Video: Glacier collapses into ocean, kayakers and penguins flee

Imagine this: You’re one of the lucky ones who have embarked on a trip to the Antarctic and are exploring the waters around a glacier on a kayak. As you peacefully glide through the waters, you can’t help but think that life is pretty much awesome. Suddenly, a huge chunk of the glacier breaks off and falls into the ocean. You watch, helpless, as icy waves come crashing toward you. Even the nearby penguins begin scurrying away. Suddenly, life gets a little scary for you and your travel buddies. Would you have the ability to navigate the frigid waters? Take a look at the video above and see if these kayakers made it out of the situation unscathed!

Kayak drops Blackberry support in favor of iPhone and Android

If we didn’t already think the death knell for Blackberry had begun, here’s yet another sign that the once leading phone platform, at least where it comes to consumer travel apps, is well on its way to becoming outdated.

Kayak has revealed that it dropped support for its BlackBerry app, NextWeb reported.


“When we started KAYAK in 2004, we issued BlackBerries to the entire engineering team so we could communicate instantly 24/7,” stated a memo from the Kayak team. “Today we’ve all switched, and it seems our users are doing the same. Our audience of BlackBerry users has been declining precipitously, and we can’t justify the cost any longer.”

Users won’t find any updates for the app, but it will still exist in its present form. Users can also access the mobile version of the Kayak site from their browser.


Paul English, Kayak co-founder and CEO, told Tnooz last month that the brand, which has more than 10 million app downloads, has discovered an even further differentiation between platform users, namely that while both iPhone and Android users download the app, iPhone users are the ones most likely to buy online.

This may be a demographic shift. A user survey last summer also suggested that iPhone users are bigger travelers, and thus a more likely fit for the Kayak demographic.

The survey found that Android users are “36% more likely to not remember their last vacation,” and that iPhone/iOS users are 15% more likely to have taken a vacation in the last six months, and were 55% more likely to have used their frequent flyer miles to have taken several free rewards flights during 2011.

What phone do you use?

Superbowl 2012 travel trends

For football fans, next weekend is the penultimate match up between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. What does that mean for travelers? Stay the heck away from Indianapolis!

Kayak just released data showing that searches from New England to Indianapolis saw an increase of 28 times the average immediately following the Pats/Ravens game. New York Giants fans accounted for a flight search increase to Indianapolis of 38 times the average.

Hotel searches for Indianapolis on January 22 were seven times the average hotel search share of the first two Sundays of the month.

Of course, that means hotels are raising prices accordingly – Staybridge Suites Indianapolis- Airport hotel is showing a rate of $312 and the Residence Inn Indianapolis Fishers is offering a rate of $179. Both are a 20 to 30-minute drive away.
Hotels up to 10 miles from the stadium are already beginning to sell out, if they haven’t done so already.

Of course, if you want to go luxe, you certainly can. Jetsetter is offering three packages for the game, which include overnight accommodations, VIP game passes and party access. Of course, the price goes along with the exclusivity – the most expensive package is $20,000 for two.

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[Flickr via indywriter]

Valentine’s Day is coming – where are people traveling?

Most holidays see a spike in travel – particularly those that involve long weekends. But what happens on the romantic holiday of the year, which, in 2012, just so happens to fall on a Tuesday? Sure, card sales, flowers, chocolate and the prix fixe menu at The Melting Pot will go up in price, but will travel increase?

Kayak sourced the top five most romantic destinations based on both a) search volume (the number of searches for that location) and b) the percentage of change in search volume for Valentine’s Day vs. the weekends prior and following February 14th.


According to their data, New York City is 64% more popular over Valentine’s Day weekend than the two flanking it. According to Kayak data, cities seeing the most search volume for Valentine’s Day weekend include: New York City, Venice (Italy), Honolulu, Maui and Denver. While we’re not quite sure how Denver hits the list, we can only suppose it’s a stopping point for a romantic ski trip away.
Searches for US flights showed a spike for Valentine’s travel to New York City and Chicago.

Are you traveling to any of these cities this Valentine’s Day?

[Flickr via moominmolly]

Video: Epic kayaking crashes

Kayaking can be a challenging and dangerous sport, particularly when the water is running fast and wild. The video below hammers that point home with a compilation of some of the craziest and downright scary crashes that you’re ever likely to see on the water. Everything from broken paddles to backward drops over big waterfalls are on display, which makes for an exciting video but will leave you feeling glad that it isn’t you in the kayak.