Mexico’s delightful Puebla rivals any tiled city in Spain

Looking for a tantalising travel destination? Perhaps Puebla could be the answer. Read Irene’s article on the colonial Mexican city that’s guaranteed to make a suitably smug Facebook update

One size fits all in Australia: part two

Australia accommodates everyone’s idea of a perfect holiday, from four-year-olds to grannies, reports Pippa Jacks

Department of Transport

From the website:

The Department for Transport’s aim is transport that works for everyone. This means a transport system which balances the needs of the economy, the environment and society.

Peaceful Herm

There is only a small British presence at the travel show probably because there are other events for British destinations and attractions to promote their wares to travel agents. The different islands of the Channel Isles are year but one that gets passed by quite often is the tiny island of Herm.

I even gave a boring headline to this piece so you won’t visit it in large numbers. Why?

Didn’t England Do Well

Visit England has announced the results of the business that its members did over the Christmas period and for the whole of 2009. And, it looks like pretty good news for them as many recorded an increase in business over 2008.
44% said that they had more business than previously and 42% said that they had the same level of business meaning that only 14% recorded a drop in business. A drop could mean that it wasn’t due to the overall level of business around but because of new entrants, better marketing or weather or other unforeseen factors (like a long period of roadworks for example) and those hit sales.

Holiday Booking Time?

Traditionally, summer holiday bookings begin in earnest just after Christmas. Tour operators, airlines and destinations watch closely to see how many of us go into travel agents or look at online travel sites. And if there is bad weather around then the number of enquirers and bookings rise.
So there are a number of optimistic people around at the moment. The post Christmas sales seem to be going well and some retailers claim this is the best sales period since 1998. Some say sales are up over 18% over last year. The weather is cold and more snow is forecast over large swathes of the country.
So according to all the runes, this should be a good year for the travel industry.

Where the experts holiday: Dr Jill Nash, best selling travel author

Dr. Jill Nash, owner of independent guidebook publishing company ‘Luxury Backpackers’, on Canada, Cornwall and the Lake District’s best kept secrets