Wolfgang Busch

European budget airlines allow customers to book cheap flights between countries. It is possible to get some flights that are the same price as a train journey, and take much less time. Check the geographical locations of airports as sometimes these are at a distance from the destination city. While it is true that the budget airlines in Europe have been much ridiculed lately, usually no other transportation option can beat their rates.

Train travel has always been a favorite among travelers and Europeans make use of bargain fares whenever possible. There is a fast train service in many parts, making trips easy and quick. Check out budget rail passes in advance to make the most of this overland opportunity. Also you can check these tips for traveling Europe with an Interrail Pass and these BritRail tips for discovering the UK from the comfort of a train.

European buses can be a great way to see the countryside and the cities close up, albeit at a slow pace. In the UK, for example, as in Canada and the USA, a Megabus will take you between cities for a budget price. Then there is a Eurolines pass, which offers access to 43 cities across Europe and is great value and flexible too – choose and book your first destination and after that decide where and when you want to travel on.

Unlike many travel destinations around the world, Africa is not as widely visited as it should be. Of course there are the issues to do with political instability and poor road infrastructure in some countries. These issues have been generalized and somewhat exaggerated, because there are many places in Africa to which visitors can easily have access in a politically and economically stable environment. Despite the stories that we hear in the media about the negative side of Africa, those who have travelled bring back a whole new way of looking at the little-traveled continent. When travelling on a budget this is a great destination because of 5 reasons:

Africa has an exotic variety of cultures in its East, West, North and Southern parts. For example, North Africa offers visitors a first-hand view of the living styles of the Arabic tribes that live in the Sahara desert and the regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. West Africa showcases the ancient civilizations that were greatly affected by the ancient slave trade. East Africa has an exquisite mix of Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic tribes that co-exist in relative peace despite their vast differences. South Africa displays the ancient civilizations of folklore such as the Zulu, Xhosa, and Ndebele. A person can travel from Cairo in the North to Cape Town in the South, from Mombasa in the East to Monrovia in the West and be truly amazed at the layers of variety they will see along the way.

In many places in Africa ancient civilizations have left their mark permanently on the landscape. One can see the Egyptian Pyramids and the Sphinx in Northern Africa. In Eastern Africa you can also see many archeological remains from ancient civilizations and ancient ruins in the coastal towns. In Western Africa the great and vast kingdoms Ghana, Songhai and Mali have also left their mark. In Southern Africa the great empires like the Zulu still hold their own in today’s modern world.

Most of Africa falls under the tropics. This means that, apart from the rainy months of the year, most of the other months have pleasant sunny climate with cooling winds. This is the perfect climate for a holiday away from the cold wintry conditions in other parts of the world.

Many parts of Africa remain relatively untouched by modern encroachment. This means that, wild animals live side by side with humans in game reserves and game parks. A person can get to see wild game like lions, cheetahs, leopards, elephants, giraffes, antelopes and many others in their natural habitat.

Deadvlei is a white clay pan  in Namibia, home to an impressive 900 years old tree graveyard

African holidays can be surprisingly affordable considering the exotic experience a person is treated to from the time they land. Hotels, resorts and lodges in Africa, compared to other continents provide an excellent return on investment for those travelling on a budget.

About the Author: Owen Peterson is a travel consultant. He ensures that all people who want to go on holiday get the right travel insurance to go on the trip of their dreams. He also ensures that those travelling on a budget also get excellent value for their hard-earned savings.

Photos via Flickr Creative Commons unless specified otherwise 

If you are like me, you probably make more or less the same New Year resolutions every January, just to realize in December that you haven't achieved your goals. But are your New Year resolutions fun, like going  on a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James, learning to ride a horse or to ski dive, or are they the ever boring losing weight resolutions? How about slowing down time?

As we grow older, we all start complaining about how fast time goes by. The subjective feeling that time is speeding up is completely normal. As children, our minds take in so many new impressions and perceptions as we experience the world for the very first time, and everything is fresh, bright and exciting. But as we get older, we have fewer new experiences, we start to ‘switch off' to the realness of the world, as it becomes more familiar to us. As a result, our minds take in fewer impressions, and so time seems to pass more quickly.

There's no magic trick to it. If you want to make time pass slower for you, bring some new experience into your life. Learn something new, meet new people, TRAVEL to new and unfamiliar places! Don't stick to the same destination year after year. Anything from taking the pulse of the Jaco home rentals to sleeping in an ice hotel, from trekking around India to diving in the Red Sea would do as long as you make it memorable. Be a traveler, not a tourist! The more adventures you have and the more unfamiliar the place, the longer lasting the memories you build and the slower the time will seem to pass by.

Have you ever wanted to do something, planned it into the smallest detail, even started doing it, then stopped in the middle of it all, just because it didn't seem so much fun as you imagined it in the first place? Then you've experienced the 'model railroader syndrome'. What? Another disorder? No, it's just the ability to see the completed project in your mind so clearly that you don't actually have to do it. No, laziness doesn't (usually) have anything to do with it. It's just that because you've seen it all so clearly in your mind, you don't feel motivated to do it anymore. It's the same with planning a trip. Obviously you need to know where you've going, what activities you would like to try while there, and do your homework on the possible dangers and health issues you might face. Nobody wants to fly half way around the world just to wander aimlessly or suffer. But don't over plan it! Don't look at every photo of your destination you can find on Google. Reality can hardly beat HDR and you might end up not only bored, but also disappointed.

Be like Nike, "Just do it!". Don't over think it. Just enjoy it. Learn from every experience and from every person you encounter in your journeys. There are a myriad of life skills to learn while on the road, from being more tolerant to strangers to learning a new language. You can always find lots of reasons to travel for.

One way to ensure you will remember both your adventures and misadventures well into the old age is by repeatedly telling others your stories. The other way is by keeping an online or offline diary while on the road. Write down your feelings, your impressions, your thoughts on each place you visit. Working with your memories makes them stronger and harder to forget, while replaying a moment in your head can bring you  almost as much joy as living it a second time. There's no wrong way to go when putting down on paper your life and as years pass by you will greatly enjoy reading your own writing. There is much to gain from rereading your journal entries; not to mention that a dairy is one of the most intriguing and precious things you can leave to your grandchildren.

Photos via Flickr Creative Commons

When you hear "Spain", I bet the first things that pops into your mind are beautiful beaches and warm weather year long. OK, maybe the Spanish Inquisition too. But lets not fall for the stereotypes. Spain has a super rich culture (besides a fingers liking good gastronomy), and one of the best times to visit is the winter holidays season.

Three reasons come to me of why you should do so: the nativity scenes on display in every city and village, no matter how large or small, the Christmas markets and the Three Wise Men Parade.

Displaying nativity scenes in churches, shopping malls, main squares, and public buildings is a deeply rooted Spanish tradition. It's enough to see the people cuing for hundreds of meters to see the Belén (that's the 'nativity scene' for you and me) to realize that. The elaborate displays depicting a beautiful scene of the times are usually animated, so you can actually see the little people at work, while the Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Magi are just a small part of the scene. Living nativity scenes are not all that popular in Spain, but I find the expensive figurines against intricate landscapes very appealing. Whole cities are being recreated and if the light conditions permit it, the vegetation surrounding the houses consists of real seedling and shrubs. The locals also build small Beléns in their living rooms, with just the main protagonists, and that actually keeps the place of the Christmas tree in many households. The nativity scenes are on display from the beginning of December till the 6th or 7th of  January. Free entry!

Christmas markets are organized all over Spain. Though not as popular as the German ones, they are great for sampling fresh produce and buy handmade gifts (I love how they manage to write any name on a grain of rice and transform it into a fancy necklace in a matter of minutes). From gorgeous fans to woodwork and ceramics, you can buy personalized Christmas gifts for the whole family. Some of these markets have a medieval theme where the merchants are dressed in medieval clothing (it's really funny to actually see them talking to their iPhones all dressed up like that!). Crib figurines can be also bought from the Christmas markets in case you decide to have your own nativity scene in your house this year. Free entry!

And just when you might finally thing the winter holidays are over and you can settle down, you find out that in Spain, the best is yet to come. The 5th of January is magic in the land of Don Quixote. Every mother's child is waiting for the arrival or the Three Wise Men (Los Reyes Magos). They usually bring presents, but, if you were a bad boy or girl, all you'll get is sweet coal (I don't think there's even one child who gets only coal in today's consumerist society, but let's leave it to that). Though Santa Claus conquered the hearts of many Spanish families, the traditional Three Wise Men (Melchor, Gaspar & Baltasar) remain everybody's favorites, as they come by boat or by plane and visit every town in Spain, in a fabulous parade that lasts up to two hours. Well before the night falls, kids of all ages gather on the side of the roads looking forward to meeting the Three Wise Men and catching the thousands of kilos of candies and toys they throw to the public. Free to join!

I love to start a new year by watching the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra from a comfy sofa. The lively and at the same time nostalgic music from the vast repertoire of the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries seems just the perfect activity for the first morning of the year. But nothing beats listening this world famous orchestra performing live, in one of the most charming concert halls ever!

As this concert is so super famous worldwide, I don't think it needs much introduction. Lots of TV channels and radio stations broadcast it live on the 1st of January, in over 70 countries, to the delight of all music lovers. 

However, due to the extremely high popularity of the Vienna New Year's Concert, now at the 74th edition, people have to preregister one year in advance in order to participate in the ticket drawing for the following year. The idea is for everybody to have equal chances to purchase the highly desired tickets to this absolutely fabulous event.

But while the concert is amazing, the tickets are sold at unbelievable high prices too. A ticket for the New Year's Concert can cost you up to €940, regarding the seat you've chosen. Of course, even at this sky high prices, your participation is still conditioned by the outcome of the drawing. Now I don't know if you've noticed, but just at the back of the Concert Hall there's always a crowd standing. They are the lucky guys who won the lottery and payed only €30. Yep, that's right! They even sell standing tickets for this concert. But again, you must win the lottery first. Now, what are the chances for you to win this lottery? Definitely higher than winning the National Lottery, but not rocket high.

Tip 1: In case your ultimate dream is to be part of the live audience of the New Year's Concert, it's good to know that the same program is actually played two more times: 

Year after year I am mesmerized both by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's performance, one of the finest orchestras in the world, and by the gorgeous Golden Hall, lavishly decorated with statues, paintings and out of this world chandeliers, and embellished by the flowers the city of Sanremo gives as a gift to the Vienna Philharmonic ever since 1980. Needless to say, I always wanted to at least visit the place if not to go to a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's. I had little faith my dream could come true. But it did!

As I mostly travel on a budget, I prefer going for the more affordable and comfy home rentals, visit the museums, look for the doors open events and the free activities a city has to offer and skip the expensive fun. Therefore, I guess it will come as no surprise that I never planned on going to a concert in one of the most famous Concert Halls in the world while visiting Vienna.

But just by walking around the city center, people dressed up in themed costumes ambushed me offering me tickets to the much celebrated Vienna Musikverein in Karlsplatz.