Spot Cool Stuff is sometimes asked for advice on what camera lenses to bring on a trip. The short answer is: It depends†. Different camera types, different travel styles and different destinations require different lenses.
If you are going on a nature trek to somewhere with rolling hills and sweeping vistas, for example, a medium telephoto might make an outstanding choice. Want proof? Look no further than the photography of Marcin Sobas. In particular, we love his shots of the countryside in Tuscany and the Moravia region of the Czech Republic.
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Spot Cool Stuff loves finding good bakeries on our travels. Spontaneously coming across one while exploring a village or city neighborhood can make an ordinary walk special. But some bakeries are special in their own right and worth purposefully seeking out — either for the quality of their baked goods or for their interior design or for the atmosphere of being there or for some combination of all those.
Below is our review of eight such bakeries. We hesitate calling them the “best,” since the world has many bakeries and we’ve only been to a relatively small handful. But each of our selections has something superlative feature that’s well worth a detour if you are traveling nearby.
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Spot Cool Stuff has a love of vintage travel guidebooks, the older the better. In one our finds, a guidebook to Afghanistan written in the late 1800s, the authors described the Buddha statues around of the town of Bamiyan as an over-crowded tourist trap. Contrast that with the whole of the last three decades, during which absolutely nowhere in Afghanistan could remotely qualify as an “over-crowded tourist trap.” That, sadly, includes the Bamiyan Buddha statues—they were mostly destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
The point being: Things change. A place that’s uninviting now might become completely pleasant in the future. A great travel destination now could not be so much later.
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There’s no more iconic sight in Rome than that of the Colosseum. And there’s no hotel with better room views of the Colosseum than the Gladiatori Palazzo Manfredi.
At this five star boutique hotel, you can literally gaze out upon the Colosseum while laying in bed or while brushing your teeth at the bathroom sink.
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This is the second of our two-part look at the world’s best hostels, budget hotels and inexpensive guest houses as chosen by the users of the Hostelbookers website. Scroll down or click on the region you are interested in:
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'Working' on a sailboat plying tropical waters—that's a tough gig to beat.
Long term travel does not have to come at the expense of long term debt. In a nod to Buy Nothing Day (which is the day after the American Thanksgiving which occurs on the 4th Thursday in November), Spot Cool Stuff takes a look at five jobs that can be weaved into travels abroad. Obviously, this isn’t a comprehensive list of work abroad possibilities. Instead, it’s a glimpse at four ideas for defraying the cost of a long trip while also getting an immersive cultural experience.
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Spot Cool Stuff recently wrote about a real life Simpson’s house. For those craving more come-to-life items from America’s longest running TV animation series we suggest real life Duff Beer. And 4 out of every 5 barflies agree.
In turns out, not only is there Duff Beer in real life but there are Duff Beers! Our rundown of where to find them:
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The only hotel objects not found on a beach are the floorboards, support beams and sleeping sheets
Every city has a selection of hotels that their detractors would describe as “rubbish.” But only Rome has a hotel that’s literally rubbish. There, in the center of the city near the Castel Sant Angelo, is the Corona Save The Beach Hotel. It is the world’s first to be made of garbage.
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