The author of Chocolat visited Venice and Rome on her way to Modica, home of the island’s oldest chocolate shop Robert Louis Stevenson put it best: to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive. Certainly, for a writer more familiar with flights of fancy than budget airlines and package tours, the idea of […]
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Travellers expect to be able to tweak their itinerary on the move
THE new Ryanair is not just about smiling desk staff. In its latest efforts to charm customers and make up ground on rival easyJet, Ryanair has launched a series of initiatives to make it easier for customers to book flights and other services. They include a more responsive website designed for tablets and smartphones. It’s […]
How I lost thousands to a crooked travel agent
ORGANISING a trip to the Cork Jazz Festival with friends seemed straightforward for Tim Kelleher, but when he called the hotel he had booked it had no record of his reservation for 23 guests. He learnt that the £6,600 handed to a travel agent a month earlier for flights and accommodation had never been used […]
The best discounts on breaks by ferry
Whether you’re off to the Hook of Holland, France or the Channel Islands, here are the best offers to get you there France without tears Two children under 15 accompanying adults travel free on Brittany Ferries’ daytime sailings to the French ports of Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Roscoff and St Malo this summer. Standard four-berth […]
Sky’s the limit
When Thomas Cook announced last week that it was shutting up shop after selling package tours from Ireland for more than 100 years, it was a surprise if no great shock. Within the travel trade, the signs were there. Into the second week of January, there was no sign of a brochure. The company was […]
The world’s best hotels, picked by the experts
There’s a new international show dedicated to boutique travel. It’s called LE Miami and at its inaugural event this month, industry experts will have the difficult job of voting for the most influential person in contemporary travel. We’ve asked the nominees to reveal their favourite hotels and destinations, to give their predictions for the future […]
The Lonely Planet looks rather empty from up here in cyberspace
Long hair, dusty backpacks, dirt roads and a blue-spined travel bible: for more than 40 years thousands of young adventurers have relied on Lonely Planet guidebooks to navigate themselves through unfamiliar countries. News that the Australian publisher is to make about 80 of its 450-odd staff redundant prompted a tsunami of blubbing from travellers who […]