Gadling

No matter how many times I visit San Francisco, I never get tired of looking at the Golden Gate bridge. Whether I'm downtown, across the bay in Berkeley or Oakland, or taking off at SFO, this iconic landmark perpetually anchors my view of this great city. So I was particularly amused when I saw this shot of everyone's favorite San Francisco bridge by ohad*. Considering it's one of the most photographed landmarks in all of the Bay Area, it's hard to find a photo that's a not a "cliched" image of the bridge shrouded in clouds. But this shot really caught my eye - the way it plays with perspective, the sense of movement it conveys and the unique angle all come together for a fun, eye-catching photo.

Got a great photo you'd like to share? Join the Gadling pool on Flickr to have your great shot considered for our Photo of the Day.

A trip to Africa requires some serious preparation. Guidebooks. Vaccinations. Maps. Tourist visas. Mosquito nets. Hiring guides. For many people, the very idea of the African continent conjures images of huge steamer trunks, pith helmets and mountains of travel gear. But for the technology-inclined, the mysterious continent author Paul Theroux once dubbed "the dark star" is becoming just a little bit more accessible, thanks to Tracks4Africa.

Essentially a giant community mapping project, Tracks4Africa is a non-profit organization that maintains user-generated GPS maps of some of the more remote and "eco-sensitive" areas of Africa. Although the project originally started as a way for outdoor enthusiasts to preserve some of Africa's most unique plant and animal life, it has since blossomed into a full blown database of "off the beaten path" sights in Africa. More than 1,400 adventure travelers have contributed data on everything from recent elephant attacks to ghost towns and covered countries ranging from Ethiopia to Mozambique. And because it's entirely user-created, there's a good chance users will also have access to the most current information on the ground. Take this in contrast to an Africa guidebook from Lonely Planet, which might not get updated for several years (if at all).

All you need to get started with Tracks4Africa is a compatible GPS unit and a sense of adventure. Armchair adventurers take heart - the Tracks4Africa database is also viewable through Google Earth. Now get out there and find me a nice date plantation to check out in Namibia.

World travelers just can't get enough of Peru's famous Inca Trail. But has the Inca Trail had enough of them? It may come as surprise to anyone still planning summer travel to Peru, but the world-famous path to Machu Picchu is completely sold out for the 2008 summer travel season, with the next available opening in September 2008.

As veteran Peru trekkers might know, the Peruvian government began imposing restrictions in 2005 on the number of hikers who could take the path each day to no more than 500. Couple this with the insane popularity of Machu Picchu on globetrotter "must-see" lists and increasingly affordable airfare deals and you have a serious supply and demand problem on your hands. While this quota is helping to preserve the impact of human visitors on this priceless cultural artifact, it's certainly frustrating news for anyone planning their trip to Peru around a stopover at the site.

If it turns out the big, bad Peruvian government has thwarted your travel plans this summer, don't despair just yet. As this article article points out, there are a few alternative routes to the famed Inca Trail including the Salkantay Trail, which also climaxes at Machu Picchu, along with the scenic Lares Valley and the spectacular Colca Canyon.

And if you're still dead set on that Inca Trail trek? Give it another try in the off-season. You might even have that million-dollar view at the top all to yourself.

The web has already created all sorts of great ways for travelers to connect and share information. Sites like Dopplr let you share details on where you're going with your friends, while Wikitravel has brought us the next generation of collaboratively-created travel guides.

But these types of interactive travel sites are only the beginning. A new generation of user-driven travel portals promises to combine travel opinions with searchable maps, images, tagging capabilities and intuitive recommendation systems. One of the more interesting of this new crop of sites is TripSay. TripSay, which is still in private beta mode, promises to let users create their own personalized travel profiles, as well as to rank and create recommendations from their travels. As you begin to add friends to your travel network and further define your preferred traveling style, TripSay customizes its content to your interests. Think of it like Trip Advisor on steroids. Recently, Gadling was lucky enough to snag an invite to the private beta testing and take the site for a spin.

On first glance, TripSay offers a relatively easy-to-use interface. When you first sign-up, you're asked to rate some of the places you've visited, assigning them a ranking on a five point scale from "smiley" down to my favorite, "butt." You're also able to further tweak your profile on the basis of travel style, including identifiers like whether you lean towards budget or luxury travel, your language abilities and previous travel experience.

Since I'm headed to Japan in a few weeks, I decided to see what the site had to say about Tokyo. TripSay loaded up a map of the city, already dotted with markers indicating sites of interest. I clicked on the marker for the Tokyo Tower, which brought up an overview of the building, along with a random photo of it pulled from Flickr. Since the site hasn't yet launched, there are only a few markers, but I can see the potential. Any user can add their own tips to the map, categorizing them into such topics as "eat, drink and party," "culture," "nature" and "amusement" among others. As you add more travel friends, the markers that appear on your map are tailored to reflect the suggestions of your friends and your particular preferences.

Any great travel experience is ultimately a product of both spontaneous epiphany and reliable information. That information can come from any number of sources - a guidebook, the web or even word of mouth. TripSay looks to be an interesting hybrid of all three. However, its success will ultimately depend on its community of users, who will provide the site's appeal and content. Want to help them get things started? Leave us a comment below and we'll randomly select five winners early next week to get invites.

[Note: comments have now been turned off. Thanks to everyone for expressing their interest!]

Afraid of heights? Don't watch this video, shot along El Caminito del Rey, a mountain walkway near Malaga, Spain. This narrow, gut-wrenching path is only 3 feet wide, pinned along the side of a gorge, nearly 700 feet above the river below.

Originally built in 1901 to allow local workers to cross between two nearby waterfalls, El Caminito has recently fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Many parts of the walkway have completely collapsed, leaving nothing but a metal beam and a wire between you and 700 feet of nothing. Not surprisingly, there have been a number of deaths along the trail, and the local government has tried to seal it off.

But for some adrenaline junkies, a warning sign, tall fences and the prospect of a fatal slip-up is nothing but a challenge. Check out this video and watch one man laugh in the face of death.

What is it about Spain that inspires thrill-seekers to the utmost feats of poor judgment?

This past weekend I had an opportunity to experience the many pleasures of Puerto Rico's Old San Juan neighborhood. Ringed by massive stone walls and the imposing El Morro fortress, the historic heart of this former Spanish colonial capital provides a virtual feast for the senses. As I meandered the area's narrow cobblestone streets, I passed by block after block of majestic, pastel-colored colonial facades. My ears picked up strains of salsa music cascading from upper story windows, while groups of old men sat chatting, playing dominoes in the area's tiny local parks.

But perhaps the most overpowering sense was the delicious smell of baking bread that came when I opened the door to La Bombonera, arguably Old San Juan's most famous bakery and cafe. This old gem has been churning out homemade pastries and bottomless cups of coffee for tourists and San Juan regulars since it opened in 1902. The menu is just the basics - coffee, pastries, simple entrées, and what is arguably the house specialty, the mallorcas. Mallorcas are a sweet pastry which is typically grilled and buttered, then topped with a generous heap of powdered sugar. If you're feeling particularly ravenous, grab one with ham and cheese in the middle. The sweet of the powdered sugar and dough combined with the savory taste of the ham and the cheese is heavenly. I ended up ordering two. I'm told the house coffee is also superb - they brew using a monstrous contraption brought from Havana in 1898. Take that, Starbucks.

So if you find yourself in Old San Juan some ungodly bright Saturday morning, hungry and hungover from one too many piña coladas the night before, make sure to stop by La Bombonera. But get there early - the line is probably already out the door.

If you've spent more than two minutes on the Internet recently, you already know and love photo-sharing site Flickr. Today the site is breaking some interesting new functionality, allowing pro users to post videos of up to 90 seconds. Rumors of video have apparently been floating around on site's message boards for some time now, though today marked the feature's official launch. Users haven't wasted any time pulling together video-focused sharing groups to take advantage of the new feature.

Some people are questioning the wisdom of Flickr's decision. Why, they point out, would Flickr launch video sharing when sites like YouTube already dominate most online video attention? I tend to disagree with this view because I think Flickr video can occupy an interesting niche for photographers. If you consider the way most people capture travel video these days, it tends to be short snippets from point-and-shoot digital cameras. When you upload these files, computers don't really distinguish between photo and video - everything is usually lumped into the same folder. Thus there's an interesting opportunity to allow users to share their photos and videos all in one place. Flickr is also limiting their video size to 150 megabytes or 90 seconds, which to me also emphasizes they're looking to capture short camera clips, not your three hour long wedding ceremony (as heartwarming as it might be).

Only paying pro users can use Flickr Video for now, but perhaps they will open it up to others in the near future. Check out the help page to get started.

Travel photography enthusiasts will be pleased to hear about the flurry of recent product launches and news floating around the web. Perhaps everything was timed to the warm weather and extra daylight of Spring? Those tricky camera manufacturers - how diabolical. Anyway, here's a quick rundown of some of the more interesting news.

Panasonic's Lumix DMC-LZ10

Engadget has the scoop on Panasonic's new 10-megapixel Lumix DMC-LZ10. I'm not the biggest fan of Panasonic's digital cameras, but Engadget and Photography Blog both give it high marks, calling it "one of the most versatile compacts in its class." They were particularly impressed with the camera's manual controls and image quality. Considering it retails for less than $250, it could be a nice model to snap up for those family vacation photos. Remember, if you're in the market for a point and shoot digital camera, don't get too caught up with the number of megapixels. A better optical zoom and a quick startup/shutter speed are much better indicators of quality.

Hacking your Canon digital camera

Enterprising Canon camera owners should also head over to Wired, where they're offering a cool Wiki on how to modify your camera's software. Why would you do such a thing, you might ask? Because digital camera hardware can often do much more than is allowed by its standard software. For instance, Canon only allows shutter speeds up to 1/1,600 of a second, but the camera is actually capable of up to 1/60,000! Once you've installed the hack, you'll unlock all manner of cool functions like super-long exposure shots, RAW file format and battery readout. I tried it last night on my Canon SD630 and it worked like a charm. It's worth noting that the process can get a bit technical - make sure you know what you're doing and that you have a compatible Canon camera before giving it a try. Jump over to Wired for full instructions and FAQ.

The Ultra-fast Casio Exilim EX-F1 SLR

Meanwhile, New York Times gadget guru David Pogue reviews Casio's speedy new semipro Exilim EX-F1 digital camera. A typical digital camera snaps about one picture per second, but the Exilim, which is billed as the world's fastest camera, can take up to sixty. Remember that shot of the cheetah chasing the antelope you missed on safari because you couldn't get your camera snapping in time? This is the model you're looking for. It also has a motion detector which will wait, for hours if necessary, until motion is detected and then automatically snap a rapid fire of 60 shots. Pretty awesome. The Exilim retails for $1,000.

They say that "home is where the heart is," but I have to wonder when I look at the at the "Gravity-Defying Homes" gallery over at design site PointClickHome. Perhaps the expression is better written as "home is where the crazy is?" Point Click Home's gallery features a slideshow of some of the most surreal and interesting houses from around the world, including strange structures in Russia, The Netherlands, Indonesia, the U.S. and Canada, among others.

It's hard to pick a favorite from this bunch. I think the Russian gangster house wins the award for the poorest planning - it's probably because the owner was incarcerated before he was able to finish it (no joke). Meanwhile, the Dutch seem to be quite adept at building whimsical houses, offering an assortment of homes in the shape of cacti and cubes. And I have to hand it to the American houses - the "mushroom house" and "pod house" are certainly the most trippy.

While I can't imagine these bizarre buildings are practical to live in, they certainly make for some great voyeurism. Check out the gallery below to see them all. And if you still haven't gotten your fill, take a look at Justin's post last year for some more examples.



[via Josh Spear]

The French are a particularly jealous bunch when it comes to the sparkling wine better known as Champagne. As Anna pointed out in this earlier post, European trade laws mandate that only sparkling wine from the French region of the same name can truthfully be labeled as "Champagne." The French government has taken numerous steps to preserve their ownership of this name, going so far as to restrict the number of French vineyards that can operate within the Champagne region and filing numerous lawsuits against other wines that try to use it.

But lately, French efforts to restrict the Champagne brand name seem to be getting out of hand. As this article reports, the small Swiss town of Champagne, first named in the year 885, is fighting the French government to continue using the city's name on its local wine. Apparently the city used to sell as many as 110,000 bottles of local wine using the town's name, a quantity that fell to only 32,000 bottles last year when the Champagne name was removed from the label. That's quite a difference.

While the whole naming controversy does seem a bit silly, I can understand the rationale. The French have cultivated a world famous brand and have profited handsomely from its popularity. The same is true of any other famous foodstuff, be it vodka from Russia, steaks from Argentina or oranges from Florida. But just how much of the popularity of a famous food brand is hype and how much is substance? Some will argue that nothing beats the "real thing," but ultimately I think it's a question that can only be answered by our stomachs. Some might scoff, but maybe a Swiss Champagne is equally as good as a French one? France, it's time to grab a glass of bubbly and chill out.