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Tags: Working Holidays / Qantas / Australia Travel / Britain / → All Tags

The Joys Of Youth: Britain to Oz and Back For Under $20

Are you under 30 and British? If not, don't stop reading yet because you can at least be super jealous of those who are. Qantas has planned a ridiculously sweet with STA travel agencies: the Ten Pound Pom promotion, offering tickets from London to major Aussie cities for just £10 ($16).

It sounds too good to be true, but it's for real, and is a nod back in history to a scheme from just after World War II when the Australian government needed immigrants and let British would-be-Aussies pay just ten pounds for their passage from Britain to Oz. This time around it's limited to just 150 tickets for under 30s, with a valid Working Holiday Visa.

STA and Qantas are expecting people to camp out for the tickets, which go on sale at selected STA travel agents across Britain on August 5. They are also offering discount fares for those who miss out on the ten pound fare, starting from £679 ($1,100), which is nice of them but doesn't sound anywhere near as good as ten pounds.

Related Stories:
· 10 Pound Pom [Official Site]
· New Generation of 10 Pound Poms [Brisbane Times]
· Working Holidays Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: daveknapik]

Tags: Bars / Pubs / Smoking / Britain / → All Tags

This Pub Smells Like Cut Grass

While most people expected the recent ban on smoking in British pubs to make the air cleaner and fresher, there's been a surprise development: all these years, cigarette smoke has actually been masking a whole heap of other smells. As Oliver Devine, a marketing manager in the pub business, delicately puts it:

Appetising food smells have increased but others are less attractive, such as stale food and beer, damp, sweat and body odour, drains and -- how do you put this nicely? -- flatulence.

So one large pub chain is now trying out various artificial scents that should sweeten up the air. (Reminds us of a certain hotel chain.) Smells of ocean breezes, freshly cut grass and beer are all on trial, so give your nose a good workout next time you're in an olde English pub.

Related Stories:
· Make Mine a Pint of Chanel [UK Times]
· Travel Stories in England [Jaunted]

[Photo: markhillary]

Tags: Amusement Parks / Britain / Scary / Roller Coasters / → All Tags

The UK's Scariest Roller Coaster

Scientists in Britain have been carefully doing research that'll enhance your summer vacation: working out which is the scariest roller coaster in the UK. And the winner is: the Stealth Ride at Thorpe Park. This tall coaster thrills you with a combination of height and acceleration--so much so that riders' heartbeats usually double to 170bpm and stress hormone levels triple.

But here's the really big news for the 2007 season:

We've tweaked the nitrogen boosters on Europe's fastest launch rollercoaster for a super acceleration of 0-80 mph in under 2 seconds!

These scientists must've enjoyed their research and they actually issued a Top 10 of scary roller coasters with names like Rita Queen of Speed and Nemesis Inferno; the tenth coaster, Velocity, wins our prize for the amusement park with the funniest name:Flamingoland. Sounds almost better than the scariest roller coaster.

Related Stories:
· Amusement Park Coverage [Jaunted]
· The UK's Scariest 30 Seconds [The Sun]
· Theme Parks Tone Down the Excitement [Jaunted]

[Photo: Reynoldsclan]

Tags: Culture / Britain / Food / → All Tags

Getting To Know The Welsh

We're not sure what comes to your mind first when you think of a visit to Wales, but some of those 50-letter-long unpronounceable town names is about where our imagination ends. So if you want to find out a bit more about what makes Wales tick, we recommend the Home Dinners in Wales system.

Similar to the Meeting the French website, Home Dinners in Wales gives travelers the chance to get inside a real Welsh house, eat a typical Welsh meal and chat to some genuine Welsh people. Average costs are about $55, including wine, and probably some hearty food like cawl (a broth) or Welsh lamb. After a few glasses of wine, you'll know more about Wales, and those town names will get easier to pronounce.

Related Stories:
· Makin' French Mates [Jaunted]
· Makin' German Mates [Jaunted]
· Home Dinners in Wales [Official Site]

[Photo: txusger]

Tags: Trains / Britain / London / Walking Tours / Architecture / Eurostar / → All Tags

Walk Around London If Your Eurostar Is Late

When the Eurostar moves its London-end terminal to St Pancras in November, we hope it'll keep up its recent marvelous punctuality record. But if you are stuck at St Pancras station, just follow some tips from the UK Times to take yourself on a tour of some of the architectural highlights of the new station and its surrounds.

Or if you're really keen on swotting up on some London architecture, especially the newer stuff, sign up for a walking tour with local architect Tim Bruce-Dick. He takes people on a weekly Wednesday evening walk throughout the summer, starting at a different tube station each week. Now you just need to know when your train will be late and you can book a tour to pass the time.

[Photo: StartAgain]

Related Stories:
· Newsflash: Trains Arrive On Time! [Jaunted]
· The Revival of St Pancras [Times UK]
· London Walks with Tim Bruce-Dick [Official Site]

Tags: Trains / Britain / France / Europe / Eurostar / → All Tags

Newsflash: Trains Arrive On Time!

In the ongoing war between budget airlines and good ol' train travel, the Eurostar train line is busily pumping out its own good PR. Eurostar trains generally travel between London and Paris, with a few trips to Brussels, Euro Disney and the south of France. They reckon they're fast, convenient, and recently, punctual.

Yep, punctuality is the big Eurostar news of the week. Between May 7 and May 13, 98.5% of trains arrived on time (or early!). And the big news: on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last week, 100% of the Eurostar trains were punctual. Eurostar is quick to point out that performance like this "easily outstrips airlines." Add to that the assumption that the carbon footprint is smaller and it almost seems logical to take the train. Except when you see an airfare for just a couple of pounds.

[Photo: lazytom]

Related Stories:
· Eurostar Records Best Ever Punctuality [Flightmapping]
· One or One and a Half Tickets, Sir? [Jaunted]

Tags: Nightlife / Britain / Drinking / Culture / Travel Hell / → All Tags

Keep Your Skirt On!

We've already expressed a hint of dismay at the growing popularity for the British to hold their bachelor parties in Eastern Europe, often causing drunken havoc and mayhem at their destination, since it's so much cheaper to drink there than at home. Getting drunk, throwing bottles and breaking bar stools is one thing, but in Poland the situation's definitely getting out of hand: the Scots are lifting their kilts.

Seeing a man in a skirt while you're trying to enjoy a night on the town is disturbing enough, but seeing what's under his skirt (nothing!) is just a touch too much. Some Polish cities are trying to get men in skirts banned and are at the least threatening to throw them in jail for the night. Seems kilt-wearing in Poland gives a whole new meaning to the idea of "traveling light".

[Photo: melomane]

Related Stories:
· Polish Authorities Seek Ban on Kilt Drunks [Scotsman]
· British Government to Charge Citizens for Vomiting Abroad [Jaunted]

Tags: Britain / Sex / Tourism Boards / Websites / → All Tags

Hackers Unleash Porn on Prospective Tourists

What do you think of when you plan to visit Britain? The Queen and her corgis, maybe, or shopping at Harrod's, London Bridge, perhaps even a stop at Stonehenge. Would pornographic sites cross your mind? No, of course not, they're British!

But pornographic sites are exactly what crossed a number of people's web browsers recently when they dropped by the Visit Britain website. It seems that a hacker with a particularly twisted sense of humor had changed some of the links in the section on Cardiff, redirecting prospective visitors to some graphic porn. As one websurfer said:

I wanted to see what kind of things were being done to promote Cardiff and I was just amazed when I saw this website link; I couldn't believe it.

Don't click away too fast--the tourist board has corrected the link and apologized for any offence it might have caused. But then again, perhaps it'll increase the visitor figures for Cardiff.

[Photo: Elliot Moore]

Related Stories:
· British Tourism Chiefs Red-Faced [Yahoo]

Tags: Britain / Tourists / Dumb Tourists / → All Tags

Can I Swim To Britain From the US?

It must be hard to keep a straight face in those tourist information offices with us travelers constantly coming in and asking really stupid questions. In Britain this week they've revealed some of the best clangers from visitors to London and Norwich, and probably even we wouldn't be dumb enough to ask all of these questions. But someone did ask "Is Wales closed during the winter?" and "Are there any lakes in the Lakes District?".

In Norwich, people often call in for help in finding where they've left their car; they've even had a prostitute drop in with brochures to advertise her services to tourists in need. Other tourists who've visited before often want to know the name and location of some nice place they remember: one woman was sure that by identifying a farm she stayed at twenty years earlier as "having a cow outside it" the tourist officers would be able to help her. But our favorite question was actually asked of the helpful tourism reps up in Scotland:

What time of night does the Loch Ness monster surface and who feeds it?

Wouldn't you like to know.

Related Stories:
· Bizarre Questions For City Guides [Norwich News]
· Tourists Ask Strange Questions [Ananova]

Tags: Airports / Britain / → All Tags

Fly Me To...That Long-Named Place

Let's imagine you run a relatively small airport, and you want to give it a new name with the hope of getting a bit more business; maybe some more international flights. Some airports would think up some catchy, trend-setting name; others add a little something to make it sound a more useful place to fly ("Bratislava-Vienna" airport springs to mind). But over in England the East Midlands Airport chose to add much more than a little something.

And so, for anyone traveling to the UK, you should take a note of this enormous name: the East Midlands Airport - Nottingham, Leicester, Derby. This being the second change in three years, you probably can't expect your travel agent or even the baggage handler to get it right, but the local tourism board's also very proud of the new move:

In competing with destinations globally, we need to highlight the range and quality of our tourist attractions and in particular to emphasise that East Midlands Airport is the gateway to the vibrant cities and typically English landscapes of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

So next time you can't wait to get into some Leicester cheese or whatever other quality tourist attractions the area offers, don't forget to hop a flight to the airport-with-a-long-name. You know the one we mean.

[Photo: Z303]

Related Stories:
· Another New Name for East Midlands Airport [Air Cargo News]

Tags: Britain / Museums / Sports / London / → All Tags

What's In Your Dressing Room?

The strawberries-and-cream event of the sporting world has its own museum, and it's a winner. Yes, the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum in London came back bigger and better this year, big enough to enter the Large Visitor Attraction awards for the first time and come in third. The museum is a good second-best place to visit if you arrive in London outside of tournament time (the next one's June 25 to July 8 if you want to see the real thing).

So what's so good about the new Wimbledon museum? It's got a 3D cinema showing The Science of Tennis, a behind-the-scenes tour and an extensive collection of tennis memorabilia and archives. And, if that's not enough for a tennis fan, you can see a "live" John McEnroe in a reconstruction of the 1980s dressing room. Just what exactly John's doing in the dressing room and whether or not it's adults only isn't clear, but we can't wait to find out.

[Photo: Iron Roy]

Related Stories:
· 2007 Championships [Wimbledon]

Tags: Santa Claus / Christmas / Britain / → All Tags

One Santa, Two Santas, Three ...

It might give little children nightmares, but it definitely makes for good photos when thousands of people in Santa Claus costumes take to the streets together. Last weekend Santas were running all over Britain, with the biggest crowd in Liverpool. In this town that's not only home to the Beatles but also to Santa world records, around 5000 brightly costumed Santas showed up for a five kilometer charity run known as the Santa Dash. While the exact number of this year's participants is not verified yet, it'll definitely beat last year's Guinness Record "for the most Santas in one place at one time" (just so you know, that was 3921).

In Wales, another 2000 Santas ran in two separate races, but all with the same basic idea. And the Liverpool organizers also know that a similar coming event in Las Vegas could knock them off their number one perch. We wouldn't put it past Vegas to produce a bigger and better anything. Now the question is: where's Dubai in all of this?

[Photo: petecarr]

Related Stories:
· Dashing Santas Hit the Road [Yorkshire Post]
· Santa Claus coverage [Jaunted]