Letter from London: cycling capital of the world?

“I believe that the cyclised city is the civilised city”, declares ebullient Boris Johnson. Love him or hate him, London’s mayor is – not so quietly –revolutionising cycling in the capital.

The best holiday money saving tips for the year ahead

Make the most of your hard-earned cash with Stephen Baker’s 25 top holiday moneysaving tips

ABTA

From the website:

“Formed in 1950 by 22 leading travel companies, ABTA – The Travel Association – now represents over 5,000 travel agencies and more than 900 tour operations, throughout the British Isles. Our Members range from small, specialist tour operators and independent travel agencies through to publicly-listed companies and household names; from call centres to internet booking services to high street shops. All of them carry the ABTA logo, which means choice, value, and high levels of service. ”

Fare Potee and Marae

For those of you you unfamiliar with Tahitian (probably 99.9% of us) a fare potee is a chief’s hut and a marae is an ancient temple.

Win 5 pairs of Tickets to CRUISE Birmingham

5 lucky couples (or families since under 16’s are free) can win tickets to Cruise being held at Birmingham’s NEC on the weekend of the 16th/17th of October. The Daily Telegraph presented show features 37 exhibitors which, between them, cover most of the cruises that are available. Whether you have never been before or are a seasoned traveller, CRUISE will have something for everyone.

To win a pair of these tickets just email sue@escapeevents.co.uk with your name, address and e-mail address (so she can let you know you’ve won!) with the all-important CD-Traveller mentioned in the subject line. So that there will be time to get the tickets to you, the closing date is Monday 11th of October at midday so you haven’t a lot of time.

Best Buys for Your Pound

The post office has come out with its usual survey of where sterling will go the furthest. This year it shows that Turkey has had a rise of 44% in holiday costs and Spain is now cheaper. Jamaica, Egypt and Dubai are places where your pound will buy you more.
Is news of this sort of value to the holidaymaker or is it just playing with words in search of some publicity?
The post office announcement is based on how sterling has gone up or down against whatever the local currency over the last year. As such it faithfully reflected how much £1 will buy when you changed your money across.

Beautiful Barbados

The signs are unmistakable. It’s wet, windy and dark at four o clock so it must be time to head abroad and bask in some winter sun. If the daily grind is getting you down and you need to recharge your batteries in a tropical paradise, may we suggest Barbados?