Your Take: Top Airports for Shopping

Amsterdam, Dubai, and Frankfurt claim the top three spots on Shermans Travel's list of the best airports for shopping. Here in the U.S., Portland International scored the highest, coming in at number seven overall. It's not a surprise if you consider outlets like the popular Made in Oregon store where travelers can pick up local food, regional wine, or even a bottle of beer from one of the city's 36 breweries. Fair warning, the full roster will leave you begging for a delayed flight or long layover.

What's your favorite airport for shopping and what's the best thing you ever purchased there? Tell us in the comments section below.

Photo courtesy of Port of Portland

Your Take: Top Airports for Shopping

Backlink: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2011/03/top-airports-for-shopping.html

The Radar: Dickens Reading, Best Airports to be Stranded, Artifacts Returned

• Cozy-up inside Boston's historic Omni Parker House Hotel for an animated reading of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Actor Al LePage, in full Victorian dress, will present the story in the very room Dickens gave the first American reading of his timeless classic in 1867. Catch one of the four performances between November 26th and December 5th. Tickets are $18.67 and can be purchased online at brownpapertickets.com. Proceeds from the event will go to The Greater Boston Food Bank.

• The amenities at these airports leave us begging for flight delays. Matador's "20 Best Airports to be Stranded" includes Hong Kong International with its nine-hole golf course, 3D movie theater, and, yes, this is not a typo, free Wi-Fi. [Matador]

• Yale University and the Government of Peru have come to an agreement to have several artifacts from Machu Picchu returned by early 2011. After a lengthy dispute over whether the artifacts were removed from the country legally, the University has agreed to the return archaeological materials that were excavated by Hiram Bingham III nearly a century ago. [Inside Higher Ed]
  

The blog will be taking a short, holiday hiatus. Happy Thanksgiving to our loyal Intelligent Travel readers!

Photo: Courtesy of the Omni Parker House

The Radar: Dickens Reading, Best Airports to be Stranded, Artifacts Returned

Backlink: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/11/the-radar-dickens-reads-best-a.html

The Radar: Busiest Airports, Wild Winter Trips, Cruise Ship Makes it Home

• Thanksgiving is around the corner with travelers gearing up for plenty of turkey, stuffing, and airline delays. Orbitz' Insider Index recently released its list of the 10 busiest and least busy airports for Thanksgiving travel based on arriving, departing, and connecting flights. Not surprising, Chicago's O'Hare was named the busiest Thanksgiving airport, while neighboring Midway ranks fourth on the least busy scale.  [Smarter Travel]

• Trying to escape the winter doldrums? BBC Travel has put together a list of "Five wild ways to spend the December holiday season." Among the suggestions are swimming with orcas in Norway and zip-lining in Costa Rica. [BBC]
  

• The luxury Carnival cruise ship that experienced engine failure leaving thousands of passengers stranded out on the Pacific for three days, has finally reached shores, docking in San Diego Bay yesterday morning. Passengers were happy to be back on land since the experience at sea had been anything but luxurious. An engine room fire had left the ship without electricity, food, and running water. [Huffington Post]

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Photo: Jim ODonnell/My Shot

Post originale: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/11/the-radar-busiest-airports-liv.html