I grew up in Florida so it's only natural that I was born with an innate love of bone-chilling, heart-pounding, hair-raising amusement-park thrills. But like most junkies, I eventually tired of the same old thing and went in search of new kicks. This is how I became obsessed with America's weirdest theme parks. Check out my top five picks below.

5) The Holy Land Experience - This theme park is a Vegas-style miniature version of certain sights in Israel. It boasts Judeo-Christian "thrills" such as the world's largest indoor model of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea Scrolls cave, and a faux-Jerusalem street market. But there are no rides, making this park lower on my list.

4) Dollywood - America's favorite buxom blonde has her own amusement park and it's a knee-slappin', foot stompin' good time. Only at Dollywood could you enjoy a sawmill-themed roller coaster, watch an "artisan" make soap, and then top off the day with some delicious meat on a stick. Dollywood is jolly good, y'all.

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Posted in Family & Kids, Guides & Planning, Offbeat, Road Trips, Theme Parks
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Let’s say you get the flu as soon as you step out onto the beach. Or, your romantic hotel room is right next to a family with screaming toddlers. Often, you can find hidden opportunities in these small tragedies. Maybe the flu that keeps you inside also keeps you from getting sunburned like the rest of your family. Or, the screaming toddlers later befriend you in the hotel pool and you spend a giggle-filled afternoon seeing the world through their eyes.

Just over three weeks ago, my friend Brooke and I set out from Denver for a Vail vacation. Brooke and I have known each other since college at U of M, and we spent much of the nighttime Rocky Mountain drive catching up with one another. One minute, we were laughing and reminiscing, and the next minute we hit a spot of black ice, lost control of the car, smashed into the left guardrail, spun across the interstate in circles, got hit by two other cars, and finally landed front impact in a snow bank. We were stunned, terrified, badly banged up and bruised, and very lucky to be alive.

Obviously, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

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Posted in Car Travel, Group & Companion, Guides & Planning, Spiritual & Religious
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Yesterday while loading my upcoming trips into my calendar I realized a scary, scary trend: all of them involve red-eye flights. Living in California is brilliant most of the time, but it stinks for globetrotting. Sure, I probably could have avoided the red-eye to Atlanta, but the red-eyes to Paris and Thailand could not be helped. In fact, when I go to Paris, I will lose almost an entire day. Oh la la!

In short, I'm panicking. Growing up on the East Coast, I got spoiled by being so close to the rest of the world. The longest flight I've ever taken was a measly six hours, and even that was no walk in the park (skies?) thanks to my hyperactive tendencies and tiny bladder.

I've started researching red-eye flight survival guides, but so far none of them contains an "aha!" tip that seems like it will make all the difference. And some of the advice is just plain impractical. It might be nice to sleep leaning against the window, but there's no way I'm asking the person next to me to move every time I need to use the restroom or stretch my legs for fifteen hours straight.

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Posted in Air Travel, Guides & Planning, International Travel
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If you’re an American who’s been tuned into the news lately, you’re probably finding it difficult to paint a picture of travel in 2008 that’s anything but bleak. You’ve seen the stack of travel-associated fees rise. You’ve been privy to the latest airline fiascos. You’re aware of the sobering decline of the dollar. And if you’re anything like me, you’re still trying to wrap your head around the series of crises related to the US economy. It’s all a virtual kick in the shins to the avid traveler, and I count myself among the injured ranks.

We all keep hearing that domestic travel is the way to go, and while I’m down with that—I’m a little embarrassed at how much of my home country I haven’t seen—I’ve found that staying even closer to home is a great way to get some instant relief. And the relief, it turns out, isn’t just temporary: a day trip done right can be a powerful cure for the ailing traveler.

Photo by IgoUgo member Constance

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Posted in Guides & Planning, Last-Minute Travel, Road Trips, New York
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Every traveler has a moment like this one. I'd been hanging around Paris for a few weeks and decided to explore the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. After climbing every single step to the top and wandering through the cathedral itself, I was ready to park myself in a café for a while. As I plunked back down the stairs, worn out and bedraggled, a familiar song caught my ears.

"Country roads…take me home…to the place…I belong…West Virginia."

I wandered over to two young Frenchman playing acoustic guitars and joined in signing a wacky tribute to the late, great John Denver. It was a silly moment, to be sure, but one in which the world felt both stranger than ever before--and yet shared.

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Posted in Adventure Travel, Guides & Planning, International Travel
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Whether your mama is voting for Obama, you think Hillary has more verbal artillery left in her, or you're catching a ride on the Straight Talk Express, there's no denying that this is one of the most exhilarating elections in recent memory.

Like many of you, I'm hanging on every poll, obsessively reading CNN, and toying with the idea of getting more involved. The national conventions for both major parties offer excellent opportunities to observe the election process up close and explore a little of the heartland. Here's the scoop on how to get in on the action.

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Posted in Educational & Historic, Family & Kids, Guides & Planning, Trip Tips
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Cupid’s arrow still hasn’t found me. (I think he needs to invest in GPS.) But, it’s managed to find Lisa Tabb. She’s been married 10 times.

Co-Authors of Beyond Vegas: 25 Exotic Wedding and Elopement Destinations Around the World, Lisa and her husband, Sam Silverstein, eloped in 10 of the world’s dreamiest destinations.

“We chose places that embodied romance,” Lisa said. “But also [places] where people could duplicate our experience and had short residency requirements.”

Lisa and Sam wanted each of their weddings to be special – and official – so they obtained marriage licenses and scheduled officiants each time, “repeating our vows again and again and again,” she said.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I pried into Lisa’s love life to find out about their most memorable experience and if there are future plans for more wedding bells.

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Posted in Guides & Planning, International Travel, Offbeat, Q & A
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From how Beijing plans to eradicate rain to when athletes will arrive in China, I’ve been obsessed with reading the latest Olympics news (and emailing it to all my friends—sorry, guys) for the past year. I thought that as someone who had both recently visited Beijing and attended previous Summer Olympics, I might be uniquely obsessed with the 2008 Games.

It turns out that plenty of Americans are not only interested, but set to attend: Travelocity’s Beijing air bookings are 70% ahead of where they were last year, and Beijing hotel bookings are on pace to be 200% ahead. With only 178 days before the opening ceremony at the “bird’s nest” stadium, there isn’t enough flight and hotel availability to accommodate everyone at the current paces, so you’d best book now—or get creative.

Here are some tips to get you there, along with ideas to let you cheer on your team while experiencing Beijing at its best.

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Posted in Asia, China, Festivals & Events, Guides & Planning, International Travel
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Rick Steves, an avid traveler and author of European guidebooks, recently spoke about the value of travel in today’s world at a Bay Area event, a talk that was filled with thoughtful political insights and personal anecdotes. With a presidential election on the horizon and politics on the brain, one story he told struck me as especially relevant to the political climate of today.

During a trip to Afghanistan, a man approached Rick while he was sitting in a cafeteria in Kabul, a moment he recalls as his most memorable cultural experience. The local man said, “You’re an American, aren’t you? Well, I’m a professor here in Afghanistan. I want you to know that a third of the people on this planet eat with spoons and forks like you do. A third of the people eat with chopsticks. And a third of the people eat with their fingers like I do. And we’re all just as civilized.”

Although Rick admits his wife needed to do some “retraining” upon his return home, he ate with his fingers for the remainder of that trip, an experience he described as “a joy…very natural.”

I was able to catch up with Rick to get more of his thoughts on why he thinks traveling abroad is essential. He graciously responded to all my questions, as I asked him about everything from who will get his vote in the 2008 election to what travel follies he hopes his mom never finds out about.

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Posted in Guides & Planning, International Travel, Q & A
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As you may or may not remember, I just got back from a wedding. I was looking forward to the New Year’s Eve wedding—it was actually on New Year’s Eve, not the weekend prior—and it turned out to be a fantastic time. By the time everyone would have arrived at any other party, the reception was already in full swing; food, wine, and dance abounded, as they should at any celebration.

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Posted in Guides & Planning
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Editor’s Note: It’s “holiday week” on The Window Seat, and our editors get into the spirit of the season with a series of articles exploring the many facets of this busy travel period.

Alright, let's get down to business: you're traveling over the holidays. You're stressing a little about it. You have a ton of questions. Honey, join the club.

(And then after you've joined the club, take a seat right over here and we'll talk it over. Ready? Ready!)

Q. Do I need to show up at the airport earlier than usual?

A. In a word, yes. I would, anyway. You've got to remember that the world and his mother (and his mother's best friend and her cousin Sally) will be traveling over the holidays and if you want to get into the math of this sort of thing, the equation looks a little something like this: larger number of people + same amount of space = longer lines. You're also going to be finding people who perhaps aren't used to traveling, and who therefore aren't down with the whole take-your-shoes-off-remove-your-laptop thing at the security checkpoint. Bottom line: give yourself an extra hour, just to be safe. (And also? Don't be the person who doesn't know to take off his shoes.)

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Posted in Air Travel, Guides & Planning, Q & A
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Every cloud has a silver lining, even when you’re passing over it at 30,000 feet while running late, shoved in the middle seat between two strangers, and worried about the possibility of lost luggage. It’s true! Read on for my list of five good things about taking to the skies today.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member paolo1899.

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Posted in Air Travel, Green Travel, Guides & Planning
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China is a fantastic country. China is also an enormous country, and enormous countries equal enormous guidebooks. Seriously, the Lonely Planet China---which I carried around with me for two weeks last summer---comes in at a whopping 1012 pages and weighs close to two pounds. And since I was only visiting Beijing and Shanghai on that trip, meaning I only really looked at two sections of the book with any frequency, I'm estimating that I carried around about 700 pages and a pound and a half more paper than I actually needed.

But there's good news for travelers with weak upper body strength: Lonely Planet has just come up with a solution to slim down its more portly tomes with a concept it calls the Pick & Mix.

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Posted in Group & Companion, Guides & Planning
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One of the nice things about living in the 21st century is how easy everything is. We tend to take a lot for granted, such as running water, electricity, and the wonders of the Internet, but we are still obsessed—some people more than others—with new devices that make light work of whatever it is we are doing. Gadgets are toys for the adult set and many are made specifically for the traveler. From eye masks and neck pillows to noise-cancelling headphones and travel games, we’re always looking for ways to make our journeys as easy and comfortable as possible.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Rufusni

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Posted in Air Travel, Budget Travel, Guides & Planning, Packing & Baggage
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Unless you’re an all-all-inclusive traveler (or one of those people who considers a twirl around Epcot Center to be a shot of culture), you’ve probably uncovered a hidden gem or two during your travels. And chances are, it wasn’t simply the fortuitousness of your find that made it so satisfying: it was the prospect of all those bragging rights. The nominators of 2007’s Local Secrets, Big Finds can vouch for that…along with every IgoUgo member who has written a travel review since the community’s inception in 2000. Travelers’ love of bragging rights, in fact, is precisely what makes the IgoUgo community such an excellent resource for travel planning and inspiration (if we do say so ourselves). As an IgoUgo editor, I’ve been reading about our members’ picks and pans for the past 3 years, and trust me—these are travelers who know the what, where, and how of finding little-known treasures all over the world (and talking them up freely upon their returns). The best part? You can see who’s doing the bragging.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member UCLArocks

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Posted in Guides & Planning, LSBF '07
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It’s the word that all cell phone users loathe: roam. And nothing’s worse than opening that monthly phone bill expecting the normal $68 price tag and discovering that you owe a whopping 200 bucks. What! Did! I! Do?!

Well, I’ll tell you what I didn’t do. I didn’t take the time to thoroughly understand my cell phone plan, and it ended up costing me. My cell phone and I are inseparable. We dine together. We workout together. I even activated international calling, so we can travel together. I know that making a phone call from France or Mexico or Argentina costs me anywhere from 49 cents to a painful $1.50 per minute. Even sending and receiving text messages puts a dent in the bank account. Last month, I made the mistake of thinking that I had a North American cell phone plan through T-Mobile, so I used my phone as I normally would on a short trip to Vancouver. When I received my phone bill, I discovered that my plan only covered the U.S. and not our neighbors to the north as I thought. Ouch!

After reluctantly paying my monthly bill, I vowed (for my financial wellbeing!) to be a smarter international caller. (Check out this nine part feature on using cell phones abroad in The Travel Insider.) My cell phone and I are getting ready for a trip to Australia later this month, and I don’t want to be shocked by another outrageous phone bill!

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Posted in Budget Travel, Guides & Planning, International Travel
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I’ve got one. You’ve probably got one. Pretty much every high schooler in the entire country has one, even if they’d rather their parents didn’t see the various party photos they regularly upload to it (I’m sure the feeling’s mutual.)

I’m talking about the MySpace profile, that reigning bastion of social networking that connects strangers with other strangers and then turns them into friends. With more than 100 million users, MySpace is currently the fifth most popular website in the world--third most popular in the U.S.--and a profile page on the site has long been a must-have accessory for any well-connected denizen of the Internet.

And now guess who else has got their own little space on MySpace? Why, Travelocity’s Roaming Gnome, of course.

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Posted in Group & Companion, Guides & Planning, International Travel, Travel News
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I wouldn’t exactly call myself a planner. Chance, curiosity and spontaneity drive my travels more often than not, and the word itinerary unleashes some sort of overt chemical reaction that makes my head hurt and my palms sweat. One thing I consistently rely on, however, is the Zagat Survey. After all, a good meal isn’t something one leaves to chance.

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Posted in Culinary Travel, Guides & Planning, New Orleans
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The Amazing Race: All-Stars premieres this Sunday. It's the eleventh season of this, my favorite, reality show, and they're featuring competitors from past races. Deep down, I've always wanted the chance to battle for a million dollars while discovering exotic places that I might never see otherwise. What's holding me back? Part of it is that I can't find that perfect partner. (The other part is that I get cranky when I'm hungry and nobody needs to see that!)

Actually, even when a million dollars isn't on the line, selecting a co-traveler is tough.

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Posted in Group & Companion, Guides & Planning
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