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…

Identity and Passport Service

From the website:

“The Identity and Passport Service is responsible for issuing UK passports and identity cards and for the registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales. It is an executive agency of the Home Office.”

Alastair Sawday’s top 10 places to stay in Wales

Alastair Sawday has a knack for picking out stylish, well-run places – the sort the CD Traveller team would choose for a short break ourselves. To give you a flavour, we’ve picked five of our favourites from Sawday’s new book Special Places to Stay Wales.

Campers: A Breed Apart?

Let me say from the outset that I am not a natural camper. My sole experience of camping was many years ago when a deluge descended during the night, my tent was flattened with hailstones and I slept in the car. Since then, no! But I might be missing out on things because recent research suggests campers are happier with the quality of their lives than non-campers.

There’s Going to be a Wedding

This won’t come as news to any of you unless you’ve managed not to see TV, read a newspaper, look at the internet or talk to anyone in the last 36 hours. I’d almost be prepared to bet that lost tribes up the Amazon have heard about it. Whales are probably distributing the news via their low frequency sonar system to pods around the world so that even the animal kingdom knows. And talking of Wales, the first minister sent a brief and correct cordial message of congratulations to the happy couple.
Unlike Visit Scotland and Visit Britain which have decided this presents too good an opportunity not to trumpet the tourism potential of their areas.

Changing Suitcases Saves Money

Now that no-frills airlines like Ryanair and easyJet charge you for placing luggage in the hold, people are looking for ways to save money on all the extra things that make a cheap fare, expensive. Many experts felt that customers would just put up with it but now comes evidence from a US company that suggests this may not be the case (no pun intended!). Suitcase.com is an American retail company which sells any variety of different types of bags and cases. It asked 21,000 people about their luggage purchasing habits and it has thrown up some interesting results.
Now Americans have had to put up with all these extra charges for longer than we have and even have to pay for luggage on the main carriers as well.