One of the contest sponsors of GetYourGuide’s Tour de Suisse is Bettmeralp. Many people have asked us about where Bettmeralp is located and what you can do there, which is why we decided to release a special Blog post on this great place. Bettmeralp is located in Valais and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.

The sun-spoiled village of Bettmeralp is situated at 2,000 meters (6,561 ft) above sea level and is a perfect holiday destination, as you can combine nature and sports. Whether you take varied hiking tours in summer or enjoy unforgettable skiing days in winter, Bettmeralp, the family-friendly and car-free village, provides the perfect framework for carefree and relaxing days far away from routine and the hectic pace of the world.

A very special point to Bettmeralp is that families are really a core element of the philosophy. Bettmeralp aims to provide a vacation according to the needs of kids and their parents or accompanying persons. Welcoming families is at the heart of what they do and is not just a marketing gag. It is also supported by the undersigned tourism service providers and by local residents. In line with the needs of the families at their vacation destination, Bettmeralp recognizes the quality criteria that are required by each resort, and which are checked periodically by independent experts. They guarantee to stick to the quality criteria and constantly endeavor to improve family offers and incorporate new ideas.

If you are looking for a good place to spend your winter vacation at – check it out! There are several good deals for hotels and ski passes on the Bettmeralp website.

If you wonder what mountains are depicted on the picture, here is the answer: The big dark wall in the middle is the Eiger Nordwand (famous for being one of the most difficult climbs in the Alps). Right behind it, you can see the Mönch, which is another 4000+ glacier. To the right of this great duo, you see the Jungfrau, arguably the most famous mountain in the Bernese Alps. The lake in the next picture is the Brienzer See and the city you see further down the valley is Interlaken.

I hope I could stimulate some sentiment of desire to go hiking. There are no words on how beautiful some of the sceneries here are. We already have some great tours to enjoy the scenery on GetYourGuide. In the high end there are the plane and helicopter rides, which allow you to take the bird’s perspective on some of the worlds most gorgeous sights. For those who like altitudes, but rather want to be a little bit more athletic, there are great paragliding tours (e.g. Gleitschirmschule or Aerocenter). Apart from that you will find some canyioning, rafting and other tours. Have fun looking around and enjoy those great days of summer. I hope they won’t end…

Tens of billions of dollars have been spent, hundreds of thousands of police, soldiers and volunteers have been mobilised, and more than 4 billion people are expected to follow the Olympics on TV. With an event of such magnitudes coming up, let’s take a look at some of the other superlatives surrounding the Beijing Olympics so far.

Most surprising: Olympic village facilities. There are many things to love about China but clean facilities is not usually one of them. Surely, the authorities gave their all but to hear statements such as “best Olympic village I have visited” from Norbert Littkopf, a six-time Olympic Games attendee and coach of the German female judo team, is still positively surprising.

Most problematic: Weather and environment. Be it the terrible heat or the still-not-so-great air quality, athletes are going to have a hard time beating world records under these conditions. Despite adding more and long overdue subway lanes and implementing an odd/even faceplate rule for cars, there are still too many cars on the road.

Biggest fear: Rain on the day of the opening ceremony. Despite sophisticated chemical gadgetry to prevent rainfall one can’t help but to imagine the disastrous consequences a major downpour would have on the multi-million dollar publicity event directed by movie director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, Hero).

Under most pressure: Liu Xiang. Nowadays you can’t walk 100m in Beijing without seeing the face of 2004 Athens man’s 110m hurdles winner and the bearer of the hope of an entire nation. For a country without a single Olympic track and field gold medal until 2004, Liu Xiang was a first. Add the two facts that his world record was just beaten this year by Cuban national Dayron Robles (12.87s) and that Li Xiang himself has failed to break 13 seconds this year, you probably wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now. Fortunately, he’s not only fast but also a smart guy: he doesn’t read the news and when interviewed about his goals for the Games, he said he just wants to “have some fun.”

Most disappointing: Inbound travel. Tight visa regulations have caused a lack of foreign travelers. This has forced hotels and tour operators to bring prices back to sane levels.

Most innovative: Style guides. Chinese are not famous for their sense of aesthetics, so this latest action by the Chinese government to distribute an etiquette and style guide to over 4 million Chinese households is both innovative and, most likely, futile.

Most cheesy: Chinese flags on cars. A friend of mine derived a simple rule of thumb: the cheaper the car, the more eye-catching the flag will be. Whether that is due to a correlation of income level and nationalistic fervour, or merely for decorative reasons, I do not know.

Most hopeful: Sports. Now that the political and journalistic overtures are coming to a close, I hope the Olympics Games will finally shift its focus towards its original purpose, the celebration of sports. And lucky me who got tickets for the track and field finals.

The Beijing Olympics are coming up in August. With thousands of travelers flocking to Beijing this summer, we want to use this opportunity to spread GetYourGuide in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities.

Back in 2007 we traveled to China ourselves and experienced first hand how local guides could make traveling easier and more fun. Therefore we are very excited about coming back to China and creating our presence here.

Exactly one month before the start of the Olympics and with the help of our Beijing team, we have launched an online competition for the best tour in China. We have also started contacting local guides and agencies in various Chinese cities. With all this activity, we’re looking forward to a very exciting summer!

In particular we work with professional partners in the field. A good example of a Guide company that offers a wide variety of high quality tours is Hydroalpin. The German school based in Lenggries is lead by Franz Perchtold, who is an experienced mountain guide himself and member of the Verband Deutscher Ski- und Bergführer (German Association of Ski and Mountain Guides). His tours range from Hiking and Climbing to Canyoning Tours. Over the next months we plan to put a lot of attention and weight on Alpinism and will support Guides with corresponding offers. If you have questions, please contact us: feedback@getyourguide.com

Yet, there certainly is a highly talented crowd of people out there that continously works on infecting more and more people with the so called ‘Fly Fishing Virus’. GetYourGuide has decided to team up with the European Fly Fishing scene and actively promote their purpose. So what is Fly Fishing all about?

Fly fishing is a distinct and ancient angling method, most renowned as a method for catching trout and salmon, but employed today for a wide variety of species including pike, bass, panfish, and carp, as well as marine species, such as redfish, snook, tarpon, bonefish and striped bass.

The fly angler uses a rod longer and lighter than those used for cast and spin fishing. Fly rods can be as short as 2 m (6 ft) long in freshwater fishing and up to 4.5 m (15 ft) long for two-handed fishing for salmon or steelhead. The average rod for fresh and salt water is around 9 feet (2.7 m) in length and weighs from 3 –5 ounces, though a recent trend has been to lighter, shorter rods for fishing smaller streams.

The type of cast used when fishing varies according to the conditions. The most common cast is the forward cast, where the angler whisks the fly into the air, back over the shoulder until the line is nearly straight, then forward, using primarily the forearm. The objective of this motion is to “load” (bend) the rod tip with stored energy, then transmit that energy to the line, resulting in the fly line (and the attached fly) being cast for an appreciable distance.

Fly Fishing techniques are very variable from here and there are many videos and tutorials on how you can effortless cast the line and display very natural movements.

Fishing is a great outdoor experience and a perfect opportunity to get away from your every-day aquarium.  If you are interested in getting high quality instructions in Fly Fishing – whether you are a beginner or a pro – check our Fly Fishing Guides. Particularly I would like to point your attention to the great tours from  Chris Bienert’s Flyfishingaustria and C. Menz and U.Rieder. We will keep you updated on new Fly Fishing Tours.