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

Spotlight on San Francisco

Ahead of the Golden Gate Bridge’s 75th birthday on May 27, San Francisco has never looked more golden writes Kaye Holland. Read her guide to the city with its head in the clouds, here

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).”

A Day in … Utrecht

Amsterdam, the biggest city in Holland is very cosmopolitan as Holly White showed in her take on the city where she lives which appeared earlier this month. It has restaurants of all types of cuisine, indeed down some streets you can find a Burger King followed by a KFC and then a Macdonalds. There are lots of signs in English and English is widely heard because there are so many tourists. On the trains coming in from Schipol to Amsterdam Central you will hear the train guard in four different languages. So is Amsterdam typical of Holland or like many big cities, internationalised? To judge how representative it was, I took a trip half an hour away to the city of Utrecht.

I FEEL sLOVEnia

No the headline isn’t a typing error; this is the new slogan to entice us to travel to Slovenia. Will it work? Ask in a year’s time and we’ll find out. That’s a problem with finding quick pithy lines to help you remember. Australia came out with “where the bloody hell are you?” which certainly generated the publicity if not always the numbers.

Whatever slogan is chosen, about 2.2 million visitors have gone to Slovenia this year and, by year end, it looks as though overall tourism will have dropped by only about 1% making Slovenia a success story in many people’s eyes. The UK is the fifth largest provider of visitors but to the capital, Ljubljana, we are the third

Noise Makes Food Taste Differently?

Jason Palmer of the BBC broke a story this week from the journal, Food Quality and Preference, about research done by 9 academics which has been available since July. We all missed it, probably due to the fact that this magazine isn’t usual bed time reading. The research claims that background noise affects the taste of some foods. Could it be then, that the engine noise that we all experience when flying affects us so that we think that the food we eat tastes differently?
No. My research shows otherwise.

La dolce vita: part two

Looking for somewhere stylish to stay in Italy? Boutique travel experts Mr & Mrs Smith have recently published their first Italy guidebook, and to celebrate CD-Traveller has teamed up with them to reveal three special stays. Today: Follonico