© Balaji Dutt

Macau is being billed as “Asia's most exciting destination”. Macua lies in the Pearl River estuary between the South China Sea and mainland China.. Macua is run along similar lines to Hong Kong as a special administrative area within China. Macau was formally handed over to China by the Portuguese in 1999. The city is a fascinating fusion of Chinese and Portuguese, old and new, culture and architecture. One of the best known landmarks is the Macau Tower with fantastic views across the Delta. There are several Chinese temples, the oldest, Kun Iam dating from the 15th century. There are the bridges linking the islands of Taipa and Coloane to Macua. Plans have just been approved for the construction of a mega 36 kilometre sea bridge to link Hong Kong-Zhuha-Macau. The Macau Government Tourist Office has lots of useful information such as tours including the Historic Centre and Macau highlights. You can read local residents recommendations for their favourite off the beaten track restaurants. Have you visited Macau, what would you recommend doing there?
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by leathMany people rent a car for their holiday. It gives you more freedom and flexibility in your choice of accommodation and makes it easier explore further afield in your destination. If you travel on a package tour, where transfers from the airport to your accommodation are an additional cost, the price of car hire may not be much more than the transfers. You can check prices by using a price comparison site such as Travelsupermarket or Traveljungle. However beware of the small print in car rental agreements and don't choose your rental firm on the basis of price alone. Many so called inclusive car rental prices still leave you with an excess of several hundred pounds if you rental car is damaged or stolen. Check that there is no excess to pay or that the excess will be refunded by the car rental firm. You also have to watch out for additional charges for a second driver which could be as much as £5 per day, whereas it's included free with some companies. It's a good investment of time to read the terms and conditions before you book car rental. If you book a hotel room and you end up paying a few pounds because you didn't bother to shop around more this pales into insignificance compared to being faced with a bill for a few hundred pounds with so called inclusive car rental.
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London flights are on sale from United. Fares start at $350 round-trip for spring travel.

United is promoting its new nonstop Denver-to-London route with this offer, and frequent flyers can earn up to 7,500 bonus miles by completing a qualifying London trip. Though the sale prices generally look like good deals, particularly for spring travel, you should still shop around before booking.

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Bmi has announced a sale featuring flights to the U.K. Fares start at $404 round-trip, and destinations include London, Manchester, and Edinburgh.

Compare fares before you book to ensure you get the best deal for your route.

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by rickThe contents of the hotel mini bar are changing with some new additions and some deletions. A boutique style hotel in the North of England striving to offer guests everything they could desire with the additional of a sealed box of sex toys in their mini bar. The chic Vincent Hotel in Southport is due to open in April 2008. The Scandic hotel chain will cease selling bottled water to guest in order to assist in the chains move towards becoming more environmentally friendly. Their 141 hotels will offer guests filtered and chilled tap water, both still and fizzy. Hotel mini bars do attract their fair share of criticism. I'm happy if I find a mini bar in my room as I can use it to store my fresh milk to add to my cup of my tea.. I prefer fresh milk in my tea and I can't stand having to open these tiny pots of UHT milk which I usually splash all over myself. What do you like or loathe about mini bars?
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If you love to know about celebrity travel, here are my top three sources for you.

by Alan Light

Hello magazine has plenty of stories and pictures about who is travelling where and with whom.Now magazine has features on why celebrities adore certain locations. They are also looking for your favourite destination and if your tip if published you'll be featured in the magazine.Celebs on Holiday is a blog with posts sniffing out the vacation spots of celebrities. If you happen to spot a celebrity when you are on holiday, you can email them with the details and if possible a photo. If your scoop is published you'll win a bottle of champagne. Do you know of any other resources for finding out about celebrity travel? Have you spotted any celebrities on holiday?
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In the modern world, ‘wild’ as far as nature is concerned is a relative concept. It is enough, perhaps, that an area of natural beauty is not utterly trampled by urban development, or destroyed by irresponsible land use, for it to deserve the term ‘wild’. Certainly this is the case in the developing world, and most particularly along the earth’s tropical coastlines. The Wild Coast of South Africa’s KwaZulu/Natal, although hardly wild, is by comparison to the KNZ South Coast in a different world altogether. It is a gorgeous natural environment, comprising the signature open grasslands and hill country of the south coast, with deep cut ravines peppered with groves of aloe, and deep tidal estuaries cloaked on either bank with rich and unsullied riparian forest. There is no sign anywhere of mock Tuscan gated developments, of strip malls or the blanket sugar estates so ubiquitous throughout the region. It is moreover an environment fiercely protected by both a large cohort of outside environmentalists and significant numbers of local community members. The latter, almost uniquely, have successfully resisted the temptation to climb into bed with property developers and sell the long term integrity of their landscape for short term profit. (more…)

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Virgin America has announced a new sale for travel in April, May, and into June. Fares start at $38 one-way and $76 round-trip, and San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., are included.

Virgin America’s sale prices were hit-or-miss for the routes I checked. The Las Vegas/San Francisco, San Francisco/San Diego, and Seattle/San Francisco fares were the best available, but I found better prices for the remaining routes.

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Flights to and from the New York City area are on sale from Continental. Fares start at $178 round-trip for travel to/from Newark.

US Airways offered lower prices for the Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., routes over the wide date range I checked. AirTran beat Continental’s Phoenix fare, and Northwest had a better deal for the Los Angeles route. Since Continental does not list a specific travel period, these fares could be competitive for your particular dates. You’ll have to compare fares to be sure.

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I compared several providers’ offerings for vacations in spring to San Diego. Packages include airfare, four nights’ accommodations and hotel taxes. With the exception of the Southwest deals, sample vacations include additional taxes and fees for airfare.

Sample prices for May are:

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