A new innovative competition exhorts amateur and professional photographers alike to capture Alfred Wainwright's Lake District. The photography competition is launched as part of The Cumberland Ale Keswick Mountain Festival to discover the best image that clearly projects the reputed author's love for the Lakeland fells. Triggered by the BBC's Wainwright Walks series by Julia Bradbury, people's interest in Alfred Wainwright's Lake District walking guides has been consistently growing with the second series currently on at BBC2.

Interestingly, the judges for this photography competition are Sir Chris Bonington, the popular mountaineer and Tony Riley, the reputed mountain photographer.

Tony Riley remarks, "We're looking for photos with a strong Wainwright theme. So it could be something based on a location or maybe a description used in one of his books. This could be combined with aspects of mountain adventure, such as climbing, walking and biking, as well as mountain landscapes. You could for instance find the same viewpoint he used for one of his drawings."

Ryanair has decided to offer flight services from Edinburgh to a number of brand new destinations in September, using two newly delivered aircrafts. Already, the airline is offering its services from Edinburgh to Shannon and Dublin. In addition, the airline has also announced its decision to fly its services to Alicante, Frankfurt, Bremen, Pisa and Marseille in April.

According to the announcement made on February 28th Ryanair's new services will fly between Edinburgh and Dusseldorf from June with two flights a week.

In addition, several new routes are introduced to commence in September. Destinations like Bilund, Poznan, Palma and Krakow will be served with three flights a week. Wroclaw and Lodz will see two of Ryanair's flights every week. Berlin, Bratislava, Malaga and Stockholm will be served with four flights a week. Bournemouth will see 13 flights of Ryanair arriving from Edinbugh every week.

In a significant move to encourage its passengers check-in online, Virgin Atlantic has decided to launch a new initiative. By way of getting more passengers check-in online, the airline is offering discount vouchers redeemable over a range of attractive benefits.

With effect on travels between 1st August and 30th September, the scheme is available for online check-in while traveling from London Heathrow to London Gatwick or Manchester. According to this scheme, the web-based check-in of the airline will offer a chance to the customers to print off a discount voucher. Notably, the voucher offers £6 off over every £30 spent on Virgin's in-flight Retail Therapy shopping service. The passengers will also receive attractive discounts and vouchers that can be used at a range of duty free retail outlets located within Heathrow Airport's Terminal 3 and the South Terminal of Gatwick Airport.

Paul Dickenson, the airline's sales and marketing director, remarked, "We hope that this promotion will encourage passengers to check-in online before their trip as it means that on arrival at the airport, they simply hand over their luggage at the 'Bag Drop' desk and go straight through security, making the whole process much quicker and stress free for them."

Though relatively new for the UK scenario, Rocky Mountain Cuisine has started enticing visitors to Alberta's cosmopolitan cities and mountain resorts. Travel Alberta has announced the visit of Alistair Barnes, the Executive chef of Rocky Mountain Resorts and the champion of Rocky Mountain Cuisine between 8th and 11th March 2008 for promoting his new book Simple Treasures.

Notably, Alistair has gained a commendable expertise over the past two decades in developing recipes that highlight the best of Western Canadian cuisine. The Rocky Mountain Cuisine exclusively uses fresh, local produce to prepare dishes featuring an authentic taste of the Rockies. The select range of regional produce procured for cooking includes fruits, vegetables, grains, fish and meat of buffalo and elk.

Chef Alistair Barnes personally supervises every kitchen of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Resort (CRMR) working with the Head Chefs functioning from every property to cook dishes that will inspire home cooks. In fact, beautifully rendered with colourful photographs, the cookbook of Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts is a fascinating biography of Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts, which explores the history, atmosphere and ambience of each property.

Under bright lights, Las Vegas is to host the big fight live during this April. During the most awaited occasion, Joe Calzaghe, the popular world super middleweight champion is to go head to head with Bernard Hopkins of America in his first fight at light heavyweight. Bustling with magnificent shows, alluring casinos and wonderful hotel resorts, Las Vegas is going to be a paradise for thrill seekers.

Vibrant with a range of excitement and delights throughout the year, the visitors can find never ending excitements and attractions continuing even after the event, keeping them entertained as long as they would prefer. 

The thrill of a live performance can never be beaten up by technological advancements, high definition television and surround sound. Therefore, to make the most out the event, you can grab a seat at the ringside and get enthralled with the firsthand experience offered by Gold Medal Travel.

Enjoying the 225 square kilometers of unspoiled desert landscape, Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa located in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve is all set to host a range of adventure, excitement and romance of the most awaited 'Around the World in 80 days' programme.

Forming part of the resort's global campaign marking 80 years of the Academy Awards, the new initiative also coincides with the 80th anniversary celebrations of The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd.

Notably, The Leading Hotels of the World Ltd. is a reputed and prestigious luxury organisation of the hospitality industry that represents over 450 of the world's finest hotels and spas besides including the Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, which is an exceptional 42-suite luxurious cameo hideaway boasting several prestigious awards.

Native Escapes has brought out a new way to help travel-hungry workers to stretch their leave allowances a bit further. Specialising in luxury small group adventure trips into South Africa, native escapes has designed a trip leaving over both bank holidays in May enabling the holidaymakers to make use of the bank holiday as a part of the proper break.

Setting out with the guided Wildlife, Tribes & Dolphins trip to South Africa & Mozambique during this May bank holiday, you can dream yourself donning the snorkel and mask and swim amidst a pod of wild dolphins. The snorkel mask enables a clear view of these wonderful creatures in interaction with each other. Also even as you stay in your boat, you can enjoy them jumping out of the water all along the boat. By way of ensuring the welfare of the mammals, the research project organising the trip has taken utmost care in designing the itinerary.

The highlights of the trip include Big 5 game drivers, tracking elephants and leopards, watching hippos and nighttime wildlife activity. Accommodation options are a real treat with comfortable B&B stay amidst tropical gardens and tented lodges along the beach or in African bush with verandas and private en-suite facilities. After an exciting day of your holiday pursuits, you can retire amidst the tranquil comfort lulled by the sounds of African bush. Excluding flights, the trip is priced from £1425 per person sharing.

For the first time ever in the car rental industry, Europcar UK Group, the leading car rental provider of the UK has declared its plans to add vital information to the description of its car group to reflect the average CO2 emissions of vehicles. Provided for both Europcar and National brands, the new information will help business and leisure travellers make greener decisions while renting.

Tim Bailey, Fleet Director of Europcar UK Group remarks, "Through this industry-leading initiative, Europcar and National will be the first daily rental brands to include average CO2 emissions in how cars are grouped, along with shell size and transmission. We believe this is an enormously positive step for the industry and we hope that the other rental providers will soon follow suit."

The initiative follows the commitment of the company deemed central to their business development strategy. The companies are also exploring new innovative technologies like HDI, bio-fuel and BlueMotion by way of introducing a sub-120gms CO2 emissions group.

If you are looking forward to celebrate this mother's Day with the ultimate treat, the best option is to take your mum away to one of the premium luxury country house hotels. Moorside Grange is located in the Peak District with wonderful facilities including a relaxation suite, steam room, Russian room and beauty salon to pamper your mum.

Over and above, you can as well take a good advantage of the four-poster tower suites featuring double Jacuzzi and the award-winning restaurant.

Best Western Premier Moor Hall Hotel & Spa located in Birmingham is a fabulous country house facility offering a luxurious first class setting to heighten the enjoyment of your family during this Mother's Day. The exquisite indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room are sure to thrill you with a touch of luxury. Coming as an extra surprise, you can avail a therapeutic beauty treatment to get the maximum out of this special time away with your mum.

With daffodils blooming over long stretches and sheep lambing near its amazing Dower House apartments, the splendid 1800-acre estate of Ickworth is building up to herald its spring splendour. The 11 spacious one and two bedroom apartments of the estate are located in a silent corner on the four acres of its private gardens.

Per night's stay in one of its spacious apartments is priced at £249.00 inclusive of VAT, dinner, bed and breakfast, two hours babysitting on the first night in addition to a healthy and tasty organic child's goodie hamper. The offer is valid from 1st March to 22nd May 2008 between Sunday and Thursday, excluding children's holidays and bank holidays. The stay is totally free for your children with charges collected only for meals.

Fowey Hall offers the best of Cornish hospitality heightened by luxurious accommodation and stunning views of the Fowey estuary besides a select range of the finest of local food. The speciality of the property is the traditional Cornish cream tea that welcomes you on your arrival in addition to a family ticket to visit the award-winning Eden Project during the course of your stay. As you stay at Cornwall, you just can't afford to miss the Bulb Mania Festival with its full bloom. The charges start from £155 on bed and breakfast basis.

With several guests longing to stretch their vacation and looking forward to a special memento, Red Carnation has been helping the guests over the past 11 years to purchase the beds they luxuriously slept on during vacations. At The Rubens, the special boutique of Red Carnation sells linen, robes, pillows and towels. Interestingly, they can also get any of these souvenirs monogrammed and forwarded to anywhere in the world.

Over and above, a variety of items like glass paperweights, tea caddies, fantastic wood boxes, candleholders, trinket boxes and embroidered caps adorn the shop.

Red Carnation Hotels is a family-run luxury property collection including the five-star London jewels including The Milestone Hotel that elegantly overlooks the Kensington Palace, and "41", overlooking the Royal Mews of the Buckingham Palace. The properties outside London are Dorset, a member of Relais & Châteaux and Summer Lodge Country House Hotel, Restaurant, and Spa.

Showing its presence since December 2007, Little Garonga is a brand new safari camp located in the Makalali Game Reserve boasting three exquisite luxury suites linked by beautiful pathways.

Operating separately from Garonga Safari Camp, Little Garonga is highly popular with discerning travellers. The two camps of Garonga enable the flexibility for its guests to occasionally meet up for dinners in the boma as and when they prefer. The gorgeous new Bush Bath is conveniently located nearby and can be used by both the camps in addition to the sleep-out deck under the stars.

Little Garonga features a private lounge, dining area, breakfast deck and boma in addition to a massage sala, besides offering facilities like its own dedicated guide, chef, vehicle and host.

After a series of renovations and extension works, the Mövenpick Resort Aswan opens anew with its contemporary design added with Nubian style elements.

Josef Kufer, Senior Vice President Africa Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts observes, "The newly renovated Mövenpick Resort Aswan reflects the high quality standards with which we intend to spoil our guests here in Egypt. With its fantastic location the resort is ideally suited to be combined with Nile cruises or a visit to the many sites in and around Aswan."

Every single area of the hotel is enhanced by warm and bright colour tones, apart from spacious interiors and a strongly contemporary design influenced by the local tradition perfectly blending with Nubian stylistic features. In addition to rooms, the public areas and gardens have also been renovated and redesigned extensively with the new arrivals of a large infinity pool and a Kids' Club.

With a stay at the five-star Columbia Beach Resort, you can hope to celebrate the Orthodox Greek Easter at Cyprus located in the Pissouri Bay. Notably, Columbia Beach Resort is a luxury hideaway located on a 2 km Blue Flag beach ideally surrounded by acres of vineyards stretching over the valleys behind in addition to a line of several rugged cliffs.

April is the best time to visit Cyprus to enjoy the bloom of spring flowers and the soothing warm weather. Falling on 27th April this year, this year's Orthodox Greek Sunday is the perfect time to join a lot of festivities and visiting beautiful churches scattered across the island with most of the icons seen covered with flowers.

The most important part of visits to Cyprus is the amazing range of unique specialty treats matching every event and season. With several invitees, the Cypriots enjoy a long afternoon on the day of Easter on long tables with wine and delicacies. The Columbia Beach Resort specialises in Flaouna, a traditional Cypriot pastry baked specially to mark Easter. The other highlights of the Easter menu are an aromatic lamb cooked on the spit and eggs dyed in yellow and dark red.

To strike a difference from the way you celebrate your Easter, you can choose to escape the stress and hassles of daily life to enjoy a relaxing Easter break at Downe Health Spa and Cottages located in North Devon. A week's stay at these splendid cottages starts from just £500 for a facility for two.

Ideally located on the Hartland Peninsula, Downe is endowed with amazing sea views overlooking the most beautiful Lundy Island and the vast stretches of the Atlantic. The region boasts five beautiful listed farm buildings of Victorian style that are perfectly suitable for couples as well as families. For those guests who do not want to cook at their cottages, breakfast and evening meals will be delivered right at their cottages. A delicious range of continental and English breakfast baskets are priced from £6 per person while the prices of gourmet meals start at £17 per person.

The Downe Health Spa is sited adjacent to the cottages sharing the amazing and tranquil view of the locality. This is deemed as the ideal place to unwind and rest. Featuring four treatment rooms, sauna, a spa, steam room, relaxation, gym and dining areas, the facility offers exclusive beauty treatments besides holistic therapies.

Specially targeting 18-34 year olds, www.cheapflights.co.uk has introduced a viral marketing campaign through its website. Entitled 'Enjoy Your Flight', this interactive campaign is certainly going to be a real trip carrying you with your dream holiday the moment you board the flight.

As you begin, you are invited to choose either a steward or stewardess, James and Joanna who will host you during your journey. From thereon, you start your journey along with video animation interacting with a wide range of flight activities. If you are after a risqué element, then you are sure to find a really thrilling one if you roll over the fantasy button.

The airline has designed this thrilling programme investing on the fact that flying has become more accessible to an increasing number of young people in the UK, who search their ideal destinations and flying modes on internet for booking. This titillating and funny campaign is aimed at increasing the brand awareness among youngsters in a fun-filled cheeky way.

www.jet2holidays.com, the reputed tour operator based in the North of England becomes the first tour operator to launch heavy child discounts available throughout the year stretching over school holidays. The scheme offers parents a wonderful chance to book kids places starting from as little as £49 which means no kids will miss their valuable term time.

This attractive offer is available on all breaks that depart from any of the six airports from where the firm operates. This move follows the recent initiative by the company to bring down deposits by two thirds making it £50 per booking, thus bringing down the cost of family holidays further. 

General Manager at Jet2holidays.com, Mandy Round, observed, "Despite the reported credit crunch, holidays still appear to be at the front of consumers' minds, so we aim to make these much valued breaks away as accessible and affordable for everyone. What's more, in response to widespread criticism of the industry last year regarding prices during school holidays, we are keen to stop kids missing crucial education time by ensuring cheaper places are available during school breaks."

Once a year, Mothering Sunday peeps its head exhorting people to thank their mothers at least on a day. Why not organize something interesting in Bristol taking some time to bring joy to your mother's eyes? Bristol has so much to offer to suit every taste and budget.

Bristol Zoo Gardens is certainly the perfect place for those who would like to celebrate Mothering Sunday with moms of different species. Salome, the Western lowland gorilla is mum to its cute baby Komale and Nina and Mary, the South American fur seals, are mums to playful seal pups Quito and Toro. Bristol Zoo Gardens boast of over 400 animals and entry is completely free. In addition, you can also relish a three course carvery lunch served by the Zoo's Millburn's Restaurant. Visit www.bristolzoo.org.uk for more.

Cruising at Bristol can be yet another thrilling experience in a highly relaxing Luncheon Cruise moving around the historic and vibrant city of Bristol harbour amidst a fantastic scenery around as you dine. Freshly prepared delicious lunch will be served onboard as you relax in the gallery. For those who prefer evening champagne cruise, the Silver Salmon is an ideal choice that departs from her mooring and cruises around Bristol's harbour serving champagne while taking in fantastic sights. Visit www.avonrivercruises.co.uk.

Don't confuse it with the local daily routine commute when you hear of the Trans Siberian train taking you along the long way from Moscow to Mongolia and China across Siberia. This is because, this trip is the time for you to enjoy the "big one" in style along with adventure and romance heightening your travel experience. This once in a lifetime journey is all set to load your travel with tons of enjoyment all along the cities and countryside ably accompanied by a guide.

As you travel by a 1st class modern private carriage endowed with shower facilities, you will find your carriage getting attached to different trains along the journey to enable longer stopovers. You can freely walk through the train out of the premium carrier to meet some of the locals and some notable great travelers on the globe. For each private coach, there will be two attendants throughout. Over and above, the group leader will also accompany the entire journey.

The highlights of the trip include visiting the church Yekaterinburg where the Romanov family were murdered, a memorable trip by the Lake Baikal the largest lake boasting of about 20% of the freshwater of the world and staying at a Siberian guest house, in addition to a stay at Ger, a house tent at Ulaanbaatar and visiting the Gobi desert and the Great Wall of China before heading to Beijing.

If you are booking for an Easter break before 29th February to La Croix du Vieux Pont at Berny Riviere, you can hope to spend the holidays in an exciting manner with Minnie and Mickey, in addition to receiving up to £55 off with Keycamp's early booking discount.

Located at just ninety-minute drive from Disneyland Resort Paris, this magnificent campsite assures of the best of both the worlds. Incidentally, this location is a great base from which you might explore the magic of Disney and the most exciting of European capitals besides enjoying a host of world-class facilities to keep the whole of your family entertained.

Exclusively for the kids, there's a splendid water park with slides and chutes, tennis and bike hire. As the kids have a wonderful time around, mum and dad can enjoy a rare privilege of getting pampered at the on-site spa or simply enjoy a relaxing time in the sauna.

Encouraged by the overwhelming success of its launch at the London Heathrow airport, Avis, the reputed car rental provider has decided to extend its guarantee of three-minute service to several other UK airports.

The scheme is made available for all those passengers who are presently part of the company’s frequent renter scheme called Avis Preferred. According to this scheme, the company will complete the rental process within three minutes once the passenger covered under this scheme enters the office of Avis. Over and above, if a passenger does not get his rental agreement completed within three minutes, then he would be sent a written apology in addition to a £20 retail voucher, by post.

In addition to London Heathrow, the scheme will be operated in other UK airports including London Gatwick, Edinburgh, London Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol.

You might adore the 'soul safari' at Garonga, get thrilled by the hot-air balloon flight over the Mara or get involved with a spa break in Mozambique or Kenya. Over and above, you might deem it a paradise while you enjoy the barefoot luxury on a private island or get totally drifted away while diving in Madagascar. The commonest feature of all these attractions of Africa is the stunning romantic setting. Several hottest honeymoons in Africa have a good number of amazing value-added packages for honeymooners provided through your favorite tour operators or travel agents.

Indigo Bay Island Resort and Spa located at Bazaruto Island, Mozambique features a newly opened Sanctuary Wellness Spa overlooking the blue ocean and offering 4day treatment rooms, wet treatment room with hydrotherapy capsule, ice pool and a hydro pool. Some of the top signature treatments include Rasul, Moya Crystal Massage and Elemis spa rituals. The location is ideal for those who prefer a honeymoon at the beach combining it with a safari in South Africa. The range of interesting activities includes horse riding, dune biking, bird watching, diving, water sports and snorkeling.

One of the top highlights of the resort is its exclusive Beach Honeymoon Chalet featuring its own private splash pool. For stays up to 6 nights, the honeymooners can get the seventh night as a compliment. In addition, they can also enjoy some fabulous value-added gifts.

Deemed as an icon of South Africa, The Blue Train is a top class 5-star hotel set on wheels. Recently, The Blue Train has announced two attractive packages combining the most interesting rail journey with a Golfers Break in a joint-effort with Zimbali Lodge in KwaZulu-Natal and a safari at Legacy's Bakubung Bush Lodge located in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. Both these packages are for 4 days with 2 set departure dates for the year 2008.

The two amazing Golfers Breakaways are scheduled between 11 â€" 15 September 2008 and 13 - 17 November 2008. Departing on a Thursday evening, this package includes a return overnight journey on The Blue Train and 2 bread and breakfast nights at Zimbali Lodge in KwaZulu-Natal. The trip also includes 2 rounds of golf at Zimbali Golf Estate. Non-golfers can opt for a R730-00 voucher to use at Camelot Spa at Zimbali. Surprise gifts onboard and a traditional braai dinner at Zimbali are other highlights. For sharing in a deluxe suite, prices start from £660 per person. 

The Bakubung Bonanza safari packages include two days accommodation on The Blue Train, in addition to 2 nights accommodation at the Bakubung Game Lodge located in the Pilanesberg Game reserve including a guided game driver per day and transfers. The schedules are between 24 and 27 September 2008 and from 29 December 2008 to 1 January 2009. The rates per person start from £525 based on sharing.

Boasting mild climate and long sunny days, spring is the ideal time to explore the scenic beauty of the villages and the abounding wildlife of Mallorca’s lush countryside. To enable you make the most out of your stay, Mallorca farmhouses offer a wide range of interesting activities for guests including walking, bird watching, and mountain climbing and cycling. Car hire comes as a compliment with the package heightening your experience of the trip by cruising to the whole island. The rates start from €60 per person.

Solveig McNeill the Mallorca Farmhouses personnel remarks, “Nature and hiking enthusiasts will love our selection of walking tours which take place in the heart of the rugged north mountain coastline. If you can tear your eyes away from the stunning scenery, then look out for rare black vultures and ensure to bring the camera along!”

All accommodation offers include a welcome hamper and maid service. Three important packages are noteworthy. With a capacity to sleep four, Son Roquer is a charming 2-bedroom country cottage located in Campanet, with prices starting from £266 per week.

One of the most exciting ways to celebrate Easter is to spend your holiday in Blists Hill Victorian Town located near Ironbridge, Shropshire. Interestingly, the visitors to this wonderful town during the Bank holiday weekend from 21-24 March can join the residents’ Easter celebrations.

With fabulous prizes awarded on each day, guests can wear an Easter bonnet and take part in the Easter Parade. One can watch the exciting pastime of egg dancing where the blindfolded village folk dance across a street is a classic experience of its own. The other interesting activities are ‘hunt-the-chick’ competition and participating in workshops for peg doll making and candle dipping.

The Coalport China Museum located close by is preparing itself for special Easter themed creative workshops for the holiday weekend for families to employ their artistic talents to good use at clay modeling and china painting sessions.

Adorned by fragrant springtime flowers, vistas of golden daffodils and lambs jumping in frolic, Easter is a very special time of the year. Over and above, the joy of spring is further enhanced by wonderful seasonal foods like chocolate Easter eggs, hot cross buns and the traditional Simnel Cake.

To give the most out of an involved Easter experience for the guests, General Tarleton Inn, at Ferrensby, North Yorkshire has come out with an attractive Easter offer. Notably, General Tarleton Inn is highly reputed for its wonderful range of food, classic atmosphere and ambience, luxurious accommodation options and a superb list of wines. Visitors booking for a minimum of 2-nights stay over weekend can also receive a complimentary lunch or dinner worth up to £25, and excluding drinks on each day of their stay.

This old coaching inn has now introduced the 21st century standards of modern comfort, set in some of the loveliest scenery of Yorkshire. The General Tarleton Inn assures of a highly relaxing atmosphere and fabulous beds to rest in addition to an exclusive range of delicious food and superb wines. Over and above, the most unique specialty of the Inn ensures from its excellent team of friendly staff who help you make the best of your visit making a huge difference.

This April, if you are booking for sampling a week of coastal holiday at The Cove in Cornwall, you can get ‘Scilly’ with two fabulous free day trip flights to the heavenly Scilly Isles.

Most notably, the Cove is an all-suite boutique hotel further enhanced with glamorous interiors of contemporary style. Harpers Bazaar has awarded an enviable accolade to this facility deeming it among one of the three fantastic escapes in the UK. The interesting highlights of the facility are monsoon showers and funky-four posters. In addition, the holiday experience can get the maximum out of the bistro and stylish bar, treatment room and sauna. The elegant outdoor pool beautifully set overlooking the beautiful Lamorna Cove is constantly maintained at soothing 30 degrees even during springs. With all this and several other attractive features, you have so much to make the most out of your holiday even as you are inside the hotel.

The suites come with different ranges, facilities and sizes with capacity to sleep from two to six. Each of the suites features a lounge, kitchen and a dining area. Most of the suites offer fantastic seaside views. Over and above, several suites feature wonderfully furnished balconies or private terraces. In April, the rents range between £600 and £2,412 per week. Weeklong bookings between 4th and 20th April 2008 are offered a pair of free flights to Scilly.

Denbies Wine Estate, the most renowned English vineyard has been credited with The Surrey Business Award for ‘Leisure and Tourism 2007/8’. The award is presented in acknowledgement of its outstanding achievements. It is interesting to note that Denbies Wine Estate has turned itself as one of the largest visitor attractions in addition to being one of the largest wine producers in the South-East of England.

Every year, Denbies attracts not less than 375,000 visitors with a 20% growth in annual turnover ensuing from their consistent commitment to growth and development. The highlights of its submissions were the disabled friendly extensions added to its parking and Wine and Gift Shop in addition to the refurbishments done to its Farmhouse Guest Accomodation. Exclusive to the Denbies, the new initiatives include The Gallery Restaurant and the immensely successful ‘Vine and Dine Grape picking experience’.

With a skilled and dedicated group of 155 staff, the estate is highly recognised for its futuristic thinking and enterprising nature. The award also commended the initiatives of Denbies to support more than 300 charities in a year as part of the estate’s commitment to the welfare of the local community.

March at Glasgow is going to be highly exciting with three most popular arts festivals in line throughout the month. These events are expected to draw a record number of audiences to this largest city of Scotland. These notable events include The Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival, Aye Write! - The Bank of Scotland Book Festival and the 16th French Film Festival UK.

Hosted for the sixth consecutive year between 6th and 23rd March, the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival is to present an interesting line of international and homegrown comedy talent. The highlights include a rare live appearance from French and Saunders, Omid Djalili and Mock the Week’s Dara O’Briain in addition to some of the best talents hailing from Glasgow like Jerry Sadowitz, Craig Hill and Karen Dunbar.

Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival comes back for the third time to the Mitchell Library between 7th and 15th March, with highlight appearances by Kathleen Turner and Tony Benn.

Boat-ox comes as an answer to the prayers of the age-conscious people who are in their 50s. Seeking eternal youth, many are heading towards South Lakes in droves.

With the aging process, oxygen levels in skin decreases and celebrities like Moss and Madonna are spending millions over oxygen supplementation and beauty therapy. However, those thriving on lower budgets prefer to head for the largest lake of England to rejuvenate their dehydrated and aging skin with clean and fresh air during a short cruise.

Oxygen therapy is already used to bring down wrinkles, combat acne and stimulate cell regeneration. Oxygen is endowed with miraculous potentials to make the skin breathe again to look radiant, alive and refreshed. With growing emphasis on oxygen needs of the skin, fanatics of health and beauty are placing Windermere firmly on their radar, planning as much time as possible in the clean and pure environment of this wonderful destination.

With yet another new plane of the airline to be based in this hub, Aer Lingus has introduced four new routes to destinations scattered across Europe from Belfast airport.

The new destinations from Belfast Airport include Budapest, Faro, Malaga and Rome. The new services take the number of services operated by the airline from this airport to eight. The services to Rome and Malga are scheduled to depart from Belfast Airport on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Flights in the other routes to Budapest and Faro will be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

While remarking about the introduction of these four new services from Belfast Airport, John Doran, the airport’s managing director observed, “We are very pleased to see the arrival of the third Aer Lingus aircraft to be based at Belfast International. This is the culmination of the initial £100 million Aer Lingus investment at the airport and we look forward to working with the airline over the coming months to grow and develop these routes."

Effective on all bookings made before 29th February, Air Canada offers attractive discounts by cutting the cost of prices for flights to the US for this spring. Discounts will be offered on all outbound travels made until 23rd March and all of the month of April. All the fares noted below are for return flights from London Heathrow. All types of taxes are also included in these prices.

Charges to Atlanta start from £300 and to Baltimore from £274. Prices to Boston start from £274 and to Chicago from £304. The cost of tickets to Dallas Fort Worth starts from £320 and to Denver from £334. To Detroit, the charges are from £304 and to Houston from £310. Flights to La Guardia are priced from £244 and to Los Angeles from £284. The price of tickets to Miami starts from £304 and the Newark from £244. To Orlando, the charges are from £314 and to Philadelphia from £271. The cost of tickets to Phoenix starts from £334 and to San Francisco from £304. To Tampa, the charges are from £310 and the price of tickets to Washington start from £274.

All charges noted above are subject to availability of tickets on the dates of journey. For weekend travels, surcharges may apply. Over and above, the airline states that to avail the offers on return tickets, passengers must stay on minimum a Saturday night, with the maximum stay for three months--overall very good offers. 

In an interesting move, MSC Cruises has launched a chocolate-themed, Mediterranean cruise for this spring.
If you are a chocolate lover, then you will also love the new chocolate-themed cruise offered by MSC Cruises. Scheduled in March to travel around the Mediterranean, the Italian cruise line is launching this innovative itinerary by way of celebrating 100 years of Italian chocolate.

As part of this exciting programme, there will be chocolate massages offered in the spa. In addition, 'Dinner for Lovers' is to provide a grand conclusion with samples got from the Nestlé Perugina range, and a chocolate tasting workshop on-board. Notably, the master chef for these delicacies hails from the School of Perugina Chocolate, who will also train the passengers how to combine chocolate with unusual flavours like spices, orange, liqueurs and coffee.

In April, MSC Cruises is to launch a star-studded ship in Dover to etch its reputation in the UK. Sophia Loren, the famous Italian film star will be playing her role as godmother. Interestingly, this will be the fifth MSC Cruises’ ship that she has named. Andrea Bocelli, Italian opera singer Scottish singer/songwriter will join her in addition to Radio One DJ Fearne Cotton and KT Tunstall.

In a significant move, Virgin Atlantic has recently confirmed that it has been successfully able to complete the world's first ever flight with a commercial aircraft that was powered by biofuel.

On 24th February, the airline operated one of its Boeings 747s from the London Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam using the fuel manufactured from a mix of babassu oil and coconut oil. This move occurs as one of the major steps by an airline to reduce its carbon footprint. It is significant to note that the aviation industry is seriously contemplating on the ways to reduce carbon emissions and contibute to green travel.

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic president claimed that the advent of the new fuel marks a major step forward in the attempts of the aviation industry to reduce carbon emissions. He remarked, "Today marks a biofuel breakthrough for the whole airline industry. Virgin Atlantic, and its partners, is proving that you can find an alternative to traditional jet fuel and fly a plane on new technology, such as sustainable biofuel.”

A £15 million project is underway near Stansted Airport to upgrade the M11. On completion, the innovative improvements will be in place to help warning motorists regarding slower traffic ahead in their route in addition to indications about accidents as they happen.

For this purpose, new electronic signs are presently being installed in the verges of the motorway. The set up will comprise of a queue projection system that will warn drivers regarding jams ahead. The project covers about 15 miles of motorway stretching from junction 6 at the M25 to junction 8 at Stansted Airport.

By way of reducing disruption to motorway traffic, the three lanes will be kept open during daytime hours. However, the lane will be closed for nights to enable safe access by heavy machinery. Temporarily, the speed regulation of 50 mph will be enforced as the overnight closures are in operation to help safeguard the workforce. Passengers would be need to take care about that.