So you think you know the Canaries?

The Canary islands and Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura in particular are amongst the most popular destinations for Irish travelers given their year-round climate. Located just 100 kilometres at their most easterly point off the west coast of Morocco, this autonomous region of Spain is the most southerly extent of Europe. What some people may not know though is that the archipelago compromises three further islands — La Palma, El Hierro and La Gomera

How you save money as soon as you pick up the phone to a travel agent!

There is a vocal cohort of consumers out there who believe that they save money by not using a travel agent and whilst there are certainly certain, limited scenarios where that might be true, such claims tend to be somewhat disingenuous since they don’t compare like with like and what I mean by that is that they rarely factor in the time and effort that they expend in searching all the multiple websites that they

Is anywhere safe anymore?

After the tragic events that took place last week in Barcelona, Cambrils and Turku, that surely must be a question that more and more people are asking themselves nowadays. We live in an increasingly dangerous world it would appear but according to academics such as Stephen Pinker in his 2011 bestseller ‘The Better Angels of our Nature’ the statistics would suggest otherwise. Indeed, if you look at the accompanying graphic to this week’s blog you’ll

Where do you go next when you’ve been almost everywhere?

There was a time, not so long ago, when travelling to someplace like Australia was seen as a big deal or when a holiday in Mauritius was looked upon as something only the rich and famous could afford to indulge in. Not anymore! Nowadays, your average consumer is pretty well traveled and whilst not everyone will necessarily have visited Jamaica, The Maldives or Antigua, nor will they feel as if these destinations are so off

The same, but different — on Safari in Kenya

Anyone who has ever visited New York will recall the very first time that they walked through downtown Manhattan, taking in all the sights and sounds. It felt like walking through a movie set, didn't it? Not only that but it simultaneously felt very familiar because of all the movies and tv shows in which it has acted as backdrop yet also was very different but it was difficult to put your finger on what

4°37′S 55°27′E — The coordinates of Paradise!

Here's a quick quiz for you and see if you can guess correctly, where I'm talking about?: The inhabitants consume 114.6 litres of beer per annum — second only to the Czech Republic in annual consumption 15% of the population work in tourism 88% of the country is covered in forest. (more…)

I haven’t been everywhere but it’s on my list!

A brilliant saying if ever there was one and I will be eternally envious of Susan Sontag to whom the quote is attributed. I love it so much that we’ve used it at Travel Centres and Travel Bug, along with some other famous travel-related quotes, to epitomize the pleasure that is travelling. People assume when they hear that you work in the travel industry that you’ve been everywhere but that is rarely true and I’m

The Pleasure Paradox

The pleasure paradox, also sometimes called the paradox of hedonism, refers to the practical difficulties encountered in the pursuit of pleasure. Unfortunately for the hedonist, constant pleasure-seeking may not yield the most actual pleasure or happiness in the long run—or even in the short run, when consciously pursuing pleasure interferes with experiencing it. At least so says Wikipedia. The subject of this week’s blog is the Amusement Park — that modern construct (both literally and metaphorically) beloved of holidaymakers

Experience how the other half live

Isn’t it amazing how some expressions come to end up meaning exactly the opposite of what they were first meant to express? Take the title of this week’s blog for example. ‘How the other half lives’ was the title of a book written in 1890 by a recent immigrant to the United States, a Jacob Riis who had arrived there from Denmark in 1870. After having worked a wide variety of menial jobs, Riis worked

There is no sincerer love than the love of food!

At least that’s what George Bernard Shaw claimed and I’m inclined to agree with him. It would also appear that I’m not alone as the people at Oceania Cruises also take their food very seriously indeed. They reputedly spend more on food than any other cruise line and having recently spent a couple of indulgent days aboard Oceania Insignia as it made its way up from Bordeaux to Dublin, I can attest to that claim!

The Success story that is MSC Cruises!

When Captain Gianluigi Aponte purchased his first, small ship in Belgium in 1970, just as globalisation was taking off which would soon be fed by the containerisation revolution, little could he have imagined that the small company that he had just founded in Brussels would one day come to employ more than 60,000 people located in over 150 countries around the world. That company was MSC Group, parent of MSC Cruises! (more…)

The Vegans are coming — live long and prosper!

I LOVE my food! I love eating out. I love watching cookery programmes and browsing through cookery books. Indeed, I don’t think there is a world cuisine that I don’t enjoy. A lot of those cuisines are based around the use of meats or fish of some kind and whilst I am a life-long, card-carrying member of the carnivore society, the older I get, the more I’m beginning to come around to the questionable morality

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!).