The Summer’s Best Parties

Concierge posted a link on the Summer’s best parties. Not surprisingly Hong Kong, Ibiza, Los Angeles, and London made the list. But dear Concierge, no Brazil? Did you mean just summer everywhere? or just the Northern Hemisphere? And I can’t believe Tokyo didn’t make it either. We’ll have to come up with our own list. Here’s their full list just in case, you’ve still got 8 weeks of unused vacation and a private jet:

London: The Cuckoo Club

St. Tropez: La Voila Rouge

New York City: The Double Seven

Capri: Anema e Core

Ibiza: Pacha

The Hamptons: Pink Elephant, South Hampton

Hong Kong: Volar

Sardinia: Billionaire

Los Angeles: Hyde Lounge

Croatia: Carpe Diem

Tel Aviv: Haoman 17

Las Vegas: Tryst

Photos: Hong Kong Panorama and Venice Aerial View

Two stunning photos. Click the links to view the full size images. Hong Kong Skyline Panorama (link).

Venice, Italy aerial view (link).

The World’s Most Obnoxious Tourists - Is Anyone Surprised?

OK, so I’m sick of the rap that American tourists get around the world. Just because we invade a sovereign nation, say, once every 3-4 years or so, doesn’t mean that our tourists should take the brunt of the heat. And we catch a lot of flack traveling, although in berating US tourists other travelers would always express the caveat that I of course was different from stereotypical Americans. Well, it turns out we’re not so bad. The French are the worst (shocking). According to a recent international survey and a Time magazine article, the French placed second to last behind last placed Chinese and third last placed Indians as the worst ranked tourist in the world. First off, I didn’t know that the Chinese and Indians made up a significant part of tourism. The Japanese were most liked, followed by Germans, British, and Canadians. The U.S. finished 11th overall, but received high marks for trying to speak local languages (huh?) and tipping well.

The survey was taken by employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. for the French travel website Expedia.fr. The study asked respondents to rank clients by nationality on criteria of general attitude, politeness, tendency to complain, willingness to speak local languages, interest in sampling local cuisine, readiness to spend money, generosity, cleanliness, discretion and elegance. The US state department generously provided the funding for the study, thanks again GW!

Where the Hell is Matt? Part 2

I profiled Matt’s original video in our first post. Matt made his first video of him dancing at various destinations in his travels and published in 2004. It became a huge web success and he’s made two more since then. Here’s his most recent. Inspiring. Here’s an HD version (incredible if you have the bandwidth). His website tells the story behind the videos and his travel.