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Ideas, suggestions and recommendations that can help you choose from a more limited palette of options that we know — both from professional and personal experience.

Don’t be afraid to stretch your boundaries a little.

Language can sometimes be inadvertently misleading in that certain descriptions that you think mean one thing can actually turn out to mean a whole lot more than you had originally supposed. One of the biggest culprits in the travel arena is the niche market known collectively as ‘Adventure Travel’. Adventure Travel (at least to my mind) tends to conjure up imagery of young, fit and primarily male participants who revel in canoeing and abseiling along

Comparing like with like!

One of the most common mistakes that we often find people making when planning their overseas trips is the tendency to compare the cost of one itinerary against that of another without factoring in all the other components that ultimately add to the overall cost of such travel plans. In other words, people have a tendency to just compare the 'packaged' price of competing holiday offers instead of looking at everything 'in the round'. Cruising would be

40 is a nice round number

Everyone has heard of the 80:20 rule but have you heard about the 40:20 one ?  OK, I'm teasing a bit but I just thought that it would be a nice way to introduce a bit of good news for all you 'Mickey Mouse' fans out there! Disneyland Paris is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012 and as part of those celebrations (which, incidentally, are going to last for about 12 months) they are offering

Move out of your comfort zone

The world is a big place. We know that we're stating the obvious here but it's worth mentioning if only because we find that most people tend to return to the same places year after year. Nothing wrong with that at all, particularly if those places are ticking all the boxes in terms of cost, convenience, friendliness, value for money, accessibility etc. It's a shame though that more people don't push the proverbial boat out

You never need travel insurance — until you need travel insurance!

It could happen to you! A mishap that is. You could fall and hurt yourself. You could drop your camera and break it. You could be robbed. You might even have to cancel your holiday due to some unforeseen development. It's for reasons such as these that people really need to protect themselves against by taking out travel insurance. Surprisingly though, a lot of travellers nowadays still travel abroad without any insurance cover whatsoever and that really

Value for money is more important than getting the cheapest deal.

Now that we are all economically challenged, there is an understandable tendency to look out for the cheapest deals or packages in order to make our scarce euros go further but this is a mistake. Looking out for value-for-money deals is much more important in terms of getting more 'bang for your buck' and one of the consistently best sources of value-for-money deals is in cruising. Don't be put off by outmoded perceptions that cruising

Avoid making the classic mistakes!

Here's a simple rule of thumb that you should always bear in mind when planning your next trip abroad. If you're planning to travel using a scheduled airline (even low cost ones such as Ryanair, Easyjet etc.), always book your flights as far in advance of your date of departure as possible as the prices increases the nearer you get to your travel date. The reverse is true when it comes to charter services. The

Istanbul — Here I come!

I'm off to Istanbul tomorrow. Never been. Previously known as Constantinople and Bysantium, Istanbul has got to represent one of the greatest concentrations of antiquities and past civilizations in the whole world. I'm only staying for three days and am there for business so it won't all be sightseeing but I'll try and pack in as much as I can and keep you informed. I can't say that I know a whole lot about Turkish

Cruise Bargains

Cruising represents some of the best — if not the best — value for money around and it is doubly good at the moment, following the recent tragedy that befell the Costa Concordia. Cruise bookings, not unexpectedly,  took a dip right across the board with all the major cruise lines suffering a considerable reduction in sales during the traditional peak booking season. Consequently, you can expect some great offers form many of them. Straight out of the

Hanmer Springs

My second last night in New Zealand and I’m spending it in the small town (most towns on the south island are small towns) of Hanmer Springs famous for — yes, you’ve guessed it — its hot springs. As coincidence (or bad luck) would have it, my back finally gave out on me yesterday. It’s been at me for a few days now and I’ve suffered from it for almost thirty years. No doubt due

Kaiteriteri

Kaiteriteri is the only other place besides Queenstown that I’m spending two nights in. Kaiteriteri is a small seaside resort located just a few miles north of Motueka, which itself is located some 60 kms northwest of Nelson in the far north of the south island. The drive today from Barrytown was about 300 kms and took me around 4.5 hours on a route that bypassed Westport and through Murchison. The rain is still falling

Punakaiki

I was up early this morning and own to the local tour shop where I donned my wet gear, hiking boots and staff for the trek up to the base of the glacier. The walk was about 1-2 kilometres  along a morrain before we got to the actual base of the glacier itself. The weather was bloody awful with driving rain which made it all the more surreal, given that we were about to commence

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