May 16th, 2013 at 11:00AM: estetika, Flickr
In the West, randomness is a crucial, torturous pillar of border security. Those who have been to Asia know that active sadism is supplanted by bureaucracy, vanity and venality. In my opinion these are highly preferable alternatives. Once you know how land borders adopt these principals, they can be easily navigated with a bit of tact, patience and occasionally a small financial ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
passport posts
The Gatekeepers Of Asia: Face To Face With The Border Guards Of The Far East
May 16th, 2013 at 11:00AM: estetika, Flickr
In the West, randomness is a crucial, torturous pillar of border security. Those who have been to Asia know that active sadism is supplanted by bureaucracy, vanity and venality. In my opinion these are highly preferable alternatives. Once you know how land borders adopt these principals, they can be easily navigated with a bit of tact, patience and occasionally a small financial ...Cutbacks Have Smithsonian Down, But Not Out
May 3rd, 2013 at 9:00AM: Government cutbacks have affected travel in a number of ways. Passport applications and renewals are taking longer, as is the process for requesting a visa. Traveling abroad, less security at U.S. facilities means less protection for Americans. National parks have closed some facilities and delayed opening of others. Now, even the Smithsonian Institution in Washington is feeling the impact of ...New Finnish Passport Is Also A Flip-Book
Mar 27th, 2013 at 4:00PM:
Your passport has many uses beyond getting you in and out of a country. It can serve as a travelogue of sorts, showing you where you've been and taking you back in time as you relive trips stamp by stamp. It can also be a form of identification, or a way to remember what you looked like five years earlier, when you had that flattering (or not so flattering) photo taken.
Now, if you live in ...
Facebook Timeline For Travel Industry
Mar 21st, 2013 at 1:00PM: The World Travel and Tourism Council has introduced a fun element to their Facebook page: rather than a timeline of their own milestones, they've designed a timeline highlighting all of the events in the travel industry. Starting in 1400 with the first passport, and ending with the 1,000,000,000 international tourist arrival in December 2012, it puts the whole development of tourism in context. ...4 Big Travel Fears And How To Overcome Them
Feb 21st, 2013 at 11:00AM:
When I meet people who tell me they've never flown on an airplane or stepped foot outside their home state, I'm always a little taken aback. In this day and age when travel is so accessible, affordable and commonplace, it's amazing that there are still so many travel virgins out there.
Now, of course, if these folks didn't want to travel, or were unable to afford it, that would be ...Photo Of The Day: Thanks For Flying
Nov 22nd, 2012 at 5:00PM:
Happy Thanksgiving, and hola from the Dominican Republic, where I'm spending the holiday with family and friends. Rather than searching the Gadling Flickr pool for a turkey (or Turkey, where I spent the last two Thanksgiving holidays) photo this year, I wanted to see what came up for the term "thanks," and found this pic from our own Kent Wien, boarding an American Airlines airplane in ...Travel Troubles: What To Do When You Lose Your Passport Abroad
Sep 21st, 2012 at 11:00AM: Some people are accident-prone. Others attract bad relationships. Me, I get into travel trouble. I once broke a piece off a plane mid flight – luckily not one crucial for flying. I've been robbed and swindled – in Bolivia, both in the same morning. There are friends of mine who joke that the only sure thing when traveling with me is that our flight will be canceled. I confess to you ...Is Traveling Without A Passport Really Traveling?
Apr 29th, 2012 at 11:00AM: This is a debate I encounter all the time, whether on the road or at home talking to friends. Technically, if you drive to the store to buy milk or go for a jog around the block you're "traveling," but what about the perception most people have of what travel really is?
After asking many people about this topic, it seems as though the answer often depends on what kind of travel experience the ...New App Is Passport To National Parks
Mar 30th, 2012 at 8:00AM: Since being introduced in 1986 the Passport To Your National Parks program has been a popular one with travelers. The program encourages visitors to America's national parks to collect "cancellation" stamps in a passport book from as many parks as they possibly can. The stamps, which feature photos taken by park employees, are issued on an annual basis and are often viewed as collectors' items. ...The Purple Passport launches chic urban guide for New York City
Jan 26th, 2012 at 11:00AM: For the hip, worldly, and discerning traveler, there's a new guide on the block: The Purple Passport, which just added New York to its roster of web-based city guides.
The Purple Passport offers handpicked hotel, restaurant, spa, nightlife, shopping, and activity recommendations from its team of travel tastemakers, with an easy interface that allows users to add items to personal "passports" ...Collect virtual passport stamps with VisaStamper
Dec 13th, 2011 at 11:30AM: It's a favorite ritual for many travelers to leaf through their passport (often while waiting in an immigration line), reminiscing on each stamp and the destination it represents. When a passport is lost or expired, losing all those hard-earned stamps can be tragic. VisaStamper is a new website that creates a virtual passport, with photo-realistic stamps for each place you visit. The site ...Knocked up abroad: applying for a baby's passport
Oct 24th, 2011 at 9:00AM: As my new baby girl was born in a foreign country, getting a passport was a necessity for her to even return home to America. Though Vera was born in Turkey, she's an American citizen by virtue of her parents' citizenship and entitled to a US passport. For Americans born outside the country, the US consulate issues a Report of Birth Abroad that acts as an official birth certificate and proof of US ...Tomorrow is Passport Day in the USA
Sep 16th, 2011 at 9:00AM: Tomorrow the U.S. Department of State will hold its third annual Passport Day, giving Americans an opportunity to apply for their first passport, or renew their current one. To commemorate the event, all regional passport agencies, along with most application acceptance facilities, including post offices, will be open and no appointments will be necessary.
These agencies are rarely open on a ...Visa-free travel by the numbers
Aug 15th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.
The ...Passport Day is coming! Do you have one?
Mar 30th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
Saturday April 9th is Passport Day. U.S. Passport agencies and participating passport acceptance facilities will be open to serve you. Savvy travelers know a passport is required for entrance in to the United States. No big news there. What some travelers don't know though is how easy it can be to get a passport and the benefits of having one.
Right now is a great time for to apply for a ...Single visa to boost ease of travel within Asia?
Mar 21st, 2011 at 12:30PM: If plans by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are approved, tourists visiting its ten member nations will be able to travel freely between countries on a single visa.
In 2009, 65 million foreign tourists visited Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei -- and required a different visa (and visa fee) for each country ...Five ways to get more European stamps in your passport
Mar 2nd, 2011 at 10:30AM:
Lake Ohrid, Macedonia.
Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that European passport stamps have become harder and harder to get. The expansion of the Schengen zone has reduced the number of times tourists are compelled to show their passports to immigration officials. For most Americans on multi-country European itineraries, a passport will be stamped just twice: upon arrival and upon departure. ...Ten passport photos that look like mug shots
Jan 28th, 2011 at 10:30AM: No one really knows how to take the best passport photos. To smile, or not to smile? It's a question we all ask ourselves, but usually not until we're half a second from that snap of the camera which will define our official "look" for the next ten years. The result? We tend to look confused, undecided, and in some cases, mildly criminal.
Click through the gallery below for ten passport photos ...Galley Gossip: Gifts for flight attendants (and travelers)
Dec 16th, 2010 at 9:00AM: A stun gun, Xanax, travel massager that glows in the dark, ten foot pole for not touching things with, these are just a few of the things my flight attendant friends want for Christmas. What, not your gift-giving style? Okay so perhaps one of these will do....
1. PASSPORT COVER - In this day and age you might not want to advertise your country of origin. Not to mention it's kind of fun dressing ...Conserve passport space by skipping the US entry stamp
Nov 9th, 2010 at 1:00PM: It's been a long hard seven years of traveling together, but this week I determined that my passport is going to die young. With an expiration date in 2014 and extra pages already stapled into the center, my passport has been through a lot with me, numerous trips to doctor for vaccinations, crumpled in my back pocket in public transportation from Malaysia to Indonesia to Dakar to Istanbul, brief ...
