[ January 25, 2010; 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] On 25th Jan Ronnie Scotts celebrate Burns Night with a Burning Jazz Special. This has been a tradition at the club for many years now, and Ronnie himself used to present Burns nights in the 1970’s.This evening house pianist James Pearson will host the evening, which will have special guest vocalist Tina May. Head Chef [...]

[ January 11, 2010; ] Izaak Waltons Cottage, Stafford, Stafford

[ February 13, 2010 to February 21, 2010. February 13, 2010 to February 21, 2010. ] This year it is the 25th Anniversary of the Jorvik Festival in York.
www.jorvik-viking-centre.com.

On top of the push by Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, for the development of high speed rail links in the UK comes a poll of business travellers who seem to be in agreement. The Guild of Travel Management has members who are responsible for co-ordinating travel at either big companies or those where travel is a major part of their work. 70% of them feel a high speed rail network should be a priority for the next government. 60% then said they would switch to rail from their cars if the rail route was faster.

[ February 20, 2010; 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. ] Saturday, 20th February 2010, Littlehampton, West Sussex, 11am-1pm

Whether you’re staycation-ing or vacationing, CD Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world

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.

It is hard to believe that there has been no new railway route for a century. Yes, the occasional new station has opened but a new route? Chiltern Railways operates lines out of Marylebone in London to the commuter suburbs of north west London and on into Oxfordshire and Birmingham. For the first time they are going to operate a line to Oxford from Marylebone via High Wycombe and Bicester which will take just over the hour.
But, you will say, there are trains already linking Oxford and London using First Great Western out of Paddington via Reading which also take about an hour. What’s different?

Each country asks visitors from time-to-time whether they would revisit their country. Today, customer satisfaction specialists say that there are only a few questions that matter. They are whether you would revisit and would you recommend to your friends and relatives. (The reason for asking whether you would recommend to friends is that you are felt to be more likely only to recommend it to people you know if you were really happy to do so.)
So in the latest survey by Visit Wales, 70% of people said they would revisit and 86% said that they would recommend. These are high figures so, naturally, Alan Ffred Jones, the Assembly minister responsible for tourism and Visit Wales are rather pleased.

New Orleans is widely known throughout the world for its carnival, its food and its French-Creole-American mix. It attracts people from all over the world the UK included. Yet if you are British there is not one single scheduled flight to this city. Why is it that places like Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte have direct connections yet New Orleans misses out? Which would you rather go to? Which has the greater tourist potential?

Just like long forgotten pop and TV stars still attract people to visit pantomimes although they haven’t appeared in anything since the days of Margaret Thatcher so tourism destinations plug their links with nearly forgotten films and TV series. Cumbria has the links with the film of Beatrix Potter, Mama Mia is doing wonders for tourism on the Greek isle of Skopelos. Even Balamory, the children’s TV programme attracts people to Tobermory. Now there comes a different form of product placement.
According to a fascinating story in The Sunday Times yesterday, a new novel by Lionel Shriver has been funded by a resort and a tour operator.

Those of us brought up on Fawlty Towers might find it hard to believe that a Torquay hotel has been named as best for service in the UK and that it has also been listed in the top 25 hotels in the world. Obviously there are no Basil’s, Manuel’s or Sybil’s at the Charterhouse Hotel which has won this accolade.
This award is for service, the most important feature of what we buy after the product itself. Even then you can cope with a product that is not perfect if the service is special. I have stayed in hotels that were not the best. The service, the attention and the fact that nothing seems too much trouble has made ordinary hotels into splendid ones. In those I have stayed in again and again. And recommended

CD Traveller visits Stoke Park Club and savours a little taste of paradise

Twice I flew from Heathrow’s terminal 1 this week. Twice I had breakfast as I was on early flights. On each occasion I had breakfast, it was after I had cleared security since you’re never quite sure how long it might take. And I had breakfast in two different restaurants, neither of which would set your gastronomic juices on fire. But that rumbling is for another day.
In both restaurants, I was given stainless steel cutlery

Things disappear from art galleries and museums. Usually if something stolen it is a picture like that of The Scream by Edvard Munch which “walked” from its Oslo home. It isn’t often that it is a skull that walks particularly a skull with a very large metal stake through it. Yet that is what has happened in Hamburg.
The supposed skull (it’s not absolutely sure whose skull it is) of Klaus Stortebeker a pirate who was beheaded in 1400 disappeared from the Hamburg History Museum on January 9

The decision before Christmas by the courts to view the 12 days strike by the union Unite at BA (see CD-Traveller 15/12/09) as illegal meant that it was nearly inevitable that there would be another strike ballot. That has been announced for next week.
Last time the criticism of the length and timing of the strike almost made the public strong supporters of the BA management since the cabin crew or Unite were seen as deliberately trying to ruin people’s Christmas. This time maybe the union and the cabin crew have learnt from that PR debacle.

om the headlines in the media you would think that we are all going to holiday and travel more this year. That’s not quite the truth because this headline applies to the world as a whole. Some parts of the world will holiday more, some won’t and some will stay the same. But you can’t get a catchy headline out of “Certain countries in the world will attract more tourist in 2010 proving a new pandemic, war, or disaster doesn’t happen.” You might just as well add “or if there is an X in the month.”
I haven’t seen one downbeat forecast y

With Holocaust Memorial Day on the horizon (January 27), CD-traveller spoke to Holocaust survivor Hermann Hirschberger – now in his 80s – about the reality of life in Nazi Germany, the persecution of the Jewish community and the desperation to escape to a new life in England

Just as Europe has capitals of culture; this year, Istanbul, Essen and Pecs so the Arab world highlights a city each year. This year it is Alexandria in Egypt, a city which is more well known than visited by British and Irish tourists. It is known as where Cleopatra had her palace, where the great lighthouse was one of the wonders of the world and home of the ancient world’s largest library. Founded and named after Alexander the Great, its glory days ended centuries ago as Cairo gradually became the capital.
Today it is where Egyptian city people go for the holiday. The days when the British and Europeans seem to take over the city have gone. Today Europeans visit Cairo and Luxor or go to the Red Sea resorts.

It is unusual that customer satisfaction gets mentioned by a government. It merits interest especially if it looks as though there is genuine interest rather than lip service in what passengers think.
Lord Bradshaw who worked for various parts of British Rail in his career asked whether additional measures of customer satisfaction would be added to the requirements when companies bid for new rail franchises.
Since 1999 passengers have been asked twice a year on behalf of the rail consumer watchdog, Passenger Focus, a series of questions including being asked to rate satisfaction with a number of elements of the service provided.

Flying is not felt to be very environmentally friendly. Whether you are a believer in the fact that the airline industry is being particularly singled out or you believe that it is as bad as some people say doesn’t allow for two other factors which will probably have more influence. That is the high cost of aviation fuel and the fact that supplies are finite.
The future seems to be biofuels and a few airlines have already tried flying their planes using it. But what sort of biofuels?

Back in September (CD-Traveller 30/9/09) we wrote about the Staffordshire Hoard of over 1500 finds that had been found in a field by a metal detector. When they went on display in Birmingham, the queues to see it went around the museum and tickets were rationed. (www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk.)
Such a magnificent find (for once the word isn’t an exaggeration) deserves to stay in the Midlands rather than London and so Birmingham Art Gallery & Museum is trying to raise £3.3 million in just 13 weeks to buy the hoard. They will then need another £1.7 million to display it. So far £500,000 has been raised in the first week.
If you feel you can contribute, please go to www.artfund.org/staffordshire_hoard/

[ February 19, 2010 9:00 am to February 21, 2010 6:00 pm. February 19, 2010 9:00 am to February 21, 2010 6:00 pm. ] Celebrating the world’s finest travel writing and travel photography

Last month we gave you the low-down on what to see and do in Doha – the Qatari capital that is making claims to be the region’s next big travel hot shot. But there’s more to Qatar than its capital… Leave Doha for a day and get to grips with the former fishing town of Al Khor – only a short 45 minute drive away

Most country destinations begin a new year with a forecast or wish about how their tourism industry will do. South East Asia has been a growth area for long distance holidaymakers from the UK. The combination of climate, different cultures, currencies that haven’t been altered much against sterling, wildife and some inexpensive fares on particular routes have helped those countries tap into British holidaymakers.
One country forecasting tremendous growth is Sri Lanka…

In 2009 more than 1.5 million of us took a cruise. This year the figure is expected to grow by about another 100,000 making it one of the few bright spots for a type of holiday that already has quite a high appeal.
What is that is appealing to holidaymakers? Can the growth keep on continuing?
According to the cruise review site, CruiseCritic.co.uk, there are two main reasons for this attraction. The first is the willingness of cruise companies to slash prices to fill berths and the second is that cut-price offers attract those people who like a bargain. They might not usually consider a cruise but the bargain price appeal is the clincher. So the size of the market might continue to grow as long as the number of bargain hunters grow.

One of the successes of 2009 has been the growth of the staycation. More of us took a domestic holiday than for many years. Was it going to be a one day wonder or was it something that would last into, at least, another year?
Depending on who you talk to you it’s either holding up well for this year or it was just a feature of the recession last year. Both Haven and Hoseasons have said that bookings are up for domestic holidays this year. On the other hand, Hotels.com and www.simonseeks.com, that the staycation is well and truly over and will be replaced by overseas holidays in 2010.
Who is right?

Unless you have been hiding for the last week or so you’ll have noticed the odd bit of snow on the ground. Virtually all over the country it has caused disruption to travel and everyday life. But a sort of community spirit has existed where neighbour has helped neighbour and complete strangers have helped unblock roads.
The tourism industry has been hit too. Country hotels have had their normally attractive drives become barriers to the arrival of guests. Attractions and heritage sites have suffered the same.