Top 10 Travel Tips - Best of 2009

2009 was a corker of a year with our monthly top ten series offering you guys advice on everything from etiquette on the Underground in London, to Twitter. To celebrate said literary diversity and kick off 2010 with a bang ‐ here are the best bits of the best top ten articles, over the last twelve months. Happy New Year!

February 2009 ‐ The Top 10 Things You Should Know About President Barack Obama

The first piece of legislation signed into law by Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the aim of which is to which is to make it easier for people to get the pay they deserve, on an equal footing ‐ regardless of gender, race or age. Marking the occasion President Obama said: “It’s about justice. It’s about who we are. And on this wonderful day, we’re getting a step closer to both of those things.”
March 2009 ‐ The Top 10 Ways to Travel for Less

Sell on What Isn’t Coming With You: If you’re on a round the world gig or you‐ve been working abroad, then you could pay a shipping company to convey everything you’ve bought back to the homeland, or you could face the fact that you’ll probably never use most of it again and turn a profit. Gumtree and Craigslist are prime retail sites for this and while we‐re at it, they‐re also great for picking up bargains, cheap rental deals, jobs and much more. They do of course have the obligatory seedy side ‐ but as far as free resources go, they get the job done and you can earn some extra spending money from the junk you’ll never need again.
April 2009 ‐ Top 10 Twitter Travel Tips

Where Do I Begin? I asked myself this very same question about two weeks ago when everyone kept saying I should: “Twitter” instead of e‐mail, which apparently is now out of favour. Not wanting to look like a technical dinosaur I tentatively dropped twitter.com into my browser and fortunately the sign up process isn’t too much of a time consuming pain in the ass. You just fill in your name, the user name you want to appear as online and click through. After the usual activation e‐mail is sent out you’re good to start sculpting your profile. From here think of it as Facebook with everything except the status updates and the messaging service, stripped away.
May 2009 ‐ Top Summer Trips for Less

Penny Pinch in Paris: In a city where the standard price of a beer is €8, you guys need all the budgetary help you can get so here it is. First things first ‐ transport. Unlike London’s massively overpriced Underground, the Paris Metro is very affordable and you save even more when you buy a book of ten or twelve tickets. One journey equals one ticket, and it averages out at about €1.20 per trip. Sorted. As for the attractions ditch the overpriced Eifel Tower and pay less than €10 to go up the Tour Montparnasse. There are no sticky fingered school children here and your photos will include the eponymous tower. Now for the culture 101. Unless you’ve got your heart set on the Louvre, save yourself a lot of money (and a crowd induced migraine) and head to the Musée d’Orsay instead. You can actually see art here, without the queues or the maze like trenches that ruin the Louvre. Also the clock tower restaurant makes for a great cheap eat.
June 2009 ‐ How To Detect and Dodge Swine Flu on Your Travels

What Can You Do to Protect Yourself on the Road? Let’s break this one down into two easy to follow strands ‐ practical and psychological. The biggest weapon in any war against disease is good personal hygiene. Remember that cleanliness is indeed next to godliness. It’s simple really ‐ prevent the spread of germs and you’ll slow down or prevent the spread of Swine Flu. Just wash your hands on a regular basis (after bathroom trips and any spell on public transport) or invest in one of the biggest bug busting weapons in the war against MRSA, antibacterial hand gel. The use of this affordable and widely available little wonder has slashed the MRSA infection rates in British hospitals and you guys can purchase special, scented varieties with moisturiser thrown in there too, so you get the baby soft skin benefit! If you sneeze or cough do it into a tissue and throw said tissue away. Get it out of your system, dump the breeding ground and get on with it.
July 2009 ‐ Top 10 Sexiest Summer Locations

Bath: For Jane Austin to find love in Bath, she had to re‐write the rules of social propriety and popularise it in her novels. Fortunately it’s not so hard for you guys in twenty first century Britain. For the wine‐ing, start with a drink at Belushi’s. For the dining, head over to Sally Lunn’s Café at number four, Parade Passage. Then for the warming up, head along to the Thermae Bath Spa ‐ Britain’s only natural hot spring spa, complete with a roof top pool, overlooking the gorgeous ‐ Georgian architecture riddled valley. It is quite simply, breath taking.
August 2009 ‐ The Top 10 Travel Photos

Siddhartha Butalia ‐ Winner of our photo competition in January 2009: London is cold but I like where I’m living ‐ the music from Belushi’s below settles like a warm blanket shrouding the fog outside. We step out, over the cobbled stone path, a short ride in the Underground and then meander through a trail of postcard pictures ‐ the lone swan sheltering under its wing as the sun sets over Hyde Park, the purple haze reflection of the London Eye on the Thames and finally turn in as Big Ben chimes the closing of the Underground.
September 2009 ‐ The Top 10 Tube Taboos

Stand on the Right: There’s a reason why signs advise you to stand to the right on escalators when you’re not walking up them and that reason is the army of fast paced city dwellers who have absolutely no qualms about knocking you out of the way or abruptly vocalising: “MOVE TO THE RIGHT.” Don’t take it to heart ‐ these guys live in one of the most financially stressful cities in the world, so just keep to the right and keep out of their way. Map Reading: If you need to stop and study a map of the underground lines ‐ don’t do it on a cross over between lines. On the underground this is akin to swimming against a tide of massively motivated sharks, all intent on getting to a certain destination, regardless of whether you’re in the way or not. Avoid this faux pas by picking up a free pocket sized guide from the entrance of any station and then study it at your own pace, out of the way.
October 2009 ‐ Top Unusual Urban Legends

A long, long time ago in a little English town called Godalming (Surrey) a woman by the name of Mary Toft was attracting attention for some rather peculiar reasons. The year was 1726 and mother of three Mary announced a fourth pregnancy, however what eventually popped out wasn’t a bouncing baby. Instead several pig organs emerged, which were then taken by her baffled husband to an equally baffled midwife. Later Mary started giving birth to dead rabbits at a rate of one a day. These tales were now attracting attention from outside of Surrey and before long specialists from Switzerland and Westminster were called in. Still baffled, King George I dispatched his personal surgeon who saw Mary give birth to a dead rabbit and still couldn’t explain it. Eventually it came down to Sir Richard Manningham, who suspicious of Mary, brought her to London and finally unveiled the truth. A servant was discovered smuggling in rabbits for Mary’s precursor to Thailand’s Ping Pong Ball show and Mary confessed. She had all along been inserting the poor old rabbits and various animal parts, inside herself, and was imprisoned for gross deception. Mary was later released without being prosecuted, but the legend lived on!

November 2009 ‐ The Top Ten Things To Do in Europe‐s Top Ten Cities, London

Soho ‐ a great neighbourhood packed with bars, clubs, Chinatown and more. Underground: Tottenham Court Road.
Trafalgar Square ‐ it’s got pigeons galore, flash mob dances, free concerts and the unexpected! Underground: Charring Cross.
The West End ‐ from Noel Coward to Andrew Lloyd Webber, all the big shows can be found here. Underground: Covent Garden.
Portobello Road Market ‐ one of London’s biggest nick‐nack markets, every Friday and Saturday. Underground: Notting Hill Gate.
Columbia Road Flower Market ‐ it looks like they’ve mowed the Netherlands every Sunday. Underground: Bethnal Green.
The Victoria and Albert Museum ‐ the definitive history of fashion, next to the giant magnet and fun times of the Science Museum. Underground: Gloucester Road.
The Parks ‐ check out the best green spaces at Hyde Park and Kensington Park Gardens.
Ministry of Sound ‐ London’s biggest club with money off when you stay with us! Underground: Elephant and Castle.
The Houses of Parliament ‐ get snapped outside Big Ben or see a free debate. Underground: Westminster.
The Tate and the Tate Modern Galleries ‐ the old and the new of the art world with a boat trip between the two. Underground: London Bridge.

‐ Rob Savage