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

Explore Shandong

Heading to China in the year of the Dragon? Seek out Shangdong – steeped as it is in myth and supernatural allure

Civil Aviation Authority

From the website:

“The CAA is the UK’s independent specialist aviation regulator. Its activities include economic regulation, airspace policy, safety regulation and consumer protection.”

You Might Change, Yosemite Doesn’t

Yosemite is one of the great names of the USA. Just about everybody has heard of this Californian national park to be found to the east of San Francisco. It’s all accessible to the visitor if you go here for the day. If you plan to stay overnight then there are just about 1,200 rooms and maybe the same again for camping areas. 4 million visitors come every year to visit but most just go to a small part, the valley which is just 1 mile wide and seven miles long. the visitor is missing a lot of the best bits.
So if you are intrigued by Yosemite, try some of these suggestions to avoid the crowds. See the valley by all means. But don’t think you’ve seen it all. Go up into the High Country where you can get up to 8,000 foot above sea level. Hiking up here is a world away from the valley. In Winter, Tiger Pass can get between 10 and 20 foot of snow. From June onwards the roads are cleared and you can walk for miles and see hardly anyone.

Free flights with Air France

Up until 9th March, Air France is giving you the chance to win one of 2 pairs of tickets it is giving away every day. Access is via their facebook page ( we’ll give you the weblink in just a moment) and all you have to do is to guess where the daily photo is. Then you could win a round trip of your choice from the destinations they fly to. And given how big Air France’s network s, that gives you a fairly wide choice. So click on www.facebook.com/airfrance and good luck. You can enter each day as long as you can identify the photograph. And if you win, let us know where you chose to go to and why for the benefit of the rest of us who may not hve been so lucky!

Hammering the Traveller

Early January means one thing to many travellers. The time of increased rail fares. This year the average increase is 5.8% which is well above the rate of inflation. But that disguises a range of price rises varying from the high to the outrageous for this year train companies can decide which fares go up or not. The government rule is that prices go up by the retail price index plus 1% apart from two lines, Southeastern and West Yorkshire where it is RPI plus 3%.
Passenger Focus, the consumer watchdog covering the railways has pointed out that a Norwich to London anytime return goes up by 14% and Canterbury to London goes by nearly 13%. But Travelmole, the online travel trade e-letter has found that a London monthly fare from Hornsey to Stevenage has gone up by 46.2% from £194.40 to £284.20 which may only be about £90 but is it over £1,000 extra a year to find.

One woman and her dog

After a year of hard work and few breaks, Poppy (my 10-month old Puppy) and I decided to have a week away between Christmas and new year. Unlike the Marloes holiday last June, we decided to do this just a few days before departure.