Petty crime is quite a problem in Russia now particularly in the main cities such as Moscow or St Petersberg. Expect to be pickpocked, I was pushed against a wall in a church in St Petersberg and my camera taken.

In Moscow the local militia pick on tourists a lot and often invent new travel rules, such as you must always carry your hotel invite, of course if you don’t comply they expect to fine you on the spot $600 or so, and threaten prison!

A good tip is to take a couple of credit cards with you keep … Continue Reading

Wizz Air Ukraine, the first low fare - low cost airline in Ukraine announced that it had launched its first service from Kiev Borispol Airport to Simferopol at 6am today, in line with the earlier announced plan. The brand new Airbus A320 aircraft left fully loaded with 180 passengers on board.
The first ever Ukrainian low fare flight was inaugurated by Minister Vinsky, who greeted the passengers and cut the ribbon to commemorate the occasion.
Coinciding with the inauguration of Wizz Air Ukraine the airline also confirmed that it would start expanding its Ukrainian domestic route network with new flights … Continue Reading

A new era has dawned: welcome to the age of open skies. What does this much-trumpeted transatlantic air agreement mean for travellers? Not that much, it seems.

Open skies has long been a dream of airlines. Until this week, only four airlines have been able to operate from London’s Heathrow airport to US destinations. From today any EU or US-based airline can do just that - provided it’s got a landing slot, that is. Indeed, these airlines can operate a route from between any two airports in the EU or US. The idea is simple: open skies means more choice and … Continue Reading

Rainy Days

Excuse my ignorance, but Europe in June should be sunny surely? Except of course England where it rains all the time! . It’s why we chose that month to escape Melbourne and the beginning of winter. Unfortunately, winter came with us. It rained everywhere we went, which in some places didn’t matter: Barcelona is just as beautiful in a downpour, Paris is arguably more romantic under an ominous grey sky, and London just wouldn’t be London without a shower or six.

But when it rained in Croatia I was mad. We’d skipped Budapest and Sarajevo to spend two weeks … Continue Reading

A visitor reports that its not so easy to read and disperse information whilst in China due to their infamour censorship system - called the Great Firewall of China! Aparently their are a great many bloggers over there that still manage to get around the system, by using hosting in the USA or Europe.

During the Olympics period it was promised that restrictions would be eased now it seems that very little if anything has been released, not even for Western journalists!

I came back from San Diego in January 2007 and I was very impressed, its right on the border with Mexico and Tijuana, a day trip to Tijuana is an experience in itself.

The city is very clean and modern, the climate is really wonderful.

I so enjoyed the Zoo, which offers a guided tour bus that traverses 75% of the park. There is an overhead gondola lift called the skyfari. It was built by Vonroll ltd of Switzerland. It is the famous Vonroll type 101. It provides an aerial view of the Zoo and is a quick way to … Continue Reading

To Do!

Just back from holiday last week, its the first time I have been to the South of Ukraine, and anywhere close to the black sea. I”ve been to Turkey before but only Istanbul.

I was particularly impressed with the palace at Yalta Livadia

Most of beaches in the Yalta area are very stoney, but the climate is very nice, around mid 30’s in the day and at night, hardly any rain - the beer and wine were very reasonably priced.

My wife Taya is from Ukraine so the family had a good time, and we all enjoyed being in our other homeland.

Our first team brainstorming session came up the the following:-

Have you been Off Travelling recently? If so, wouldn’t it be great if you could put all your photographs, stories, videos and hotel/resort reviews all in one place? You could then send all your friends the link to the site so they could have a look at what you got up to on holiday. You could keep a log of each holiday you ever go on all under one roof.

Maybe you went on holiday and were not very pleased with the hotel or resort you stayed in? … Continue Reading

Welcome to Offtraveling a site dedicated to travelers, backpackers and adventurers of all kinds.
For many years we have been travelers ourselves, traveling Europe, USA, Australia and now more places around the World.

We set this blog up to share our experiences with everyone, the site currently has just this blog but we shortly plan to launch a forum and create a series of visitor guides. Its a long term project and we hope that you will join and benefit from our community soon.

Adrian

The Founder & Boss