Category Archives: Sidebar

TrekAmerica Discount

TrekAmerica has offered Globetrotters readers of this e-newsletter a 10% Discount on all of their tours.

TrekAmerica offers a range of over 60 adventure camping, lodging and walking tours in small groups (13 passengers maximum) in Canada, the USA (incl. Alaska) and Mexico.

In 2004 we will also be offering family tours and various specialty tours (e.g.- biking and birdwatching tours).

To claim your discount, you need to book direct and mention membership of the Globetrotters Club. For more information, see www.trekamerica.co.uk or call 0870 444 8735.


So You Think You’re Well Travelled?

Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on capital cities. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

What is the capital city of the following countries:

1. Austria

2. Ethiopia

3. Mauritius

4. Swaziland

5. Vanuatu

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.


Top 5 Things to Do in a Lifetime

The BBC recently showed a programme outlining the results of a viewer’s poll stating the top 50 things they thought everyone should do in their life.

The top 5 things were as follows:

  1. Swim with dolphins
  2. Dive the Great Barrier Reef or Coral Reefs
  3. Fly on Concorde
  4. Whale watching
  5. Dive with sharks

What would your top 5 things be? Write in and tell the Beetle.


Have you got a tale to tell?

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites


Globetrotters Travel Award

Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we’ll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!


Travel Quiz: Los Angeles

The winner of last month’s Frommer’s Guidebook on Spain Moon guide is: Azusa Nakamura congratulations!

This month, win a Rough Guide guidebook on Los Angeles. See www.roughguides.com

for info on Rough Guides.

Some people have said the quiz is difficult, we say do some research: try google.com or Ask Jeeves, if you need help with the answers.

1. In which year were the last Olympic Games held in Los Angeles?

2. You can find cement hand and footprints in the forecourt of which theatre?

3. Which famnous ocean liner is moored at Pier H at the end of Queens Highway South?

4. Which female movie star appeared in the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard?

5. What is the abbreviated name of the University based in Los Angeles?

Your Name:

Your e-mail address:


Giant Squid Found Dead

Four giant squid, one of which is said to be the length of a bus – 12 metres long – have been washed up on the northern Asturias coast of Spain. Spain’s marine agency believe that naval exercises have been causing shock waves that have contributed to their deaths, although the Spanish navy deny this. Giant squid, as in the monster that attacked Captain Nemo’s Nautilus in the Jules Verne adventure 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is the world’s largest invertebrate and lives at depths of up to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet).


Answers to: So You Think You’re Well Travelled?

1. Austria: Vienna

2. Ethiopia: Adis Abbaba

3. Mauritius: Port Louis

4. Swaziland: Mbabane

5. Vanuatu: Port Vila

  • 0 out of 5 – you need to get out more!
  • 1-3 – not bad
  • 4 – very good! You are a Globetrotter!
  • 5 – are you sure you didn’t sneak a look?

Danube Wrecks

Due to the unseasonably hot weather Europe has been facing over the summer months, the Danube has fallen to its lowest level for over 120 years. This is normally bad news as it prevents the usual convoys of ships – tugs barges pulling barges from travelling between the Black Sea and the rest of Euope. However, in one stretch of the river, between Serbia and Romania, this has revealed the most amazing find: wrecks from the second World War of German warships, once Hitler’s Danube Fleet.


Discount on Karrimor products

Karrimor are pleased to announce to all Globetrotters Club members (please note, club members only and not Including sale goods) a 25% discount through their factory shop. They offer a mail order service and all products can be found on our website www.karrimor.com

Further details are avalible in Globe or our online members area


Mutual Aid

We are a couple in our mid 50’s in Australia. We are experienced campervan travellers who wish to travel in UK during mid April 2004 – mid August 2004. We are looking for a campervan/motorhome exchange site. We have a Toyota hi-Ace LWB 2/3 berth hi-top & looking for a similar exchange. Can any e-newsletter reader help with a site or we would not mind a private hire arrangement. Nadia, e-mail: nadiak@picknowl.com.au


Visiting Iceland?

Gudbjorg offers his services to e-newsletter readers. If you are planning to visit Iceland, he can arrange a variety of trips. He is a trained tour guide, has transport and can find suitable accommodation in Iceland. He says: “be among the first to experience the West fjords in Iceland, where hardly any tourists ever visit. For more information, contact Gudbjorg Bragadottir on: guggabraga@visir.is


BBC Appeal for Help

We are looking for help with a programme we’re making for BBC2 called 1001 Things to Improve Your Life. Would you be interested in being filmed? The show is about making the best of modern life, and we want to feature tips on how to improve things when you travel. We’re keen to get some really good insider information in this area. It may be that you know a fab way of keeping flies off in a hot climate, or the essential carry-on items for a long haul flight…or something more fun and original! We want to hear from really knowledgeable, enthusiastic, amateurs – quirky characters – to actually show us their tips which we will film. The tips should be unusual with perhaps a sense of magic, clever, or something most people will be delighted by. Please contact Sarah on 0207 684 1661 or e-mail: sarahb@ideallondon.com


Accomodation in Mysore, India

Anyone planning a few days stay there. Globetrotter Ashley recommends a newly built ‘penthouse’ above a village type shop 2km from centre in Mysore. There is a sitting room, dining room with breakfast bar tea coffee and toast making facilities, double bedroom with mosquito nets, hot water geezer and roof terrace. The charming family who own the shop will cook meals (full breakfast 30 rupees) Indian dinner 50 rupees. Cost for 2 people is 750 rupees per day. Tel Mysore(0821) 450483. I will be happy to e-mail more details and map of how to get – Ashley@indiarail.worldonline.co.uk


TrekAmerica Discount

TrekAmerica has offered Globetrotters readers of this e-newsletter a 10% Discount on all of their tours.

TrekAmerica offers a range of over 60 adventure camping, lodging and walking tours in small groups (13 passengers maximum) in Canada, the USA (incl. Alaska) and Mexico.

In 2004 we will also be offeringfamily tours and various specialty tours (e.g.- biking and birdwatching tours).

To claim your discount, you need to book direct and mention membership of the Globetrotters Club. For more information, see www.trekamerica.co.uk or call 0870 444 8735.


Top 5 Things to Do in a Lifetime

The BBC recently showed a programme outlining the results of a viewer’s poll stating the top 50 things they thought everyone should do in their life.

The top 5 things were as follows:

  1. Swim with dolphins
  2. Dive the Great Barrier Reef or Coral Reefs
  3. Fly on Concorde
  4. Whale watching
  5. Dive with sharks

What would your top 5 things be? Write in and tell the Beetle.


Concorde Auction

Aviation enthusiasts, get ready! Air France is set to auction 200 parts from its retired Concorde fleet at Christie’s Paris auction room in October. After 27 years of service, everything from the famous nose cone to smaller pieces of memorabilia will be for sale. The proceeds will go towards children's causes supported by Air France. As a price guide, the famous drooping nose cone is estimated at EUR10,000 (USD$11,000) to EUR15,000 but prices for other mementoes, such as photos and models are as low as EUR20. There are no reserve prices, so everything must go.


Globetrotters Travel Award

Under 30? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!


Trouble in Paradise

London based human rights group Amnesty International has openly criticised the government of the Maldive Islands and asked them to end what it calls systematic political repression. Amnesty says torture, unfair trials and abusive power by the security forces are endemic in the Maldives, contrasting somewhat from their image of romantic holidays on beautiful coral atoll islands with white sandy beaches.

Amnesty are asking for an urgent radical reform of the criminal justice system. One opposition website has said that the security forces detained more than 100 people, but other sources put the number lower.

A Sri Lankan teacher who spent three months in jail in the Maldives last year said it was common for inmates to be tortured – hung upside down on bars and beaten on their feet or submerged head first in water. He said after the beatings, the guards would throw sugar on the prisoners so they'd be bitten by ants in their cell, and he said political prisoners were kept in the same cells as ordinary criminals, where powerful lights would be kept on to make sleep difficult.