Frommer’s releases largest travel guide

Frommer’s releases largest travel guide

HOBOKEN, N.J. — If you bought Frommer’s 12 best-selling city guides individually, it would cost you more than $200, weigh more than 8 pounds and total nearly 4,000 pages — not exactly easy to put in your suitcase.

But the travel guide publisher is now offering a digital version of what it says is one of the world’s largest travel guides, called Frommer’s CitySet, for $40. And the only space it will take up is the bytes on your Amazon Kindle or Kindle 2.

Like other electronic books, the guides can be downloaded wirelessly to the Kindle. Once you have them on the device, you don’t need an Internet connection to read them or search the contents.

The 12 cities included in the Frommer’s CitySet are Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, New York City, Paris, Rome, San Francisco, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

Pageant could help tourism in Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas — Officials in the Bahamas are hoping this year’s Miss Universe pageant will add some beauty to an ugly year for tourism.

Tourism Minister Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace says he expects every hotel room on Paradise and New Providence islands to be filled for the Aug. 30 competition.

The minister told reporters that the event will inject millions of dollars into the struggling economy.

This year’s pageant will be at the Atlantis resort, which recently laid off 10 percent of its staff due to the global economic slowdown.

Space center Alabama’s top tourist attraction

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville has edged out the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail to rank No. 1 in visitors last year among Alabama tourism attractions that charge admission.

More than 509,000 people visited the center, which is celebrating the “Year of Apollo” to mark the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.

The previous No. 1 attraction, The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, ranked second with nearly 505,000 visitors. The golf trail had one of its course locations closed last year for renovation.

The Birmingham Zoo ranked third with nearly 496,000 visitors and Birmingham’s McWane Science Center was fourth with about 429,000.

Obama itinerary at Destination DC

WASHINGTON — Want to explore Washington as President Barack Obama has experienced it? That’s what the city’s tourism bureau hopes for in its “Obama-inspired itinerary,” created to leverage Obama’s appeal in attracting visitors to the nation’s capital amid a faltering tourism market, according to The Washington Times.

Destination DC is coming up with a tour that includes places Obama visited during his campaign and since his inauguration, including the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Capitol, the inaugural parade route and the White House.

The list also includes places where he’s eaten, such as Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street and Equinox, a high-end restaurant where Obama and first lady Michelle Obama dined for her birthday.

Destination DC is looking to sell the idea to tour operators.

Magazine picks best places to get great chili

NEW YORK — Bon Appetit magazine is saluting the chili joint in its March issue with a list of the 10 best places to get chili from coast to coast.

The magazine’s picks are Ben’s Chili Bowl, 1213 U St. NW, Washington D.C.; Joe Rogers’ Original Recipe Chili Parlor, 820 S. Ninth St., Springfield, Ill.; Chili My Soul, 4928 Balboa Blvd., Encino, Calif.; Slim’s Last Chance Chili Shack, 5606 First Ave. S., Seattle; Daisy May’s BBQ USA, 623 Eleventh Ave., New York; Camp Washington Chili, 3005 Colerain Ave., Cincinnati; All Star Sandwich Bar, 1245 Cambridge St., Cambridge, Mass.; Tomasita’s, 500 S. Guadalupe St., Santa Fe, N.M.; Tolbert’s Restaurant, 423 S. Main St., Grapevine, Texas; and Big Bad Breakfast, 719 N. Lamar Blvd., Oxford, Miss., where the chili is served in an omelet.

Associated Press