You Say Vainilla, I Say Vanilla

I’m in the midst of packing for a two-week trip to Eastern Europe, so here are a few things worth checking out in the meantime.

In a nice departure from the usual travel magazine ho-hum, the September issue of Budget Travel has a nice piece on Veracruz – the land of vanilla . The print story is naturally more luscious than the online version, but it’s worth reading there if you don’t get the mag. I’ve probably bought back a gallon of vanilla by now from my trips to Mexico – it’s a great gift for anyone who likes to bake and the prices are jaw-dropping cheap compared to what you’d pay at home.

A few posts back I mentioned a great rundown on traveler prices in 94 countries , put together by a guy named Rob Meyer. You can see an interview with Rob in Jen Leo’s L.A. Times Travel Blog.

Gadling reports on a new book in Thailand with advice on how to marry a foreign man . Hold the outrage until you read the Freakonomics chapter on which online personals ads women respond to compared to those that men respond to.

Flying on an Asian airline with a dorky name like One Two Go looks like trouble .

Like a secret cabal in the X-files, a few hotel and cruise execs have a huge influence on the hot destinations in our future . My old home of Hoboken is slated to be a hot travel spot. Who knew?