Our Reading List & Everything Map

Announcing two new features on our blog:

• Our Reading List - the stories and places we collect in between our big articles
• Everything Map - our map of, well, everything we have blogged about, and all the places from Our Reading List (over 5,000 as of today)

If you are someone that likes to find unique places to visit, these two new features should quickly become a favorite.

Enjoy!

Top Small Hotels And Motels For Families

With around 50,000 hotels, motels and other lodging to choose from in the U.S., where are the best places to stay with your family?

Luckily TripAdvisor, which bills itself as the world's largest travel site, likes to pull together "best of" lists based on reviews from people that actually visit the places they rate.  For families, TripAdvisor just announced their list of the:
"Top 25 Small Hotels & Motels for Families in the United States"

Where can you find the most winners in the one area?  Five of the 25 are within 9 miles of each other - can you find them?  Hint:  You're going to have to really zoom the map to find them.

2011 Best Amusement and Water Parks

Now that it's springtime, our thoughts start turning to the important things that lie ahead - like what exciting things we're going to do this summer!

Amusement parks and water parks are lots of fun, but what if you wanted to visit the best of them?  Luckily for you, every year Amusement Today conducts an international poll to find out who will win their Golden Ticket Award for being the "Best of the Best" in the amusement industry.

Sixty parks won this year, in twenty-two categories that included Best Park, Best Waterpark, Best Children's Park, Friendliest Park, Cleanest Park, Best Shows, Best Kids Area, and Best Indoor Coaster.  Whatever you're looking for, they can tell you who is the best, and our map shows you where they are.

For even more choices, last year we looked at the most & least expensive amusement parks, as well as the parks that had the most inversions (going upside down) from the Roller Coaster Database.

The blue pins show who is #1 in their category.  Zoom in to see more detail, and move the map over to Japan and Europe for more "Best of the Best".