Can you find romance on holiday?

In the last of our Travel and Love series for the month we ask the question: Can you find romance on holiday? The simple answer if yes. If you are open, relaxed and doing a little flirting than the best romances can happen while you are travelling. When you are removed from real world problems and your daily routine, romance is ripe for picking. Many people plan to travel to let their hair down and

Five questions you should ask yourself before you travel in 2020

Technology may well indeed be shrinking the world around us and connecting us in myriad ways through innovations such as Skype, WhatsApp and Instagram but it’s also surprisingly large when you start to consider where you want to travel to next and there are many things to consider; not least of which is cost. Leaving cost aside though for one moment, let’s consider all the other factors that determine where we travel to? (more…)

Mass Tourism — is it a good or a bad thing?

I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful town of Kotor in Montenegro a few weeks ago. I had first visited the stunning medieval town nine years ago and was captivated by its stunning location at the end of a deep inlet and the well-preserved condition of much of its buildings. Indeed, it was so perfect that it almost looked fake — like a recently constructed film set. On both occasions, I visited the town

Washington, DC — Brain City USA!

Washington, DC is synonymous with many things, but higher learning is probably not one of them. Being the centre of government and federal administration for the most powerful country on the face of the planet, you would expect it to be populated with a lot of smart people — whether they be politicians, lobbyists or senior civil servants but the statistic that took me aback, I have to say is the revelation that Washington, DC,

The world is beating a path to Bangkok

You’ve probably heard of the phrase, ‘Lies, damned lies, and statistics’. No one is quite sure who the originator of those words was, but it is often attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, who was British Prime Minister between 1874 and 1880. The famous phrase which is often used to discredit the persuasive power of numbers to add disproportionate credibility to otherwise weak arguments is sometimes also attributed to Samuel Langhorne Clemens — more popularly known to
travel-makes-you-richer

‘Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer’

Travel is one of those activities that has never been short of an inspirational quote or two and the title of this week’s blog is probably one of the better ones and certainly one of my favourites. Like a lot of people who work in the travel industry, I have been blessed over the course of the past 44 years to have traveled to a lot of exotic destinations around the world — some of

Something to shout about!

It’s not often that I take the opportunity in this blog to talk about something closer to home — after all, the purpose of these articles is to whet your appetite and stimulate your curiosity so that you venture abroad and experience some of the destinations that I write about. Every now and then though, I come across something that is so good that I simply cannot let the opportunity pass without telling people about

All roads don’t lead south

We have a habit in Ireland of only looking south or east when we consider holiday destinations. It’s partly because we associate such destinations in Mediterranean Europe with guaranteed sunshine. It’s also partly due to conditioning and assumptions — false assumptions as it turns out. We assume that it is only southern European destinations such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and, to a lesser extent France, that hold the monopoly on good weather and whilst

Dubrovnik – the real King’s Landing

  The former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill famously opined some years ago that ‘All politics is local’ and how right he was! You could equally argue that when it comes to the relative popularity of new air services, you should never underestimate the allure of ‘local’. The ‘local’ in this instance that I am referring to is the new direct service between Cork and Dubrovnik that will start later

Philadelphia here I come!

Truth be told, I was there last week but who could resist such a headline! It was my first time in ‘Philly’, which is even more surprising, given that I have been to the States at least 40 times over the years and the city is the 6th largest in the US. I was attending the annual conference of the ITAA (Irish Travel Agents Association) — their first to be held outside Europe in their

Want a glimpse into the future? Visit Dubai!

For many years, whenever travel agents received inquiries from clients as to where they should go   at this time of year to be guaranteed some sun, they invariably were limited to the following choices: Head west to the Caribbean Fly south to the Canaries, Madeira or South Africa Travel east and south to Southeast Asia and or Australia (more…)

Go West, Young Man!

I love the United States! There, I’ve said it. I may not like its foreign policy and I probably couldn't see myself ever living there but as a travel destination, it’s very hard to beat. My first experience of the US was way back in 1976 when the country was celebrating its bicentennial year and I traveled all the way to Portland, Oregon to visit my American cousins. It was a month-long trip which also

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!).