Tag: travel

We Stood on Both Sides of the New York–Dublin Portal and It Was Glorious

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Amanda: I got to the Portal in Manhattan’s Flatiron District a little before 11 am New York time, and found that there’s now a fence keeping people several feet away from it (but the same isn’t happening in Dublin). This is part of the new security the organizers have implemented: If someone steps on the Portal or blocks the camera, the livestream will blur for both sides, organizers say. For the next hour, a steady stream of people stopped by the Portal, with usually about 30 there at any time. They waved, they smiled, they danced YMCA and the Macarena on both sides. People brought dogs, and a group of preschoolers in a line walked by and waved.

David: Dublin’s Portal, located facing Dublin’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street and the historic General Post Office building, has one permanent observer—James Joyce. A statue of Ireland’s most celebrated writer and author of the archetypal Dublin novel, Ulysses, stands just meters from the video screen. But rather than reciting Joyce, it was a 20th-century American rapper that particularly inspired one Portal visitor. A woman dressed head-to-toe in white danced silently before the screen for a few minutes, before turning around and singing: “You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” Joyce and Eminem may not seem like natural bedfellows, but in Dublin and in front of the Portal, it seemed oddly fitting to lose oneself in the moment.

Amanda: While we couldn’t hear the Eminem lyrics on the New York side of the Portal, the crowd enjoyed watching the woman’s energy and dance moves. Even without sound, people were able to convey emotion, and all eyes were on the silent performance broadcast from Dublin.

David: The police in Ireland did finally move on the Eminem tribute act, but one of the “Dublin Portal Ambassadors” —who told me clearly that they were not security—felt that the woman was doing no harm. Though the ambassador, who refused to give his name, added that the night before, things did get a bit more rowdy after 6 pm, with some groups on pub crawls around the city briefly disrupting other people’s interactions before things quickly returned to normal. As part of the measures introduced for the Portal’s reopening, opening hours have been limited to 6 am until 4 pm ET (11 am to 9 pm Dublin time).

The Portals stand 3.4 meters tall and weigh “multiple tons,” the organizers say, but they won’t give details about the camera and screen technology being used, adding: “It’s like the paint used to paint a painting—we want the audience to focus on the result.”

Amanda: Those working on the New York side handed out signs that read “I ‘heart’ Dublin” and “I ‘shamrock’ Dublin” for people to hold up, artificially ramping up the perceived goodwill between the two cities. One of the people working told me he hasn’t seen issues since it reopened—it’s been nothing but love and good vibes.

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May 22, 2024
11 Best Sleeping Bags (2024): Ultralight, for Car Campers, Warm Weather, for Kids
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John Muir famously set off for the mountains with “some bread and tea in a pair of blankets with some sugar and a tin cup.” I admire his ultralight spirit and disdain for comfort on the trail, but I’d be willing to bet that if Muir were around today, he’d bring a good down sleeping bag with him, if for no other reason than they’re lighter than old blankets. The tea is essential though, I can’t argue with that.

Whether you’re following Muir into the backcountry, are planning the perfect family camping trip, or are trekking the Camino de Santiago, there’s a sleeping bag for that. No matter how you travel, where you’re headed, or how much comfort you seek, after years of testing, we’ve found the best sleeping bags for everyone.

Adrienne So, Martin Cizmar, and Matt Jancer contributed to this guide.

Be sure to read through our other outdoor guides, including the Best Sleeping Pads, Best Tents, Best Camp Stoves, and our Camp Cooking guide.

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The Best Sleeping Bag for Backpackers

Mountain Hardware’s Bishop Pass 15 offers the best warmth-to-weight ratio while also managing to pack down small and not be too expensive. It isn’t perfect, but it strikes the best compromise for most backpackers, being warm enough for the shoulder seasons and light enough (2 pounds and 5.4 ounces) that you won’t mind it even when you barely need it in the summer. I have slept in this bag for more than two weeks, with nighttime temps ranging from 28°F to 65°F, and, yes, it was too much in the heat as a sleeping bag. But on those warmer nights, I unzipped it and covered myself like a warm blanket. For everything else, I slept very well. It’s a versatile bag.

The Bishop Pass 15 uses 650 fill power down wrapped in a 20-denier water-resistant ripstop nylon shell. (Note: You’ll often see 20-denier written as 20D; see below for more on what those terms mean.) One of the great things about this bag is the draft collar and face gasket feature, which does a great job of keeping your head warm. With the drawcord cinched down, you can conserve even more body heat. This is one of the few bags I’ve tested where I didn’t feel the need for a hat. The insulation does a good job of staying where it should; I didn’t find any bad cold spots in this bag.

My only gripe about this bag is that it’s tight—there’s not much room for anything but me. That makes it efficient and keeps you warmer, but this is not a good option if you’re looking for something roomy (see the Therm-a-Rest Questar below). I also don’t love the zipper. The pull glows in the dark, which is great, and the zipper doesn’t snag much, but in my experience, it also doesn’t pull as easily as others. Still, those are minor gripes about a bag that gets the rest right.

Specs:
- Temp rating: 15°F/-9°C
- Comfort rating: 26°F/-3°C
- Fill: 650 Fill Power Down
The Best Sleeping Bag for Car Campers

Car-camping sleeping bags aren’t a place to spend lots of money. Should your best efforts to cocoon warmth around you fail, there is, after all, a car to retreat to. That’s why we love the REI Siesta Hooded 20—it’s plenty warm and affordable. It’s also not a mummy bag, because you’re not climbing Denali; why cramp yourself if you don’t have to? The Siesta’s rectangular cut makes for a much roomier, more comfortable bag. The Siesta is made of recycled polyester throughout, with a polyester filling. Despite that, the lining on this bag is noticeably softer than many others in this guide.

The Siesta’s 20-degree rating makes it enough for three-season trips, and unlike most rectangular bags, the Siesta has a hood, which helps on those cold nights. What makes this such a versatile bag, though, is the double zipper system. There’s a full-length zipper, which means you can turn it into a quilt on warmer nights, and there’s also a second partial-length zipper on the other side so you can have more airflow when you want it. (You can also now zip two Siestas together, which wasn’t possible with earlier versions.)

Specs:
- Temp rating: 20°F/-6°C
- Fill: 650 Fill Power Down
Best All-in-One Sleep System

The Zenbivy Bed 25 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is hands down the most comfortable backcountry sleeping experience I’ve ever had. It wouldn’t be my top pick for extreme situations, but so long as your expected temperatures fit in Zenbivy’s range, it doesn’t get more comfortable than this. The Zenbivy isn’t just a sleeping bag though. It’s a sheet, hood, and quilt-style bag that can be combined in various ways depending on what you want.

The top sheet that covers the sleeping pad is made of 50-denier polyester pongee, which is wonderfully soft and feels like your bed at home. The sheet has the hood portion of the sleeping bag attached to it. Then you lay the top quilt (made of 20D nylon) over that. This is the coolest, loosest way to use the system, perfect for those warm nights. This is how I did most of my testing since I sleep rather warm. Should the temperature drop, you can zip the quilt foot box up into a mummy bag configuration and zip the upper sides to the bottom sheet. I did this on a couple of cooler nights in the Keweenaw Peninsula when it got quite frigid.
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April 28, 2024
What’s the Safest Seat on an Airplane?

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The back, though liable to separate from the plane in a catastrophic crash, is more likely to stay intact than the front and middle portions that are still connected to the engines.

“The rear section often will break off,” Adjekum says, meaning the latter section of the plane from behind the wings. “Lots of that kinetic energy goes with the front of the aircraft and leaves the back intact.”

Meet in the Middle

The middle section of the plane has a lot going for it in the event of a bumpy flight. The point where the wings meet at the center makes a more stable base that serves as the center of gravity for the plane, making it less inclined to bounce around when hitting turbulence.

“A lot of the oscillatory forces from turbulence are better when you’re in the midsection than the tail section,” Adjekum says. The plane essentially works like a cantilever when it hits bumps midair. “So if you are riding the turbulence, it’s like a seesaw with you on the extended portion of the saw.”

While the middle may be better for turbulence, it’s not necessarily ideal for a catastrophic situation. After all, the middle section is typically where the fuel cells are positioned, meaning if a fire is involved, you’re right on top of the gas tank.

What the middle does have going for it is easier access to the emergency exits in the center of the plane. The closer you are to the exits, the better your chances of survival after a crash.

Aisle, Middle, Window

OK, so toward the back of the plane yet still close to an emergency exit is probably your safest bet. You’ve got your row, but now which seat to pick?

Again, there are advantages and disadvantages of each option. Sitting in the aisle gets you closer to whatever exit you might need to head to in an emergency but also leaves you more vulnerable to getting walloped by falling luggage or loose debris hurtling down the aisle. Sitting by the window lets you see what’s going on outside, giving you a situational advantage, but it leaves you pinned against the wall and waiting until the other people in your row squeeze out first. Occupying the middle gives you a couple of human shields on either side of you to cushion any potential blows, but the middle seat is uncomfortable and an unpopular first choice.

Exit Strategy

If you’ve got aviation anxiety, all this back-and-forth of trying to figure out the perfect spot to sit is likely to only cause you more inner turbulence. Frankly, it’s probably not worth the worry.

Airplane accidents are ridiculously rare. According to data from International Air Transport Association, which represents the global airline industry, there was one accident that resulted in fatalities among 37.7 million flights in 2023. But when accidents do happen, each one is a little different and will affect the plane in different ways. Ultimately, Adjekum says, your chances of making it through an emergency in flight has less to do with where you happen to sit and more with how well trained your flight crew is—and how closely you listen to their instructions. (That’s why they’re all so serious about you paying attention to those safety announcements.)

“Anytime you sit in an aircraft, the first thing to do is to have situational awareness,” Adjekum says. “Listen to the instructions from the cabin crew, because they know their job and they are there to ensure that you are safe, no matter where you are seated.”

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April 26, 2024
The 14 Best Travel Bags We’ve Tested (And Some to Avoid)

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Not every good product can snag a best-in-category title, but there are several more bags we’ve tested that get our thumbs-up.

Osprey Ozone 40L for $280: At 4.47 pounds, Osprey claims this bag is the lightest carry-on suitcase. It’s also made from 400D recycled bluesign-approved nylon and is treated with DWR. This bag is light enough to easily hoist above my head and has also been checked multiple times.

Gregory Alpaca 40 Duffel for $140: This duffel weighs a scant 2.7 pounds, but the water-resistant fabric and extraordinarily beefy (though plastic) buckles make it a solid bag for adventuring. There’s an exterior pocket for storing shoes or dirty clothes. The backpack straps don’t tuck away for storage—you have to unclip them—but might be the most well-padded, comfortable straps I’ve encountered on a duffel. Exterior daisy chains and an interior zippered pocket round out the impressive features list.

Land’s End Waxed Canvas Duffel for $180: Most duffel bags these days are made of nylon, and while it’s tough to call a material that’s been popular since the 1940s “modern,” nylon bags don’t have the old-school charm that this waxed canvas bag does.

Eagle Creek Cargo Hauler 40L for $149: This bag weighs 1 pound, 13 ounces, which is only slightly heavier than air. It also has backpack straps that stow away in a front pocket.

Skyway Epic Carry-On for $160: At 7.1 pounds, the Epic is an average weight. The handle is a wee bit more finicky than our top pick, and the Travelpro’s wheels glide a little more nicely. Still, the Epic is a solid choice.

Target Signature Weekender Bag for $81: Looking like a cross between a duffel and a handbag, the Weekender has a structure that product reviewer Louryn Strampe says can become overfilled, so keep that in mind if you plan to bring it onto a plane as a carry-on. She appreciates its durability and the many internal pockets for organization, though, and its rather long five-year warranty.

Solgaard Carry-On Closet Plus for $345: It’s a tiny bit over what most airlines list as the maximum dimensions, but the difference is so small that it’s accepted 95 percent of the time. WIRED reviewer Louryn Strampe praises its optional clip-in closet clothing organizer, which makes for efficient packing. The built-in TSA lock is easy to use, and there’s an internal power-bank pocket. This suitcase is included in our Favorite Recycled Products guide.

Samsonite Outline Pro Carry-On for $200: This is a hard-side, four-wheeled spinner carry-on made from an outer shell of durable polypropylene. Standout features include an interior fabric made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles and a “WetPak” storage pocket for keeping damp items separated from the rest of your luggage.

Adidas Defender Duffel for $40: If you’re looking for an inexpensive duffel that’ll handle some light-duty traveling, this is a good way to save $100. The fabric is significantly thinner and less sturdy than that of other duffels in this guide, and it lacks backpack straps. But for taking on the train or tossing into a car trunk, it’ll do the trick.

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April 5, 2024
26 Best Travel Accessories (2024): Neck Pillows, Plug Adapters, and Headphones

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Travel isn’t always as luxurious as the brochures make it seem. Sure, the destination may be intoxicatingly gorgeous, but the journey to get there is often one of cramped seats and uninterrupted noise. Traveling can be a gauntlet to be endured or, if you equip yourself properly beforehand, a mere speed bump to glide over. From travel pillows and noise-canceling headphones to luggage trackers, it turns out you actually can purchase peace of mind. These are the best travel accessories after years of traveling and testing.

Don’t forget to check out our Best Travel Bags and Best Travel Adapters guides for more recommendations.

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March 29, 2024
Don’t Let the Headlines Fool You. Air Travel Is Really Very Safe

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What the hell is going on up there in the sky?

The incidents feel like they started in January, when a door plug blew out of a midair Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines. No one was hurt in the incident, but ensuing investigations have led to a series of revelations about a faltering safety culture at Boeing and its contractors. Then the creepy headlines kept coming. Just this month, a wheel fell off a United Airlines jetliner as it took off from San Francisco; flames shot out of an United flight’s engine as it left Houston, Texas; another United flight ran off the runway in Houston as it came in to land; and a Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by the Chilean airline Latam and bound for Auckland, New Zealand, suddenly lost altitude while midair, injuring dozens of passengers.

The incidents are unsettling. “The public has every right to be alarmed,” says Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, a former Ghana Air Force squadron commander who later flew Boeing 737 aircraft and now teaches aviation safety as a professor at the University of North Dakota.

But data, stringently collected by the US Federal Aviation Administration and other global regulators, suggests that commercial flight is really very safe—and has even gotten safer over just the past two decades. “Statistics don’t show any significant abnormality,” Adjekum says. “Millions of flights are operated by airlines all over the world every day, and passengers get from A to B safely.”

The incidents might just feel as if they’re coming fast because the media has been primed to report on the sort of scary but non-fatal screw-ups that happen when humans are operating any kind of system—and particularly those involving Boeing aircraft. But redundancy is always built into aviation systems, so that, say, losing one wheel doesn’t lead to a horrific crash.

But that kind of public attention can actually be helpful to the aviation industry, Adjekum says: “When the media throws a spotlight, it forces all of us within the aviation industry to be extra cautious,” he says. “We go back to the drawing table and we use the data collected to improve safety.”

The US hasn’t seen a fatal commercial aircraft incident since 2018, when one passenger died onboard a Southwest Airlines flight after part of an engine broke off and shattered a cabin window. Before that, no one had died onboard a US flight since 2009.

“Aviation in the US was the safest mode of transportation in 2023,” says Hassan Sahid, the president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

Experts attribute much of the US commercial aviation industry’s remarkable record of success to its approach to transparency. In the 1990s, the FAA began to reorient its safety programs around the idea that anyone in aviation—manufacturers, manufacturing line workers, air traffic controllers, pilots, crew members, maintenance people—should be able to report on their own mistakes without facing career-ending repercussions.

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March 15, 2024
6 Months After New York Banned Airbnb, New Jersey Is Doing Great

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More than 95 percent of the group’s members say they have no intention of becoming long-term landlords, says Lindsay. Instead, he argues, they are now faced with rising housing costs and no immediate way to offset them. The law “has yielded some unintentional effects that are harming smaller homeowners,” Lindsay says.

Amid the uncertainties, there may be some winners from the law: hotels in the city and the state of New Jersey. Hotel occupancy rates in New York have been slightly up year-over year, by 4 percent in January and 3.4 percent through February 24, according to CoStar, which tracks commercial real estate. The average daily room rate in January was up from $198 a night to $209, and from $200 to about $207 through February 24.

Across the Hudson River, demand for short-term rentals has risen sharply in Jersey City, Hoboken, and Weehawken since the law passed, all cities that offer quick access into downtown Manhattan. Jersey City has seen demand rise 77 percent year-over-year as of mid-February, according to AirDNA, while in Weehawken and Hoboken demand has increased 45 and 32 percent, respectively.

The high rents in New York so far seem unaffected. Despite hopes from lawmakers that the ban might bring them down, short-term rentals are just one piece of a complex unaffordable housing problem. More than half of New York households are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, a 2023 report from nonprofit Community Service Society found.

The median rent of properties in the city on Zillow was up $165 in March from the same month last year, coming to $3,465. But a January 2024 report from real estate company Douglass Elliman found that rent prices fell in Manhattan and Brooklyn, areas popular with tourists, after rents stabilized and the number of vacant apartments increased in December. If restricting short-term rentals helps residents, it may take longer than six months to manifest. A recent study looked at Irvine, California, which bans short-term rentals in all residential zones, and found that after two years of the ban, rents dropped by about 3 percent.

Enforcement of the law has been patchy. With Airbnb off limits, people turned to Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or other home-sharing sites like Houfy to list their apartments after they were booted from sites like Airbnb or Vrbo. The city has not yet issued any fines to people for renting out their apartments illegally, as it is still working on compliance, according to Christian Klossner, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, which oversees the licensing process. But he says the city is responding to complaints related to illegal renting. As of February 26, the city had received 5,783 applications to run short-term rentals. It has approved 1,594, denied 990, and sent back more than 3,000 for more information or corrections.

Airbnb opposed the law, and sued the city before it took effect, but the case was dismissed last August. Now that the law is in effect, the company is maintaining its opposition. “In the six months since New York City’s short-term rental rules went into effect, we’ve seen travelers facing record hotel prices and former hosts struggling with loss of income—but we have seen no improvement in housing costs,” Nathan Rotman, Airbnb’s Northeast policy lead, tells WIRED. “We hope city leaders listen to hosts who are advocating for changes to the existing rules.”

Lindsay, of the homeowners association, says people like him are hurting while their counterparts in New Jersey benefit. Renting out an apartment on Airbnb “was a lifeline for me, especially during the pandemic,” he says. The association is working on ways the New York City Council might amend the law to allow these smaller hosts to operate short-term rentals. Right now, he says, it fails by grouping small homeowners in with big-time investors. “It treats all property owners as if they’re these evil, maniacal villains.”

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March 5, 2024
This Solar Eclipse Simulator Helps You Find the Best Place to Watch From

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A total solar eclipse is coming to North America on April 8. The Great North American Eclipse, as it has been dubbed, will be visible across 13 US States, plus parts of Mexico and eastern Canada. But it will not look the same for everybody.

For those living along the path of totality—the projection of the moon’s shadow on the Earth’s surface—the celestial event is bound to delight. For everyone else, experiencing the total eclipse will require extensive planning … which, if you’re organized, should’ve already happened, but let’s face it, it probably has not.

I, for one, was considering Lexington, Kentucky, as my viewing venue. I had read that the eclipse there would be “deep partial,” but having never before witnessed a solar eclipse, I wasn’t sure whether that was good enough. My quest to find out led me to a nifty solar eclipse simulator that helps users visualize what April’s solar eclipse will look like from any city, town, mountain peak, or desolate patch of land in the northern hemisphere. To feed your imagination as you “try out” various locations, the simulator lets you set choose one of more than 50 landscapes to match the vibe you’re looking for—a city skyline, a snowy mountain range, or a placid lakefront. You can drag a slider on a timeline and watch the sun and the moon glide across your screen until they become one as the sky turns a dusky shade of blue.

The tool, which is based on centuries-old astronomical calculations as well as modern data, was built by Dan McGlaun, a retired mathematician from Purdue University and a self-professed geek who has been chasing eclipses since he was 10 years old. To date, McGlaun has witnessed 15 eclipses from incongruous places like airplanes and cruise ships. “I went to Kenya for an 11-second eclipse and it was the best day of my life,” he says.

The solar eclipse simulator is a side feature of McGlaun’s main website, through which he sells eclipse safety glasses. (These protective shades are an absolute must if you’re planning to look up at the sky during the eclipse.) But it only takes a minute on the phone with McGlaun to understand that the simulator is an absolute labor of love and the safety glasses business exists to fund it.

In 2017, McGlaun built a smartphone app that allowed people to choose an eclipse-viewing location on a map of the US to find out whether their chosen spot was in the path of totality for the eclipse during August of that year. Now, he’s furthered his effort to “evangelize eclipses” by building a more complex simulator, this one with an educational bent.

It took less than a minute of tinkering for me to understand that I would not be spending April 8 in Lexington, Kentucky, for the simple reasons that a partial eclipse—however “deep”—was nowhere near as impressive as the total eclipse I saw (on my screen) in places like Dallas, Texas, or Mazatlan, Mexico.

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February 24, 2024