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As Seen On TV
Updated 11/20/2008 2:16:45 PM
By Laura Moss
My best friend, Jamie, and I have been planning our Seattle trip for quite some time now, and we recently added a new stop to our Northwestern journey:
Forks, Washington. Yes, we, too, have been swept up in the pop culture phenomenon that is
Twilight. If you don’t know a teenage girl—or if you’ve somehow missed the books, movie trailers, T-shirts and hundreds of fan Web sites—
Twilight is Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling series about Bella Swan, a teenage girl who moves to Forks and falls in love with the handsome Edward Cullen…who just happens to be a vampire
Twilight is the hottest thing to hit bookshelves since Harry Potter and has become an international bestseller, as well as a million-dollar franchise. And with everyone from teens to grandmothers reading the series, Jamie and I aren’t afraid to say that we, too, have developed a thing for the “godlike” Edward Cullen. Thousands of Twilighters are now making the pilgrimage to the small town of Forks, a fact that the residents have truly embraced. (To read about the town’s “revamped” image, click
here.)
But Forks, Washington, isn’t the only place to suddenly discover it’s the center of a pop culture phenomenon. Popular-culture tourism, the act of traveling to locations featured in literature, film, television or music, is a growing trend worldwide, and some of the top pop-culture destinations can be found right here in the United States. Here’s a look at the top 10 tourist destinations across the nation that have experienced unexpected fame after being featured in popular books, movies and TV shows:
1.
Forks, Washington
Stephenie Meyer put this small Northwestern town on the map when she selected it—without ever having visited—as the setting for her best-selling series,
Twilight. Now tourists flock to the rainy destination to take in such
sights as Forks High School, the place where Bella first meets Edward the vampire, and the police station, where Bella’s police chief father works. Locals have embraced the hoards of Twilighters though, offering special vampire-themed food, such as Subway’s marinara-oozing
Twilight special, and even adopting a new town motto: Forks: Home of the
Twilight Book. And September 13—Bella’s birthday—is the town’s annual Stephenie Meyer Day celebration, an event no
Twilight fan should miss. For more on Fork’s recent “revamping,” click
here.
2.
Dyersville, Iowa
The 1989 Academy Award-nominated movie
Field of Dreams was filmed on the Lansing family farm in the cornfields of Dyersville,
Iowa, and today Kevin Costner fans and baseball lovers alike can step up to the plate because the baseball diamond created for the movie was left behind and has been well-maintained. The pristine baseball field is surrounded by acres of cornfields and Iowa farmland, and visitors are encouraged to bring their baseball equipment and play a game on this world-renowned field. For more information, click
here.
3.
Tom’s Restaurant, New York
Known to
Seinfeld fans as Monk’s, Tom’s Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in
New York City. The restaurant gained fame because its exterior was used in the award-winning television series
Seinfeld as the restaurant frequented by Jerry Seinfeld and his friends. Today, the restaurant is a top popular-culture pilgrimage site for fans of the show.
4.
Winterset, Iowa
More than a decade after
The Bridges of Madison County movie was released, thousands of people still flock to the small town of Winterset,
Iowa, to trace the steps where Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep immortalized the area’s covered bridges. Visitors frequently stop by the county’s tourism office for help locating the charming bridges, which are scattered across the county’s vast fields and winding country roads. Roseman Bridge, recognizable from the film as the bridge where Francesca Johnson leaves a note inviting Robert Kincaid to dinner, is the most-visited of the covered bridges in Winterset. Each fall the annual
Covered Bridge Festival showcases the famous landmarks, and the two-day affair increases the town’s population by the thousands.
5.
The Magic Bus, Healy, Alaska
While the death of Christopher McCandless in the Alaskan wilderness made national headlines in 1992, it wasn’t until Jon Krakauer’s 1996 book,
Into The Wild, and Sean Penn’s 2007 film by the same, that an onslaught of adventurous, young travelers—dubbed “McCandless pilgrims”—began retracing the famous vagabond’s final trek thorough Alaska. McCandless hi
ked down the Stampede Trail, an abandoned mining road in Denali National Park, where he lived for months in Fairbanks city bus 142, which he nicknamed the “Magic Bus.” The bus, intended as a refuge for hunters, is where McCandless spent his final days before dying of starvation, and today roughly 100 visitors a year attempt the 12-hour hike to the Magic Bus—even though the movie featured a replicated bus.
Those who complete the arduous journey carve their names into the rusted sides of the bus or leave notes alongside those of Krakauer, Penn and McCandless’ mother, and many take photos imitating the iconic pose of the skeleton-like McCandless. But this trip isn’t for the faint of heart. According to The Toronto Star, the state of Alaska has had to rescue several such tourists from the bus in recent years—one time needing individual airlifts at $2,100 each. Situations such as this have forced the state to consider airlifting the bus from its site either to the head of the Stampede Trail or to a nearby park in
Fairbanks.
6.
Roslyn, Washington
For years the small town of Roslyn, Washington, was known as the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska, to fans of the 1990s television show
Northern Exposure. Today the Northwestern town is a popular vacation destination, especially during
Moosefest, an annual festival organized by fans of the show where tourists visit filming locations and share drinks at The Brick Tavern, the oldest operating tavern in Washington and a common hangout for the characters of
Northern Exposure.
7.
North Bend, Washington
North Bend, Washington is a town just east of
Seattle that’s nestled along the foothills of the Cascade Mountains and is best known as the filming location of the television series
Twin Peaks. Every year fans worldwide make the pilgrimage to the town for
Twin Peaks Fest, a fan-organized festival, that often brings celebrities from the cast. Visitors re-enact favorite activities from the series, including Tibetan rock-throwing and plastic-wrapped photo opportunities, and of course, lots of cherry pie and coffee at Twede’s Cafe.
8.
Burkittsville, Maryland
Tourists flock to this small
Maryland town to re-create scenes from the 1999 film
The Blair Witch Project—even though the majority of the movie was actually filmed not in Burkittsville, but in Maryland’s Seneca Creek State Park. Immediately following the release of the hit movie—which fans were disappointed to learn was entirely fabricated by the producers—found the small New England town overrun with Blair Witch groupies, wandering through the woods searching for the “real” places the story happened.
9.
Santa Ynez Valley, California
The 2004 hit movie
Sideways, which follows two middle-aged men on a road trip through the wine country of Santa Barbara, has brought hoards of tourists, looking to re-create the men’s experience, to the region. Fans of the movie can often be seen making a pilgrimage from the Buellton Days Inn to the Hitching Post restaurant, and local vendors have taken advantage of the city’s sudden popularity, by offering
Sideways tours.
10.
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts
Steven Spielberg chose Martha’s Vineyard to stand in as the fictional community of Amity for his 1975 thriller movie,
Jaws, which was based on Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel by the same name.
Jaws enthusiasts still flock to the area to tour filming locations and try to catch a glimpse of a great white shark, a species which has been spotted along the island's coast on several occasions. In 2005, JawsFest was held to celebrate the movie’s thirtieth anniversary where fans enjoyed such events as
Jaws-themed workshops, a
Jaws Feast Clam Bake and an Amity Island Ball.
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Sleep for Cheap
Updated 11/20/2008 10:34:52 AM
By Laura Moss
The holidays are quickly approaching, but with the sluggish state of the economy, what’s a budget-conscious traveler to do? Well, for the inventive traveler, there are two Web sites that offer some unique alternatives: house swapping and couch surfing.
Instead of a booking a hotel, many people are simply trading spaces on
HomeExchange.com. If you’ve seen the movie The Holiday, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, don’t bother (couch surfing is probably a more enjoyable alternative)—just know that it’s the story of two women, played by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, who swap houses on HomeExchange.com and find love in the arms of Jude Law and Jack Black. While swapping homes may save you a lot of cash, keep in mind there’s a $100 fee to join the site. You can also find potential home-trading mates at
craigslist.org.
But what if you don’t need a whole house for your holiday vacation? What if you really just need a place to catch some Zzzs for a few nights? If that's the case, check out
CouchSurfing.com where you can make arrangements to crash on a stranger’s couch for three days on average. The Web site has more than registered 795,000 couches covering destinations from Alabama to Antarctica. Although clearly not your safest option, the site documents 1,938,514 positive experiences by couch surfers who have used the service.
If you’re looking for other options to save money while traveling this holiday season, consider booking rooms in a
hostel, a growing trend among older travelers, or even
sleeping in the airport.
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'Twilight' Brings Town a New Dawn
Updated 11/18/2008 4:28:53 PM
By Laura Moss
Thousands of visitors have been flocking to the small Northwestern town of
Forks, Washington, since 2005—despite the fact that guidebooks describe it as “decidedly not visitor friendly”—and these tourists aren’t interested in the stunning scenery or the town’s historical sites. No, they want to see the local high school, the grocery store and the hospital.
Why?
Because the high school is where Bella Swan, a teenage girl from Phoenix, first meets Edward Cullen, the “godlike” vampire who sweeps Bella off her feet, in Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling series,
Twilight. Forks Outfitters is where Bella buys the groceries she uses to make dinner for her police chief father, and Forks Community Hospital is where she meets Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Edward’s vampire father who treats her after Edward heroically rescues her in the school parking lot.
By simply selecting Forks—a town Meyers had never even visited, which she accurately describes in
Twilight as existing "under a near-constant cover of clouds"—as the primary setting of her book, Meyer essentially put Forks on the map, making it a mecca for
Twilight fans worldwide. In fact, the draw of the
Twilight series, which consists of four books, the latest of which was released this summer, delivered a 48 percent increase in lodging tax revenue for Forks this year alone.
“We had a wonderful summer thanks to the books by Stephenie Meyer," said Marcia Bingham of the Forks Chamber of Commerce. "We have blown up with
Twilight visitors.”
And how has the town dealt with the influx of thousands of visitors? Well, one could say it’s completely “revamped” its image.
The Chamber of Commerce has become a
Twilight visitor center, “We Love Edward and Bella” signs hang in store windows alongside stacks of Twilight T-shirts and the Forks Speedway sign welcomes both vampires and racers. The local Subway now offers a
Twilight special, which oozes marinara sauce, and the town’s popular hangout, Sully’s Drive-In, sells a Bella Burger that comes with special sauce and a side of plastic vampire teeth. The town even adopted a new motto: Forks: Home of the
Twilight Book,” and it holds an annual Stephenie Meyer Day celebration on September 13—Bella’s birthday.
With the release of the
Twilight movie this Friday, the town is preparing for another boost in tourism even though filming was primarily done in Portland, Oregon (the small town of Forks didn’t have the necessary infrastructure to support the cast and crew), and even though winter is one of the rainiest times of year in Washington.
“People come for the books, and if it's raining, they are happy. We all know vampires can't be out if it's bright,” Bingham says.
For more information on Forks and its must-see
Twilight highlights, click
here.
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In-Flight Calls Still Not Cleared for Takeoff
Updated 11/17/2008 11:13:50 AM
By Laura Moss
While the European Union in April announced rules to let airlines offer midair mobile phone calls, similar U.S. regulations continue to encounter turbulence. Under new European Commission rules, cellphones can be used in European airspace once the plane has reached an altitude of 10,000 feet or more, but the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission say more research needs to be done before allowing calls aboard U.S. flights.
Although the FCC and FAA currently prohibit the use of mobile phones in-flight, they established a federal advisory committee—with everyone from NASA engineers to flight attendants—to look into the matter in 2003.
But do passengers even want to allow in-flight calls? A 2005 poll from the National Consumers League showed just 21 percent of those surveyed wanted to lift the cellphone ban. And a more recent survey commissioned by Yahoo via Harris Interactive revealed that 74 percent of fliers think phone use in commercial flights should be restricted to non-voice features like Web browsing and text messaging. Air France, who began testing text message and e-mail services in December, says that 80 percent of its passengers are in favor of the services. In April, the carrier expanded its testing to include voice calls, and survey results will be released this fall.
A group of U.S. Congressman recently introduced legislation which would ban mobile voice communications on flights. However, the HANG UP Act, which stands for Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace, would still allow passengers access to the Internet, e-mail, and text messaging services that are currently available on some flights on JetBlue, Continental, and other airlines.
“There’s a place for cell phones, and there’s a place not for cell phones,” said Representative John Duncan (R-Tenn.).
But despite some resistance from regulators and lawmakers, experts say there’s a good chance telecoms like Sprint and AT&T will see an incentive in allowing mobile phone use. And airlines are likely to welcome the service onboard as they continue to seek new revenue sources to counter increasing fuel prices.
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Niagara in a New Way
Updated 10/27/2008 3:57:08 PM
By Laura Moss
How do you create a tourist attraction that rivals the excitement and enormity of Niagara Falls? You give visitors the opportunity to experience the natural wonder’s creation firsthand.
The newly opened Niagara’s Fury is a virtual reality show that delivers a time-lapse lesson about the 10,000-year formation of the falls complete with glacial snow and pounding rain. The family-friendly Fury experience begins with an animated film where a cartoon beaver named Chip explains the geological history of Niagara Falls. Visitors then move into a theater with individual safety rails where they experience the previous history lesson personally.
The six-minute show begins with a sudden 30-degree temperature drop, followed by strong gusts of wind and snowfall. Snowflakes turn to rain and lightning, the rumbling of thunder echoes through the room, and guests feel the ground shift beneath their feet. The room, encircled by a seamless projection screen, is filled with high-definition images of whitewater as 30,000 gallons of water cascade into a pool under the platform and fog creeps up from the ground.
Niagara's Fury, which took one year and $7 million to complete, is the star attraction of the newly renovated Niagara Falls' Table Rock complex of restaurants and shops, which is at the heart of Niagara Parks. While you’re there, pick up a pass to “Journey Behind the Falls” where you’ll walk through tunnels far behind Niagara and surface at an observation deck at the foot of the fall.
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All Y'all Can Eat
Updated 10/27/2008 3:53:44 PM
By Laura Moss
Paula Deen, the Food Network’s queen of Southern cuisine, has brought her famous Southern cooking to Harrah’s Tunica Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. The first celebrity chef-branded buffet in the country, the Paula Deen Buffet opened in May as part of the casinos $45 million renovation.
The mouth-watering 560-seat buffet boasts six scrumptious stations: Granny Paul’s Garden, a salad bar featuring Deen’s signature skillet cornbread; Uncle Bubba’s Oyster House, which includes the famous char-grilled oysters from her Savannah, Georgia restaurant; the Hoe Cake and Biscuit Station with fresh biscuits baked all day; Lady and Son’s with some of the South’s best comfort food such as fried chicken and macaroni and cheese; Captain Michael’s Smokehouse with its smoked sausage and ribs; and Little Jack’s Corner with a variety of desserts and hand-dipped ice cream.
The buffet is modeled after Deen’s own Savannah house—complete with a large screened-in front porch—and visitors can dine in one of six different rooms including Paula’s parlor, the pantry, the birdcage room, the porch, the mud room, or the morning room. “I want you to feel like you are a guest in my house when you come to Tunica to eat my cooking,” Deen says. After finishing dessert and loosening your belt, stop by Paula’s gift shop to pick up some more Southern treats—if you have room.
The new buffet is part of the casino’s second floor transformation into a luxurious entertainment level, which also features three retail outlets and other food venues, including Murano’s Italian Restaurant and Replays Sports Bar and Grill. "With this investment Harrah's Entertainment is helping to solidify a bright future for the Tunica area and this great state," Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi said recently. ”We are looking forward to many new and repeat visitors to Harrah's Tunica, the Paula Deen Buffet, and most of all Mississippi.”
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These Wheels Keep on Turning
Updated 10/27/2008 3:36:21 PM
By Laura Moss
Many have traveled across the United States by plane, train, or automobile—but few have done it from the seat of a bicycle, feeling each pedal stroke from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Having recently acquired my first bicycle since childhood, I understand firsthand the appeal of making such an epic journey, and Trek Travel’s Cross Country USA Bike Tour gives cyclists this unique opportunity—a two-wheeled take on the American landscape that most travelers experience only through the blur of a car window.
This 39-day trip spans 3,180 miles and climbs 174,000 feet, and Michael Meholic, Trek Travel sales guide and trip consultant, says it’s the trip of a lifetime. “It’s such an epic trip. It’s not just about what you see, but it’s that sense of accomplishment you have at the end. It’s a chance for ordinary people to do extraordinary things.”
The trip, which was once again named Outside Magazine’s Trip of the Year, begins in Santa Barbara, California, where riders dip their wheels into the Pacific Ocean—and it ends more than a month later in Charleston, South Carolina, with a dip into the Atlantic. Meholic says the shortest ride participants can expect is 40 miles, and the longest day is 139 miles. Preparation begins with Trek Trave
l screening process that helps consultants “peg fitness and experience levels,” and training for the ambitious journey begins eight to 12 months before its beginning.
“You can either train on your own or through our partner, Vision Quest, which is professional cyclist Robbie Ventura’s company.”
In September, the cyclists depart on their epic journey, pedaling on two-lane blacktops across the Mojave Desert, over Rocky Mountain passes, and through the Great Smoky Mountains.
“You stay at the Southern rim of the Grand Canyon, pedal down Route 66, and pass a Navajo monument. It really is a trip of a lifetime,” Meholic says.
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A New Spin On Sightseeing
Updated 10/27/2008 3:37:32 PM
By Laura Moss
As an Atlanta resident I’ll admit it was strange to sign up for a tour of the city, but from the moment I clumsily stepped onto “Katie,” the Segway I’d been assigned for the morning, I knew this wouldn’t be the typical sightseeing tour. Segways, two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters, are taking tourists—and locals—on unconventional tours across the country, and they’re putting a whole new spin on sightseeing.
After a short safety presentation and some much-needed Segwaying practice, my tour departed from City Segway Tours’ office at Underground Atlanta. Now, I’m pretty familiar with strolling the city streets, but this was a whole new experience. Although I never reached a speed greater than six mph, I approached sidewalk ramps with a mixture of fear and excitement, and bumps in the road were miniature mountains that I feared would knock me from the Jetsons-like device below my feet. But Katie was more stable than I gave her credit and responded to my every shift in weight effortlessly.
Not only was I surprised by how quickly I adapted to the Segway, but I was also amazed by how little I really knew about the city I call home. My tour guide, Kyle, a history major who cites his Southern drawl as proof of his expertise, proudly boasts that he could easily double the length of the three-hour tour with all he knows about the city—and there’s not a doubt in my mind that he could. Not to say the tour was some long-winded, educational experience. Far from it.
I’ve been to the World of Coca-Cola and thought I knew all about the city’s history with the soft drink, but I’d never been to the Candler building, which Coke businessman Asa Candler had designed in 1906 with two ornately carved entrances—one with nude goddesses for himself and another one with clothed ones for his mother. And while I’ve spent many afternoons in Centennial Park, I never knew that the fountains had been choreographed to a variety of songs, including the most popular, The Little Mermaid’s Under the Sea.
This is the kind of information that Kyle says really surprises tour groups. “People sign up for the tour because they just want to ride the Segway. Then they realize that it’s actually pretty interesting,” he says.
Since the invention of the Segway in 2003, specialized tours featuring the electric scooter have sprung up in cities nationwide. In addition to its Atlanta tour, City Segway Tours also has offices in Chicago, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C., and similar tours can be found coast-to-coast from the Napa wine country to the Gettysburg battlefield.
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Tricks and Treats
Updated 10/28/2008 1:42:51 PM
By Laura Moss
From jack-o-lanterns to werewolves to ghosts galore, you'll find some of the greatest Halloween haunts in Kansas City, Missouri. The self-proclaimed, “haunted house capital of the world,” the city boasts two of the largest, most elaborate haunted houses in the country.
Established in 1975, The Edge of Hell began as Kansas City’s oldest haunted house and is now a model for haunted houses nationwide. The converted warehouse offers a 30-minute walk through elaborate scenes of sensory stimulation and a cast of more than 45 performers, including two of country’s largest anacondas. Visitors will venture across a swinging rope bridge, visit Dracula’s living room, and ride down a five-story slide into the arms of the Devil himself.
The Beast, Kansas City’s other exciting haunt, pioneered the open-format structure for haunted houses, meaning that several parts of the house offer no guided direction and visitors are forced to find their own way through—including the 10,000 square-foot werewolf forest. Complete with fog and lurking monsters, getting lost in the forest could turn your trip from an average 45 minutes to an hour and a half! Other dangers include Jack the Ripper’s torture chambers and a four-story slide that’s a straight drop to the bottom floor. The Beast and the Edge of Hell are open August through November.
Also be sure to spend a day at Worlds of Fun, the Midwest’s largest theme park, where Halloween Haunts takes place September 19-November 2. Ghosts and ghouls swarm the park while guests enjoy the more than 175 acres of Halloween-themed rides and attractions, including Asylum Island, Dominion of Doom, and Lore of the Vampire.
Looking for a little less bloodshed? Don your costume and head over to Powell Gardens where you can tour a fairytale land and collect some treats during the Halloween Spooktacular, or take the self-guided Jack-O-Lantern Walk where hundreds of jack-o-lanterns and luminaries light the park. Want a closer encounter with something beyond the grave? Take a ride on the Creepy Crawley Trolley in Atchison, the most haunted town in Kansas, for a tour of historic homes with a paranormal history.
For more on Kansas City's exciting Halloween haunts, click
here.
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Catch Some Zzzs for Free
Updated 10/27/2008 3:38:25 PM
By Laura Moss
I once took a (surprisingly comfortable) nap on the floor of the
Cairns International Airport in Cairns, Australia. My friends and I
were too exhausted to continue to roam the city streets any longer and
too cheap to pay for another night in the hostel. So we camped out in
the terminal until our 5 a.m. flight and not only got a few decent
hours of sleep, but also warm showers and free coffee.
So if you have a layover—and not enough time or cash to spring for a hotel room—why not sleep in the airport?
Once a sport for young, budget-conscious travelers, napping in the
terminal has become a lot more common now that airlines aren’t as
generous with complimentary hotel vouchers as they once were. In fact,
for some, sleeping in airports has become an art form worthy of its own
website, the aptly named
www.sleepinginairports.com.
The site offers annual rankings of the world’s best and worst sleeping
airports and is full of helpful advice for the weary flier looking to
catch a few Zs.
But the first rule for sleeping in airports is to be prepared with an emergency airport survival kit containing such items as:
• An inflatable pool raft for those cold, hard airport floors
• Vicks VapoRub (A dab under the nose blocks out bad terminal odors.)
• An alarm clock or a pen and Post-it note (Write “Wake me at 5:00 a.m. and stick it on you—it works.)
For the complete list of items for an airport survival kit, click
here.
Looking for other ways to save money while traveling? Why not stay in a hostel? Hostel bookings have steadily increased over the past few years—and so have the ages of those booking rooms. For more information, click
here.