Rapid Travel Chai

The Global Mail writes of a Spanish town that painted itself blue with Smurfs in And So Once Gaddafi Left, One Spanish Town Got A Little Smurfier.

The Economist’s Gulliver has the pithiest take on the Hertz-Dollar merger in $2.56 billion. Hertz, don’t it? Dollar/Thrifty is my least favorite of the major rental outfits for what seems to be the most egregious and sneaky fees.

The Travel Insider adds another epic noise canceling headset review in Solitude XCS Active Noise Reduction Headset. David Rowell is the source on noise canceling headsets. I have gone with his recommendations for years and never felt uncool for not having Bose.

Euro guru Rick Steves attempts to lists placed to skip in Don’t go: Places to avoid in Europe. With his perky personality, the piece quickly because a list of his favorites and I don’t mind. If it weren’t for the cartoonish maps which do not work for me, I would exclusively use Rick Steves guidebooks for Europe. I supplement with pre-2011 Lonely Planets with classic maps.

Haiti’s National Palace, icon of corruption and then devastation is to be torn down. I have been planning a weekend trip out there, juggling uncooperative flight schedules.

Joel Stein needs no further publicity but his All He Can Eat is hilariously funny.

A personal favorite travel piece is Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sometimes Hell is Five-Star Hotel from the WSJ,