Talamhireland.com

There’s no shortage of websites offering last minute travel deals. The idea behind these deals is that if a hotel is going to have a room empty or a flight is going to have an empty seat, it’s better for them to offer it to you at the last minute for a steep discount than it is to just let that spare capacity go to waste.

The big contradiction of last minute travel, however, is that while the places with a lot of spare capacity get cheaper, the places with very little get much more expensive. Booking Christmas flights at the last minute, for example, will never get you a good deal, simply because so many people want those flights. Instead, you will probably end up paying much more than you would have if you had booked early. (more…)

We all travel a lot more now than our ancestors did. We travel all over the world and only think of the jet lag, and not the vast distances we cover. Our world has become smaller and more reachable. And this is a good thing. It helps us to understand different cultures, different people with different ways of living and working. But there are a few essentials you should always check before setting off.

1. It may seem obvious, but many people don’t bother to find out the most basic things about the country they will travel to. You should do this to avoid surprise or disappointment. (more…)