Travel Bug

The tally of plane orders by the close of third day of the Farnborough Airshow has passed the $25 billion mark, as a resurgent commercial aviation sector offset severe cut backs to government defence expenditure.

Though the show remains a long way off the record-breaking $88.7 billion of bookings announced at Farnborough in 2008, sales are well above the $7 billion placed at last summer’s sister airshow in Paris.

Airbus enjoyed the bulk of today’s bookings, including Thai Airways making a commitment to buy seven A330-300s worth around $1.5 billion, as well as sales to Berlin-based Germania, which signed a contract for five Airbus A319s.

Indonesian flag carrier Garuda has purchased of six long-range A330-200s, worth $1.1 billion at catalogue prices, to expand its new premium service “to more international destinations in a profitable and efficient way.”

Boeing’s sales included Air Austral ordering two long-range 777-200s, worth $501 million at catalog prices. Qatar Airways had ordered two 777-200LRs for the same price. Read the rest of this entry »

Hotels are usually classified by a five-star scale. The best hotels get 5 stars and the worst get 1. De luxe hotels and luxury spa break become more and more popular nowadays. They serve only luxury clients. North American hotels are used to be divided by belonging to a prestigious hotel range as “Hilton”, “Radisson” or “Marriot”.

Different star hotels have different accommodation conditions: general building condition, rooms and a number of additional services. The first hotel information is usually performed by its stars.

One-star hotels are mostly an extinct type. It is rather cheap to stay in such a hotel, but you shouldn’t expect any services there. Fridge, TV, and even a toilet are common, one on a floor or a block of rooms. The only accessories are a towel and a small piece of soap.

Two-star hotel proposes the same range of services that differs from one-star only by the presence of a café, suggesting the possibility of breakfast.

The hotel with three stars offers the most comfortable conditions for a relatively modest fee. Each room should have the radio, air conditioning, bathroom (or shower) and toilet. Rooms are cleaned every day; linen is changed at least once in three days. Room interior can include carpets and plants, as well as stationery sets, electric kettle with packets of coffee, etc. Three-star hotel often has a business center with Internet-connected computers, currency exchange, beauty salon, restaurant or cafe, parking. You can also book tickets on certain types of transport there.

Winter is not perpetual and a new tourist season will come in summer. Millions of people will take vacations and live in hotels. But many of them do not clearly understand the difference between 3 and 4 stars hotels. Why is it advantageous for hotels to raise stars sometimes? Why do they lower stars in other cases? Let’s try to reveal the secrets of hotel stars and advise on how to choose the right hotel.

Most travel agencies use professional slang in hotel descriptions. So it often happens people do not completely understand what conditions of nourishment, accommodation and services they are offered. Beautiful pictures from brochures become the main argument of hotel choice due to this situation. As a result, a vacation or business trip can be ruined. It is better for you to clear up all hotels criteria, their types and other thing to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Hotels, such as hotel in the Costa del Sol, camping, bungalow and cottages are the most widespread for tourists nowadays. Thus many hotels are located in recreation areas, near water, close to tourist sights or shopping centers and propose wide range of services. The territory of a guest house is picturesque places without heavy traffic. Camping is generally used only in summer. It includes usually small houses with separate wings for food and has very inexpensive price. Boatels are for tourists traveling by boat.

Google has marked its entry into the travel search market by buying the aggregator ITA Software for $700m (£461m). The cash deal, which represents the six-largest in Google’s history, will position the technology giant against the likes of Expedia, Cheapflights, Kayak.com and Microsoft’s Bing Travel.

Although an unknown name to the public, ITA is an important player, providing behind-the-scenes data on flight times, availability and pricing to travel agencies and online reservation systems, which are then used as part of customer-facing sales tools.

Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said: “Their technology opens exciting possibilities for us to create new ways for users to more easily find flight information online, and we’re looking forward to welcoming them to Google.”

A consortium of rivals including Microsoft, Kayak, Expedia, and Travelport attempted to buy ITA earlier this year as they all rely on its data and wanted to keep the company out of Google’s hands.

ITA was reportedly holding out for $1 billion, but Google secured the original $700 million price.

This also puts the pressure on Microsoft, and its Bing flight tracker, which aggregates flight prices and suggests whether you should buy now or wait for a better deal. Read the rest of this entry »

British Airways has struck a £3.7 billion deal with the trustees of the New Airways Pension Scheme (NAPS) and Airways Pension Scheme (APS) in an attempt to redress spiraling deficits at the airline.

As part of the deal neither of the final pension schemes will close, with the British flag-carrier agreeing to maintain its annual contribution of £330 million (plus annual increases in line with inflation expectations averaging three per cent) until at least 2023.

The airline completed consultation with its trade unions in March this year and will now submit the full recovery plan to the UK Pensions Regulator by June 30th, 2010.

Commenting on the developments British Airways chief financial officer, Keith Williams, said: “The trustees understand the airline is unable to increase its contributions in the current financial climate but we have agreed a recovery plan that avoids closing the pension schemes, gives NAPS members choice over their future pension accruals, and increases the prudence of the assumptions employed in managing the scheme.

“The Pensions Regulator’s initial response to the overall package has been positive and we look forward to receiving their confirmation that they have no objections once they have time to analyse the plan fully.” Read the rest of this entry »

The 2010 Shanghai Expo has begun, and is on till October 31. The host country, China, hopes this World Expo will show everyone evidence that China is becoming powerful. With a sustainable-development-theme, at least 250 countries and international organizations are demonstrating their unique cultures.
In fact, the Expo is the most luxurious one in history till date, and will display the recent green technology from all the 191 participating countries. The slogan of the Expo is, “Better city, better life in music and dance”.

China is incidentally the first developing country that is holding an Expo – and is making efforts to promote this event as environmentally-friendly. Thus, the country’s largest solar plant has been created, and zero emission vehicles are being used for transportation. Read the rest of this entry »

Archaeological sites and monuments of Indian culture since the Spanish colonization, gorgeous beaches and tropical forests, national parks, the colorful carnival and exciting corrida - all these things you can get visiting Mexico.

You can travel through Mexico all the year round, but the best time is from October to May.
It’s quite hot from May to September and from December to February temperature can fall to zero. However, the climate of Mexico is diverse: it is hot and humid on coastal plains, but more moderate on the uplands of the country. It is better to plan your trip during the “off-season”, because the peak of holiday travels inside the country is after the “Easter holidays”, as well as the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Mexican line has become rather popular nowadays. Curious romantics of history, who are ready for days on end inhale the dust of ages and freeze in ecstasy before the pyramids of the Maya, are happy to visit Mexico. And more reach people prefer carefree relaxation on the beach. According to the statistics, the most popular places among the tourists, who gather in groups during vacation days, are a beach holiday on the Yucatan peninsula, such as the resorts in Cancun and El Cid Vacation Clubs. Read the rest of this entry »

Nowadays, Poltava city has a wide range of the accommodation options, both Poltava hotels and private apartments. There are many rental management agencies that offer houses and apartments for rent. In case you prefer to put up at a hotel rather than any private apartment or house these companies would be willing to reserve a hotel room or suite you pick, and to provide you all the related information about Poltava hotels placed on their websites. There are two four star luxury hotels, Gallery and Palazzo, and several budget ones. The former ones are. Read the rest of this entry »

No matter what time of year that you decide to visit the wonderful city of Dublin you can be assured of a great time no matter what the weather is like. If you have to choose, you’ll want to be in Dublin either just before summer starts, or just after winter ends, since these are the times that Dublin is the cheapest to visit as well as when many of the celebrations and festivals take place. The most important holiday and festival in Dublin is St. Patrick’s Day, and if you plan on being in Dublin during this time you’ll need to make sure that you have reservations!

Dublin is well known for its extensive shopping areas, such as Temple Bar, Nassau Street, Henry Street, O’Connell Street, St. Stephen’s Green, and Grafton Street. The Brown Thomas department store on Grafton Street is a great place to check the local styles and Irish designs.

Dublin offers several department stores that will keep you busy for hours. St. Stephen’s shopping mall offers the largest department store. This area of Dublin gets busy in the summer with plenty of hustle and bustle. Plan on making reservations at restaurants to save on lengthy waits in line. Read the rest of this entry »

When you think of settling down somewhere you have to consider the employment opportunities available in that place. You can’t possibly make a decent living in a stagnant economy where there are few jobs and hardly any opportunity for progress. The way to assess the potential of the employment scene of a place is to look at the education level of the residents and the overall commitment of the community to education.

When you think of spending your prime years, Canadian city of Edmonton is worth considering. Its safe economic future is ensured because of its commitment to education. This commitment is well reflected by the fact that the city has over 10 universities and colleges. The annual enrollment to these universities and colleges exceeds 140,000 students.

The city of Edmonton has a little over a million people and is considered to be the most diverse metropolitan economy in all of Canada. People considering a move to this chic city will have no problem finding employment as the economy accommodates a wide range of talents, occupations, and interests.

The workforce of Edmonton hovers around 580,000 people so there is an ample tax base to support the education system and ensure future economic and technological growth. The truly amazing thing is that nearly 46 percent of those 580,000 workers have a post-secondary education. With a diverse and well-educated tax base, Edmonton is a great place to live when considering your prospects for finding and keeping a good job. Read the rest of this entry »