Five neighboring states in the Midwest announced a new tourism initiative yesterday that makes it easier to experience all 43 "wine trails" within their borders.

Over the last five years, individual state tourism offices have marketed related destinations as themed "trails." Indiana has its Garfield Trail and Hoosier Pie Trail, Ohio its Shawshank Trail, Kentucky its Civil War Heritage Trail. And every state has a medley of regional wine trails, identifying dozens of tiny, undistinguished backroad wineries.

That's great for wine-lovers, but enthusiasts of wine-related tourism trails are left to locate each self-guided route individually. "It's amazing that these programs have become so popular – a tourism trail is nothing but a website and a brochure at the visitors center," says Jeff Langley, a spokesman for the newly created Midwestern Wine-Trail Trail Association. "But people love them, and we are committed to helping them locate the area's absurd number of these loosely organized experiences."

The Midwestern Wine-Trail Trail website identifies five collections of wineries in Ohio, six in Indiana, eight in Kentucky, 10 in Illinois and 14 in Michigan. Together they represent 258 individual wineries, including a handful of regional-award winners.

However, Langley says most of those businesses won't see a bump in traffic thanks to this innovative tourism effort. "This is about recognizing the trails as an attraction and asset, not the wineries themselves," he says.

Langley says an Amish Quilt Garden-Trail Trail is also in the works.

[Photo credit: Fosmiling via Flickr]

Following its announcement last week that Pope Francis has decided to live in the Domus Sanctae Martae guesthouse rather than the Papal Apartments, The Vatican now says it plans to turn the lavishly decorated official suite into a vacation rental.

"Pope Francis supports this approach," says Rev. Franco Bertonelli, a spokesman for the Institute of Religious Works, commonly known as the Vatican Bank. "He doesn't want to see perfectly good shelter go to waste."

The Holy Father's modest tendencies have been much publicized since his election last month. He also opted against riding in the bulletproof "Pope Mobile" in favor of an open-air vehicle.

The Vatican registered an unusually high $15 million budget deficit last year. Hospitality experts estimate that allowing overnight guests into the holy quarters could generate about $1 million per year.

As vacation accommodations, the Papal Apartments complex is without equal in Vatican City. It sprawls across 10 rooms in the Apostolic Palace, overlooking St. Peter's Square, and features original 16th century architecture, Renaissance frescoes and inlaid marble floors. The main bedroom sits on the Seconda Loggia, where the pope delivers a blessing to crowds on the square every morning. Guests can use the sitting room and recently renovated kitchen with a built-in Miele espresso machine, but the medical suite and the staff's quarters remain off-limits.

Rates begin at $1,495 per night and include unlimited bread and water and use of the bulletproof Pope Mobile. Those who book the suite can add on a "Swiss Guard for a Day" experience and a private blessing upgrade. Payment must be made by leaving cash or check in a collection plate in the suite.

The development is the latest example of the pope's everyman tastes and desire to interact with the public. Last week, he became an authorized "Destination Expert" on Trip Advisor's Vatican City forum.


[Photo credit: Vgm8383 and The Papal Visit via Flickr]

Decades before the dawn of 3-D printing and resulting wonders like self-portrait gummy bears, Mold-a-Rama vending machines were pressing hot wax into tiny figurines delivered in seconds. These vintage contraptions still exist at zoos and other attractions, where miniature keepsakes cost only a couple of dollars and smell like melted crayons.

At the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, machines magically make models of Rosa Park's bus and wee wax Weinermobiles before your eyes:



Zoos are hotspots for Mold-a-Rama machines. At Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, several generations of visitors have taken home 3-inch-tall wax gorillas. The city's Brookfield Zoo has 13 machines, currently spitting out dinosaurs.

According to the fan site moldamania.com, other zoos proffer macaws, dolphins, manatees, panthers and killer whales. The bust of Frankenstein and tiny space capsules can be found if you're lucky. Hundreds of molds existed back in the technology's heyday (the original was invented in the 1960s and spawned several imitators). Back then, Disneyland delighted park-goers with figurines of favorite characters, ready in 30 seconds.

Cheap? Check. Packable? Check. Better than a gummy bear in your likeness? You decide. Here's a list of Mold-a-Rama locations.

Do you have Mold-a-Rama memories from childhood?

[Photo credits: Craft*ology and Sarabeephoto via Flickr; video credit: Mark Frauenfelder via YouTube]

If you're still haunted by the sight of spiders raining down on a Brazilian city, as we brought to your attention last month, this heartwarming nature video might be a palette-cleanser. Captured by the BBC, fire ants in the Amazon adapted to a flood by ganging together and turning themselves into a raft for their queen. Braving all manner of threats (speedboat on your left!), the colony clung to each other for dear life in the shape of a lily pad for the queen to glide down the river like Cleopatra. Add a Morgan Freeman voiceover and these little troopers could inspire the next Pixar hit.

So you're not the Cancun type. That's no reason to pass up a cheap flight to its airport, a gateway to lots of anti-Cancun destinations. The area has more than 80 miles of white-sand Caribbean beaches, and only a few of those are confined to the cheesy place you've been avoiding.

I'm a certified beach snob, and Cancun-area sands are some of the best for the money and the time it takes to fly there from most parts of the United States. The scenery and beach quality rival Turks & Caicos, the most postcard Caribbean beach I've ever seen.

The trick is to look beyond Cancun's strip to the broader area called the Mayan Riviera, and your options expand to include laid-back islands, secluded luxury resorts and yoga retreats that feel like they're located at the end of the earth. Some destinations are 30 minutes from the airport, some two hours. You can be on the beach with a thatched-roof balcony and your own hammock for around $100 per night – and no Senor Frog's for miles and miles.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with the Cancun type. The spas in the hotel zone are underrated, for one. But I like quieter places away from the crowds, and more placid waters than Cancun's. If you do, too, it's time to reconsider Cancun airfares. Snap up a deal and trust that you'll find a place your speed; shoulder season in late April and May (and again in September, October and November) is a great time to go because you avoid high-season hotel rates and the scorching summer weather. Here are a few destinations you might not have heard of:

The Island Vibe: Isla Mujeres
A slice of real Mexico, this small island is the closest Cancun alternative to the airport. Located six miles off the coast of Cancun and reached by ferry (pictured at top), it's anchored by a lively town that sits right on Playa Norte, a postcard soft-sand beach. The extended shallow water appeals to families with young kids. The most popular mode of transportation is a golf cart, and for such a compact place, there's an remarkable number of restaurants and places to stay. I like Ixchel Beach Resort for a new condo (via VRBO.com), Playa la Media Luna for a tropical beachfront bargain and Casa el Pio for a cute, cheap, in-town option.

So much for Amtrak Joe. The government spent $1 million on two nights in Europe for the Vice President and his entourage last month, according to government contracts posted here. CNN confirmed with the State Department that the contracts are legitimate and calls them a rare look at White House travel expenses.

The eye-popping numbers: $585,000 for one night at the Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand and $459,000 for a night at the Hyatt Regency London the Churchill Hotel. (Plus $321,000 for a limousine company, although Biden's own limousine is flown over for such trips.)

The nice, round $1 million-for-two-nights number is lighting up Twitter with outrage and jabs. But the cost breaks down to about $500 per night at a five-star hotel in the world's most expensive cities. Nothing weird about that.

So why is the bill so high? The charges cover 136 rooms, not just Biden's. His entourage includes Secret Service, military, a medical unit, and a team that screens and serves his food, CNN reports. The room block may include reporters, though the government doesn't pick up their tab. Some rooms might be used as office space.

Some members of the entourage stay more than one night. The contract for the London hotel is for 893 room nights, which sounds like a lot, but it averages out to 6.5 nights per room.

The cost could include paying guests to relocate, too.

CNN ran the figures by officials from past Republican administrations, all of who said the costs were reasonable. One former senior White House staffer who supervised travel arrangements told CNN that it sounds normal to have as many as 136 rooms.

The government doesn't let hotels compete for these contracts or security reasons. Evidently it doesn't use Priceline, either.




[Via CNN]

[Photo credit: From documents posted on FedBizOpps.gov]

Spring Breakers, did you know that anyone boarding a plane is covered by a "passenger bill of rights?" Or that in Mexico you're guilty until you can prove yourself innocent?

Lawyers.com's editor in chief, Larry Bodine, has some legal insights that Spring Breakers should digest well before their first Jello shot – particularly the 120,000 students heading to Mexico this year.

What can I do right this instant to be safer on Spring Break?
Sign up for the U.S. government's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. It's free, and in the feds' own words, "It allows the State Department to assist U.S. citizens in an emergency and keep you up to date with important safety and security announcements."

What's another thing?
Look up the U.S. consulate or consular agency closest to where you're staying. At travel.state.gov, check under Country Specific Information for a list of agencies in your destination. Print copies for you and your travel mates and enter the information in your cellphone.

Is there an app for that?
Yes! There's a Smart Traveler Program app for iPhone and Android.

American laws apply to me everywhere, right?
Wrong. Bodine says many college students think American citizenship grants them immunity from laws in other countries. This isn't true. If you're in Mexico or Jamaica or the Dominican Republic or anywhere, you are subject to that country's laws and punishments. "There are a lot of semi-innocent things we do the U.S. that are crimes in Mexico," Bodine says. "Walking on the street with an open alcohol container is a crime. Getting off the bus without paying. Taking off your clothes on the beach."

In another country you can't count on something like Panama City's Spring Break Court to minimize the repercussions. "The laws in Mexico are very different," Bodine says. "If you're charged with a crime, you are presumed to be guilty, and you have to prove you are innocent. If you are arrested, you'll be held for 48 hours before you get to make a statement. If they want to charge you, you can be held for a year without bail."

Check the most recent edition of a reputable guidebook for laws.

The new edition of Moon Handbooks' guide to Honduras and the Bay Islands, published in December, already has 49 reviews on Amazon. That's 15 times more than the previous version of the book. But 39 reviewers gave it a one-star rating, the lowest possible. What happened to warrant such an unusual trashing? Did the author confuse Honduras for an entirely different country?

No – in fact, the writer, Amy E. Robertson, lived in Honduras for nearly five years and co-wrote two earlier Moon guides to the country. It's safe to say that she knows the place well.

But one hotel owner, Bobby Durette of D&D Brewery (a budget-conscious hotel/hostel/microbrewery in the Lago de Yojoa region), found his listing to be outdated and believed Robertson and Avalon Travel, Moon's publisher, whiffed on the reporting. He asked his Facebook followers to post low ratings of the book on Amazon. Dozens of them did, calling the book – not just D&D Brewey's listing – unreliable and disappointing.

Then the author's supporters rallied by posting five-star reviews (some based on their satisfaction with Robertson's previous Honduras guides) and tagging the one-star reviews as "unhelpful." Online democracy at work.

Unfortunately, both sides made too strong and possibly not fully informed accusations about the other for millions of Amazon users to see.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal called Brad Kelley "the man with a million acres." Now the American billionaire and land addict has expanded his kingdom to include the world's biggest travel-guide publisher. Kelley's NC2 Media bought Lonely Planet from BBC Worldwide in a deal announced yesterday.

Most of the headlines focused on the huge loss BBC is taking by selling the company for about $78 million. It paid double that to buy the Melbourne-based publisher a few years ago. Some travel insiders are wondering if NC2, a small firm based in Nashville, Tenn. and specializing in digital development, will continue to publish the familiar blue-covered guides while devoting energy to digital expansion. NC2's chief operating office, Daniel Houghton, made some routinely vague comments about being committed to the brand's roots in publishing in a Q&A with Skift Travel. NC2 also produces "Outwild TV," a story-rich Web series on adventure travel:

In South Korea, everyone will see your socks because it's customary to remove shoes in most public places. That might be why Jonathan Kramer, Gadling's resident Kimchi-ite, tipped us off about the assortment of cheap, colorful anklets everywhere you go there. You might even find a sock vending machine. Designs are heavy on cartoons and bears, but hardly any motif is spared – the gamut runs from staid argyles, polka dots and stripes to sassy statements like boy bands, American cigarette logos, mischievous babies, Obama, schoolyard insults ("stupid") and your favorite global megabrands (Starbucks).

First person to find a pair of Dennis Rodman socks wins!

[Photo credit: Todd Mecklem via Flickr]