Travel

Come Stay at Fawlty Towers – Really

The Eurovision Song Contest was held in Baku, Azerbaijan at the end of May.

The intent of the hosts was clearly to use the occasion as a travelogue for their country, with short clips about Azeri culture, gastronomy and natural beauty filling in the gaps between songs.

The promotional campaign worked on me. The next day I scanned hotels.com for lodging information in Baku.

And lo and behold, what did I find but a hotel in the Azerbaijani capital named itself after the famed BBC comedy series.

But it is not the only one.

A recently opened naturalist resort in Cocoa Beach, Florida and a budget hotel in Rome have done the same.

About Those 10,000 Free Trips to Japan

After reading numerous articles over the past 24 hours about the Japan Tourism Agency’s offer of 10,000 free round-trip air tickets to foreigners in order to help boost tourism to the country, Chortler decided to give the agency a call.

A spokesman for the agency told us that the number of free trips had yet to be decided, and the eventual number could be anywhere from 1,000 and beyond.

Applications for the free journeys will be posted on the Japan Tourism Agency’s website at the beginning of next year. The trips will take place between April 2012 and March 2013.

Bloggers and other social media mavens will be the likely recipients of the free trips.

The Beer Index: The Only Gauge That Counts

Early last Thursday morning, right around the time I had poured myself a third beer – not enough can ever be said about the nutritional value of barley malt and hops — an idea struck: Someone should create a site that compares the price of a pint of beer in the all the countries of the world – sort of like The Economist’s Big Mac Index, only in this case it would concern an item that really matters.

As ideas go, it was brilliant, if I do say so myself. If only there were some way of overlooking the fact, as I later discovered, that someone had beaten me to it.

Pintprice is an indispensable Internet location for peripatetic and cost-conscious beer lovers. The site contains information from 206 countries on the price of the universe’s favorite beverage.

If anything, the site serves as a warning not to work up a thirst in Greenland ($12.05 per pint on average) and provides the best reason yet to plan a tour of Tajikistan and North Korea ($0.48 and $0.62, respectively, per pint of liquid wonderfulness).

Cheap Vacation Tip: Sliac, Slovakia: 4 People, 4 Days, $100

A four-day holiday for four people in Europe with clean, modern, spacious accommodation for 70 euros (or $100) probably sounds impossibly if not insanely inexpensive in this day and age.

Yet for about what four people can expect to pay for a stop in a Parisian coffee shop, a quartet for travelers can enjoy a cultural, sporting, adventurous and relaxing weekend in Sliac, Slovakia.

Situated in the heart of Europe, Sliac provides refreshing natural spas, beautiful views of and treks to nearby mountain ranges, fantastic dining, trips to historical towns and – this is Slovakia after all – some of the best beer in the world.

And all at a ridiculously low price.

For more information contact:

Relax Vikend
Tel: +421 944 152 291
Email: ubytovanie@sliacdnes.sk

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