Mind-blowing bars
In the new Lonely Planet travel guidebook "50 Bars to Blow Your Mind" ($11.99), Ben Handicott's and Kalya Ryan's choices for most intriguing bars in the world include the beautiful, the historic and the weird. There's the creepy Museum HR Giger Bar in Switzerland, with an otherworldly reptilian theme. You sit under arches that look like the inside of a giant alien backbone and sip your drink next to snakelike visions. They also recommend the Opera Club bar in Warsaw, which is a series of tunnels in the basement of Poland's national opera house. Some bars are in gorgeous places, like Rick's Cafe in Negril, Jamaica, and the Area 51 Top Secret Party Facility in Lugutan Beach, the Philippines. But they also include bars with a quirky angle. One bar overlooks the monkey enclosure at a zoo. An outdoor bar is a vertigo-inducing 63 stories up. Another is on an island in the middle of the harbor in Sydney, Australia.
Detroit Free Press
Orbitz birthday sale
Orbitz is turning 15 and celebrating with a birthday sale. Reserve by July 3 and receive 15 percent off thousands of hotels that the site has already discounted by up to 50 percent. For example, in mid-July, the Humphreys Half Moon Inn & Suites in San Diego starts at $234, including taxes; normal price is from $460. Also in mid-July, the Tide South Beach in Miami Beach starts at $238, down from $375. Travel by Dec. 31. Use promo code BIRTHDAY15. (Info: orbitz15.com).
washington Post
Airbnb hosts accused of discrimination
A rising tide of black travelers are decrying racist experiences while using home-sharing service Airbnb, giving birth to the social media campaign #AirbnbWhileBlack. The long-simmering issue was inflamed last month when an Airbnb host in North Carolina made hateful, racist posts in canceling a booking by a black guest. A January study from Harvard Business School found that Airbnb users with distinctly African-American names were roughly 16 percent less likely to be accepted as guests than those with distinctly white names. Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Airbnb addressed the North Carolina incident by banning the host from its service.
New York Times
Your own travel magazine
Give your travel photos a magazine-like layout to share with friends and family. Moldiv is a photo-editing app that can turn your vacation pics into glossy layouts worthy of a travel mag. The app has 135 layouts to choose from. We loved the numerous options that could give photos a more professional look. Click on the shuffle icon and the photos will appear in previews of other layouts. (In the app store, requires iOS 8.0 or later. In Google Play, requires 4.0 and up.)
Los Angeles Times
End in sight for resort fees?
The Federal Trade Commission is considering a change to its policy on mandatory resort fees. In 2012, the agency created a loophole that allowed hotels to quote a low initial room rate online and then add the mandatory fees later. Now, according to multiple sources, the FTC is poised to require resort fees to be included in the initial price quote — a move that would effectively end resort fees as we know them. The FTC declined to comment.
Washington Post