One size fits all in Australia

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

Santa Cruz secrets

Approximately 1, 65 miles south of San Francisco, lies the quintessential californian beach town of Santa Cruz. Come for the surfing but stay for the quirky shopping, sensational meals and mountains, says Santa Cruz resident Kayla Peterson

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. ”

Land of dreams

This is the title of a song written by Roseanne Cash – the daughter of Johnny – to launch the huge marketing effort by the United States to persuade us to visit their country. The marketing push was launched in Los Angeles yesterday morning and the UK is going to be one of the first countries to see the results.

Come to Taiwan

For those of you living in the London you are about to be deluged by Taiwanese advertising as they try and persuade more of us to visit their country. Only about 45,000 of us currently visit Taiwan each year and they want more of us to go there. So, for the next 6 weeks or so, you’ll not only see posters at tube stations you’ll also see 75 taxis carrying the same message, visit Taiwan.
They are using the slogan, “Where else but Taiwan,” as they try to get across the fact that they are not very well known.

Closing for the Scottish Homecoming

The National Trust for Scotland has decided that, because of the economic climate, it needs to save money. So it plans to reduce jobs by up to 91 and to close or curtail some of the features in some properties.The Hill of Tarvet House in Fife will close, they are handing back the running of [...]

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.