Savvy Travellers Know how to see Europe on the Cheap
Tuesday, July 17, 2007

15 July 2007

Frequent travellers to Europe know to cut expenses by traveling in the off-season, choosing buses over taxis and prowling supermarket aisles for lunchtime fare.

Here are other tried-and-true tips from travel agents, tour guides and frequent travellers for cutting costs in Europe without having to resort to hostel bunk beds, fast food and shared baths.

Click on this link for more cost effective tips.

http://www.modbee.com/life/travel/story/13791927p-14370730c.html

Posted by Co-op Travel 8:49 AM 0 comments    

New Seven Wonders Unveiled
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

On the fitting day of July 7, 2007, the new seven wonders of the world were announced after months of voting at http://www.new7wonders.com/ which ended at 6 p.m. ET Friday. Over 90 million votes were cast for 21 sites.

They were then announced at a lavish ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday which featured performances by Jennifer Lopez and Chaka Khan and hosted by Hilary Swank, Ben Kingsley, and Bollywood star Bipasha Basu. The seen winners announced include:

¨ The Great Wall of China

¨ Petra in Jordan

¨ Brazil’s statue of Christ the Redeemer

¨ Peru’s Machu Picchu

¨ Mexico’s Chichen Itza pyramid

¨ The Colosseum in Rome

¨ India’s Taj Mahal

The 21 nominated attractions were made public for voting in early June. Among these, the oldest was Stonehenge in England, and the newest was Australia’s Sydney Opera House. All of the competitors had to have been built or discovered before 2000, and they are all among the top tourist attractions around the world.

After these were announced, voting doubled to about 50 million votes being cast. Voters were able to vote multiple times. However, some complain that the campaign was not universally recognized. The United Nations’ cultural organization UNESCO claimed to have no link to the voting ballots. Many of the votes came from text messaging, and the others were from the website.

Now, the Seven Wonders site is holding a contest to choose the top seven wonders of nature. Nominations are being considered until August 8, 2008. A list of 21 candidates will be chosen from a panel of experts, and then final voting will begin. The rules maintain that the natural site may not have been created or significantly altered by humans.

Physical or natural phenomena like the northern lights, gulf stream, or shooting stars are not eligible. The nominations must fit into one of the following categories: natural site, natural monument, or landscape, animal reserve canyon, fjord cave, grotto coastline, cliff forest, wood geological site ,glacier mountain, volcano, rocks, nature conservancy park oasis, deserts, prehistoric natural site, underwater world, reef water, sea, lake, river, waterfall, or other.

Posted by Co-op Travel 11:32 AM 0 comments    

London Eye is Europe's Top Attraction
Monday, July 02, 2007

2 July 2007

The London Eye has come top in a poll of Europe's visitor attractions, beating the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre in Paris, and the Coliseum in Rome.

The list was put together from the travel editors and users of the popular website www.tripadvisor.com, which ranked the world's tallest observation wheel, the London Eye, as Europe's biggest visitor draw.

London also took second place with the Tower of London, home to the Crown jewels, followed by Paris' Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and the Rome Coliseum.

Also in the top ten was Anne Frank's House in Amsterdam, the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, St Peterburg's Hermitage museum, Denmark's Tivoli Gardens, and Spain's Alhambra palace and fortress.

The website also polled its users and experts on the USA's top visitor attractions, revealing Magical Mecca in Orlando, Florida as the top visitor draw.

Also in the top five were Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Hana Highway in Maui, Hawaii, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and Central Park in New York City.

Posted by Co-op Travel 3:11 PM 0 comments    

Marathon Tourism Lets you Combine Race, Vacation
Monday, April 30, 2007

29 April 2007

Running an out-of-town marathon used to be a weekend experience: fly or drive down on Friday, go to the expo on Saturday, race on Sunday morning and head home Sunday night or Monday morning.

Now, according to travel industry experts (who are mostly people at travel agencies trying to sell trip packages), marathon tourism is on the rise. People are booking vacations around their marathons and visiting exotic destinations where they combine sight-seeing and racing, rather than zipping in and out as quickly as possible.

One thing to consider is how to fit the marathon into your vacation timeline. If you put the race at the end of your visit, pre-race anxiety and diet restrictions may limit your holiday fun. If you race first and tour later, you may have to set aside a day or two for recovery.

Many tourists head for the world's biggest marathons in New York, Boston, Chicago, London and Berlin or to other big-city races like Paris and Rome.

However, here are eight different marathons in exotic and touristy locations that promote themselves as ideal places to race and visit.

Great Wall Marathon

May 19, 2007 and May 17, 2008: Held in China's Tianjin province, the Great Wall Marathon includes six kilometres of running on the wall itself, including 3,700 steps, plus a

flatter portion through the Chinese countryside. "A little tougher than a usual course," the race website says, "but no extraordinary experience is obtained ordinarily." I'm not sure whether the second half of that sentence is Confucian or just confusing, but "a little tougher" might be an understatement. Last year, only four runners broke four hours.

Easter Island Marathon

June 10: Some marathon courses make you feel like you're running in the middle of nowhere, but Easter Island is 3,700 kilometres from any major population centre, a little dot in the South Pacific. You get to run past the giant monolith statues for which the island is famous and ... well, that's it really.

Safaricon Marathon, Kenya

June 23: Had enough of Kenyan runners coming to North America and winning our races? Then go win the marathon in Kenya. The race is run on dirt roads through an African game park and wildlife conservatory. Trying for a personal-best time? Consider that lion following you as a pace bunny. Seriously, the organizers actually provide armed rangers to protect runners from pesky animals.

Niagara Falls International Marathon

Oct. 28: The only cross-border marathon in the world, the race starts in Buffalo and crosses the Peace Bridge into Fort Erie, Ont. The course then follows the Niagara River Parkway and finishes right at the Falls. Once it's over, you can begin a second marathon of tacky souvenir shopping.

Venice Marathon

Oct. 28: The pace cars aren't gondolas but you do get to run alongside and across some of the city's famous canals. The race begins 25 kilometres outside the city and finishes in the heart of the City of Water. Just before the finish, you cross the Grand Canal on a pontoon bridge built specifically for the race.

Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend,

Jan. 12-13, 2008: The perfect family vacation. You get to run through all the major theme parks and then limp along in a vain attempt to keep up with your kids as they race through them the next day. They hold the half-marathon the first day, the marathon the next. Finish both and you get a special Goofy medal!

Dubai Marathon

Jan. 18, 2008: It's one of the wealthiest cities in the world and the centre for banking and commerce of the Middle East, so perhaps it's no surprise that the 2008 race is being billed as the richest marathon ever.

You may not have a shot at the $1-million U.S. purse, but you can still make it your richest marathon experience by staying in a $1,500-per-night suite at the Burj al-Arab, which markets itself as a seven-star hotel.

Antarctica Marathon

March 5, 2008: The 2008 event is already sold out and the 2009 edition is half-booked. The marathon was created by a tour company, Marathon Tours & Travel, specifically so that some of its clients could form a Seven Continents Club by running a marathon on every continent.

The trip starts with a few days in Argentina, followed by a cruise down to Antarctica including lectures and wildlife excursions. "You will come face to face withicebergs, penguins, seals and whales while exploring the most pristine corner of the planet," the marketing material says.

I didn't know icebergs had faces.

Posted by Co-op Travel 1:01 PM 0 comments    

Italy Hope to Win Euro 2012 Over Two Joint Bids
Monday, April 16, 2007

Hamburg - Italy are seen as favourites to host the Euro 2012 football tournament, but like other bidders they have been plagued by domestic problems ahead of Wednesday's vote.

The ongoing corruption scandal and the death of a policeman during fan riots have not helped Italy's bid to win the tournament for the second time since 1980.

Italy are competing against joint bids from Hungary/Croatia and Poland/Ukraine to win the vote from the 14-strong UEFA executive board led by president Michel Platini on Wednesday in Cardiff.

According to UEFA vice-president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder of Germany, the final presentation before the UEFA officials on Tuesday can be vital.

'Emotions play a big role in football. This is the chance for all candidates at the presentation,' said Mayer-Vorfelder.

This was highlighted ahead of the vote for the 2004 edition, where outsiders Portugal got the UEFA officials on their side and eventually won the vote over favoured Spain.

Austria and Switzerland will host the 2008 edition which could work in Italy's favour as UEFA may prefer one nation instead of two in 2012.

Italy hosted the Euro finals in 1968 in the old four-team format and again in 1980, when the event was played as a proper tournament with eight teams in two groups for the first time. Italy won the World Cup a fourth time last year and has also hosted that event twice, in 1934 and 1990.

But the corruption scandal around officials from Juventus and other clubs which widened last week may hurt the bid. So could the fan violence which culminated in the death of a policeman during riots in Catania earlier this year.

Italian football supremo Giancarlo Abete has promised a tough stand of his body FIGC on the issues while bid committee chief Luca Pancalli hopes that winning Euro 2012 can help overcome the problems.

'Euro 2012 is not just a sports event. It offers a chance to win back the credit Italian football is looking for right now,' said Pancalli.

FIGC has also agreed to introduce stewards in the stadiums to take care of the fans after riot police police reportedly dealt harshly with Manchester United fans during a Champions League match in Rome's Olympic stadium. The force used drew criticism from UEFA and others.

The Euro tournament would also offer Italy a chance for a badly- needed renovation of its stadiums. Matches are to be played in Rome, Milan, Bari, Florence, Naples, Palermo, Turin and Udine. Bologna, Cagliari, Genoa and Verona will be added should the tournament be expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

Hungary and Croatia, meanwhile, hope for a boost in all areas from venues to tourism, and so do Poland and Ukraine.

'We would rather host the Euro tournament than win the World Cup. It is much better for our country in the long run,' said Croatian football federation president Vlatko Markovic.

Staging the event would be a massive image boost for Crotia which is a nation for less than two decades. Tourism is also expected to further rise.

While Croatia is a football-mad country and claimed a third-place finish at the 1998 World Cup, the game is on the decline in Hungary.

The national team has not qualified for an international tournament in 20 years, league matches attract few fans and the nation's most successful club Ferencvaros Budapest is in deep financial trouble.

'Give us a chance,' is the appropriate motto and Hungarian bid chief Tamas Gyarfas says that it is UEFA's duty to help countries lagging behind.

'For a long time now European football has split into two camps: top dogs and also-rans. If no helping hand takes care of those lagging behind, the distance between those ahead and those behind is bound to grow,' he said.

The same could apply to Poland and Ukraine, who can also do with a boost from an event like Euro 2012 despite massive public support in both countries for the event.

'UEFA has said explicitly that it wants to develop football in the east (of Europe), so our joint bid with Poland is the best choice in this sense,' said one football official in Kiev.

But there are uncertainties as well in the form of the Ukrainian political power struggle between the nation's president Viktor Yushchenko and prime minister Viktor Yanukovich. Poland's concern centres on football corruption and fan violence.

Posted by Co-op Travel 2:24 PM 0 comments    

Let easyJet Propose the Best Place to go this Valentine’s
Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Whatever language, whatever city, whatever destination, you can enjoy the romance that surrounds Valentine’s Day. You could enjoy a candlelit dinner in Venice, a romantic trip along the Danube in Budapest or lock yourself away in a romantic castle in Scotland.

easyJet has identified the lovers’ choice of destinations across the network to help you decide the best place to pop the question this year.

In Rome Valentine's Day in known as Lupercalia as this day is a very romantic and pleasure-loving occasion. There are several theories about the origin of Valentine's Day celebrations.

Some believe the Romans had a mid-February custom where boys drew girls' names in honour of the sex and fertility goddess, while others maintain that the custom of sending Valentines on 14 February stems from the belief that birds begin to pair on that date. Whatever your belief, you can ensure romance is high on the agenda in mid-February across Italy.

In some countries, a young woman may receive a gift of clothing from a young man. If she keeps the gift, it means she will marry him. Why not try this in Rome by treating your loved one to the delights that await her in the designer stores, such as Gucci, Chanel and Gianni Versace.

Once you have shopped ‘til you drop, retire to any one of the romantic restaurants in and around the Centro Storico, along the Via Cavour and around the Borgo district close to the Vatican to bring the day to a relaxing close.

easyJet flies to Rome from London Gatwick, Bristol, Newcastle, Belfast, East Midlands and Bristol with prices from £22.99 one-way (incl. taxes).

For more destinations and offers visit:

http://www.easier.com/view/Travel/Flights/easyJet/article-96194.html

Posted by Co-op Travel 11:08 AM 0 comments    

Visitors Flock to Rome’s Museums
Thursday, January 25, 2007

Over 1.2 million people visited Rome’s city-run museums in 2006, up 50 per cent on 2005, according to Zetema, the organiser for Rome’s public museums and cultural events.

The number of visitors at the Capitoline Museums has doubled since it re-opened to the public in 2000. Palazzo Braschi has registered an increase from 30,879 visitors in 2005 to 74,000 in 2006 (also thanks to important exhibitions such as Ippolito Caffi and Henri Cartier-Bresson). Since its opening in April 2006 l’Ara Pacis has had more than 200,000 visitors.

The city council predicts that this trend will continue in 2007 and be further boosted by the re-opening of Palazzo delle Esposizioni (opening predicted September) and Trajan’s Markets (opening predicted in spring) this year.

Posted by Co-op Travel 11:40 AM 0 comments