If you or your son or daughter has secured a place at university this year, congratulations for many missed out after a record A level year. Now comes the next challenge: finding accommodation as wherever you’re studying – be it London or Liverpool – you’ll need somewhere to live. Unfortunately finding affordable accommodation in the UK isn’t easy – especially as a student. CD Traveller considers your options…

The Islamic world is arguably one of the most rewarding travel destinations and despite what some travel guides will tell you, there’s no better way to truly gain an insight into Islam than by visiting an Islamic country during the holy month of Ramadan which Muslims mark by fasting from sunrise to sunset. Before you go, it’s a good idea to read up on Ramadan so as to avoid causing unnecessary offence. Your definitive guide starts here…

By now, the Tourism Authority of Thailand will be a couple of weeks into its reality show style competition to raise awareness of Thailand as a tourist destination.
They are seeking five couples who will then travel around five destinations, Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai and Koh Samui all expenses paid, one couple to each of [...]

A couple of weeks ago another airline company went bust. Sky Europe only flew out of two UK airports so you can be forgiven for thinking it is of little consequence. But it follows in the wake of others including XL and Zoom which has a much bigger impact. After those collapses as well there were calls for a tightening up of customer protection and nothing happened. In fairness Ryanair and easyjet offered special fares to help passengers return home which neither of them needed to do.

Summer was – for the third year running – something of wash out. On the plus side, the Met office are predicting that the rain will not only stay away throughout September, but that the monsoon like weather will give way to a dry and – dare we say it – hot spell. CD Traveller tells you how to keep your cool in the capital

Being small, I don’t really have problems with seats in planes. With short legs nearly every plane is reasonably comfortable for me but then, I am not like most people.

Over the last fifty years or so people have grown. Not just in height but by girth as well. But in most cases, airline seats haven’t.

I’ve always thought that Summer ends as you eat the last blackberries on the bushes and listen to the Last Night of the Proms. A few years ago, London devised another way to end Summer and it coincides with the Heritage Open days this weekend.

Most of you will have come back from your holiday by now. You might still be thinking of the great times you had. Well if that’s true, and you have had a terrific time with whoever you went with, then here is your chance to let us know.

It’s that time of the year again when thousands of buildings are let open free of charge for us to wander through them. Some are never open apart from on these days.

Sites like TripAdvisor have been discussed before in these rumblings. The issues of small numbers for some hotels, biased reviews put up by the companies or their opponents themselves have all been considered.

Out of work and saddled with an overwhelming desire to travel? Why not spend the summer working abroad as an aupair… One member of the CD Traveller team did just that: read her report below
Amidst endless Mary Poppins cracks and Sound Of Music jokes, I packed my suitcase and ventured to Heidi’s native land with [...]

Opening today is the new Dubai Metro. Nothing odd about that you might think. Cities the world over are providing public transport as either a green solution or a congestion solver or both. The difference with Dubai is that in only four and a half years it has already opened the first forty odd kilometres. The whole 70 kilometre system will be open in 2012.

Last night the BBC’s Panorama programme looked at the quality of our water at beaches. At the beginning of the programme in tabloid scarey style it pointed out that 43% of beaches provided a chance of us catching gastro-enteritis.

For those wishing to explore further a field from the main city of Beijing then the obvious choice has to be the Great Wall of China. Our journey out included a stop at the Cloisonné Factory where one can see some of the most brilliantly crafted enamel on copper work in the world. The factory is some what archaic like stepping back into the early 1900’s and sadly the workers are not the highest paid considering the stunning work they turn out. The process is complex but basically thin copper wire shapes or forms are painstakingly glued on to say a plain copper bowl to eventually for intricate patterns and designs.

For the first half of the year, airlines around the world have lost about £3.7 billion. It’s due to the economic downturn, the recession or whatever you want to call it. They have cut capacity, mothballed planes, deferred new ones, reduced staff and are looking at any way they can for reducing money. British Airways is even considering taking selected advertising on the website.

This year is the 25th anniversary of Virgin Atlantic. This has been advertised quite widely. So widely that the advertising even includes the House of Commons. From today’s Sunday Times comes a story that Paul Keetch, MP for Hereford, has put down an early day motion congrtaulating Virgin for being at the forefront of the aviation industry.

Be ready if a hurricane hits with CD Traveller’s Hurricane Preparedness guide
Over the past decade, the number of Britons travelling to the Caribbean during the “off peak” hurricane prone months of July and August has risen sharply – and understandably so. Go at the ‘wrong time’ and you can still enjoy the sun, sand and [...]

Horacio Esteban has built up a reputation as the most celebrated craftsman of Caymanite – the semi precious stone found only in the Cayman Islands. CD Traveller discovers more about the island boy done good
The son of a Cuban father and Caymanian mother, Esteban was brought up on Cayman Brac (one of the ‘sister’ islands) [...]

A week or so ago, we had the announcement from network rail that they believed a new high speed rail link should be built linking London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Giving planning enquiries, submissions, objections and construction, it might appear before I fade into oblivion. Look how long it took to construct the high speed link from the Channel tunnel to St Pancras International in London and that is only about 60 miles.

Wallow in nostalgia for a moment.

Do you remember when flying was fun and an adventure?

No, neither do I. It has always been a chore. Just as one thing improves flying, online check-in for example, something comes up to make it more difficult.

I ask the question because Visa has announced the result of a small survey (1000 people). A third of those questioned said they preferred shortbreaks rather than the traditional one or two-week breaks. An astonishing 83% claim that they will take between 1 and 5 shortbreaks this year.

The launch of a new book edited by Bill Bryson, “The Road Less Travelled”, which looks at less well known, less visited places has given the Sunday Times to use the book and ask if readers know of others. The five places it says are the most over-rated are Stonehenge, Petra in Jordan, the Colosseum in Rome, Machu Picchu in Peru and Angkor in Cambodia. So far it has had 90 comments on its website for and against the choices. And that’s a lot more than articles usually get.

This week is the anniversary of the beginning of WWII.

It is also the anniversary of the children called evacuees. The government had developed a plan whereby all children in areas thought vulnerable to attack by the Germans were to be moved to safer areas and billeted with people other than their relations until it was safe to return. This huge logistic exercise began being carried out this week when almost three and a half million children were moved (ironically codenamed, Operation Pied Piper) by train. Clutching labels, gasmask cases and their luggage, children were moved miles from their homes.