Owner: itravelnet.com Travel Blog URL:http://www.itravelnet.com/blog/notes.html Join Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:13:52 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Notes from the editor. Travel related news, articles, photos from itravelnet.com. Site statistics:Click here
V Australia announces SYD-LAX as launch route 2008-03-30 19:02:00 Good news for Australia
n travellers (and American travelers) looking for flights between the US and Australia.Australia's newest international Airline, V Australia, has announced daily direct Sydney-Los Angeles flights as its inaugural trans-Pacific route
when it takes to the skies from 15 December 2008.Fares are on sale now from $999 AUD return, inclusive of taxes and charges of approximately $415 AUD.The airline has also announced that Northwest Airlines will offer codeshare flights across the United States and Canada.V Australia, part of the Virgin Group, will be the first Australian airline (subject to regulatory approval) to offer an alternative to Qantas on the trans-Pacific route, which is possible now after the Open Skies Accord between Australia and the US that was agreed to last
Singapore Airport Budget Terminal 2008-04-04 21:16:00 Location: Singapore
Airport - Singapore Date: 27 Feb 2008Singapore Changi Airport is world renown for its award winning facilities. It is the home of Singapore Airlines and it is a major air travel hub of Asia. Budget airlines though are not interested in such facilities that add to the cost of a cheap flight. To cater for the low cost airlines of Asia that might not otherwise consider Changi's gold plated airport, Singapore Airport opened a budget terminal in March 2006 to accommodate budget airlines.The Budget Terminal is separate from the main terminals (1 to 3) and to get there you need to get a shuttle bus which departs from the basement of Terminal 2.Singapore Budget Terminal ShuttleA tip for budget travellers. There is a supermarket in the lower level of Terminal 2. This is the firs
Tiger Airways Flight Review - Singapore to Melbourne 2008-04-07 22:29:00 Flight: Tiger Airways
TR 702 Date: 27 Feb 2008Flight: Tiger Airways TT 7567 Date: 28 Feb 2008Tiger Airways is a low cost airline based in Singapore
, with its primary hub at Singapore Changi Airport. Tiger Airways began operations in 2004 and has since set up Tiger Airways Australia in Melbourne
and plan to launch Incheon Tiger Airways based in Seoul in 2009.Tiger Airways at Singapore AirportTiger Airways fly from Singapore to Melbourne via Darwin. The flight is with Tiger Airways and Tiger Airways Australia on separate aircraft. Unlike other low cost airlines Tiger facilitate the booking of these separate flight segments in the one booking. Go to Flight Combo on the Tiger Airways website and you can book two segments in one go. It is important to note that this is two separate flights so y Read more:Flight
Tiger Airways Terminal - Melbourne Airport 2008-04-10 23:11:00 Location: Melbourne
- Australia Date: 28 Feb 2008Tiger Airways
Australia has its home base at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport. A budget airline like Tiger would seemingly be more suitable for Melbourne's other airport, Avalon, which is operating as a secondary low cost airport on the European model. Tiger have their own budget terminal at Tullamarine (terminal 4), separate from the main 3 terminals.Tiger Airways Arrivals - Melbourne AirportThe Tiger terminal is set up to save costs rather than to pamper flyers. An airport spokesperson described the terminal as more like a railway station.There are no aerobridges at this terminal so pasengers have to walk across the tarmac to and from the plane. When my flight landed the plane went to the end of the building then turned around so as the nose
Budget Airline Oasis Hong Kong in liquidation 2008-04-09 22:22:00 Hong Kong budget airline Oasis abruptly stopped flying Wednesday, leaving passengers stranded in Hong Kong, London and Vancouver. Passengers who have been caught out have been forced to make their own arrangements home. What a hassle that would be. They have been given phone numbers of other airlines to arrange return flights.Oasis Hong Kong at GatwickI took an Oasis flight last year from London to Hong Kong. It was their price that got me to fly with them. It seems now though that the long haul low cost airline concept might be doomed with spiralling fuel prices. Jet fuel prices nearly doubled in the 18 months that Oasis was operating. Such increases are proving difficult enough for established airlines, let alone newly started airlines. Read more:Airline
Manhattan in Melbourne 2008-04-13 04:21:00 Location: Melbourne
- Australia Date: 13 April 2008A large film set was on location in Collins St Melbourne today. While filming on location in the city on the weekend is nothing unusual, the shoot was for a film set in New York. The plaza in front of the AXA building was transformed into Lafayette St New York. Lafayette St Film ShootThe shoot involved subway passengers emerging from a smoking Lafayette St subway station. There were so many little details attended to, from a US and New York flag hanging in the plaza to US mail boxes as well as renamed street signs.US Flag at AXA AustraliaCollins Street becomes Lafayette St Read more:Manhattan
Air Asia Sale - Gold Coast to KL 2008-04-15 01:04:00 Oasis Hong Kong may have gone under last week but there is still a budget long haul airline making a go of it in Asia
. Malaysian airline Air Asia have released a sale fare for its Gold Coast
to Kuala Lumpur route for 169 Aussie dollars, including taxes.Air Asia Sale - April 2008Air Asia are awaiting delivery of more aircraft so they expand their network. They propose to expand in Australia to Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne (Avalon). To Europe possible destinations include London (Stansted), Manchester, Prague and Moscow. This could mean sale fares that sees $1000 AUD return flights from Australia to Europe.
Multi leg flights and low cost airlines 2008-04-17 23:05:00 The typical low cost airline operates on a point-to-point basis. Costs are kept down as there are no bags to check through to another flight, and no waiting for connections due to delayed flights
.Some of the low cost airline networks have become so big though that passengers independently book multi leg flights to get to where they want to go as it still works out cheaper than booking through a scheduled airline. There is the risk that if your first flight is delayed and you miss the connection you will lose your second flight, but if you are savings hundreds of £/€/$'s, it is a gamble I know many take.Tigers Airways offers the ability to booking two flights in the one booking session with their Flight Combo service. This is a great idea as it saves you having to work out if bot Read more:Multi
Airbus thinking outside the cubicle 2008-04-16 22:50:00 The Airbus
A380 could soon have the option of being fitted out with male urinals. On long haul 747 flights there is always a long queue down the aisle at breakfast time, so this is a good idea for A380's that will eventually be carrying over 600 passengers. With the space they save by using urinals they can then the water savings for showers.Male Urinal for A380. Photo from DASELL Cabin Interior Read more:thinking
, cubicle
Medieval Melbourne 2008-04-20 23:51:00 On display at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne
is The Medieval Imagination - Illuminated manuscripts from Cambridge, Australia and New Zealand.There are over 90 manuscripts are on display, dating from the 8th to the 16th centuries.It's an amazing collection of work, and to top it off, it is free. I have found myself wandering into the library whenever I am in the city to have another look. It's worth a visit to the State Library just to see the Domed Reading Room. It was opened in 1913 and it was the largest of its type in the world on completion. The reading room was built to hold over a million books and up to 500 readers. The exhibition is on from 28 March to 15 June 2008.
State Library of Victoria 2008-04-22 04:04:00 The StateLibrary
of Victoria on Swanston Street in Melbourne and its Domed Reading Room.Behind the library is an apartment block and the headquarters of BHP-Billiton, world's largest mining company.Saint George and the Dragon at the Library ForecourtThe Domed La Trobe Reading RoomLa Trobe Reading Room DesksLa Trobe Reading Room DomeThe library was renovated between 1999 and 2003. Before then the skylights were covered up as the roof was leaking. Without the Australian sun pouring in through the skylights the library had a more Gothic Northern European feel to it. Or maybe that's just my memory of it when studying the in my school years.La Trobe Reading Book ShelvesLa Trobe Reading Room Study DesksRedmond Barry Reading Room
Anzac Day 2008-04-25 05:27:00 Location: Melbourne - Australia Date: 25 April 2008April 25 in Australia and New Zealand is Anzac Day. The day commemorates Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey on April 25 1915 during World War I.Anzac Day - MelbourneThe day is a public holiday and it has since come to represent a memorial day for all war veterans.Shrine of Remembrance - Anzac DayCity of Melbourne LiberatorsHQ3 Aust. DivRAAF Lancaster Squardrons22 RSU RAAFAir Command South East AsiaCeylon Ex ServicemenTunnel Rats VietnamCatalina Flying Boat UnitsThe Rats of Tobruk Memorial
Dutch Orange Day in New Holland 2008-04-27 04:11:00 April 30 in the Netherlands is known as Queen's Day (Koninginnedag in Dutch
). The day is a public holiday to celebrate the Queens birthday. It's actually the birthday of the last queen (Juliana), but it is said that the current Queen (Beatrix) kept it in honour of her mother, and also because her birthday is in January, too chilly to be celebrating outdoors.Queen's Day is the biggest party of the year in the Netherlands, and on the day the streets resemble a huge market (vrijmarkt, or freemarket) as anyone can sell anything in the streets. Further info at Queen's Day: The World's Biggest Street Party.Today I stumbled upon Dutch Orange
Day, a little celebration the local Dutch community put on to celebrate Queen's Day in Melbourne. Clogmaker - Queen's Day in MelbourneDutch Poffertjes - Quee Read more:Holland
Promote your travel blog 2008-04-26 22:43:00 If you have a travel blog
you would like to promote then add your blog to the itravelnet.com travel blog link exchange.Your link will be placed in the travel blog directory and once a week I will list approved submitted sites on this blog. If you would like to do an RSS feed exchange as well subscribe to this feed and let me know. Subscribe in a Reader or Subscribe by Email, and I will add your feed to my public feed reader at bloglines.com/public/itravelnet.If you would like to add a blog please submit your travel blog here rather than leaving a message on this post. Usual conditions apply for adding a link: English language only blogs, no dodgy stuff, made for adsense sites, or blogs with less than 5 posts. Read more:Promote
Travel Blog Friday - 02 May 2008 2008-05-01 20:09:00 I'm starting a new feature where every friday I will list travel blogs that have been added to the travel blog directory.Here are this weeks blogs, with a description from the author.conradwoodring.comThis blog is a record of my life in Turkey as an American. I focus mostly on my interactions with Turkish culture and the divide between east and west.An American Life in Istanbulgreatwall.se/blog/The purpose of this blog is to describe my trips to the Great Wall and hopefully this can be an inspiration for other Great Wall enthusiasts and tourists with a general interest in the Great Wall.Great Wall Blogsah.i.phThis site is about my travels and photographs I have taken. The journeys I have taken in my life and the lessons I have learned.Photography, Travel
and Lifehomeexchangetravel.blogs.co Read more:Friday
What Is RSS? 2008-05-01 00:06:00 Anyone who reads blogs or news sites will have by now have seen this icon , but not everyone is aware of what it does. It means that the page you are reading has an RSS feed. So just what is RSS?RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a convenient way to bookmark websites that has content updated regularly, such as blogs or news sites. For example you will notice that this site has a feed option at the top of the page.Subscribe in a Reader When you click the text or icon you are taken to the feed page which shows the latest content, and you are given the option to subscribe to the page. You can unsubscribe at any time, and you can check for updates as often or as little as you like.RSS is a great way to bookmark sites because you are alerted whenever there is new content. You can
European City Names 2008-05-05 00:24:00 Many cities in Europe are spelt differently in English to how they are actually spelt. For example Firenze in Italian is Florence in English.First time visitors to Europe may not be aware of different spellings for city names. Some name changes are obvious enough as only a small change is made. Roma becomes Rome for example, or an umlaut or accent is dropped, so Zürich becomes Zurich. Some aren't so obvious though. You might be Eurailing through Germany on your way to Cologne, not realising that you should have got off at Köln.It is not just English that changes names to suit. Most languages will spell a city in their own way to make it sound phonetically correct to them. For example London can be spelt around Europe as:Londen (Dutch)Londra (Albanian, Italian, Maltese, Romanian, Read more:European
, Names
Travel Blog Friday - 09 May 2008 2008-05-08 18:58:00 Here are this weeks travel blogs that have been added to the directory.flyingcritic.comA frequently updated blog about airline and travel news, travel tips and tricks, reviews, daily travel photos, and more.The Flying Criticvietnamtravelnotes.comVietnam travel information, articles, tours, resources and travel tips. Vietnam Travel
Notes - Let the journey begin.Vietnam Travel Notestour-dubai.blogspot.comRead about the best hotels in Dubai, cheap airfares and about the best places to dine and stay in Dubai.Dubai Travel Guidesoekershofwalkabout.blogspot.comDevelopments in and around and the latest news about Soekershof; Private Mazes & Botanical Gardens in South Africa.Soekershof: The Blogkaransguesthouse.wordpress.comSome details about jaipur of interest to a tourist.A few details about Read more:Friday
Open Skies for Australia 2008-05-07 21:39:00 Australia and USAirfares to London and L.AWhen booking international flights from Australia it is not uncommon to see the ridiculous situation of flights to London being cheaper than flights to Los Angeles. This currently stands because only two airlines, Qantas and United, are allowed to operate direct flights between the US and Australia. This is set to change with the Open Skies
Accord that was agreed between Australia and the US. V Australia will commence flights between the two nations in December, which has already prompted fare reductions from Qantas.Australia and EuropeThe next frontier is for an open skies agreement between Australia and the EU. Talks have already begun for an Open-sky pact with the EU.There are currently no European airlines operating flights to Australia. No Con Read more:Australia
Low Cost Bus Services in Europe 2008-05-10 20:28:00 The abundant supply of low cost airlines in Europe
has created the situation whereby flying can work out cheaper than getting the bus to some places.To counter the competition from the airlines, low cost bus services have started up across Europe. Traditional bus companies have also answered the call, offering cheap bus fares in the same manner that low cost airlines sell tickets.Here are some low Read more:Services
, Low Cost
European Bus Passes 2008-05-13 01:11:00 A Eurail or Interrail pass is often the first thought when it comes to getting around Europe with a travel pass. While a bus pass may not get you to as many places as the train, it's a far more economical option and thus a worthy consideration with the current value of the Euro. Here are some bus pass options for travel in Europe.Europe WideFor pan-European
bus passes there are two major choices: Read more:Passes
Flying Man from Switzerland 2008-05-14 18:45:00 Yves Rossy is a former Swiss military pilot who shot to fame as "Fusionman", the first man ever to successfully fly with wings. Rossy built a light weight jet-powered wing that he straps on his back, jumps out of a plane and then flies around the Swiss Alps.Check out this video of one of his previous flights.( View Fusionman video here if above link doesn't work.)The Swiss Jet Man has created a ne Read more:Flying
, Switzerland
Travel Blog Friday - 16 May 2008 2008-05-15 19:52:00 Here are this weeks travel blogs that have been added to the directory. If you have a travel blog and would like to be in the directory and featured in this weekly post then follow the details here: submit travel blogtravelerfolio.comA personal travel blog with photos and experiences in Europe, USA, China, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and other fascinating places. It's my passion to travel, so I blog. Read more:Friday
, Travel
Qantas announce first A380 route 2008-05-18 05:08:00 Qantas will be the second airline to receive the much delayed Airbus A380 superjumbo. Launch customer Singapore Airlines had their first A380 delivered in October 2007, and have since received four. Qantas will not receive their first A380 until a year later in October 2008.The exact date hasn't been released, but it has been reported that the debut route
will be from Melbourne to Los Angeles.Mean Read more:Qantas
Low Cost Bus Services in the U.S.A 2008-05-17 00:30:00 Low cost bus services in the United States is mostly concentrated in the North East. With so many large cities within close proximity to each other, bus travel in this area is a viable option over flying and the train.megabus.com started a low cost bus service in the UK and introduced the low cost bus concept to the US in 2006. They have services in the North East (including Toronto), Midwest and Read more:Services
, Low Cost
Australia: The movie and the branding opportunity 2008-05-18 21:41:00 Australia is a movie
by Baz Luhrmann which is due for release in November 2008. The first official preview has been launched on bigpondvideo.com.It's hard to judge a movie by its preview, but I hope this movie is great. Not because I'm particularly a Luhrmann fan (though I really enjoyed Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge), or because "Our Nic" Nicole Kidman is due for a big movie. I want this movie Read more:Australia
Movies named after cities 2008-05-20 23:24:00 I have blogged about how Australia the movie has potential to be a great branding opportunity for Australia the country. There aren't many other movies named
after countries, but there are a number of movies named after cities and towns. Sometimes the film can become big enough that the city becomes synonymous with the film. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Casablanca. I would hazard a gues
Travel Blog Friday - 23 May 2008 2008-05-22 20:23:00 Here are this weeks travel blogs that have been added to the directory. If you have a travel blog and would like to be in the directory and featured in this weekly post then follow the details here: submit travel blogblogjordan.comExperience the journey that is Jordan Includes Jordan travel news.Blog Jordandiscover-indonesia.comIndonesian tourism places, events, culture, people, hotels and food.Di Read more:Travel
, Friday
The Tomb of Sir Richard Burton 2008-05-24 21:16:00 In the leafy suburbs of Southwest London is a small parish church cemetery that has one of London's most remarkable tombs. The tomb is of Sir RichardBurton
and his wife Isabel.Burton Mausoleum - St Mary Magdalens MortlakeCaptain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821 - 1890) was a remarkable man in an age of remarkable men. He is best known as an explorer and linguist (he could speak 29 languages), but
Featured Travel Site: Fancamp Vienna 2008 2008-05-27 01:19:00 Euro 2008 Austria-Switzerland kicks off on June 7. While our English friends could care less this year (England failed to qualify), it's a good time to be visiting Europe as there is always a party atmosphere on game days.If you are planning a last minute trip to Vienna
, accommodation will be hard to find. Fancamp Vienna has been set up to accommodate the influx of visitors expected. There are 300 Read more:Featured
, Travel
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