It's Monday and many of you have just gotten back from weekend getaways. We were stuck in rainy Seattle which had us reminiscing about a beautiful fall visit to Portland. If there are travel plans to the Rose City in your future here are a few digs you might want to consider resting your weary bones more ›

There have been more than enough articles comparing Seattle to Portland -- or Portland to Seattle depending on your perspective. Sometimes the scales lean toward Seattle - sometimes they tip toward Portland and sometimes the scales balance out somewhere in the middle. So forgive us if we forgo crowning anyone the champ in this tale of two cities. more ›

Seattlest has been covering the Occupy Seattle rallies quite a bit--but we've yet to look at the other protests around the country. Shareef Ali is a songwriter/performer from Oakland, California. For the past two months, he has been touring the country by train in support of his newest release "How To End The War". During this time, he's visited multiple Occupy protests, including Seattle and Portland. Here, he reflects on why he supports the movement, and what he hopes it will achieve. more ›

Travelocity wastes an inordinate amount of my time every single time I attempt to use their site. Like an amnesia patient I return over and over just to be reemed once again. I have a feeling I'm not alone. more ›

We all know that vampires don’t age, but us mere mortals sure do - and Bella is one of us (at least for now). So every year around the second weekend of September, the town of Forks, WA (where the action in Twilight is mainly set) rolls out a big ol’ cake and puts on a three-day bash to celebrate Bella’s birthday. more ›

Two years after receiving federal grant money to speed up shipping and passenger travel on the railways along the West Coast, things are finally starting to happen. But don't worry--you can still ride your bike to Portland, if you'd rather. more ›

The restaurant, perched on the hillside of this isolated town of Tofino on the Pacific Coast of Vancouver Island, is called SoBo, for Sophisticated Bohmeian. It takes hours to get here, overland from Nanaimo, a bit faster by air (floatplane or puddle-jumper from the mainland); there's no direct ferry. The town feels a bit like LaConner or Coupeville, touristy yet working-class. When Artie and Lisa Ahier settled here a decade ago, their criterion was simple: no pizza delivery. Not because they intended to start a Domino's franchise, but because they wanted to live in a remote and out-of-the-way community. more ›

After spending two weeks in Italy, checking out floating food markets in Venice, the vineyards in the Collio region of northeastern Italy and sparkling Franciacorta wines in the Alpine lakes district north of Milan, I'm ready to go home. Sounds like I'm whining, but it's tiring work, all this eating, tasting and dinking. more ›

Holiday travel is notoriously difficult, but be prepared for greater delays this year. In case you haven't been following all the hullabaloo and the sudden influx of people's junk on the Internet (if that was even possible), just in time for this, the most joyous of seasons, the Transportation Security Administration has imposed whole body scans, inciting privacy and heath concerns. Out of the two types of whole-body scans, Millimeter Wave and Backscatter X-ray, the latter has raised caused a larger health uproar. The latter type, the health-uproar kind, are what they have at our own Sea-Tac Airport. more ›

8) Last word about smells …The seat cushion may save you in the unlikely event of a water landing, but it is not, we repeat, NOT, an effective flatulence containment device. Neither is the 2-millimeter thick airline blanket. So, Mr. Sneaky McFarterson, quit turning the cabin into a flying gas chamber. more ›

McMenamin's Grand Lodge is a former Masonic lodge located in Forest Grove, Oregon. It is a sleepy little town about 45 minutes west of Portland, just north of the Yamhill Valley with all its wineries, and just short of the Coastal Range on Highway 26. As a result, many non-flatlanders overlook its subtle topographic charm. The town itself is home to Pacific University and a properly bifurcated main drag that winds its way through a quaint, small downtown core, passing by a decent Goodwill and a disproportionately high concentration of live theatres. more ›

The Outback Christmas Tree and Kangaroo Farm lives 49.5 miles north of Seattle and is an independently owned and operated animal haven of awesomeness. The drive is quick, the grounds are quaint, and the hometown Americana is off the charts. 40-minute tours are conducted every Wednesday through Sunday at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. Your guide provides tons of great educational tidbits, all of which are hard to focus on as you’re tramping around paths and pens, convincing yourself this wallaby or that kangaroo likes you best. more ›

Forgetting English is a wonderfully written, powerful compilation of short stories. After reading it, we're not surprised at all that the collection was the winner of the prestigious Spokane Prize for Short Fiction in 2007. Raymond explains that Forgetting English was written over a period of five years. She says, "I began putting the collection together after noticing a theme emerging...that of Americans traveling abroad, discovering themselves in ways not possible while on their home turf." more ›

At the zenith of the luxury movement in sports: New Yankee Stadium, where the best tickets cost $2,625. Not per season--per game. more ›

Seattlest spent the weekend in Gothamist territory to see one of our favorite acts, Japan's Mono, perform one of only two tenth anniversary dates in North America (and with a full orchestra to boot). The show was positively transcendental (pics, official pics), but that's not the point of this post. Instead, we've got to call out the experience we had with the Ace Hotel, as we had plans to stay at the new Manhattan location of the boutique chain. more ›

Maybe there's some good that can come of this--it just seems unlikely we'd hear about both these stories in the same day. First, the Seattle Times filled us in on a young Australian couple stranded in Seattle after their "1985 maroon Toyota [minivan] with British Columbia license plate 684LHC" was stolen "from its parking space on Belmont Avenue on Capitol Hill." (That's just great--stealing a Canadian car from Australians. No wonder America is hated.) In contrast, as we promised, two Seattleites are just returning from an epic motorcycle trip through 13 countries--Matthew Thorn and fiancé Inna Shmelyova rode from Seattle to Tierra del Fuego on dual sport Kawasaki KLR 650s, leaving last November and covering 14,000 miles. Naturally our thought is, How would the Australians feel about a motorcycle trip? more ›

No more staycations--you can still afford to get out of town when there's a good deal. Right now, the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau and Jet Blue have a pretty sweet travel package that allows you to fly from 11 cities (including Seattle) to Long Beach and stay at your pick of L.A. area hotels for way cheap (up to 40% off). Depending on when you fly and where you stay, the price for the flight and one night at a hotel is coming out to ~$200-$500. Book now through May 10th; travel now through August 31, 2009. more ›

Public officials in the U.S. and around the world are issuing warnings about an ongoing outbreak of swine flu that has pandemic potential. Centered in Mexico, this outbreak has already spread to the United States and Canada. Forty cases have been reported in U.S. in New York, California, Texas, Kansas, and Ohio. more ›

Over at TechFlash, John Cook reports that Alaska Airlines misspoke when representatives gave what many interpreted as an announcement that they'd be offering free wi-fi to Alaska travelers at SeaTac gates. The airline will be extending the offer to travelers in Oakland for the three-month promotion, but not here. Seriously? Seattle would be the perfect place to run that deal. This reminds us to ask why we don't already have free wi-fi available at our airport. Anyone have a compelling explanation for this pitiable situation? more ›

Every so often we get an email from someone visiting town for a few days who wants to see the sights, but not get trapped in a constant scrum of tourists the whole time. We've made a stab at some likely suspects, but feel free to add yours in the comments. This is a game the whole internet can play! more ›

Best-tasting thing in this cool, springtime desert: the broth of butter, white wine, leeks, lemon, thyme, and rosemary in which Zinc Bistro poaches its mussels. A highlight in a brief visit to see family and drop in on some well-established local eateries. Nothing to do with golf, spring break, or spring training. more ›

As of July 22, Icelandair will be offering four direct flights per week between Seattle and Reykjavik, says the Puget Sound Business Journal: "Flights from Reykjavik will be on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and flights from Seattle will be on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday." more ›

Finally an "Orange" alert level that means something: "An erupting Mount Redoubt exploded again this morning at 4:31 a.m.--its fifth and strongest discharge yet," sending ash to 60,000 feet. Travelers may have some delays to look forward to; the Anchorage airport is open, but Alaska Air has canceled 19 flights. Meanwhile, the volcano is at "Red" alert, as more activity may be on the way. more ›

Seattlest Katelyn is in Antalya, Turkey, for this week's leg of her trip to the Mediterranean. She's armed with a camera, so those of you who have never been to Turkey can follow along at home. more ›

Seattlest has been in Palermo for the past week, hanging out in the ancient markets of Vucciria, Ballaro, and Capo that snake through narrow medieval streets and church-fronted piazzas. The Mediterranean island of Sicily (Palermo being its capital) has been invaded over the centuries by just about everybody: Phoenicians, Greeks, Arabs, Normans, the French (Angevines and Bourbons), the Austrians, even the Piedmontese, whom we think of today as being fellow Italians but back then were symbols of alien occupation. It wasn't until the middle of the 19th century that Sicily became part of modern Italy, and to this day the Sicilians speak their own language and maintain a unique set of culinary traditions. Where else but Palermo would you find market vendors serving up rolls filled with calf spleen, lung, and trachea? And we're here to tell you, it tastes tons better than stadium hot dogs. (You surely don't want to know what goes into those.) more ›

Davvero, it's true: English is still the language of international commerce, and nothing, not even the collapse of the financial system, stands in the way of ambition. The largest of the language schools, the Wall Street Institutes franchise, boasts over two million graduates. It operates 400 centers in 28 countries (91 here in Italy alone, where the whole thing started 36 years ago). Obama's salary caps be damned, there's a long line of takers. Every day, tens of thousands of would-be executives are drilled in "Wall Street English." Can you say Prada? Gucci? more ›

Seattlest needed a brief reprieve from the city, so we headed east on Highway 2 for three hours to the Bavarian-themed tourist mecca of Leavenworth: a perma-Christmas wonderland of knickknack shops featuring more dipping sauce stores than actual tax-paying residents. more ›

Where the giant airport sign doesn't say "Welcome to Fiumicino," but Emporio Armani, and even the dude driving the courtesy cart sports Gucci eyewear. The passengers are wrapped in silk scarves knotted casually at the throat with carefully studied elegance. Designer footwear and handbags everywhere. The flight? Well, Alitalia was shotgunned into a merger with its regional rival Air One two weeks ago, and sold 25 percent of itself to Air France last week, so it's a bit early to say much, other than no inflight magazine, no cocktails, and very few passengers. They showed a movie, though: Fred Claus (Christmas, 2007). more ›

We just got this email from KCTS inviting us to stop in next Saturday, January 10, for a 3 p.m. sneak preview screening and discussion with Rick Steves about his new travel special, Rick Steves' Iran: Yesterday and Today. more ›

BLOG-GAZING: We're going to The Pitch tonight, and as of this second, there's room for one more person on the guest list. The pitch this time is: "An established newspaper will never be able to provide better hyperlocal coverage than a well-managed neighborhood blog," and panel participants include West Seattle Blog's Tracy Record, the P-I's Big Blog's Curt Milton (we see Monica Guzman's on the guest list, too), and last but certainly not least if you ask him, CHS's lovely and talented Justin Carder. more ›