Turbo Travelguide

Archive for September, 2009

All years round truffles can be found in Istria, but the season of the hottest and most exclusive white truffle starts now. The white truffle is the most expensive truffle and can cost € 1500 per kilo. But the cheaper black species are found in Istria. Once the truffles were exported mainly to Italy, nowadays 70% of the find were bought by Croatian restaurants. The vegetarians in this region has also expanded enormously. The truffle is also an important “weapon” in the struggle to get guests from the coastregion. The season thus immediately becomes an attractive holiday. The key word here is small. Agro tourism, family hotels in Old Istrian (land) that houses are homes that flourish in the truffle season. Besides enjoying the truffles in many restaurants there are also truffle festivals to attend. Ingredients of these festivals are usually a fair truffle, truffle competitions (who has the biggest and the best), baking the world’s largest truffelpie or demonstrations of truffle searching with dogs. www.istra.hr

Lobster from Norway

From October 1 till 4 in the northern Norwegian city Vadsø the King Lobster Festival as a  “Polar Spectacle” is held. During this celebration in the extreme tip of the county of Finnmark lovers of good food can  learn all about this culinary delicacy. Moreover many forms of crab can be tasted anywhere. Many other polar products during the festival will stand in the spotlight, including dishes with reindeer, grouse, varangerlam and special spices from the northern region. Besides the culinary program there is a contest of  ’sauna sitting’. More information

www.trivago.nl has compiled a top ten of the best  international beaches:

1. Praia de As Catedrais, Spain (Galicia)
2. beach Anse Lazio, Seychelles
3. Jandia beach, Spain (Fuerteventura)
4. Balos, Greece (Crete)
5. Tsambika Beach, Greece (Rhodes)
6. Palombaggia, France (Corsica)
7. Whitehaven Beach, Australia (Queensland, Whitsunday Islands)
8. Hanauma Bay, USA (Hawaii)
9. La Pelosa, Italy (Sardinia)
10. Praia de Copacabana, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)

A British design company says it is working on plans for new sideways, staggered seating on airplanes as a cost-cutting option for airlines to maximize the number of passengers on board. (…) The design theoretically would save money for the airlines because it would allow planes to hold more passengers, and the demand for such concepts could take off, with Irish budget airline Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, saying previously he is open to trying new seating designs.  O’Leary already has thrown his support behind another idea, vertical seating, for Ryanair’s Boeing 737s flying on short trips. Passengers essentially would travel in a secure upright, or standing, position.
[No food, no coffee, no service, standing right up, what's next?] Source: FoxNews

National Geographic made a list of handy Apple iPhone-apps:

1. Next Flight
Got bumped? Leaving early? Next Flight tracks scheduled departures from more than 4,200 airports and 1,100 airlines. It sounds overwhelming, but you can filter by carrier. $2.99

2. UrbanSpoon
Urbanspoon is the gold standard in the U.S., London, Melbourne, and Sydney: Shake your phone, watch the dials spin like an old-school slot machine, and up comes the best guide to local restaurants yet. Free

3. HearPlanet
Like having a tour guide in your pocket, HearPlanet tells you what attractions are nearby and then plays the Wikipedia description aloud. $5.99

4. Air Sharing
Don’t waste time (and money) downloading docs abroad. Air Sharing lets you save HTML Web pages, PDFs, text files, you name it, for off-line perusal anytime, anywhere. $4.99

5. Tweetie
Finally, a practical use for Twitter. With Tweetie you can send vacation pics and witty comments from afar faster and more easily than with any other app. $2.99