Top 100 Travel

Some of you may already be aware of the Travelzoo newsletter; it’s basically a weekly roundup of the 20 best travel deals including everything from cheap flights to cruises from across the web that subscribers receive in their email every Wednesday. Some of the deals are genuinely pretty impressive; take these from last week’s update: £79 — Costa del Sol 5-Star Golf & Spa Resort w/VIP Extras, £105 — Malta: 7 Nights & Flights, £169 — 5-Star Tunisian Beach Holiday. Not bad eh, well worth signing up I reckon, particularly as it’s free.

Anyway, now is an especially good time to sign up as they’re currently entering all new signups into a free £20,000 prize draw - that could certainly buy you a hell of a holiday. Here’s the link: http://uk.sweepstakes.travelzoo.com/?g

Cruises certainly have a reputation for lavish luxury and expense, but they have also become much more widely available in recent years. Especially popular have been reduced price tours around the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. Cruising around and island hopping is a great way to experience a diverse range of places that you wouldn’t normally get from your standard package holiday. If you want to keep the price low, and not tour halfway around the world on your cruise, then a trip to the Aegean Sea comes as highly recommended. This sea features an archipelago of some 1,415 islands and islets, and it sits between the popular holiday destinations of Turkey and Greece. The cities of Athens, Thessalonika, and Izmir all line its shores, as well as the ancient sites of Halicarnassus, Ephesus, and Troy on the Turkish side.

Even if you’re not thinking of a cruise, a trip to the Aegean is one of the top destinations in the world for history lovers. If you love the age of antiquity, then Athens comes as highly recommended as a trip to Rome or Egypt, while the west coast of Turkey is packed with ancient sites (including some of the Seven Wonders of the World). For a directory of well priced Athens hotels, take a look at FantasticGreece.com, I also recommend looking at the Travel Zoo website, with an excellent choice of holidays to the Aegean, including cruises.

Following on from my last post on forgetting space tourism, I found this video on YouTube, mainly about Richard Branson’s Virgin funding commercial space flights. While impressive, it’s hardly a space hotel, and it’s not exactly a steal at £200,000 a time. Also starting to question the environmental impact of a privately funded space race, and the human risks, need I go on? Have a look at this:

Those who don’t tick many boxes of being super rich will probably want to stick to airline travel on Earth for a while. Head to www.flymonarch.co.uk for cheap flights from the UK - you’ll probably need to do a bit more than remortgage your house to afford a commercial space flight in the near future!

Doing the occasional surfs for research on the internet I do often come across quite a bit of fairly wacky stuff. I was recently checking out some of the amazing hotel developments that are happening in the Middle East, with some of the incredible buildings that have already been designed, and I couldn’t really believe my eyes. There’s the colossal Burj Dubai to begin with, which already, even before completion, is the tallest manmade structure on the planet. Keeping in tune with finding out some of the world’s most amazing hotels then, I stumbled across a webpage listing ‘The World’s Top 10 Futuristic Luxury Hotels’. It’s a quite amazing read, especially when you think that all of these designs and concepts have already been paid for by someone. Looking down the list doesn’t strain too much credibility to begin with, but then you reach number six and things start getting a little surreal. Even number seven, the aptly labelled ‘Waterworld’, as stunning as it looks, would take an absolute age to build from concept to completion. Going down from number four, however, reaches the purely conceptual, although the article would have you believe otherwise. I took a particularly close look at the website for ‘Galactic Suite’ and was quite astounded that they expected to be operational by 2012. With 2008 just around the corner, it seems a little more than unlikely that such wildly optimistic predictions will ever surface even by 2020, although in twelve years time I’d be happy to eat my words. It’s just that spaceflight is so expensive now, why would the price decrease so dramatically by then? And how would are a number of ‘space hotels’ really sustainable? The International Space Station will reach costs of around $130 billion by 2010, while only 144 people have ever visited it. Unless you had an orbiting hydroponics farm nearby, and plenty of other means to keep the ‘space hotel’ stocked with goods, then it’s just not feasible to imagine that anything like a space hotel can exist – space travel is just too expensive. Supplies could go up on passenger shuttles, I suppose, but how many takers would there actually be? Still, have a look down the list anyway; it’s worth it just to see some of the incredible concept art.

If you’re heading out for an adventure backpacking, or you want a holiday filled with nature and incredible marine life, then they don’t come much better than the Great Barrier Reef in north east Australia. I was just flicking through videos and YouTube, and thought this one best sums it up. There’s loads of other videos as well, and plenty of sharks in a feeding frenzy! Check this out:

If you’re looking for a cheap flight to Australia, then Expedia.co.uk is a good place to start, with a range of flights to a variety of Australian destinations at anytime of year.

The 15^th November was the date of the 2007 British Travel Awards hosted at the Battersea Evolution in London. There were a plenty awards to hand out across the industry, with P & O and Virgin the top performers in the overall category. Meanwhile, Marriott picked up best hotel chain, while Thomas Cook picked up Travel Agency of the Year. In the Top Airlines and Air Travel category, Monarch Airlines continued its trend for winning short haul and leisure awards. This time around it picked up Best Scheduled Airline - Europe, having had previous success in the Short Breaks and Holiday Awards and Travel Trade Gazette Awards this year. The company is proving to be a very popular airline for travelers within Europe with a wide range of cheap flights available to top destinations.

Fly Monarch, the British airline who specialise in cheap flights to Europe, have teamed up with Paypal to become the first European airline to offer the online payment service as an alternative method of booking flights on their website.

The partnership is an equally significant move for Paypal in the UK, being their first foray into the British online travel sector, and might be seen as an indication of their aspirations to diversify. Indeed, Paypal have previously attracted criticism for depending too much on eBay, which still accounts for two thirds of their sales.

The partnership could prove to be a precursor to more big companies integrating Paypal as a further option for online payments. With 153 million Paypal users worldwide and evidence that by streamlining the payment process there is a an increased likelihood of existing customers buying more, it is perhaps surprising that more big companies with an online presence haven’t already integrated Paypal.

Fly Monarch operates scheduled cheap flights to a host of popular European destinations.

This week saw my neck saved by none other than flowers specialist, Interflora. I was stuck for a birthday present and decided to fall back on that firm favourite in an emergency; flowers!

To help even further the company’s flowers website allows you to do the whole process online. As if that wasn’t enough there was also a special offer on with free chocolates or free next day delivery on orders over £19.99 (I took the free chocolates!).

If you’re interested the offer is on until October 31st 2007 and only applies to UK deliveries of Interflora bouquets. To take advantage simply use the code “web123” when ordering and it’s done!

Of late Heathrow Airport and its parent company BAA have been in for some serious stick. So what are the points of contention and how have they been dealt with?

Heathrow runs at 50% above capacity. Every year 67m people pass through the Airports terminals on their journeys across the globe. The sheer volume of flights has made Heathrow the world’s busiest international airport and second biggest cargo airport.  This has meant BAA has looked to extend Heathrow by means of a third terminal leading to the protests seen of late by environmental protesters. The volume of traffic has also had a knock on affect for airlines that fly out from Heathrow. >The Association of European Airlines ranked British Airways as the worst airline for losing luggage. This was partly blamed on the breakdown of a conveyor belt that transfers baggage between terminals.

Heathrow has recently been under siege from 500 protestors who are against the proposed expansion of the airport to incorporate a third runway. Although the protestors come from a number of different backgrounds and for a variety of reasons, the main points of contention are the expansion of the airport and the current and future effects of climate change. Many protestors are against the expansion of the airport t as they will be forced to leave their homes to make space for the new runway. The vast majority of protestors are there because of climate change. Compared to other modes of transport such as driving, low-carbon flying is still a long way off. Although the actual amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by flying is low at the moment (approximately 3.5% of total emissions), the problem is in the future growth of the industry and number of flights that will be taken. It is estimated that by 2025 the number of flights will increase to 9 billion flights per year. 

The bigger problem faced by those in the airline industry is how to find solutions for the current crisis. Due to the nature of flights, flight emissions are not included in any international protocols as there are management problems related to this. It has been difficult to open up international air space and make the routes more efficient. As much as the industry may try it seems that efficient flight is still a while off and yet the problems don’t seem to have the time to wait if the protestors are to be trusted.

Spring 2006 in Athens, Greece saw the opening of the Tholos, a state-of-the-art Virtual Reality museum system with a capacity of 130 people. The Tholos is a “Theatron” hosting theatrical performances and exhibitions enabling visitors to visualise and immerse themselves in historical and archaeological information. Whilst the Tholos is aimed at promoting the history of ancient Greece, it will also no doubt boost the local economy and potentially encourage tourism in the local area which could see benefits for business such as hotels and restaurants in and around the Athens area.

The “Tholos” is the Foundation of the Hellenic World’s (FHW) new dome-shaped Virtual Reality “Theatre“ based in the cultural centre of “Hellenic World” on Pireos street. It is a building of progressive architectural design and unique technological infrastructure, which establishes a new era in the use of virtual multimedia for teaching purposes, whilst at the same time it preserves and promotes historical knowledge.

The digital shows hosted in the interactive programme have as a point of reference the “Agora” of ancient Athens (i.e. the ancient Greek market in Athens) and offer a novel approach in the educational process. In an attempt to present a consistent and scientifically accurate image of the ancient “Agora”, the scientists, researchers and artists of the Foundation have developed a trilogy; “An interactive walk in the ancient Agora of Athens”, “An act in the ancient Agora” and “Athens in the ancient Agora”.

The virtual projects, each having a production cost of 2-3 million euros, take us back to the period between the 5th and 3rd century BC. Athens was at the peak of its cultural and financial prosperity at that time when philosophical ideas where flourishing and humanitarian values such as justice, equality and freedom of speech were first being conceived. The spectator has many ways of experiencing the virtual world. He is not only able to choose the next step but also to take part in fun activities designed for the younger audiences. Such games include giving a speech in front of fellow citizens of Athens and taking part in the election process or even being elected themselves! Having fun is as important as the educational attributes of these productions. The viewer can learn of how the principles of law and governance have been transformed from the ancient times to the present and how they are applied in modern Athens and other parts of the world.

The “Tholos” has a capacity of 130 people and its architectural characteristics, in particular the semi-spherical projection surface, are reminiscent of a planetarium. However, unlike a planetarium, the show is highly interactive. A plethora of alternative scenarios is offered, all based on the same virtual model, which can be controlled in real-time by visitors who can choose the next step of the navigation. In this way the whole experience becomes uniquely direct, flexible and dynamic, thus amplifying the viewers feeling of immersion into the virtual world. The financial cost of such productions is indeed high. The cost has been funded in part by the European Union and a significant sponsorship by the National Bank of Greece.

If you’re thinking of visiting the “Tholos” in Athens, Greece, you can find some great deals on Athens hotels and flights to Athens by visiting the Athens Hotels website.