Millionaire’s giveaway
A fascinating story has been doing the rounds today about an Austrian millionaire who plans to give away his entire £3m fortune and live like a pauper.
Karl Radeber seems to have decided that money makes him unhappy, and whilst I’ll not be agreeing with that any time soon, one quote attributed to him [...]
Continue reading about The Eternal Awkwardness of Luxury Travel
Future of tourism at Uluru
Sydney Morning Herald blogger Clive Dorman has sparked a big debate on the future of tourism at Uluru (the monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock). His reaction seems to be that if you can’t climb the rock, then there’s no point in visiting.
Background to climbing debate
That, frankly, is bollocks. But first, [...]
Continue reading about Why climbing Uluru shouldn’t be banned – and why you shouldn’t climb it
Auto-recliners
My recent return journey to the Seychelles was a four leg affair (London – Doha – Mahe and back again), and each time I had the misfortune to sit behind the type of airline passenger I most despise: the auto-recliner.
Seat selfishness
We’ve all come across these people. They’re the ones that put their seat back as [...]
Continue reading about The battle of the reclining seat: What are the rules?
First trip into the unknown
When I went to Bali for the first time in 2000, it was my first real venture outside the relatively sanitised world of Western Europe and Central.
Before then, I’d done the usual inter-rail circuit around the big hitters, and – barring the odd encounter with Polish tram inspectors and Czech police [...]
“You’ll love New York”
The other day, I was collared by a friend of a friend, and the subject got on to travel. Within roughly 30 seconds, I got a familiar harangue. “You’ve got to go to New York. You’ll love New York.”
Destination recommendations
This happens to me a lot. People meet me for the first time, [...]
Continue reading about Why I don’t heart New York: A plea to would-be travel agents
My little list of Top 15 Travel Twitterers seems to have got itself a fair bit of attention. Interestingly, a lot of comments have centred around my reasons for unfollowing someone.
To summarise, if I find a Twitterer dull, irrelevant or overly irritating, then I see no reason to keep following them. Nothing personal – it’s [...]
Continue reading about How to use Twitter effectively: Travel PR companies
Tipping for good service? Or all the time?
I’m fairly sure that this one will open up a can of worms, but let’s run with it anyway. Cards on the table – I hate tipping, hate the fact that I’m expected to tip, and hate the attitude I’m given when I don’t.
And yes, this means tipping [...]
A common complaint amongst air stewards and stewardesses is that passengers keep their headphones on whilst trying to communicate. This is an absolutely understandable gripe – it’s incredibly rude, and forces the crew member to try and bellow over the top of a film when they’re trying to ask what drink you’d like.
Anti swine-flu precautions
But [...]
Continue reading about Should flight crews be wearing masks?
On Monday, I posted about receiving what I thought was the world’s most shameless press release: a company trying to sell tours to LA as an opportunity to pay tribute to Michael Jackson.
Right to respond
Just to prove that I can be even-handed, I offered them a right to respond to criticisms. I initially sent an [...]
Continue reading about World’s most shameless press release: the response
Well, that didn’t take long, did it? Just three days after Michael Jackson’s death, and a tour company is already trying to cash in.
A few minutes ago, I received perhaps the most shameless press release I have ever received. I suspect other journalists and publications did as well.
Michael Jackson’s star
On Saturday, I blogged about the [...]
Continue reading about The world’s most shameless press release
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