This Week: Travel

It's that time of year when people's thoughts turn to escaping from the daily grind. Whether your vacation takes you across the planet or across city limits, it's always nice to get some advice on where to go, what to see and how to save money and headaches. The following podcasts help with what you need to know about traveling to various destinations, or at least they try to.

Title: Tips for Travelers: The Travel Destination Podcast
Average Length: About 22 minutes
Number of Episodes: 25
Frequency: Every 2-3 weeks
Podcasters: Gary D. Bembridge
Audio or Video: Audio
Quality: Good
Language: G
Website: www.tipsfortravellers.com

Gary Bembridge gives a first hand account of his experiences traveling to various locations. Each episode focuses on a different place such as Hong Kong, Paris, Zimbabwe, Santa Monica, Bangkok and also a few episodes on cruise lines including a voyage on the Queen Elizabeth 2. The knowledge that he shares is both interesting and useful. He gives critiques of where he has stayed, where he has eaten and attractions that are worth checking out. He has very helpful little sections like "Top 10 Useful Tips" or "Top 10 Places to Visit" in a particular city. He also give tips on what to do if you are there for work or vacation. He speaks clearly and doesn't ramble or go off topic. This is a great podcast for those who find themselves on a plane or train for business or for fun. Overall, his podcast is well done on all accounts and I am adding it to my subscription list.

Time Worthy: Yes
Subscription Worthy: Yes
Grade: A+ "Great Work!"

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Title: Geography for Travelers - Travel & Tourism Podcast

Average Length: About 25 minutes
Number of Episodes: 35
Frequency: Every 1-2 weeks
Podcasters: Alan A. Lew
Audio or Video: Audio
Quality: Good
Language: G
Website: www.travelgeography.blogspot.com

Alan Lew is a professor of geography in Arizona. He mentions early on that these podcasts are for his students, but he's gotten sponsors and spiced them up with music since he started. After 35 episodes, he has gotten a little more comfortable with speaking. However, he still sounds as if this is a class he has been teaching every semester for decades on autopilot. I can't say I learned much because I started to drift off. The information is hard to find interesting because of his monotone delivery, droning on about tons of facts with little context as to how it would apply to a tourist. There is great potential in this topic because geography of an area could prove interesting, but it needs something to give it more life than the seamlessly endless monotone lecture that it is now.

Time Worthy: No
Subscription Worthy: No
Grade: C "Needs to work harder."

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Title: On the Road with eTravelogue
Average Length: About 15 minutes
Number of Episodes: 7 (without subscription from iTunes)
Frequency: Weekly
Podcasters: eTravelogue
Audio or Video: Audio
Quality: Fair (lots of static)
Language: G
Website: www.ontheroadwithetravelogue.blogspot.com

Sponsored by eTravelogue.com, a website designed to help people plan road trips, the episodes are made up of phone interviews with representatives of various historic places in the US. Places like national parks, museums, historic battlefields and other educational type locations. The interviews give you a bit of background, information on what to do while you're there and reasons to visit. This podcast is perfect for the history buff or the parent looking for educational places to take the kids. Since they are phone interviews, the quality of the audio is full of static at times, making it hard to listen to. It's not interesting enough to subscribe to. However, if you are looking for informative places to check out on your vacation, this podcast has good suggestions.

Time Worthy: Yes
Subscription Worthy: No
Grade: B "Slightly above average"

Stay tuned next week for podcasts that highlight three different museum collections.

Powering off.