Backpackers.com

A Few Announcements: Competition Winners And An Interview

Competition Winners
We have had quite a bunch of competitions and giveaways recently, and thought it was time to announce the winners (they’ve already been notified via email).

So, here goes:

The April Travel Quiz was won by Suleman Maniya from Karachi, Pakistan. His prize: 2× ISE Student Cards, 2× New York Passes, 2× On location tours and 2x tickets to the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in New York.

Stephen Briscoe from Shropshire (UK) won two tickets to the upcoming Knowsley Hall Music Festival, Anthony Tyler of Reading (UK) scored two tickets to Roskilde Festival 2007 and Georgina Mccarthy got her paws on passes for Newquay’s Beachbombing 2007.

Maili Tannbau (Estonia) and Jose Aguero (California, USA) both won a Student Jetpack for the destination of their choice.

If you’re feeling left out, best you check out our current competitions – May Travel Quiz (last day) and Wickerman Festival on the go, with more coming very soon!

An Interview
In other news, if you’re curious to know a little more about our beady-eyed editor, she was recently interviewed on InMyAllStars.com. It’s one of a series of interviews Timen’s putting together of various folks in the self-dubbed ‘travesphere’.

Other interviewees include Terah Shelton of Traveler’s Pen, Ian Mackenzie of Brave New Traveler (one of our favourite travel blogs), and Mark Ashley of Upgrade: Travel Better.

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3 Days Left To Enter The February Travel Quiz (And Win A Stashsafe)!

So, back in February we announced the start of the February Travel Quiz.

Well, this is a reminder that there isn’t a lot of time left to enter the draw for the uber cool Stashsafe, courtesy of Pacsafe, leaders in international travel security.

In case you missed it, StashSafe 100 is an anti-theft hip pack with eXomesh® Slashguard front and bottom panels, a slashproof and lockable belt, lockable zippers and the unique ability to lock to secure features.

And that’s not all, folks. The StashSafe 100 has 3 zippered pockets packed with clever internal organisation as well as a padded, breathable backing for maximum comfort.

To enter the draw for this cool travel prize, take a look here and name two of the Stashsafe 100’s anti-theft features.

Use our contact form to send your answers and contact details to the ‘February Travel Quiz’ by the 15th of March 2007. First correct entry drawn, wins.

Good luck, guys!

_The fine print: competition closes 15 March 2007; winner will be notified by email; if the winner cannot be contacted within 30 days of the prize draw, another winner will be selected.

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This Week’s Travel Highlights: 11/03/07

Here we are, again, at the end of another week… Almost equinox time, which means the seasons are about to shift gear. Bye bye summer in the southern end of the world, and hello sunshine up north.

Herewith, without further ado (or additional astronomical talk), the week’s highlights on the Backpackers Blog:

• 5 Cheap Methods to Safeguard Travel Gear – a useful guide to keeping your gear safe (and dry).
• Hotels, Hostels Or College Dorms? – the pros and cons of staying in hostels, dorm rooms and hotels.
• The Wine Rack: How To Hide Your Booze AND Look Like Pamela Anderson – an all-new bust-enhancing version of the booze-concealing Beerbelly.
• Travel Buddies: Do We Want Them, Really? – to travel solo or not to travel solo?
• Who Needs Books When There Are Cellphones About… – books on cellphones, the answer to travelling light?

UNDER DISCUSSION:

• What 3 ‘unnecessary’ items could you not leave home without? – what are your top three travel items?
• Going to NYC and Chicago – Eddie’s headed to New York City and Chicago later this month… looking for someone willing to show him around.
• Travel Buddy for NZ – Irish backpacker Steve is headed to New Zealand (for a year) and is looking for travel buddies.
• backpacking europe with europass to everywhere – Jess is off to Europe, Europass in hand, and there are plenty other backpackers looking to hook up with her.
• Thailand in rainy season-still worth it? – Mariella’s headed for Thailand in July/August (rainy season). Wondering if it’s still worth going.

Check out the latest forum posts now and add your two cents’ worth.

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Splashy Fen 2007: Ticket Winners

We’ve just held the draw for the Splashy Fen Festival 2007.

And the double-tickets go to… (drum roll, please…):

• Kyle Lass
• Michael Kuijken

Well done, guys – and enjoy the festival!

Splashy Fen is South Africa’s longest-running music festival and 2007 sees a great selection of the country’s top artists, such as The Parlotones, Bed On Bricks, Chris Chameleon, Rory Eliot and Sitter (the list goes on).

Held on the Splashy Fen Farm (about 2 hours drive from Durban), the hugely popular weekend festival kicks off on Thursday 5 April 2007, rolling all the way through the Easter Weekend to Monday 9 April 2007.

Posted in Competitions & Giveaways, Festivals, Site Announcements | 2 Comments »

This Week’s Travel Highlights

Things move fast in the world of travel, so if you missed anything on Backpackers.com, check out this week’s highlights for a recap:

• Tales From The Road: Planning A Trip To India – our very first guest contributor makes his debut on Backpackers.com (here’s to many more!)
  
• Splashy Fen Ticket Giveaway – we give away two double passes to this popular South African festival.
• Apple-Picking In New Zealand: Instant Jobs For Backpackers – shortage of apple-pickers + surplus of apples = instant jobs for backpackers.
• Going To Glastonbury Festival? Pre-Registration Required This Year – if you’re planning on going to the Glastonbury Festival this year, you’re going to have to pre-register before 28 February, or you won’t get tickets.
• New In Travel Forums: Student Travel Writers Wanted – a travel magazine looking for budding travel writers looks in on our travel forums.
• Cool Site: Saving For Travel – tips and tricks for saving up for your next trip.
• Cool Site: Ball Of Dirt.com – another social networking, travel-mapping, journal-writing website to add to the growing list.
• Travel Photo Of The Week – Not Exact (But Close Enough) Mileage Post, Alaska – the latest in our series of featured travel photos from around the world.

TRAVEL FORUMS:

• Europe Jobs – suggestions for jobs in Europe 2007.
• good party places in europe during summer – know of good places to party?
• looking for a website – ongoing discussion about an elusive travel website… do you know which one Robin is looking for?
• travel for shy people – is it hard to travel alone if you’re shy?
• travel buddy round oz – looking for travel buddies in Australia.
• fruit picking travel buddy – anyone up for fruit-picking and travel?
• Travelbuddy India march 07 – looking for travel buddies for India next month.
• El Encierro! Two week travel in spain Approx 7/4-7/18 – the Running of the Bulls isn’t far off now, start planning soon!

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This Week’s Travel Highlights

Things move fast in the world of travel, so if you missed anything on Backpackers.com, check out this week’s highlights for a recap:

• Sweden Goes Virtual – Sweden creates a virtual embassy in Second Life.
• Travel Photo Of The Week – ‘Ganga is the Lifeline of Indian Culture’ – our latest cool travel photo from the Backpackers Travel Photo Pool on Flickr.
• This Is The Life: The World’s Greatest Experiences? – find out what ‘zorbing’ is and what other great experiences you haven’t heard about yet.
• Win Tickets to Splashy Fen 2007: South Africa’s Longest Running Music Festival – we’re giving away two double-passes to one of South Africa’s coolest music festivals.
• Just Announced: A New Addition To Britain’s Summer Festival Calendar – The Knowsley Hall Music Festival – an exciting new festival coming up in England’s summertime.
• A Working Holiday With A Difference: Selling Sex To Earn Travel Money – how some travellers find unusual ways to earn their travel money.
• Tripmates Becomes ‘TripUp’ – our friends at social networking site, Tripmates, have a makeover.

There we go! Now that you’ve caught up we hope you enjoy the week ahead.

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January Travel Quiz

Europe’s summer season will be getting underway in a few month’s time and many backpackers will be planning their trips to that part of the world.

If you’re one of those intrepid explorers, and you’re saving every penny for your Great Adventure, you’re going to love our January Travel Quiz prize…

We’re giving away not one, not two, but three prizes – all to one backpacker, and all to the power of two.

That’s two discount cards from ISE Cards, two return tickets on the Engelberg-Titlis Rotair cable car, and (don’t say we don’t love you) two return tickets on the Eurostar (Paris-London return, or visa versa).

All you have to do to go into the draw is to tell us who is eligible for an ISE Card. (hint).

Use our contact form to send your answers to the ‘January Travel Quiz’ by the 15th of February 2007. First correct entry drawn, wins.

Good luck, guys!

The fine print: this prize is valid for one year from date of draw; winner will be notified by email; prize is for tickets and student cards only, not for any other transport other than specified.

Posted in Competitions & Giveaways, Site Announcements | 2 Comments »

November Travel Quiz Draw - Here’s Who Won…

So, we’ve now held the draw for the November Travel Quiz and are happy to announce that the two lucky backpackers with the first correct entries drawn are Ted Stubbington and Tenq Wai Meng.

They’ve both won a Flaresafe, the revolutionary gadget that combines a smoke detector, distress alarm and LED torch into one (it’s on our list of great gifts for backpackers). Their prizes will be delivered to them shortly!

Thank you to all of you who entered – the competition was a big success. Keep your eyes peeled for the next Travel Quiz, coming up in the next few days… we have something from Pacsafe that we’ll be giving away.

The latest Travel Quiz is always announced in the latest edition of our travel newsletter, From The Road, so if you want to be one of the first to know, why not sign up now?

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September Travel Quiz Winner

So in September we had a Pacsafe Stashsafe to give away to one lucky backpacker.

And that lucky backpacker happens to be Tony Lee. His prize (an awesome anti-theft hip pack) is on its way to him right now, courtesy of travel quiz sponsor, Pacsafe).

If you missed out on this one, don’t forget to sign up for the November edition of From The Road, the monthly travel newsletter from Backpackers.com.

You don’t have to sign up to enter, but it does mean we’ll remind you when the next competition comes along!

Those of you who haven’t entered the October Travel Quiz yet, why not go ahead and do so right now. There are two ISE Cards and two free bus-tours of London with The Original Tour just waiting to be snapped up.

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October Travel Quiz: See London With The Original Tour And ISE Cards

The October edition of our travel newsletter, From The Road, heads out into cyberspace today, marking the start of the October Travel Quiz.

That means it’s time to give away stuff again, and this time around we’re giving two lucky backpackers the chance to win a cost-saving student discount card from ISE Cards plus a free tour of London, with The Original London Sightseeing Tour.

To enter, find the answers to the two questions below (handy hints provided if you’re stumped), and use our contact form to send us your answers (and your details).

1. In how many languages is tour commentary provided (including English)? (hint)
2. What medical benefits does the ISE Card provide? (hint)

Good luck!

Draw date: 15 November 2006. Your prize will be shipped to you by the sponsor (ISE Cards).

PS: you can sign up here to get your very own copy of the next edition of From The Road.

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