It’s that time of year when UK travellers make holiday choices. With this in mind, Robin Nowacki seeks the response from the National Tourist Boards to two key questions

In 2012 Germany’s biggest theme park exceeded the record mark of 4.5 million visitors for the first time

lthough we have Christmas markets strewn across the UK these days, it is in Germany that the tradition endures. the number of tour operators offering short breaks to tour the markets has grown even as we ave developed our own. And Hamburg has one of the biggest and best.

German Tourist Board promotion plans for UK market in 2013

As ski enthusiasts look to the new season, Anna Maria Espsater tells us everything we need to know about Europe’s ski scene

The German National Tourist Office is running a competition to win a trip for 2 to Würzburg including flight and accommodation. To enter you just need to give your e-mail address and name…

Not decided on a half-term break yet? Try Duisburg in Germany where an albino kangaroo has been delighting visitors.
Named Nala by Duisburg Zoo officials,

Kaye makes for Frankfurt Rhine Main and finds that this region in western Germany has shaken off its staid, serious reputation and returned to winning ways

A survey of shoppers in London’s West End last weekend found they were all without exception enjoying their visit, with 99 per cent of them hoping to visit London again at some stage in the future

Nuremberg might seem a strange choice for a holiday but, as Lyn discovers, this medieval city – famous for the Nuremberg Trials that took place from took from 1945 to 1949 – has many attractions including a stunning castle, gothic churches and Christmas market

London’s food scene is heating up. Jane Eggington reports…

Yesterday we told you how glossy travel brochures could soon be consigned to the bin.

But if my experience today is anything to go by, it is not brochures but travel guides by the like of Lonely Planet at al that could be on their way out.

Hardly known in the UK most of us will be unaware of a mediaeval city that has UNESCO World Heritage status, has a month long Christmas market, has boat trips down the Danube, New Year’s Eve and Day concerts and has pretty good beer as well!

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas, without a visit to a Christmas market. We round up some of the best Christmas markets in England.

History travel website, Historvius, picks ten of the best destinations for European city breaks bursting with history, perfect for everyone from the casual sightseer to diehard history buffs

Lyn heads to Hanover for some ‘me’ time. Read her report here

The 2011 BVA-Gallup International survey showed the French to be the most pessimistic people on earth. However when it comes to travel, it turns out that it’s the Brits who are the sourpusses of the planet.

Acoustic perfection is the resounding star in these temples of high art, but it wouldn’t sound as sweet without the accompanying history and/or visual appeal

Tonight Regent Street retailers, together with other retailers, restaurants and bars from major international cities, are embracing late night shopping, culinary experiences and entertainment.
Over 40 of the Regent Street retailers, bars and restaurants, are taking part in the Vogue Fashion’s Night Out and most of the shops will remain open until 11pm offering customers a [...]

If I was working for the tourist office for Berlin, I would be less than happy by some of the coverage that German newspapers have been giving to the city recently. Die Tageszeiting has been saying that some of those who live in the city have been complaining about tourists. Well doesn’t everyone until you become one?

Orange Hotel’s VP of Marketing on Mexico, Kenya and the other side of Kowloon

The answer is when it is a major host of events or a shopping mall or even a restaurant complex. And which airport am I talking of? Munich Airport in southern Germany which has decided that it needs to be more than an airport in order to add to what marketing people love to call, “the customer experience.”

Was I hearing properly? All I wanted was a hotel room. Did the colour matter? Would colour influence whether I had a comfortable stay or not? Who knows, so, being a bit perverse for a male, I plumped for the pink thinking I would take a few pictures so that I could show my wife that such a thing exists.

Don’t countries want us to visit them? Have many got a tourism death wish that they cannot understand?
Austria has decided to follow Germany and introduce an eco- tax from January 2011 on passengers leaving from its airports. Just in time for the skiing season, the time when the largest number of visitors will be expected. They will charge €8 to fly to a European destination and €40 elsewhere. And how much will this tax bring them? Estimates vary from between €50-€70 million per year. And how much will they lose as visitors decide to go elsewhere

There has been a flurry of information released that supposedly tells us what we did during the summer. Did we holiday at home or did we go abroad and does it matter to us as the people who went anyway. The only reason we are interested in this sort of news is because of that self-satisfying feel you get in knowing whether you have done something different or whether you have been where others have gone.

Marion Schumacher, the Ritz-Carlton’s regional director of public relations (Europe), shares her holiday experiences exclusively with CD Traveller

Regardless of whether you’re a backpacker or a flashpacker there’s plenty to do in Germany’s cool capital and now is the time to visit: the weather is warm and dry, the city is free of the tourist hordes encountered in the ‘high season’ and for the time being prices remain below average for a European escape. What more excuse do you need? CD Traveller shows you the way to go

With Holocaust Memorial Day on the horizon (January 27), CD-traveller spoke to Holocaust survivor Hermann Hirschberger – now in his 80s – about the reality of life in Nazi Germany, the persecution of the Jewish community and the desperation to escape to a new life in England