SPECIAL INTEREST TRAVEL:
Thank goodness everyone does not covet the same travel destination nor have the same interests when it comes to travel.
Some of the more interesting are:
Movie on Location Vacations. Not all movies or TV series are produced on the back lots of Hollywood and Burbank, nor are all TV series, filmed on location in New York City (‘Sex in the City’, ‘NY-CSI’, ‘Law & Order’, ‘The Soprano’s’). In recent years, several states have aggressively solicited movie companies to film within their state: new Mexico, Utah, the Carolinas, Louisiana, and Florida, and Hawaii.
Whether you’re vacationing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, or Nashville,check out: www.onlocations.com the latest planned and impromptu filming sites.
You’ve seen the film locations on the big screen and/or TV; now, visit the locales in person. Enterprising tour companies offer visits to past as well as present scenes of popular TV series and movies.
Daily Walking or Jogging on Vacation: Check out www.Walkjogrun.net
(powered by Google): provides jogging and walking maps of various cities.
MEDICAL TOURISM:
Over one and a half million Americans travel outside the United States annually for medical care treatment. It is a one billion dollar business. How can this be? Are we not supposed to as a nation have the most advanced medical facilities in the world? Why would a person leave our borders for medical care elsewhere?
The answer is relatively simple. Cost savings and desperation for a cure for medical services not legally allowed or not covered by insurance within the United States. Major dental, joint replacement, plastic surgery, and in vitro fertilizationare the most sought after treatments.
ADVENTURE TRAVEL:
The world is becoming smaller and people are living longer. The so-called “baby boomers” are no longer content with soft-adventure vacations and re-visiting the well-trampled tourist destinations. Many now crave more physically challenging and more intellectually inspiring travel experiences. Exploratory - hands on participatory experiences - are the new buzz words. Nature and culture are emphasized.
What was once considered remote: Galapagos, Easter Island, The Amazon, Asia, Africa, Iceland, and Antarctica, are all now more easily navigable and within practical reach.
The key to a successful travel adventure experience is proper planning: search for the very best explorer guides: historians, naturalists, wildlife animal experts, professional guides that specialize in escorting small groups of like-minded travelers. Request recommendations from past adventure travelers.
If you really are intent on going far out, you may be interested in looking into the practicality of space travel. Hard to believe, but in the future if someone refers to you as “a space cadet,” it will be a compliment rather than a degoratory assessment of your character-personality.
“Spacey” will be in!
Space Exploration Company (SXC) is “shooting” to send passengers on a 45minute, 35 mile journey above the earth’s surface at speeds up to Mach 2.9. No seat assignments: e veryone flys first class - you’re the only passenger - the pilot and you sit side by side!
You must meet certain medical requirements in order to book. Wonder who will be willing to offer flight insurance on these journeys and at what cost? A ticket, hopefully “roundtrip”, is in the neighborhood of $100,000. Departures/blastoffs are scheduled from California and Curacao.
Richard Branson has a competing space program in New Mexico.
Now, in the meantime and back down to earth, you can join the cattle-call discomforts of a conventional aircraft flight.