Category Archives: Guides & Gear

Guides & Gear

HF Holidays – fine fellows celebrate a hundred years of outdoor holidays

Long before the words ethical or eco started creeping into the tourism industry’s boardrooms, there was one man who was quietly laying the foundations of fairness in travel. Thomas Arthur Leonard (or TA as he was known)) founded HF Holidays … Continue reading

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Cycling gear with a stylist Irish twist

We Irish have to live with the rain. We cycle through it, walk through it, canoe through it and party through it. That is not to say that we don’t get miserable about it too, sometimes. We do. So the … Continue reading

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Oh Derry Boy

It is always uplifting to hear the sound of the organ playing when you enter a cathedral. But nothing was going to prepare me for what followed when I visited St Columb’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Derry City last week. I … Continue reading

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Zipcar does the trick

For the last couple of years I have been watching my neighbours’ behaviour with keen attention. The cool ones, that is, who flash phones at their cars to open them, and drive off in a metaphorical puff of smug smoke … Continue reading

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Wild Swimming France – one long aquasmic adventure

Wild Swimming France is full of warnings about health and safety, and how wild swimming must be treated with caution and care. However, what it did not warn me about was the extreme pain I was going to get when … Continue reading

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Matthew, my new travel talisman

Meet Matthew. My new travel companion. Tanned, gorgeous, flexible, generous, classy, traditional and ethical. I can’t believe my luck, but the best comes to those who wait, isn’t that what they say? It has been about ten years since I … Continue reading

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The Road Less Travelled – going off the beaten track with DK Eyewitness Travel

One of the most fantastic ways to become a responsible traveller is to go off the beaten track. For example, you can benefit so many people economically by checking out Dublin’s International Theatre Festival instead of Edinburgh’s (and you are … Continue reading

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New Green Travel Guide from The International Ecotourism Society

The latest Green Travel Guide has just been launched by The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), and the great news is that it is fully downloadable, in clear and concise format. With ovth 185 pages of fyll colour text and photos … Continue reading

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Launch of Clean Breaks, new green travel guide from Rough Guides

Snow-shoeing in the Pyrenees, learning to dance in Rio, chilling in a Provençal treehouse, clubbing in Rotterdam or London… these are just a few of the  ‘Clean Breaks’ featured in this stunning new book from Rough Guides, which was launched 1st August … Continue reading

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