2010 travel bests and worsts
A flying leap from the tallest building in Soweto. A volcano sunrise. Rootbeer at the Mark Twain Dinette. And a $50 parking space. If you spend 47 days on the road chasing travel stories, you run into this sort of thing. Here’s my 2010 list of 31 travel bests, worsts, mosts and leasts, drawn from trips to seven mainland U.S. states, Hawaii, Mexico and South Africa.
1. Worst hotel bargain (luxury category): The Ritz-Carlton in the downtown L.A. Live complex. Instead of paying $459 to sleep here (and $50 to park!), stay at the J.W. Marriott -- downstairs in the same building -- which offers comparable amenities for about half as much.
Info: www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/LosAngeles/Default.htm
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2. Best hotel bargain: Rancho Pescadero, about 50 miles north of Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur, where I paid $185 per night for a 600-square-foot room with a spacious terrace that looked out upon a pool and a near-empty beach.
Info: www.ranchopescadero.com
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3. Best sunrise: On the 9,740-foot-high rim of Haleakala, the dormant volcano that dominates Maui.
Info: www.nps.gov/hale
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4. Best Mexican frescos in Michigan: Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Fresco Cycle at the Detroit Institute of Arts, a Marxist’s tribute to the assembly line, painted in 1932-33.
Info: www.dia.org/art/rivera-court.aspx
Read more: Postcard: Diego (Rivera) does Motown
5. Best hotel interior: Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park.
Info: www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/old-faithful-inn-96.html
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6. Best hotel exterior: Mission Inn, Riverside.
Info: www.missioninn.com
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7. Best big-city freebie: The view from the observation tower at De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
Info: deyoung.famsf.org
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8. Most endearing performance by royalty in a saloon setting: At the Irma Hotel, Restaurant & Saloon, built in 1902 in Cody, Wyo., on the Fourth of July, Kiley Boe (Miss Cody Stampede), Erin Heffron (Miss Rodeo Wyoming) and Kelli Jackson (Miss Rodeo America) lunched and signed autographs on their hats and sashes at the old cherry wood bar.
Info: www.irmahotel.com
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9. Most menacing performance by a motorcyclist in an urban setting: This wheelie-popper in San Francisco.
10. Best acrophobia cure: Orlando Towers, in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. Since 2008, brave or foolish locals and travelers have been making bungee jumps (pictured here) and power swings (rappelling, essentially) from the 300-foot-high mural-covered concrete cooling towers that used to help supply the area with electricity. My power swing cost 360 rand -- about $50.
Info: www.orlandotowers.co.za
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11. Best vegetable encounter: The rare Haleakala Silversword, which grows only amid the volcanic cinders within Haleakala National Park on Maui.
Info: www.nps.gov/hale/naturescience/silversword.htm
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12. Best animal encounter (Acinoyx jubatus category): Cheetah Outreach, Spier Winery, outside Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Info: www.cheetah.co.za
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13. Best animal encounter (Elephus maximus category): The Elephant Sanctuary, Hartbeespoort Dam, South Africa.
Info: www.elephantsanctuary.co.za
Read more: In World Cup’s wake, South Africa travel is up
14. Worst animal encounter (Gallus domesticus category): The Hotelito in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, which looks great but where my slumbers were obliterated by the crowing of hundreds of roosters on a neighboring farm.
Info: www.thehotelito.com
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15. Best mineral encounter: The wave-lashed rocks at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
Info: www.capepoint.co.za
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16. Best use of an out-of-gas aircraft carrier: The USS Midway Museum, San Diego.
Info: www.midway.org
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xPelbyWbkI
17. Most intoxicating Main Street: Disneyland in Anaheim (unveiled by Walt Disney in 1955).
Info: disneyland.disney.go.com
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18. Most sobering Main Street: Marceline, Mo. (where Walt Disney lived as a boy around 1910).
Info: www.uptown-marceline.com
More info: A tale of two Disney Main Streets
19. Fastest way to squander your child’s inheritance: Take her to Disneyland. In 24 hours of relatively measured behavior in and around that Anaheim park, my family party of four dropped $696. Nearly $300 went to the cost of admission.
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VitJq4oAO8g
20. Best Disney value: The paper silhouette cutout studio on Main Street, U.S.A., Disneyland, where they’ll profile your child by hand (and scissors) in about two minutes. Cost: about $9 and up. Some people take their kids in every year.
21. Best natural colors: Morning Glory Pool, near Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.
Info: www.nps.gov/yell
22. Worst unnatural colors: The graffiti-coated walls along Haight Street, San Francisco.
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23. Best architectural copy of a knockoff of a facsimile: New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, N.M.
Info: www.nmartmuseum.org
Read more: Old Santa Fe: 400 and still evolving
24. Best California approximation of a Marrakech crash pad: Figueroa Hotel, downtown Los Angeles.
Info: www.figueroahotel.com
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25. Most egregious use of a literary giant’s name by a Missouri family restaurant: The Mark Twain Dinette, Hannibal, Mo., which may have done a little extra business this year, since 2010 was the centennial of the author’s death.
Info: www.yelp.com/biz/mark-twain-dinette-hannibal
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26. Best busker: Wily Jim, swingabilly singer and guitarist, Santa Fe, N.M.
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI9AEOdDGs&feature=related
27. Least persuasive panhandler pitch: This young couple in Paia, Maui: While the young woman sits demurely, the young man asks, “Wanna help us make love on the sidewalk?” Get it? Inclined to contribute? Me, neither.
28. Best indoor change of pace in an outdoorsy place: The museums of western art, firearms and Plains Indians (not to mention Buffalo Bill himself) at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo.
Info: www.bbhc.org
29. Best use of a motel sign by somebody not in the motel business: The Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph, Mo.
Info: www.ponyexpress.org
30. Worst place on Earth (if you’re allergic to pelicans): Playa La Cachora, Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Info: www.todossantos.cc
Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDbqcWQNGfQ
31. Best bet by promoters of a global sport: Despite deep worries about crime, safety and vuvuzelas, FIFA’s World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa turned out to be a largely trouble-free triumph.
Read more: In World Cup’s wake, South Africa travel is up
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