The Dakar Rally is off to Argentina
Following the cancellation of this years rally because of security fears in Mauritania, the organisers of the 2009 event have decided to head off to South America
The 2009 edition of the most famous race in the world will run from January 3rd to 18th, and will travel through Argentina and Chile in a 9,574 km route (5,652 of which will be timed).
The Dakar Village will develop in Buenos Aires from December 15th to 31st.
Heathrow Shuttle
A shuttle service that offers door to door transport between Central London and Heathrow Airport has been running for nearly a year now but it seems little is known about it outside of the capital.
The National Express Dot 2 Dot offers a door to door service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at less than half the price of a taxi to Heathrow
The shuttles have access to express bus and taxi lanes and they guarantee no more than three other pick-ups or drop-offs - all within your area - before you are taken to your destination.
You can reserve a seat one way or return. To guarantee a place, they recommend you book in advance.
Going to the airport - Regardlesss of where you are leaving from, you will be given a 15-minute pick-up window based on your flight time and check-in requirements and you''ll get a text reminder 30 minutes before the pick-up window begins.
Returning from Heathrow - just go to the Dot2Dot desk in your Arrivals Hall and they guarantee you will be on your way within 20 minutes for central London and 30 minutes for Canary Wharf.
To find out more go to the Dot2Dot web site
Go skiing from Plymouth
Starting in December, Air Southwest is launching new flights from Plymouth and Newquay airports to Grenoble, for skiing in the French Alps.
The flight run on Saturdays from 20 December 2008 to 28 March 2009. Fares start from £39 each way including taxes. The new flights are on sale now at www.airsouthwest.com
The Aspinall Foundation
The Aspinall Foundation are devoted to saving rare and endangered animals, returning them to protected areas in the wild.
It is a sad fact that humans are likely to cause the extinction of a quarter of all known species in the next 20 years, unless we work to protect them now.
48% of primate species face exinction - threats include habitat destruction and illegal bush meat trade. If just one species disappears, many others will suffer.
Buying in advance at thetrainline saves money
thetrainline compared prices paid online (including the booking fee) with the cheapest fare available for that journey if bought at the station on the day of travel. The average saving made by customers buying in advance on thetrainline was 39%.
The web site has a new tool to help find cheap tickets faster.
Simply select your destination and when you're thinking of travelling and you'll see a list of cheap tickets are available around these times.
Hands on Adventures
The Adventure Company has introduced Hands On Adventures for 2009; 12 trips designed to give people the chance to give something very real back to the regions they visit.
These fantastic holidays have time scheduled into their itineraries (usually 2-3 days) to be spent helping out at projects directly benefiting the local people or helping towards conservation initiatives.
Adventures range from participating with turtle patrols in Costa Rica (bound to be a family favourite!) to helping with English lessons and games at an orphanage in Vietnam!
...and theres more!
In addition to the Hands On Adventures there are also 6 new Adventure Collection trips, 21 new Worldwide Adventures and 9 new Family Adventures (incorporating 5 new Teenage itineraries).
Now with The Adventure Company you can stay with the family in Sweden's Ice Hotel, go canopy climbing in Borneo or live as a gaucho in Argentina.
Paying for your travel
Unfortunately, there is no substitute for your hard earned cash when it comes to paying for a holiday. However, there are ways to save some money towards your holiday whilst you spend your money during the rest of the year.
We've all heard of Air Miles but how many of us actually collect and use them?
Air Miles has been the UK's most popular travel loyalty scheme since 1988. You can collect miles with over 80 online and high street stores. From the Air Miles site you can also pay for a flight, hotel, package holiday or travel insurance with your air miles or with money and receive some air miles instead. At the time of writing when you exchange £250 or more foreign currency with TravelEx you can earn 1 mile for every £9 you spend. You can also collect 10 miles per rental day when you book car hire with Avis and 1 mile for every £3 spent with BCP airport parking. Some of the high street merchants offer 1 mile for every £2 spent when you shop online through the air miles site.
Big names include Comet, Currys, John Lewis, WH Smith, Woolworths and HMV. Tesco are one of the biggest retailers around and at some point most people will buy something from them. Through the clubcard voucher scheme you can earn approximately 1 mile for every £4 spent. In some cases you can earn twice in one transaction!
The Nat West Credit card gives you one air mile for every £20 spent. If you are buying from one of the above merchants then you are getting air miles from them too.
Air miles isn't the only travel loyalty scheme though.
Buy and fly operates in partnership with nineteen of the worlds most prestigious
airlines who between them offer coverage around the world. Collect
points with Morgan Stanley credit cards (now Barclaycard Travel Services), Avis car rental, National Car
Rental (1 point every £10), RAC (roadside cover = 150 points, Teach
Yourself language courses. Nikon cameras (150 points for every camera)
Nectar is another reward scheme that can be used for travel.
Some of the top names that allow you to earn nectar points are EDF Energy (earn up to 3000 points per year), TalkTalk (2 nectar points for £1), Sainsburys (2 nectar points for £1) and Hertz (2 nectar points for £1).
Nectar also has an online store like Air Miles that allows you to collect points by shopping at many of the big name brands including B & Q, Amazon, Debenhams, Dell, PC World and Dixons.
You can use Nectar points for all sorts of goods and services but in the travel arena there are discounts off Orient Express, free journeys on Eurostar (return journey to Paris, Brussels or Lille from 10,000 points), flights via e-booker (single from London to Amsterdam from 5400 points depending on date of travel).
You can also get a £100 discount with Thompsons Holidays for 4000 points and discounts with Best Western Hotels and Octopus Travel.
As with both Air Miles and Buy and Fly there is a nectar credit card from American Express offering 1 point for every £1 spent.
So is it worth doing? The answer has to be Yes - you are going to be spending the money anyway. The problem is that you can't combine all three schemes when it comes to cashing in your points so it is best to concentrate on one scheme.
If you are a business traveller then you should be doing this now as you can earn points through travelling as well and if you aren't worried about getting the absolute bargain prices then you can book your flights, hotels and car hire through one of the above schemes.
For everyone else, you still need to have a telephone, credit card and groceries so you might as well start earning and dreaming!
The other difficulty may come when you have enough points and want to try to find flights or holidays at a time to suit you.
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