Welcome to our site. Here's a link to some of out Most Popular Posts

If you like what you see why not subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also help us by bookmarking this page with any of the buttons at the bottom of each article. Follow us on Twitter for travel deals and travel related news, questions and conversations. Thanks for visiting!

With gap year travel becoming so popular and more and more young people finding time between school, college and working life to get out on the road for an extended period of time, the concept of the new Lonely Planet book The Big Trip should definitely interest a few readers. It’s the first edition of this title and is all about planning and executing your first “big trip” abroad. Read the full story

We recently took a look at the hotel trends we’re predicting for 2009, but Forbes has taken it one step further and honed in on specific hotels to make their world’s best new hotels list. There’s a pretty good chance that some of these places will be hot in the next year:

• Chicago’s coming-soon Trump International Hotel and Tower has already got a lot of hype, and although it was supposed to be opening in December, we’re guessing that a 2009 debut is more likely. And then we’ll be hearing a lot more about it.
• In more exotic locations the Hasdrubal Prestige Hotel is new on the island of Djerba in Tunisia, northern Africa - this is a great vacation spot that’s already popular amongst European holidaymakers, and with a few more fancy hotels will become a well-known destination on a world-wide scale. There’s also the Azura Lodge in Mozambique, one of those places with plunge pools and infinity pools galore - plenty of reasons to visit.
• Two hotels from the Four Seasons chain made it into the Top 50 of the new hotels list: one was the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze in the tourist-magnet city of Florence, and the second was the Four Seasons Resort Provence at Terre Blanche in France.
• Speaking of chains, there are also two hotels from St Regis on the list, both in Asia - the St Regis Bali and the St Regis Singapore. They’re quite different markets but the predictions are that these new places will become very popular.
• Over in Britain, the myhotel concept is taking off and that has put the myhotel in Brighton on the list of hit hotels for 2009. Elsewhere in Europe, a new hotel in Munich called the Charles Hotel, near the Botanical Gardens, is apparently pretty luxurious.
• And further away Down Under in Queensland’s capital Brisbane, a new Australian hotel that is on the list to become popular fast is the Emporium. It’s a boutique hotel - all the rage in many places right now but especially in Australia - and it’s a place that seems to have a bit of life in it.
• Finally in Paris, everybody’s dream destination, there are a couple of picks for great new hotels. One is the Hotel Fouquet’s Barriere which overlooks the Champs Elysees; another is the Hotel Keppler, close to the Arc de Triomphe, a relatively small boutique hotel with less than 40 rooms.

Wherever you’re hoping to travel to in 2009, there’s bound to be a hot new hotel nearby, so do your research and find somewhere a bit special to stay.

Lonely Planet is making a habit of publishing lists of must-visit travel spots and there’s another one just out: Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2009. This book of lists is said to contain some 850 different destinations arranged in various lists, including in a special section on water, with 75 ideas for “water-related travel”.

Read the full story

No matter where you were in the world this week, you would have seen and read about Barack Obama’s election win to become the next President of the United States. It was especially interesting to read that a day after the final result, Obama spent time calling heads of state in nine different countries to chat about the future.

The nine countries are, of course, important and strategic allies of the United States but we can also assume that Obama will be visiting all of these nine countries at the first available chance to cement relationships and continue those important international talks. So here’s what a schedule of visits to these allies might involve:

• Canada: one of the closest trips for Obama to make, he chatted on Thursday with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Toronto - we’ve got tips on where he should go shopping if they meet up in Toronto.
• Mexico: the other closest trip for Obama. We know that Mexican President Felipe Calderon talked with Obama about drug smuggling and the border problem so there might be some changes there in the future; in the meantime our best tips for a Mexico vacation involve exploring the Mexican Riviera.
• Britain: just a hop across the ocean, Obama was keen to speak with Prime Minister Gordon Brown about a range of issues, including Iraq. But on a less serious note, Obama could use our guide to sightseeing in London to help him out on a trip to Downing Street.
• France: French President Nicolas Sarkozy was very proud that he kept Obama on the phone for half an hour (especially when compared to his arch rival, British PM Gordon Brown, who only chatted for ten minutes, according to press reports). We’ve got some tips on visiting the Eiffel Tower if Obama stops by Paris to speak with Sarkozy in person.
• Germany: Obama already had a highly publicized trip to Berlin during his campaign, but still called German Chancellor Angela Merkel shortly after his victory to talk some more. Luckily we are sure that you could never run out of things to do on a trip to Berlin so there are still some more spots for Obama to visit next time round.
• Australia: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was pleased with the US election result when he chatted with Obama; we recommend checking out Bill Bryson’s guide to Australia to thoroughly enjoy a trip Down Under.

Obama also spoke with the leaders of Israel, South Korea and Japan, and is likely to meet up with many of these leaders when they travel to the G20 summit in Washington next week.

photo credit: Center for American Progress Action Fund

We’ve had a look at the likely hot destinations for travelers in 2009, but it’s also interesting to hear about the trends in hotels for tourists and travelers - where do the experts think we’ll be staying in the next year or so, and what does the near future look like for hotels economically? Here are a few of the predicted trends for accommodation during 2009:

• With a more environmentally friendly outlook, a lot of travelers say that they will be more likely to stay in eco lodges and other “green” accommodations during 2009, compared to their past behavior.
• And while some expect that economic difficulties might stop a lot of travel taking place, there is also a widespread belief that this won’t affect hotels as much because a lot of people - including vacationers and business travelers - will still travel, but will not travel quite so far. But they will still need a hotel to stay in, so the economic downturn may not be quite as damaging for hotels as for other parts of the travel industry.
• Travelers within the United States tend to fairly loyal to their brand when they stay in hotels, usually because of guest points programs, and that is unlikely to change in 2009. The top three brands as far as loyalty goes in the US are Marriott, Hilton and Hampton Inn.
• In possibly good news for travelers, the occupancy rates of hotels are predicted to decline a bit during 2009, which might mean that hotels offer some lower price to entice more guests to stay. However, some experts are saying the average reduction in prices might be around 1%, while still others think that other economic issues will actually force hotel prices to rise about 5%; so it’s anybody’s guess right now.
• Another interesting trend that hoteliers are keeping a close eye on for 2009 is the increasing inmportance of having an online presence. With more and more hotel bookings being done online, hotels are finding it ever more important to have a good website and more of them are providing extra services for guests who book directly online, rather than through a booking agency that takes a fee. Some say that this trend means that we will start to stay at more independent hotels during 2009, rather than well known chain names, because when we are individually searching online we are able to find a wider variety of possibilities.

What does an actor do when he’s got (nearly) enough money and enough time to do what he wants? Some might buy a second home in France but Michael Tucker (of LA Law fame) decided to buy a house in Italy. Not only that, but he also wrote a book about it, resulting in Living in a Foreign Language: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Love in Italy. Read the full story

You might have thought that the secret life of a natural history museum is what you see in the Ben Stiller movie Night at the Museum, but science writer Richard Fortey tells the real truth in his book Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. Fortey worked at London’s Natural History Museum as a palaeontologist for over thirty years so certainly has some inside gossip.

Read the full story

30 Days in Sydney: A Distorted Account by well-known Australian writer Peter Carey is not, as the title might suggest, a traveler’s guide book for how to spend thirty days in Australia’s biggest city. It’s something much different, loosely framed on Carey’s thirty-day stay in Sydney while he lived abroad in New York.

Since Carey had lived in Sydney before, he had a ready network of friends to tap into when he once again set foot on the Aussie shore. Before arriving he had decided he wanted to tell the story of this month-long trip through anecdotes related to the elements of water, earth, wind and fire, and he spends the book pursuing the various friends who he knows have interesting tales to tell.

Through this framework, the reader really gets to know Sydney, its culture and its history, getting much deeper than the average tourist. Carey goes into detail about the design of the famous Sydney Opera House through hearing a presentation from a little-known academic; he describes the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race through the terrifying tales of friends who took part in its most dangerous year. He looks back into history to when white people first arrived in Sydney and lets us see how it has changed since then, for better or for worse, and he brings us up to the present day by looking at the influence of the 2000 Olympic Games on the city, too.

30 Days in Sydney won’t tell you when the ferry to Manly leaves Circular Quay, but it is still a must-read for anyone visiting Sydney.

photo credit: krossbow

It’s the time of year when the travel media is full of predictions and survey results forecasting where we are all going to travel next year - what destinations are hot for 2009 and what kind of trip will be the next big thing - from mancations to staycations and a big variety of ecotourist adventures.

It might be a bit of a chicken and egg thing, I think - have travelers really already indicated the trends for next year by booking new destinations, or are we influenced by all of these lists and hints to decide where we will head for our next vacations?

In any case, here are a few of the key results that recent surveys and predictions have said will be the trendy travel destinations during 2009:

• The island of Sardinia in Italy is apparently going to be hit by visitors because its seaside resort of Budoni has been named as the #1 destination on TripAdvisor’s TravelCast predictions. Among other destinations on this top ten list of places we will be heading around the world, there are several other Mediterranean destinations including Crete and Hanioti in Greece, Cyprus, Spain and another region of Italy, Peschiera del Garda. Ardmore in Ireland and Goslar in Germany round out the European part of this top ten list and then Sri Lanka and Jordan are the only non-European destinations to get the nod.
• For those Americans traveling within the United States, there is another list of top ten destinations, with the top three predictions being St George in Utah, Englewood in Florida and Keauhou in Hawaii. Florida and Hawaii both turn up twice in this list.
• “Staycations” are still on the radar for 2009: the TripAdvisor survey found that almost one in five United States travelers are planning to stay at home for their vacation during the next year, with the economic crisis clearly still biting.
• Environmentally friendly trends are still at the forefront of many travelers’ minds too, with increasing percentages of travelers being mindful of the ecological impact of their travels. In the United States, 32% of travelers said that would be even more environmentally conscious this year than last year when they are planning and carrying out their travels. Only 21% of British travelers agreed with this, although this was still an increase on their environmental awareness in the 2009 surveys; it sounds like there is something to be hopeful about as far as travelers and the environment are concerned.

The new Travel Wise: How to be Safe, Savvy and Secure Abroad by Ray S. Leki is a sometimes entertaining and sometimes heavy going reference handbook. It is designed to help travelers in general, and especially frequent travelers or business travelers, to ensure their safety while abroad. Read the full story