Well I suppose it had to come.After saying it would happen in 2006 and frequently in 2008, Ryanair introduced to passengers the chance to use their mobile phones on some flights yesterday. So if you feel like paying between £2 and £3 a call you can indulge yourself by saying unecessary things like “I’ll be [...]

Unless you have been holidaying on the moon, you have probably noticed that there has been a bit of a general downturn in the economy. Doom mongers have almost been prophesising the end of life as we know it. (Although, to cheer you up slightly, houses are beginning to sell again in our village and [...]

Portsmouth City Council has given planning permission for a museum to be built to house the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship which sank in 1545. There is a design already, one created by the architects, Wilkinson Eyre, (who designed the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea). It is to be in shape of a jewellery box [...]

There are plans for a new runway at Heathrow. Some people think there will be another one at Gatwick when the planning rules expire in about eight years time. In the meantime the crunch is hitting airports now. The extent was brought closer to everyday life with the decision of Prestwick airport to shed about [...]

This year is the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University. One college, Emmanuel, is 525 years old this year. Founded in 1584 in the time of Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare and with a history longer than some countries, it has seen the Spanish Armada, the Civil War, the union with Scotland, the invitation to the [...]

Just in time for the Olympics, (so its still 3 years away then) organisers have announced that Mark Wallinger, a former Turner prize winner, has been selected to build a giant statue of a white horse in north Kent. Given the success in attracting tourists to the Angel of the North near Gateshead, this is [...]

In this blog and in many newspapers, ways that airlines make money have been listed. Charges for leg room, drinks, snacks, getting on the plane first, sitting next to a window or the aisle, baggage and the overall weight of your luggage have all been used as ways to empty your wallet.Now US Airways, [...]

In today’s copy of The Sunday Times, there is a story that shows, like the USA, our government is keeping a pretty close idea on where we travel. They already know where we go to becuase our passports are electronically swiped as we fly, even on domestic flights.Now the paper reveals that there is an [...]

TripAdvisor claims to be the largest travel community as is quoted quite widely on travel websites and carrys credence because of the sheer volume of people, millions, who provide those reviews across the range of travel services.Recently, they have announced the results of their travellers’ choice awards (the seventh year of this award) and, as [...]

This morning it has been announced that Pontins will be hiring about 2000 staff for their six sites in the UK as they refurbish/rebuild them due to increased sales.Most of the domestic tour operators such as Hoseasons, Center Parcs, Butlins & John Fowler have been saying that this year should be a good year for [...]

Our government has announced that it is going to investigate why so many children are being taken out of school during term and going on holiday.The figures, it says, show that the number of people being given fixed penalties has trebled over the last three years to about 15 or 16,000 (figures aren’t available yet [...]

The results of the autumn 2008 survey by Passenger Focus are out this morning. To remind you, Passenger Focus is the body that monitors the rights of train passengers and each half year it interviews 25,000 passengers with paper based surveys at railway stations and on trains across the country.Overall satisfaction is up across the [...]

Anyone who has been to Stanfords in London or Bristol and seen the miles of books and maps that they sell can be overawed by the number. (Incidentally, Stanfords will give you back £5 voucher if you spend £25 with them but the offer ends at the end of January. See www.stanfords.co.uk for details)Most are [...]

An independent online travel agent, www.sunshine.co.uk, issued the results of a survey last week . Apart from things which you could probably guess, for example, 77%of people made a new years’ resolution to lose weight , the survey also said that 60% or respondents (the survey covered 1,225 people) do more exercise while they [...]

Last night was Burns Night, the evening when Scots all over the world get together and celebrate the poetry and Scotland of their national poet Robert Burns.But today, 25th January is also the 250th anniversary of his birth in Alloway, near Ayr. Coincidentally or by design, his birth starts amost year long celebration of things [...]

You probably remember the G’day Australia tourism campaign though it seems to have been muted of late and not as good as the “Where the Bloody Hell are you” campaign.Well this week they took the campaign to the USA under the “G’day USA” title.Yes I did say this week. You might remember that (unless you [...]

Last December the state government of NSW in Australia decided to launch Family Funday Sunday. The idea was to bring more people onto ferries and into the city. To do this it cut the price a family ticket to just $2.50 (about £1.20). The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Sunday was already the most crowded [...]

Last week AOL ran a little feature listing the 10 worst destinations for tourists in the UK. Apart from 1 in Wales (Holyhead) and 1 in Scotland (Cumbernauld) all were in England. (Well done Northern Ireland in not making the list.)Some of them seem a little unfair. Wolverhampton has a lot going for it, Bantock [...]

This year sees the centenary of the introduction of the state pension. Before David Lloyd George introduced it in 1909, people were expected to support themselves in their retirement or be supported by their family. Nowadays we have 5 million pensioners who regularly, come recession or no, holiday. Large numbers collect their pensions abroad as [...]

Today is, apparently, Blue Monday, the day of the year when we are the most depressed. It coincides with credit card bills coming in after the Christmas extravagances and a combination of long, dark nights and lousy weather. And its dark here still, and raining and windy and I did get a credit card bill [...]

Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary has announced that Heathrow will get a third runway. Building should start in 2015 and be complete by 2019. there have been news reports that the government will speed up the planning process so that this runway might be ready in 2015 but that surely is on the understanding that [...]

Just how much is the credit crunch hitting travel?I ask because today I travelled on a train with two men, one reading a copy of the Sun and the other, Metro. Both were on what used to be called the workers train, that is the first train out in the morning. Both were talking of [...]

Unless you have been asleep for the last 48 hours it has been hard not to see news about the advertised job in Australia. For about seventy thousand pounds a year you have to live on Hamilton Island off the Queensland coast, feed the fish, survey all you behold and write a regular blog. Well, [...]

Following on from yesterday’s blog on the success of Liverpool as one of the 2008Cities of Culture, I thought which city this year.As is now the custom there are two, Vilnius in Lithuania and Linz in Austria. Linz is twinned with Edinburgh but as far as I can see, Vilnius is not twinned with any [...]

As we wrote a year ago, Liverpool was one of two European cities of culture in 2008. the Liverpool Culture Company has just presented it’s report on the effects of the year and reckons that it generated about £800 million for the city and encouraged 3.5million first time visitors. To me this seems a tremendous [...]

For a lot of people today is the first day back at work and here in the south east, the snow may not help despite the fact that we have no more than a couple of centimetres of the stuff.What will annoy people is the annual party every year when rail prices increase. I thought [...]

On New Years day, Kew Gardens opened its gates and waived its entrance fees. Why?To begin the year long celebrations for its 250th birthday. In 1759 it opened its gates for the first time and some of the trees planted about that time still survive. Apparently some 26,000 of us visited Kew on that day. [...]

A new year starts and probably everybody wishes it was a great deal better than the last one, me included.As holidaymakers, we face an interesting year where the pound has devalued against a lot of currencies. The euro is probably the most important currency to us since it is in countries who use the euro [...]