#TravelTuesday - One of our fave places to visit on a USA 🇺🇸 fly drive holiday - Death Valley National Park. Classic USA road-trip 🚗 country, Death Valley National Park is harsh and barren yet full of natural beauty and stunning vistas, with the lowest point in the US along with the highest temperatures ever recorded. Furnace Creek 🥵 is at the heart of the park, with points such as Zabriskie Point and Mosaic Canyon offering spectacular scenery. As you head north from Death Valley the altitude increases and the temperatures drop, heading towards the massive Sierra Nevada mountains. To the south, the Mojave National Preserve is the epitome of ‘middle of nowhere’, dotted with Joshua trees, volcanic cones and desert wildlife. This region of the USA offers diverse landscapes and stunning scenery - beware of seriously high temperatures in the summer, but for a few days of open spaces and desert scenery, include Death Valley in to your driving itinerary. We have some great USA fly dri...

As Escape Worldwide celebrates its 11th birthday, the team take a look back at some of their favourite destinations. Karen Stewart recalls a trip to northern India, when the story of the  Taj Mahal  brought a tear to her eye. There are some places in the world that you feel you know even if you haven't been, and the Taj Mahal is one of them – it's such an iconic building that everyone knows what it looks like, but when you actually visit you're really blown away by just how beautiful this place actually is. I was part-way through a trip to see the highlights of northern India when I visited the Taj Mahal – it was my first trip to India and a real eye-opener to this fantastically diverse country. I began with a few days in Delhi, which acts as the main gateway to northern India and is a good place to get started, before moving on to Jaipur, which I have to say was my favourite part – there's something about the atm...

We get asked this abit and it can be a bit annoying when you have to pay a full adult price for a package holiday for your child. However there tends to be a reason! If you are looking at a packaged holidays flying with a scheduled airline like British Airways or Thai Airways for say 2 adults and a child and the child is aged 11 and under then you tend to find that the airline will offer a child discount. Most hotels and resorts charge per room and not per person and will let a child share the same room as the adults, for free. So when the package is put together you will get 2 adult prices and 1 child price. However if say only 1 adult and 1 child is travelling then the airlines should still offer a child reduction, but the cost of the room would still be divided by 2 so in this instance the child price will be higher than 2 adult and 1 child sharing. If you holiday is based on a charter flight, say something like Thomas Cook or Thomson airlines then they...

At Number 4...... Bargain Beer For a small town, Hoi An in Central Vietnam has an amazing array of beers available, and is quite possibly the cheapest place for a beer you’re likely to find – that’s ignoring the town’s incredible history and beautifully restored UNESCO-listed Old Town, of course – it’s not all about the beer, you know! Hoi An is one of our favourite parts of the Far East , rammed with historical interest but with great beaches, a relaxed atmosphere and some superb dining and drinking options. A few days here is highly recommended on any Vietnamitinerary . Throughout Vietnam it’s easy to get a beer for around 12,000 Dong - a mere 40p! In many local bars (and for local read tourist bars, but outside of the larger hotels), a bottle of local beer such as Saigon or Larue will cost 12,000 to 15,000 (40p - 50p), or up to a whopping 30,000 Dong (£1) in a pricier venue. That’s for a large 450ml bottle of very pleasant beer indeed! Central Vietnam also has a number of lo...

US AIRWAYS aims to have 90% of its mainline domestic fleet equipped with Wi-Fi internet access with the addition of the service to more aircraft. In-flight ‘Gogo’ internet access is being added to its fleet of Airbus A319, A320 and Embraer 190 aircraft by the end of 2013. The service will also be expanded to US Airways Express Embraer 170 and 175 aircraft operated by Republic Airlines. The airline is also launching Gogo Vision, a streaming video link that will allow passengers to watch movies and TV shows on their own Wi-Fi enabled devices. Gogo Vision will be available through a new multimedia platform that will give passengers access to movies, TV shows, games, destination content, news and exclusive shopping deals. Movies and TV shows will remain accessible for viewing after the passenger has landed - movies for 24 hours and TV shows for 72 hours. Unexpired rentals will be available for playback on the ground using the same device and browser used onboard. Gogo Vision entertainment...

OMAN  hopes to lure more tourists by slashing visa costs by 75%. The new tourist entry visa fee is OMR 5 and is valid for up to 10 days. Cruise arrival visas are free for up to 24 hours or OMR 5 for multiple visits. A fee of OMR 20 for a single entry for up to a month remains in place. Under-secretary of tourism Maitha Al Mahrouqi said: “The government has moved proactively to improve Oman’s competitiveness in stop-over, short-stay and conference tourism. “The changes also encourage travel to Salalah and other regional destinations, and conference organisers to consider Oman as an event location”. The tourism ministry expects a lift in leisure and short stay visits in the short-term as well as growing numbers of airline transit passengers, up by 19% in the year to September 2011 to 787,000. Oman is also seeing an increase in cruise ship activity and the new visa arrangements strengthen the case for lines to consider Muscat for crew and passenger exchanges. “The change...

There are one or two All Inclusive hotels in Thailand , but to be honest the food and drink is so cheap out there you wouldn't want to be staying in your hotel! Last time I was out there I visited three of the beach resorts - Phuket , Krabi and Phi Phi - and I think the most I paid for a meal was £25 and that was the most amazing lobster I've ever had in Phuket. Even the more remote beach hotels have a couple of beach restaurants close by, and if you are in one of the more touristy areas, such as Ao Nang in Krabi, you will be spoilt for choice. You will be able to get a really good meal for about £5 or £6, or just some chicken satay for £1 or so. The bottles of beer are enormous! Singha, Tiger and Chang beer are all very common, as are Happy Hours, so make the most of them! Happy Hour quite often runs from 4 in the afternoon until about 9 in the evening, and the offers tend to be 2 or 1. Given the full price is about £2 for a large bottle, you might not need to be there after...

Hi All, Sorry for next updating the blog recently, all been a bit busy with being away and also welcoming James to our team! So what have you missed?! The following are a couple of our last newsletters that you might of missed: 48 hours in Hong Kong :  http://www.escapeworldwide.co.uk/newsletter/guide/48hrsHKG2.html We focussed on one of our favourite cities in the Far East, Hong Kong . Hong Kong is a diverse fun packed cosmopolitan city with plenty of things to see and do. The star ferry is a great, fun way to get around and cheap too. Stay either on Hong Kong Island or Kowloon with give you a chance to experience this amazing city. Read all about it in our guide:  http://www.escapeworldwide.co.uk/newsletter/guide/48hrsHKG2.html Beaches with a difference:  http://www.escapeworldwide.co.uk/newsletter/offers/Aug11b.html This week we looked a some amazing beach holidays with a bit of a difference. Nha Trang in Vietnam is one our our fa...

Hi everyone, Our newsletter this week had something a little different, holidays without a beach! Check out the ideas: http://www.escapeworldwide.co.uk/newsletter/offers/May11b2.html A couple of my favorites are: HAVANA CITY BREAK, CUBA from £849 PARQUE CENTRAL HOTEL Soak up the atmosphere of Havana, one of the world's most mesmerising cities, and stay in one of the best hotels, superbly located where Old and New Havana meet and with some of the best facilities in the City. Departures: 12 JUNE 2011 Nights: 3 Prices from: £849 pp Check out more great holidays to Cuba at: http://www.cubaescapes.co.uk/ FAR EAST CITIES from £1079 HONG KONG + KUALA LUMPUR Combine two of the liveliest cities in the Far East in one trip - explore vibrant Hong Kong and cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur, with amazing food and superb shopping a plenty, saving over £500 per couple too! Departures: 15 JUNE 2011 Nights: 4 + 4 Prices from: £1079 pp Check out more great holidays to t...

Whenever we visit a destination we always like to explore local places to eat & drink, so when Darren & Mark were in Hua Hin , they turned this in to a ‘pub crawl’ of the town centre! “Hua Hin is a great place for trying local Thai food, and combined with a good selection of places for a cool beer, it makes an ideal pub crawl location – everything in the town centre is fairly close together, so it’s easy to try various locations without having to walk too far! We started at the Hilton Hua Hin, one of our favourite hotels in the town as it’s so handy for the beach and the town’s restaurants and bars, yet still maintains a lovely atmosphere. The bar at the front of the hotel is a great place for a spot of people-watching, and we started the day with a Tiger beer – they also have a range of Thai beers, but Tiger seemed like a good starting point! From here we headed along to where the fishing boats drop their catch off, which to be honest didn’t smell particularly pleasant, ...