A day in… Belfast

Adrian explores Belfast in a year when the city majors on its links with the ill-fated Titanic.

Top 10 Valentine’s breaks

Boutique hotel experts Mr & Mrs Smith have sifted through the schmaltz to find Valentine’s packages that will really set hearts aflutter (and won’t involve soggy petals clogging the plughole). Here are 10 hot properties that offer something a little bit different…

Passenger Focus

From the website

“We are the independent passenger watchdog. Our mission is to get the best deal for passengers.

We are an independent public body set up by the Government to protect the interests of passengers.”

The Highest Ski Resort in Europe

Outside today it is raining. If summer has gone should I think of the ski season? Barely two months after Val Thorans closed after the last season this, the highest resort in Europe, is out there seeing travel agents and asking them to persuade us to go there rather than elsewhere. And there is still snow there:- at least on the peaks

Holidaying in Argentina

There aren’t many of us that go to Argentina despite the fact that for some of us there are strong links. With names like Peurto Madryn (Port Madryn) there are clues to the number of Welsh who settled there in the nineteenth century. From next March it will be easier to go there as British Airways will be launching a direct service from London. This week, the Argentinian Minister of Tourism, Enrique Meyer, was over here to help announce the service. Declaring that 2011 will be the year of Argentina might be a bit ambitious but then with even a modest increase in tourists from the UK, it could be the start given the range of holiday options that Argentina offers.

Scanners, Flying and Privacy

Over the last few years we have covered the different changes and requirements that have been introduced, ostensibly to make flying safer but which too often seem to make life more difficult and intrusive as well. Only recently there was comment from you about how passing through passport control seemed to take longer because the new passports require matching with computer held data whereas in the old days officers would compare your face with that in the passport. Imagine how much longer it might take if ear prints (supposedly as unique as finger prints) are incorporated as well.

Where the experts holiday: TV presenter, Sarah Cawood

The Travel Channel’s Sarah Cawood on staycations, the Scottish highlands and why she loves lying on a beach