Turbo Travelguide

Lifehacker gives you ten tips for a productive travel. Here’s one: $12 per day airport Wi-Fi is like a $60 steak entree at a restaurant with leather seating—it only exists because expense accounts also exist. For those of us footing our own bill, there’s usually a free alternative to the billing demands of coffee shops and air travel waypoints. Gina did us all a favor by rounding up the definitive guide to locating free Wi-Fi, covering the bases from free-as-in-beer offerings to hoping somebody doesn’t mind you’re tip-toe-ing past their very weak encryption. It’s definitely worth the print-out or, more practically, a “Save Page As.”

The Picasso Museum in Paris, one of the major tourist attractions of the French capital, closed its doors on Sunday for a restoration that will last until February 2012. The museum hopes for a better welcome after the renovation for the approximately half million visitors who come each year. Also, the spaces for educational and cultural activities are adapted.  The museum is housed in a Baroque mansion in the Marais district. In the coming months, the collection of approximately five thousand works will be moved elsewhere and after that the construction will begin early next year.

French tree-house

Enjoy the freedom and roam accross the region of Poitou-Charentes. The French region offers from now until October to two 7-day covered wagon arrangements. Pulled by a horse, accommodation for 5 persons and equipped with kitchenette, it is a special attraction for a caravan trip with the whole family. Lovers for a fixed place for the night can choose for a tree-house. A 5-person horse-drawn carriage for three days in high season (July-August) can be booked from € 393.55. Families in the autumn to make this special trip after paying € 317.28 (starting price).
In the midst of the “Parc Floral de la Belle”, south of the city of Poitiers, there are several tree for two – but also for family use (maximum 6 people). The wooden cottages are 4 to 6 meters from the ground and can be reached by a staircase. The high altitude huts all have a perfect view over the 25 hectare forest. Consumers find more information on www.tourisme-deux-sevres.com (horse-drawn carriage), www.tourisme-vienne.com and www.tourisme-vienne.com (tree).

Pod hotels are coming to Manchester. Birmingham-based operator Nitenite, which offers rooms just 70 sq ft in size, is planning to open in the city centre, and has identified a site near Piccadilly Station. The group only operates one other UK hotel, in Birmingham, which opened in 2007. All the rooms offer free Wi-Fi, films and bottled water and rooms will have a rack rate of about £55. The company, which would not disclose the exact location of its Manchester hotel, said its concept was “not about being the most budget hotel on the market”, although it did want to be affordable. Colin Hatt, Nitenite’s chief executive, told Crain’s that its rooms were based on “a luxury yacht cabin” and said it was positioned away from the “no-frills” end of the market. [source]

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently raised the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic alert to Phase 6, meaning the virus cannot be contained. But there’s a lot prudent travelers can do to minimize their risk.

Tips from Examiner

Nice, an article in The Times with ten tips for a perfectly packed suitcase: “Be strict. Think of your trip as a set of events — the pub lunch, the beach day, the city sights — and remember what you wore last time to these places. You know what you really wear and what you don’t — if you pack an extra four shirts “just in case”, you’ll only make your case heavier and have to iron the clothes again on your return.” Read them all.

In short:

1. Hard case — rectangular, not square — with internal elasticated bands.
2. Don’t pack for ‘just in case’
3. Make a list of all items in the case, so you can check them and forget nothing.
4. Start packing trousers
5. Next (T-) shirts.
6. Fold in the trousers and on top jackets.
7. Shoes (in a plastic bag) and ties and belts in empty slots.
8. Strap it all.
9. You could pack in a bundle.
10. Never overpack.

Chinese developers are commemorating the late Michael Jackson by building a scaled-down replica of his Neverland Ranch on an island off Shanghai, a state-run newspaper said on Friday. Investors in the project, which will cost about 100 million yuan ($15 million) to build, hope it will open on Chongming island ahead of next year’s Expo in Shanghai, the China Daily newspaper reported. [source]

Van Gogh painted himself

The Royal Academy of Arts in London presents from January 23  2010 a major exhibition on Vincent van Gogh. It is the largest exhibition on the Dutch painter in Great Britain since 1968, reported the English art establishment Friday.
The Royal Academy of Arts shows ‘The real Van Gogh: the artist and his characters’ 65 paintings, thirty drawings and 35 letters of Van Gogh. Most of these letters the artist wrote to his brother Theo. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam offers from October 9 2009 an exhibition devoted to the letters, at the end of fifteen years research into the correspondence of the painter.

Mio Technology, a world leading navigation provider, officially announced its second blog featuring “real travel experiences” from travelers and backpackers. To echo the brand tagline—“explore more”, Mio is introducing the blog, to share various travel stories that dig out more interesting historical, background and in-depth local knowledge of a country or a city. Opportunities are also available to win a new Mio GPS device by sharing your travel stories on Mio Travel Blog www.miobuzz.tv/travel/.

Futuroscope, also attractive for non-French

There are spectacular new 3 – and dynamic 4D films in Futuroscope. The Futuroscope theme park attractions take visitors on a journey into the future. The recently opened ‘EcoDingo’ is a futuristic race with 3D effects, which also offers some additional, as synchronous moving chairs. Twice as new is the first European animated entirely in digital 3D. In the humorous children’s’ Fly me to the Moon ‘  three young flies are to discover the famous Apollo 11. In December 2009 opens the dynamic 4D movie “Arthur and the Minimoys’, of the same movie from 2006.  With 15 million visitors since its opening in 1987, the Futuroscope is the second largest park in France. www.futuroscope.com