Travel - Exotic Holidays

Saturday 9th February 2008
Travel writer Pól Ó Conghaile with his tips for destinations for the sporty traveller:

Barcelona
sports
The Camp Nou stadium, the biggest in Europe, is worth a visit even if there is no game on.
FC Barcelona tickets €18-€170 / www.fcbarcelona.com
Flights direct from Dublin with Aer Lingus

non sports
Amazing architecture of Antoni Gaudi on Las Ramblas, Casa Battlo and the unfinished masterpiece of Sagrada Familia cathedral
Great variety of food in Barrio Gotic
Picasso Museum and the Juan Miro Foundation for art lovers
Parc Guell and Tibidabo for outdoor activities

Liverpool
sports
Anfield soccer stadium, which also has a soccer museum
Liverpool FC tickets £24stg - £36stg / www.liverpoolfc.tv
Flights direct from Dublin and Cork with Aer Lingus or Ryanair

non sports
European Capital of Culture 2008 / www.liverpool08.com
Duke Street or Lark Lane areas for good pubs & restaurants
Bold Street for shopping
O'Neill's Irish Pub on Hanover Street
Magical Mystery Tour, a city bus tour for fans of The Beatles
Nightlife is centred around Concert Square

Melbourne
sports
Australian Grand Prix, 13-16 March 2008 / www.grandprix.com.au
Melbourne Cup in November / www.melbournecup.com
Australian Open Tennis in January / www.australianopen.com
Aussie Rules at Carlton Football Club / www.carltonfc.com.au
Travel deals with Austravel (www.austravel.ie) or Joe Walsh Tours (www.joewalshtours.ie)

non sports
Great spot for exploring South Australia - Victoria's Yarra Valley wine region, Hills Wildlife Sanctuary
Old Melbourne Jail in the city, where Ned Kelly was hanged
St Kilda's neighbourhood for interesting restaurants & shopping
Bus tours to Neighbours 'Ramsey Street'

Boston
sports
Fenway Park to see the Boston Red Sox (world series champions)
www.boston.redsox.milb.com / tickets from $20 - $325 dollars
Flights direct from Dublin with Aer Lingus

non sports
Boston Common for free cultural activities in the summer
Quincy Market downtown for great food
Cambridge Mass for a tour of Harvard University
JFK Museum at Colombia

Other sporting events in 2008
Monaco for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, 23-25 May 2008
3 day passes €837.50 / www.formula1.com
Flights to Nice with Aer Lingus and Ryanair & transfer to Monaco

Olympics in Beijing, 8-24 August / tickets www.sportsworld.co.uk
All-in packages with Sportsworld, €2,057-€5,450 for 9 days

Austria/Switzerland for Euro 2008, 7-29 June / www.uefa.com

Saturday 3rd March 2007
Travel reporter Manchán Magan gave tips on some of the world's most exciting yet remote places for a holiday

Greenland
Mainly Inuit culture. Some unmissable experiences are whale hunting, dog sledding, hiking to the ice caps, kayaking or summer fishing
Getting there: fly to Keflavik via Iceland Express from London or Copenhagan. From Keflavik to Kulusuk and on to Kangerlussuaq and Nuuk
Warning: it is expensive to get there and also expensive when you are there.

Sahara desert
A wonderful spot is Tamanrasset, with a hermitage high in the Hoggar mountains. Watching the sunrise here is unbelievable
Getting there: Air France fly Dublin - Paris, then Air Algeria from Paris - Algiers and then on to Tamanrasset. Visa & inoculations needed
Cost: flights approx €900 with Trailfinders

Mongolia - Gobi desert
A wild & windswept desert in Mongolia, mostly inhabited by horse tribes like the Uigher and Kazaks
Getting there: KLM fly direct Dublin - Beijing, then on to Ulan Bataar and by road to the desert. Visa and inoculations needed
Cost: flights approx €1,200 with Trailfinders

Mongolia - Baikal-Amur railroad
The BAM runs for 4,200km and connects Beijing to Ulaan Bataar. It is less famous than the Trans-Siberian railway but it runs parallel to it and is just as breathtaking.

Saturday 6th January 2007
Manchán Magan offered tips for finding cheap trips to exotic locations:

The Gambia/ Senegal
This is my best cheap travel find. There are constant charters from Gatwick and Manchester to Banjul in the Gambia for £200 sterling. Spend the night there and next day take a bus ride down the coast to the Casamance region of southern Senegal, to the glorious quiet pristine beaches and lush tropical hinterland. Warning: you will need malaria innocluations.

Cancun, Mexico
Pick up one of the special offers from Budget Travel to Cancun in the summer months, for approximately €1,000. From there take a bus into Aztec country and lose yourself in an unexplored world of the Aztec and Mayan civilizations.

Yunnan Province, Western China
Getting there: Take a cheap flight to Bangkok. Austrian Airlines offer a fare of €550. Then take an internal flight over the border to Yunnan Province. It's a pristine wilderness sloping down from the Himalayas. You can head south, into the tropical jungle of Xishuangbanna. Or else you can head north into the mountains to the matriarchal Naxi and Mosu people. The weather here is like a Spring day in Ireland, the people so warm and welcoming and best of all is the food - wholesome and pure.

Gorale region, Poland
By far the most beautiful and culturally rich corner of Eastern Europe, this is home to the Gorale people - hardy and fiercely independent shepherds and mountain men. For tourists it's a treat to experience their music, dancing, horse racing and festivals. If you get invited to a festival jump at the opportunity: Their homes are sculpted from the slow-growing, old growth spruce and fir trees and are truly works of art. The wood is so resinous that there was never any need to varnish it - instead every five years the women scrub it with soap and water, so that still today centuries-old houses look gleaming new.

Getting there
You can fly to Krakow direct from Dublin with Aer Lingus or Ryanair. There are regular buses from Krakov down to Zakopane, the capital of the Gorale region. Krakow is a miraculous place. It's heritage survived the Nazi occupation and in cool cafés and wine bars, students act as if the country had never experienced Nazism and Communism. Dressed in tweeds, smoking pipes and sporting the most elegant leather holdalls young Poles put to rights the world's problems.