Just back from the most fantastic trip to Australia. And why did I go there in winter? My sister decided to marry her Aussie fiancée there, in July, in Victoria! So we flew with Cathay Pacific and sampled both the new and old configuration seating much debated on Flyertalk forums. We stayed in the Mantra on Exhibition in Melbourne and had a great trip up the 88th floor on the Eureka Skytower for the most amazing views across the city. My sister lives next to the famed Queen Victoria Market where much shopping was done and we had a trip out to the Yarra valley, spending lots of money in the Oakridge Winery. The actual wedding was held in a town called Kyneton on the Macedon ranges, and the reception held at another winery (bit of a family theme) in Kyneton Ridge Estate - great food and of course lovely wine :). If you are ever down that way I highly recommend Isabella at Kyneton, an unmanned B&B in which you can rent rooms or the whole house, and it really is a home from home.
So despite the relatively mild Aussie winter, we decided it would be a shame to go all that way and not visit tropical North Queensland, so we flew to Cairns after the wedding and stayed in the lovely town of Port Douglas at some great self catering apartments called Regal on Macrossan. A must do is the trip to Kuranda via the Scenic Railway and return via the famous Sky rail - a fabulous trip by steam train up breathtaking gorges and down again over the rainforest in a cable car, amazing! The other highlight of my trip to Queensland was a helicopter ride over the great Barrier Reef and Daintree rainforest, Sky Safaris being my second personal recommendation to you. They fly a small helicopter (max 3 passengers) and a personalised and tailored tour. Or you could do what my insane sister did and jump out of a plane - not my cup of tea, but hey she survived it!
But the most exciting part of all being on the other side of the planet, was checking to make sure that it’s true that water does spiral down the plughole in the opposite direction!… and yes it does
I just thought I’d let everyone know that Darren, on his Travel Rants blog, has launched a series of “top tips” blog posts by gathering tips from various other bloggers on different aspects of travel. So far this series includes the following:
I just thought I would let you know that the British International Motor Show kicks off at the ExCel London on the 24th of July, running on to August 3rd. Tickets are £10 for an adult weekday ticket or £14 for an adult weekend ticket while prices for children vary dependent on age (with under 5’s going free). Tickets are available from the www.britishmotorshow.co.uk website.
The Sunday Times have also picked out their stars to look out for. These include the Land Rover LRX, Saab 9-X Biohybrid concept, the Peugeot 308 RCZ, the Morgan LIFEcar and the Vauxhall Insignia (which will be replacing the Vectra).
A couple of my colleagues will be attending the show so we’ll report back in a couple of weeks. If you’re going then feel free to report back any highlights. In the meantime, let us know if you’ve got any tips on what to look out for at this year’s show.
I’ve never really watched Fifth Gear but I was bored on Saturday and happened to catch a repeat on Dave. I was surprised to find that it was quite informative (although it will never beat the pure entertainment that is Top Gear!). Anyway, this episode featured a reconstruction of the horrifying pile up that occurred on the M42 in 1997. To follow on from my post about driving responsibly and safely a week or so ago, I thought it would be worthwhile sharing this footage with you. The 160 vehicle pile up, caused by excessive speeds in conditions of dense, sporadic fog, was responsible for 3 deaths and over 20 other people were seriously injured. The heat from the vehicles on fire were reported to be so intense that the road melted.
It may feel like you’re having to slow to unneccessarily low speeds when the warning signs flash and speed restrictions are set but these restrictions are put in place for a reason. This pile-up could have been avoided if many of the drivers involved were not maintaining their 70mph+ driving speed as, with only 50 metre visibility, this is a dangerously fast speed. As a result, over 28 drivers were prosecuted, mainly of dangerous driving, with one driver being sentenced to prison. The question to ask ourselves is would we have been one of these 28? Would we take the 30mph restriction seriously when, as far as we are concerned, the fog around us in intermittent and the traffic on the road is not particularly bad? Or would we feel that the 30mph is over-precautious and that we are not willing to compromise on the time taken to get to our destination. If you are honest with yourself and think this could be you then watch this footage. But I warn you, even as a reconstruction it is not for the faint-hearted!
With so much to do, Florida is a hugely popular holiday destination. You could easily spend a couple of weeks in Orlando alone, getting lost in the many theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios.
But perhaps Florida is popular because there is so much to explore beyond the cartoon characters (as exciting as it is to meet your childhood hero) and stomach-churning rollercoasters. Cue blatant Avis bias, but I think Florida is definitely one of those places were you really need to rent a car to get the most of it (time and budget permitting). Florida is probably the biggest car hire market in the States so their are plenty of convenient locations with Avis particularly well represented in Orlando and Miami (including the airports). And from my experience, car hire in Florida is not particularly expensive and, as all Avis rentals in the US include no excess with a free additional driver for the named renter’s spouse, it can represent great value. All in all, with the exchange still holding well it’s a great time to check Florida out (and the rest of the US in fact).
I was going to write a few suggestions about where to explore in Florida (with places such as the Florida Keys, the Kennedy Space Center and the Everglades immediately springing to mind) but I reminded myself that it has been a few years since I’ve been there and perhaps I wouldn’t be able to do the area justice. So this is where you come in! If you have been to Florida, it would be great if you share your ideas and suggestions about where to explore on your holiday there. Which areas should holidaymakers be prioritising? Do you have a suggested itinerary? Are there any spectacular scenic drives or hidden gems? Or perhaps you have some tips for getting round all the theme parks with your sanity in check! I look forward to reading your suggestions!
What a weekend for sport. On Sunday, Nadal won the Wimbledon men’s championship in a five set thriller, giving Spain another sporting hero to celebrate after the country’s much deserved win at Euro 2008. Meanwhile, in the women’s championship, the Williams’ sisters put paid to any conspiracy theories in what was a well-contested women’s final. And the Tour de France kicked off in Brest where we will be supporting our Avis-sponsored Team Barloworld!
But for me the weekend’s highlight was Lewis Hamilton’s win at the British Grand Prix. Yes he is overly hyped by the press but it was great to see a Brit win at Silverstone, particularly as it was so skillfully done on a very wet and tricky track. We are proud to be the official car rental partner to Silverstone (you may have seen the Avis cars zipping around if you were there) so a few of the team were there to watch this great occasion - even if it was a little rainy. Let us know if you were there too. What was the atmosphere like? Were you glad to see Hamilton win? Or do you even care? And, the most important question, which celebrities did you spot?!
My colleague Nicola sent me this story by Fleet News about Britain’s most dangerous roads. The report by EuroRAP claims that 30% of primary roads are unsafe with the eight mile stretch of the A537 between Buxton and Macclesfield identified as the most dangerous road in Britain.
While the commentary highlights the need for better road design and more adequate safety measures, for me it serves an important reminder that we all need to ensure that we drive on the road safely and responsibly. Of all the websites that offer advice, the best one I found for road safety tips was the Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership website. I don’t want to sound like a preacher but I think tip 12 is particularly important: “Be an ambassador for driving within the legal speed limits - if you comply the chances are that the driver behind you will too”. I often see drivers on the M25 treating other drivers like an obstacle course or talking on the mobile while they are driving. But this sort of behaviour puts lives at risk. Please take the responsibility of driving seriously!
Car manufacturers are understandably under pressure to reduce the carbon missions produced by their cars. By having a fleet which is generally less than 7 months old we are seeing the benefit of this as, with every cycle of new cars we get, the average CO2 output of ours is becoming smaller. Now, virtually all of our small cars and a high percentage of our medium size cars fall within this category. Even some of our large cars come in surprisingly eco-friendly, such as:
- Ford Focus Estate – 119g-159g per km of CO2 (Depending on engine)
- Renault Laguna Estate – 133g-159g per km of CO2 (Depending on engine)
and the real surprise:
- BMW 320 Automatic 2.0 Diesel – Only 144g per km of CO2
Due to the tax and fuel savings it is understandable that fleet managers are turning to lower emission cars. But what about the environmental impact? There seems to be increasing social pressures to purchase more eco-friendly products but do you actually feel the need to be more environmentally responsible? Does the carbon output of a car determine which car category you book or even which car hire company you choose to rent with. I’d be interested to know your thoughts using the poll below:
We get a lot of calls to our reservation centre asking if we allow our cars to be picked up from one Avis location and then returned to another. If you are looking to rent a car one way between two locations within a country then the answer is yes we do! However, a one way fee will often apply (in the UK this is usually £40). People often ask why we charge a one-way fee as our locations share the same fleet. The reason is because we take bookings based on the cars that we have allocated to that location at the time. Obviously if one of these cars moves one way to another location then we will need to try and get this car back to the source location so it is there for the next customer who has booked it. The “one way fee” covers the cost of transporting the car back.
There will be some times when we don’t charge a one way fee. We usually do this to encourage customers to rent a car one way when we need to move cars from one area to another (we do not need to charge a fee if a customer can move the car for us as we save on the transporter costs). You can see this on our avis.co.uk homepage where, at the moment, we have a special for one ways into Scotland as we need to get cars there for the summer peak. Similarly, there is a good chance we will have similar offer for customers renting a car one way out of Scotland when the summer peak ends. Check back in September!
One way rentals between countries is far more expensive and is a reflection of the increased costs to transport the cars back. If this is something you are considering then I would suggest contacting our reservation centre on 08445 81 81 81 for advice as the price can differ greatly dependent on the pick-up and return countries. But please be prepared for a very high price to do this.
I’ve just been on our Avis Prestige website to find some awesome additions to this range. Joining a stable that already included the Audi R8, Aston Martin DB9 and the Mercedes SLK are the Ferrari F1 360 Spider, the Ferrari F430 F1 Spider, the Bentley Continental GT and the Lamborghini Gallardo. And on the back of some rave reviews since it’s launch, we are also welcoming the new Jaguar XF. I think few could argue with the quality of that line-up!
Being a supercar enthusiast, Xavier has selected his pick of the bunch. Let us know which one you would go for using the poll below. Or post a comment if you’ve got your own views on the selection.
We´re excited to be the first car rental company to start a blog. We want to be able to tell you about our plans, let you know what we have on offer (such as new cars in our fleet) and pass on useful information for your holidays and business travel. We´d also like you to use this blog to share your experiences, tips for other travellers, feedback and questions. We´ve been reading some of the things you have to say about car hire on other sites, and know you have a lot to say! More
G’day all,
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