File this under offbeat travel: nuclear tourism. Yup. This is from a few weeks back, but I ran across it again today in my del.icio.us bookmarks and remembered that I wanted to post it. Just proves that, no matter what you’re into, there’s probably some sort of travel destination that caters to it.

Nuclear Tourism: It’s Hot

Saw this’un over at View From the Wing today. Sign up for a pay-as-you-go (i.e. no contract) T-Mobile wi-fi account before Jan. 31, 2008, and you can get 30 days of service free. After the 30 days are up, you pay a flat rate of $6 for up to 60 minutes whenever you log-on and .10/minute after that. A good way to check out the service…

T-Mobile 30 Days Complimentary Service

The Los Angeles Times announced a new blog over the weekend: The Daily Deal Blog. It’s written by Jen Leo, a well-known writer in the travel world and blogosphere. The blog focuses on deals and travel tidbits in the West.

Pardon the non-travel interlude. I read Scott Kirsner’s Bloggers’ Choice: Free Agents or Infomercials yesterday and wanted to comment for TravelPost.com Insider readers. Kirsner’s essay, in a nutshell, is about the ethics involved in blogging and whether bloggers should disclose the freebies and goodies they receive in exchange for posts. For anyone who regularly reads blogs or blogs themselves, the issues he raises are important ones to think about. The story made me want to be clear about the TravelPost.com Insider’s editorial policies:

1. None of the hotels, airlines, travel companies, products or destinations featured on the TravelPost.com Insider have paid or offered goods and services in exchange for placement, nor are we encouraged to blog about advertisers’ products and services. If it happens, it’s purely coincidence.

2. We try to maintain a positive perspective on travel and refrain from making negative or damaging comments about hotels, products or companies. We have enough opinionated TravelPosters posting their real thoughts on destinations around the world in our hotel reviews and travel blogs.

3. We spend very little time covering news and developments at companies who do exactly what we do. Basically, we’re convinced we offer a great source for relevant, unbiased hotel reviews and travel advice, and we leave it at that.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments about what you see on the TravelPost.com Insider, always feel free to leave your rants and raves in the comment boxes following each post or contact us directly. We always respond, unless of course you spam us with irrelevant self-promotional drivel. In that case, we swiftly delete you.

Remember our mention of the effort to create a Passenger Bill of Rights for airline travelers? Well, now there’s a blog devoted to the effort.

Coalition for Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights

While we’re on the subject of Hawaii, See The Globe has a recommendation for any future visitors to the island state’s Big Island. Snag a copy of Hawaii The Big Island Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook. Always nice to have a little endorsement when you’re picking up a guidebook. After all, you won’t know how good it is until you arrive in your destination.

While many have emphasized the lack of damage from the recent 6.7 earthquake in Hawaii, there is at least one major attraction that has closed until further notice. Hawaii’s Hulihe’e Palace, an 1838 building made of lava rock, has closed its doors indefinitely. Cracks are now visible in every room, but only three or four of the building’s historic artifacts from early Hawaiian culture were damaged.

Hawaii Quake Shutters Beloved Palace

What will they think of next? Stingy tippers who leave less than 17 percent and rude customers are being outed with increasing frequency at blogs run by waiters, including WaiterRant, which is probably the most popular blog of this ilk.

I kinda love it. I’m big on the 20 percent tip rule. Waiting tables at a low-rent country club in coastal Massachusetts two summers in a row sent me on a lifelong crusade to tip fairly.

The Tipping Point via McClatchy-Tribune News Service

The Tranquilo Traveler blog, written by avid traveler and Moon guidebook writer Joshua Berman, is one part personal travel blog, one part resource. After spending over a year traveling the world with his wife, Berman has amassed quite an array of colorful advice and tidbits for the world wanderer, as well as the average joe who’s longing for the next three-day weekend.

In
Moleskine: The Books Behind the Blog, Berman’s meditation on the famous brand of blank books left me quite close to ditching Word Press and going back to simple pen and paper.

Taken from earlier in his adventures (last fall to be precise), Berman’s take on the ubiquitous Indian dish kichuri (It’s What’s For Lunch. For Dinner. And in Between) not only chronicles his humorous and frequent run-ins with this staple food, but also includes a recipe. I love those practical touches.

And it’s all done completely without any clever marketing speak, advertising or other commercial miscellany.

Check it out…

Tranquilo Traveler blog