Global warming and the recession may have delivered a one-two punch to many consumers' travel plans, but that doesn't mean people can't still enjoy an exotic escape of a different kind. Enter Destination Dinners, a San Francisco company that offers a wide variety of dinner kits replicating dining experiences from around the world.

Bangladesh, Jamaica, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Israel, Lebanon and New Orleans are all regions that customers can 'visit' gastronomically by means of Destination Dinners' recipe kits, which come complete with everything necessary to create a local-style meal. Premeasured spices, sauces and dried items are part of every package, as are step-by-step instructions, a shopping list for fresh ingredients, and fun facts and trivia about the destination in question.

The Destination Dinner kits are designed to serve four adults and are priced at USD 25 or USD 30. A line of dinner party kits is also available—including serving pieces, placemats, bowls, trays and even music CDs—as is a "Destination Passport" plan that ships one dinner kit plus a corresponding cooking or serving tool each month.

Offering a healthy platter of dining insperiences along with a generous serving of status skills to boot, Destination Dinners currently focuses on shipping within the United States. One to help bring to home-bound culinary adventurers in your neck of the global woods...? (Related: Cuisine in a box — Ready-to-cook meals delivered to busy urbanites — Modern wine paired with ancient Roman cuisine.)

Website: www.destinationdinners.com
Contact: info@destinationdinners.com

Spotted by: Jim Chiang

Tourist maps are not unique. Artistically rendered maps are available for many cities, usually created by a local artist. What distinguishes Guatemala-based mapmaking company Where To Go Maps is their focus on replicating the local approach globally.

Where To Go Maps is working towards creating a globalised mapping system that would see their free artistic city maps available to travellers for all major tourist destinations worldwide. In addition to presenting tourists with the best hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, attractions and sightseeing highlights that each city has to offer, Where to Go Maps also illustrate the specific locations of local businesses who advertise on the maps.

Currently available online and in downloadable form for seven cities—La Antigua, Guatemala City, Puerto Rico, Panama City, Cayman Islands, Madrid and Miami—Where To Go Maps is seeking partners to join them in creating maps for more cities across the globe. One to explore? (Related: Hand-sketched city maps feature drawings and local advice.)

Website: www.wheretogomaps.com
Contact: info@wheretogomaps.com

Spotted by: Juan Olivero 

Bird-watchers are well-known for the tenacity with which they chronicle sightings of avian species worldwide, but fans of other types of wildlife may have a harder time figuring out what's likely to be nearby. Now coming to the rescue is WildlifeNearYou, a UK-based site that lets animal lovers share their experiences and locate wildlife around the globe.

Focusing on nature reserves, zoos, parks and other organised wildlife locations, WildlifeNearYou lets users search for particular animals or search by area to learn where the wildlife that matters to them is likely to be found. They can also combine their search criteria and, for example, look for llamas in London. More than 1,500 species and 600 locations in 56 countries have been added since the site's launch in January, and users can add their own trips with information and photos of what they saw. Those with specific knowledge, meanwhile, can also help tag photos on the site with names for the species shown.

Combining one part life-tracking and one part location-based search, WildlifeNearYou promises to serve wildlife hobbyists and experts alike with its database of localised spottings. In addition to tapping advertising possibilities, we wouldn't be surprised to see WildlifeNearYou team up with a conservation effort of some kind, giving users a way to combine their passion with the good karma of helping out. Nature-focused organisations around the world: is this one to get involved in? (Related: For every brand and logo, a species to be saved — Community for tracking life experiences.)

Website: www.wildlifenearyou.com
Contact: www.wildlifenearyou.com/feedback

Spotted by: Marko Balabanovic

We've seen myriad examples of hotels partnering with non-hotel brands, including W Hotels' collaboration with Puma for in-hotel fitness services, as well as sponsored rooms in various hotels. Now taking the branding even further is La Casa del Camino Hotel in Laguna Beach., Calif., where every one of the hotel's 10 newly renovated suites features a different, immersive branded experience.

Billabong Suite 206, for example, is designed to be a surfer's paradise, with artwork including a 3D piece that tells the company's history through images of surfers, palm trees and the Billabong logo cut into reclaimed wood. Glacéau Suite 315, meanwhile, features aquatic hues and fabrics made, appropriately, from recycled plastic bottles. Other brands involved include Rip Curl, etnies, Roxy, Quiksilver, L* Space and Lost International. A different designer was recruited to create the theme in each branded suite; together, they are all part of the Casa Surf Project in the Riviera Magazine Design series. Pricing for each suite begins at about USD 250 per night, and a portion of the proceeds is donated to charity during the hotel's first year. Pets are welcome.

Whereas many of the in-hotel branding efforts we've covered have amounted to tryvertising initiatives, this one is closer to a collection of brand spaces, offering patrons an immersive look at each brand's signature style. In addition to tapping into the name recognition of those brands, of course, La Casa del Camino's use of corporate sponsorship also no doubt helped subsidize the costs of renovation. A model to emulate, particularly during tough economic times! (Related: Beer cans that sleep two — Hotel as retail space.)

Website: www.casasurfproject.com
Contact: stay@casaresortsinc.com

Spotted by: Adam Hicks

When we wrote about Lufthansa's MySkyStatus tool last October, it gave travellers the option of having their flight status updates posted automatically to either Facebook or Twitter. Some 17,000 automatic tweets have since been posted as a result, and now the German airline has expanded the free service with new capabilities.

Still available for passengers on any airline, the MySkyStatus tool now gives users the option of having their departure, in-flight location and arrival updates sent via email as well. Travellers can choose who will receive their updates and when; they can also add a personalised message. In addition, a new drop-down menu lets them share their reason for flying.

There's no doubt it's a real-time world out there, with heavy emphasis on up-to-the-minute updates on as many platforms as possible, and personalisation capabilities make the deal even sweeter. Keep the (branded) conversation-boosters coming!

Website: www.myskystatus.com
Contact: konzern.lufthansa.com/en/service/contact.html

When we first covered the prize-winning Layar augmented reality browser back in September, we had a feeling applications would soon start start popping up all over the innovation landscape. Sure enough, just a month or so later we saw the technology used at a music festival, and now it's being put to work to reveal insights about Dutch architecture.

To recap on AR: when a camera-equipped smartphone is pointed at a scene, AR apps will superimpose information and links relevant to the location. SARA, which was created by the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) in partnership with IN10 Communicatie and Layar, is billed as the world’s first mobile architecture application featuring augmented reality with 3D models. Users of the technology simply hold up their smartphone to see photos, video, 3D models, scale models and other details about buildings currently in situ as well as those from the past and any planned for the future. The app is currently showcasing the new Market Hall in Rotterdam's Blaak district. Although it's still under construction, those with the app can view a 3D model of how the finished building will look. SARA also allows users to add their own information about any building or map tours of their favourite architecture. Beginning next month, the entire city of Rotterdam will be viewable through SARA; within five years, NAi expects the whole country to be covered. The technology was launched last month on the Layar platform and will be downloadable from the Apple App Store and Android Market beginning next month.

It's not hard to imagine augmented reality apps like SARA becoming a key component of tourism, giving visitors to an area insight about not just the architecture but also historical events and other points of interest. The possibilities are virtually limitless; time to get to work! (Related: iPhone app helps road warriors find a place to work — Louis Vuitton's walking tours of Beijing, Shanghai & Hong Kong.)

Website: en.nai.nl/exhibitions/sara
Contact: info@nai.nl

Airports and Twitter have one thing in common—they both create an ever more connected global village. Be that as it may, airports themselves can still be pretty lonely places while waiting to board. A French Twitter tool aims to remedy that: bored twitterers need only tweet #boarding along with an airport code (e.g. LAX), and they'll get a reply with a list of twitterers in that airport in the last few hours. Alternatively, Boarding.fr displays a map of all the world's airports and the users in them. Users can choose which random stranger they'd like to tweet and maybe meet while in transit.

Like Lufthansa's MySkyStatus, which tweets passengers' flight updates on their behalf, it's an example of real-time applications adding an automated element to the ongoing conversation that our sister-site calls foreverism. Web developer Damien Guinet created the @boarding 'twitterbot' when he realised many of his followers would tweet just to say they were in an airport. He decided to add value to this by letting them find out who else is there. Although he designed the free service "just for fun", it constantly records data to build up a picture of the most tweeted airports, and Guinet recognizes the potential to partner with airport-based advertisers—perhaps tweeting relevant airport discounts to users of the service? (Related: Connecting airline travellers for a shared cab.)

Website: www.boarding.fr
Contact: damien@boarding.fr

Back in 2007 we covered Hitchsters, the New York site that combines social networking with ride-matching to help airport travellers share taxi rides and split the expense. Now, along very similar lines comes Taxi2, a beta project from Virgin Atlantic that's currently being tested in New York and London.

Touting the financial and environmental motivations for sharing a cab, Taxi2 is a free service for passengers of any airline. Users simply log on to the Taxi2 site and input their flight and destination details. From there, the system matches them with suitable cab-sharing companions and provides a protected way to contact them, allowing the travellers to decide whether to agree to the match. The system offers a way for female travellers to be matched only with other female travellers; it also protects all personal details. Once travellers agree on a match, Taxi2 even provides a printable and foldable sign to help them find each other at the airport. A mobile version of the technology is coming soon.

Much the way carpooling makes sense as a way to reduce the cost and impact of commuting to work, so cab-sharing seems like a no-brainer for all the many travellers heading in the same direction. One to emulate at a heavily frequented airport near you...? (Related: Londoners share lifts to Luton airport — Tweet to hail a green ride in London — Nationwide taxi booking & payment via mobile phone.)

Website: www.taxi.to
Contact: info@taxi.to

Spotted by: Raymond Kollau

P.S. Hitchsters is either temporarily offline, or permanently out of business. We'd love to know what happened to the company. If you have any information, please leave a comment. Thanks!

It's not uncommon to find museums dedicated to showcasing local history; what's less common is to find a city museum constructed almost entirely of locally found abandoned objects. Sure enough, though, that's just the premise behind St. Louis's City Museum, a hyperlocal attraction that offers up a heaping helping of (still) made here appeal.

Housed in a 600,000-square-foot building that used to be St. Louis's International Shoe Company, City Museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The museum actually opened its doors back in 1997 and is the brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur whose crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city. Old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile and even two abandoned airplanes are now part of the City Museum, which continues its ongoing salvage efforts within the bounds of the city. A collection of vintage shoelace machines from the St. Louis-based Alox Manufacturing Company are still put to work at the museum, while an Enchanted Caves exhibit makes the most of the spiral conveyor tunnel system used by the building's former tenant.

Yes, we realize this doesn't entirely fit our regular focus on "new" and "business", but its an inspiring example of a rigorous approach to being a locally-driven organization. In this era of Starbucks, H&M and countless other homogenizing forces, consumers value more than ever the details that make different parts of the world unique. Focus on the local, and you may just set yourself apart! ;-) (Related: Used cooking oil for ultra-local candlemaking in Tokyo — Mass-made to order, here.)

Website: www.citymuseum.org
Contact: info@citymuseum.org

Spotted by: Rick Noyes

Once popular in Europe, folding campers have come to struggle with a bit of an image problem. They're practical and make for cheap travel, but have as much sex appeal as an orthopedic shoe. Aiming to change that is Opera, a foldout trailer that's as eyecatching and luxurious as it is convenient.

Designed by Axel Enthoven, who has led the department of Man & Mobility at Eindhoven's Design Academy since 1989, the Opera's overlapping domed tent is unabashedly inspired by the Sydney Opera House. It folds out of the trailer in minutes, revealing a sleek interior that includes hot and cold running water, a toilet, a simple stove, a wine cabinet and an espresso bar. As well as two luxury beds that slide together at the push of a button. And an enclosed teak veranda.

More compact than a full-sized recreational vehicle, the Opera allows travelers further off the beaten track, which is why it's being marketed as "your suite in nature". The concept will no doubt appeal to a new breed of nomads who want the feeling of roughing it out in the bush, without the actual roughness. Pricing hasn't yet been announced—Opera will be officially launched in December and taken into production in 2010—but it's safe to say that the company is targeting the high end of the market. (Related: Pop-up cabins designed for stargazing — Upscale camping at summer music festivals — Farm camping in cottage-style tents.)

Website: www.yoursuiteinnature.com (note that the current website is limited to a Flash presentation)