First Choice is facing a six-figure damages claim from a couple who were attacked by armed robbers in a Dominican Republic hotel. Chris and Winifred Hyde, from north Wales, are suing the company for f

• Namibia licences elephant cull

Africas few remaining desert elephants are facing extinction after the Namibian government issued permits for six breeding bulls to shot by trophy hunters. The government claims the herds can sustain the slaughter but Johanne...



• Rise in number of failing holiday companies

The number of tour operator failures has increased and more holiday companies could collapse this year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It said that 25 companies protected by its Air Travel Organisers Licensi...



• Mid-flight scare as Ryanair jet makes emergency landing

Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and his family were among scores of British holidaymakers who thought they were going to die when the Ryanair jet in which they were travelling was forced to make an emergency landing in France late ...



• Ryanair hits back over oxygen failure claims during mid-air emergency

Ryanair rejected claims today that the oxygen masks deployed on an aircraft forced to make an emergency landing in France overnight had not worked. The Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and his family were among scores of British hol...



• Sudden loss of airline pressure is frightening but not usually dangerous

The sudden loss of pressure in an airliner cabin, as occurred on the Ryanair flight, is a frightening and potentially painful experience for passengers but it is does not usually endanger the aircraft. Half a dozen episodes o...



• Late deals: August 27

British Isles Harbour Studio in the picture postcard village of Polperro, southeast Cornwall , is the former home of Frederick Cook, a local artist who rose to fame as an illustrator for Enid Blyton. The well-furnished home o...



• Hens and stags continue to party

One website, Hotels.com says more people than ever are travelling abroad for hen and stag weekends despite increasing travel costs. Two-fifths (43%) of people have travelled abroad to help friends celebrate their final days o...



• Adventure travel goes grey

Adventure travel companies are redesigning brochures, adjusting advertising campaigns and providing better-quality hotels to woo high-spending customers aged over 50. Adverts and brochures that were once designed to look funk...



• Profile: John Boyle, co-founder of Zoom airlines

Of the two brothers Hugh and John Boyle, who co-founded Zoom airlines in 2003, John is the most high-profile and sometimes controversial of the Lanarkshire siblings. An irrepressible and larger-than-life character - who made ...



• Australia's 'man drought'

DEBRIEF Would you expect more storms in Chicago? Probably, due to its unofficial title of the Windy City. But despite being located on the shores of Lake Michigan, it isn't really any windier than other cities in the region. ...



• Naples chefs slam over-priced pizza

Italys restaurant trade was accused of ripping off tourists last week in a mass protest by catering workers on the streets of Naples. Delighted tourists in the Piazza Dante were handed free margheritas as members of the Neapo...



• My hols: Lucy Fleming

My father was a famous traveller and travel writer in the 1930s, and although, by the time I came along, his great adventures were behind him, he still might say, Do you fancy coming to Eritrea? Sadly, I never managed it. My ...



• Confessions of a Tourist:

It was a sunny Friday afternoon and I met Charles after work with his weekend bag packed. For his 35th-birthday treat, I was taking him to a swanky London hotel overlooking Hyde Park. He was delighted not to be getting on the...



• China's border blood tests

BLOOD TESTS AT CHINESE BORDER China has sharply increased the number of random blood tests it carries out on travellers entering the country in a bid to stem the spread of HIV. A report released last week revealed that blood ...