The Borromean Isles: magical gardens on Italy’s Lake Maggiore

Patricia Cleveland-Peck gazes in wonder at Isola Bella, a baroque garden shaped like a ship floating on the lake, is entranced by Isola Madre, a romantic garden full of flowers and enjoys a lunch of lake fish on Fisherman’s Island

Letter from France: May 2013

Whether you’re a novice or seasoned traveller, France will steal your heart. Each month, Frederic – our French correspondent – gives us the low-down on what to see and do across the channel

National Travel Health Network and Centre

From the website:

“The National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) promotes standards in travel medicine, providing travel health information for health professionals and the public.

NaTHNaC is funded by the Health Protection Agency.”

Beijing for all budgets

One year on, Beijing is still buzzing from the Olympic Games; indeed it’s estimated that 85.4 million tourists visited the Chinese capital in the first half of this year alone – despite the downturn in the economic market and the outbreak of swine flu. CD Traveller spoke to Sarah Keenlyside – a former Time Out Beijing journalist and founder of Bespoke Beijing, a Beijing based travel service offering travellers up to date insider information about Beijing’s best sights and bites – to get the lowdown on what to see and do in one of the 21st century’s most exciting destinations

Kindle winners announced

CD-Traveller and ChatCloud would like to congratulate Anne-Marie (Leeds) and David (Kelso), who were drawn at random from the participants in our recent survey to receive the new Kindle 6″!

Thanks to all of you for your participation in the research on holidays

Cruise Appeal

Initially one of the travel sectors that bucked the downward trend was that of cruising. On the face of it, the reasons seem obvious. Everything’s included in the price so you know what you are paying for and you paid in sterling so there were no nasty foreign exchange surprises. That didn’t necessarily turn out to be the truth as we mentioned earlier and some cruise business slumped. One part that remained resilient was where holidaymakers started their cruising from the UK. According to Gill Cruise Centre, just of half a million of us started a cruise in the UK, 20% over 2008. Of the bookings Gill made in 2009, over two thirds decided to start their cruise in the UK.

Letter from France: March 2012

Whether you’re a novice or seasoned traveller, France will steal your heart. Each month, Frederic – our French correspondent – gives us the low-down on what to see and do across the channel