When travelling by sea makes sense

You can trace the loss of popularity of ferries with the rise of low-cost carriers and the deregulation of the market back in 1997. Since then, most people travelling abroad and much of the growth has been in the aviation sector. In recent years however, air has begun to lose some of its attraction, largely because of non-economic reasons. These too, ironically, can also be traced back to the 90’s — specifically 2001 when the

The best cruise ship in the world

It’s very easy to become blasé in our industry as we have the privilege of getting invited aboard loads of new ship builds so we always see them in their newest and shiniest state when they have the cruise equivalent of that ‘new car’ smell and everything is just perfect. I recently had the immense pleasure of spending a couple of nights aboard Symphony of the Seas in Barcelona when Royal Caribbean’s latest mega ship

HOW TO BOOK YOUR FIRST CRUISE!

In case you haven’t heard, cruising is, and has been, the fastest growing trend in travel in recent years and yet despite all the hype and the promotion, less than 2% of Irish travellers have experienced one to date, according to CLIA, the professional trade body that represents all the main cruise lines. There are many reasons for this which broadly fall into the following three categories, so this week’s blog hopes to bring some

These numbers may surprise you!

When people find out that I work in the travel industry one of the questions that I invariably get asked is ‘What’s popular this year?’ When I always reply ‘Spain’, they seem visibly disappointed as if they had expected me to cite someplace far more exotic like Mexico or Mozambique! The reality is that most people don’t like to move too far outside their comfort zone and so the hardy annuals such as Spain, Portugal,

Prediction is difficult — especially if it is about the future!

So said Neils Bohr, The famous Danish physicist. Indeed, predicting anything nowadays is particularly difficult, given the fast pace of change and the number of variables at play. Notwithstanding that fact, I am going to make one anyway and it’s this — cruising is going to be the next big thing in travel! Why do I say that? Because all the signs are there: the number of new ship builds scheduled over the next eight

What budgets reveal about how much we spend.

There have been several occasions in my life when money was tight and I had to literally count the pennies to make ends meet. Two of the things I had to discipline myself to do was work only with cash (the rationale being when it was gone, it was gone!) and record details of every single penny that was spent. What was interesting about those episodes was how easily money got frittered away in small,

Would you like to win €2,500?

The phrase, 'Lies, damned lies and statistics' is generally attributed to have been coined by Benjamin Disraeli, the famous British Prime Minister. The standard definition of statistics is 'the practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data in large quantities, especially for the purpose of inferring proportions in a whole from those in a representative sample' The bigger the sample, the greater the likelihood of the inferences that are drawn from that sample in

Sometimes, perfection is nearer than you think!

There are many ironies in life and in my case it is the fact that despite having circumnavigated the earth on several occasions during my 41 years spent working in the travel industry, there are still parts of Ireland that I’ve yet to experience — The Aran Islands, The Giant’s Causeway and, until last Thursday — The Cliff Hotel in Ardmore, Co. Waterford. I reside in Dunmore East Co. Waterford and I have lost count

Some things are hard to quantify …

When people talk about destinations around the world whether they be cities, regions or indeed whole countries, their merits tend to be measured in terms of specific and tried and tested attributes such as quality, value-for-money, culture, friendliness and so on. Similarly, specific travel products such as airline catering, hotel facilities, coach bus seating also tend to be referenced against a range of generally agreed upon criteria. Well I'm here to tell you that the

Choose your holiday based on value for money rather than price alone!

It's perfectly understandable that intending holidaymakers should compare prices between competing products, destinations or suppliers when researching whom they should book their next travel arrangements with. It's all too easy though to lose sight of the most important criteria of all — which one represents the best value for money? Everyone is familiar with the old saying 'You get what you pay for' and rarely is that more true than when making travel arrangements. Because the true cost of a holiday

May Day, May Day!

OK, we've cheated a little — we should have said May Month but that doesn't really have the same resonance now, does it? What on earth are we on about? It's just our ham-fisted way of drawing your attention to the fact that during the entire month of May, Royal Caribbean (along with its sister brands of Celebrity and Azamara) will be offering savvy consumers just like you, amazing deals, discounts and free upgrades across

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!).