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Lakes & Mountains — a gem just waiting to be discovered!

Are you a creature of habit? Do you head off each summer for your traditional two weeks in the sun somewhere warm? Even if you go to a different beach resort each year, priding yourself on the fact that you love change and diversity, you might still be deluding yourself if the TYPE of holiday that you take each year, remains largely the same. After all, a resort is a resort, at the end of

Where to stay in London?

London is, without doubt, one of the greatest cities in the world and it is a destination that is often overlooked by Irish people — partly because of its proximity to home but also because of that phenomenon of ‘familiarity breeds contempt’. It is also an expensive city to visit, particularly when it comes to hotel accommodation, but I think that I’ve found the ‘sweet spot’ when it comes to a hotel that represents that

Bucket Lists and all that jazz

When people hear that I’ve spent almost all my adult life working in the travel business, the response that I usually get is ‘You must have been everywhere then!’ and whilst I have travelled extensively over the course of the past 40 plus years or so, many of those trips have been back to the same countries so people like me invariably end up with anomalies in our travel cv’s. I’ve probably been to the

The vicissitudes of being single

One of the great frustrations of travelling alone is the phenomenon known as the single room supplement. Practically all costings that are made in respect of travel packages where accommodation is involved are based on the not-unreasonable assumption that two people will be travelling. The room type — double or twin — is irrelevant; the only consideration is that the room cost can be divided in two, thus making the resultant costing much cheaper, and

Objects may appear smaller than they actually are

Next March, I will acknowledge a significant matrimonial milestone with my better half when we celebrate 40 years of wedded bliss! Back in March 1979, we spent our honeymoon on the island of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands and to this day, it is still one of our favourite destinations. We spend a week there almost every year with our grandkids on the Costa Adeje. With that significant anniversary coming up, we wanted

Up close and cuddly!

People travel for all sorts of reasons — a change of scenery, to rest and recuperate, to experience a new culture or to see new sights. Indeed, if you were to sit down and compile a list of all the reasons why people travel, you would probably end up with hundreds. One of the most enthralling reasons that people travel is to experience animals in their natural habitat. The most obvious example of such an

Far from the madding crowd.

One of life’s great conundrums is that popular destinations only become popular in the first place because they have something to offer a lot of different people — whether that ‘something’ be atmosphere, friendliness, cheapness, accessibility, safety, culture or any number of other attributes. Destinations don’t become popular out of the blue or by accident; there is always a very definable reason for their popularity. The conundrum occurs when the very things that made the

There’s nothing like a good Seaview

One of the great perks of doing the job that I do is that, periodically, I get the opportunity to test-drive some amazing new hardware. Last weekend was just such an occasion when I had the pleasure to experience MSC’s latest super ship — Seaview — in Genoa. It’s not the largest cruise ship in the world (it’s 14th actually), but it is very cleverly designed and exhibits the usual Italian flair for style, elegance

Are you a tourist or a traveller?

There are numerous references online as to what differentiates a tourist from a traveller and one of the best that I’ve come across is the one that states, ‘One blends in whereas the other sticks out!’ Does that describe you? Do you like to stick within your comfort zone or do you occasionally venture outside it? Do you try to immerse yourself in a local culture or are you happy to remain aloof from it

Some of the most beautiful destinations are on our doorstep.

It has almost become a cliché for Irish people to bemoan the fact that but for the bad weather that we constantly experience here, we would probably never set foot outside our own country — such is the beauty that can be found in our little piece of rain-sodden paradise. Whilst I am one of the people who partially subscribe to that theory, the fact is that there are simply some things that our neighbours

Georgian on my mind

The city of Bath has always been one of those places that I wanted to visit but just never got around to. Part of the problem was its proximity in that I repeatedly rationalized that I would get to it one day but in the meantime, it made more sense to explore the furthest corners of the planet while I still had the stamina to do it. Anyway, I eventually managed to get to Bath

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

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