I’ve just seen this report released by Big Mouth Media which shows some interesting stats on the swing that travel companies are making to Social Media. This may be the case, however the fact is that 9 out of 10 tour operators out there don’t actually know what or how they should best tackling social media… and quite rightly so too… there seems to be so much out there these days that it’s almost impossible to know where to start.

From all the meetings I have had with tour operators around the world - it all comes down to time. Unfortunately time is the one thing that we have a limited amount of… Every operator says they want to do more ’social’ stuff, but just don’t have the time to learn how to (and don’t have the budget to employ a specialist firm).

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OK, can someone tell me? What’s the attraction?

We have previously discussed the Pro’s and Con’s of independent travel vs. joining a tour. What we haven’t discussed is the Pro’s of being a tour leader. Every tour I have been on has seen the tour leader cleaning up when it comes to getting some loving on tour.

On a recent trip one of the other travellers was a tour leader himself. On this tour - he had nothing - just another mug on the bus, but listening to him and the tour leader swapping stories about what “happened on tour”, it was clear that there is some magical pulling power that comes with sitting behind the wheel.

So, what is it? Has anyone out there fallen under the spell?

What on Earth is going on with Airline baggage? Are the airlines conspiring to turn our holiday packing in to a logistical nightmare?

I recently made a trip from Cork in Ireland to London Heathrow before connecting to Brisbane via Sydney. I have myself to blame for making things a bit trickier, as I took my skis with me. However, I was amazed by the amount of disparity, not only between luggage limits, but also the difference in treatment of Sports equipment.

I could only check in 15kg for the first leg, while being allowed 10kg carry on. For the 2nd leg I was allowed 23kg check in, but only 7kg carry on. However, shifting a big bag of goodies from my hand luggage to my carry on in Heathrow was the easy part of the equation. It’s the ski’s that were the drama….

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Moving is a great chance to clear everything that you’ve been hoarding…like that old sangria stained shirt from Pamplona that you can’t bring yourself to part with or that bag of pebbles that you aren’t quite sure where they came from, but yet you are reluctant to throw them out. I say reluctant, only until you realise that in order to cart hundreds of small things like this around, is going to cost a fortune in freight when it comes time to head on home.

Moving, forces us to become ruthless, however sometimes the vigour of throwing things away can haunt you later…like when you realise that if you those pebbles you threw away were actually from atop Mt Sinai in Egypt.

There are many things I would leave behind, but never a good book…what about you?

End of October in Europe always feels like we’ve been slogged with a double whammy of ‘Welcome to Winter!’….

Not only does the amount of daylight literally reduce by 10 minutes per day (I’m sure someone will prove me wrong on that figure) so that we’ve gone from sunset at 9-10pm in summer to sunset at 5-6pm and then all of a sudden on the 25th Oct we are robbed of yet another of sunlight due to the clocks going forward (or is that backward?!)…

I am one of the biggest advocates of Daylight Savings Time… it not only feels (and is!) healthier to have more daylight in your day… but it also allows you to fit more ‘Daytime’ things into your schedule…

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People are often troubled with where to go next and how to arrange their next travel adventure. At the TNT Sun & Snow Travel Show this Saturday the gurus of travel – including Lonely Planet’s travel editor Tom Hall, Tucan Travel’s Chris Borland and Rachael Harding from Contiki Holidays, along with travel writers Peter Moore and Richard Hammond – will be discussing travel destinations and the best tips to prepare for a holiday. Plus Sally Robinson from International TEFL Training will also be talking about fantastic job opportunities to teach English to children, teenagers or adults around the world.

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Being away travelling for an extended period of time, it’s easy to get disconnected with what’s going on back at home. Even with all the technology and tools around us, it’s easy to fall in to the old “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. Not that family and friends are that far from our minds - it’s just that when it comes to choosing between squeezing in a quick Leffe whilst knocking back some delicious Mussels in a creamy garlic sauce whilst visiting Epernay in the French Champagne District (for example), and writing a postcard back home to the folks…. Sorry, but good beer and good food wins nearly every time.

I just spent my first Father’s Day back home for a long time and celebrated it with Dad by taking him on a fantastic overnight hike in the Lamington National Park (check out my recommendation HERE). It was a brilliant weekend and led me to wonder whether I could have done better for all the other events I missed whilst overseas – 50th Birthdays, Nephews being born, Christmases etc. Sure, there were always calls and my bugbitten blogs to keep everyone up to date, but I would love to hear of other innovative ways people have of making their friends and family back home feel a bit special when the occasion demanded.

My obsession with maps started when I was 15.

With exams over, we were merely killing time until the end of the school term and summer holidays to start. My 5th form Geography Teacher, Mr Howitt, handed out an A2 piece of paper to each of his students with an order to write our names, top right corner.

We were then given an entire 10 minutes to recreate the map of the world.

To say my effort was dismal is a total understatement. I could ‘kind of’ draw New Zealand, ‘kind of’ Australia….but I did know where Antarctica was!

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Every now and again, on bugbitten.com we see some extraordinary adventures being shared. Of late, we have been eagerly keeping an eye on the updates by one of our Kiwi members - Kyles who is doing what most would think is a near impossible feat… cycling from London back to New Zealand!

She’s been on the road for just over 4 months now, having just spent a month travelling through Iran and has shared some unbelievable tales to date, which we urge you to check out here.

We know she loves getting words of support in her Guestbook, so if you read one or two of her blogs, please drop her a message to help her push on to even more exciting adventures!

Here are a few direct links to her latest blog updates:
- Iran (Part 2!)
- Country 9 - Made It Into Iran!
- Gallipoli Peninsular

Happy travels and keep up the good work Kyles!

Even though it was a tragedy that took place on American soil…I still remember clearly where I was on September 11th, 2001. I was in Lagos, Portugal and had just spent the morning learning how to ride a surfboard. For anyone who has tried to surf before, let me tell you, it’s certainly something that is etched into your mind when you catch your first wave.

As our surf camp group headed out of the spectacular Portuguese surf I had a grin from ear to ear and our group was buzzing with excitement, just like Special Agent Utah from the movie Point Break. When we got closer to the vans, we could see all the other instructors standing around the cabin of one of the vans, listening to a news broadcast in Portuguese. One of our group asked “what’s up?” and our instructor replied in broken English…”The World Trade Centre has been hit by a plane”…

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