Ever dreamed of packing up everything and moving to another country? Here are the most livable cities in the world, according to a study by The Economist.
21.07.2023 - 07:45 / roughguides.com
Christmas traditions are weird worldwide and we've found some of the strangest. Check out giant straw goats in Sweden and festive KFC in Japan. Discover pooing nativity figures in Spain (they're a thing) and meet the 12 Yule Lads of Iceland. Happy Christmas Weirdness!
Heard of Julbocken? It's the Yule Goat you can see every Christmas if you visit Gävle in Sweden. It's enormous, made entirely of straw and built in Gävle town centre each December. But if you want to admire the goat, be quick. Since 1966, arsonists have burned down every Julbocken ever made.
How long the legendary goat survives is now a national news story in Sweden. Yet its infamy never deters the arsonists, and Julbocken always burns. If you want to go see, Gävle is north of Stockholm and you should think about staying at Järnvägshotellet.
The giant straw Julbocken Yule Goat in Gävle Sweden © Studio Bankvalvet/Shutterstock
Advertising shapes Christmas, for proof you only need to look at KFC in Japan. The country might not celebrate Christmas, yet oddly enough, the Japanese have a tradition of eating KFC on Christmas Day. How did that happen?
Back in the 1970s some tourists to Japan missed Christmas turkey so much they looked around for a substitute and landed on KFC. When KFC heard about this, of course they saw an opportunity, and set about marketing the trend.
For some reason KFC for Christmas really appealed to the Japanese, and today KFC sales all over Japan rocket on 25 December. Families even book their seasonal feasts in advance and KFC drive-thru are packed on Christmas Day.
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Do Christmas in Catalunya and discover an earthy twist at Christmas markets all over the region. To spot this weird Spanish tradition, check out stalls with nativities and look for “el caganer” among the usual figures.
Loosely translated as, the crapper, 'el caganer' is a ceramic model of a pooing Catalan peasant. The figure is usually squatting and hard to miss, because without a prominent caganer, no true Spanish nativity is complete.
El caganer have been about for centuries and now there are even celebrity versions — everyone from Trump to Lady Gaga has been immortalised as a pooing peasant. The origin is uncertain, but one theory is that el caganer is «fertilising» the nativity to guarantee a prosperous year ahead.
Visit Barcelona at Christmas. It's Spain's el caganer capital and where to see nativities in abundance at La Fira de Santa Llúcia. This is the city's best loved and biggest Christmas market and
Ever dreamed of packing up everything and moving to another country? Here are the most livable cities in the world, according to a study by The Economist.
When it comes to the world’s most popular destinations, two travel hubs have been in a tug-of-war match for the title of ‘most-visited’ over the past few years.
Looking for a new museum to add to your travel to-do list? TripAdvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) has released the Travelers’ Choice Top 25 Museums of 2018, including the top 10 worldwide and the top 10 in the United States, with some surprising frontrunners. The findings also highlight bookable ways to see each winner—think VIP tours and scavenger hunts—with some offering the added perk of allowing you to skip the lines to get in.
I don’t suppose that most travelers choose their trip destinations based on a country’s happiness index. On the other hand, if they knew that Country A scored near the top of the happiness index and Country B scored near the bottom, it seems probable they’d be inclined to book their flights to Country A. Who wants to spend their vacation among unhappy people?
AirHelp, the online service that files complaints against airlines on behalf of passengers entitled to compensation for air delays or cancellations, knows a thing or two about air travel. Because it’s hard for the average person to understand air passenger rights and pursue a legal claim when they’ve been wronged, AirHelp is always going toe-to-toe with airlines and airports—and reveals once a year which ones that treat their passengers for the better (or worse).
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If you want to stay at the best hotel in the United States, head to the French Quarter Inn in Charleston, South Carolina. And if you’re looking for the best bargain hotel stay in the world, it’s in a small town in northern Spain. That’s according to TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice Awards, which just shared the best hotel ratings for multiple categories heading into 2019.
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Review and booking website Tripadvisor (SmarterTravel’s parent company) is out with its annual list of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. It’s dominated by iconic attractions, some of which you’re guaranteed to wait in a two-hour line for unless you can purchase skip-the-line passes. It’s also worth noting that almost every attraction on the list is in Europe.
For the sixth year in a row, Finland has claimed the top spot in the World Happiness Report. The annual report, compiled by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, surveys residents in over 150 countries to determine which nations are the happiest.
Germany’s thriving capital has been voted the tenth coolest city in the world thanks to its cutting-edge art scene, wild nightlife, multiculturalism, incredible museums and rebirth into the dynamic cosmopolitan powerhouse it is today. And as each day goes by, Berlin seems to only get cooler.
Rum is history in Puerto Rico. This island is the leading producer of rum (ron) in the Caribbean and there were once hundreds of small distilleries here.