Postcards are meant to inspire jealousy and longing in friends while you’re off traveling the world. Tourist sites employ them in self-promotion, which is why this Bad Postcards blog is confusing. It appears that until recently, people preferred to use postcards to show exclusively how miserable of a vacation they were having.

I understand why people hate huge cruise ships, but frankly, this looks like an enormous amount of fun. Also, I applaud the video editor’s choice of music. Sounds like something from A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.

Unemployed people - listen up. JetBlue has renewed their slow-time-of-year-travel-deal, All You Can Jet. You pay $500 up front and then fly wherever you want (on JetBlue) from September 7 to October 6. All you have to do is book three days in advance and you can hop across the country, going from one friend’s couch to another as your welcomes wane and wax.

Not to be outdone, small, regional airline Sun Country has rolled out an all-you-can-fly pass for the same times. Their $500 pass does not include taxes and booking fees, plus it only goes a handful of places out of Minnesota. Good luck on that.

The Foreign Policy blog offers you Good Times in Really Bad Places. Just make sure you stay on the Iraqi side of the desert hike if you go near the Iran border - it’s no good being accused of spying and confined to lengthy imprisonment for no good reason.

Thanks Jeff

Beginning July 13, the U.S. State Department will begin charging about 40% more to get a new passport or renew your current one. Globetrotters can elect a new option that prevents them from having to give up their precious stamp-filled book - they can add pages to their existing passport for $85. You have until Tuesday to file the paperwork and avoid the new fees.

via Explorations