon.  Americans tend to travel aboard to Latin America and South East Asia.  Europeans meanwhile travel to Africa, Kenya is an extreme hotspot, and Eastern Europe.

Blue countries have the sex tourists and red countries are the destination.  Click to enlarge.

(Hat tip: Washington Post)

Ultimate Travel Visa Requirement Finder

Coming Anarchy links to one of the most useful tools for people planning international trips: Emirates' Visa Requirements Finder.  The tool allows one to enter their nationality, alien residency if applicable, destination, and countries travelling through.  The tool then pumps out visa requirements and any other necessities.  The information is provided by International Air Transport Association so it is not guaranteeing but it is good for reference and to star planning a trip.

Travel Advisories from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States

The end of the Cold War and start of globalization has led to a rapid expansion in international tourism.  A parallel increase in risk has lead to governments taking a more proactive role in monitoring and advising their citizens of various dangers.  These dangers range from human-caused like crime and terrorism to ecological like diseases.  The internet has allowed governments to easily reach its citizens with travel advisories.  The United States and the main Commonwealth countries have led to the charge in advising their citizens via the web.

Countries Travel Advisories Websites:
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
United Kingdom's Foreign & Commonwealth Office
United States' Department of State

The Commonwealth countries do a good job of providing warnings.  The first information displayed, usually in a color-coded system, gives the general advisory and any related important information.  New Zealand even provides links from the other countries' travel warnings pages.

The United States' State Department page is horrible, though.  One has to scroll through a CIA World Factbook-style introduction and then sort through other general information to get to the advisories.  Looking up Iran one will have to read past "Iran is an Islamic Republic" to get to any useful information.