The ASA’s ruling comes as no surprise to anyone at CD-Traveller towers. TripAdvisor reviewers might be asked to sign a declaration that their reviews are real and that they have no incentive or competitive interest with the places commented on, but it doesn’t deter foul play and several members of the CD-Traveller team have been offered  discounts and upgrades in exchange for positive reviews. (Rest assured, as morally upstanding citizens we have always refused!)

So should we be turning away from TripAdvisor? Not necessarily, says CD-Traveller. Sure some of the reviews maybe bogus but there are plenty of accurate ones too. The message? Use TripAdvisor but treat it with caution: keep in mind that, like anything, if something sounds too good (or gross) to be true, it probably is.

What’s hot

Spain
Forget forking out a fortune to fly to Australia or the Caribbean and make for Spain instead. Temperatures might not match those of Barbados or Brisbane but Spain represents better value for money: Post Office Travel Money has revealed that a trolley of typical holiday items (sun lotion and the like) cost just under £38 on Spain’s Costa del Sol – almost £90 cheaper than the same items cost in Barbados and Brisbane.

Wearing a bikini in Egypt

Women visiting Egypt, who prefer to top up the tan in a bikini rather than an all one swimsuit, can pack their two pieces. Egypt’s new government has said that tourism “will not be subjected to any changes as long as we are represented in parliament. Bikinis and alcohol all round then.

Skiing rules
British holiday makers are hoping to see ski resorts introduce breath tests and penalty points in an attempt to curb reckless skiers, according to a survey by insurer More Than. Nearly one in there Brits are concerned about speed skiing, saying that they had been hit and/or injured by somebody skiing too fast. Meanwhile more than four in ten Britons want helmets made compulsory.

Skiing in Switzerland

On the subject of skiing, Swiss ski resorts are slashing prices this season by up to 33 percent – in a bid to boost visitor numbers. Case in point? Crans-Montana is offering 33 percent off accommodation, ski hire, passes and tuition up until February 11 and then again from March 10-April 6. For the full low-down, see our story: http://www.cd-traveller.com/2012/01/17/you-too-can-find-gold-in-crans-montana/

Enjoying a hot air balloon flight over Uluru
Australian adventure tour operator, Outback Ballooning, will start offering hot air balloon flight over Uluru next month. Negotiations for the 30 minute flights, which are priced at £300 per person, have taken two years.

Digital detoxing
Hands up if you spend too much time on your phone and/or laptop. That’s a lot of hands… which is why luxury operator, Black Tomato (www.blacktomato.com), is launching a digital detox in 2012. The week long trip to dreamy Caribbean destination, St Vincent and the Grenadines, takes in two private resorts and all technology is banned. Sign us up now…

What’s not
The cost of London hotel rooms
Looking for somewhere to lay your head in London during the Olympic Games? Be prepared to pay… Research into 60 London hotels conducted by Tessa Jowell, the shadow Olympics secretary, reveals that, on average, the cost of hotel rooms in London will quadruple during the Olympic Games.

Being a Concordia passenger

CD-Traveller readers booked to travel on the ill-fated Concordia should look away now. The cruise line has said that it will not refund airfares for holidays canceled as a consequence of the ship capsizing. In a statement, the cruise line (which has no legal obligation to reimburse customer for their losses) said: “For guests who choose to cancel their cruise, Costa will offer a refund plus a 30 percent future cruise credit. No compensation for airfares will be provided if they are cruise only passengers. Passengers should contact their airline and their travel protection provider.”

Bungee jumping in Zambia
Tour operator Shearwater has suspended a bungee jump after an accident which saw 22 year old backpacker Erin Langworthy plummet into Zambezi when her rope snapped 40ft above the water. Shearwater has said that it doesn’t know when the bungee would be open for business again – despite the Zambian tourism minister taking the plunge himself to reassure tourists that the 365ft jump is now safe.

Getting a tattoo in Bali

Travellers to Bali might want to refrain from visiting a tattoo parlour. Australian health authorities have said that a tourist contracted HIV from an infected needle on the Indonesian island. The number of new cases of HIV in Bali last year, was up 19 percent from 2010.

Put it over your glass if you’re sitting outside. It protects your drink from wasps, flies and other midges.

Wrap up your wet toothbrush and face flannel.

If you’re unsure when you’ll have time for your next meal, make a sandwich at breakfast in the hotel, and wrap it in the showercap.

Are you cold? Wear a showercap on each foot, inside your boots or shoes.

If you have to unexpectedly cross a field or walk through mud, place a showercap over each shoe.

When you’re going out on a hot day, soak your flannel in cold water, wring it out, wrap a couple of ice-cubes in the flannel and place it inside a showercap. You can rub it over your face, up your arms, etc.

Showercaps are great for parties and barbecues. Cover your bowl of salad, plate of meat, etc with them.

Peeling beetroot or doing something smelly or messy? Use a showercap over each hand.

Colouring your hair can be a time-waster. While waiting 20 minutes for the colour to work, cover your hair with a showercap, then you can get on with something while you wait, without the colour dripping on anything.

Taking photos in the rain? Cover your camera with a showercap! You can hold it off the lense while taking a photo.

You don’t need to ask for a doggy bag in busy restaurants. Use a showercap.

Cover your kitchen mixer, bread maker, etc with showercaps to keep them clean.

If you have to pack anything in your case that may leak or break, like perfume or bottles, wrap it in a showercap, then place it back in the box, and wrap it in your clothes.

Propagating plants and seeds.

CDs or DVDs without covers.

Knitting and other crafts, in between working on them.

Walking the dog and picking up mess.

A hood to keep your dog dry.

A steering-wheel cover.

Mobile phone cover. You can still talk in the rain.

Do you have any other uses for the humble showercap?  If so, we’d love to hear them!

Opposing these ideas is the view that a VAT reduction may reduce prices for the consumer but will do nothing to force the hotel and other accommodation industries into being as efficient as they can.  A VAT cut would help mask any inefficiencies. Another view is that any reduction would probably not put many people off a visit because the tourism appeal of different parts of the UK is what attracts people not the odd £5 saving here or there.

Which is right?

Thailand supported its tourist industry earlier this year by temporarily reducing costs and it seems to have helped but one case doesn’t make an argument. Thailand had other reasons for supporting its tourism industry after the airport and transport disruptions earlier this year.

So will the M.P’s win? Probably not because governments like to raise as much money as they can and to them, this seems a soft touch

Breakfast this morning was just that.  “Do you want breakfast,” I was asked. No choice just bacon, sausage, mushroom, baked beans, fried egg and toast. Whether I should have some fruit and satisfy those health soothsayers who are warning of my imminent demise didn’t come into it. No choice between white, wholemeal or brown bread. But there was orange juice!

And then it happened. The sole waitress suddenly came to a stop. I thought she’d knocked her knee on a table leg but I later found out she had damaged a weak tendon. All of us were aware of her pain. And there was no one to help. Except the guests. She cooked and we went and collected our breakfasts, then cleared them away. And whilst we were doing that we talked to each other. When did you last talk to someone over a meal in a hotel?

It was the conversation from the group of four behind me that made the stay longer than I planned. They were discussing which prisons they preferred. I kid you not. A number were discussed and the pros and cons weighed up. Bed comfort, cell size, food, amenities were considered.  It was the most interesting breakfast I’ve had in a long time. Nobody making or taking mobile phone calls. No duo talking about a business meeting.  No newspaper page turning and no waiters pausing over my shoulder trying to make me increase any tip I felt I should give.

Yes that was quite a stay. So different, so pleasant as a result. But now I stop as my knees are beginning to remind me of my age.

At the moment I am in Australia and just back from 4 days in the southernmost state of Tasmania. (more in the Destinations section of Cd-Traveller shortly). We’d been down to a cheese making farm and decided to bring three different cheeses back to Sydney for the family to try. To keep it cool we had put the cheese in the hotel room fridge (yes I know you shouldn’t use fridges but we all do) along with some bottled water we had bought and some chocolate. We were checking out that day, packed the cases but left the fridge contents so that they kept cool as long as possible. Returning to properly check out, we found the cheese gone. The water was still there. The chocolate was still there. Not the cheese!

At reception they couldn’t explain why just the cheese had disappeared. After all cheese is expensive but surely there aren’t cheese robbers around. It isn’t as though there is a shortage of the stuff. After about fifteen minutes the hotel had tracked down the missing cheese and returned it to us. But with no explanation just apologies.

So what happened?

Had the hotel staff decided to get their own back on us for all those  guests who had taken soap and shampoo bottles over the years? Is cheese now more of an appeal than chocolate?  Had we picked cheeses that were as rare and fine as black truffles?

We’ll never know since we had no explanation. But I warn all you cheese lovers. Protect your cheese. Buy a cool bag and place them in the room safe

Take hotel basins or sinks. They feature all sorts of fancy taps and places to put the soap. Some are more pieces of art than the old conventional type of sink being almost to pretty to use. You just stare and admire them.

But what has happened to the tap fittings? They seem to be placed directly above the plug hole so the water runs straight through. Why?

Strange to say but when you use a sink your hands are bigger than the hole. So  the splashes you make are left on the sink. You then have to cup your hands and splash the water around the basin to clean it up. Now in basins where the taps are set away from the plug hole it is easier for the water to wash those splashes away.

So what has prompted this new choice of basin design? Are hotels trying to avoid the water leaving a discolouring from where the water hits until it reaches the plug hole? Are they not concerned by guests leaving unintentional dirty sinks and thus, extra work for chambermaids? Is there no alternative basin design for them these days? Or is that I am the only sad person around who has pondered on the flow of water from tap to plug hole?

So apart from the beach what is there?

In the south is the art deco district. Some of the buildings are immaculate and some are tawdry. Like anywhere really. The Ritz Carlton, about the poshest hotel in the district, is immaculate but expensive. But not everyone can afford to stay there. A wander first thing in the morning or at about 7pm when the main heat of the day has gone will let you enjoy the architecture of the seemingly hundreds of buildings all painted in white or pastel shades. Or you take the bus. There is something called the South Beach Local which costs only 25 cents a ride. It has to be the cheapest tourist ride you’ll get almost anywhere around here. It also takes you to a point where you can see Port Miami from where the vast numbers of cruise ships depart.

Part of being a tourist is shopping and Lincoln Road Mall is one tourist magnet. There are dozens of restaurants as well as gift shops, a couple of galleries and clothing shops. I was only put off by the fountain at the end near Washington Street which had a gurgling noise similar to that when you take the plug out of your bath. I thought it was a strange new bird! And the only birds I saw were sparrows, blackbirds and parrots.

Collins Street is where the upmarket fashion shops are like Gucci or Versace. In fact the Versace mansion is here in South Beach. Or you can spend $4, $2 each way, and catch the S bus to Aventura Mall, the biggest shopping mall around here with a couple of hundred shops, restaurants and department stores like Nordstrom, Sears and others.

In many ways South Beach is like any other beach destination. The kids wear the same clothing, there are the same types of souvenirs; the same coffee shops and takeaways. For those not interested in beaches should you come? If you like the architecture or staring at large powerboats then there is always the Bass Museum or the theatres. The Bass is a small museum with a collection of renaisance art and some modern Cuban American work. There was an exhibition by one, Bert Rodrigues, whilst I was there and one exhibit would catch any child’s eye. There were over a hundred and twenty postcards stretching around the walls all of the artist’s head. But each postcard was different because each had been drawn on to give individual pictures. Exactly the sort of thing a kid would do. It also has two spellbinding tapestries as you walk up the ramp to the second floor.

The other two main attractions are the Holocaust memorial and the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. The memorial is a giant bronze hand stretching into the sky with sculptures at the base of the arm. It looks horribly like those hands disappearing beneath the waves that you saw in old black and white films. The Vizcaya however is a sumptuous house modeled on the sort palace you would see on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice but without the gardens. Built only about 100 years ago, it reminds of the wealth that was around then and now, for Miami Beach is the home (or second home) to some of the richest people in America.

I said earlier accommodation wasn’t cheap but I was determined to find something. There are lots of hotels in the $55-$80 (£30-55) a night range but what are they like. After experience I have found you get what you pay for. My hotel was the Greenview which is just about opposite the Lincoln Road Mall. Nice and convenient since it takes all of 5 minutes to get to the beach, the shops, the Convention Center or the Bass. Yes it looked shabby inside but I have seen some very pricey hotels look the same. The lobby was perfectly reasonable. The bedroom and the corridors were not. Marked walls and doors in both the bedroom and the passageways suggested this hadn’t seen a paintbrush for years. The TV didn’t work so it didn’t matter that there was no remote. Although the room had supposedly been cleaned I found dirt everywhere as well as long black hairs that couldn’t possibly be mine (for a reason mentioned earlier!)

During the night there was a storm. The rain leaked in which was a bit concerning since I was on the middle floor. The night porter gave me a bucket and said he couldn’t move me that night. So back to bed and in the morning, a couple of inches of water in the bucket. I wanted to see what would happen so I mentioned nothing. No apology, no money off and more importantly, no transfer to another room. I obviously needed to complain more. Still it didn’t rain very hard the second night so the water didn’t come in. No apology at breakfast (if you like sweet pastries fine, if not…)

At check-out I was told that everything was fine. No thank you for staying, no apologies, no explanation. Two days later I had an e-mail thanking me for staying and asking me whether all was OK. Obviously a pre-prepared e-mail with no links to what actually happened or the night porter that I talked to! So here is one hotel to avoid. I think it also shows that if you don’t stand up for yourself then you’re going to get walked over. If you have a problem, complain. Oh and by the way, a copy of this is going to the President of the hotel chain. To repeat what I said earlier, you get what you pay for.

No problems then at my next hotel, the Hilton out near the airport at Blue lagoon. Polite, helpful staff, a good size bedroom with a TV that worked. I pre-booked a breakfast at $10 a night which was a saving of nearly 50% on the cost in the morning. Surprisingly the restaurant bills were no higher than downtown. And the night cost me $99 instead of $64. Guess which I’ll use in the future?

So what of Miami Beach, the place that Mickey Rourke and Matt Damon call home. You’d be hard placed to criticise the beach or the weather. When it does rain, it really tosses it down but it disappears quickly which, given the drought, they probably would rather wish would be longer. The choice and pricing of restaurants is good and the public transport is cheap and convenient. Even if you want to go the airport you can buy a transfer for 50c so the hour long trip only costs $2.50. (Catch a J bus from the airport and ask the driver -mine had the most glamorously adorned fake fingernails I’d ever seen- to drop you off just after you’ve crossed the causeway and got to Arthur Godfrey Road at 41st Street. You can transfer there to any number of buses to take you south.)

The shopping is probably as good as anywhere and the range of food is what you’d expect, American, Cuban and Italian in the main. But I found a good Chinese and a good Argentinian. In the south beach area the main eating area is Espanola which is full of restaurants down a narrow road, all with tables outside. Expect to be invited to eat almost every place as the hawkers outside (I don’t know what else to call them) say that their menu offers the widest choice, is the best, has the longest happy hour and so on. It can be easy to spend $100 for two but you don’t have to.

A bit of local advice was given to me. Don’t go to Miami Beach at weekends. The rest of the world goes there then and it gets crowded. And on memorial Weekend in late May, make strenuous efforts to avoid it. It looked like one long traffic jam, bumper to bumper for most of the time. And people everywhere. And that’s what tourism destinations want! Lots and lots of visitors.