The English seaside

Photographer Peter Williams celebrates the peculiar eccentricities and quintessential charms – from helter-skelters to lighthouses, pirates, palmists and Punch and Judy – of this cherished and rapidly changing English landscape

Bon Bini! Curacao has it all in one very small island

Irene Thomas found Curacao the most successfully diverse country she has ever visited – and one of the most beautiful as well

Trading Standards

From the website:

“The Trading Standards Institute is a not-for-profit professional body formed in 1881. We have members in the public and private sectors in the UK and abroad.

TSI encourages honest enterprise and business and helps safeguard the economic, environmental, health and social well-being of consumers.”

York & World Heritage Status

You might be surprised that York doesn’t have UNESCO World Heritage status. Given its Viking, Roman and church history, its city walls, York Minster and its remaining buildings you would have thought it was a shoe in. But no the city has never applied for the status before. This year it has and is one of 38 places in the UK that have submitted proposals to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is this body – or rather a panel of experts appointed by it – that will recommend which 2 names should be forwarded to UNESCO for their consideration. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that they will accept them on the nod.

What’s hot: August 2012

CD-Traveller tells you what’s hot and what’s not in the travel world. This month, those wanting to escape the Olympics should seek out Spain – just forget flying there with Ryanair

Will Fred Stop Your Flight Being Cancelled?

This morning, easyJet held a press conference to announce that a solution might have been found to one of the problems that significantly affected us during April and May. The Icelandic volcanic eruption caused cancellations in Europe, disrupted travel plans and contributed to reduced economic activity. EasyJet said that the disruption cost them between £50 and £75 million. Two of my flights were cancelled and train services did well out of me, being able to charge higher rates than I would normally pay in order to get back home. Now easyJet think that this solution, called AVOID, could prevent a similar issue affecting us in the same way. And it is all down to Fred.
Fred is actually Dr Fred Prata, a scientist working at NILU (Norwegian Institute of Air Research) and he has been working on this technology since 1993. It is he who has developed AVOID which for the technically minded of you stands for Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector.

Planes, Trains and Auto-rickshaws

Best-selling author, Laura Pedersen, shares her journey through modern India with CD-Traveller readers