What’s hot: February 2012

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month, Spain and skiing holidays both get a big thumbs up, but readers are advised to think twice before booking a bungee jump in Zambia or getting a tattoo in Bali

Top 10 Valentine’s breaks

Boutique hotel experts Mr & Mrs Smith have sifted through the schmaltz to find Valentine’s packages that will really set hearts aflutter (and won’t involve soggy petals clogging the plughole). Here are 10 hot properties that offer something a little bit different…

Real (French) Men Eat Quiche

The number of people who move to France and embrace the French way of life, the countryside or cities as well the people can be counted in hundreds of thousands. As we draw towards the end of France Week, here is news of just one, Kate Rodde.

Canada, a place of infinite promise

It’s Day 8 and its been a glorious day as far as the weather an scenery has been concerned. But before I get too over excited lets get you back to a few days ago.

Nice run up through the island via Campbell River were we stopped over for one night before travelling on via Telegraph Cove and then on to Port Hardy. The trip to Telegraph Cove is one of the tour highlights as we charter a boat and go out cruising the offshore islands searching for wildlife but sadly the whales were not around but we did have some great encounters with the Bald Eagles.

Stirling Castle Palace Re-Opens

This weekend sees the re-opening of one of the most important sites in Scottish history – the palace at Stirling Castle. To celebrate this Historic Scotland is putting an extra effort with festivities and events.
On Saturday, the splender kicks off at 11.45 with a royal procession whih will include Mary, Queen of Scots and Mary of Guise and the rest of the “royal” party to be welcomed by cannon fire.

Send A Postcard

Postcards are the traditional way of letting friends and family know about your holiday. Some are newsy, some are just to show off the exotic place you’ve been to. The familiar ending, “wish you were here,” has adorned postcards for over a century and now there are postcard fairs where you can pay quite a few pounds for some of the rarer cards.
As the internet and mobile phones have changed the way lots of us lead our lives, the number of postcards sent by holidaymakers has dropped. We send e-mails and text messages now saying what a lovely time we’re having baking under the sun on the Algarve, Torquay or Ibiza.
But Cumbria is fighting back by launching a new campaign called “Wish you were here”

One Woman and Her Dog (and this time her mother!)

The first opportunity to pack the dog (and this time my mother) and get away for a dog-friendly weekend arose at the end of March. Both my mother and I are avid Geologists, and after checking for recent storms and landslides (which mean higher likelihood of finding fossils), the Tide Time Tables and the last minute availability of dog-friendly B&Bs, luck was on our side, and we drove down to Lyme Regis slowly (road works EVERYWHERE) one Friday night.