Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is the a guide to the world’s most wondrous and curious places. In an age where everything seems to have been explored and there is nothing new to be found, Atlas Obscura celebrates a different way of looking at the world. If you’re searching for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you’ll find them.

A wonderful project by Joshua Foer. Excited to seeing this database grow.

Switzerland does everything for your perfect summer holiday.

This Switzerland commercial made me smile and miss my childhood home.

(Thank you Alex)

swissview


SWISSVIEW is my new go-to-iPad-app when I am in desperate need of some major zen. It features more than 1,600 films of spectacular helicopter footage of Switzerland. Every film comes with useful information on the overflown regions and places. Nice.

(thank you Ted)

Brooklyn: 41 Reasons Why

This beautifully analog Brooklyn guide offers 41 reasons to visit including Bamonte’s, a family-run, fourth generation Italian restaurant; the Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop; The City Reliquary, an idiosyncratic museum of New York; the thrills and spills of Coney Island; and pelmeni in Brighton Beach. And that’s just five of them.

Get it here.

Rainbow Hotel

These images of the Saguaro hotel in Palm Springs are putting a huge smile on my face.

(via Joanna / My Modern Met)

The Journey of Checked Baggage

Delta Air Lines sent a hardcase with six outward-facing video cameras as checked baggage aboard a flight from Atlanta to New York City to show the behind-the-scenes journey of checked baggage. Quite fascinating.

(via LaughingSquid)

MOVE + EAT

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

EAT from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage. I heart projects like this one. What a cool way to turn your trip into a art project and change the way you look at things. Hat tip!

Rick Mereki : Director, producer, additional camera and editing
Tim White : DOP, producer, primary editing, sound
Andrew Lees : Actor, mover, groover

(via Paul Octavious’ blog)

Mapnificient

Mapnificent shows you the area you can reach with public transport from any point in a given time. It is available for major cities in the US and world wide. Hat tip to the Mapnificent creator StefanWehrmeyer.

(via Daniel Howells)

Travel Boster Seat

With summer traveling season upon us, I am excited I discovered this Travel Boster Seat. It’s both an EEC approved car booster seat and a practical backpack in one cunning design, so there’s no need to stress about booster seats when traveling; use as a normal backpack or as hand luggage on the plane, and convert into a booster seat as necessary.

Kuoni The Detourist



Swiss Travel Agency Kuoni released its 2010 Annual Report, appearing this time in the form of a daily newspaper. The Brand Report took on the function of a feuilleton, as an independent features section within the publication. It stems from the third Kuoni Getaway Council in Venice and offers a captivating compilation of texts on tourism. Renowned authors, essayists and scholars such as Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Orhan Pamuk, Thomas Steinfeld, Wolfgang Scheppe and Simonetta Carbonaro are represented with contributions.

the-detourist-100.org

(Thank you Manuel)

Iceland

Absolutely fantastic video that promotes Iceland. We agree with The Cool Hunter: Tourism Offices around the world, take note, this is how you promote a country!

Inspired by Iceland Video from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo.

SVA Masters Workshop: Summer 2011

poster by Louise Fili Ltd

Now this makes me swoon, who wouldn’t want to study design & typography in Venice and Rome? The SVA Masters Workshop, now in its third season, is a unique way to learn about type, book and lettering design, as well as architecture, art, archeology and even Italian cuisine. Study with some of the best typographers in Italy. Visit the Trajan Column and the Pantheon, and partake in exclusive visits to the Roman and Imperial Forums. Examine the inscriptions on Roman structures that have long been accepted as a typographic ideal.

This intensive hands-on workshop in design history, theory and practice allows participants to research and analyze the roots of typography, draw type and letters from the classic models while practicing contemporary design along with a faculty of Italian and American designers, historians and publishers. Taught by leading design professionals, this workshop emphasizes the multidisciplinary and entrepreneurial nature of contemporary design. In addition, collaborations with noted Italian design organizations and media businesses result in unique (and potentially publishable) print and Web projects.

Check out the prestigious faculty and photos from previous years.

SVA Masters Workshop: Summer 2011

World Map Pillow

I discovered this World Map Pillow on Etsy and find it quite charming.

AirBnB

In case you like to travel but don’t know about AirBnB yet, watch this brand new video:

Planely

Planely from Planely on Vimeo.

Planely is a new service that tries to make your flights a better social experience by showing you who is on your next plane.

Cool idea. If only it didn’t rely on Facebook. (le sigh)

(thanks sis)

City Hall Subway Stop

Here’s a blog post that makes want to jump up and run to take the 6 train:

“New York’s famous City Hall subway station, one of the most gorgeous gems in the world of mass transit, has been closed for decades but now it can be viewed again by in-the-know riders of the 6 train.

Although it’s not open to the general public, there’s a way in-the-know New York subway riders can still see this famous and beautiful architectural glimpse at the city’s past. The 6 train used to make all passengers leave the train at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, but no longer.

If you have a little extra time, you can stay on the train and view the City Hall Station as the train makes its turnaround.”

I can’t wait. Can NOT wait to do this.

(via jalopnik and @HelenWalters)

Fasten Seat Belts | Asia

Excited to see that Fasten Seat Belts now came out with a guide for Asia. (I posted about their Europe guide a while back.) Fasten Seat Belts is a lighthearted guide to avoid missunderstandings while travelling.

It’s an innovative (visual) way to learn languages and pick up cultural tips. The videos describe various “Dos and Don’ts” (gestures, traditions, manners…) relating to 6 countries of South Asia : Japan, China, Korea, India, Thailand and Vietnam. The videos offer a chance to learn some simple and useful expressions in the official languages of these 6 countries.

Did you know that in China people count to ten only using one hand? See below:

China 6_Count to 10 using only one hand. from 43 Films on Vimeo.

And the guides now even come as iPhone Applications. Nifty!

(thank you Barbara)

Jet Blue All You Can Jet

Jet Blue is doing it again: Enjoy unlimited travel from September 7 to October 6, 2010 with our All You Can Jet Pass, now with two great options! Use your AYCJ Pass for business, for pleasure, to visit your favorite cities or to meet with a client. You might as well just do it all. With more than 60 cities to choose from, and for just $699* for the AYCJ-7 and $499* for the AYCJ-5, it’s a deal you can’t pass up.

If I didn’t have little kiddos, I’d be saying hi to my friends all over the US. Yep.

This is not Brooklyn

swissmiss family is spending july on the swiss country side. We are waking up to cowbells. I kid you not. We are so amazed by our audio surroundings that G and I spent a good portion of the morning not only staring at our view (above) but also recording the cowbell-moo-sound (thank you iPhone). Here, please enjoy, our 24/7 soundtrack to our vacation! Yay Switzerland! And pardon my slower pace in posting in the coming 3 weeks.

Link to our recorded cowbell-background-music.

Cow-Trekking

Ok, so are you ready for this? There’s a farm in Hemishofen Switzerland that let’s you ride on cows. Yep. For real. We are talking about the beautiful swiss-brown-fluffy-ear-haired cows.

Trekking tours last half a day, so you have enough time to really bond with your cow. If 4h seems too much, there’s also a short-bonding version of 1.5h.

I can’t stop smiling and looking at my calendar, trying to find a date to schedule one of these in july when this family will be spending some time in good old Switzerland!

(via HowdyHeidi)

searching for swiss design destinations

Jenny Lee, a swissmiss reader is about to travel to Switzerland, asked me the following question:

As a designer and avid type fan, I mainly associate Switzerland as the mecca of European design. Are there any places you suggest that are a must for a designer to visit?

Any swiss readers out there with some insider tips?

AirBnB

In case you have friends that are stuck somewhere due to the closed airspace over Europe, have them check out AirBnB! Fantastic resource with affordable and cool paces to stay!

New Blog: HowdyHeidi

I am part of a brandnew blog project called HowdyHeidi. It’s a first collaboration between Switzerland Tourism and myself.

Switzerland Tourism NYC approached me last year with the idea of starting a visual archive and resource for people interested in everything swiss. They came up with the name, HowdyHeidi and I did the branding and site design. Fabulous John Ford did his usual code magic and voila, we are up and running!

Check out HowdyHeidi, a brand new visual archive and resource for everything swiss.

Trolley Scooter von Samsonite und Micro

1ed5e0c97acarry on scooter

Here is a product that got an instant I WANT out of me. How cool would it be to zip down the long hallways in the airport on this Trolley-Scooter from Samsonite and Micro. Two swissmiss thumbs up!

(thank you andrea)