Another New Year flight sale – this time from budget airline Ryan Air.

Between now and midnight on Monday the 12th of January 2009, the Irish airline is offering backpackers one million seats for only £5 a pop, on one-way flights around the UK and Europe.

The offer includes general taxes and fares (always look out for the extras, like hold luggage and credit card fees) and is valid for travel between 19 January ’09 and 23 March ’09 (excluding applicable blackout periods).

Discounted flights can be found on selected days only: Mon – Thurs & after 1200pm Sat (subject to availability).

Handy travel resources for backpackers:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

If you’ve overdone it this silly season (spent too much, eaten far more than seems humanly possible), you might be in need of a bit of a break… one that’s light on the budget!

UK-based airline BmiBaby is offering backpackers and other cash-strapped travellers a fantastic January ‘detox’ deal: up to 50% off seats on all routes.

Seeing as the airline travels to a large number of UK and European destinations, you might just find yourself sunning your bod in Malaga, zooting down the slopes near Geneva or soaking up culture in the City of Lights.

Book by midnight 13th January 2009 (that’s about a week away) for travel between 30th Dec 2008 and 24th October 2009.

There are some blackout periods though, mainly over peak season times: the offer excludes 12-24 Feb ’09, 2-22 Apr ’09, 30 Apr – 7 May ’09, 20 May – 3 Jun ’09 and 16 Jul – 9 Sept ’09.

Handy travel resources for backpackers:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

The Sydney Festival will soon be underway in the cosmopolitan capital of New South Wales, Australia.

It’s a big summer arts festival featuring the best of local and international talent, and attracts around a million people every year (spread out over the many different venues and performances).

The programme is known for being fresh and modern, and a whole lot of fun.

And there’s even a whole bunch of free events, for those backpackers feeling somewhat out of pocket.

If you’re looking for the latest festival news, check out the regularly updated festival blog where you can get the latest news, photos, videos and submit your own reviews.

Sydney Festival 2009 runs from the 10th to the 31st of January.

Related (useful) resources for backpackers:
Sydney Festival – official Sydney Festival website
Sydney Festival MySpace page – Sydney Festival on MySpace
Sydney Festival blog – official festival blog
Hostels in Sydney – find and book cheap hostels online

It’s hot in the southern realms… real hot. Summer is on, and it’s time to party until the dawn. Then get up, dust off, and start all over again.

If that sounds like your style, then you’ll be uber keen for one of the biggest dance parties in the southern hemisphere – Summadayze, an annual celebration of dance music that travels around Australia and New Zealand.

The festival hits Melbourne on New Year’s Day, then heads to the Gold Coast for the 3rd of January 2009.

After that, it’s off to Perth (4 Jan) and, finally, Auckland on the 10th of Jan 2009.

Hard to think of a better way to kickstart the New Year, isn’t it?

Handy resources for backpackers:
Hostels in Australia – find and book cheap hostels online
Hostels in New Zealand – find and book cheap hostels online
Summadayze Festival – festival website

In a bid to recover from the negative disruptive effects of recent political uprest in Thailand, the country’s Tourism Authority has launched a ‘Super Deals’ website.

The website’s focus is on highlighting the ‘best deal packages’ on offer, and whilst backpackers generally aren’t the kinds of travellers looking for packaged deals, it’s worth taking a look to see if the current tourism downturn isn’t churning out some irresistible specials!

Handy travel resources for backpackers:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Backpackers spending time in England and looking for a cheap way to get around this festive season will be glad to hear that National Express has extended its £5 fare deal until the end of December.

The National coach operator has 25,000 coach seats priced from £5 one way, available between 17th and 31st December 2008.

All you have to do is look for them.

Handy travel resources for backpackers:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Ryan Air‘s Christmas flight seat sale is almost over.

For 2 more days, you can get hugely discounted flights for travel on local UK and European routes.

The offer applies to travel between the 6th of January 2009 and the 28th of February 2009 – and is subject to blackout periods (popular travel dates, holidays etc) and limited availability.

Book by Sunday 21 December 2008.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Everyone loves free travel, and budget-burdened backpackers are probably the keenest of keen beans for something like this: 3 months of world travel, all on someone else’s dime.

Yep, you read that right… 3 months, round the world, paid by someone other than you, your friends or an anonymous good samaritan (hmmm…).

Sound too good to be true? Well, stop being such a cynic and read on then, why don’t you…

STA Travel – the world’s largest student and youth travel organization – is searching for two people to travel the world on a three month, 15-country trip as the 2009 World Traveler Interns – all at STA Travel’s expense.

For the first time in the three-year program, two World Traveler Interns will be selected and they do not have to be students, just under 26 years of age. The selected interns will document their journey through a blog, videos and photos.

To enter, applicants must submit a video detailing why they should be selected as one of the 2009 World Traveler Interns. The more popular the video (determined by comments and views on popular online video sharing sites), the better the chances the applicant will be selected.

The top 20 applicants advance to the final round, where they will go through a phone interview with the judges. The final 10 will then submit an additional video giving the judges a tour of their hometown before the two World Traveler Interns are selected.

Entries will be accepted through the STA Travel World Traveler Internship Web site until March 8, 2009.

Wanna know where you’d be going?

The most adventurous journey in the history of the program starts out with two weeks in Fiji volunteering at a local school and enjoying a few vacation days.

The interns then head to Australia, India, Kenya and Tanzania, before heading to Berlin to sample Europe with stops including Poland, Denmark and Russia. The trip finishes with a backpacking adventure in Scotland and tour of all that Ireland has to offer.

If you’re spending this southern hemisphere summer cruising around Australia and are looking for a big party to get the new year off to a cracking start… you definitely want to get your well-travelled butt to Big Day Out 2009.

Big Day Out is one of the biggest music festivals in the southern realms, attracting almost 300,000 fun-loving revellers last time around…

During the second half of January, the popular festival tours Australia and New Zealand, stopping off in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast and Auckland and delivering entertainment on a grand scale. Bands performing this year include the Arctic Monkeys, The Ting Tings and the Prodigy, to name but a few.

And, something to look forward to in 2009 is Lilyworld’s Enchanted Garden:

Wander through the enchanted garden of Lilyworld and join the four green stooges Duckpond, Larry Kronick Jr, Heavy G and Christo as they take you on a journey thru topiary and into a lost psychedelic garden of unearthly delights.
In 2009 LILYWORLD is proud to present a green oasis of new musical genres and swinging styles. Enchanting and delighting bewildered individuals who dare to wander past this madness within the world that is , the BIG DAY OUT.

The merry men of the sherbet forest have been busy propagating a green oasis of buffoontrees, gagvines, goonflowers and oversized discopumpkins right in the heart of the BIG DAY OUT to freak-out and confuse lost souls.

Tickets cost $108 (New Zealand) or $132 (Australia), plus relevant booking and postage fees.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers

Midlands-based budget airline bmibaby is offering up to 40% off all routes from Birmingham, East Midlands, Cardiff and Manchester between January and October 2009.

This includes a whole host of fantastic summer destinations and new routes to Almeria and Menorca from East Midlands, Amsterdam and Toulouse from Manchester and Lisbon from Cardiff.

Plus, if you’re flying within the UK, there are also some great discounts on destinations like Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Jersey.

Sale ends midnight Tuesday 16th December 2008.

Travel resources backpackers might find useful:
Book hostels – book a hostel at thousands of locations around the world.
RTW flights – book your round-the-world flights at backpacking prices!
Travel Insurance – instant, cheap travel insurance for backpackers