Cahersiveen and its surroundings are among the most scenic sites in all Ireland. This small Irish village, located along the route of The Ring of Kerry, is renowned for the hospitality of its inhabitants and the cozy pubs they frequent.

During the two summers I spent there, I was left agog with the wondrous landscapes this area has to offer. Fifteen kilometers from the village one can find deserted beaches, historic ruins, breathtaking palisades and mountains with spectacular views of the entire Iveragh Peninsula and deserted islands whose waters will astound you for their icy temperatures and crystal clarity.

I lived memorable experiences there. Unfailingly, I enjoyed Derrynane National Partk or whenever we embarked on an excursion along the cliffs. These day-trips invariably culminated in a dip at one of the above-cited deserted beaches, the most spectacular being Finian’s Bay, Balinaskelligs, the beach at Derrynane National Park and Glanleam, a tiny cove with a tropical touch.

Another experience worth living is a visit to Ballycarbery Castle and the Cahergal ring-shaped fort. Both of these sites, a mere 15-minute stroll from the village of Cahersiveen evoke the history of this country and the mysticism of this land.

Another suggestion I overwhelmingly endorse is stopping to knock back a robust beer or two –if it’s a Guiness, all the better– at one of the pubs frequented by locals. During the summer season, on any given night, you will find locals getting together at these pubs to sing Irish folk songs to the rhythm of a bodhran, harp or violin. My favorite pubs are: Mike Murts and The Ancher.

If fine dining is your thing, I recommend The Point at Reenard Point, where you can also catch a ferry to Valentia Island. My favorite dish as I recall was one which offered a variety of fish and fresh seafood. Thanks to the good relationship that the restaurant’s owners have with Spanish fishermen who fish in local waters, you can also find some exquisite wines here from La Rioja.

Lastly, what is undeniable a must-do is a day trip to Valentia Island. You can rent a bike in Cahersiveen and pedal your way to the ferry just 20 minutes away. Circling the island is done relatively quickly, but the best part will be the verdant countrysides and wonders of nature you will encounter along the way. One hour from Knightstown by bike is Fogher Cliffs. The view from here, looking out to sea and southwest Kerry will leave you speechless. If you’re continuing by bike, I advise you to stop and get re-fueled at The Lighthouse Café that opens only during the summer season. Ten minutes away, you’ll come across the Glanleam beach, by far one of my favorites because of the intimacy of its atmosphere and the tropical feel one experiences from the abundant flora.

So, without question, if you’re travelling to Ireland, you can’t miss this part of the route along The Ring of Kerry, one of the most scenic sites you will ever visit.

Ballinskelligs Bay. Photo by Willi Morali

The moment I read a review of The Art of Travel in Hellen Todd’s blog (Hellen’s Travel Corner), I was sure I had a new candidate for my summer reading list.

The Art of Travel is a brilliant work by Alain de Botton. Normally, when we travel to a destination, we tend to accumulate tonloads of information on where we should go and what we should do; rarely do we hear anything about the “why’s” and “how’s” of these trips. In his 254-page book, De Botton invites us to think about the real motivations people have when purchasing a plane ticket to places unknown.

Throughout The Art of Travel, we are treated to a philosophical approach to travel in an entertaining way via a perusal of some of the greatest thinkers, writers and artists. Icons of the caliber of Gustave Flaubert and Vincent van Gogh act as our guides in the journey to get in touch with the deepest feelings of our travels.

De Botton’s book has made me think and contemplate not only on the trips that i have taken to date, but also the most common day-to-day events that occur along the way.Often we travel imagining that we are going to discover and experience things which we could never find at home, but this is not necessarily true. Sometimes our daily routines blind and preclude us from enjoying all the beauty that surrounds us, small details that abound everywhere but are ignored. With that in mind, I’d like to finish my thoughts on this book with a sentence which Hellen Todd includes in her post;

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust

Tokitan.tv is a new adventure launched by Haritz Rodriguez. Vís a vís his video blog, he aims to touch base with the traveller all of us carry within and have them live experiences and adventures that are do-able by just about anybody. His travelling philosophy can best be summarized by the following slogan: “BIG adventures for small travellers“. Since a video is worth MORE than a thousand words, we’ve decided to share with you this trailer:

On Tokitan.tv, you and others will be able to watch videos of Haritz’s trips and excursions sailing across the Greek isles, surfing in Lapurdi, trekking through the Pyrenees or listening to the sound of deers bellowing in Soria. These videos deliver fun, originality and spontaneity and last about five minutes, not to mention that they are also informative and a cool way to learn new things.

We’ve known Haritz personally since we started developing Trourist and, if truth be told, we must admit that our working philosophies are very similar.

We wish you all lots of luck with this new adventure and hope you enjoy these videos on an ongoing basis.

We have a new ExperienceLess video! This time it’s from Eider, Leire, Paloma and Nerea, four trourists who’ve spent the last half-year getting the most out of their Erasmus program up in Gothenburg. They wanted to see and live the city from an ExperienceLess perspective and towards that end hit the streets with their sign in tow. Local reaction was excellent and the experience enabled them to sample one of those restaurants that only locals know and get together at on special occasions.

As a traveller, most of the instructions and advice I read on travel web sites bores me. People are always pointing you towards the typical tourist traps, instead of unveiling  new and undiscovered treasures which promise fun and rewarding experiences. I’m not the only one with this pet peeve. The character I want to introduce to you in the following lines not only goes by the name of Joël Henry, but goes the extra yard.

Joël Henry is not just any tourist. He is an experimental tourist. In the mid-90s, while dining with some friends, this journalist who writes for the Art channel decided to apply his love for games to his love for holidays. So it was that he founded The Laboratory for Experimental Toruism (www.latourex.org), an entelechy compiling travel ideas devoid of conventional touristic restrictions.

Among his proposals are such gems as getting to know cities by only visiting the last stop on a subway line, catching a train precisely at 12:12 and getting off at the twelfth stop or discovering by yourself and in-depth the K2 area of a city’s map. Whether you think his ideas are stupid or just plain zany, no doubt you’ll agree that chance and random selection often improve the quality of one’s travels. I confirmed this for myself during our ExperienceLess venture, months ago when we launched Trourist.

Going over the top for a moment … who would be willing to choose their next destination from a list of places where a crime took place a year ago? Pushing the envelope a bit further, would you prefer instead to set loose a cricket on a map for a minute or so and then embark on a trip following its aimless wanderings? Now it’s your turn: do you have any wild, out-there experimental tourism recommendations that you’d like to share with us?

Heaven knows why, but as I showered this morning I began wondering about the five things one should do in any new city. Following is my handful of ideas, though I’m sure you can come up with many more.

Taste a new dish. Even though we often eat more with our sense of sight than our sense of taste, sampling the local gastronomy is a great way to bond with the culture of the place we’re visiting. Besides, it can be a source of inspiration and creativity and way of astounding others when you return home.

Knock back a few pints at the local pub. You know the kind: small, divey, off the beaten path, where beer still can be found for under 1,5€, the sort of place locals hit after a long working day. These are the types of haunts where you’re likely to meet that bizarre someone who’ll offer you conversation that is priceless.

Take the metro-subway-underground (take your pick, assuming they have one). Each time you make one of these subterranean voyages it’s like an intensive course in sociology. Personally, I love observing the variety of people that make up a city, checking out their assorted fashions and unpredictable behavior …

Get lost. Yeah, no kidding. Some of life’s best experiences come from discovering small niches we happen on by chance, be it the result of taking the wrong road or catching a bus in the opposite direction. As they say: many times the right way to go is the wrong way.

Catch a sunrise. That special instant when the city is waking up while you still haven’t gone to sleep. It’s as though the universe were frozen for a few seconds, only to go into triple overdrive seconds later. It’s a can’t-miss moment, particularly if the company and setting is right.

Surely many of you intend to travel somewhere during the upcoming weeks. After all, one does have to take advantage of the warm summer weather. Some of you will pick a city, others some deserted beach. And still others will trek up some mountain. One thing is for certain: all of you will want to discover a special nook or have a genuine experience wherever you go.

This aim of helping you find real treasures during your travels has been from the start the number one concern for all of us here at Trourist. Little by little, thanks to your participation and sharing of experiences such as a cool creperie in Paris or that tea stop in Granada, we are achieving our goal.

Now, during Summer 2010 we wish to introduce a new initiative: the Trourist guides. For those of you travelling to San Sebastián, Barcelona and Berlin during the next few months you’ll be able to download and print Trourist for each of these cities (London and Madrid guides coming soon). Included in these guides are the best experiences shared with us plus advice from bloggers and trourists from these destinations.

We hope from the bottom of our hearts that you find these guides useful, whether it’s for trips you personally embark on or those done by friends and acquaintances (whom you’ll want to surprise by sending them a copy). To download these guides free of charge, all you have to do is visit the following link to Issuu.

I know for certain where you’ll be.
(And also where you won’t).
You won’t be where a murmur is missing,
or in the cold silence where melancholy fills
the lifeless streets found in every city,
Nor will you be where today is like tomorrow,
Nor where the ambience has the insipid air of a Monday morning,
Nor in a photograph where you look awkwardly out of place.
You will not be alone seated in a chair,
a bridge that links you to that other world
constructed by smiles and conversation,
Nor will you be locked inside the four walls of some room
Nor waiting on an endless line without not knowing why
Nor will you be oblivious to what is going on around you.
No, I don’t have to go looking for you.
I know where to find you.
You’ll be in the spotlight of a battle,
or anchoring aweigh at dawn,
dreaming with your eyes wide open,
feeding your most venturesome spirit,
and experimenting until surprises leave you breathless.
You’ll search for that something
which makes your voyage special.
Oh yes, my dearest TROURIST friend,
I know for certain where you’ll be.

Even though this ranking may exhibit my personal bias, I believe it provides a useful calendar for any trourist electing to visit the Basque Country during the summer season:

St. John. Hernani, June 23rd. If one has to pick a single moment above all others, I’d have to lean towards the txupinazo because of its symbolic representation as the launch of the St. John festivities. On this day, at noon, a very special atmosphere can be felt in the Plaza de los Gudaris, overflowing with expectant merrymakers eager for the rocket launch  signaling the commencement of five days of non-stop partying. Merrymakers and hell-raising go hand in hand during this period because for many it is the beginning of the summer festival season and the end of final exams, a double cause célèbre.

La Blanca. Vitoria. August 4th. The beginning of this feast is marked by the descent of Celedón (an effigy of a mythical legend) every fourth of August at six in the evening. Over forty-thousand people congregate, bottles of cava in hand, at the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca (the White Virgin Mother, hence the feast’s name) to witness the most important instant of the following five days. Once this moment is over, bedlam ensues and the feast is on. The highlight of every afternoon comes just before the bullfights when the “blusas” (residents of all ages dressed in traditional festival garb) form flanks and cheer passersby as they cross back and forth in front of them, to the tune of deafening music played by local amateur brass bands known as charangas. Just as they are in other parts of the Basque Country, txosnas (mobile bars run by cultural and/or political organizations) are another mainstay at these feasts. Every night, young people meet to drink and take in the concerts which have been scheduled.

Aste Nagusia. Bilbao, August 21st (this year). For five nine days, the feast just takes over the streets of the city and thousands of persons enjoy the convivial atmosphere that always predominates in Bilbao. The feast’s origin dates back to 1978, when several Bilbao associations decided to organize a contest to garner the best ideas for a Semana Grande (Big Week) in the city. The nine-day extravaganza is run jointly by the local town hall and various comparsas (local associations and groups) throughout the city. Thirty years later, the Aste Nagusia of Bilbao is one of the most popular and most frequented feasts in the Basque Country. Following the txupinzao (above-described) and inaugural speech, the peculiar Marijaia (Festive Mary), symbolic mascot of the feast, steps out onto the balcony of the Arriaga Theater to kick off the festivities, which  take place in the various txosnas of diverse stripe and persuasion across the city. No indoor bars for the feast’s duration, this party is held in the street.

Antzar Eguna. Lekeitio, September 5th. A sea of people attired in blue overflow the txosnas to be found at the seaport of this lovely fishing village. The climactic moment occurs at 4 p.m. when the village’s cuadrillas (groups of friends) set out in boats to take turns participating in the local festivities in a more direct manner. A representative from each boat grabs onto a goose which is tied to a chord and held at the opposite end by 20 people. This tug-of-war causes the elected goose-holder to bounce off the water’s surface several times before yanking the goose’s head off (assuming he manges to do so). Following this bizarre display of dexterity, the feast romps into full swing, non-stop till the wee hours of the morning. The best part of the program? Without question, the day fare.

Euskal Jaia, September 9th. Decked out in traditional rural farm worker (baserriterra) wear, the people of Zarautz and neighboring villages hit the streets every September 9th to live the most special day of the year for this breezy coastal town. Unquestionably, cider is an indispensable element in the Euskal Jaia of Zarautz. It is served by the ton at Barren Plaza and Musika Plaza, but also from carriages and supermarket carts prepared especially by local cuadrillas for the occasion. No doubt, it’s a great way to conclude the summer fanfare and begin the back-to-school haul full of energy.

Needless to say, you are more than welcome to participate in all the feasts you find to your liking or consider worthwhile. There’s something here for everyone!

Antzar Eguna. Lekeitio.

If you’re travelling across the U.S., sooner or later, like it or not, you’re going to end up eating a burger or two. In some cases, it’ll be because nothing else on the menu catches your attention. Picture it: you’re on the road, hunger’s got the best of you and your choice of “eats” is a circular piece of meat on a bun or a couple of slices of pizza. Tough choice, especially if its the fifth day in a row you’re facing it. Sometimes, even when you do have alternatives, your travel mates — native or otherwise — will drive you to some joint that only offers the Terrible Two. Yeah, life can be like that.

Like they say: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, so the most sensible thing is to find an emporium which serves quality burgers. In a perfect world, this hamburger haven would be located in some quality brewery or someplace a tad more homey where you’d savor the taste of a juicy burger buried under a heaping pile of onions, layers of blue cheese and other culinary delights. Time for a reality check. In all likelihood, the place in question will be some fast-food chain, so why not know for sure which of these are the best.

A couple of years ago, I spent six months in California . Many of my university mates raved with absolute devotion about IN-N-OUT, a fast-food outlet where cheeseburgers, fries and shakes were the only fare. I got so sick of hearing about the friggin place that I finally went and, to my surprise, liked it, though I was left with a disturbing existential dilemma: Can one truly experience something genuinely life-enrichening at a fast-food chain? What’s your opinion? Do you know of eateries, fast-food franchise or otherwise, which could be considered an Experience?