[ February 12, 2011; 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] Sandbach Town Council is pleased to announce the introduction of a Farmers Market to be held on the cobbled Market Square in the centre of the Town.Market SquareSandbachCheshireCheshireCheshire

[ January 15, 2011 9:00 am to July 16, 2011 6:00 pm. ] A fun event for all abilities.Chester Forum Studio Theatre, Hamilton Place, Chester, Cheshire, CH1 2BHTel: 01244 341296email: mikej@gbevents.net

[ February 19, 2011; 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] Alsager Farmers Market – A variety of stallholders from handmade cards, local dairy ice cream, jewellery, fresh locally sourced vegetables, cakes and biscuits, cheese, meats and arts and crafts.Civic CentreLawton RoadAlsagerCheshireST7 2AETel:01270 752121 / 01270 884200Email:info@alsagerfarmersmarket.co.ukCheshireCheshire

[ February 11, 2011; 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] A rural jump racecourse hosting a packed racing calendar throughout the year. Overton RoadBangor IsycoedWREXHAMCLWYDLL13 0DATel:01978 780323Email:info@bangorondeeraces.co.ukCheshireCheshire

[ February 5, 2011; 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] Produce and crafts that are grown, reared, cooked, pickled, smoked, brewed or made locally are for sale at Rode Hall Farmers Market.Rode Hall GardensChurch LaneScholar GreenCongletonCheshireST7 3QATel:01270 873237Email:amandabw@hotmail.co.ukCheshireCheshire

[ February 5, 2011; 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. ] Whether you want fresh meat, vegetables or quality homemade preserves Middlewich Farmers Market offers great choice.Booseys Garden CentreNewton BankMiddlewichCheshireCW10 9EXTel:01606 833434/07909 705785CheshireCheshire

Xian – the former capital of the Tang Dynasty and the starting point of the Silk Road – should feature high on every traveller’s China itinerary. Here we let you in on five things to see and do in this essential destination – those that get stuck at home in front of their computer, only have themselves to blame…

Starting today, in a number of cities throughout the UK you will see the traveling bus promoting Menorca. Menorca has been one of the big winners in attracting us to visit them this year as concern grows about a North African holiday are heightened by media pictures. But Menorca is not leaving anything to chance and its bus to “battle” for our bookings is the way it has chosen.

Some might have have thought it too earlier to notice a rebound in people looking for holiday in Egypt but one supplier is finding that t has started already. At The New York Times Travel Show I found that Zak Fouad of a US tour operator called Signature Getaways was noticing that he was getting more enquiries about escorted tours there. And the enquiries were turning into orders.

The City of Gold is yet to go green. CD Traveller reports

Next Tuesday is the day when Welsh across the world will celebrate their Welshness maybe not with the same marketing skills that has seen St Patrick’s Day take over the world on the 17th of the month but with the same fervour at least. David has been a saint, as recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, for 991 years and March 1st seems to be the date when he died 1,422 years ago

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.

Yesterday I went to the Five Lakes Hotel, Country Club and Spa – to give it its full title – for the tourism and leisure show that was mentioned a couple of days ago. Why? To see what people thought of their local show and how the exhibitors reacted to it.

You will remember that Hastings Pier was devastated by a fire a last October. Piers are regarded with some nostalgia as things from Victorian times and our childhood. They don’t quite have the same number of followers as steam trains, but followers there are. So from the ashes, so to speak, an appeal is about to be launched to raise money to renovate the pier and bring it back into use. The sum required is relatively quite small at £800,000 and with the backers it has attracted, this should be attainable.

They are just some of the prizes on offer tomorrow at The Travel & Leisure Show which is taking place at the Five Lakes Resort in Maldon, Essex. It’s free to go to the show and the organizers even provide a free bus collecting you from Witham station from 9.30 onwards. You can see the web link in our events column.

Airport time is dead time. There’s nothing much to do other than wait and lose hours flying through time zones – or gain more depending on which direction round the earth you’re flying. But in the end, it’s all dead time. My time was lost flying to Brazil from Heathrow.

[ February 24, 2011; 10:00 am to 3:30 pm. 10:00 am to 3:30 pm. ]
Five Lakes Resort, Colchester Road, Tolleshunt Knights, Maldon, Essex CM9 8HX
Free shuttlebus service will run from Witham Railway Station every hour to the Resort from 9.30am.
Free admission to all

This morning BAA announced its financial results for 2010. It made a loss but the chief executive calls this “robust” and confidently expects to present a “strong increase in profits” this year.
Now let’s get down to the important stuff. How is BAA going to treat its passengers in the future?

Swap Britain’s chills for beach thrills. Now is the perfect time to head to Nha Trang

Back last autumn you would probably expect that Egypt and maybe Tunisia would have been hot spots for tourist bookings this year. After the removal of the Tunisian president in January, it was to be expected that there would be a downturn in bookings at least until things had stabilised. The same could be said about Egypt. But as the disruption continues in North Africa and the Middle East, will, tourists be deterred from going to the whole area?

In the US holidays of a week are common. Here the week or fortnight is more like the norm. In winter some seniors go away for a couple of months. But how do you fancy a year long holiday? All in the one place.
One of Sydney’s Sunday newspapers, The Sun-Herald, has reported today that a couple, Chris and Sally Allison, from the Sydney suburb of Mosman liked the place so much that they have booked accommodation for a whole year at a B&B in Rhyl in North Wales.

Yet another survey.
Its theme is that we only use travel agents sparingly to research holidays for us. Well what a surprise. Half the fun of choosing a holiday or a trip is sitting down and dreaming of some of the places. Only those with no time, no gumption and no sense hand it over entirely to a travel agent.

Our China correspondent on the pros and cons of using a guidebook in Beijing

One of the earliest of gardening events on the calendar happens this weekend in the west Wales town of Landysul. Having attracted so many people from quite a distance, Llanysul will probably become a firm early season fixture for people anxious to get out and do something in their gardens but handicapped by the weather we have had.

There was no call last night. But we shouldn’t be greedy. Seeing the lights over 4 nights – particularly the wonderful display of the night before last – is more than many tourists get. One Norwegian, a regular traveler on the ferry, said that he hadn’t seen such a display on some many evenings for a good while.
Today we reach Bergen at about 2.30pm and the journey will be over.

According to the new Lonely Planet edition of its guide to the South west, this region has overtaken the rest of the UK for its culinary appeal. Only London can rival it the guide says. Those of us who have been regular visitors to Cornwall, Devon and Somerset have long known that good food was there to be found in abundance. And not just in Michelin starred restaurants either although the guide tends to highlight these.

The last but one day of our journey.
When this saga (a good Scandinavian word) began eleven days ago, it was with the hope of seeing the northern lights. To have seen them for 4 nights in a row when so many see nothing of them is great. That we have cameras inadequate to the task of capturing pictures of them is annoying. But then, the colours that the camera show isn’t what the eye sees.

You have until September to visit the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth where you can see what might be the oldest birch bark canoe in existence.. After then it will be going back to Canada where further research can be done on its origins.