itravelnet.com Travel Blog

Last week AirAsia had a great MEL - KUL seat sale. Now there is a sale on covering the entire AirAsia network. 1 million seats on sale for free, just pay the taxes and charges.


Booking Period: 26 Aug 2008 - 31 Aug 2008
Travel Period: 1 Apr 2009 - 31 Jul 2009

AirAsia.com

Labels: air-asia, airlines, travel-deals

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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BookCrossing is book swapping with a twist. The general idea is that you register (free) and then once you are done reading a book register it at the website, write down the URL and the allocated ID number inside the cover, and then give them away or leave them where someone will find them.

This is a great outlet to share with the world your favourite books and you get to track where they go, for the life of the book. Hopefully you will end up with a collection of well travelled books.

www.bookcrossing.com

Labels: featured-travel-site-2008

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Location: Luxembourg City - Luxembourg
Photo: Grund Luxembourg



Grund is a quarter in Luxembourg City. It is located on the banks of the Alzette River in the valley which splits the City.

Travel Photo Gallery: Luxembourg Photo Gallery

Labels: luxembourg, photo-gallery

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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La Tomatina is the giant tomato fight held in the town of Buñol in Spain on the last Wednesday of every August. It has become an immensely popular event, but is it appropriate to continue a food fight festival while in some countries food shortages and prices have produced food riots?

At a time of rising global food prices, where food riots have broken out from Haiti to Egypt to Indonesia, What kind of message does this send to the world that struggles to feed itself. It might only be 100 metric tons of tomatoes that is used, but the event serves as a potent symbol of western excess.

La Tomatina began in 1944 or 1945, no one knows exactly when or how it started. While Europe was slugging it out in WWII the town of Buñol began slugging each other with tomatoes.

Not that life in Franco's Spain was a picnic. Who wouldn't want join in a food fight to let off some steam? Franco actually banned it because it had no religious significance, but it was reintroduced in the 1970's.

Today the La Tomatina legend has grown to become an international event that is listed in Things To Do Before You Die type lists and has even featured on a credit card advertisement.

La Tomatina though is not a festival suited to the age of mass tourism, where budget airline loads of tourists can do Spain for the weekend and tick another festival from the been there, done that list.

This is not to say there shouldn't be large messy festivals. Visit India during Holi to see how joyous a messy festival can be.

Labels: festivals, spain

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Location: London - England
Photo: London Eye Capsules

Labels: england, london, photo-gallery

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Malaysian low cost airline AirAsia X have announced their third Australian destination - Melbourne. To celebrate, AirAsia X are offering flights from RM 99.00 / AUD 199.00 one way.



The flight operates from Melbourne Tullamarine to LCC Terminal, KLIA, Kuala Lumpur. The airfare includes relevant airport taxes, admin fee, insurance and fuel surcharges.

Booking Period : 21 Aug 2008 - 24 Aug 2008
Travel Period : 12 Nov 2008 - 30 Apr 2009

AirAsia X are expanding their long haul operations to include European destinations. Flights to the UK are expected to commence in early 2009, and AirAsia have said that they could offer $500 flights (AUD) from Australia to London.

Labels: air-asia, australia, kuala-lumpur, malaysia, melbourne, travel-deals

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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The new Gotthard rail link is currently being tunnelled through the Swiss Alps. In a country already full of amazing engineering wonders, this one will top them all.

AlpTransit Gotthard is creating a flat rail link for future travel through the Alps. At the heart of the new transalpine rail route is Gotthard Base Tunnel. With a length of 57 km, the world's longest tunnel should become operational at the end of 2016.

alptransit.ch

Labels: featured-travel-site-2008

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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UK based low cost airline bmibaby.com are having a quick fare sale - over 100,000 seats available, just pay taxes & charges.


This offer ends midnight Tuesday 19th August and is available for travel from 10th September until 11th December 2008.

fly from Birmingham Intl, Cardiff Intl, East Midlands, Manchester and Glasgow.

bmibaby.com

Labels: airlines, bmibaby, travel-deals

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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The Beijing Olympics has been a showcase of the rise of China, and this is reflected in the medal tally. Over the coming decades this tally will only increase as the Chinese better manage their population and sporting institutions.

With a traditional medal tally the powerhouse nations always top the list, but I often wonder about the smaller nations that over-achieve. The Economist have also pondered this and have produced a medal tally from the 2004 Olympics by per head of population.


Note how the Caribbean and Eastern European countries fare.

Source: Top Olympic countries

Labels: china, olympics, sport

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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sanmarkotravel.com
Pictures and travelogues of our vacations and hikes in Switzerland, Alaska, Iceland, Madeira (Portugal) and the Canary Islands.
Sandra and Marko's Hiking Website

Directory Location: Travel Blogs S

Labels: travel-blogs

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The Skytrax World Airline Awards is the world's most respected and recognised Airline Awards.

The worldwide survey totalled 15,442,605 respondents with over 95 different passenger nationalities participating in the survey.

The list is once again dominated by the long haul airlines of the Middle East, Asia and Oceania.

2008 Skytrax World Airline Award rankings:

1 Singapore Airlines (1)
2 Cathay Pacific (3)
3 Qantas (5)
4 Thai Airways (2)
5 Asiana Airlines (12)
6 Malaysia Airlines (6)
7 Qatar Airways (4)
8 Air New Zealand (7)
9 Emirates (9)
10 Etihad Airways (23)

AIRLINE OF THE YEAR
Singapore Airlines

BEST LOW-COST AIRLINE
easyJet

BEST CABIN STAFF
Asiana Airlines

BEST INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
Emirates

BEST FIRST CLASS LOUNGE
Qantas

BEST BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE
Virgin Atlantic

BEST ECONOMY CLASS
Asiana Airlines

BEST FIRST CLASS
Cathay Pacific

BEST BUSINESS CLASS
Singapore Airlines

BEST AIRLINE : AFRICA
South African Airways

BEST AIRLINE : EUROPE
Lufthansa

BEST AIRLINE : MIDDLE EAST
Qatar Airways

BEST AIRLINE : NORTH AMERICA
Continental Airlines

BEST AIRLINE : SOUTH AMERICA
LAN

BEST AIRLINE : AUSTRALASIA
Qantas

BEST AIRLINE : ASIA
Singapore Airlines

Labels: airlines, awards

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Flight Memory enables you to easily keep track of where you have flown and then produce maps showing your flight routes.

flightmemory.com

Labels: featured-travel-site-2008

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Location: Lucerne (Luzern) - Switzerland
Photo: Chapel Bridge And Water Tower



The Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) and Water Tower (Wasserturm) in Lucerne (Luzern) is one of the most photographed landmarks in Switzerland. The bridge was built in 1333 and much of it was destroyed in a fire in 1993. The landmark bridge was quickly rebuilt.

Travel Photo Gallery: Lucerne Photo Gallery

Labels: bridge, lucerne, photo-gallery, switzerland

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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travel-georgia.blogspot.com
Explore Georgia , a Country with ancient history and traditions, hospitable people, amazing nature, great food and wine.
Travel To Georgia

Directory Location: Georgia Travel Blogs

Labels: travel-blogs

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Aer Lingus are offering a great sale for flights from the UK. Zero fares plus the taxes and charges.

Fly to Dublin

From
Birmingham
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Jersey
London Gatwick
Manchester
Newcastle

Fly to Cork

From
Birmingham
Jersey
Manchester

Fly to Belfast

From
London Heathrow

aerlingus.com

Labels: aer-lingus, travel-deals

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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Official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Contains fact sheets, athlete profiles, cultural information, and news.

en.beijing2008.cn

Labels: featured-travel-site-2008

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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In a case of street art becoming public art, the City of Melbourne have given the Banksy piece Little Diver a protective covering. Note the photo below with the bolts holding in the cover. The bottom photo is from here: Banksy in Melbourne.

Labels: australia, banksy, melbourne, public-art, street-art

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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itravelnet.com has a new logo and font:


The logo will be used on sites like Twitter, BlogCatalog and the myriad other social networking sites that have a user avatar option.

Labels: site-news

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Travel blogs added to the directory this week:

travelfeeder.com
A Top 5's travel blog to feed travelers with travel tips.
Travel Feeder

Directory Location: Travel Blogs T

Labels: travel-blogs

Posted by James Clark - editor of itravelnet.com
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