Mexico’s delightful Puebla rivals any tiled city in Spain

Looking for a tantalising travel destination? Perhaps Puebla could be the answer. Read Irene’s article on the colonial Mexican city that’s guaranteed to make a suitably smug Facebook update

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

Consumer Focus

From the website:

“Consumer Focus is the statutory organisation campaigning for a fair deal for consumers in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland.

Advice for individuals on energy and post is given by Consumer Direct (08454 04 05 06).”

The lure of New York

At the World Travel Market, the USA unveiled a new logo. It is made up of a series of lightly coloured dots or stars that form the initials of the country. It is a soft and slightly woolly image that doesn’t seem to fit. And especially not with New York which bristles with brashness, energy and a disdain for under achievement.

Westminster makes a welcome u-turn

Hurray! Westminster Council has finally seen sense and scrapped its plans to charge for parking in the evenings and on Sundays – for now at least.

Tatton Park Wins

Last week, Visit Chester & Cheshire held their annual tourism awards. There were 15 categories and Tatton Park won the award for best visitor attraction of the year. It isn’t the first time it has been successful, this being the third time this century. Receiving over 750,000 visitors each year, some of the reasons for its likely success are that it combines 50 acres of gardens, (out of 1,000 in all) a mansion, a park and it is easy to get to from two motorways. They also have a large number of events operating throughout the year and you can see those by looking at CD-Traveller’s event pages.
Of course, they weren’t the only winners. The award for the best tourism experience went to the shark dive at the Blue Planet Aquarium near Ellesmere Port. Sharks have never been one of my favourite things so I am one of the exceptions since the Aquarium even gets large numbers voting in its favourite shark category. (Bella the Black Tip Reef Shark won last years with 3,000 plus votes!)

Your Boarding Card and You

To get on a plane, you need a boarding card be it the traditional sort or a print-out when you checked in at home. These days your boarding card will contain personal details about you; personal details that you may not appreciate are there or are important so when you have finished with the card don’t just throw it away. Shred it, mash it up with water and pulp it but don’t just through it in any bin be it at the airport (worst case) or even at home.
Why?