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There’s a hotel for everyone!

  From a travel agents’ perspective, one of the most interesting phenomena to reveal itself over the course of the past ten years is that, given the choice, consumers like to spend more, rather than less money on their hotel accommodation. Let me explain: As low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and EasyJet went from strength to strength and made international travel available to everyone, people started travelling more regularly and whilst they were prepared to

Premium economy anyone?

On a recent flight to the States, my flight was delayed by almost six hours because of bad weather. There were strong cross winds at Dublin airport which were blowing above the safety threshold of the aircraft in question and we couldn’t use another runway because the aircraft size and load needed a longer runway to take off. Flight delays are an unfortunate inconvenience of air travel and are usually beyond the control of all

Does familiarity breed contempt?*

It is a phrase that we’re all well acquainted with and although strictly speaking it is supposed to refer to a person rather than a thing, it has become common practice in recent times to denote the lack of respect that we attribute to persons, places or things when they become so familiar to us that they become boring. A perfect example of this behavioral phenomenon is global tourism. You and I often travel at

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

One mans’ meat …

What is your ideal holiday? Is it lazing by a pool with a cold Pina Colada in your hand or is it walking along a deserted palm-fringed beach with warm azure waters lapping at your feet? Or is it trekking the Inca Trail or tracking some wild animal in the South African bush? The fact of the matter is that there is no universal size (or type) that fits all! And that’s one of the

The true cost of that holiday!

One of the biggest mistakes that some people make when budgeting for their holiday is not considering the cost of those miscellaneous expenses on the ground when they arrive at their chosen destination which can often add up to more than the actual cost of the trip itself. Travelers can often get so obsessed with the headline cost of a package that they forget that it is but one component of a much bigger figure.

Ready for something a little bit out of the ordinary?

One of the many highlights of visiting destinations around the world is getting the opportunity to visit the museums. Museums are amazing places and some of them offer free entrance so you can literally spend an entire day both entertaining and educating yourself about the world for free! We've all heard of world-famous museums such as the Smithsonian in Washington D.C, the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Uffizi in Florence, the

The inherent dangers of booking online!

The Internet is, without doubt, one of the greatest innovations in technology in the past 30 years and has democratized the dissemination of information like no other medium in history since the invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. Indeed, the internet (and by extension, the commerce that is transacted through it) has so insinuated itself into everyday life that in many instances, statute law has been playing catch-up ever since!

It takes 15,000 casualties to train a major general

So pronounced Marshal Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch, a french general, military theorist and the Supreme Allied commander of World War One!  A hundred years ago,  the 'war to end all wars' devastated Europe and in particular much of Belgium and north west France. The numbers of casualties on both sides were staggering and the obscene loss of life is still impossible to get one's head around with most of the victims in their late teens

Blogtastic — The rise and rise of the travel blog!

With each year that passes and as more and more people enjoy the delights of international travel, it is inevitable that more and more travel blogs get written. Some blogs — like this one for instance — are an incidental activity to something else that is being done — in my case, running a travel consortium and trying to maximise the level of commerce being generated on behalf of key supplier partners. In many other
safeness

Where should I go on my next holiday?

There are all sorts of reasons why people choose the destinations that they do. For some it’s simply price, for other’s weather is their primary concern. Some choose destinations based on their proximity whilst other travellers choose places based on their ‘safeness’. It is therefore interesting to note the results of the latest biannual report from the World Economic Forum which rates countries around the world based on a wide ranging set of metrics that

How travel decisions can sometimes be based on incomplete information

Trip Advisor is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. The global review site started out life above a Pizza shop called Kosta's in Needham, Massachusetts in February, 2000. It is a great site without question and I must admit that I have started contributing to it in recent times as I realised, belatedly, that I had a lot to contribute given the amount of travelling I do (and have done). What prompted me to write

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!).

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