Why don’t more American tourists go to Poland? I have pondered that question ever since I visited, last week, a number of popular attractions in Warsaw that were thronged with tourists from around the world, but not by more than a handful of visitors from the United States.
Yet Poland is an easily reached country that requires no visa or other paperwork from Americans. Its cost of touring is low, its people unusually friendly, and everywhere you look are castles, palaces, opera houses and theaters, resplendent squares, art galleries, shops, and restaurants with tasty cuisine.
Why haven’t these lures been sufficient to attract larger numbers of American tourists? Full post…
Poland, Poland Itineraries
Peru’s importance as an Iberia destination is being heightened in 2011, when the Spanish airline is offering a total of nearly 350,000 seats to Peruvians travelling to Europe and to Peru-bound Europeans.
Iberia set a new record last year by carrying 305,000 passengers between Lima and Madrid, which represented a 30% increase over 2009, one of the largest recorded anywhere by the airline.
Growth is continuing in 2011, for despite the bleak world economy; data for January-May showed an additional 5.4% increase in passenger traffic on the route, very significant considering the already high growth of 2010.
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Iberia, Iberia Destination
Sarah Lacy, in her typically classy and insightful travel content, points out in TechCrunch that basically we all know what to expect from an airline, no matter what airline or in what country.
We all get the bad legroom, the free soda, the predictable (if you’re lucky) arrival and departure times) all of which make air travel a ho-hum, uninteresting and non-memorable part of travel
But, Lacy says, a hotel is a different story.
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Content, Information Vs
PORTO, Portugal — On an overcast day in November, we drove east from Porto along the Douro River. The grape harvest was over. The men hired for the crush had gone home; the raw tawny and ruby ports had been poured into barrels or steel casks to age.
The boats that make day trips up the river and the excursion trains that bring visitors to the wineries had ended their seasons, so my travel agent had arranged for me to have a car and driver for the day.
Our route was through the heart of Portugal’s Douro Valley where wineries — some more than three centuries old — make “Vinho do Porto,” sweet and smooth and underappreciated in the United States.
The grapevines follow the contours of the steep canyons, and the hillsides were swathed in terraced lines of gold and rust-colored grapevines, just on the downside of peak fall color. Below
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Portugal, Portugal Offseason
Prize cows, giant turnips, bonny babies and scrummy scones… country shows are a pure slice of the Irish summer. PСl с Conghaile tracks down his pick of this season’s crop
The Athlone Show, Co Westmeath
Taking place at Gaffey’s Farm in Moydrum, Athlone’s annual show is a big beast, with its cattle competitions topped only by those in nearby Tullamore.
It’s not all cattle, horses and poultry, however. You can flex your tug-o-war muscles, kick back in the beer garden or sample the wares at the Made in the Midlands food village, a new initiative aiming to shine the spotlight on an area not widely known for its food.
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Country Shows, Shows