Spot the landmark, win KLM flights to 20 Secret Cities

SERIAL CITY BREAKERS and armchair urban explorers can win KLM flights, just by identifying the location of a mystery landmark.

But it's not as easy as it sounds, and that's what makes this travel contest particularly addictive.

Every day at 4 pm (GMT) until April 24 the Dutch airline will tweet (from @KLM) a link to photos of mystery landmarks. Then you have to recognise the landmark and plot its Secret City location on an integrated Google map.

The day's winner is the person whose little red flag is plotted closest to the landmark.

What can you win?
A pair of return flight tickets to one of 5 secret cities featured each week. You choose from the 5 cities.

Last week's winner chose Santa Monica from Cape Town, Santa Monica, Prague, Singapore and Goteborg.

He tweeted: "Guess I'm a bit overexcited now, but c'mon…I WON! And look how happy he looks about it.

Here's more
Don't expect to see the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower of Pisa just yet. So far these photos have been tricky to identify, even for self-proclaimed city experts. Ahem...like me. I've edited city guidebooks and travelled around to see, climb and photograph urban architecture, everywhere from Cairo to the bell towers (or as historians tell us, penis extensions) built by the wealthy during the Italian Renaissance.

But, I sucked at yesterday's mystery landmark. My guess (and I'm too ashamed to tell you what it was) turned out to be 2710 km from the correct location!

Now I'm determined to guess today's Secret City correctly. Roll on 4 pm.

How to win
Most importantly follow KLM on Twitter @KLM.

When @KLM Tweet at 4 pm the race begins. Hit the link to the Secret City page. Identify the landmark. Plant your red flag on the Google map where you think the building is.

The beauty of Google maps being that you can zoom in until your flag sits directly on top on the landmark (assuming you've guessed the correct location).

To move the flag click elsewhere on the map - no dragging necessary.

Make sure you guess all 5 cities every week, from Monday to Friday. The person closest to the landmarks everyday of the week will win.

What if more than one person guesses correctly all week?
Then the winner will be the person who planted their flags the fastest.

Phone a friend
Or in this case Tweet a friend to help you guess the secret city, by clicking the Tweet button below the photo.

How to be disqualified
By entering from multiple Twitter accounts.

Happy guessing city breakers. I'll be trying again at 4pm today!

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Win British Airways flight tickets to world's 'Highest Stand-Up Comedy Gig'

On March 12 British Airways will team up with Comic Relief to change their dinner menu from “chicken or fish” to chuckles and fits of laughter ... and tickets for the in-flight fun fest are still up for grabs.

BA will kick off a year long partnership with Comic Relief by setting a record for the 'Highest Stand-Up Comedy Gig in the World' on a flight over the UK.On the bill are stand up comics Dara O'Briain, Jack Whitehall and Jon Richardson, who will have passengers rolling in the aisles as they help raise money in the run up to Red Nose Day.

To be in with a chance of winning a ticket for the comedy flight, text 'Fly1' to 70300 or visit www.facebook.com/britishairways.

Watch them talk about the event here:

Texts cost 50p and you can make a donation to Comic Relief at the same time (in multiples of £3). To enter the competition for tickets without donating, visit the BA website.

The record breaking event is part of a wider campaign by British Airways called 'Flying Start', which aims to transform the lives of disadvantaged children at home and abroad.

British Airways said:“All donations received from the public through Flying Start will go directly to help transform children's lives. In fact, we aim to raise up to £6 million by 2013 to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children living in the UK and in some of the poorest countries across the world.”

For example, BA’s ‘Fying Start’ project supports The Busoga Association in Uganda. The Association's work helps people living in the urban slum of Jinja to find work and better housing, to have access to basic health care and to enable children to get a good education.

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High-value, low-impact tourism to contribute to Gross National Happiness of Bhutan

The World Tourism Organisation(UNWTO) has expressed its support for Bhutan's long-term tourism policy, which focuses on sustainablity and quality.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, met with Bhutan's acting Prime Minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba at a seminar earlier this month. Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba told those gathered that the Royal Government of Bhutan considers tourism “a window of opportunity for the future of Bhutan" and that tourism will contribute to the economic security and Gross National Happiness (Bhutan’s measure of wellbeing) of the Bhutanese people.

The two met during a seminar on ‘Mainstreaming Tourism’, co-organised by UNWTO and the Bhutan Tourism Council and attended by government officials, private sector representatives and members of development agencies.

Taleb Rifai told the seminar that the tiny landlocked country of Bhutan - dubbed 'The Last Shangrila' - is facing “significant challenges and strong pressure for change.”


In regards Bhutan's tourism plans, he said: "At UNWTO we acknowledge the tremendous pressure Bhutan is under to stimulate rapid growth in tourism and praise the government for its continued focus on sustainability and quality.

"The principle of high-value, low-impact tourism development, guiding tourism’s growth in Bhutan, is highly commendable and has undoubtedly contributed to the unique tourism brand of this country”.

The landlocked Kingdom of Bhutan remains one of the most intriguing, little visited and charismatic countries on the international tourism stage. It's been on my wish-list for years due to its combination of Himalayan mountain scenery, happiness and giant multicoloured phalluses painted on every building for good luck - the type of lucky charm that this girl is always drawn to.


Bhutan Basics

Geography Landlocked at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by India, and to the north by China.

Population 691,000

Paperwork Visas only granted to travellers pre-booked on authorised tours.

Why visit? To trek through pristine Himalayan mountain scenery where steep peaks soar higher than 23,000 feet and pure river water rushes by. A landscape that provides habitat for big cats including snow leopards, Bengal tigers, clouded and Indian leopards, as well as Himalayan black bear, red panda, Tibetan wolves and Himalayan musk deer. To experience traditional festivals with masked dances and traditional music.

For organised tours you could try
Blue Poppy bluepoppybhutan.com/travel.htm from the US
Transindus transindus.co.uk from the UK

Images:
Monastery by thomaswanhoff
Ceremony of the masks by miles_lane
Phallus by rafaelgomez

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How geography swots can win a weekend in Europe

I've more prizes (and some Chrismassy muzak) from Radisson to share.

Their latest competition, which focuses on the Radisson Blu brand, has been giving geography swots an opportunity to win money-off voucher or a weekend for two in some of my favourite European cities - Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Helsinki and Hamburg.

All you need to do is visit their snowy competition website, which has the obligatory snowman, igloo and snow shaker. There's even a choice of three muzak tracks, albeit three versions of Rudolph the Reindeer.

Once you're feeling all festive, put your quiz hat on and take a stab at the three triviatastic questions. Don't worry, you can click for extra hints if you're struggling with the answers. Your reward for getting all three correct is the chance to spin the wheel of fortune and win instant prizes including €100 Radisson Blu gift cards.

Swot or not, everyone can enter their weekly prize draw for the weekend hotel stay. The prize, worth €400, comprises two nights accommodation for two people in a standard room including breakfast at a Radisson Blu Hotel.

Remaining draw dates and destinations are:

21 Dec - Helsinki, which really does have one of the freshest art and design scenes in Europe, as well as fantastic shops.

28 Dec – Madrid, where I walked and walked for days, fuelled by tapas and glasses of red wine mixed with cola.

3 Jan – Hamburg, where the Beatles got creative and it's difficult to resist saying 'Ich bin ein Hamburger'.

If you are aged 18 or over and live in the EU (but not Sweden) give it a whirl at radissonbluquiz.com/en/

Radisson Blue Quiz



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Regular Red Sea divers not worried by shark attacks

I've just spoken to a UK-based Dive Master who is travelling to Hurghada, on Egypt's Red Sea coast, tomorrow. He'll spend the run up to Christmas with a group of divers and local guides on a 'live-aboard' trip from Marsa Alam. They'll dive some incredible offshore sites including Sha'ab Aiman and Sha'ab Mahrus, in the hope of seeing grey, silver tip and white tip reef sharks.

Divers on live-aboard trips average three dives per day, each lasting around an hour, so he'll be spending around 20 hours in the Red Sea. In light of the four recent shark attacks in Sharm el Sheikh, that could sound like a long time to be underwater.

But he told me: "Regular Red Sea divers won’t be worried by the attacks or the idea of continuing to dive with sharks. They are used to them, as are other warm water divers from elsewhere. But if it turns out that several oceanic white tips carried out these attacks it may mean their feeding practices are undergoing radical changes, and that is a concern."

Shark attacks are very unusual in the Red Sea, particularly attacks by the species in question this time - the oceanic white tip. Still, the FCO travel advice for Egypt, which was updated today, continues to read that 'most diving and water sport activities in the Sharm El Sheikh area remained suspended'.

See the latest statement from Egypt's Chamber of Diving and Watersports here cdws.travel/chamber-news.aspx?id=52
(Image by Diving Mullah)

Read more like this:
Scuba dive to escape - Top 5 Emotional Escapes
Golden Blocks Shore Dive - For The Independent

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Face the muzak and defeat the Park Inn hotel manager to win iPads and free accommodation

I wish that Santa existed, that hotel rooms were always free and that iPads grew on Christmas trees, so that I could just pluck off the perfect present for my loved ones. Because unless I win an iPad in Park Inn’s addictive ‘4 in a row' competition, my boyfriend is going to be the proud owner of a pair of crazy pants and a year’s supply of bbq sauce rather than the gadget he really wants to find in his stocking.

Because I'm greedy, I also want to win the grand prize: a week's worth of free accommodation. I'd pick the Park Inn Alexanderplatz in Berlin, where we’re heading to in January. Close to the Brandenburg Gate and the TV tower, it would be perfect base for the sightseeing itinerary I’ve devised – one packed with art, history and nightclubs, daily Currywursts and ein oder zwei biere.

So if you’re anything like me (a competitive lover of freebies with an addictive personality) you’ll relish the opportunity to get one over the Park Inn hotel manager in a battle of the key cards. Pick a colour and keep going and going until you win. Two competitors each week will win an iPad or a £250 voucher to use in any of the 200 Park Inn hotels worldwide (also includes Radisson Blu). Visit play4.parkinn.co.uk to start playing.

And brilliantly, every player – winner or loser – can enter the final grand prize draw. So even if you have to get back to work or reality before you’ve beaten the smarmy manager to 4 in a row, you could still win a week’s holiday at the Park Inn Manchester, Park Inn Berlin, or Park Inn Ulysse Resort (in Djerba, Tunisia) plus a £300 gift card.

The competition runs until 18 December and the winner of the seven nights’ accommodation will be announced by the end of December. Entrants must be at least 18 years of age and the week’s holiday must be taken by 31 December 2011. For full terms and conditions visit the competition page at http://play4.parkinn.co.uk/

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Please forget Christmas and plan me a Valentine's Week in Bora Bora

Boyfriend, today's post is written especially for you.

As talented as the snow is at making the cars and wheelie bins in my British suburban street sparkle, and as much as I love Christmas for giving me an excuse to devour huge quantities of Port, turkey and stuffing, I've already had it with winter.

If I see one more 'Guide to Europe's Best Christmas Markets' or another 'Spotlight On The Best (read 'Most Snobby') Ski Resorts of the World', I'll scream into my woolly indoor snood. Arghg! What I really want to be reading about and planning for is next year's sunshine holiday. Scuba diving, drinking a beer with my feet dangling into the sea, open air yoga, a tanned face...

Perhaps you're thinking about these things too, lovely boyfriend of mine. Perhaps you really want to surprise me with a special Valentine's Day holiday to the sun, but you've been waiting for me to point you in the right direction via my travel industry tit bits.

So if that is the case (and I know it will be), here's some info I hope you'll find interesting. While you read it, I'll get on with sourcing my beachwear for 14th Feb 2011.....

The Four Seasons Resort in Bora Bora will be celebrating Valentines for the whole of February. (fourseasons.com/borabora)

Their new Valentine's Package includes a complimentary fifth night, champagne and chocolate-dipped tropical fruits on arrival, daily breakfast buffet, a 50-minute Couple’s Polynesian Massage and a sunset cruise. fourseasons.com/borabora/rates_and_reservations

General Manager Rajiv Malhotra said:
“Romance is always in the air here. However, we could not resist allowing our guests to experience even more romance and value through the most romantic of holidays.”

The Four Seasons Bora Bora have 100 overwater bungalows and seven beachfront villas, all with traditional thatched roofs. There's a full service spa and their restaurant serves a range of dishes from Polynesian to French to South Pacific fusion.

Prices start at £575 per room per night for a Beach View Over Water Bungalow.

Go on boyfriend, forget Christmas and make my Valentine's Day instead!

Read more like this:
Top 5 Emotional Escapes
Trips that will kick start your spirit
Magic Real Travels in Fiji
Not the most romantic proposal idea in the world (Barcelona Bans Gut Wrenching Bullfights)

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29 April 2011 - watch the British Royal Wedding or experience something more interesting?

Kate Middleton and Prince William have set the date. Their big day at London's Westminster Abbey is Friday 29 April 2011, which has been declared a bank holiday in England and Wales.

However, if the pomp and circumstance of a Great British royal romance isn't for you, here's a rundown of festivals and events happening around the world on and around the 29th. Getting sucked into watching the TV footage in a bar during your travels isn't a foregone conclusion. Especially when there's cheese tasting and rice cooking contests around instead. Any other ideas? The more the merrier.

(Image of Dana Point, California by Alex E. Proimos)


Japan
Showa Day (Showa no hi), National holiday (29 April)
Marks the birthday of former Emperor Showa (Hirohito).

Australia
Australian Celtic Festival, Glen Innes (28 April - 1 May)
Celebrate Celtic culture, food, dance, history and music. australiancelticfestival.com

New Zealand
Arrowtown Autumn Festival, Arrowtown, South Island (29 April- 8 May)
Visitors and residents line the footpaths to cheer on the floats, highland pipe band, vintage cars and street entertainers.
arrowtownautumnfestival.org.nz

USA
California Wine Festival, Dana Point (29-30 April)
One of California's most popular wine events, perhaps because of the food, music, sea and sunshine. Hundreds of California's red and white wines, live music, dozens of top chefs and specialty food stalls. californiawinefestival.com

Astoria Warrenton Crab, Seafood and Wine Festival, Oregon (29 April-1 May)
The Oregon Coast's largest festival of northwest cuisine, wines, arts and crafts. oldoregon.com

Colleton County Rice Festival, Walterboro, South Carolina (April 29-1 May)
A heritage festival with an arts and crafts, parades and rice cooking contests. scfestival-rice.com

UK & Ireland
Paignton Bike Festival, Torbay, South Devon (29 April-1 May)
A three-day charity event with live music, entertainment, stunt bikes and motorbikes, organised by BMAD (Bikers Make A Difference). bmad.co.uk/festival.html

Bristol Folk Festival (29 April-1 May)
Making a comeback after 32 years, to Bristol's Colston Hall. Folk sensation Seth Lakeman will feature, as will Morris Dancers and most intriguingly 'indoor camping'. bristolfolkfestival.com

International Choral Festival, Cork (27 April-1 May)
This festival in its 57th year celebrates choral and vocal music with a programme of competitions, galas, fringe concerts and public performances. corkchoral.ie

South Africa
SA Cheese Festival, Sandrigham Estate, Stellenbosch (29 April-2 May)
A weekend treat for cheese lovers who want to sample South African fromage alongside wines, nuts and olives. cheesefestival.co.za
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Travels in Texas, 2002 - from the vaults

On the 47th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I wanted to share some memories of Texas from the Sandwagon vault.

Be gentle with me. It did write this eight years ago!

Perfectly horizontal streams of pulsing smoke floated along the Colorado River. As I walked closer it became obvious that these were not physics-defying smoke signals but streams of Mexican Free-Tail bats, storming off down river to obey their daily instinct to feast on clouds of flies.

I watched the show with locals and visitors. There were workers heading home for dinner standing alongside families. Everyone was taking time out to share this wonder of urban wildlife. Half of the crowd lent over the Congress Avenue Bridge, looking down onto the flux of Free-Tails in flight, while the rest stared up from the river banks into the concrete arches that make such perfect roosts. The delicate, continuous drum beat of several thousand flapping bat wings filled the air.

Guidebooks had recommended a visit to the Texan state capital on a summer’s evening to see the world’s largest urban bat colony in action. The reality exceeded my expectations – as did the Lone Star State itself. Texas revealed itself to be as much of an unknown culture for me as an indigenous Amazonian tribal village, and I had to fight off the distractions of my superficial research and those subconscious flashbacks to TV’s Dallas. There were genuine adventures to be had here, beyond the fiction.

I’d been prepared to see houses the size of Southfork. Perhaps the closets inside them spewed forth a lifetime’s supply of Stetsons. However, the roadside hazard of a fast-food chain selling ‘Chicken and Biscuits’ did surprise me. Visions of chicken nuggets and Garibaldi combo meals with a side of HobNobs amused me so much that I swerved my hired Grand-Am. Thankfully a Texan friend saved me from more near misses.

“Yes, biscuits,” she said, bemused. “What’s so funny? They’re just the bread part of a fried chicken sandwich, you know.”

I didn’t know that, until I came to Texas. This fast-food discovery was matched a few evenings later by truly gargantuan jacket potatoes as long as fish and chip shop-style battered cod. Since then, neat rotund spuds back home in the UK have never quiet looked the same.


Finally, Fort Worth’s train station became as memorable a hallmark of my Texan adventures as the incongruent Phil Collins soundtrack played by the local radio stations. I arrived for my train during what should have been the morning rush hour, but the entrance hall was eerily empty. It was so devoid of activity that the stunning aqua and steely grey of Art Deco pillars, walls and ceiling bore down ominously on me, as if mourning busier times before air-conditioned cars replaced train tracks.

These memories of Texas are as vivid in my memory as seeing Dallas’ Dealey Plaza, its book depository and that grassy knoll. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Magic Real Travels in Fiji

Yes, I'd prefer to have written this from experience. But with imagination and some destinational facts for reference, being home or office-bound isn't a barrier to anyone's writing and dreaming.

Magic Real travel is nearly as much fun as the real thing, don't you think?

It's 19.23 in Fiji. We've spent our paralleled-life day island hopping in a small wooden boat that we brought from a fisherman. He was by the beach shack, the day after we arrived in the islands. We've had enough rowing and paddling for today, so I've decided that the Mamanuca Islands are the best place for us to stop and sleep tonight. My justification being, the Mamanuca Islands are a collection of small coral islands, with some great surfing sites. What more could we want?

He says: 'Would you mind sleeping under the stars again tonight? Perhaps the boat would be a restful place to curl up and snooze, among the dozens of flowers that we've gathered throughout the day.'

Me: 'It would be relaxing to sleep on the boat. But, while the lapping waves would relax my mind, I think I'd miss running my finger tips through the sand as the sun rises and the birds pipe up.'
Umm, why am I worrying about this decision now, when we'll have the boat and beaches for many weeks to come? Boat, beach, boat, beach, boat..? I've made far tougher choices in life than this.

He says: 'Did you realise that I was gazing back at the beach, watching you watching me as you tried to fathom what it takes to surf.'
Me: 'No, you know I'm short sighted'.
Night surfing appeals more to me because no one would see me falling.
'Are there sharks...?'

[A couple of hours later...]
Me: 'Ok, I agree with your boat idea. I can't imagine ever sleeping more soundly than I will with you on the water tonight. I'm guessing that the sweet scent of the tropical flowers will be unbelievably intoxicating too.'
Perhaps even more so than the palm wine we've been living on since we arrived...just the two of us, on the other side of the world.

Me again: 'Do you think I could learn to ... feel the surf properly?'
I think I'd ask too many questions of it..why, when, how ...instead of submitting to it and letting it carry me along, coalesced within its natural instinct to rise, grow and rush to shore.

Me again: There must be millions of fireflies here. They've come out for the dusk, to dance. They're flitting around and along the sand.
...'Ooh watch out! Mind you don't crush that bright orange flower. There. By your elbow. I'm saving it to wear in my witchy, sea-salty curly hair tomorrow. Post-surf lesson.'

Read more like this:
Does travel writing style rule over substance?
Real life travels in Texas - from the vaults




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