Letter from France, part 2

Frederic continues his monthly round-up of the art, cuture and heritage scene in France

Where the experts holiday: Lidiya De, relationship manager at The Royal Horseguards Hotel

Lidiya De, relationship manager at The Royal Horseguards Hotel, talks travel

Department of Transport

From the website:

The Department for Transport’s aim is transport that works for everyone. This means a transport system which balances the needs of the economy, the environment and society.

Tourism to Chernobyl

Today is the 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, then in the Soviet Union and now in Ukraine. CD-Traveller reported (CD-Traveller 28/12/2010) that there were going to be government sponsored tours. These have been popular but have now become even more so in the last month and, surprisingly, it is not just due to the anniversary.
What else can be behind this popularity?

Love at first bite

Following in the footsteps of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival ( a four day destination event designed to raise money for Florida International University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism) comes the 2010 China Wine & Food Festival. Susan Gladstone, director of the China Wine & Food Festival Tianjin, dishes the dirt on the inaugural event

FlyGlobespan Collapse Will Hit Scottish Holidaymakers

Regular readers can stop reading right now if they don’t want to hear me talk again about providing an adequate safety net for passengers outside the ATOL bonding scheme.

As you probably all know by now, those passengers who bought a package holiday under the Globespan name are probably protected under the ATOL system. Those of you who bought just a flight with a credit card (not a debit card)and paid more than £100 may be able to claim a refund from the credit card providers. The rest of you, I’m afraid, will probably be out of pocket. And for those of you who are covered then you still have the hassle and probable expense of rebooking with another carrier if there is availability. To check your position, see www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=1985&pagetype=90.

The collapse of the Globespan group will hit Scotland particularly badly.

Competition: Adventure Travel Live Tickets

This time it is for Adventure Travel Live which starts at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London at 6pm next Friday and then continues over the weekend. This is the place to go if you fancy off the beaten track holidays, energy filled breaks like skydiving or white water rafting. Or just plain old fashioned getting away from it all holidays with a bit of polar exploration or gap year experience. It isn’t just for the singles and young; far from it. There will be family holiday ideas as well as well as for those who are young-at-heart.
To win one of the ten pairs all you have to do is the usual thing. Send an e-mail to emily@escapeevents.com and put Adventure Travel Live in the subject line.