If you’re planning a visit to Belfast, then it makes very good sense to nip over to Dublin. In the same way, if you’re spending some time in Dublin, then why not breeze over to Belfast to see what the northern landscape has to offer.

 
Dublin is a chic and cosmopolitan capital, recently voted the 16th most expensive city in the world. It is full of history and enviable architecture, much of it from 18th century Georgian era. It also boasts Trinity College, Dublin, an epic-looking building with an impressive statue of Oscar Wilde at its gates.

Grafton Street is the best place for the upper-end of the high street shops. For the more designer Dublin, there is Harvey Nichols, or perhaps Lara’s, which can be found on the appropriately named Dame Lane, offering chic-couture at affordable prices. Dublin’s size means there is a lot going on in its diverse nightlife. There are places such as Amsterdam Beatclub for retro rockabilly and swing, the famous Temple Bar for lots of different club nights and bars like Cafe en Seine for cocktails and art-deco romance.

Hard on the heels of Dublin, Belfast has become a city that’s awash with clubs, bars; hip record fashion boutiques and diverse music venues. Parts of the older city were bombed during the political troubles, but some of the old architecture remains – such as Queens University – a gothic building to rival Trinity College and there is The Crown Saloon, a small but perfectly formed pub in the centre of town (and one the city’s most bombed buildings). It dates back to 1885, and famously quaint secluded booths for drinking known as ‘snugs’.

You can walk around the streets pretty easily, or get a taxi at a very decent cost. Once you’re there, you’ll find the university area acts as a good central point, with a fair few bars lining up the bohemian Botanic Avenue. In the town’s centre you’ll find the regular high street shops and a few up market boutiques like Michelle O Doherty’s, which has extravagant couture housed in an old Georgian building.

As well as The Crown Saloon, Belfast has got a range of bars that are swanky and glam like Milk, or there are the more grass-roots clubs like Whites Tavern, for kitsch, rock n roll in a living-room setting.

If you are debating the two, then you can very easily venture to both. There are flights that go straight to each city and once you’re there you Dublin or Belfast is an easy drive from either landmark. Flights to Dublin can be booked with Fly Arann, and helpfully, there are flights to Belfast scheduled too.

As with all travels, remember to organise your travel insurance before you go – check out a few websites like AA Travel for different types of insurance to suit your trip and keep you and your belongings safe and sound around town.

Suspended from the bottom of Africa and dividing the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean, Cape Town has long been South Africa’s cosmopolitan capital of culture and adventure, standing out as having a truly global perspective.

In the vibrant city centre, with it’s parks, boutiques and commercial districts, gives way to the sprawl of suburbia further inland and, shifting further down the cape, a string of beautiful fishing harbours and villages; leading, ultimately, to the spectacular Cape Point. The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve is home to an astonishing menagerie of flora and fauna, with troops of baboons patrolling the cliffs, seals frolicking in the surf, and even penguins waddling about the beaches. A trip out to Seal Island will provide a close-up view of the seals, and the possibility of sighting a monstrous Great White shark in their favourite hunting area.

South Africa’s difficult history is well documented and remembered in many ways throughout Cape Town, including the preservation of the Robben Island penitentiary, where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years. The cosmopolitan populous encourages a welcoming and particularly tourist-friendly atmosphere, and there are plenty of home-away-from-home comforts for the world-weary traveller. There is also a large amount of catering for the backpacking/adventure tourism group, with a dizzying list of water-sports, trekking, white-water rafting and safari-ing all available within the vicinity.

The blooming wine industry has also become a large tourist attraction locally, with guided tours of the vineyards in Stellenbosch and Franshhoek offering a chance to sip and taste the local produce in a truly astonishing landscape.

Accommodation in Cape Town ranges from inner-city hotels to high-class villas and private homes with stunning ocean views. The sheer range of activities, views and atmospheres conjured by Cape Town and the surrounding countryside is enough to warrant an extended trip. It is one of the most beautiful and optimistic cities in the world, and it fulfils a truly modern vision of the natural and the technological, the old and the new.

When travelling on a budget, take a look at HostelBookers.com for a substantial directory of hostels. If you’re going all out adventure, or even if you’re not, then it’s important to get travel insurance, for which Go Travel come as highly recommended.