The funny thing about being a flight attendant is that you don’t get to see as much of a country as you’d like. You are trapped in a tubular piece of metal flying at 500 mph at 35,000 feet for hours. Then you disembark at an airport, go to your hotel room, eat and sleep and then get on the next flight on which you are rostered. If your stopover is more than a day, you can get out to a local site, maybe a beach, a bar or a club, and mix with the locals. If you’ve made friends in a particular city that makes a hell of a difference.
So when I am trying to find out about a beautiful place to go on holidays, I’m pretty much the same as you guys. I read Travel Advisor and then find blogs written by travellers who have been to lots of places and write interesting tales. Most of my reading is about SE Asia because that’s where I like to holiday in preference to Europe as I have been to nearly all the European countries, albeit, just the airport at times! Here’re some of my favourite travel blog sites.
TRAVEL BLOGS
http://www.spartanwanderer.com/ is a blog by a young guy who likes living a minimalist existence. He has travelled extensively already and he’s still young, 25. He is an English teacher in China at the moment. His writing is refreshing and quirky. If you want to know stuff about a country, then a person who has lived there knows it better.
http://www.afar.com/ is relatively recently published website. They have great articles about a host of holiday ideas. Airfares, hotels, hostels, best beaches, best nature trips, the whole shooting match coupled with some glorious photography. The competitions seem to be US based, though.
http://www.adventurouskate.com/ is apparently written by a female. She shows you how you can do it. Just travel, anywhere and everywhere. She is a down to earth and a cheeky soul but she certainly gets the points for an interesting website.
http://grantourismotravels.com/ is like a magazine. There has been a lot of work putting this site together and it shows. These travellers like to live like locals wherever they go.
A UK Traveller’s Survival Guide – a useful guide for those travelling to the UK for the first time. Includes handy hints, Airport tips and other useful information from those in-the-know for travellers looking to enjoy the best of the UK.
AIRPORTS
Madrid. There is a certain amount of excitement associated with airports. When you are at an airport, you know you are going somewhere! If there’s one thing that impresses me, it’s the sheer size of the place. For example, Madrid airport is huge. Getting from one terminal to another is a hike and certainly one in which it is necessary to use the travelators.
Frankfurt. Any airport that requires you to catch a train from one terminal to another is going to impress you with its size. Frankfurt is a hub as well so the number of planes landing there are enormous.
London City. Terrible little place. Cramped and tired looking. Very busy but a passenger’s nightmare.
I could go on and speak about many airports. They all have the same function. They all have the same exorbitant prices for goods. They are all necessary to get from A to B by plane. They all have tedious but vitally necessary security checks.