If you’re a fan of the holiday and enjoy being a little bit scared, here are some great sites to help you plan a spooky vacation for yourself.

- GhostTraveller lists a whole series of haunted road trips you can plan out if you’d like to be scared by more than bad drivers and weak diner coffee.

- Lucky Travels has a list of some haunted castles in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. Can you visit a castle that’s haunted by Mary Queen of Scots or one haunted by Merlin? Try it and see what happens!

- Angels Ghosts has more than a dozen haunted hotels for you if you think you can fall asleep among the spirits.

Are you brave enough to book a vacation with the help of those sites?

Boo!

(Photo by me)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

However, tech-type geeks looking for love on their travels will soon have another reason to go. Microsoft is going to launch their new Microsoft Surface at the Rio hotel - the i-bar so to speak. It’s a set up of six tables where guests can play games, flirt, send messages to each other, and order drinks from the bar.

You can do the bar equivalent of online dating right there at the table but instead of wondering if the person you’re chatting up REALLY looks like Angelina Jolie you can glance over and see for yourself.

Check it out:

Video: Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas

What do you think? Is it worth booking a flight?

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Re-Time wants to help you adjust. They claim that their LED glasses can help stop jet lag in its tracks.

The company used data from sleep researchers to conclude that a combination of blue and green light can help to change your circadian rhythm – it’s the upset in that rhythm that causes you to feel so out of sorts due to jet lag. The glasses use LED lights to emit the blue-green combination to keep your body clock in check.

I wish I understood the science behind this claim, because I’m having trouble imagining how LED lights in my eyes could possibly make me less groggy when I get off a plane six time zones away. It just doesn’t sound particularly comfortable. I’d really prefer to watch a movie or read a book than have lights in my eyes, even if the colors are allegedly soothing.

However, they could be worth trying out if you’re going to be doing a lot of back and forth traveling. No one wants to waste time when they’re in a vacation destination – who wants to try to catch up on sleep when there are sights to see? And if you’re going straight from the airport to an important business meeting, you need to be on the ball.

Unfortunately, Re-Time is still working out license and distribution deals so the glasses aren’t for sale yet but you can check out their site and fill out a form to be notified when they’re available for purchase.

What do you think? Would you be willing to try sitting on a plane with futuristic-looking glasses emitting LED lights in your eyes in an effort to avoid jet lag? I figure it’s worth a shot. they can’t possibly make you more tired so what do you have to lose?

Besides, it’s got to be less embarrassing than trying to convince your pharmacist that you need some Viagra for jet lag!

(Image: Re-Time // Source)

Technorati Tags: jet lag, travel, traveling, geeky traveller, time zones, led

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Image details: The Merger of Pfizer and Warner-Lambert served by picapp.com

No, really. People are using Viagra to treat jet lag!

It’s still being disputed and experts still suggest you’d be better off trying other things like getting outside for fresh air or ingesting a bit of caffeine, but the Viagra approach is… interesting.

On the other hand, you sort of have to wonder about the, uh, side effects. Could be an all-around frustrating experience. Ahem.

(Source)

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Dinner in the Sky is an organization that will use a crane to hoist you and over 20 of your friends or colleagues way up above the ground so you can eat your meal with an incredible view. You can book yourself for any kind of meal, whether you want to start your morning off with breakfast and heart palpitations, cocktails, or a nerve-wracking full dinner. Each session can also be booked for up to eight hours.

For your session you’ll get a meal for up to 22 people, a chef, waiter, and entertainer, and views you’d never see otherwise. You can also choose from a variety of locations, including castles, vineyards, and more. If trying to keep panic from rising up in your throat is not entertainment enough, you can also book a second crane to lift up some live music or other entertainment.

I can’t even imagine. I have a fear of heights so it would be really bad for someone to spring this kind of surprise on me. Also, what about bathrooms? How annoying would that be to have to have the crane going up and down because people need to pee?

I think I’ll pass. However, although it’s currently only in some European locations and South Africa, there’s talk of it coming to Las Vegas. Maybe Heather over at The Las Vegas Adventurer can check it out and report back to us (haha).

(Source // Photo from Dinner in the Sky

Post from: Geeky Traveller

If you’re going to be in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Chicago at any point and you’re feeling like saving some money, check out MyOpenBar.com.

The site works by letting you know which venues are currently giving out free food, free drinks, or both. It’s all reader-submitted and they share descriptions and ratings, letting you know exactly what the venue is all about. If it continues to do well, it will likely start adding new cities to their listings.

What do you think? Useful or tacky?

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Seriously, look at this thing!

(Technically, they’re saying the design is lunar-inspired, but come on. Go check it out and tell me, TELL ME that’s not a Death Star. Anyone who has seen Star Wars would surely agree.)

I have no idea if it will actually get built or not but it’s pretty damn cool anyway.

(Source)

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Here’s an interesting concept. The Sheraton Waikiki has installed a fun new feature in their lobby – a virtual surf simulator. If you can’t swim, are afraid deep water, or just find you can’t even stand up on a board in the waves, you can still surf with the best of them. Sort of.

You can stand on the totally grounded surfboard, which will then mimic some of the motions of surfing, while you watch the “waves” in front of you on a screen.

What do you think? Lame or fun?

Post from: Geeky Traveller

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? And yet, if you think about it, our sense of smell is the strongest of all five senses. I know that when I opened a box that contained some beautiful tablecloths that belonged to my late grandmother, it wasn’t the image of the cloths that struck the most vivid chord – it was the smell. They smelled like the powder puffs she used to use as sachets in her linen drawers and that was what sent my memory whirling.

When you think of it that way, it’s actually fascinating to think of someone capturing the smells that would remind us of our travels. The salty smell of the ocean, the rich and fruit-laden scent of the jungle, so much more. We can take pictures for visual reminders of the places we’ve seen, we can buy recordings of the music we heard in another country, we can bring home a bottle of sand to touch, we can seek out recipes and ingredients to make the dishes we ate. But the smells? There isn’t much we can do about that. But now it seems we just might be able to someday purchase a scented reminder of the places we have traveled and loved.

I’d love a bubble full of the ocean air on the upper part of the hotel strip in Cancun, maybe another with the smells of the hot and humid jungle surrounding Chichen Itza.

What – or rather, where – would you like to smell right this moment?

(Source)

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What is a thirsty vacationer to do?

Get the Dram Sandal by Reef. While it looks like your average pair of flip-flops, a tiny plug in the sole comes out to reveal that it’s actually a flask where you can hide that tequila you bought for a really good price.

I’m sure that somewhere there is a frat boy or a major party girl who would actually use this, but the thought of drinking out of something that had a foot on it – even my own clean one – and had been walking through the streets… I think I’ll pass thanks!

But you can get one for $25 if you’re thinking there just might be a cause for such an emergency in your travels!

(Disbelief and photos courtesy of the awesome TrustyPony)

Technorati Tags: sandals, flask, travel shoes, weird

Post from: Geeky Traveller