Travel Mail Blogs

• America has a lot to sort out - it could make a start with banning valet parking

  It's probably just the fact that I'm incredibly mean but I really dislike the whole business of valet parking. How hard, after all, is it to park your own car? For the Americans, it seems, valet parking has become increasingly...

  Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:49:16 +0000
• Holidays for lottery winners: Where would you travel if you won £45million?

  Posted by Chris Leadbeater, Travel Writer, TravelMail £45,570,835.50. As numbers go, it is baffling to look at. Baffling even when it appears as the pre-tax profit of a major conglomerate or the transfer fee for some random footballer – but...

  Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:43:13 +0000
• Free bikes for tourists in London? Their biggest battle will be with odious cycling commuters

  Next year’s big event in London, in case you were wondering, will be our own version of Paris’s VeLib bike hire scheme that was launched in the French capital two years ago (and which has since become the world’s largest...

  Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:20:32 +0000
• £1002 to go by train from Cornwall to Scotland? For that price, it had better be the Hogwarts Express

  Posted by Chris Leadbeater, Travel Writer, TravelMail Four small figures. One, zero, zero, two. Looked at as separate words, they have little impact. But put a pound sign in front and print them as figures – £1002 – and they...

  Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:30:36 +0000
• Who knew four hours in Newport could be so much fun?

  Newport in Monmouthshire has much to recommend it: a fine Transporter Bridge, a proud place in the history of Chartism and a grunge claim to fame as this was where - allegedly - Kurt Cobain plighted his troth to Courtney...

  Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:08:08 +0000
• Stonehenge, Cheryl Cole and Barack Obama: A curious insight into the minds of Britain's children

  Posted by Chris Leadbeater, Travel Writer, TravelMail Another week, another survey that attempts to drill its way into the country’s cranium, pitch a tent in the national grey matter and work out what we all think. This time it’s the...

  Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:38:53 +0000
• In a post-budget airline society everybody feels entitled to charge for services which used to be free

  By Frank Barrett, Travel Editor, The Mail on Sunday Luton Airport has a security ‘Priority Lane’ system which costs £3. You can pay nothing and join the slow crawl in the main drab area or – for your £3 –...

  Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:53:12 +0100
• Birmingham Airport versus London Heathrow: Would a bigger Brum really ease London's congested skies?

  Posted by Chris Leadbeater, Travel Writer, TravelMail An interesting nugget of travel-related news popped up on the radar earlier this week when Birmingham Airport waltzed onto the media stage and danced for the cameras. The story, if you missed it,...

  Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:37:08 +0100
• Ryanair's toilet trouble is pain in the neck for passengers

  By Frank Barrett, Travel Editor, The Mail on Sunday In February this year Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary mentioned that the airline was ‘mulling over’ a plan to charge people to use aircraft toilets. ‘Spend a Pound to spend a penny,’ he...

  Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:56:12 +0100
• Searching for supermodels: The implausible hunt for the next Kate Moss on the back seat of a National Express coach

  Posted by Chris Leadbeater, Travel Writer, TravelMail Every so often, you hear of an idea that conjures up the twin images of chalk and cheese. You know the sort of thing – the news that highly-paid, TV-presenter-squiring, Italian-shoe-wearing former England...

  Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:03:45 +0100