Nashville is Music City – and it’s not all about country

Irene Thomas loves the vibe in Nashville and found the ‘country’ inside her at the Honky Tonks

In the footsteps of Jean Cocteau

One of the appeals of Menton on the French Riviera is the largest museum dedicated to the works of Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), a famous French artist who died fifty years ago. Frederic exolores the museum and the three towns forever linked with his work.

ABTA

From the website:

“Formed in 1950 by 22 leading travel companies, ABTA – The Travel Association – now represents over 5,000 travel agencies and more than 900 tour operations, throughout the British Isles. Our Members range from small, specialist tour operators and independent travel agencies through to publicly-listed companies and household names; from call centres to internet booking services to high street shops. All of them carry the ABTA logo, which means choice, value, and high levels of service. ”

Gulf Tourism Expands and Expands

Tourism to the Gulf countries is relatively small but growth is likely given the amount of investment that is being ploughed in an attempt to get us to visit. Abu Dhabi is anticipating growth of 10% for next year and 15% for the following two years. We have previously carried stories about what Abu Dhabi has to offer and it certainly shouldn’t be thought of like Dubai as a luxury destination. Hotel rates are reasonable and with all the competition amongst gulf airlines, prices are reasonable.

Air Security Changes

Following the attempted attack on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit it will come as no surprise to any of you that’s security at airports and on planes has been increased.
You can expect to take longer going through security as more hand searches are carried out. Don’t be surprised when you gate to the actual gate to find that a hand pat security check may also take place. Instead of it happening on just a few flights, as is done at the present, you can expect it to occur more often particularly on flights going to the US.

That’s Christmas: Now Where?

Traditionally Boxing Day was the start of one of the biggest holiday booking periods of the year. Almost as soon as the festivities were open, the sales began and shoppers ducked in to travel agents at the same time and emerged, laden down, with suggestions of where to go for the summer holidays. Things are a bit different today since sales start before Christmas. Shoppers surge into the larger shopping centres but not into the local shops. I went to our nearest town this morning and even though both travel agents were open, they had no takers and there were few people around other than in Sainsburys.

Muscat diaries

CD -traveller ventured off the beaten track to find a cross section of individuals who call the Omani capital ‘home’. The goal was to find out who they are, what they do and what Muscat means to them…