Travel Addicts

To celebrate the bank holiday weekend, last night Ollie and I invited over some friends for fish pie, loud music and drunkenness. As nobody had to get up for work the following day, it seemed like a perfect opportunity - especially considering I was now able to drink following my abstinence during lent. As with many nights at our place, the conversation inevitably turns to travelling - past and future, and I realised that everybody was about to take some amazing trips. John and Heather had just booked a two-week tour of Italy including Venice, Florence, Rome and Pompeii; Dan and Lucy were off to Paris; Matt was on his way to Toronto for some wedding planning; Kate was taking a sabbatical from work to do the Trans-Siberian Railway and Ollie will be soon flying out to Berlin for a stag party. Perhaps it's just that I have travel-mad friends, but it seems that everybody is jetting off somewhere at the moment.

Every day I receive an inbox full of travel newsletters advertising wonderful trips and I find it incredibly hard to resist them. London has been grey and dismal for about six months (excepting the one sunny week we had) and booking a trip an exotic destination seems to be the best tonic for overcoming the inevitable seasonal affective disorder which accompanies the bad weather. When walking down a very soggy Lordship Lane yesterday, the thought of soon being in a spa in Budapest somehow made me feel so much better. With so much temptation in front of you to get away from it all, is it entirely surprising that people so easily succumb? Are we all becoming travel addicts, or are we simply using travel as an excuse to escape the bad weather, the recession and the limited job options of the city we once all so determinedly aspired to live in? Of course, the two week trip out to the sun has been de rigueur since the airline boom of the mid-twentieth century, but it now seems that package holidays are no longer enough to satisfy our travel needs and that the world of travel is evolving beyond this trend and looking further afield.

I'm a huge fan of travelling independently and, despite the time needed to study guidebooks, timetables and hostel reviews, would recommend it to anybody as it is much cheaper and much more flexible. However, I am currently much too short of time to give you suggested itineraries now, so if you are feeling inspired by any of the destinations my friends are travelling to, here are some organised trips that may be of interest to you. Enjoy.

Italy

Explore run a trip called Best of Italy, which is an 11 day tour encompassing the sights of Venice and Florence; a full day tour of Pisa to see the famous leaning tower then on to see the beautiful scenery and medieval architecture of Siena and Gimignano in the Tuscan region; time to explore Rome, the Eternal City, before finally heading south to the Amalfi Coast to take in Sorrento, Pompeii and the stunning island of Capri.

This tour costs £1,676 (£1,870 including flights) and has various departures throughout April and September. Travellers use local transport including buses and trains and accommodation is in hotels, with two nights in a traditional Tuscan farmhouse.

More information about this trip can be found here.

Paris

Eurostar are currently offering City Break deals to Paris from £109 per person. This includes return travel from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord and one night in a selection of Paris hotels (based on two sharing). Whilst in Paris you can also take advantage of the Eurostar Culture Connect, which allows Eurostar travellers 2-for-1 entry at various Paris attractions, just by showing their Eurostar ticket. Attractions participating in the scheme include Le Musee de Quai Branly, le Jeu de Paume, le Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, la Cite de la Musique and les Galleries Nationale de Grand Palais.

More information about this trip can be found here.

Toronto

Trek America's Northeastern BLT tour is a nine-day trip through the best of North-Eastern USA and Canada. The tour begins in New York before heading to Toronto for a tour of the city and a trip out to Niagara Falls; heading to Montreal and then to Stowe for some hiking and a trip to the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory; before travelling back into the USA and exploring historic Boston before returning to New York for a final blow out.

This tour costs from £769 (excluding flights) and has various departures throughout the year. All transportation is via a private vehicle and accommodation is largely on a hostel/multi-share basis. Private departures are available.

More information about this trip can be found here.

Trans-Siberian Railway

There are many tour operators offering trips on this iconic route, however the best way to undertake this trip is to plan your own through with the help of The Man in Seat 61, an amazing website with a wealth of information on international train travel. This website includes all of the information you will need about everything from departure times, ticket prices and stop-off destinations as well as pictures of the cabins and even a guide to life on board the train. An excellent resource for anybody considering this epic journey.

If you would prefer to avoid the research involved with travelling independently, you will be able to undertake organised tours with Responsible Travel, Intrepid Travel and On The Go Tours to name but a few.

Berlin

Many tour operators are now offering guided city tours of Berlin by bike. Fat Tire Bike Tours offer four different tours including the All-in-One City Bike Tour, the Third Reich Nazi Bike Tour, the Berlin Wall and Cold War Bike Tour, and the Potsdam Bike Tour. Prices start from EUR20 for adults and EUR18 for Students including bicycle hire. The city is large and very flat, so on two-wheels is a great perspective from which to see it.

More information about the bicycle tours are available here.

Fly to Berlin low-cost with Air Berlin, departing from London Stanstead and Manchester airports. Flights from £29 one way. Good value hostel accommodation can also be found at St Christopher's Berlin, a clean, fun, centrally-located hostel with free breakfast and a cheap on-site bar. Dorm beds from EUR12 per night.