How to get to | South Korea

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

South Korea

The land border with North Korea is closed (excepting the tourist attractions within the Demilitarised Zone DMZ) and there are a few ferries to South Korea from Japan and China. However, almost all visitors arrive by air. Many airlines fly to Seoul, and some Asian airlines also fly to Busan, including:

• Star Alliance - Air Canada, Air China, ANA, Asiana, Lufthansa (also Busan), Shanghai Airlines, Singapore, Thai, Turkish, United
• Oneworld - Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Japan Airlines
• Sky Team - Aeroflot, Air France, China Southern, Delta, KLM, Korean
• Other selected - Emirates

TIP Depending on currency movements, some round-trip and alliance (eg around the world) fares in first or business class from South Korea can be significantly cheaper than starting from other countries.

TIP With few low cost carriers, flights from elsewhere in Asia to South Korea tend to be fairly expensive unless bought as part of a longhaul ticket. Asia airpasses with the alliances can be a good alternative.

TIP Seoul has 2 airports - Incheon used mainly for international flights (including all longhaul flights) and Gimpo used for almost all domestic flights (plus some international flights to/from Osaka, Tokyo and Shanghai). Allow at least 2 1/2 hours for transfers between Seoul and Gimpo.

Tweet this

I added a tweet this button to my blog recently. I thought it would be a 2 minute job, but it ended up taking quite a bit longer. There are a number of different versions of code available for Blogger that each do slightly different things, and it took me a while to see which one I liked best.
Personally I prefer it to open a separate window rather than just replacing my blog in the active window, and if I already have Twitter open I do not want it to ask me again to log in.

I also looked for code that allows me to customise the default twitter message. I didn't find something quite as flexible as I'd like - the code I've gone with forces the bit.ly link at the start of the tweet. If anyone knows a work around or better code please let me know.

Hopefully, these features are what you like too. Please let me know if I've made the right or wrong choice.

For those who want to add the code to their own blog, see this Blogger Buster how to add "tweet this" post with the code and very clear instructions on how to do it. As suggested by M&M I added a space after "Tweet this!", and also amended the default tweet wording to include @globtrav so I can easily see who is tweeting my posts.

How to get to | Fiji

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the email me link at top right, or leave a comment.



Fiji

While some visitors arrive by cruise ship or yacht, most arrive by air at Nadi. Options are good relative to other South Pacific island nations:

• Star Alliance - Air New Zealand
• Oneworld - none
• Sky Team - Korean
• Other - Air Pacific (to various places around Pacific Rim), some South Pacific national airlines (eg Aircalin, Air Niugini, Air Vanuatu), and low cost airline Pacific Blue

TIP Air Pacific has codeshares with Qantas (from Australia) and Air New Zealand (from Los Angeles). Depending on fare or award rules these flights may or may not be allowed (eg Air Pacific flights are allowed on Oneworld's Global Explorer fares but not on the Oneworld Explorer fares).

TIP Fares from Australia and especially New Zealand are relatively cheap, except in school holidays (particularly mid-winter break) or if there is a major event on in Fiji.

TIP Some holiday packages from Australia or New Zealand offer great value, with the accommodation, transfers and add-ons sometimes costing little extra on top of the base airfare.

How to get to | Bolivia

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Bolivia

Source: Christophe Meneboeuf

Visitors arrive by bus or car (from Peru or Argentina), or by air. Note roads from Brazil, Chile and Paraguay are apparently not very good. Airlines flying to Bolivia (La Paz and Santa Cruz) include:

• Star Alliance - none
• Oneworld - American Airlines (from Miami), LAN (from Lima, Iqique and Santiago)
• Sky Team - none
• Other - Gol, TACA, TAM

TIP Fares are normally higher to/from La Paz than Santa Cruz (due to weight limitations at the high altitude flights are half empty).

TIP With relatively high fares, Bolivia is a good option for including on a Oneworld award, round the world ticket or South America pass.

How to get to | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

This is part of a series of blog entries on how to get to countries and places. Here is a link to the index. I plan to eventually cover every country and some other places. If you have a request for a particular country or place please use the email me link at top right, or leave a comment.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the harder to reach Caribbean nations. Few cruise ships visit, but it can be reached by boat, water taxi or ferry from Grenada; and by air from neighbouring islands (Saint Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago). Flight options include:

• Star Alliance - none
• Oneworld - American Airlines from their San Juan hub to Canouan
• Sky Team - none
• Other - local Caribbean airlines such as LIAT & SVG Air to Kingstown & other islands

TIP On the Caribbean airlines the cheapest fares tend to be only available booking directly (on website if airline has one).

TIP If fares are high consider flying to Grenada and taking the short ride across the channel.

TIP Only small prop aircraft fly into Saint Vincent and the Grenadines so limit your luggage to avoid nasty excess baggage charges (or bags being left behind).

G20 - Air Taxes Save Environment & Economy

Shocking news in my email inbox.






A G20 Summit joint press release from the Environmental & Economic Crisis spokespeople April Day and Isa Fool, announces a massive new tax on air travel effective from next month.

To help solve two of the biggest issues of our time - global warming and the economic crisis - Ministers today resolved to implement from 1 May 2009 a new tax on air travel. The fee will be £500 per flight for all flights to, from or via G20 nations. The fee will apply to every passenger including children and infants. Frequent flyer award tickets will be charged a higher rate of £1,000 per flight in order to discourage people from taking extra flights because they are free.

It is estimated that the fee will bring in revenue of £700b and at the same time cut CO2 emissions from flying by 30%.

Already, Finance Ministers of 107 other nations have supported the initiative by pledging to introduce the same levy.

The move is described as a "win for common sense".

I'm speechless.