Travel

A holiday is either a pleasant interlude and a welcome 'change of scene' or a desperately needed break that you crawl towards, crossing the days off your calendar whilst obsessing about feeling sun on your face and having nothing to do! Either way, holidays are important.

Having travelled extensively with Blue Peter, GMTV, Wish You Were Here and Turner Around The World the question I am asked the most is which is your favourite holiday destination and where do you think I should go for a holiday? As I'm a windbag of a Gemini who finds short answers near on impossible I morph into my Independent Travel Agent persona. But those 'proper' Travel Agents out there really do have to work hard for their money; when you think about it, is there another consumer product that we willingly hand over large sums of money for in the vague 'hope' we've made the right decision. When interviewing disgruntled holiday makers who were unhappy about the holiday they had chosen (generally without assistance on the Internet), it wasn't that there was anything wrong with the package or anything wrong with them it was just the wrong marriage. I'll never forget the hardworking electrician who had saved to take his young family away and managed to choose a hotel which was populated by teenagers out for booze obliteration. The poor man was distraught but a good travel agent with knowledge of the resort would have steered him away to calmer waters.

So, do your homework and give yourself the best chance of having a great time. In this Travel section we've put together some top travel-related websites and have kicked off the reviews with two recent holidays. Happy Holidays!!