All Aboard the World’s Largest Zeppelin!

~ Now this sounds like a real buzz – watching fireworks light the Fourth of July night sky in Los Angeles, while soaring 1000 feet above the Pacific Coast aboard the Airship Ventures Zeppelin Eureka.

Returning to the Southern California skies after a sold-out engagement in May, Eureka will offer flight-seeing tours above L.A. from July 3-7, 2009.

The highlight of Eureka’s return trip to the L.A. skies will be a special two-hour Independence Day fireworks flight that takes advantage of the Zeppelin’s 360-degree panoramas to offer passengers stunning views of fireworks shows up and down the L.A. coastline. The fireworks flight is one of many tours offered during the Zeppelin’s six-day excursion to Los Angeles, which also include one- and two-hour flightseeing tours and private charters.

Flightseeing experiences offer magnificent views of Southern California landmarks, such as the historic Queen Mary, Long Beach Harbor, the Sunset Strip, the Hollywood sign, as well as sweeping vistas of the Pacific Coast from Huntington Beach to Santa Monica.

For those seeking the ultimate Zeppelin experience, tours are available on the transit flights between Long Beach and the San Francisco Bay Area. Soaring above the California Coastline and Central Valley, these 8-hour cruises follow Highway 1 on July 1st (southbound), and July 8 (northbound) as the Zeppelin travels to and from Long Beach from her home base at Moffett Field near San Francisco.

Los Angeles-area flights will depart from the AirFlite FBO terminal, adjacent to the main terminal at Long Beach Airport (3250 Airflite Way, Long Beach, CA 90807, at the corner of Cherry and Wardlow). One-hour flights are $495, plus tax, per person; two-hour flights are $990, plus tax, per person; and the spectacular Fourth of July fireworks flight is $1,200, plus tax, per person.

One- and two-hour flightseeing tours booked before June 30, 2009, will be eligible for the company’s “buy one flightseeing ticket, save 50% on the second,” promotional pricing (excluding the Fourth of July Fireworks Flight). Passengers on every flight will receive a certificate redeemable for a buy-one-get-one free general admission to the Queen Mary, good through September 30, 2009.

At 246 feet in length, Airship Ventures’ Eureka is the world’s largest airship—15 feet longer than a Boeing 747, and dwarfing the largest blimp by more than 50 feet. One of only three Zeppelins currently operating in the world, Eureka offers passengers spectacular 360-degree views of the sights on flight-seeing tours above the San Francisco Bay, Silicon Valley, Monterey and Los Angeles.

About Airship Ventures, Inc.

Founded in 2007 in California, Airship Ventures, Inc., operates the only passenger airship operation in the United States, featuring “Eureka,” the world’s largest airship. The Zeppelin’s spacious cabin comfortably accommodates one pilot, one flight attendant, and 12 passengers with luxury features including oversized panoramic windows, an onboard restroom with window, and a 180-degree rear observation window and “love seat” that wraps the entire aft of the cabin. Using the inert gas helium for lift, and vectored thrust engines for flight, Zeppelin NTs have been flying in Germany and Japan since 1997 with an unparalleled safety record.

For more information the visit Airship Ventures website...

Or call 650-969-8100 x111

IMAGE: Courtesy of Airship Ventures

Photographer: Achim Mende

The Week That Was #1

~ Here for your browsing please I offer a roundup of the some of the more interesting travel related stories that have come to my attention over the past week.

America’s Top Summer Music Festivals

Though the economy may have hit a low note, it seems that people are still willing to pay for a music high. In fact, most music festivals may not be feeling the fiscal pinch; festival producers across the country say ticket sales are just as high as last year, if not better.

Ken Weinstein, who represents Bonnaroo, one of the largest and most famous summer festivals, says, "Bonnaroo offers fans four of the best days of their lives, during which they are not only allowed but required to forget the recession and all the unfortunate things going on in the world.” Click here to view a slide show of the some of the top summer festivals…

Eight great trips that give back

You don't have to wear a hair shirt and dig a well to give back when you travel. Here are eight great trips that connect you with the world, and each time you frequent these locations you support the self-sufficiency and the economy of the local people. Click here to read more…

Book your own cruise? One do-it-yourselfer tells his secrets

by Ron Saia writing for Tripso.Com

Ron Saia has been on over 45 cruises, written articles about cruising and helped many people who have never cruised before prepare and experience a great cruise vacation. He’s not a travel agent. He’s a do-it-yourself serial cruiser. This post focuses on getting a great deal.

The key is to start by getting a great price for your cruise vacation. Book way in advance — anywhere from eight months to a year — or select from special discounted cruises. Click here to read more…

WikiTravel: How did this slip under my radar?

Wikitravel (similar to the open source Wikipedia) is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide. So far there are 21,648 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe. You can check out the Help page to see how you can edit any page right now, or the Project page for more information about Wikitravel and getting involved.

Author Shelley Seale on children living in the slums of India

Very few people haven’t heard of the Oscar-winning movie, Slumdog Millionaire. The story follows two young brothers as they grow up in and survive the slums of Mumbai, India. In order to show the reality of life for poverty-stricken Indian children, many scenes in the movie were actually filmed in the Mumbai slums. But in true Hollywood fashion, the ending was heartwarming goodness. The ending for the real children of these slums is not so pretty. Click here to read more…

Hotel bedbug horror degenerates into a war of words

by Christopher Elliott writing on Tripso.Com

The Stanley Hotel is an historic resort in Estes Park, Colo., perhaps best known for inspiring Stephen King to write his horror masterpiece The Shining. And also, bedbugs — if Julie Kobayashi has her way. Get those images of Jack Nicholson typing “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” out of your head. This spat reminded me more of the recent exchange between Elizabeth Becton and McBee Strategic. In other words, it degenerated into a needless but not uninteresting war of words.

IMAGE: View of the River Murray

Photographer: Jim Lesses

In Review: OUTBACK Magazine Website

~ Yesterday’s In Review: OUTBACK Magazine entry examined the April/May 2009 issue of OUTBACK, the glossy bi-monthly magazine of the R.M. Williams Publishing company. Today, I thought I’d take a look at the magazine’s website.

The OUTBACK magazine website is well laid out and functional, making it very easy to find your way around the site. Pages load quickly, and most information can be accessed in a few mouse clicks.

Regrettably, that’s about as good as it gets.

There is a great Story archive in 27 searchable categories starting with Adventure and finishing with Utes. However, only the opening paragraphs of each feature article are included on the site. If you want to read the full article you must subscribe to the magazine or purchase the back issue containing the full article you are interested in.

The Shop Online section lets you order a subscription to the magazine: 1 Year (6 issues) $49.00*, or 2 Years (12 issues) $90.00*. (international prices are also listed on the site). You can purchase a small range of merchandise, or order back issues of OUTBACK from this section of the site as well.

Under the Events tab you will find a calendar of events for every Australian state and territory. Or maybe I should say, you won’t find such a listing, because sadly, this feature of the site is not being maintained to its full potential, and is all but useless.

Today, when I checked each of the links to see what events were taking place across the country, only New South Wales (with two events), and Tasmania (one event) were listed. Apparently nothing else of note was happening across the whole of Australia. On the other hand, looking at the April/May 2009 issue of OUTBACK shows 27 events across the country in its Watch Out For… section. Clearly, someone is not doing their job properly.

I think it’s fair to say the site is there solely to promote and help sell the magazine. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing, but in this day and (internet) age, when your website is competing with literally thousands of other online travel related magazines and portals, you have to work a whole lot harder to give visitors a reason to come back. Or do you? I’m thinking out loud, now, you understand.

Maybe it is enough to attract potential subscribers to the physical magazine, and be happy with that – as long as they actually subscribe. After all, if the purpose of the site is to promote the magazine, then it is probably doing a reasonable job. Although, clearly there are areas that need to be addressed, such as the underwhelming Events section, and it wouldn’t hurt to republish selected articles in full – even if they are twelve months old – but beyond that, who knows?

Personally, I believe the best advertising and promotion for the magazine – is the magazine itself. As my review yesterday indicated, it is well written, informative, and worth reading for the insight one can gain into life in the Australian bush. And you can't ask for more than that.

*Unless otherwise noted, all prices quoted are in Australian dollars.