Where is the most visited place on Earth? The asnwer may surprise you!

We all know that the most visited place in Ireland is the Guinness Storehouse with just a shade over one million visitors per year. To put that figure into perspective, even the world-famous Blarney Stone receives just 329,00 visitors per annum. But what about the most visited tourist attraction in the world? Any guesses? A lot of potential candidates come immediately to mind such as the White House in Washington, The Vatican in Rome or

Hong Kong — New York’s alter ego!

I was last in Hong Kong in 1988 so a return visit has been on the cards for a very long time. If you've never been then let me tell you it is an electrifying city! I would describe it as the New York of the Far East — a dynamic, fast-moving and exciting international metropolis that is just buzzing with energy — and that's before you even get out of the airport! Seriously though,

How good is your geographic knowledge?

I recently retuned from an enchanting city less than two hours flying time from Dublin which is served by direct flights three times a week by a major international carrier. The city is not large by international standards — being somewhat smaller than Belfast but almost twice that of the Province's capital when you take its greater metropolitan area into consideration. It is located approximately 15 miles inland on a river and yet will play

There’s more to life than getting a tan!

Us Irish are obsessed with getting a good colour. Like many of our fellow northern Europeans, we crave the heat of the sun on our backs, probably because for the most part, it tends to be such a relative novelty for us — this summer just past notwithstanding! It should therefore come as no surprise that the most popular holiday destinations out of Ireland all tend to be sun destinations in either the southern Mediterranean

The Tip of the Iceberg!

Here's a trivia question for you: Where in the world would you have to go to in order to get up close (safely) to an iceberg? Greenland? Spitzbergen? Iceland? Antarctica? What if I was to tell you that icebergs inhabit a stretch of coastal water that is located just over four hours flight away — roughly equivalent to a flight to the Canaries — and that you can get a direct flight there almost any

All legacy carriers are created equal — right? Wrong!

What is a legacy carrier anyway, I hear you ask? The term 'legacy' is used to differentiate the old style (usually national) airline carriers from those that espouse the low cost model. Legacy carriers traditionally charge more but also offer more for those consumers who are willing to pay for a better service or for things considered as 'extras' with carriers such as Ryanair. Some airlines (Aer Lingus for example) sit somewhere between the two

Grenada or Granada?

What's the difference? Surely just two different variations in spelling of the same place? Not a good assumption to make if you happen to be booking flights there on the Internet as one is a small island located in the Grenadines, located just off the north coast of Venezuela whereas the other was once a 'Royal' city and capital of the Moorish part of Spain and home to the 'Alhambra', a masterful example of Islamic

Legroom — worth every penny!

If like me, you are over six feet tall, then long haul flights are a right pain — in the legs! In their efforts to squeeze ever more revenue out of flights, airlines have been literally squeezing ever more rows of seats onto their aircraft with the result that the seat pitch (the distance in inches from one seat to the one in front of it) has been shortening in recent years. The usual solution
Santiago de Compostela

The way of the Pilgrim

Hi everyone, Apologies for the recent absence but unfortunately our website was hacked however, we’re back up and running and ready to bring you up to date on all that’s happened over the past weeks. Introducing Santiago de Compostela I recently spent a pleasurable few days in Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain which has been gaining in popularity over recent years as people from across the globe and of all persuasions are beating the

Been to the movies lately?

If you have then you can't help but notice that Istanbul is turning up as a movie backdrop everywhere you look. Just last week, I went to see Taken 2 which unfortunately wasn't a patch on it's predecessor — Taken, starring Liam Neeson. The real star of the show though was Istanbul which looked magnificent. It also plays a major role in the latest release in the Bond franchise called Skyfall and by all accounts,

Looking for a bit of sun and heat?

I think that we are universally agreed that this year's summer was one of the worst on record and with the long range weather forecast for the next eight years not particularly encouraging, perhaps it's time that we had a conversation about the 10 hottest places around the world that we should consider for that next holiday. By some measures, Bangkok is actually considered the hottest big city on earth. The average temperature for the

A bitter pill to swallow?

I think we all agree that the summer of 2012 is best forgotten as, by all accounts, it has been the worst in living memory as far as sunshine and good weather were concerned. Of course the consequence of all this is that many people who perhaps had previously decided that they would not be holidaying abroad this year subsequently changed their minds — further adding to the pressure on a limited capacity of both

The art of getting a quote that is both competitive in price and relevant to your needs starts with gathering all the right information about what you want to do (or think you want to do!).