Travel News: What’s the Cheeriest City in Britain?

With just under two weeks left of 2013 and five days to go until the big day itself (that’s Christmas in case you haven’t heard!), despite the holiday season being upon us, there’s still plenty going on across the travel spectrum.

From a seaside slip up in the name of social media to a real life Jurassic Park, we’ve outlined some of the week’s top travel stories.

Smile! You’re in Belfast!

Which part of the UK do you reckon is the most content? According to a recent survey, it’s Belfast. Northern Ireland’s capital was dubbed Britain’s happiest via a new app released by Jetpac city guides. The new software tracked the average sizes of smiles via the Instagram accounts of people from 40 different cities around the UK. As for Britain’s frowniest places, Salford gets the award – with Bath and Luton not far behind.

Pier Pressure

A Taiwan tourist made waves this week after accidently falling off Australia’s St Kilda pier while on holiday. But it’s not just her unlucky tumble that’s making headlines, it’s the cause of the unexpected dip that’s got tongues across the globe wagging – as apparently the traveller (who couldn’t swim) walked right off the dock while checking her Facebook newsfeed. That’s taking the word ‘mobile’ to a whole new level!

Pre-Oz-storic Australia

Last week, an Australian billionaire opened the ‘world’s largest dinosaur park’ in Queensland. The grounds (which lie along the country’s Sunshine Coast) is home to 160 different models of life-sized prehistoric creatures – with some of them featuring moving limbs and lifelike sounds. At £55 entry for a family of four, we don’t know about you, but we’re roaring to go.

Hometown Glory

Finally, TripAdvisor has announced their site’s most reviewed destinations of 2013. London takes the top spot with almost half a million reviews written about the UK’s largest city this year alone. While runners up include Rome, Paris and New York City, we think the findings are just another reason to visit our capital.