VACATION TOP SPOTS

The pyramid-shaped, 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea, has been languishing—unfinished—for 16 years. But now Egyptian developers have begun refurbishing what was once dubbed “the worst building in the history of mankind,” Reuters reports. It’s estimated to cost $2 billion—about 10 percent of North Korea’s annual economic output—to finish the skyline-dominating eyesore.

Related on World Hum:

* The Ryugyong Hotel: ‘The Worst Building in the History of Mankind’?

Photo via Wikipedia Commons. 

Check out the aluminum skeleton in the picture! My friend Bobby made this thing. It’s going to be sporting wings and flying high –or maybe flying low, or maybe just plummeting into the ocean – in less than a week. Not only that, it will have changed into some exotic creature like a seal or a reindeer or maybe even a giant Oompa Loompa. …

Take a guide, take an ice axe and take the exhilarating challenge of skiing the legendary Haute Route.

Carnival’s newest vessel officially debuted today in Dover, England. The 3,006-passenger ship is the line’s largest ever and its first to sail in Northern Europe.

Click on the links below to read USA TODAY Cruise editor Gene Sloan’s first-hand reports of sailing on cruise ships around globe Carnival Live blogging from Carnival Splendor (July 2008) Cunard Line An early look at Cunard’s Queen Victoria (December…

Full title: Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband and a Bus with a Will of its Own

Author: Doreen Orion

Released: June 2008

Travel genre: Couples cross-country travel

Territory covered: North America

What’s it like seeing a panoramic view of Colorado’s Roan Plateau? With all that wild beauty, you’d think it would be a beautiful thing. But from the cockpit of an EcoFlight plane, you see its dismal fate: Rich with fossil fuels, it’s been dissected by gas fields. Bruce Gordon started the Aspen, Colorado-based company in 2002 to give people aerial tours of U.S. public land threatened by such development and environmental malfeasance. 

River cruise operator Uniworld will launch its 10th and 11th ships next spring, one as its first vessel to sail outside of Europe, and the other as the largest ship in its fleet.

Orient Lines, the destination cruise line that lost its only vessel in March and seemed destined to the ranks of lines in the sky, may get a new lease on life.

UNESCO just inscribed 27 new sites to its World Heritage List— the usual mix of archaeological, architectural, ecclesiastical and ecological places. French cuisine didn’t make the cut, despite a campaign led by President Nicolas Sarkozy to enshrine it. Did the coq au vin fail to inspire?