Aug 15th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.
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ireland posts
Visa-free travel by the numbers
Aug 15th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.
The ...Discoveries at a Templar abbey in Ireland
Jul 3rd, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Mourne Abbey in County Cork, Ireland, has been the focus of an archaeological excavation to discover more about the history of this medieval religious center.
The abbey was built around 1199 by the Knights Templar. After the rulers of Europe turned on the Templars and destroyed the order in 1307, resulting in 700 years of conspiracy theories, the abbey was handed over to the Knights ...Photo of the day - Lonesome cow in Ireland
May 13th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Oh to be a lonesome cow in Ireland. Upon second though, not really. The solitary bovine life probably isn't much fun. Let's rephrase: Oh to be a lonesome Irish cow with views like these, with a blue sea stretching out to the horizon and a brisk wind aloft.
Flickr user t3mujin snapped this photograph in County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. Its composition and bold colors are ...Belfast airport now charging for smoking
May 7th, 2011 at 9:00AM: Belfast International Airport has introduced a new charge. After deciding to charge people £1 ($1.64) to drop off passengers and £1 for a clear plastic bag to put liquids in, now passengers are going to be charged £1 to use the smoking areas.
Airport officials defend the charges saying it costs them extra to maintain separate smoking areas, which are used only by a minority of ...American Civil War anniversary remembered. . .in Dublin
Apr 16th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
As the United States begins a series of commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, this momentous conflict is even being marked beyond the nation's borders.
This weekend the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin is having a series of events to mark the contribution of Irish immigrants on both sides of the Civil War. While most Irish immigrants went to the industrial North and ...Bargain shopping for castles - a fire sale on Ireland real estate
Mar 24th, 2011 at 10:00AM: The great recession hit Ireland especially hard. Irish bankers lent money they didn't have to people that spent it on speculative real estate made more expensive by the Irish bankers flooding the market with the money they didn't have. Basically, cash became too accessible and property prices skyrocketed. This is the nature of any proper bubble. Like the tulips in 17th century Holland or a Jose ...Photo of the Day - 51 Irish coffees for St. Patrick's Day
Mar 17th, 2011 at 5:00PM:
Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you're celebrating today in America, you're probably planning to drink green beer or a nice pint of Guinness, but why not warm up with an Irish coffee, spiked with whiskey (Irish, of course)? In today's Photo of the Day, Flickr user jrodmanjr snapped these 51 coffees in action at San Francisco's Buena Vista Cafe, which claims to have brought the drink to the United ...Top 5 Dublin pubs
Mar 7th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Dublin is the land of the pub. Several Irish revolutions began in Dublin's public houses and many of Ireland's literary giants frequently socialized over pints of the black stuff. To truly understand Ireland, pull up a chair at one of these 5 great pubs and watch the craic swirl around you. With St. Patricks Day quickly approaching, get in the spirit by checking out these top Dublin pubs.
5. ...Five ways to get more European stamps in your passport
Mar 2nd, 2011 at 10:30AM:
Lake Ohrid, Macedonia.
Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that European passport stamps have become harder and harder to get. The expansion of the Schengen zone has reduced the number of times tourists are compelled to show their passports to immigration officials. For most Americans on multi-country European itineraries, a passport will be stamped just twice: upon arrival and upon departure. ...Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps
Mar 1st, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Creative new use for border crossing posts at German/Austrian border.
In the late 1980s, an American spending a summer traveling across Europe with a Eurailpass would see his or her passport stamped possibly dozens of times. With a few exceptions, every time a border was crossed, an immigration agent would pop his or her head into a train compartment, look at everyone's passports, in most ...Five things to do in (and around) Dublin, even in the rainy winter
Feb 24th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
Ah, Dublin. Home to Guinness, a Leprechaun museum, an absurdly tall spire and the famous / infamous Temple Bar quarter. It's also home to around 300 days of cloudy or rainy weather, which begs the question: why are you fixing to fork out hundreds, possibly thousands more just to visit in the summer? There's no question that the weather in Europe is far more palatable in the spring and summer ...Ireland's Powerscourt Estate: beauty, luxury, and a Ritz-Carlton just an hour from Dublin
Feb 23rd, 2011 at 12:00PM:
Myself, like many Americans, fantasize about visiting Ireland. We've all seen the calendars scattered throughout malls and bookstores -- cover to cover spreads of lush, green flora, craggy hills and the occasional Leprechaun. We all think we know what Irish music is thanks to the soundtrack of Boondock Saints. And the seasoned travelers in attendance know that DUB is one of the, if not the, ...St. Patricks Day in Dublin - 10 spectacular events
Feb 22nd, 2011 at 11:00AM:
With St. Patrick's Day less than a month away, it may be time to start making some serious plans. If you have tired of drinking stale green beer and attending arbitrary parades that rarely coincide with the real St. Patty's Day, then maybe it is time to celebrate the Irish festival in the land where it all began - Ireland.
In a country with pubs older than the Magna Carta, history abounds. ...Why You Should Go to Belfast Right Now
Nov 24th, 2010 at 10:00AM:
There's a second-floor lounge across the street from Belfast's ornate city hall. It looks like a lot of cosmopolitan lounges in any capital city on the planet: colored backlighting, sleek banquettes, and electonica seeping from the speakers. But Apartment, as it's called, is kind of radical. Why? Because of the floor-to-ceiling front windows.
To understand why these windows are so ...Weekend travel media's top five
Jun 1st, 2010 at 8:30AM: Here are some keepers from this past weekend's English-language newspaper travel sections.
1. In the Financial Times, Philip Horne writes a fascinating North Dakota pilgrimage story that traces Theodore Roosevelt's tenure in the Peace Garden State.
2. In the Guardian, Haroon Siddique writes about the Bed&Fed phenomenon (a couchsurfing/hostelling hybrid) across the UK and Ireland.
3. ...Love the past? There's a new website for you
Apr 18th, 2010 at 1:00PM: Hotels have review sites, restaurants have review sites, heck even strip clubs have review sites, so why not ancient monuments?
The folks at Current Publishing, who publish two of the UK's most popular archaeology magazines, Current Archaeology and World Archaeology, have started a website so people can review archaeological attractions in England, Scotland, Ireland (North and Republic), Wales, ...Worst travel mistakes of the 2000's: Driving through Dingle
Jan 1st, 2010 at 9:30AM: Let me be clear about one thing before I launch into my story: I do know how to drive. I have a valid driver's license and while I don't own a car, I believe I've had a hand in keeping Zipcar in business this year. I know how to drive manual cars and actually learned how to drive on a Toyota Celica two-door manual shift, so it would stand to reason that I can operate a stick-shift on any car in ...French Aer Lingus passengers told to prepare for emergency landing - non French perfectly safe
Sep 12th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Passengers aboard an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Paris got a bit of a rude awakening on Friday.
The cabin crew announced that the plane was heading towards a spot of turbulence, and made the usual request for everyone to head back to their seats and buckle up.
Right after that announcement, a pre-recorded one was played in French, alerting passengers that the plane was going to make an ...Daily travel deal - 5 night "Irish Sampler" from $729
Apr 28th, 2009 at 2:30PM: Our daily travel deal for today is great if you are one of the many people that has Ireland on their "must visit" list, but never had the chance to visit this beautiful country. The deal consists of everything you need to get to Ireland, spend 5 nights (or more) in a decent hotel, and drive around at your own leisurely pace. Starting at just $729, you'll get airfare (the quoted price is based on ...Are We in a Golden Age of Green Travel?
Apr 3rd, 2009 at 8:00AM: Clearly the entire travel industry has been undergoing some dramatic changes over the past few years. There was a time when the thought of "green" travel was relegated to a relatively small, niche market that included some eco-conscious tour operators. But in the past few years there has been an inceased effort to be more green in all area of our lives thanks to an increased awareness of global ...
