myguideTravel are the experts for travel to a growing number of destinations which currently include Ireland, Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), New England and Poland. With offices in Skibbereen, Blaenavon, Boston, Glasgow and Krakow, we create with our Guests and partners, the best holiday and vacation experiences, using knowledgeable passionate local guides. Recognising the ever changing landscape in the world of travel, CEO Conor B. Buckley and his team will share their observations and experiences in this Blog. Read on to learn about their insights...
I travel a lot. On airplanes, trains and cars and I, like most frequent travelers, have a few things I do to attempt to improve my commute. One of these is to avoid checking any luggage for carriage in the hold when flying. Like many of my fellow travelers, I try to cram as much as I can into a carry on so I don’t have to wait at the baggage return carousel at my destination or, in the worst case scenario, wear the same clothes for 3 days while my airline attempts to re-unite me with my luggage if it makes an unscheduled en route stop . So, it was with elation that I read the British Airport Authority (BAA) has recently revised it one carry on only bag restriction at 7 of its 8 airports (Gatwick is still excluded). I transited BAA’s Heathrow Airport three to four times a month in 2007 and it never failed to perturb me how frustrating this policy was for travelers. Not only is Heathrow one of the worst airports to transit on a good day, but this onerous restriction used to compel me to have to check my roller bag as I could only take one carry on (my laptop bag) through security. My airline would let me take two bags, and when I checked in at Boston Logan, the TSA lets me carry two on, but connecting at Heathrow I would only be permitted one by BAA. So, either I check it in in Boston or abandon it at Heathrow in the flight connection centre. Now, as I would appreciate a change of clothes when abroad I had no choice but to check it.
January 6th, 2008
Tonight, we will witness one of the final acts in the tearing down of the Iron Curtain. As from midnight, people will be able to travel through 24 European Union member states countries without showing a passport. This is due to the expansion of the EU’s Schengen Agreement to include nine mostly former Communist states. These include
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Malta
- Poland
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
The current passport-free zone created in 1990 currently includes 13 countries. From tonight it will cover an area about 1/3rd the size of the United States. However, that area is home to over 400 million people. Over the next four years the following countries are also due to join the Schengen area
December 20th, 2007
I was interviewed by Charlie Kao from Travelmole TV last month. It was while I was in London for World Travel Market. The crew at Travelmole emailed me this week, to let me know that my interview was now available on Travelmole.tv.
December 18th, 2007
As someone who has travelled extensively and passed through Dublin Airport a few times a month over the last few years, I certainly welcomed the announcements of the development of Pier D and of the second terminal. While the extension of the baggage hall a few years ago took some pressure off for arriving passengers, here was a real opportunity to solve some of the problems caused by the over-crowding that has been so prevalent for so many years. That’s the theory.
In October of this year, the Dublin Airport Authority acclaimed the opening of Pier D
Finally some progress? I would have thought so.
In my new role with myguideTravel, based in West Cork, I have fewer occasions to use Dublin Airport however the story of one of our valued Guests on Tuesday last, December 11th makes me think that some things never change:
December 13th, 2007
Over the past 18 months I have noticed a real explosion in web video. IMHO, metacafe with their philosophy of not allowing each and every video to be posted has a much higher signal to noise ratio than YouTube.
I think you will enjoy this clip featuring some of my favourite places in the West of Ireland. The clip incudes sights such as the Cliffs of Moher, and Connemara.
Ireland - Caribbean Blue - Funny home videos are a click away
Some days, you just know you that you are working in the worlds best industry. Enjoy!
December 9th, 2007
I visited Venice for the first time, earlier this year and found it to be an extraordinary place. It must be one of the most well known cities in the world and I was familiar with it from countless TV shows, films and magazine articles. Even though I had a very clear idea in my minds eye of how it would look and feel, I still found it breathtaking. So why do I say “I hate Venice”? Well it’s not Venice I hate so much as people like you and me and how we get in the way of the experience. When I got to Saint Mark’s square it was so crowded that not even the unseasonally warm April sunshine could soothe my crowd-hating soul. I couldn’t wait to leave the square and retreat to an uncrowded back street where dogs barked and the water from a nearby drinking fountain splashed on cool dark cobblestones.
November 29th, 2007
For some reason, I had Paul Simon’s song playing in my head while I was composing this post. You know the one “50 Ways to Leave your Lover”
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free
While I remain fully committed to my beautiful wife, I have been finding 50 ways to leave another relationship. Here at myguideTravel being destination specialists, we are discovering 50 ways to leave the proprietary software vendors behind. In some cases, we have come back to a proprietary solution and in others we are using a hybrid solution. However, in most cases we have moved to an open source or free model.
November 21st, 2007
On Monday, November 12, 2007, I visited the ExCeL Centre in the London Docklands for the annual World Travel Market. I have been to this event several times before but it never fails to amaze me. The event is a business to business gathering of global travel trade industry and each year it seems to get better. People from each corner of the earth convene to meet, network, negotiate and catch up on the latest developments in the industry.
November 14th, 2007
Thursday, November 1st, 2007 was a day of celebration in the myguideTravel offices. It wasn’t that we enjoyed a record haul of candy on Halloween but rather that our contract with the Scottish airline flyGlobespan expired.
For those of you unfamiliar with them, please allow me to explain why it was such a joyous occasion: In late 2006, we partnered with Ireland West Airport Knock to establish the first scheduled trans-Atlantic air services from it to the USA. The team at IWA Knock worked tirelessly to get the service up and r
unning and we supported the launch of the non-stop flights to Boston Logan and New York JFK airports by taking a hard block of inventory from flyGlobespan on all their departures. It was a massive financial commitment for us but we felt that it was a prudent investment and that we were entering into a mutually beneficial partnership with the airport authority and airline to ensure the success of the endeavor. There was plenty of enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic and, with Tourism Ireland also offering support, we were convinced it was going to be a success. Boy, were we wrong?!?!
November 11th, 2007
Growing up in Co. Cork during the Northern Ireland troubles, almost everyone complained about the British Government. It was a controversial time and clearly the British government found themselves in a very difficult situation. One of my abiding memories of that time was the number of own goals that the British scored politically.
Be it internment where 2,000 Irishmen were imprisoned without trial in the 1970’s or the hunger strikes of the 1980’s where 10 men starved to death. The actions of the British government in both occasions appeared to be counter-intuitive, even to a child like me. While the situations were undoubtedly complex, they were certainly handled badly by the British government at the time.
November 9th, 2007
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