An ambition fulfilled for Martin Dorey: The Outer Hebrides.

If we asked you to name your seven wonders, what would they be? Now what if we asked you to give us your best travel advice, the thing you always have to take with you and why or your funniest story? It’s not easy is it? Well, over the coming weeks and months we’re going to be asking the same seven questions to travel bloggers, travelers, customers, celebs and anyone who we think will have something interesting to share with us. Starting with Martin Dorey, a World First customer who is better known for his camping and cooking ‘bible’, ‘The Camper Van Cookbook’ and his BBC2 TV series, ‘One Man and his Campervan’. Read his Campervanliving blog here.

Here goes… (more…)

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. Tristan is a lucky man. He gets to read the world’s best travel blogs and call it research so we can get a better understanding of what our travelling customers want and need from our policies. Over to you Tristan.

“As World First’s social media specialist I get to spend some of my working day checking out different Travel Websites and blogs from around the globe. It’s important for us as a business to keep up with travel trends and what’s happening in the travel world so we can continue to be one of the UK’s leading providers of travel insurance. To be honest it’s not so bad keeping up with the world’s best travel bloggers and travel sites. I fact it’s a part of my job that I absolutely adore.

So I thought I should share my top 50 with you. Actually, it’s a Top 49. That’s because I’m hoping you’ll share your best sites with me too. If you have a favourite travel site then please leave a comment or tweet your favourite to @wfinsurance and we will complete it.

I didn’t want to list them in any order because it’s not a list, it’s a collection. They are all equal. Besides, everybody does lists.”

Hg2 Magazine – Intelligent, irreverent, inspired
Over Yonderlust – Shaun and Erica Kuschel’s site
The Grumpy Traveller – Moaning about travel’s negatives
TravelDudes – For travellers by travellers
Get in the Hot Spot – Naked travel stories and travel tips
Twenty Something Travel – Why wait to see the world
Travels of Adam – The coolest cultural things to do around the world
Tnooz – Talking travel tech
Gadling – The world’s top travel blog
Smith Travel Blog – Travel tales and hotel reviews from Mr and Mrs Smith
Matador Network – Travel culture worldwide
Grrrl Traveler – The imperfect adventures of a solo traveller
Beer & Beans – In search of the unusual, the mundane, the beautiful and the forgotten
Jaunted – The Conde Nast Traveler Network
Perceptive Travel Blog – Award winning site with a monthly narrative webzine
Brendan’s Adventures – “If travel really is what you want to be do doing then go out and do it.”
Adventurous Kate – Solo female travel blog
Europe a La Carte – Food travel blog
Kirsten Alana – Aviators and a camera
A Luxury Travel Blog – For those who enjoy the finer things in life.
Reclaiming My Future – Great travel blog from Devon
Bald Hiker – The Ramblings of Paul Steele and friends
The Quirky Traveller – One of Britain’s best travel bloggers
Gap Daemon – Need help planning a gap year?
TravMonkey – Great travel site that answers many questions
EuroControl – Essential information for people flying in Europe
The Adventurists – Crazy rickshaw driving people
Velvet Escape – Go explore, experience and be inspired
Backpacker Becki – A solo female travellers rants on the road
Nomadic Samuel – Miles away from ordinary
Budget Traveller – See the world on a shoestring
Leaving Cairo – A travel blog about finding happiness (and a steady job)
Johnny Vagabond – Around the world – slow and low
Mrs O around the World – Love travel – love people – love shoes
My Destination – Handmade by destination – advice that won’t fade
Inside the Travel Lab – Exploring unusual journeys
Pommie Travels – When I’m not travelling, I’m thinking about it.
40 before 30 – Award winning travel blogger
Off Track Planet – Travel for the young, gifted and broke.
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler – Live to travel, travel to live
Travelocafe – A cultural and luxury travel blog
The Planet D – Canada’s adventure couple
Travel Blissful – Destination ideas and travel advice for blissful trips
Uncornered Market – Measuring the Earth with our feet
Maiden Voyage – Professional women connect globally whilst on business travel
Leave your Daily Hell – How I went from feeling broke, depressed and powerless to travelling
Stop having a boring life – Just like the title says
Got Saga – A community with a passion for travel.

This post was written by Tristan Rothwell who you can follow on Twitter @wftristan. He’s the face of the World First travel blog and keeps travel-lovers up to date on Twitter with breaking news and travel tips.

Smartphone app takes the stress out of air travel.

Seeing a new country is always exciting. The same cannot always be said for the process of actually getting there.

It’s no secret that air travel can be stressful. Here to ease the anxiety is GateGuru, an app for iPhones, Android and Windows phones that automatically turns your travel itinerary into a stream of useful day-of-travel information. (more…)

No one likes to think of the unexpected.

And that’s especially true when you have a holiday to look forward to.

Bad news: as travel insurers we know that sometimes things go wrong on holiday. Good news: spending a few minutes planning at home before you jet off will help make sure you stay safe and enjoy a memorable, hassle-free holiday. Just the way it should be.

Here are some free online resources that will help. (more…)

Whatever your reason for travelling abroad, you’re sure to want a trouble free trip. Many of the things that go wrong for travellers can be prevented or made less stressful by taking a few simple precautions, such as those recommended by the FCO.

Here’s why you really should know about the FCO before you next go on holiday.

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Everyone dreams of their perfect holiday. But sometimes it’s hard to know where to start to make sure your getaway is the memorable and enjoyable break it should be. In this guest post, renowned luxury travel blogger Ana Silva O’Reilly from mrsoaroundtheworld.com reveals her top travel tips for hassle-free holidays. As she explains, sometimes preparing the best getaways means beginning the planning long before your plane is due to start thundering down the runway.

When it comes to travelling, I seriously do not consider myself to be a risk taker. I like my holidays. I like them a lot – and I will pretty much do everything I can to ensure I make the most of them.

Being organised could be one of my best personality traits. I say “could be” as sometimes it doesn’t work brilliantly – but more about that later!

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Who doesn’t love taking a few snaps on their holidays? Exactly. This week’s World First Weekly Wander is a photography special and sees our social media man, Tristan Rothwell, offer a few of his specialist tips as he scours the web for the best new travel photography blog posts.

Take it away, Tristan!

Greetings travellers! It’s time for our weekly catch up on the web’s hottest new travel content. After revving the engines with The Mongol Rally last week, this week we’re shifting focus to one thing that 99.9% of us do on our travels: photography.

I’m a keen photographer and have been for several years. I shoot mainly digital with a sprinkling of 35mm and medium format thrown in for good measure. But with the recent purchase of a shiny white iPhone 4, my photographic weapon of choice has changed a little!

The iPhone is with me at all times. I photograph everything, much to the annoyance of those around me. With travel firmly in mind I thought we could look at some recent travel photography articles that will hopefully inspire and instruct you in the art of the travel photograph.

But first I thought I’d offer a few tips of my own that I think will help you to get better shots and become a better photographer. Maybe.

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Zoë Dawes – aka The Quirky Traveller – is a travel writer.  She was recently voted Britain’s Best Travel Blogger and her website www.thequirkytraveller.com was voted in the Top 10 Inspiring Travel Websites 2010. We asked Zoë to give us a few ideas for brilliant places to visit. We never guessed that it would be good old Blighty that would take the top spot. But there it is. And Zoë really does know what she’s talking about.

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For many of us, going on holiday is one of those rare times when you can settle into a deckchair and get stuck into a really good book. It’s a glorious indulgence isn’t it? Once you know that everything, including the travel insurance, is in order you can begin to relax.

I love reading and adore books so I’ve spent many trips hauling piles of novels around with me. On one trip, to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bali I endured a couple of months with three volumes of Indian epic ‘A Suitable Boy’ in my rucksack. They must have weighed over a kilo but I just couldn’t bear to be parted from them. What a fool I was. But then again, they hadn’t invented e-readers yet!

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July 4th 2011

Busy day today? Too stretched to catch up on the best in travel news and writing? Manic Monday making it impossible to manage those blog feeds? Don’t panic. The World First Weekly Wander is our very own weekly breakdown of the best travel based web content. It’s compiled by our very own Tristan Rothwell ( @WFTristan for all you tweeters). So sit back and let him do all the work.

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