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Philadelphia here I come!

Truth be told, I was there last week but who could resist such a headline! It was my first time in ‘Philly’, which is even more surprising, given that I have been to the States at least 40 times over the years and the city is the 6th largest in the US. I was attending the annual conference of the ITAA (Irish Travel Agents Association) — their first to be held outside Europe in their

The best fun you can have standing up!

2018 will go down as one of the best Irish summers ever — certainly the best one that I can recall in almost 60 years. Eight weeks of almost unbroken sunshine, warm temperatures and blue skies created feelings of ambivalence in travel people such as myself because the selfish hedonist in me wanted it to last for ever whereas my pragmatic side new that it wasn’t good for business — after all, our job is

Want a glimpse into the future? Visit Dubai!

For many years, whenever travel agents received inquiries from clients as to where they should go   at this time of year to be guaranteed some sun, they invariably were limited to the following choices: Head west to the Caribbean Fly south to the Canaries, Madeira or South Africa Travel east and south to Southeast Asia and or Australia (more…)

I haven’t been everywhere — but it’s on my list!

It’s one of my all-time favourite quotes and it was uttered by Susan Sontag, a writer and political activist who died back in 2004 at the relatively early age of 71. Susan was well known for travelling to and writing about areas of conflict around the world and in particular, Vietnam and Sarajevo and what brought her into my mind recently was the new biopic that has just been released about another fearless writer and

Go West, Young Man!

I love the United States! There, I’ve said it. I may not like its foreign policy and I probably couldn't see myself ever living there but as a travel destination, it’s very hard to beat. My first experience of the US was way back in 1976 when the country was celebrating its bicentennial year and I traveled all the way to Portland, Oregon to visit my American cousins. It was a month-long trip which also

Pietra Dura — the opposite of Naff!

Look in any dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘Naff’ and you’re likely to come up with some or all of the following terms: ‘tacky’, ‘tasteless’, ‘cheap’, ‘duff’, ‘inferior’ or just downright ‘bad’. The antonyms to be found include words like, first-rate, high-quality, exceptional, first-class, superior, fine and excellent. I can tell you all this because I had gone online to find out if there was a definitive word that was the etymological opposite

Perceptions, assumptions and misunderstandings

Nothing is set in stone. Things change. Reality is fluid and few things in life adhere to a precise and inviolate template. What on earth am I waffling on about this time? One of the biggest mistakes that people make (and I include myself in this) is that we treat everything as gospel. We read an article somewhere that advises against travel to such and such a place because there was ‘an incident’ and forever

In India, they drive on the left …

… and the right, in the middle, on the hard shoulder and in the opposite direction — even on dual carriageways and motorways but for some perverse reason, it all seems to work. India is not a country where you simply hire a car to get around. You hire a car and a driver because only Indians have the steel nerves, 360-degree panoramic vision, built-in radar and the reaction times of the domestic house fly

When a man is tired of London …

The full quote is ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford’ and it was written by Samuel Johnson (aka Dr Johnson), who was the author of the ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ which was published in 1755. Johnson was also a renowned poet, essayist, literary critic, biographer, editor and philanthropist. London is, according to the Globalisation and World Rankings Research

Out of this world!

Isn’t language an amazing thing? Whether we realize it or not, it is a living thing that adapts to its surroundings to reflect the era it occupies, within which, words are used to convey certain concepts and ideas and like all other living things it is wonderfully flawed. Words that originally meant one thing, end up, over time, meaning exactly the opposite for reasons that still perplex linguists. A perfect example (among many) is the

The fascinating world of micro-climates

When we think of weather, we tend to categorize it in terms of one of two ideals — good weather or bad weather. The former is the category that we associate with positive things; holidays, sun, ideal agricultural conditions and so on, whilst bad weather tends to be associated, understandably enough, with negative phenomenon such hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, flooding, forest fires etc. Although we often complain about the weather here in Ireland (the summer of

When they’re gone, they’re gone!

Back in the mid-eighties, I secured a booking for a large GAA group that wanted to undertake a multi-city tour of the US, taking in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. As is standard practice with large groups, I brought two of the group leaders out with me on an inspection tour of all three cities so that they could stay in the various hotels that we had chosen for them and deliberate on

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