We don’t like...

Spark’s new $20-a-week overseas mobile package. With a little light use of maps and social media, one Travel staffer in Germany was 80 per cent through the 500MB data. His companion's Vodafone package was still going strong. Tell us what you like and don’t like in the world of travel. Email travel@nzherald.co.nz Welcome, friends Feeding off the backlash against mass tourism in some European cities, Bruno Gomes has founded We Hate Tourism to let people get to know Lisbon by meeting locals. His team regards themselves as “urban diplomats” and use some of the money from their off-beat tours to give back to the community — taking children and the elderly for free tours, cleaning streets and neigbourhoods and painting houses. Unlike other tourist guides, when he brings people to great places, he says: “Tell your friends and those you love, but don’t put it on TripAdvisor. What I say is, travel responsibly or stay home.” Big disappointment? Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway has been rated the country’s most overrated attraction by underwhelmed tourists. In an Irish Times poll, one disgruntled sightseer said: “It was a very long walk for a small gathering of rocks.” Another said of the Mona Lisa: “I walked by her umpteen times. Her sad face combined with its tiny size didn’t live up to the history books.” The Leaning Tower of Pisa was “wonky” (why most people go to see it, surely?). One visitor suggested photographers at the Sphinx “use Photoshop to blow it up” in size. Paris, natch Tourists are returning to Paris in record numbers. Hoteliers registered 16 million guests for the first half of this year — the highest in a decade. It’s a very different picture from last year, when the French capital was reeling after November 13 attacks that killed 130 people. The sharpest rise came from the US, China and Japan, up 20 per cent, 29.5 per cent and 40.5 per cent respectively. British holidaymakers are reported to have dipped by 1.7 per cent following Brexit and the pound’s decline. Stoatally different Here’s something you won’t find on TripAdvisor, and Travel Wires reckons Tourism Victoria is missing out on a winner. About this time every year the town of Kyneton, 80km northwest of Melbourne, holds its Daffodil Arts Fair. The main attraction is not the flowers or the paintings: it’s the ferret races. More than 80 of the little mammals weave and sprint their way through metres of pipes and, this being Australia, betting is encouraged. Founder and local race caller Eric Scoble says he got the idea watching ferrets run down drainpipes as they chased rabbits. “They’ve got stamina, some of them can race for up to five hours at a time” — like his three-time champion, Scobey. — travel@nzherald.co.nz