Travel Niche Blog

It seems UK Christmas shoppers are being lured by impending prospect of the British Pound reaching the two dollar level - an important psychological barrier for shoppers. According to reports the favourable exchange rates are driving a flood of visitors to the US by shoppers seeking bargains; especially from New York. Prices in the US are normally cheaper than in the UK anyway, but the factor of two in the exchange rate is especially important as it simplifies the currency conversion process for consumers.
Virgin Atlantic has announced that flight bookings to New York have increased by a fifth compared with this time last year, with many flyers opting to buy first-class or business seat tickets with the money they’ve saved.
The mos popular item on Brits’s shopping list is the iPod Video, which costs a third less in the US than it does in the UK. Other holiday shopping favourites include the the Playstation 2, wich is also thirty percent cheaper to buy in the US.

With the current problems in the US economy, analysts expect that the current favourable US/UK exchange rate for shopping tourism will continue for some time yet.

According to the UK’s Trading Standards Institute (TSI) many companies offering cheap holidays online are ‘misleading’ customers with their vacation prices.

Holiday firms have been accused of applying hidden charges via compulsory extras such as taxes and fuel supplements, and that this was especially a problem at the budget end of the market according to the travel industry group ABTA.

The TSI did a random check of travel firms who were selling holidays online and found that some companies were selling a holiday in Spain for £118 for two people that actually cost £266 after all the compulsary extras were added.

It wasn’t just package companies who were misleading online visitors. The TSI came across a site advertising flight tickets for £84 that actually £149 after all the extras had been added.

According to the TSI the problem is that seom travel firms are abusing the “From…” believing that they can charge any final figure they like as long they say “from… x pounds”. The TSI has contacted the Office of Fair Trading to help clamp down on the practice and have the full support of ABTA.

More details of misleading online adverts by travel firms are available from the TSI website.

If you’re going on holiday in a Spanish speaking country and you want to learn a little of the local language before you go, Guardian Travel are offering free Spanish lessons from their website.

There are four lessons available from their site. The first lesson is on how say “hello” goodbye” etc, then the are lessons on finding your way round, wining and dining, and then the final lesson is on expressing likes and dislikes. These are perfect if you want to make an impression whilst on holiday.
The free Spanish lessons are in mp3 format and there are accompanying notes in Adobe format.

I’m thinking about downloading the lot and booking a vacation in Spain; Barcelona’s a great destination.
The Spanish for travellers lessons are available from the Guardian Travel website.

I bought a Sony Eriksson W500i mobile when on my travels at Dubai ariport. It was on a 9 hour stopover from Capetown to Antalya in Turkey and I was bored and could believe how cheap the prices were so I went for it. It cost 220 dollars, which wasn’t bad for airport shopping.
Two weeks after using it in Turkey I had an SMS message telling my that the mobile wasn’t registered in Turkey and I would have to pay 5 Lira to do so. Not bad I thought, but when I went to the Turkish telecomm office I was told I needed some paperwork from customs.

To get that paperwork I would have to pay import tax at 100%, a fee and I’d need to buy a license because the phone comes with a (crappy) in-built radio. the whole process is going to double the price of the phone.

Anyway, there are two things here. Dubai must be an incredibly cheap country to buy electronics and you should save up before going on holiday there. Secondly, if you’re unfortunate enough like me to live in Turkey, an airport purchase could end up costing double the list price!

Air Berlin are offering free travel guides in Adobe Pdf format for the tourist destinations of:

Almeria
Amsterdam
Antalya
Athens
Barcelona
Belfast
Berlin
Bournemouth
Budapest
Catania
Cologne
Copenhagen
Crete
Dresden
Faro
Glasgow
Hamburg
Helsinki
Ibiza
Lamezia Terme
Leipzig
Lisbon
London
Madrid
Malaga
Mallorca
Manchester
Milano
Moscow
Munich
Murcia
Paris
Rome
Santiago de Compostela
Stuttgart
Sylt
Valencia
Vienna
Zurich

To choose a free tourist guide for the above cities, simply follow the links, enter your gender and age and you can download a free tourist guide with  city maps and popular tourist attractions and venues.