Offbeat Guides Blog

Camel Cup 2009 Arrives (Or Does It?)

2009-07-09T22:43:47Z

No, the camel cup isn’t a crotch protector for the ladies. Nor is it a new racecourse for Nintendo’s Mario Kart. The Lions Imparja Camel Cup is actually the fun and silly camel race that takes every July in Alice Springs, Australia. If the horse could be considered the well-mannered, argyle-wearing intellect, then the camel would [...]

Beers, Bratwurst, and Baseball

2009-07-09T22:40:07Z

Experiencing fireworks withdrawal? Are you craving hot dogs and ice-cold beer for lunch? If you woke up this week and realized that the post-July 4th summer is in full-swing, then it’s time to start packing in those weekends (and days off from work) with some fun outdoor activities. Why not have your own hot dog [...]

Why Women Love To Go Dutch

2009-07-09T01:43:06Z

The beaches of The Netherlands offer travelers an endless spread of white sands, golden skin and lively pubs… Now, thanks to Libresse, they also offer tampons that fall from the sky. The tampon manufacturers recently launched (literally!) a new marketing strategy targeting beach-going women, which involved thousands of little pink parachutes. They wanted to promote their [...]

The Top 10 Offbeat Museums

2009-07-08T23:38:07Z

To view a painting by Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo you go to a museum. Right? But what if you’re looking for something more unique, say, the history of candy? There are museums housing some quirky ‘collections’ such as the popular Austrian PEZ candy dispensers at The Burlingame Museum of PEZ Memorabilia. Invented in 1927, the [...]

Travel Games You Can Play With Just Your Brain

2009-07-08T19:05:04Z

The thing about traveling to faraway places is that it can take a while to get there. When you’re six hours into your journey and you’ve exhausted all possible topics of conversation, what can you and your bored companions do? These handy travel games can be played anytime, no boards or decks of cards required. A [...]

Offbeat Hotels- It’s all about the destination

2009-07-08T03:46:14Z

Sometimes a great vacation can simply mean being holed up in an amazing shack somewhere. Some of my most memorable getaways are linked to the strange and beautiful places where I got to rest my head: from the luxurious (Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Chiang Mai) to the minimal (a sturdy Oak tree in Berkeley). If [...]

A Song For Delayed United Customers

2009-07-08T19:06:25Z

This morning, about a thousand United passengers spent up to six hours in line at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. And it wasn’t at a Starbucks. On one of the busiest travel days of the year, a computer glitch shut down the airline’s entire system and made it impossible for the agents to check in passengers. O’Hare [...]

The Science Behind Fireworks

2009-07-04T02:40:44Z

Fireworks have come a long way from the ordinary, spherical bursts of light that I enjoyed when I was a kid. Now a fireworks show can include whimsical shapes, color combinations, and even letters in the sky. How does that work, exactly? Fireworks, whether they occur as simple bursts of light or complicated patterns, [...]