What’s hot: February 2012

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month, Spain and skiing holidays both get a big thumbs up, but readers are advised to think twice before booking a bungee jump in Zambia or getting a tattoo in Bali

A day in… Dundee

Dundee is transforming its waterfront, to draw visitors in. Adrian looks at what there is for the short break tripper

Defra Pet Travel Scheme

From the website:

“This site explains what you have to do to bring your pet dog, cat or ferret into (or back into) the UK through the Pet Travel Scheme (or PETS for short) without putting it into quarantine. It also explains the requirements for bringing many other types of pet animals into the UK. This site also tells you about quarantine in the UK for animals that don’t qualify for PETS. Printable factsheets are available for both vets and the public.”

China’s Heritage Appeal

China has visitor appeal on so many different levels. The culture and lifestyle is different, but above all the heritage is a draw. We might find an Anglo-Saxon hoard in Staffordshire with over a 1,000 jigsaw pieces of our history but imagine finding 20,000?
In the mountains of Zhongwei, the Chinese English language paper, Global Times, has reported that they have found 20,000 rock paintings in a six month survey of the area. The oldest ones date back to the stone age. That they found so many is not the staggering feature of the story since they expected to find about 10,000. That 80% of all China’s rock paintings have been damaged by humans or erosion is not really the story although this means that China could have one hundred thousand rock paintings where we get elated if we find a couple. This comes on top of finding yet more terracotta warriors a month or so ago. The story is that there is so much in China still to be found and seen.

Bargains Remain on the Big Getaway Weekend

This is the biggest weekend of the summer holiday when supposedly the largest number of people head off. And judging by the state of the M25 yesterday that could be the case. On the Surrey section there were entry speed advisory signs of 40mph and slow moving traffic when I crossed over it. A National Express coach going from Gatwick to Swansea came up from Dorking and headed off towards Cobham in an attempt to try and avoid the traffic, a sure sign of lots of traffic since a regular North Surrey-Swansea link isn’t in the timetable

The Great Wall of China: Potteries style

Just started in Stoke-on-Trent is a six week celebration of ceramics. Well what else would it celebrate apart from its premier division football team of course!

Dalston for your delectation

When it comes to hip and happening London destinations, Dalston isn’t the most obvious choice. But a trip to the East London suburb proves otherwise; in the build up to the London 2012 Olympic Games and with the extension of the London Overground to Dalston due to open later this month, it’s all happening in E8