The Spanish government has launched a campaign to have its healthy Mediterranean diet recognised as a protected world cultural treasure.

The Spanish diet is based on healthy ingredients, such as olive oil, fish and vegetables and the government wants it to be the first cuisine on the UNESCO list of traditions, festivals, rituals and crafts.

Spain is first trying to gain the support of its European neighbours and Portugal (currently holding the EU presidency) has already pledged support.

Scientists have proved the benefits of the Spanish diet, making it possible to live long, healthy lives, especially compared to the British diet.

This summer, more UK travellers are booking Spanish holidays (including the Spanish islands) than holidays in other destinations.

Source: Homes Worldwide

EasyJet has announced six new routes offering cheap flights to cities in Europe.

The new flights will start on 1st October 2007 from several UK airports to the Romanian capital Bucharest, Gdansk in northern Polan and Innsbruck in Austria.

The routes are:-
Daily flights to Gdansk from London Gatwick (starts 1st October 2007).
Daily flights to Bucharest from London Gatwick (starts 29th October 2007)
Daily flights to Gdansk from Edinburgh Airport (starts 30th October 2007)
Flights to Innsbruck from London Gatwick, six times a week (starts 14th December 2007)
Flights to Innsbruck from Bristol Airport, three times a week (starts 14th December 2007)

The new Innsbruck flights offer skiers an extra option when booking their Austrian ski holidays.

A survey of 50,000 guests in American hotels has revealed that guests are happy with environmentally friendly programmes - but many aren’t aware of the policies.

New, green policies include having request only bed linen and towel changes and water-efficient bathrooms.

Over all the 35-45 year old age range were most happy to participate in green hotel policies, with 95% of this age group stating that they will take part if they are made aware of the hotels’ schemes.

Of the guests surveyed, 86% said they would get involved in such schemes if they were offered an incentive.

The message to hoteliers from the survey by JD Power is that “it is vitally important that hotel properties actively market their eco-friendly offerings and make them easy to recognize and participate in”.

A recent YouGov survey discovered that one-in-five people in the UK would be prepared to pay an increased “green tax” on air travel.

Millions of families across the UK are flying abroad this weekend, the first weekend of the school holidays.

UK airports face their busiest weekend of the year.

700,000 will fly from Heathrow and Gatwick, 130,000 from Manchester, 150,000 each from Manchester and Stansted, 75,000 from Luton and 65,000 from Birmingham.

There will also be 50,000 travellers passing through the Channel Tunnel.

ABTA has warned holidaymakers to expect queues.
Extra numbers are bound to put a strain on resources, particularly at airports.
“Holidaymakers should prepare carefully to make sure they can get through the airport process as quickly as possible.”

Lostweekend.tv has produced a list of the best rooftop bars in Europe.

1. Barcelona – the Hotel Majestic.
This hotel is one the tallest in the city and so offers panoramic views. It’s a popular meeting place for pre-club drinks.

2. London – The Trafalgar Hotel
Apparently “gets rammed with bodies as soon as the sun makes an appearance”, but feels miles above the city streets and shows London off brilliantly.

3. Rome – The Zest Bar, Radisson
This is one of Rome favourite celebrity hangouts and as well as being the spot for people watching and having surprising views of Roman aqueducts, there’s a pool!

4. Hvar, Croatia – The Adriana
This is Croatia’s equivalent of the South of France. The bar overlooks the harbour which is packed with millionaires’ yachts and has a “buzzing” atmosphere.

5. Seville – Corral del Rey
It’s only open to guests unfortunately, but it’s worth booking a room to enjoy it. Great views of Seville Cathedral and a pool.

Majorca is the most popular destination for holidays, it has been revealed by online travel agency Holidays-Direct, www.holidays-direct.co.uk after a review of sales of summer holidays.

Although well established as one of the top European family holiday destinations, it is a surprise to see Majorca holidays ahead of the hugely popular Spanish Costas, which are famous for offering good value and cheap family holidays.

The top 10 summer holiday destinations are as follows:-

1. Majorca
2. Costa Brava
3. Costa del Sol
4. Costa Blanca
5. Corfu
6. Algarve
7. Prague
8. Costa Dorada
9. Turkey
10. Cyprus

Overall Spain is once again the most popular country for summer holidays, with five appearances in the top 10, including Majorca.

Prague is the only citybreak destination to make the top 10. Short breaks in Prague are popular throughout the year, especially near Christmas when the city hosts Christmas markets in the medieval Old Town centre. Prague is also one of the top choices for hen and stag weekends.

Corfu is the only Greek island in the top 10, like Majorca it is a popular choice for family holidays and has recently established itself as great location for couples choosing to marry abroad.

There have been widespread reductions on holiday accommodation rates in mainland Spain and Turkey this summer, making both countries ideal for people looking for cheap family holidays.

Last summer a study of web searches for holiday destinations revealed that Portugal, particularly The Algarve, was the most searched for holiday destination.

Majorca (Mallorca) is an ideal family holiday destination and first became popular with travellers from the UK in the 1960s. There is a wide choice of luxury hotel complexes and self-catering apartments along the clean, sandy stretches of beach. As well as catering to families, the island has a mixture of quiet and more lively resorts with great bars and restaurants, for people looking for nightlife on holiday.

Inland there are several quaint, unspoilt old towns to explore in the mountainous, rural landscape.

Another reason for Majorca holidays being so popular is that there are regular flights to the island from airports all around the UK, making it a convenient choice for holidaymakers wherever they live.

Airports operating regular flights to Majorca: -

Belfast, Birmingham, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Doncaster Sheffield, Durham Tees Valley, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Exeter, Gatwick, Glasgow, Humberside, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Southampton, Stansted.

Note to editors:
This report is based on total sales to date through Holidays-Direct at www.holidays-direct.co.uk and partner site www.citybreaks-direct.co.uk for summer 2007 (May to October).

Online travel agency www.holidays-direct.co.uk is part of the Midlands Co-operative Society Group and is a member of ABTA. They specialise in providing affordable flights and accommodation in the top holiday destinations around the world.

Booking of online travel in Europe grew by 30 per cent in 2006.

This is a substantial growth, especially compared to the US which appears to have reached a plateau.

An industry expert says the European market tends to be more profitable than in the US because European travellers are more likely to book accommodation as well as airline tickets.

Online travel accounts for approximately one-fifth of travel sales in Europe and 12 per cent in Asia. In America, 30 per cent of domestic travel reservations are made online, but it is predicted that will rise to 50 per cent.

The analysis of online travel bookings was made by the New York Times.

The world famous Luxor hotel in Las Vegas is getting a multi million dollar makeover.

Distinctive Sphinx and pyramid design will remain after the renovation of the casino-hotel’s interior has been completed.

“The outside of the Luxor is one of the most famous icons of Las Vegas. We’re not going to change that,” a spokesperson said, “What MGM Mirage and Luxor are looking to do is deliver on the promise of the dramatic exterior with a series of contemporary dynamic amenities within the resort.”

About 80 per cent of the hotel will be re-modelled with lounges, restaurants and a nightclub being added.

The Egyptian theme inside the hotel will be softened. “We’re not a British museum with ancient artifacts, we’re a casino-resort,” Luxor President and COO Felix Rappaport told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Luxor is one of the main sights on the famous Sunset Strip in Las Vegas.

Popular Med holiday destinations, Cyprus and Malta will use the Euro from 1 January 2008, it has been confirmed by EU finance ministers.

Both countries joined the EU in 2004, along with Slovenia who adopted the Euro as its official currency at the beginning of 2007.

€1 will equal 0.585274 Cyprus pounds and 0.4293 Maltese lira.

Having the same currency as other neighbouring countries will make it easier for holidaymakers to visit Cyprus and Malta as part of multi-destination Mediterranean holidays.

Both countries are popular stopping points for Mediterranean cruises.

Once again Florence has been voted the world’s best city.

The Tuscan city which is home to some of the finest art collections in the world, regularly comes top of readers’ polls and has been voted the World’s Best City by Travel + Leisure magazine.

The full top 10 is as follows;-

Florence
Buenos Aries
Bangkok
Rome
Sydney
New York
Udaipur (India)
Istanbul
San Francisco
Cape Town

Florence is an ideal starting point for touring holidays in Italy, or as a short European city break.

The Uffizi is the oldest art gallery in the world and contains works by Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Botticelli and many more great artists.

The city lies in the beautiful Tuscan countryside and, as well as the famous artworks, boasts some of the most beautiful architecture in Italy.

Fashionistas’ eyes have turned away from Paris and Milan this week and towards Germany as the Berlin Fashion Week takes place, the first time the city has hosted the event.

A number of big name designers have taken part, including Vivienne Westwood and Hugo Boss. The event kicked off with an Underground Catwalk event when models strode through Berlin’s Alexanderplatz Station.

Stars spotted on the front rows at the shows included Mischa Barton, Rupert Everett and Christina Ricci.

However, two A-listers were missing from the opening night party. According to reports, Katie Holmes and her daughter with Tom Cruise, Suri, were turned away at the door.

Sources claim that the guest list was closed and the party too full, but there has been controversy in Germany over the filming of Cruise’s latest film, Valkyrie, about a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler.

Berlin has become a major European fashion centre in the last 15 years and is estimated to be the home of more than 3,000 fashion designers.

Paris city councillors have announced plans to preserve the unique atmosphere of the city’s Left Bank, the haunt of artists and intellectuals over the ages.

A fighting fund of £21 millions has been released to reverse the current trend towards the development of “soulless” chain stores, such as McDonalds and Starbucks appearing in the area.

Such businesses are replacing the bohemian shops and restaurants that are so closely associated with the area and are the favourites of the millions living in and taking holidays in Paris.

The new scheme will ensure that all commercial properties on the Left Bank (the 5th and 6th arrondissements) must be associated with “books, art or highbrow cinema”.

Many famous authors have spent time in the Left Bank, including Proust and Hemingway and Picasso, who developed his revolutionary Cubist painting style while living in the area.

Edinburgh Airport is narrowing the gap with Glasgow Airport, the busiest airport in Scotland, recording the highest levels of passengers passing through the airport this June.

On 29th June over 35,000 passengers came through Edinburgh Airport, 1,000 more than the previous record. During the month, there was 3.6 per cent increase in the number of passengers compared to the previous year.

“It is a very busy and exciting time and I am delighted that, on our busiest ever day, we maintained our high levels of customer service and ensured that all of our passengers passed through security within five minutes,” said David Johnston, managing director of Edinburgh Airport.

“We have planned carefully for this busy summer period and worked hard to ensure that we can cope with such large numbers of passengers by investing in security as well as terminal facilities.”

Edinburgh Airport has flights to a number of major European cities as well as summer holiday resorts in the Canaries, mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands, Turkey, Bulgaria and Portugal and more.

To reduce the stress and wasted time caused by queueing at check-in time, Bristol Airport has introduced a number of self-service kiosks.

Bristol Airport is one of the fastest growing airports in the UK and the largest in the South West.

The new kiosks are just part of Bristol Airport’s re-designed check-in procedures as the airport updates its infrastructure to cope with the extra demand.

Travellers can get flights from Bristol to Alicante, Lanzarote and other popular hot sun destinations as well as Paris, Venice and Amsterdam and other European cities..

Tour operators are reporting a surge in holiday bookings during July - prompted by the flash floods and appalling weather across the UK.

Holidaymakers looking for some sun are picking holidays in Greece, ahead of other destinations. Greece has been enjoying a heatwave during the last month.

Several holiday booking agencies experienced surges in bookings of upto 20 per cent.

The recent rush in bookings has led to Greece being the most popular holiday destination at the moment, ahead of Egypt and Spain.

Monday is the most popular day of the week for making bookings, with Friday and Saturday the least popular.

June was the wettest since records began in 1914, according to the Met Office.

It’s not just holiday companies that have benefited from the poor weather, Marks & Spencer are reporting a 30-40 per cent increase in the sales of tights.

Source: The Guardian