Travel tips & opinions

January brings the consumer travel shows and they kick off today at Manchester’s Event City with Destinations.

Check to see if the organisation offering the holiday let is a member of any trade association. If it looks to be so, check that the trade association exists in the country concerned.

Deal with a company that is bonded so that you don’t lose it if a problem concerns. Buy your trip on a credit card (not a debit card or with cash) so that you have redress in case of an issue and perhaps, most importantly, take out travel insurance.

Vivian McCarthy, director of Acacia Africa (adventure tours experts specialising in overland African travel) shares his travel highs and lows with Just About Travel readers…

We start our survey of what the industry “experts” suggest by looking at ABTA, the main trade body for the British travel industry, and what it thinks will be the top twelve destinations to watch over the coming year.

Happy Christmas to all our readers wherever you are in the world.

The campaign has been re-ignited to remind us that irresponsible passenger behaviour can exist at any time with Christmas being no exception.

Should you or should you not wrap Christmas presents if you are flying out of the country?

There must be attractions that don’t appeal to everybody. Stonehenge and Blackpool Tower could be two of them in which case no amount of clever marketing by the local tourist board would persuade some to travel there.

It’s no secret that some of the world’s most amazing destinations are feeling the tourism squeeze. But that’s no reason to stay put: as communities cope with travellers’ all-too-loving embrace, being a good tourist just means getting strategic about where to go and when

It appears that tourism this year wasn’t quite as good as in 2017. Having said that it looks like growth will be up by about 5%.

Do you visit pantos for the “names” or the stalwarts who make the shows hum? It doesn’t matter as long as you enjoy them. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without visitig at least one.

Just because you’re a seasoned traveller doesn’t mean you have any reason to get jaded in 2019. There are plenty of exciting new openings coming next year to inspire you to plan your next trip…

Despite what trendy management gurus say, there is still a big demand for package holidays – it is just not as big as it was.

If the big companies, those with huge IT budgets cannot manage to keep our data secure should we continue to trust them with our information?

Just About Travel tells you what’s hot (and what’s not) in the travel world right now

The ultimate gaol is that no-ne will be interviewed by a border officer. We will all go through automated booths

It always fascinates me when I am abroad to flick through the travel pages of newspapers to see if there is anything written about the UK and Ireland.

Before Dickens, the word “scrooge” did not exist. Find me anyone today who is unaware of what a scrooge is?

Today being both Remembrance Sunday and the day that the war finally ended 100 years ago, there will be many services around the world although no veterans of the war are still alive.

According to research by World Travel Market, more than three million of us booked a holiday after being influenced by a television programme.

Just About Travel tells you what’s hot (and what’s not) in the travel world, right now

The change from green to tan in the UK is every bit as pronounced and as attractive as you can see in many other countries.

Here are eight things you should know before you go

It seems that some of us are concerned about Brexit and are waiting before booking EU holidays next year.

I suggested that people might be taking both an overseas holiday and a short breaks in the UK. But Holiday Habits suggests that the number of Britons taking a holiday in the UK has fallen from an average of 2.1 to 1.8.

The report tells us that Spain and Portugal remained popular which will surprise absolutely no-one. But holidays in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria became much more popular.

Stephen Phelan shares a memorable experience from the road