In 1990, Tom Stuker bought a United Airlines lifetime pass. He has since flown 23 million miles.

Stuker has redeemed countless numbers of miles and at one point didn't sleep in a bed for 12 days.

Stuker told The Washington Post that the pass was the "best investment of my life." //

Stuker — a car dealership consultant from New Jersey — has flown 23 million miles, which, according to The Washington Post, is more miles than any individual in history.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/23/united-airlines-very-frequent-flyer/

Cox has found that Stonehenge once acted as an echo chamber, leading some to believe it was a ritual site for those belonging to an elite inner circle. //

The problem with acoustic archaeology is that sound disappears, so we can't ever be certain about what was done there.

A drive down Bolivia's infamous "Death Road" takes travellers into a world where two resources have provoked fascination, misunderstanding and controversy for centuries: coca and gold.

After cresting the 4,800m Cumbre pass, the trufi (shared taxi) plunged into a cloud of swirling mist. Inside the vehicle it felt strangely peaceful, as if we were trapped in a bubble, which was perhaps for the best given we were travelling along the "Camino de la Muerte", or Death Road.

Running from the high-altitude Andean city of La Paz to the subtropical Yungas valleys and the Amazonian lowlands beyond, the 64km Yungas Road involves a sharp 3,500m descent. Parts of the highway are only 3m wide; there is a series of sharp turns and blind corners; and mini waterfalls splash down the surrounding rockface. Safety barriers make only a rare appearance – far more common are roadside shrines: white crosses, bunches of flowers, yellowing photos.

During the 1990s, so many people died in accidents on the highway – built by Paraguayan prisoners of war following the catastrophic Chaco War (1932-35) – that the Inter-American Development Bank described it as "the world's most dangerous road".

Bucking and weaving along the rugged contours of Norway's fractured coastline, the 670km road to the Artic is a triumph of human ingenuity and perseverance.
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Norway's coastal road from the town of Stiklestad to the Arctic city of Bodø is a 670km journey between two very different worlds. It's also one of the most beautiful road trips on the planet.

At one end is the quiet sophistication of central Norway, with its perfectly manicured meadows and oxblood-red wooden cabins. At the other is the spare, serene beauty of the north: a world of glaciers, ice-bound mountains and empty, far horizons. Connecting the two, the Kystriksveien – a route also known as the Coastal Way or Fv17 – charts a sinuous path along the coast, bucking and weaving along rugged contours all the way to the Arctic.

The Scandinavian nation is blessed with one of the most beautiful yet difficult stretches of coast in Europe. Seeming to wrap itself around the country like a protective shield from the freezing Arctic, Norway's coastline appears to have shattered under the strain, riven as it is with islands and fjords cutting deep fissures inland. Along such a coast, it seems impossible that a road should exist here at all. In short, it seems like a miracle.

Home to Portugal's "mountain of stars" and some of Europe's least light-polluted skies, the Alentejo region is best seen at night.
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A long twisting road leads up Portugal's highest mountain, and here, unlike many other European summits, visitors can drive right to the top. The peak rises 1,993m above sea level, and although its actual name is Torre (tower), most people just call it by the same designation as the range it lofts over: Serra da Estrela or "mountain of the stars".

By day, the drive offers wonderful views across the undulant landscape of this narrow country – from the red hills of Spain in the east to the blue Atlantic Ocean in the west. However, the real spectacle comes as the sun starts to drop. Not only is this mountain a popular spot to watch golden sunsets, but for those who stay later, it offers a glimmering night-time fresco that covers the heavens, made up of millions of white pinpricks scattered in glorious imperfection.

Over the past decade, Portugal has gained recognition for being one of the top places in the world for travellers to observe the night sky, thanks to the creation of the 3,000 sq km Dark Sky Alqueva reserve, in Portugal's central Alentejo region. In 2011, the reserve was certified as the world's first Starlight Tourism Destination by the Starlight Foundation, a Unesco-supported international organisation that promotes science and tourism. This status celebrates the region's ideal viewing conditions (low levels of light pollution and an average of 286 cloudless nights per year, which result in some of Portugal's darkest skies), but also the wider tourism infrastructure it has inspired, which is set up to cater specifically to stargazers.

Stretching 2,700km from Laverton in Western Australia to Winton in far-off Queensland, the Outback Way is a great diagonal "shortcut" across the nation that saves weeks of travel.

Travel medical insurance

The Washington Post is reporting that the US Customs and Border Protection agency is seizing and copying cell phone, tablet, and computer data from “as many as” 10,000 phones per year, including an unspecified number of American citizens. This is done without a warrant, because “…courts have long granted an exception to border authorities, allowing them to search people’s devices without a warrant or suspicion of a crime.”

CBP’s inspection of people’s phones, laptops, tablets and other electronic devices as they enter the country has long been a controversial practice that the agency has defended as a low-impact way to pursue possible security threats and determine an individual’s “intentions upon entry” into the U.S. But the revelation that thousands of agents have access to a searchable database without public oversight is a new development in what privacy advocates and some lawmakers warn could be an infringement of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

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As a minimalist, I can easily fit everything I need into one carry-on bag. Here’s how I do it.

Welcome to Clearing Customs, by Craig Thompson. This space is part blog, part annotated bibliography. It’s a collection of thoughts, information, links, and articles about cross-cultural interaction and how we deal with transitions from place to place. It’s for those of us who, on our journey, sometimes have to check the box “something to declare.”

Over the years I’ve created a collection of new terms for old things—things that are common to traveling and living overseas but that haven’t had common labels. Most of them have come to me while I’m in the air, looking out the window or thumbing through an inflight magazine.

• bait and glitch
• direct flight to the dog house
• metapacking
• eurekathing
• tetrisness
• TSAT
• fortnightlies
• vontrappish
• flotsam and jetsam and thensam
• disafearance
• duffling
• terminal fowliage
• flaggle
• making a this-line’s-not-for-you-turn
• glizing
• preseating
• passenger of imminent domain
• single-entré seating
• seatemic (pronounced see-uh-tehm-ic)
• post-ping che-klatches
• visatrig

Travel Mode removes vaults from your computers and mobile devices, except those you mark as safe for travel.

Travel Mode is included with every 1Password subscription. If you’re stopped for inspection while traveling, the only vaults on your devices will be the ones you’ve marked as safe for travel.

Right before you travel, turn on Travel Mode:

1. Click your name in the top right and choose My Profile.
2. Turn on Travel Mode.
3. On the devices you’re traveling with, open and unlock 1Password. Vaults that haven’t been marked as safe for travel will be removed from the app.

When you’re done traveling, return to My Profile and click to turn off Travel Mode.

Whenever you turn Travel Mode on or off, you’ll need to open 1Password on your devices while connected to the internet for the change to take effect.

While we’ve recommended tons of things to make traveling safe and easy for those who have to, we also assume you’ll probably need the basics (a.k.a. a good suitcase) to get you where you’re going, too. So we’ve rounded up the best hard-side luggage as praised by the most enthusiastic reviewers on Amazon, for all sorts of trips. ///

All spinner type

I’ve been pulling around a trusty pair of nesting soft-sided Samsonite bags for the last few years that have served my husband and me well for our travels domestically and abroad. No complaints really. But some upcoming travel plans have us needing to invest in an additional set of bags, which has sent me down the rabbit hole of researching what to get.

My biggest question is whether or not to make the switch from soft-sided bags to hard-shell cases.

(2)Activities described in paragraph (1) include—
(A)the evacuation when their lives are endangered by war, civil unrest, or natural disaster of—
(i)United States Government employees and their dependents; and
(ii)private United States citizens or third-country nationals, on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable, with such reimbursements to be credited to the applicable Department of State appropriation and to remain available until expended, except that no reimbursement under this clause shall be paid that is greater than the amount the person evacuated would have been charged for a reasonable commercial air fare immediately prior to the events giving rise to the evacuation;

Generally, individuals evacuated on a U.S. government-coordinated transport, including charter and military flights or ships, even if those transports are provided by another country’s government, must sign an Evacuee Manifest and Promissory Note (Form DS-5528) note prior to departure. The Department of State uses the Form DS-5528 to document who got on which transport, and it lets us know how to contact evacuees for billing purposes.

U.S. law requires that departure assistance to private U.S. citizens or third country nationals be provided “on a reimbursable basis to the maximum extent practicable.” By taking a U.S. government coordinated transport, evacuees are obligated to repay the cost of their transportation. The amount billed to evacuees is based on the cost of a full fare economy flight, or comparable alternate transportation, to the designated destination(s) that would have been charged immediately prior to the events giving rise to the evacuation.

https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCODE-2017-title22/USCODE-2017-title22-chap38-sec2671

Although I’ve seriously considered renting a car through Turo multiple times, I’ve instead opted for a more expensive rental through a traditional car rental company. And, the primary reason each time was a concern about insurance.

There are often great deals to be found on rental cars. But, finding the lowest rates and going through all of the potential discounts can be overwhelming. Luckily, this is where AutoSlash comes in. In this post, I’ll share all you need to know about AutoSlash to help you save money on your next car rental.