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Three amazing Japan tours in 2021 with FREE flights!

  Immerse yourself in the unique and fascinating culture of Japan. A country of captivating contrasts, where ancient gods rub shoulders with modern technology, skyscrapers give way to lush paddy fields and bustling crowds disperse into the tranquillity of a classical garden. An escorted tour is the perfect way to experience all that this fascinating archipelago has to offer. Book before the 31st of October and receive FREE flights! Get in touch with a Travel

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…)

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

Jamaica — Ireland’s Caribbean next-of-kin

It is just over 30 years since I first visited Jamaica and fell in love with the island, its people and its music. I’ve only been back there once since then and am due to visit the Caribbean nation for a third time next year and I’m already looking forward to it. The thing that struck me most forcibly about Jamaica and Jamaicans on that first visit was how much they were like us in
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

A long overdue reunion with an old acquaintance

Back in 1988, I undertook the first of two trips to Jamaica to scout out properties for a large incentive group that had confirmed a booking with me when I was managing a tour operating company in Dublin. The company in question was Chieftain Tours and at the time, it was the only operator of charters to Toronto in Canada where it partnered with a large Canadian tour operator called Sunquest Vacations. I had pitched

Where do travel agents go on their holidays?

We are currently in the process of putting the finishing touches to our new consumer magazine which is about to be published in dozens of different editions so that many of our affiliated member agents can customize their copies for the benefit of their customers. One of the features that we’ve included as part of that customization process is that we’ve asked each travel agency owner to reveal some things about themselves that we felt

Nippon — Land of the Rising Sun

‘Nippon’ is the word that the Japanese use to describe their own country and the Kanji characters that represent the written form literally translate as ‘sun origin’. Even their national flag continues with this theme, representing, as it does, a red circle against a white background — or as one wit once described it: a Venn diagram indicating what percentage of Japan is actually Japanese, as the country has always famously been homogeneous and indeed

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

Perceptions, assumptions and misunderstandings

Nothing is set in stone. Things change. Reality is fluid and few things in life adhere to a precise and inviolate template. What on earth am I waffling on about this time? One of the biggest mistakes that people make (and I include myself in this) is that we treat everything as gospel. We read an article somewhere that advises against travel to such and such a place because there was ‘an incident’ and forever

In India, they drive on the left …

… and the right, in the middle, on the hard shoulder and in the opposite direction — even on dual carriageways and motorways but for some perverse reason, it all seems to work. India is not a country where you simply hire a car to get around. You hire a car and a driver because only Indians have the steel nerves, 360-degree panoramic vision, built-in radar and the reaction times of the domestic house fly

When they’re gone, they’re gone!

Back in the mid-eighties, I secured a booking for a large GAA group that wanted to undertake a multi-city tour of the US, taking in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. As is standard practice with large groups, I brought two of the group leaders out with me on an inspection tour of all three cities so that they could stay in the various hotels that we had chosen for them and deliberate on

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