TripCart :: The Travel Blog

2009 Fall Color Staycations

Well, its that time of the year again and for our readers in the right parts of the country - a compact vacation on a tank of gas. Sure, the fall festivals and quaint white church steeples make Vermont Fall Foliage a world-class destination, but, with the right timing (check out our friends at Foliage Network) and a warm sweater - you are ready to hit the parks and forests of the United States and watch the transition from Green to Yellow to Orange. (And we are not talking about the Terror Alert Status!).

Thanks toCheapOair Buzz for this picture:

Here is our 2009 fall foliage destination guide:

Fall Foliage around Boston:

Massachusetts Fall Foliage  is a no brainer - early in the season - head north to New Hampshire, later follow the coast south - from Maine to Connecticut. Nearest to Boston - try Lexington, Concord and Walden Pond. To really see the fall colors in style, consider one of the many Fall Foliage cruises leaving from New England ports - Rhode Island up to Maine.

NY Foliage:

Each borough - Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens (Alley Pond Park - Leaves and Tashlich), Brooklyn and even Staten Island has good and accessible leaf peeping - just hop on the subway (or ferry). Feeling a bit more adventurous, but still no car? You can get a hour-long moving show of Hudson Valley Foliage  from the train (Metro North). Make sure to get a seat on the left side of the train going north or the right going south. Skip rush hour for better fares and less cellphone chatter.

If you have a couple of days to dedicate to New York State fall foliage (and wine tours and more) head north early in the season, while Central Park is still green and check out the Adirondack fall foliage in September.

Chasing Fall Foliage South:

Global warming or not, the leaves change later as you go south. If you'd like to combine some foliage viewing with an urban weekend and maybe take in a show or get tickets for a football game - pick a different city each weekend from Boston down to Washington DC. Philadelphia is a good place for your Fall Foliage PA headquarters and a drive up the Potomac is a great way to see the Maryland Fall Foliage 30 minutes out of the Capital.

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Mountains lose their crowds and turn yellow, gold and red in the fall and late October is a good time to close out the West Virginia fall foliage season.

And for the 3 people a year who search for "Pittsburgh fall foliage" - we have two pointers - Grandview Avenue and Fallingwater.

For our fans out west:

Its a different experience, the Colorado fall colors, the wild-west towns, the snow covered peaks (and sometimes even, the snow) and the mix of evergreens and aspens. Fall Foliage in Colorado  can be less than an hour outside of Denver - try Georgetown, or a bit further, Estes Park.

Further south, you can even find some decent New Mexico fall foliage spots near Albuquerque, Santa Fe  and in the Four Corners region of the state.

And what would a back to school season trip be without visiting the shopping malls?

Well, its that time of the year again and for our readers in the right parts of the country - a compact vacation on a tank of gas. Sure, the fall festivals and quaint white church steeples make Vermont Fall Foliage a world-class destination, but, with the right timing (check out our friends at Foliage Network) and a warm sweater - you are ready to hit the parks and forests of the United States and watch the transition from Green to Yellow to Orange. (And we are not talking about the Terror Alert Status!).

Thanks toCheapOair Buzz for this picture:

Here is our 2009 fall foliage destination guide:

Fall Foliage around Boston:

Massachusetts Fall Foliage  is a no brainer - early in the season - head north to New Hampshire, later follow the coast south - from Maine to Connecticut. Nearest to Boston - try Lexington, Concord and Walden Pond. To really see the fall colors in style, consider one of the many Fall Foliage cruises leaving from New England ports - Rhode Island up to Maine.

NY Foliage:

Each borough - Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens (Alley Pond Park - Leaves and Tashlich), Brooklyn and even Staten Island has good and accessible leaf peeping - just hop on the subway (or ferry). Feeling a bit more adventurous, but still no car? You can get a hour-long moving show of Hudson Valley Foliage  from the train (Metro North). Make sure to get a seat on the left side of the train going north or the right going south. Skip rush hour for better fares and less cellphone chatter.

If you have a couple of days to dedicate to New York State fall foliage (and wine tours and more) head north early in the season, while Central Park is still green and check out the Adirondack fall foliage in September.

Chasing Fall Foliage South:

Global warming or not, the leaves change later as you go south. If you'd like to combine some foliage viewing with an urban weekend and maybe take in a show or get tickets for a football game - pick a different city each weekend from Boston down to Washington DC. Philadelphia is a good place for your Fall Foliage PA headquarters and a drive up the Potomac is a great way to see the Maryland Fall Foliage 30 minutes out of the Capital.

Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Mountains lose their crowds and turn yellow, gold and red in the fall and late October is a good time to close out the West Virginia fall foliage season.

And for the 3 people a year who search for "Pittsburgh fall foliage" - we have two pointers - Grandview Avenue and Fallingwater.

For our fans out west:

Its a different experience, the Colorado fall colors, the wild-west towns, the snow covered peaks (and sometimes even, the snow) and the mix of evergreens and aspens. Fall Foliage in Colorado  can be less than an hour outside of Denver - try Georgetown, or a bit further, Estes Park.

Further south, you can even find some decent New Mexico fall foliage spots near Albuquerque, Santa Fe  and in the Four Corners region of the state.

And what would a back to school season trip be without visiting the shopping malls?

Sites on the Web that like TripCart

We figured that if a website was serious enough to recommend TripCart, they probably have other good links, so we decided to share them with our readers.

Mashable has written about us in the past, now they put us on a list of 100+ More Ways to Organize Your Life. Personally, we feel traveling is more exciting then organizing, but if you are going on a trip - a little organization can certainly help.

Thrillist gave us a real compliment by describing us as having an obsessive, type-A and a father figure type persona. We accept the compliment and agree that's what you need to plan a trip. And, yes, we are a group of  obsessive developers and managers. Asylum concurs and has a few hints of their own.

Smart Honeymoon seems to have a different view of TripCart. I guess they have a different audience.

Finally, for the Google mashup crowd - Google Maps Mania likes us, too.

Top Ten Adventure Sites for Kids

My adventuring co-worker drags his 10 year old son with him and his wife to “Adventure Sites” in the United States. He recently wrote up a list of activities that will “turn boys into men and girls into men”—so take that as you will, of course excusing him (as usual) for his overt sexism. He just handed me five post-its with notes about his favorite spots.
Let’s see if I can turn his jumble into eloquent prose:

Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada mountain range is an ideal spot to jump-start your child’s adventuring education. With 1,200 miles of multi-level trails, thick forests, glistening waterfalls, and wide meadows, your child will experience a head-on collision with American wilderness. Families can rent cabins and spent hours and days exploring the vastness and beauty of Yosemite National Park.
Apparently there was a very stinky new species of orchid discovered at Yosemite National Park. According to msnbc, “park officials said they would not release details about where the plant was found because they were concerned visitors might love it to death.” Is that a typo? Why would people love a stinky flower?

Next on the list is Dinosaur, Colorado, particularly Dinosaur National Monument in Echo Park in the Uinta Mountains. There are dinosaur fossils abound, prehistoric rock art, whitewater rafter, and great hiking. In addition to the fossilized creatures, there is also an array of live wildlife still lurking in the canyons.

Moving right along to Padre Island (Beaches and National Seashore). Padre Island is located at the southernmost tip of Texas and is comprised of beaches, sand dunes, nearly 150,000 acres of land, turtles, pelicans, and excellent water adventures. Beginner surfers can ride the small waves at Padre Island’s Isla Blanca park, as well as try their luck at sailing, kiteboarding, windsurfing, and jetskiing. Boat tours take groups out to see dolphins and whales. And as though that’s not enough, there’s also bike riding, horseback riding, and classes in sand sculpting by sand castle-building experts! Just be wary of college kids during Spring Break who take over Coca Cola beach in South Padre Island.

Fourth on the list is Grand Canyon National Park, and under that he wrote “need I say more?” Didn’t give me much to work with here. I personally remember being too scared to ride a donkey down the canyon when I was a kid, but maybe your kids are braver…

And then there are the lucky kids (a category that my co-worker’s son falls into) who get to go to Haleakala National Park in Maui. Craters, volcanoes, natural pols, waterfalls, and rainforests fill the Haleakala landscape.

Why can’t I be a lucky kid?

So there you have it, the top ten places to bring your burgeoning adventurer, according to a travel expert and his very own burgeoning adventurer.

Top Ten Aquariums for Kids in the US

Some very dedicated mother travels all over the states with her kids while her husband works in what seems to me like a top secret government position. She posted at The Vacationer that she likes taking the kids to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. What Sharon didn’t mention, is that the National Aquarium in Baltimore ranks (just barely) in Parent’s Magazine’s Top Ten Aquariums for Kids in the U.S.

For your trip planning pleasure, here’s the list and their rankings:

1. Monterey Bay Aquarium
2. Georgia Aquarium
3. John G. Shedd Aquarium
4. New England Aquarium
5. The Florida Aquarium
6. Aquarium of the Pacific
7. Atlantis Marine World
8. Oregon Coast Aquarium
9. Sea World in San Antonio, San Diego, and Orlando
10. National Aquarium

This definitely narrows down my way too long zoos & aquariums list from Feb. 17, 2008.

Planning my friend’s trip to St. Louis, while I should be doing my OWN work!

I have a very busy friend who’s going on a business trip to Missouri and is bringing her 2 kids and their au pair who will have a car and liberty to take the kids all over the St. Louis area entertaining, which their mom is working. Since she knows I spend all day online reading and writing, she asked me to come with a list of activities for her family to partake in during their little vacation. And it is true, I enjoy nothing more than planning trips. Anyways, here are my findings, read the reviews, looked at pictures, and they all check out—thought I’d share...

1. The Butterfly House
2. Grant’s Farm
3. Missouri Botanical Gardens
4. Saint Louis Zoo
5. Jamestown Mall

They’ll only be there for 3 days, so I think this should be plenty.

Zoos, Aquariums and Botanical Gardens

We at TripCart had realized that we need to simplify the access to our content. Positioning ourselves as "The Travel Site" when it comes to planning your trip around Tourist Attractions we've realized we need to restructure the site exactly in that domain. Our Design and R&D teams had gathered in a brainstorm and now all the company is in that turmoil.

On the other hand our content team is catching up on uncovered topics. The Content Manager together with our Web Analyst, had collected a list of major Zoos, Aquariums and Botanical Gardens to be completed by the end of the month. Working fast, the writers and editors finished the task 2 weeks in advance.

We at TripCart had realized that we need to simplify the access to our content. Positioning ourselves as "The Travel Site" when it comes to planning your trip around Tourist Attractions we've realized we need to restructure the site exactly in that domain. Our Design and R&D teams had gathered in a brainstorm and now all the company is in that turmoil.

On the other hand our content team is catching up on uncovered topics. The Content Manager together with our Web Analyst, had collected a list of major Zoos, Aquariums and Botanical Gardens to be completed by the end of the month. Working fast, the writers and editors finished the task 2 weeks in advance.

Outdoors - Nature Parks

For the coming spring we, at TripCart, had worked out a list of tourist attractions and highlights for Outdoors Recreation. It includes major State Parks and National Parks including National Forests. Our writers team was given the mission to write useful tourist information for those of our users who plan their vacation Outdoors. Now, that the mission is completed, we're ready to make the announcement...

BTW, the list was way too long to be fully mentioned here, so I've chosen a small percentage to be featured. If you think we've excluded an important site, please let us know - maybe I just did not mention it while choosing this featured list:

• Denali National Park & Preserve - Alaska
• Grand Canyon National Park - North Rim, Arizona
• Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim, Arizona
• Red Rock State Park - Sedona, Arizona
• Saguaro National Park - Arizona
• Tonto National Forest - Arizona
• Tonto Natural Bridge State Park - Arizona
• Crater of Diamonds State Park - Murfreesboro, Arkansas
• Angeles National Forest - California
• Avenue of the Giants - California
• Cleveland National Forest - California
• Death Valley National Park - California
• Joshua Tree National Park - California
• Kings Canyon National Park - California
• Lake Shasta - California
• Lassen Volcanic National Park - California
• Mount Whitney - California
• Point Reyes National Seashore - California
• Praire Creek Redwoods State Park - California
• Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks - Three Rivers, California
• Yosemite National Park - California
• Colorado National Monument - Grand Junction, Colorado
• Dinosaur National Monument - Colorado
• Mesa Verde National Park - Colorado
• Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes Park, Colorado
• Rock Creek Park - Washington, DC
• Biscayne National Park - Florida
• Everglades National Park - Homestead, Florida
• John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park - Florida
• Ocala National Forest - Florida
• Stone Mountain Park - Atlanta, Georgia
• Hawaii Volcanoes National Park - Big Island
• Rainbow Falls - Big Island, Hawaii
• Harriman State Park - Idaho
• Indiana Dunes State Park and National Lakeshore
• Mammoth Cave National Park - Kentucky
• Acadia National Park - Bar Harbor, Maine
• Baxter State Park - Maine
• Moosehead Lake - Maine
• Cape Cod National Seashore - Massachusetts
• Itasca State Park - Minnesota
• Glacier National Park - Montana
• Red Rock Canyon - Las Vegas, Nevada
• The Lakes Region - New Hampshire
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park - New Mexico
• White Sands National Monument - New Mexico
• Letchworth State Park - New York
• Niagara Falls - New York / Ontario, Canada
• Blue Ridge Parkway - North Carolina / Virginia
• Pisgah National Forest - North Carolina
• Crater Lake National Park - Oregon
• Golden and Silver Falls State Park - Oregon
• Silver Falls State Park - Oregon
• Badlands National Park - South Dakota
• Custer State Park - South Dakota
• Big South Fork National River - Kentucky / Tennessee
• Fall Creek Falls State Park - Tennessee
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Tennessee
• Big Bend National Park - Texas
• Brazos Bend State Park - Texas
• Arches National Park - Moab, Utah
• Bryce Canyon National Park - Utah
• Canyonlands National Park - Utah
• Capitol Reef National Park - Utah
• Zion National Park - Springdale, Utah
• Mount Mansfield - Vermont
• Shenandoah National Park - Luray, Virginia
• Mount Rainier National Park - Washington
• North Cascades National Park - Washington
• Olympic National Forest - Washington
• Olympic National Park - Washington
• Grand Teton National Park - Wyoming
• Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

Shuttle Launch Experience Puts you in Space

NASA is gearing up for a launch in a little over a week (June 8th) but now you can get the same experience (sort of) whenever you want.  The Kennedy Space Center has just opened the Shuttle Launch Experience, a $60 million, 44,000-square-foot simulator that lets visitors experience the start of the main engines, the firing of the solid rocket boosters and their separation.  The creators spent three years trying to capture every minute detail from ambient sounds to the creaking in the cabin and a few astronauts now claim that the new ride is even more accurate than training simulators currently being used by NASA.  We can't wait to go.

(thanks space.com)

Flowers in the Arboretum - Lexington, Kentucky

From the arboretum in Lexington, Kentucky.

(thanks again code poet)

Most Watched Hotel Movies in 2006

The largest provider of on video-on-demand to U.S. hotels, LodgeNet, has released their numbers for the past year and the #1 movie watched in hotel rooms was The Da Vinci Code.

KFC Create's World's Largest Piece of Kitsch

KFC took over 65,000 1-foot by 1-foot tiles to create a giant Colonel Sanders in the desert near Rachel, Nevada (you can check it out if you're on your way to visit Area 51). The 87,500 square-foot logo is the first to be seen from space. Some of the brilliant minds at KFC headquarters said, "If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice." That's some desperate marketing. Below is a time-lapse video of the logo's creation.

Spending the Day at Storm King Sculpture Park

Here's a cool place to spend the day if you're around NYC and want to get out of the city and get some fresh air. Plus the leaves are rocking right now. Here's a quote from the Storm King Art Center-

Just in Time for the Holidays

Turkey Day's about a month a way and USAToday is reporting that round-trip airfares are going up a pricey 15% compared to last year.  The average traveler can expect to fork out almost $450 to fly home to see the Olds.  It seems that most people are unfazed, there's been a 42% increase in early bookings over last year.  Experts say the longer you wait to get a seat the more trouble you're going to be in - if you're reading this you really should be booking your tickets instead.  Lastly, you can look forward to long delays courtesy of the super-simple TSA regulations.