Two stories concerning Wales and those of us that visit the country cropped up this week. Together, they may offer a future that will boost visitor numbers. But then both plans are so far away.

Does some masochist calculate train fares spending days in locked-up windowless, tea-deprived cells trying to calculate these unfathomable things? Many moons ago, did I dream that some government minister or another potential human say that the huge array of fares would be simplified or was that wishful thinking?

The kings of extracting money in additional charges have to be the airlines. EU rules have altered some of the ways such as banning add-on prices behind very low fares but more needs to be done. Some add-ons can be avoided and others can’t

One of the attractions of going on a cruise has been the fact that it often looks like a cheap holiday. This needn’t be true because cruise companies have developed their own ways or rifling your pockets for that odd £100 or so.

Over the years, CD-Traveller has considered the problem of review sites. I had no idea that a company could set up 40,000 different addresses to use. And where one company exists there must be others. All working with companies to deceive us.

The announcement by the Heritage Lottery Fund of £68 million in support of just six projects today gives an indication of how important these are. Usually many more than six are allotted funds and few are allotted as much as has been given today.

The Spinnaker tower in Portsmouth gives a panoramic view of the landscape below. That bland statement does no justice at all to the views you get from the viewing area, the café or the crow’s nest situated some 110 metres above the ground.

In the last few weeks you will have seen television adverts for Tunisia. Wherever they go, at some stage visitors will hear of excursions to El Jem home to one of the largest Roman amphitheatres in the world.

Readers living outside London and the south east of England can turn away now for the debate on whether there is enough airport capacity in the south east has taken another turn.

Today is a public holiday in the Netherlands. It is Queen’s Day. If you though the Brits could make pageantry and the monarchy a big tourist draw then watch the events in the Netherlands!

Adrian continues his train journey from Thurso to Inverness, is surprised at the lack of visitors and has trouble with Gaelic

Carnival Cruise Lines own many of the brands we would instantly recognise; Cunard, P&O, Princess, Holland-America and Carnival itself. The 40% sale which it is running until the end of this month makes me wonder why they are offering sucha huge discount

One of the consistent complaints about travelling to the US is the length of time it takes to get through immigration control once you land there. If you can pass through the controls in Dublin and Shannon, why not at UK airports?

Way north of Inverness, the landscape changes. In Caithness, its flatter and much of it is farming land. It doesn’t seem to be walking land or places you might want to stay so does it have any attraction for he visitor?

You might have seen in the papers this morning, or heard it on TV, that it is projected that transatlantic flights may get a little more turbulent. Except that the way it was reported was in such a way to nervous flyers of some of us.

Hot on the heels of the Holiday Extras survey comes the news that Air Samoa is charging passengers by their weight. Pricing air travel by passenger weight is a hoary old chestnut that is probably – and I say that because nothing is definite in a world where stupidity outweighs common sense – never going to happen here.

Today, increases in APD came into force meaning we will pay more in tax to the government when we fly. But since the industry has known about it for some time you will have already been charged by airlines for any tickets you have bought to fly after today.

Adrian visits Keukenhof the eight week, Spring flower bonanza that takes place each year just outside Amsterdam and which attracts 70,000 of us from the UK each year

Over the years CD-Traveller’s writers and readers have expressed strong views on the rights airline passengers have. Now another set of rights are being considered by the EU which means that they will probably become law next year or the year after.

Adrian visits Thurso in northern Scotland and meets a lady who come for two years and enjoyed the town so much she is still there 38 years later!

That was the comment by a local councillor, Ross Church, on the new logo being considered by the New Zealand town of Kapiti. Does that image spring to mind when you see it?

UPDATE 23 APRIL
The Dreamliner will re-enter service once the modifications have been made. But Boeing still doesn’t know what caused the problem. Am I too cynical in believing that Boeing can’t afford the Dreamliner to fail so they have done as much as they can in the hope that this minimises any problem rather than curing it? And regulators have abetted this fudge by allowing it to fly again.

The battery of invective directed at the government over the high rate in taxes that air passengers pay has continued today with a statement from leading British airlines. Our tax is the 139th highest in the world.

Which of us has not occasionally thought that it would be great to forget the cares of the world and go and live on a south Pacific island? An Australian, living in Canada called James McCann has almost done just that. He owns the Yasawa Island resort and Spa in Fiji.

I’ve stayed in seven hotels in Scotland and Wales this year already and they all had one thing in common. UHT milk tubs in the rooms.

In the last week British Airways has surprised many of us with two anouncements. The first that it will introduce a new fare structure allowing those of us that travel just with hand baggage to travel at cheaper fares and the second is that they want to improve the taste of their tea.

Adrian sums up the results of our January survey of what – our readers – like to do and where you go

There are lots of Welshmen around, but I wasn’t the one. I was talking to Stephanie Abrams, the nationally syndicated US radio travel journalist about the UK and her thoughts on the UK when the story of this elusive man arose