Free Republic

The high cost of medical care in the US plus the rationing of medical care in other nations has spurred the growth of medical tourism. As I mentioned in a previous post, outstanding doctors, nurses, and hospital facilities can be found in countries such as Costa Rica, Thailand, India, the Philippines, etc. offering care at costs significantly lower than in the US and without the rationing and waiting times of other countries. One problem with traveling from the US to another nation for medical care is the cost and inconvenience of travel. Additionally, each nation will have its own tort...

One could suppose it is just another example of American state sponsored capitalism. It will follow in the footsteps of such other great "government sponsored enterprises" or private sector/public sector partnerships like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Post Office, Amtrak or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It too will become part of the Leviathan. Its name is ...

Napa and Sonoma have their wine tours, and travellers flock to Scotland to sample single malt whiskies. But in Jamaica, farmers are offering a different kind of trip for a different type of connoisseur. Call them ganja tours: smoky, mystical - and technically illegal - journeys to some of the island's hidden cannabis plantations, where pot tourists can sample such strains as "purple kush" and "pineapple skunk." The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of reggae legend, and famous pot-lover, Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to a farm...

Gunmen have killed 10 people, including nine foreign tourists after storming a hotel in far northern Pakistan. Officials say five are from Ukraine, one from Russia and three from China. A Pakistani guide also died in the attack. It happened at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest mountain, in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is the first such attack on tourists in the region. The Pakistani Taliban has told the BBC it was responsible. A spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of its second-in-command, Waliur Rehman, who died in a suspected US drone...

The woman, who is still in Manali, was yet to identify the accused. Manali - Three Nepali truck drivers were arrested Thursday for the gang-rape of a 30-year-old US national in this Himachal Pradesh tourist resort two days ago, police said in Manali. Arjun, Lucky and Som Bahadur Tamang, in the age group of 22-24, had been living in the state for a long time, Superintendent of Police Vinod Dhawan said. "Two of them were arrested from Patlikuhl (20 km before Manali) and one from Mandi town," Dhawan added. The victim, who reached this tourist resort, some 500 km from...

Thailand’s capital, the first point of entry for thousands who head to the country’s beaches, has been named the number one destination for international visitors in the Global Destination Cities Index forecast. The index rates visitor numbers and estimated spend for 132 different destinations around the world. Bangkok is expected to welcome 15.98 million international arrivals this year, just beating London, which is expecting 15.96 million visitors. London topped the list last year. The index has been compiled annually by MasterCard since 2010 and this is the first year that an Asian city was named as the number one destination....

<p>NEW YORK — A company that promised sightseer tours to the Bronx that included a New York City "ghetto" has stopped the bus rides under protest from an outraged neighborhood.</p> <p>Real Bronx Tours, which took mostly European tourists from Manhattan to see life in the South Bronx "from a safe distance," issued a statement this week saying it would immediately cease all tours there.</p>

Seattle, Washington (CNN) -- If you think 2013 will be a half-baked year for tourism in Seattle, you haven't been paying attention to the curiously pungent smoke signals emanating from this city. On a recent chilly evening, an unmistakable smell has drifted across the street from an industrial space in the SODO neighborhood. Inside, a DJ spins an eclectic mix of rock while a man in a tie-dyed hoodie distributes cannabis-infused buttered rum and root beer-flavored hard candy to a diverse crowd of revelers. Another volunteer passes around a 12-foot-long "vape bag" filled with marijuana vapor -- one way to...

We've seen an alarming number of stories about sex attacks on female travelers in recent weeks, from a Swiss tourist who was gang-raped in India to an American student who was raped in a van in Rio de Janeiro. It doesn't mean that women shouldn't visit foreign places or that no parts of those countries are safe. But women traveling in these areas should do so with extreme caution and a knowledge of the culture. We rounded up eight popular tourist destinations where women should be extra cautious, based on reports from Human Rights Watch, the State Department, and crime...

Hunters across the country say they are boycotting Colorado because of new gun control legislation that limits ammunition magazines to 15 rounds and greatly expands background checks, among other things. Opponents say the laws will make criminals of previously-legal gun owners, and hunters lending each other weapons for hunting trips. Some have announced they will no longer hunt or vacation in the state, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. Michael Bane, a freelance producer for The Outdoor Channel, said he will no longer film his four shows there......

China’s budget hotels used to target small business travellers, but their clientele nowadays is a rather different one. Cheap hotel rooms have become the space where the Chinese can pursue sexual freedom. Sexologist Xiaoliang Zeng writes on budget hotels and sexual liberation in China. The hotel I checked in to was recommended by a well-known travel website. But I regretted my choice as soon as I walked in. It was by no means a cheap hotel. Yet my room was filled with the unpleasant odor of semen and disinfectant. The pinkish wall, dim light, and green carpet created a sexually...

nnis Tito, a billionaire financier who in 2001 became the first space tourist, has launched a project to send two civilians on “an historic journey” to the Red Planet in January 2018. “We have not sent humans beyond the moon in more than 40 years,” Mr Tito said at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday. “I’ve been waiting, and a lot of people my age, have been waiting. And I think it’s time to put an end to that lapse”. The mission, a “return fly-by”, in which the spacecraft would fly around Mars rather than land, would last for...

A radical new kind of airship funded by the US military is about to make its first test flight - and it looks uncannily like the Thunderbird 2 craft from the classic TV show. The Aeroscraft airship will carry three times as much as the biggest military cargo planes over thousands of miles, use a third of the fuel, and it doesn't even need a landing strip. It could also have major implications for cargo haulage, and almost everything now laboriously transported across the planet's surface by boat, train and lorry could within years be carried through the skies, its...

Currently there is no tourism in Egypt," grumbled Adel Anwar, the 32-year-old owner of a trinket stall. "The new Islamist government has no experience in managing the state," he said. "The Islamists care only about their interests, not us. They forget about everyone else." The complaint is a common one among workers dependent on Egypt's tourist industry, a key earner for the economy. ... Extremist Islamists are keeping tourists away from Egypt

ORANJESTAD, Aruba — A speck of an island in the Dutch Caribbean has become increasingly popular with gay couples after legislators legalized same-sex marriages in a region still openly hostile to gays and lesbians. Two men were recently married in Saba, marking the first ceremony of its kind in the region and setting off a frenzy of calls from gay couples in other Dutch Caribbean islands seeking to marry, said Julietta Woods with Saba’s Civil Registry office.”People keep calling me every second,” she said by telephone this week. As part of the Netherlands Kingdom, the islands of Saba, Bonaire and...

Did you travel to Alaska since August 2008? Please tell us about your trip(s) and Sarah Palin's influence on them This unscientific survey is one tool to help determine the impact of Sarah Palin and her policies on Alaska tourism through the use of anecdotal evidence. The survey consists of 10 questions. No personal or contact information is requested on this survey.

Michelangelo's Sistine chapel frescoes are threatened by the effects of too many visitors, experts have warned on Wednesday, as the masterly painted ceiling celebrated its 500th anniversary... Many visitors just stare, tranfixed, at one of the most notable artwork ever created. Indeed, Pope Julius II and 17 cardinals reacted in the same way when the vaulted ceiling was revealed in all its blue glory on the Eve of All Saints, 31 October, 1512, during a vesper Mass. But others are "drunken tourist herds" disrespectful of the unique setting they are visiting, according to leading literary critic Pietro Citati. The "herds"...

.... When asked what happened to the proposal, Wynn said he was unsure what President Obama would do next. “I’m afraid of the president,” said Wynn. “I have no idea what goofy idea, what crazy, anti-business program this administration will come up. I have no idea. And I have to tell you, Jon, that every business guy I know in the country is frightened of Barack Obama and the way he thinks.” The hotel tycoon claimed that President Obama had attempted to put himself between him and his employees by resorting to class warfare, and said he cannot stand being...

CEO emails 7,000 employees: Defeat Obama or else By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney October 9, 2012: 5:37 PM ET David Siegel, CEO of Westgate Resorts, warned employees that they may lose their jobs if President Obama wins re-election. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Surprise. David Siegel, the resort CEO who is building the biggest private home in the country, really, really doesn't like President Obama. And while Siegel hasn't sent any money to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, he has gone a step farther to support him. On Monday he sent an e-mail to all 7,000 employees of privately-held Westgate Resorts, many...

The truth about North Korea's glittering 'Hotel Of Doom' built to symbolize country's supremacy: There's nothing but a derelict shell inside From the outside, its shiny windows and soaring towers make it look decidedly futuristic and luxurious. But after visitors walk through the doors of North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel - which has taken twenty years to build - they see it is just a concrete shell. The interior of the 105-story, pyramid-shaped resembles a multi-storey car park, with its concrete floors and bare columns. Beijing-based Koryo Tours got a peek at the vast interior of the hotel in Pyongyang, the...