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Inside this edition: Moving out of your comfort zone

The less travelled road

How to fit more into less — the secrets of extreme packing!

10 places to see before you die!

Eoghan Corry reports from the Australian Outback

Best-selling novelist Muriel Bolger recommends some great summer reads

Pol O’Conghaile walks on the wild side in Patagonia

Get a different view on travel

Why you need a travel agent T

he Internet is a wonderful resource when it comes to researching your next trip abroad but it isn’t your only option or necessarily your best one.

Yes, it theoretically contains all the answers that you might need to make the right choices but to find those answers you need to ask it the right questions and it’s difficult to do that when you’re not even aware that there are certain questions that should be asked in the first place.

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nyone who has ever interrogated Dr Google to diagnose a suspected ailment knows that you often end up feeling worse off (and more paranoid) than when you started.

You probably consult a doctor when you’re concerned about your health; utilise the services of a lawyer or architect when you need to seek legal advice or build

a house so it’s only sensible that you should also exploit the expertise of a travel professional when you’re planning something special, complicated or expensive as the devil is always in the detail.

Travel is one area where the knowledge of a professional can make the difference between the experience of a lifetime and one you’d rather forget!

One of the downsides of the incredible progress of technology is the overwhelming choice availible within a click or tap. It confuses people to the point where they don’t know what decisions to make and even when they do, they often make them for the wrong reasons. Travel is one area where the knowledge of a professional can make the difference between the experience of a lifetime and one you’d rather forget!

Who are we?

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e are a full-service, government licensed and bonded travel agent. What that means is that we can provide any kind of travel facilities that you require, whether by land, sea or air and any monies that you pay us are fully protected.

PADRAIC KEOGH PK Travel Years in travel industry: 23

Most visited country: Spain

Most visited city/resort: New York (7 times)

Most recently visited country/ destination: Maldives

Favourite destination: Thailand

Believe it or not, because of the inadequacies of current consumer legislation, you are afforded no such financial protection when it comes to your dealings with many other companies in the travel sector such as airlines and before you assume that airlines don’t go bust let us remind you of just a few that have occurred in recent years in Europe alone and all of them national carriers like Aer Lingus — Sabena (Belgium), Swissair (Switzerland), Malev (Hungary), Olympic (Greece). Online, your exposure is even greater as many online entities are not located within the state and thus not subject to Irish law. Worse still; an increasing number of fake websites are popping up all over the internet so you can still lose your money even if the company doesn’t go bust! In short, the only way that you can be sure that your money is 100% guaranteed in all circumstances is to entrust your travel plans to a bonded travel agent like us.

So why us? As your local travel agent, we are always available to discuss your travel needs and preferences over the phone, via email or in person.

As we depend completely on repeat business, you can be confident that we are never going to recommend something that we can’t stand over as we don’t have the relative anonymity of the Internet to hide behind. Our recommendations will always be in your best interest — not ours! We enjoy strong working relationships with all our suppliers who, in turn, depend on repeat business from us so you and your travelling companions can always expect the best and most reliable service.

Interests: Food, Architecture, photography

PK Travel High Street, Trim, County Meath, Ireland. t +353 (0) 46 943 1933 E pk@pktravel.ie.

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We invest thousands of Euros each year in keeping our sales staff up to date on industry best practice through the medium of regular online training, webinars, seminars at sea, workshops and educational trips abroad so that their product knowledge and advice is as up-to-date and accurate as it is possible to be. We also factor in the feedback and recommendations of regular clients to the advice that we disseminate to other clients — a kind of ‘wisdom of the crowd, if you will!

Between us, we have over 80 years of experience and have travelled to over 60 countries and 200 cities/resorts worldwide.

“I haven’t been everywhere — but it’s on my list.” Susan Sontag

There are destinations around the world that are nice — pleasing on the eye and pleasant but nothing exceptional. There are other destinations that are, by any measure beautiful, photogenic and memorable.

And then there are those places that are simply out of this world!

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nd when I say out of this world, I mean just that — they look un-earthly or other worldly — and in some cases down right alien! To illustrate the point, I am going to provide you with a few examples of places on this planet that look like they are the product of some imaginative CGI in a sci-fi movie.

Take for example, Tianzi Mountain located in Hunan province, China: Located less than 400 kms inland from Hong Kong, it looks like it could have been the inspiration for the land of Pandora, depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Avatar’!

Staying with a sci-fi theme, you could also get yourself over to Matmata in Tunisia where some of the scenes from the early Star Wars films were shot on location. Those subterranean dwellings are actually real — not props constructed for the film.

As recently as last year, one of the box office hits at the movies was The Martian and there is a place in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile that so resembles the terrain of the red planet that NASA is actually training astronauts there for a future mission. Having visited the area some years ago, I can attest to the claim!

Nearer to home, none other than the popular sun destination of Tenerife boasts some spectacular scenery near the slopes of Mt. Teide where NASA apparently also carries out some astronaut training because the landscape mimics that of its lunar counterpart so much.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for someplace that a few dinosaurs wouldn’t look out of place, then you would definitely have to take yourself over to Mount Roraima in Venezuela that most definitely looks like the land that time forgot and if Venezuela is a bit rich for your budget, then there are parts of the Azores that definitely fit the bill.

For the truly alien landscape though, the intrepid traveller probably need look no further than the Yemeni island of Socotra where the famous Dragon Blood trees dominate the landscape and look like no other trees on earth.

So there you have it — seven unique landscapes on earth that can provide you with an out-of-world experience for your next trip overseas!

This article was first published on our consumer-facing website: www.travelbug.ie. Check out www.travelbug.ie/blog-archive/ to view more!

Travel Bug is published by Travel Centres – Ireland’s largest grouping of independently owned and managed professional travel agents, all of whom are government licensed and bonded.

Searching for travel information and inspiration has become somewhat overwhelming with the proliferation of travel websites, mobile apps and other resources. This publication is our attempt to address that phenomenon by providing you with a curated selection of ideas, suggestions and recommendations that can help you choose from a more limited palette of options that we know — both from professional and personal experience — represent the best of what is out there in terms of products, destinations and suggested experiences and which are within the means of many people, not just the affluent.

Editor Dominic Burke Advertising Contact Bernie Burke Tel. +353 51 383 622 E-mail: Advertising@travelbug.ie Design VitaminStudio.ie Published by Tipping Point Ltd. The Fairways Dunmore East Co. Waterford Ireland.

“They are perfect examples of inspired architectural design that have become iconic symbols�

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ARCHITECTURE

Build it and they will come

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hat do the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building all have in common?

They are perfect examples of inspired architectural design that have become iconic symbols in and of themselves and which attract tourists in their millions from all across the world who wish to experience their grandeur, beauty or engineering excellence and be photographed beside, in front of or on top of them.

When you mention architecture to most people, the word itself alone puts most people off, yet when you come to think of it, architecture (in the broadest sense of its meaning) represents probably the single most important statement regarding man’s contribution to the world around us. The very first man-made structures were designed simply to provide us with shelter and security. Those fundamental requirements still pertain but over the millennia, the ingenuity of man has given rise to the most aesthetically beautiful structures — some of which even compete with nature itself — that attract our admiration and wonder.

Whether we realise it or not, we are all architecture lovers of one kind (or intensity) or another; it just hasn’t dawned on us yet!

While terms for architectural styles such as Classical, Gothic, Byzantian, or Baroque might leave us cold, there’s no denying that from a purely aesthetic point of view, we are all mesmerised by their scale, grandeur and beauty!

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Live a little!

T H E R I S E A N D R I S E O F E X P E R I E N T I A L T R AV E L

There was a time when most people were happy to settle for their obligatory two weeks in the sun somewhere in Europe, drinking cheap local wine or beer, content in the knowledge that every morning when they woke up the skies would be clear, blue and bereft of clouds. How times have changed! Nowadays, our requirements are somewhat more demanding and our tastes more sophisticated or adventurous.

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e can’t really blame David Attenborough or Bear Grylls either as everywhere you look nowadays — whether it be online, on TV or in the magazines and newspapers that we read — someone somewhere is extolling the virtues (and they are considerable) of getting up off our behinds and doing something as opposed to simply being somewhere.

the fastest growing sectors within the global travel industry. Samuel Johnson famously declared that ‘A man who is tired of London is tired of life’. Everyone has some experience that they would like to tick off their respective bucket lists before they depart this mortal coil, whether it be walking the Camino, swimming with dolphins (or sharks) or experiencing the extraordinary ‘G’ forces inside a jet fighter (you can do this is Las Vegas and in Russia).

For some who like to live on the edge, it’s all about the adrenaline rush of moving outside of their comfort zone and finding the perfect antidote to their normally sedentary lifestyle — whether that be bungee jumping in New Zealand, shark-cage diving in South Africa or simply snorkelling in the impossibly pristine waters of the Maldives or Bora Bora. For others, it can be something a little less ‘active’ but no less immersive such as wine tasting in the Napa Valley; enrolling in a cookery course in Tuscany or, god forbid — getting to know what it feels like to be a bird by enjoying a hot air balloon flight over the magical landscape of central Turkey that is Cappadocia.

Don’t misunderstand us; there is nothing intrinsically wrong in playing it safe and continuing to take those one or two week breaks in the Costa del Sol or Malta but which are you more likely to regret in years to come that you never got around to doing when you were up to the challenge — Malaga or Machu Picchu? It’s a big world out there and we can help you choose the right activity, itinerary or destination to suit your preferences and your pocket so that you end up with no regrets. As a licensed and bonded travel agent, your money is 100% safe and guaranteed — which is more than you can say for many of the travel websites that con unsuspecting travellers out of millions year in and year out.

What all these activities have in common is the fact that it is more about the activity itself rather than the destination in which the activity is being experienced and such experiential travel is one of 8

Now that’s taking a risk!

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EAT TO LIVE

FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD W

orthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.’ So declared the famous Greek philosopher Socrates over 2,000 years ago. Many people around the world would beg to differ with Socrates’ observation.

Good food and wine are two of life’s great pleasures and are often some of the criteria by which people choose their holiday destinations. Whether it is to learn how to make pizza properly by attending some residential cookery course in Tuscany or Sicily; pick grapes and crush them underfoot in the traditional way in the vineyards of Rioja or to experience the world-class Michelin-starred restaurants of Copenhagen, Lima, Santander, or Tokyo. In short, you could do a lot worse than consider basing your next trip abroad on a gastronomic or vinicultural theme.

both figuratively and literally — is your oyster! Entire cruise brands like Celebrity, Azamara, Silversea and Oceania make a particular point of promoting themselves on the strength of their cuisine alone — a sure indication that they know something about what people want.

If you’re someone who appreciates good food or who dines out regularly; if you cook at home and have sometimes fantasized about competing in Masterchef; if you’re health-conscious and a lover of the Mediterranean diet, then we have loads of travel options that we can tempt you with that will Indeed, themes are a great way of bringing focus to play to those interests; acknowledge those your travel plans and gastronomy is no different in preferences and, most importantly, deliver a travel that regard than it is for people to choose holiday experience for you and your companions that will destinations based on things like scenery, proximity, cost of living, good beaches, direct flights etc. When it still have you talking about it in months, and perhaps even in years, to come! comes to food-based travel itineraries, the world —

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WHAT WE DO AND HOW WE CAN

HELP YOU We are a full-service travel agency. What that simply means is that we can handle all your travel requirements — no matter how complex or convoluted. Some travel companies (such as tour operators) tend to specialise in niche products or destinations whereas we are like the travel industry equivalent of a GP. Not only can you book traditional package holidays through us but you can also book flights, ferries, car hire, transfers, attraction and theatre tickets, cruises, golf groups, sports events, conferences, meetings, weddings abroad, honeymoons, bespoke itineraries and unique experiences etc. We are, effect, your one stop shop and we liaise, where necessary, with other specialist travel companies to provide you with the services that you require. The only limitations are your budget and your imagination!

Your local travel experts