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If you have ever stayed in a hotel with your family, you will know only too well how expensive it can be. Even modest hotels can cost $130 per night for a family room which is equivalent to $32.50 per person per night for a family of four. In the high season it can be even more with prices often going up to $50 (and more) per more person per night. And who, after all wants to spend their precious holiday in France in a simple hotel with their children in the same room?

There is an easy solution. Find a gite. A gite is the French word for a holiday cottage. They come in all shapes and sizes but they are usually rural cottages set in peaceful and beautiful countryside. What is more, in France there are two organisations, which guarantee the quality of the accommodation. ‘Clevacances’ and ‘Gites de France’ regularly send inspectors out to check the quality of the accommodation and to give it a star rating similar to a hotel. If you have a complaint and can’t resolve it with the property owner, they will arbitrate it. And they have well designed web sites, which can help you find a gite in almost any area of France.

How much cheaper is it to stay in a gite rather than a hotel? The quick answer is a lot. In the Tarn area in the South of France it is easy to find a gite, which charges only $12 per person per night in the low season. And even in the high season you can find properties for as little as $21 per night per person.

If you are worried about what you get for your money as compared to a hotel you will be very happily surprised. For a family of 4 you can typically expect to have two bedrooms, a living room with TV and DVD player, a well equipped kitchen, a bathroom and toilet and a large private garden to relax and sunbathe in. Compare that to being cramped into a family room in a hotel, which of course would cost you more!

But what of all the conveniences a hotel offers! Well, you can get it all in a gite. Many gites have swimming pools and often the owners are happy to arrange cooked meals in the gite on request. And you get service with a smile. Many gite owners live nearby and are happy to tell you about the local area, what to see, where to go and where to eat. So you really do get a very personal welcome.

The only question that remains is why anybody would want to stay in a hotel. If you want to be in a city centre, packed into a busy anonymous hotel and paying a lot of money, a gite may not be for you. If you prefer the tranquillity and beauty of the French countryside with a personal welcome, you can easily find accommodation that puts hotels to shame at a price that won’t burn a hole in your pocket.

Anton Neumann lives and works in France and is the owner of a Gite in the Tarn in South West France. http://www.gite-piquetalen.fr

The Dolomites are an impressive area of the Italian Alps with scenic trails that make it ideal for truly beautiful walking holidays in Italy. The local transport links enable access to the area in all seasons and provide a choice of routes with varied difficulties. Find out why the Dolomites can provide some of the most enjoyable hiking Italy has to offer.

Introducing the Dolomites

The Dolomites, an area rightly popular for walking holidays in Italy’s north-east province of Belluno, is named after a French scientist called Dolomieu. It was Dolomieu who first studied the local limestone rock that forms the distinctive scenery you’ll find in this region of Italy. Hiking between these limestone giants you’ll find Eden-like, green valleys, lined with rolling meadows and wild, alpine flowers. But it will be the dramatic triangular peaks that make you appreciate the awesome power of the glaciers that shaped these mountains.

Top of the World

Marmolada, the highest of the Dolomite Mountains, makes for a dramatic view from the trails that pass nearby. It is so high that it has a glacier inset in its northern face. Indeed, all of the twenty major peaks in the Dolomite range reach higher than 3000 metres, making them all more than twice the size of the UK’s Ben Nevis or Scafell Pike. These mountains play host to base jumpers and to skiing in the winter. In the first week in July, there’s a single-day bicycle road-race the called the “Maratona dles Dolomites,” which covers seven mountain passes of the Dolomites. But it’s the rewarding walking in Italy that makes the Dolomites so well-known.

A Little Help

Because of their altitude, even in the middle of summer a flurry of snow is not unusual on higher trails. But this should not stop the average walker. Some of the loose scree slopes can be hazardous, but luckily the dolomite limestone provides many natural paths and passes suitable for walking. Italy has generously provided facilities such as the mountain huts to make hikers more comfortable, too. The huts, which are called “Rifugi” are usually basic, but make up for it with the view they make possible when you rise in the morning. Often they are situated on a trail between 2000 and 2800 metres and allow longer walking holidays in Italy to spread over several days, joining several routes and trails together.

Further assistance to the enthusiastic hiker comes in the form of the Via Ferrata. These veritable stairways to heaven allow access for people on walking holidays in Italy to routes that would otherwise be unreachable without climbing skills. They are named after the Italian for “iron road” because they are metal additions fixed to a mountain, such as ladders, cables and bridges. Although they are designed for everyone to use, some of the climbs are not for the faint-hearted, so check the details of your planned walk in Italy to see what you have in store.

Whichever route and difficulty of hike you choose, I’m sure that when you walk Italy’s Dolomite Mountains, you’ll find it a magical and memorable experience.

Tony Maniscalco is the Sales and Marketing Manager for Ramblers Worldwide Holidays, a long-established and highly respected company. They have expertise in more than 70 different countries, offering over 250 holidays, including many related to walking in Italy, making them a superb choice for the discerning traveller.

The city of Valencia is packed with history and growing all the time. With a contrasting and complementary mix of modern and historical architecture, Valencia – once the cultural capital of the Mediterranean in the fifteenth century – has earned its popularity with modern tourists.

On my regular journeys to and from Valencia airport my head is often turned by the architecture in the city. The classical edifices and the eye-catching avant-garde buildings are what make the city of Valencia so special. But it’s mostly the older buildings that I want to talk about this time.

The Basilica of the Virgin

Having dropped a passenger at their hotel around Barrio del Carmen, I found myself once again near the Bas?lica de la Virgen de los Desamparados. I’ve mentioned this before, but it is an important tourist attraction that deserves more attention.

With the Cathedral next to it, the flagstones of the plaza in front have been polished smooth by centuries of visitors. They come to see the ornate and impressive golden statue of the Virgin, but it is the painted ceiling that seems to capture their imagination. It depicts a route through the clouds that angels take into heaven, and is so cleverly done that it exaggerates the depth of the dome. It’s a trick of perspective that my Valencia shuttle passengers continue to mention on their journey from the city back to Valencia airport.

Puerto de Valencia

From the old town to the new. The port area has been a focus of redevelopment and has become more famous since the construction of the Formula One Street Circuit here. When I drive down here I have to suppress the urge to go a little faster, imagining that my shuttle is in the European Grand Prix. I drop passengers at the Port of Valencia for the nightlife and sometimes for the cruise ships. This is where the giant white liners set off on tours of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Some cruise to several ports in Italy, Portugal and France taking several weeks, while others shuttle from Valencia to Barcelona or the nearby islands of Menorca and Ibiza before returning to Valencia city just a few nights later. It must be a wonderful way to see the Spanish islands.

The Palace of Music

And to finish, a newer building that looks like it could be old. The Palace of Music was built in the 1980s in the Jardines de Turia area, just ten minutes from Valencia Airport.

It consists of a curved glass arcade encased within tall stone columns. Used as a concert hall, an art gallery and a giant greenhouse, it has grace and grandeur, but it is a building of special character, too. At night time, it looks almost like a different place with its colourful lighting. And when a concert is playing the rhythms of the water fountains outside are designed somehow to match those of the music emanating from the concert hall. The Palace is a welcome addition to the Valencia city architecture, and has already become a favourite in this great city.

Paco Torregrosa is a shuttle driver, driving from Valencia airport to city destinations and other routes for Shuttle Direct. They provide pre-booked shuttles to major destinations all over Europe. Wherever you travel, Shuttle Direct can make sure that you don?t miss your car on your holiday abroad.

Home to one of the world’s great lost civilisations, Peru is rich in cultural contrasts and treasures, making it a central part of the best South America holidays. In Peru’s cities the Incan influence mingles with the Spanish colonial artistry to produce unique architecture. Read on to find out about the marvels of Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Arequipa and Nasca.

Cuzco

Often the starting point for South America tours because of its proximity to Machu Picchu, the city of Cuzco consists of Inca roots combined with colonial Spanish influences. Before the Spanish arrived, this city was the capital of the Inca Empire for over three hundred years, and has now been named this the Historical Capital of Peru. What this means for tourists is a flood of culture to absorb from the two complementary architectural styles: cathedrals, temples museums, markets, and the nearby ruins of the Sacsayhuam?n fortress, are all worth investigating.

Machu Picchu

Not far from Cuzco is the essential destination for all South America holidays. The ruined city of Machu Picchu was recently voted one of the new wonders of the world and one of the most visited tourist sights in South America. Tours here will lead you up carved steps and terraced hillside to a once secret city cradled in the Machu Picchu Mountain. Here, you can look down on the valley 2350 metres below and imagine the isolation of the people who lived here before its discovery. There’s the option to make a day trip here by train, or even by helicopter, whereas the more energetic tourists might choose to walk the Inca trail for a few days through the Andes and arrive at the Lost City under their own power.

Arequipa

Some say this is the prettiest city in Peru. Arequipa is home to many temples, elegant houses and palaces, which earn it the name “Ciudad Blanca” meaning “White City”. The architecture in its historic centre integrates European and native characteristics, and has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Coming here as part of your South America Holidays will mean a tour of Santa Catalina, a convent that was closed to the world for 400 years. It was built in 1579 and was once a place of quiet seclusion and prayer; now the convent serves as an art gallery, with only about twenty nuns remaining on the complex. A tour of the galleries and refurbished buildings is like a step back in time, and takes only a little more than an hour.

Nazca

In the Nazca desert, towards the south of Peru, are a series of astonishing engravings in the desert floor. These engravings (known as ‘geoglyphs’) take the form of geometric patterns and animals, some up to two hundred metres across. They were constructed by an ancient culture that exposed the pale bedrock of the desert by carefully moving and removing stones. Many good South America Holidays will have the option of taking a flight over these patterns, enabling passengers to get a sense of the scale and artistry of these signals to the sky.

Louise Mumford is a holiday specialist at South American Experience, a company that specialises in tailor-made arrangements for South America Holidays . Our dedicated team has two decades of first-hand experience in the Latin America region.

Over the years there has been a lot of talk about how big a role automobile and truck emissions have played in climate change. People have accepted the fact that our dependence on fossil fuels to power our vehicles is damaging our environment.

It is only in recent years that any attention has been given to the role that air travel is playing in this whole problem. While air traffic suffered a setback after the 9-11 tragedy, the industry is recovering and the popularity of air travel has increased. When you look at fuel consumption for a trip across the country, a car with a single occupant uses as much fuel and produces as much carbon dioxide as jet full of passengers. However, with jets there are added negative environmental factors.

1. More and more communities surrounding major airports are seeing an increase in cancer due to the toxic fumes from jet fuel.

2. Noise pollution is increasing around airports due to the increase in air traffic miles.

3. Biodiversity is affected, as wildlife is being displaced by the building and expanding of airports.

4. Toxic chemicals such as deicing fluids are being dumped on the ground.

5. Airplanes are known to emit many toxic gasses in addition to carbon dioxide.

6. Air travel takes place in the upper atmosphere where the negative effects of polluting gasses is even higher than they would be at ground level.

What is the airline industry doing?

In the past, the airline industry was not overly concerned about the environmental impacts their industry generated, but that is changing. More and more airlines are becoming pro active in their approach to cleaning up the environment. Some are even publishing annual environmental reports to let the public be aware of their efforts. Airplane and engine manufacturers are also taking steps to make their products more fuel efficient.

With an estimated 20 billion gallons of jet fuel being used annually (as of 2007) alternative fuels are being considered. Chicken fat, pond scum and algae are being considered as alternative fuels. With 40% of the cost of an airline ticket going towards fuel costs, finding a cheaper fuel will help this industry tremendously. We just have to be careful. Lower fuel costs should lead to lower ticket prices and make it more economical for people to travel by air thus increasing air miles. Until non-polluting sources of powering these airplanes can be found, they will continue to damage the environment.

So what can be done now?

Airline travelers who are concerned about the impact that their travel is making on the environment are turning to carbon offsetting. Carbon calculators from websites such as http://terrapass.com are available to allow travelers to determine how much carbon dioxide their trip is creating and allow them to purchase an offset for that amount. Companies are springing up that allow you to purchase these offsets, and even some airports have kiosks that sell carbon offsets. While this is a good idea, the ethics of carbon offsetting that allows polluters should be allowed to buy their way out of the damage they do remains a debatable topic.

Conclusion

Airline travel for long distances makes sense, but for short distances, it is still better to use a fuel efficient automobile. As more and more awareness about the negative effect that fossil fuels is having on this planet, the airline industry is falling in line with the automobile manufacturers to produce fuel efficient airplanes and to develop cleaner fuels. It looks as though the world, and especially the United States is coming to realize that they can’t keep polluting this earth and are finally taking steps to reduce pollution. This is a good thing!

Beverly Saltonstall is an environmental writer who cares about the environment. Her articles cover a wide range of topics about sustainable development, pollution and recycling. Visit http://pollutionwebsite.com/freereport and get a free report with easy steps to take to reduce your carbon impact.

A growing number of visitors are taking Iceland holidays to see the country’s impressive collection of natural wonders – the kind you once heard about in a Geography classroom. The package holidays Iceland offers include walking on volcanoes and glaciers, swimming in hot pools, and seeing the place where the world gets wider.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Holidays to Iceland offer a rare opportunity to witness a phenomenon that is usually concealed by 3,400 metres of Atlantic waters. A mid-ocean ridge crosses dry land here, so Iceland holiday makers get to see the join of two continental plates and the canyons that form where the ground is splitting. This means that as the plates grow apart Iceland is getting wider at a rate of about 5 cm per year.

Working-up a Lava

This creative power is evident in the nearby island of Surtsey. The island rose from the ocean floor after a series of eruptions between 1963 and 1968. The “lava bombs” and volcanic material cooled and hardened to form one of the world’s newest landmasses, at one point growing at the rate of an acre per day. Unfortunately there will be no holidays to Iceland’s little brother; visits to Surtsey are restricted to those conducting scientific research.

Since a volcano erupts here an average of once every five years there are many chances for those on Iceland holidays to walk on a lava landscape: black rippled sheets of what once was lava, floods of basalt and ash, and fields of ‘scoria’, which are areas of uneven – almost bubbly – volcanic rock. Some of those who take holidays to Iceland talk about how much it looks like a moon landscape.

Hot & Cold Running Water

But it’s the eruptions occurring every five or ten minutes that will feature on the itineraries of most package holidays. Iceland is famous for its geysers, especially for those at the town of Geysir, after which the hot fountains are named. Some of these plumes spurt frequently; others do not show for years before blasting boiling water sixty metres into the air.

For the water moving in the other direction, Iceland delivers generously, too. The Gullfoss waterfall, and the ‘Queen of Iceland’ waterfall provide wonderful attractions for Iceland holidays; the thunderous Dettifoss goes one further, claiming the title of the most powerful waterfall in Europe. The volume of Iceland’s water system is enhanced by meltwater drawn from its glaciers. Glaciers, too, are water on the move in a sense, but their power is less obvious at a glance. Though they appear hardly to move, their sheer size and the magnitude of erosion that they force upon the landscape (such as the fjords) is difficult to ignore.

More than a tenth of Iceland’s area is covered by glaciers at some point during the year, so this provides ample opportunity for tourists to explore the strange and captivating ice-landscape. Iceland holidays might include hikes across a glacier, or organised trips on snowmobiles or a tour in larger vehicles across the larger glacial areas.

When glaciers meet the ocean they put on yet another show. Seeing and hearing their ice walls crumble into the water is quite a spectacle and boat trips to see this happening in the fjords can be added to some specialist holidays. Iceland is always in flux it seems, whether it is melting, moving, exploding or growing, it makes itself a prize destination for seeing this world’s geological phenomena in force.

Vikki Beale is a holiday expert for iceland2go, a specialist operator providing holidays to Iceland and Greenland. We provide luxury tailor-made itineraries and the finest package holidays Iceland can offer, with sights including glaciers, geysers, fjords, and the Northern Lights.