Oriental Asia

Happy Sunday everyone! It’s the month of May and it’s Bank Holiday weekend, so do you know what that means? MAYhem! when STA Travel hits MAYhem, our already brilliant hot travel deals get even more brilliant. Brilliant! Lets see what the Deal Reel spins up for us this week…

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I’m very, very excited about this week’s Ask the Experts. Why? Because we’ve got another new Expert on the panel! And you know what that means: new knowledge, new experiences, and new ideas. Welcome to Claire from STA Travel Brighton, who joins Sarah from our Covent Garden store, and Paul from STA Travel Aberdeen in our all new line up.

We’ve got a great question for Claire’s first week, one that should resonate with all you worker bees out there:

I want to do a round the world trip, but I can only get a month off work. How can I make the most of my time away? I definitely want to go to Australia, but am open to ideas for other destinations. Jennie in London

Ah, I know the feeling, Jennie. Experts, can you give Jen some light at the end of her tunnel? Can she go on a round the world trip AND keep her job? Let’s find out.

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Here at STA Travel HQ, we’ve been hearing a lot of talk about Japan lately. Not only do we seem to be getting more enquiries about travel there, the Land of the Rising Sun has captured the hearts of a few of us in the office, too.

It’s easy to see why. From sushi to sumo to shopping to loads of amazing things that don’t begin with ‘s’, Japan has a lot to offer. In fact, we think it has so much to offer, that we’re going to give it a big High Five.

 Head to the bright lights of Japan | Image by kevin dooley

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Welcome back to the Spotlight, the feature that gets to the bottom of what really goes on on our amazing group adventure tours. This week, Erin Rigg, Round the World Expert at STA Travel Portsmouth, is ready and raring to tell us all about a 9-day tour that will take you the length and breadth of Japan called, appropriately enough, Japan Express.

Fresh sushi at 5AM, warm sake at 5 PM, perfectly marbleised grilled Hida beef, okonomiyaki, taco yaki(octopus balls) and wasabi ice cream! Oh yes, I love Japan.

Then there’s domesticated deer sniffing their way through your backpack, trying to scoff up your coffee-flavoured Pocky; black hard-boiled eggs, cooked in the sulphur pits in the shadows of Mt. Fuji; and gothic Lolita girls hanging out in trend-tastic Harajuku. All a little bit weird and wonderful, and just a few of the sites you’ll see on the Japan Express tour.

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There are few things more fantastic than a mug of hot tea. As soon as you read that, your brain flicked over the image of a glossy white mug, filled with that familiar golden brown hue. Simple. Glorious. Aching to be introduced to your biscuit of choice.

Here in Britain, we’ve enjoyed traditional tea breaks for well over 200 years, it’s become a hero for Anglophiles around the world, and in true hero style, soon after it arrived on our foggy shores it achieved something quite extraordinary: it bumped ale, and then gin, into the sidelines, and became Britain’s best-loved beverage.

Three cheers for tea!

Is there anything more lovely, than this? | Image by KnitStorm

But where on earth can such an elegant drink come from? Although tea originated in China over 5000 years ago (I’ll spare you the war-torn history lesson), the modern truth is that it now comes from all over the place.

These places all have one thing in common: they are all beautiful places to visit. So in ode to this remarkable drink, we’ve rounded up no less than thirteen of the world’s best tea plantations for you to peruse.
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