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Archive for the 'New Zealand' Category

Full steam ahead in New Zealand

25 Jan 10 (TravMedia.com): Grand Pacific Tours, the New Zealand Luxury Coach Holiday specialist, has launched an exclusive Steam Train Journey encompassing the North & South Island of New Zealand.This Steam and Rail experience of New Zealand offers limited seats and only one EXCLUSIVE departure. A number of unique journeys have been included that sets […]

Flight test: Air New Zealand business class

Click for more photosAir New Zealand business class leg room feels massive.

Aircraft Air New Zealand A320-200.Route Melbourne to Christchurch.Class Business, seat 1B.Seat configuration 2-2 for total of eight business-class seats.Seat pitch and width 42 inches between rows of seats; 21 inches between armrests.Luggage allowance 30 kilograms (Star Alliance gold customers can take […]

Costs all at sea

Mike Heard reports on a new way to calculate the cost of shipboard extras.The cruise industry is awash with special offers as lines struggle to fill cabins in the face of the economic downturn.But fares are not necessarily all-inclusive and onboard spending can easily double or treble your initial outlay.If you need to know the […]

Entire town takes a holiday in Las Vegas

The tiny Texas town of Cranfills Gap really needs a vacation.At least that’s the opinion of Las Vegas tourism officials, who’ve decided to fly nearly half of the 350 residents to the desert playground as part of a five-day getaway and publicity stunt.Up to 120 people - those who could get off work and were […]

Bowled over

From markets to Michelin stars, Harriet O’Brien samples the region’s culinary delightsWhen chef Jérôme Nutile left three-Michelin-star Georges Blanc in the Bresse region and returned to his homeland of Languedoc-Roussillon, he was very much lured back by the local ingredients. The asparagus, he enthuses, is especially good. And the seafood, morels, herbs, beef and olive […]

Dervla Murphy’s Siberian Grand Tour: ‘I recommend doing the round trip from Irkutsk to Irkutsk’

Swanning around Europe was just dandy for young 18th-century aristos, but with time now at a premium, three travel writers here propose alternative Grand Tours for the 21st centurySome 500 years ago, the Grand Tour gradually evolved out of two medieval traditions. For centuries, young knights had been sent abroad to compete in tournaments, show […]

Stay the night: Rose Walk, The Cotswolds

Something’s stirring in the sleepy Cotswolds. At the end of the year, a campaign will be launched to make this area the Rural Capital of Culture. The idea is to draw attention to the array of cultural events that brings the area to life throughout the year (see cotswolds.com for the full calendar) and prove […]

Hotel Of The Week: Ohtel, Wellington, New Zealand

A hip hotel in Wellington? There’s a first time for everythingAlthough New Zealand is dead cool for the kind of traveller who enjoys dangling at the end of a bungee cord, nobody ever accused its cities of being hip. Ohtel, which opened this year in Wellington, the capital, aims to do something about that: it […]

Faster, higher, stronger

In five easy steps, Owen Thomson raises his adrenalin levels in this Mid-North Coast city.Kart racingYou don’t have to be an orthopaedic surgeon to know that motor racing can be dangerous. Just as well, then, that Adrenalin Rush Karting owner Alan Denyer is a stickler for safety. He explains his golden rules before I get […]

Taken for a ride

Fiona Regan discovers the pleasure of a riverside bike trail.Water twinkles in gentle sunlight, gurgling as it trips over rocks. Trees line either side of the waterway, their leaf-laden branches skimming the surface. Ducks paddle nonchalantly as the call of bluebirds echoes in the quiet air. The northern end of Hoddle Street is only a […]