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Flights To Johannesburg
November 12th, 2010 by Graham McKenzie, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
The largest airport in South Africa is known as the Johannesburg OR Tambo International. It is also the hub of air transportation for Southern Africa. If you are flying to South Africa, then Jhb OR Tambo is the major airport, unless you made a booking for a flight to the Lanseria airport.
OR Tambo, earlier known as JHB International, carries about 20 million passengers annually. It accounts for nearly half the air traffic, coming in and going out of South Africa.
It’s hard to imagine that the bustling modern city of Johannesburg was once a small shanty town, full of miners with diamond dreams in their eyes. Not only is Johannesburg South Africa’s biggest city and a busy stronghold of business and trade, it’s also a good destination for a pleasure-seeking tourist.
Gold Reef City lets you take a sneak peep into the yesteryears of Johannesburg. Here, you are allowed to visit the mineshaft as and also the more contemporary modes of entertainment. To delve into the heritage of the area, visit the Lesedi Cultural Village, which is a mixed group consisting of Basotho, Xhosa, Zulu, and Pedi people. This visit can really be a great experience as you learn about their history and culture; and see then dance.
Tourist mostly head for sites like the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum, former home of Soweto and Nelson Mandela, and the Regina Mundi Church. In between your sightseeing trips, don’t miss catching a quick drink at any ‘shebeen’. The most popular of these is known as the Wandie’s Place.
The animals are housed in the Johannesburg Zoo without any bars. It has also gone far in reproducing the natural habitat for the animals. This is a good option if you can’t visit a natural reserve. Whilst you are in neighbourhood, you can rent out a dinghy and splurge some time lazing at the Zoo Lake to try bird watching, and if you feel hungry by the day end, stop at the Moyo’s, to enjoy the mouth-watering African cuisine followed by the finest African music of the city.
The Cradle of Humankind, one of World’s Heritage sites is situated just an hour’s drive from the city. It is yet another important place to see. Another attraction is the Sterkfontein Caves where in’47, Mrs. Ples, a 3 million year-old skull was originally discovered.
Johannesburg is great for shopping. It offers wonderful shopping experiences; arraying from urban malls like Sandton City, Nelson Mandela Square, and Hyde Park, to a several effervescent Oriental and African flea markets. Most tourists just cannot leave the place without purchasing some striking arts and crafts, which are found for sale, at these markets. Some of such items are bead work, local wire-work, traditional carvings, and fertility dolls.
The city specializes in food and wine. The local cuisine is highly influenced by the cultures of this place. You can get anything from Malaysian, Creole, African, Indian, French, Mexican, Italian, and Moroccan. Ensure that you have enough time at hand while visiting Johannesburg, so that you can explore all that this amazing city offers to tourists.
Graham McKenzie is the content syndication coordinator for South Arica?s leading Flight comparison & Booking portal, which includes Alitalia Airlines amongst others.
Air Canada
July 23rd, 2010 by Graham McKenzie, under Travel and Leisure. No Comments
In September’37, Air Canada commenced with the name of Trans-Canada Airlines. The first 50 minute flight was on a Lockheed L-10A. It flew from Vancouver to Seattle, carrying some mail and only two people. The airline became popular very soon and Trans-Canada Airlines became Canada’s national airline, by the year’64. Around the same time, it was renamed as Air Canada. In the year’89, Air Canada was privatized. Around the same time, the airlines also took over the Canadian Airlines International.
The airline is today more than 70 years and is largest airline providing passenger service in Canada. It carries approximately 32 million passengers yearly, to 170 varied destinations worldwide. Air Canada ranked as–th among the different airlines worldwide.
Air Canada has a belief that the customers must find the journey convenient and thus, it is the only airline, which provides special flight passes. These flight passes lets the travelers to handle their trip through the Internet. The travelers can obtain these flight passes either as the pre-purchased flight credits, or through a monthly subscription, which lets you enjoy unlimited flights service in some particular sectors.
The airline is one of the best in the world, and this is the feedback from none other than Air Canada’s own customers. Air Canada was given the title of the ‘Best Airline in North America’ by a survey that was conducted from August 2006 and June 2007. The Airline Industry Achievement Award was also presented to the airline in 2007 for being a market leader. Air Canada already has several ‘Best Airline in Canada and North America’ under its belt, awarded by readers of various travel magazines.
Besides working hard to keep their customers content and pleased, Air Canada also works hard enough to play their part in keeping the environment and nature preserved. They have initiated this process already by expending billions; and investing money in new aircrafts, which would save more energy. Air Canada has successfully reduced the emission level of their flights, by 28%. By the year 2020, the airline also has the ambition of bettering the efficiency of their fuel by 25%.
Following the green initiative, the airline has also launched several green programs in-house, and many recycling programs, on board. They have formed a team with an attention-grabbing program, called the ‘zerofootprint’. Through this program, the passengers are allowed to voluntarily equalize the carbon emissions from the flights, taken by them, by being involved in the reforestation program in the country.
Although Air Canada is one of the world’s largest airlines, it still needs the help of other airlines to provide its passengers with a suitably extensive network of destinations.
Graham McKenzie is the content syndication coordinator for South Arica?s leading Flight comparison & Booking portal, which includes Alitalia Airlines amongst others.