Travel

via Bob 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇦 (@bielsubob@infosec.exchange): Canada built 44 bridges and tunnels across a single stretch of highway so that animals could cross without dying, and collisions with wildlife there have fallen by more than 80%, with grizzly mothers now teaching their cubs to use the crossings like a route the family has always known

Banff National Park’s 44 wildlife crossings — six vegetated overpasses and 38 underpasses, paired with fencing along the Trans-Canada Highway — have cut wildlife-vehicle collisions by more than 80% (96% for elk and deer). What I find most interesting is the multi-decade feedback loop: 250,000+ camera-logged crossings show animals learning the routes and passing that knowledge to their offspring, so the infrastructure gets more effective over time.

via Jules she/her (@afewbugs@social.coop): I did this through https://ivsgb.org/ who are still going by the way, and I highly recommend the experience - spend a few weeks to a few months living and working with a bunch of other young people from all over the world, doing something useful. I probably learned more about being a human in a diverse world from this experience than I did from my subsequent four years as an undergrad.

International Voluntary Service is a UK charity, founded in 1931 as the British branch of Service Civil International, that places volunteers on community projects worldwide. Its listings range from short-term workcamps of a few weeks to long-term placements of up to a year, with a solidarity fund to help volunteers who couldn’t otherwise afford to participate.

via The Conversation U.S. (@TheConversationUS@newsie.social): Attached: 1 image

Researchers collected more than 500 dung samples from impala, zebra, wildebeest, and giraffe at a South African reserve to measure stress hormones against daily tourist counts. It’s a clever, low-tech way to answer a question that otherwise relies on guessing from animal behavior — and it matters, since tourism dollars are what fund the conservation in the first place.

Weather Spark presents historical climate averages for any location on Earth — temperature, precipitation, cloud cover, and daylight — as beautiful year-round charts. Not a forecast tool, but exactly what you want when picking dates for a trip or wondering what a place is actually like in March.

InsureMyTrip is a comparison marketplace for travel insurance, letting you quote and compare comprehensive, medical, cruise, and annual plans from multiple providers side by side. Recommended by Serán and Wanda as a good starting point when figuring out coverage for an upcoming trip.

Daniel Jalkut suggests registering a separate Apple Account for each country you visit regularly, so you can install the region-locked apps that local businesses increasingly require. Bonus tip: grab a travel eSIM with a local phone number so you can actually complete those signups.

Interesting perspective on the experience of being in a place. It’s likely not the same place now as it was when you were last there.

Washington State made transit fare-free for everyone 18 and under in 2021, and the results are striking: nearly 15 million youth trips in 2023, plus another 1.5 million on the ferries. Agencies paired the free fares with outreach — classroom visits, field trips, and bus-riding lessons — so kids actually knew how to use the system.

via MacStories (@macstories@macstories.net): Globetrotter: Your Photos and Memories on a World Map https://www.macstories.net/reviews/globetrotter-your-photos-and-memories-on-a-world-map/

Globetrotter is a beautifully-designed iOS app that plots your photo memories on a world map, complete with route visualization for day trips, 3D landmark collection, and year-in-review summaries. As someone who loves both photography and maps, this looks like a compelling way to revisit travel memories.

Some friends referred us to this site recently. We aren’t big cruise-type people, but you never know …

My sweetheart discovered this program recently and was able to meet me at the gate as a result. 😘

via kottke.org: This map shows the 50 countries in the world where you can (mostly) drink the tap water. But: “Fewer than one billion people have a tap at home that issues potable water.”

via kottke.org: The Loneliest Road in Every State in America. Only about 200 vehicles travel on the 414-mile stretch of state route 11 in Alaska each day.

Huh, fascinating take on what it means to be the remote launch point for the world’s most remote travel destination.

via Martijn Faassen: One of the things I like to do when winding down is watch Jared Rydelek (Weird Explorer) taste some unusual fruit and review it. I am years behind in his voluminous archive of videos so there is always more to watch. So many types of fruit, it’s wonderful!

via Boris Mann: If anyone on #TrainJam wins the lottery, please take me on this deluxe travel + food trip.

via Adrianna Tan: In 2008 I started spending extensive amounts of time in Indonesia and this post I wrote back then, of being in a small town, brings back all the feels.

via John Voorhees: Söka, an app to build travel bucket lists, is one of the best implementations of an AI feature I’ve seen. Instead of being gimmicky, it helps kick off exploring a new location, providing ideas for places to visit that you might not have thought of.

via [John Gruber at Daring Fireball]: Terrific update to one of my very favorite iOS apps.

via Nita Lake Lodge:

A photographer friend on Facebook writes: If you are exploring Scotland, Skye is a must! We highly recommend staying at the romantic storybook cottage, Lusa Bothy.

Tindra on Mastodon: Periodic reminder that if you’re in a hotel where the blackout curtains have an annoying gap and won’t stay closed, the hangars with the clippies are great at holding them together so you can actually get some darkness and sleep

via kottke.org: A list of 30 roadtrips you can take this summer on all seven continents: safaris in Uganda, travelling the east coast of Taiwan, an epic Patagonia trip, coast-to-coast US roadtrip, driving Adelaide to Melbourne, etc.

via John Voorhees: App Spotlight: ETA

via Simon Gray: The Danish artist Thomas Dambo put up these large, wooden trolls all around Denmark. They are located in various hidden or hard-to-get-to places, making them perfect as destinations for hikes (or bike rides).

The Mandagies: 10 Stunning Washington Beaches To Make You Drive To The Coast Right Now - The Mandagies

Apparently the new hotness in Japan is Morioka.

Me (on Facebook, now deleted):

Looking for recommendations for places to stay / see / eat in Barcelona. We will be there two nights in November.

Me (on Facebook, now deleted):

Planning a ~7-day road trip from Florence to Lisbon in mid-November. If you were making this trip, what would you put on your agenda?