Posts Tagged ‘Travel’

Telegraph Travel and Wanderlust team to find the world’s best guide

Monday, January 25th, 2010

The travel magazine Wanderlust will, for the fifth year in a row, be searching for the world’s best guide.

As Telegraph Travel’s article points out, this can be an individual from any background; gallery guide, mountain sherpa or wildlife tracker. Whatever your adventure preference, chances are that the person in charge influenced your holiday the most.

Telegraph travel are requesting that travellers write in with the name of their favourite guide. Guides will be assessed on three criteria: knowledge, communication and empathy.

The closing date for entries is 25 February and the six finalists will be named in both The Daily Telegraph and Wanderlust during April. The final winner will be announced in September at the RGS, London.

Full details can be found at worldguideawards.com.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Win a Kitesurf Lesson on beouthere.com

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

beouthere.com have a 1 day kite-surf start-up lesson to give away to one lucky adventurer.

Zephyr Kitesurf have offered a 1 day introduction into kitesurfing, based in the UK, in March next year.

To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic taster session simply register and write a review on any adventure travel provider that you have used. The more reviews you write the greater your chances of winning this exciting prize. And remember, if we don’t have the adventure travel provider listed just let us know and we’ll add them.

Norway, Best Adventure Travel Destination in the World

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

In a recent poll, Norway was thought to be one of the best adventure travel destinations in the world.

It perches precariously on the very northern tip of Europe and is surrounded on two sides by the extreme North Sea. Norway is still undiscovered by the more relaxed adventure traveller and remains a safe haven for the skilled, the committed and the just plain crazy.

Britain has been a launching point for many adventures in Northern Europe, and Norway has seen its fair share of visitors. However, Norway is the subtler adventure that leaves travellers wanting more.

Moran Mountain organise every thing you need from a mountaineering trip from their new base in Aurland on the edge of the Sognefjord in Western Norway. From beginner ice climbing to more advanced guided mountain trips, Adventure Travel Providers like Moran Mountain are getting you more accustomed to Norway.

But, its not just mountains and the snow that draw people in. Norway has stunning Fjords and archipelagos that are begging to be explored on the water. With Southern Sea Ventures you could spend 14 days on the water in an expedition sea kayak exploring Norway.

Norway has so much to offer from the extreme sport junkie looking for their next adventure, to the casual long week away or just doing something different.

Contact: Moran Mountain : martin.moran@btinternet.com
Southern Sea Ventures: ssvtrips@southernseaventures.com

beouthere.com’s 5: How & Why To Trust Travel Reviews

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

At beouthere.com, the notion that all user-based travel reviews are untrustworthy is not a new one. Look at any of the big names, Tripadvisor.com, Rankers.co.nz or Tripreport.com – what questions have they all faced?

How can you stop the travel companies reviewing themselves?
How can you prevent competitors posting bad reviews about travel companies?
How do you know if the reviewer has even had contact with the travel companies?
How do you know it’s not just an automated post?

The truth is that, without breaking privacy laws, it is very difficult to answer these questions with any certainty. But today, beouthere.com hopes to give a few tactics to help the everyday traveller brush these concerns aside and see the real benefit to travel reviews:

1. Strength in numbers – read 100 reviews from 100 different people all saying that a place is bad and, in all honesty, it’s not likely to be great. Equally, reading one review saying that a place is perfect will not necessarily be the whole truth. Use the strength in numbers rule and if you are ever sceptical consult point 3 on this list, Review Content.

2. Reviewer History – some review sites, like TripAdvisor, allow you to see the reviewing history of the reviewer in question. From that, you can often spot trends. Whether it be a string of bad reviews for hotels in one city, with one exceptionally good one that stands out or if only very good reviews are posted, there are trends to be spotted and reviewers to be wary of.

3. Review Content – there are a few things to look out for when considering other travellers’ reviews. Firstly, is it actually about the hotels, tours or companies in question or is it a generic piece of text that could be pasted over and over for different hotels, tours or companies? Secondly, is the review full of directions to the hotel, email addresses for the adventure travel provider or a phone number for the travel agent? Commonly reviews posted by the company being reviewed contain helpful hints as to how a potential customer might reach them, by location, email or telephone. If you’re unsure about the review, copy some of the body text into google and see what comes up, 10 sites with the same text usually means that you’ve got a spammer. Finally, take a broad look at the reviews on the site – if they are all favourable, and not ever negative, then it is likely you’ve found a site where the publisher is being paid to write good reviews.

4. Topic – review sites exist because of choice. More hotels, electronic goods or insurance providers than the world really needs and millions of consumers needing to know which is best for them. Legitimate reviews are far more probable on sites with more traffic, usually in less of a niche, like hotels or electronic goods. Trusting all reviews on a site that considers types of shirt buttons is not advised.

5. People (Honesty) – despite what much of the world’s 21st Century media might tell you, the world’s population is largely honest. That’s right, honest. There are unscrupulous types, but they largely stick to the Internet Marketing scene(!) We are adventure travellers. We are honest and friendly. We are open to new things and new places. We can be trusted.

Adventure Travel In The Arctic Circle – beouthere.com’s Top 5 Adventures

Friday, September 11th, 2009

The Arctic Circle at 66 degrees north defines the lower limit of our great Arctic. Home to severe temperatures, extreme beauty and a delicate ecological equilibrium which is constantly under threat. In the Arctic you will also find some of the worlds best adventure travel opportunities. A combination of the cold, beauty and ecology leads to the perfect conditions for adrenaline rushes, wilderness tranquility and close encounters of the bear kind. The Arctic region encompasses many countries and areas including Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Alaska. Below are 5 of beouthere.com’s favourite adventures:

Dogsledding in Svalbard

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago consisting of three islands: Spitsbergen, Bear Island and Hopen. Spitsbergen is the most frequented of the three by tourists. That said, it is by no means crowded. As with the following four Arctic adventures, Svalbard provides the experience of pristine wilderness that so many adventure travellers desire. One of the best ways to see the island and it’s wildlife (polar bears, Arctic foxes and reindeer), is by dogsled. The main adventure travel provider is Svalbard Huskies who offer 3.5 hour tours.

Skiing in Canada

Any adventure traveller will tell you that Canada offers almost any adventure any person could wish for. Furthermore, Canada largely offers the best landscape to enjoy those different adventures in. Adventure travel in Canada can range from ice climbing to caving to ballooning. But today beouthere.com want to promote one of the oldest and purest of them all: Skiing. Vast, inaccessible, landscapes are opened up by skiing and, to a greater extent, if you care to jump into a helicopter. One of our favourite adventure travel providers is Yamnuska Mountain Adventures. Their programs open up the Canadian Rockies in some truly adventurous ways, including Backcountry Skiing. You can start with introductory course and then progress to 4 to 6 day traverses of some of Canada’s greatest landscapes.

Eco Tours in Greenland

The Arctic Circle is home to some of the most fascinating wildlife on Earth, including the world’s largest carnivore, the Polar Bear and the largest species of dolphin, the Killer Whale. Who wouldn’t like a chance to see just one of those incredible animals. Well, there are many adventure travel providers who offer such opportunities. Whilst nothing is a given, going with the right adventure travel provider can mean the difference between seeing an endangered species or not. Arctic Kingdom Marine Expeditions offer leisurely cruises in the Greenland region. With wildlife photography at the top of the list, AKME pursue Bowhead and Humpback whales in Greenland’s Disko bay.

Sea Kayaking in Iceland

Sea Kayaking in Iceland. How good does that sound? beouthere.com don’t need to convince you. But we will anyway. Iceland is a minute Canada. Magnificence, stunning scenery, wilderness. European travellers should really investigate Iceland as a real alternative (at least once anyway) to Canada. The breadth of adventure travel opportunities is only exceeded by the sense of adventure you will have by enjoying them. Sea Kayaking is just one of many ways to attain this notion. Borea Adventures offer such an adventure. For 6 days, budding adventurers can enjoy the scenery of the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve or the peace of Sea Kayaking in the Icelandic wilderness.

Dog-Sledding in Alaska

The largest and least densely populated state of the US, Alaska is one of the last great wildernesses. And where there’s wilderness, there’s adventure. An article about the various adventure travel opportunities in the Arctic would not be complete without a mention of dog-sledding. Especially in a place that is home to the world’s largest wildlife refuge – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Whilst there are few simple short tours in this region there are a number of expeditions. Several of which are offered by Alaskan Arctic Expeditions. Wildlife, wilderness and weather. The three highlights of a 12 to 21 day expedition around the ANWR. Start saving now. Expeditions run February, March, April and May.

40 Travel Quotes Worth Knowing

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation. ~Elizabeth Drew

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. ~Susan Heller

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. ~Charles Kuralt, On the Road With Charles Kuralt

I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full. ~Lord Dunsany

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.” ~Daniel J. Boorstin

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land. ~G.K. Chesterton

To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change. ~Charles Horton Cooley

And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind. ~Dave Barry

Travelers never think that they are the foreigners. ~Mason Cooley

Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage. ~Regina Nadelson

I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within. ~Lillian Smith

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury

There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. ~Orson Welles

Now I know why they tell you to put your head between your knees on crash landings. You think you’re going to kiss your ass good-bye. ~Terry Hanson

I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. ~Mark Twain

I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on. ~Jean Kerr, “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall,” The Snake Has All the Lines, 1958

In America there are two classes of travel – first class, and with children. ~Robert Benchley

Just get on any major highway, and eventually it will dead-end in a Disney parking area large enough to have its own climate, populated by large nomadic families who have been trying to find their cars since the Carter administration. ~Dave Barry

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. ~James Michener

If God had really intended men to fly, he’d make it easier to get to the airport. ~George Winters

I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself. ~James Baldwin

Whenever we safely land in a plane, we promise God a little something. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

The only way of catching a train I ever discovered is to miss the train before. ~G.K. Chesterton

The time to enjoy a European trip is about three weeks after unpacking. ~George Ade, Forty Modern Fables

I did not fully understand the dread term “terminal illness” until I saw Heathrow for myself. ~Dennis Potter, 1978

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. ~Mark Twain

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. ~George Bernard Shaw

I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. ~Caskie Stinnett

A passport, as I’m sure you know, is a document that one shows to government officials whenever one reaches a border between countries, so the officials can learn who you are, where you were born, and how you look when photographed unflatteringly. ~Lemony Snicket

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. ~Aldous Huxley

The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see. ~G.K. Chesterton

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~Hilaire Belloc

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~Henry Boye