Posts filed under 'travel'
Travel disruption affected at least a million people today as a 48 hour strike hit the tubes.
The two day strike, starting at 7pm yesterday, has been very shaky with half of London Underground’s 20,000 drivers, station and maintenance staff arriving for work according to The Times.
It hasn’t only disrupted commuters. Ticket-holders attending tonight’s football international between England and Andorra at Wembley are anxious as to how they are going to get to the game. They have been told to check the TfL website.
Many people with car insurance have had to turn to their car today leading to much of London being gridlocked.
The dispute is over pay but it is reported in The Telegraph that the RMT have agreed to put an offer of a two year deal to a referendum of its 9,000 members, so an end may be in sight. However, according to RMT the deal was scuppered at the last minute blaming Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, as having a change of heart. This was denied by Kulveer Ranger who insisted it was RMT that walked out without giving any time for the proposal to be considered. He said:
“London Underground made the very reasonable request that the RMT suspend strike action so that this could be worked through. However, the RMT leadership refused to continue or give the talks more time, and walked out.
“Londoners will be infuriated by their behaviour and will join us in calling for the RMT to suspend this strike immediately and return to negotiations.”
June 10th, 2009
Are you planning to go on holiday this year or is the credit crunch taking its toll?
With mortgage lending down, home repossessions up by 68% and unemployment above two million for the first time since 1997, can anyone afford a holiday this year?
Abta, The Travel Association, doesn’t think that the current economic climate will ‘drastically change’ Brits’ getaway plans. However, what may change is the location of the holidays. At the moment destinations outside of the eurozone are less expensive so you may see people traveling further afield.
If you are planning a holiday then cut your costs by searching for cheap travel insurance, but make sure that you get adequate cover.
March 19th, 2009
Many teenagers around the country will be getting very excited as they plan their first holiday abroad without their parents. It marks a big change in their life when they have to be responsible and independent.
However one of aspects of a holiday that teenagers probably won’t think about is their travel insurance. An article by insurance company Swiftcover reports that one in five Brits admit to not taking out adequate travel insurance which could be vital.
More people are shunning the package holiday and booking flights, accommodation and transfers directly themselves reports The Daily Mail. If you are a seasoned traveler then this approach isn’t too risky but for younger people with little travel experience the package holiday offers a kind of safety blanket, so often a good choice for teenagers.
In order to make the most of your holiday Swiftcover have listed 8 top nightmare situations to avoid:
* Drinking too much - drinking too much in hot weather can lead to exhaustion.
* Dangerous sports - treatment for a broken leg can cost up to £7,000 in Europe so make sure your travel insurance covers this if you plan to take part in dangerous sports.
* Sun exposure - limit the time in the sun and wear sun screen. Sunburn and heat stroke can ruin a holiday
* Getting lost - 11% of teenagers get lost or stranded on their first holiday without parents. Familiarise yourself with your surroundings.
* Drugs - drugs are unpredictable and accidents through drugs can invalidate your travel insurance.
* Excessive partying - this can lead to you being kicked out of your hotel, so enjoy yourself but don’t go too mad.
* Getting arrested - check local customs and laws. Don’t be arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
* Ending up in hospital - follow health and safety guidelines and make sure you have had any vaccinations.
July 31st, 2008
Back in April there were reports that Virgin and Google were joining forces to set up a human settlement on Mars. Unsurprisingly that turned out to be an April Fool joke but yesterday Virgin announced a new venture offering people the chance to visit space, no April fool.
I wonder how many people have dreamed of one day being able to go into space and feel Zero Gravity. Well now that dream could become reality. The British Billionaire, Richard Branson, has teamed up with designer Burt Rutal to produce ‘WhiteKnightTwo’, a high-altitude jet that will act as a mothership for the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo. The largest all carbon-composite aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo will take SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of about 50,000 feet before it is released. SpaceShipTwo will then propel passengers into space at nearly 2500mph, over 3 times the speed of sound, ultimately ending in five minutes of zero gravity. They will be able to see the beautiful curvature of the world and the blue hazy ring of the atmosphere, spectacular views. The ride home sounds just as exciting as the spaceship deceleration produces G-forces as you reenter the atmosphere and glide back down to earth.
The first trip could be as soon as 18 months time with the first 250 people all booking their place by paying £100,000. Richard Branson is so confident in the safety of this new venture that he and members of his family will be among the first passengers to fly. All passengers will need to undergo a pre-flight medical and will be expected to take part in 3 days of pre-flight preparation, bonding and training on site at the spaceport. No specialist training is required.
The Telegraph are reporting that Richard Branson plans to tie this in with his domestic US airline, Virgin America, where pilots from the airline will be trained to fly the spaceships. Frequent Virgin America fliers will be able to collect more miles so that one day they may be able to trade their airmiles in for a flight in space.
What an absolutely amazing experience to be able to tell your children and Grandchildren. As the technology advances maybe a trip to space could be something that we all might be able to afford one day.
Watch this promotional video for the full story of Virgin Galactic.
July 30th, 2008
Planning your holiday can be a very exciting time as you decide where and when you want to go. To most of us our holidays are the highlight of our year and what we look forward to. So you need to make sure that you are healthy on holiday so that you can really enjoy yourself.
With all the running around beforehand it is quite easy to forget some very important things, e.g. making sure you have had any necessary vaccinations and ensuring that you have enough of your usual medication. I remember panicking one year because I had forgotten to get more ventolin from my doctor. The BBC has some really useful tips on their website on how to avoid jet lag, tips for those travelling who may have special requirements and what to take.
I think that we tend to worry so much about getting everything in order at home and making sure that we have bought everything that we need that we tend to forget about our health. We worry more about what could go wrong in terms of thefts on holiday or luggage going missing and less on ensuring that we are well enough to enjoy ourselves.
Another website I found called www.travellingwell.com has some golden rules for healthy travel. They recommend that you have a medical and dental check up before you go, take malaria pills regularly with food and take out the all important travel insurance.
When you are planning your holiday it is a good idea to read reviews from other travellers, sometimes you can get some great tips on where to go and what to eat (or not to eat). The Observer has a great section dedicated to such reviews.
So make sure that you are physically ready for your holiday and hope that you stay healthy so that you can enjoy your well deserved holiday.
July 2nd, 2008
It’s what we all look forward to, our holidays.
You’ve done the hard part - you’ve chosen where to go, you’ve booked your holiday and you’ve bought your Travel Insurance. You’re all packed and at the airport in plenty of time, you’ve done everything that you need to do and all you are waiting for now is to be called to your gate. But you don’t get called and then you hear the dreaded announcement that your flight is delayed.
I think that we have all experienced being delayed at one time or another, whether it is before we are on the plane or once we have landed due to baggage going missing. But what do you do while you are waiting?
Unfortunately airports view you as a captive audience and so many of the activities that you can do involve parting with money.
Some of my top tips for passing the time are:
Eating and drinking - some airports like the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow have some fantastic restaurants including a Gordon Ramsay so you can now dine in style while you wait. Be careful how much you drink though as you may not be allowed on your flight if you have one too many.
Shopping - there are usually a selection of shops at airports where you can buy books, food for the flight, jewellrey etc.
Go online - surf the net, catch up on your emails or edit your Facebook account.
Read books or magazines - don’t wait till you are lying on a beach to relax, lose yourself in a good book and you’ll forget where you are (even if only for a short time).
Sleep - you can always catch up on some beauty sleep, particularly if you have had an early start. I found this article entitled How to Sleep in an Airport which gives some good tips.
People watch - sometimes there is nothing more interesting to pass the time then to people watch. Give it a go you might be quite amused. At Stanstead airport some people put on a rather unexpected performance to amuse the travellers, vist this link to view it on You Tube.
Listen to music - ipods are great, all your favourite tracks in one place.
If you have any more great ideas, let us know.
June 9th, 2008
It is actually finally starting to feel like summer and it is that time of the year when people start to book their holidays. It is very easy to spend all your time choosing your holiday destination and then busily buying new summer clothes and shoes that forgetting to buy or check your travel insurance is common place.
There are many travel insurance providers and it can be very confusing as to what type of policy to go for and who to go with. Some people may already have received free travel insurance through their bank account but please ensure that you have read the small print and understand exactly what you are insured for.
The Times Online have compiled a really helpful article about how to choose your travel insurance policy. It takes you through what The Foreign and Commonweath Office recommend your travel insurance should cover and more useful information.
Don’t forget that if you are travelling in Europe you need to apply for your European Health Insurance Card as this entitles you to free or discounted medical treatment.
Make sure that the Travel Insurance you buy is the best for you in terms of price and cover. For example if you normally have two or three holidays in the year then it would probably be cheaper to buy an annual multi-trip policy rather than a single policy for each trip. Also, if you are a sporty person and plan on taking part in a certain sporting activity on holiday, make sure that this is included on your insurance. An article by MSN gives more tips on this including ensuring you have adequate car insurance cover if driving abroad and the all important luggage and baggage cover should anything go missing or get damaged.
May 6th, 2008
This year’s winners of the Telegraph Travel Awards have just been unveiled.
New Zealand beats the Maldives and Australia to win Favourite Destination Worldwide, whilst Sydney - followed by Cape Town and Vancouver - gets the nod as the Favourite City Worldwide. Italy is, as it was ten years ago, winner of the favourite European Country award, ahead of Greece and Switzerland, whilst York - beating Edinburgh and Bath - tops the list for Favourite UK City.
You can browse the full list via the link above but just as interesting is the commentary provided by Nigel Starmer-Smith in which he unpacks the results and makes comparison with the first awards of ten years agoshowing how, in these awards at least, the US has fallen off the map despite the weak dollar and largely due to the increased security measures that make entering the country so much more of a struggle. France has also fallen from favour as one of the favourite countries, as has Paris as one of the favourite cities, though it’s ski resorts have found favour again, ousting the previously more popular North American destinations.
Of course ten years ago, the Internet was just a babe in arms and travel agents would just not have been concerned about the prospect of customers independently booking holidays, flights, hotels and so on online rather than relying on the packaged holidays they were being offered in the high street. It’s a different story now of course - and in this tenth year the winners of best travel websites are tripadvisor.co.uk followed by dealchecker.co.uk and kayak.co.uk.
Whether it’s comparing offers, booking your flights or accommodation, reading a fellow traveller’s review of a city, hotel or restaurant, or arranging your travel money or travel insurance…the fact that you can research it and book it all online shows what a remarkable transformation has occurred in recent years. Who knows what else lies ahead? Maybe one day we really will be taking holidays like those in Total Recall where you can enjoy an imaginary holiday through memory implants. The upside - if you’ve never seen the film - is great holiday memories without the risk of poor weather or a bad hotel, and all without taking the time off work, and you can even choose to ‘travel’ as a romantic or adventure hero and take a holiday from yourself. As for the downside, well, if you have never seen the film, make sure you do!
December 2nd, 2007
As of today, Eurostar started offering carbon neutral journeys. ‘Carbon neutral’ is a phrase we read a lot about and - without wishing to teach the eco warriors amongst you to suck organic eggs - in simple terms it means reducing and offsetting the total calculated CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions you cause. In the case of Eurostar they are doing this by buying ‘carbon credits’ in specially chosen projects that will reduce an equivalent amount of CO2 to the amount created giving a net balance of zero.
Now, not only is it good for the planet, it is also a very potent marketing message to give to customers - “take a green train, rather than a damaging flight” - and one that they make good capital of on their website, pointing out that travelling by Eurostar to their ‘core destinations’ (Paris, Brussels) emits ten times less CO2 than flying.
It’s a persuasive message - and for short-haul trips it might be an easy choice to make especially if the fares are good, the journey more convenient not to mention global warming concerns. If however. you are planning a long-haul flight this winter to some warmer clime, getting a train may not be an option, and the airline you book with may not offer a carbon offsetting programme.
So, what to do? Well, one thing to do could be to take care of your own ‘carbon footprint’ yourself. and one place you can do this is via the Carbon Neutral website. Amongst its many offerings are Carbon Flights where you can quickly and easily choose to support a project that is helping to reduce carbon dioxide levels. The cost of this, from around £4 for a short-haul flight to around £50 for a long-haul flight.
Offsetting before you go off-jetting is a great way to reduce the environmental damage but leaving it to us individuals may not see many people taking the initiative and paying up. That Eurostar have taken the lead and done the job for each passenger - and without ostensibly increasing prices - is to be commended.
We’ll update future posts with other green travel news - but please do let us know your views on this subject.
November 14th, 2007
The government has recently announced that they are going to roll out the use of the hard-shoulder on motorways at peak driving times. After a year of testing on the M42 the scheme is going to be soon extended to other motorways including the M1, M4, M6, M25 and M40.
The announcement raises a few questions
including whether the use of these previously empty lanes will hinder the work of the emergency services (although The Highways Agency insists it won’t) and, as claimed by Friends of the Earth, whether this “motorway widening by stealth” will simply attract more cars and cause even more carbon dioxide emissions.
Can the two battles - one against gridlock, the other against environmental damage - both be won? And will lives be lost if, say, ambulances or helicopters aren’t able to reach an accident scene because of a blocked hard shoulder.
Whatever the government’s priorities one thing is for sure: allowing us to use the hard shoulder is a less expensive option than stumping up the money to add an extra new lane….
November 2nd, 2007
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