[Ed Kaan]

post your best holiday destination and give reason why you think its your best holiday destination...

[Mr Bee]

Benidorm has out sold Paris, Rome and Venice for short breaks over Valentine’s weekend, according to figures from TravelRepublic.co.uk.



The online travel agent said sales of February 14 trips have soared by 55% compared to this time last year, and the Spanish beach resort is the biggest winner.

Managing director Paul Furner said: “We’re totally gobsmacked by the fact that Benidorm has come out on top as the destination of choice for the Valentine’s weekend this year.

“Demand has also been really strong for short, romantic city breaks, with Rome, Prague, Paris and Amsterdam following hot on Benidorm’s heels.”


Benidorm is not the only surprising Spanish resort to feature on the top 10 list of Valentine destinations, with Torremolinos appearing at number seven.


Furner added: “We have some fantastic deals to the likes of Paris and Rome but things can get pretty expensive while you’re there.

"You can understand why an off-peak trip to a fun resort town would certainly have an appeal for the more budget conscious couple.”ttg



The Valentine’s top 10



Benidorm

Rome

Prague

Paris

Amsterdam

New York

Torremolinos

Dublin

Budapest

Venice

[Joanne Harding]

The government has admitted the compete ban on flying in UK airspace was "over-cautious" after new safety guidelines were issued allowing all airports to re-open at 10pm on Tuesday.

The Civil Aviation Authority issued the guidance dramatically reducing the area of “no fly zones” hours after chief executives of the UK’s major airlines met transport secretary Lord Adonis to demand restrictions on flying be relaxed.

The meeting was the culmination of a day of pressure from airlines, airports and tour operators who wanted the UK to follow European air space regulators who reduced restrictions this week to allow flying through airspace with low concentrations of volcanic ash.

Lord Adonis later admitted the ban had been “over-cautious”. Speaking on Newsnight he said the government had followed international rules, but “stress testing” of those rules meant it was no longer appropriate to ban all flying where there was any ash in the atmosphere.

The CAA said it had made the decision after setting a new standard for safe ash levels that was based on data collected from test flights in the last few days. Flying will still not be allowed in airspace where ash is above a certain level or in a 60 mile buffer zone around that area.

Air traffic control service Nats said the only area in the UK above safe levels was a small area over north west Scotland. The situation continued to be "dynamic" because of changing weather conditions, but the extent of restrictions was not expected to change overnight.


Airlines warned there would still be major disruption tomorrow, said it would take days for services to return to normal, and called on the government to lay on more repatriation flights.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said he was “delighted that the authorities have paid heed to the arguments we and the industry have put forward”.

BA plans to operate all long-haul flights departing Heathrow and Gatwick on Wednesday but said there would be short-haul cancellations at London airports until 1pm

Virgin Atlantic chief executive Steve Ridgway said it would take several days to get everyone affected to their destinations, and said the government should provide extra flights to speed up repatriation.

BMI said some flights would operate from 9.15am on Wednesday but customers should travel to their airport only when the flight was confirmed.

EasyJet said it would run some but not all services in the UK and continental Europe from Wednesday morning but warned there would be delays for several days.ttg

[Andy Pandy]

Planning almost complete, going on a driving trip around europe. we are going to try and experience as many Euro countries as possible in two weeks. We are seeking any ideas and places to stay and things to do. Anyone else done the european driving experience?

[maria ola]

Planning almost complete, going on a driving trip around europe. we are going to try and experience as many Euro countries as possible in two weeks. We are seeking any ideas and places to stay and things to do. Anyone else done the european driving experience?

If you want to be behind the wheel all day you can see several countries south of France, but if you want to relax and still see several different countries, take the ferry nearest your home to either the north of France, Belgium or the Netherlands.
Travel through Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark if you live in the north of England, and take a ferry back from the north of Germany, or after Germany go south, (Switzerland is possible,) and go back home through France.

I have done things like that traveling by train, but I prefer to have one day or more between traveling, so I have time to see the place.

I entered the plan London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg, Achen, Copenhagen, London into a travel planner and got 3600 km.

For a travel on to the south, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Luxembourg, Achen, Geneva, Paris, London I get 3100 km.

This will give you an indication on how far you travel per day, about 200 to 250 km in these examples, but if you add more countries the daily distances will increase, or you will need to do long travels each day instead of every second day or so.

[Ed Kaan]

Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast has been named as the best beach holiday destination in a new survey.

The eastern European destination came top in a study of beach holidays commissioned by price comparison website, Kelkoo, and conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Bulgaria was followed by northern Tunisia, Antalya in Turkey, and Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh. Cornwall was only the UK destination to feature in the top 20 list, coming in at 14th place.

The study rated the world’s most popular beach destinations on 10 criteria, including climate, security, local affordability of goods and services, quality of food, the cost of flights and accommodation, tourist attractions, and the exchange rate.

A YouGov survey of almost 2,300 adults was conducted to find out the importance British holidaymakers placed on each factor, and the scores for each destination were then weighted accordingly to determine the ‘Kelkoo Beach Index’ rankings.

Affordability was the main concern for holidaymakers with 85% of those surveyed saying it was a key priority followed by security on 81%, the weather on 78% and good food on 77%.ttg