The capital of Scotland, Edinburgh has been voted as the best city in a survey conducted by Wanderlust magazine. The city was awarded at Destination Travel Show held in London late last month.

Around 3000 people voted in a survey conducted by the magazine since 2001. There were 612 other contenders in the race from other places around the world. Luang Prabang in Laos was adjudged the best city in the world followed closely by Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

In October last year, Edinburgh was awarded the best city in the UK by Channel 4. Putting the Scottish city in the top ten affirms the liking people have towards it. At the same time, the crowning puts a doubt on people’s mind as the sample size considered is tiny.

Here's the top ten cities:

1. Luang Prabang, Laos
2. Santiago de Compostela, Spain
3. Venice, Italy
4. San Francisco, USA
5. Sydney, Australia
6. Hong Kong, China
7. Lhasa, Tibet
8. Dubrovnik, Croatia
9. Cusco, Peru
10. Edinburgh, Scotland

Majority of UK tourists used to hit beaches in Northern Africa and Southern Europe in summer. According to the latest trends coming in, people are more interested in venturing into places that have scarce population and offer more than just lying down.

The Holiday Which? magazine carried an article talking about the latest trends in UK travel. According to Claire Lilley, people from UK are looking out for places that still have the reminiscence of natural beauty and those that aren’t thickly populated. Lying down on the beaches has become a thing of the past and now people look forward to doing something more physical.

Places in Eastern Europe like Bulgaria and Turkey has been a top favourite among travellers in the past year. Travellers look to embark upon places that have less prominence.

While it all comes down to the activities done at the destination, horse riding along with bungee jumping and sky diving are hot favourites.

The change in trend could be largely possible as people in UK are taking multiple vacations a year rather than one big break.

London has had a mixed bag in the tourism industry. It was voted as the top destination but poorly on the airport charts as was in the rest of UK. Now, there is something more to cheer about with Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel in London hitting the top ten list of best hotels.

The Chesterfield Mayfair was placed at nine. It was described as "exquisite", "beyond expectations", "spotless", "great value", and a "peaceful retreat" in a "perfect location" with "first class service".

The awards were announced following a survey conducted by a travel website, Tripadvisor.

The Chesterfield Mayfair had a few other accolades as well. It was rated as the fourth best luxury hotel in Europe, sixth best in the top 25 favourite locations and the sixth best for service among hotels in Europe.

Other UK hotels in the fray were the Rudding Park Hotel in Yorkshire, the Atlantic hotel, in Jersey, Hotel 41 and the Draycott Hotel in London and the Summer Lodge Country House Hotel in Dorset.

via The Press Association

It has been researched that an average Brit has helped in creating around 650 kilograms of carbon-di-oxide (CO2) over three days around Christmas this year. The carbon emissions were helped by massive travelling undertaken along with tons of food wastes.

Researchers from York University's Stockholm Institute conducted a detailed study based on inputs from airline bookings, groceries sold and other items that could contribute towards emitting carbon.

The entire UK community has been estimated to have travelled around 3 billion miles during Christmas for various reasons. So, on an average, every Brit would have travelled 121 miles during Christmas; that’s a lot of travelling. And, this is only UK we are talking about; imagine the intensity for the entire Christmas celebrating folks in other parts of the world.

While travel has contributed tons and heaps, food hasn’t left itself too much behind. The Christmas dinner alone has contributed to a mountain of waste which included peelings from 240 million sprouts, 105 million potatoes and 20 million carrots. Adding and calculating the law of averages from the mountain of waste, an average Brit has contributed to 26 kilograms of carbon over three days. It would make an interesting comparison on the carbon contribution scale for a regular meal.

All the pollution mentioned above is just for one dinner; I am afraid to extrapolate it for the holiday season. We humans pollute our atmosphere in almost everything we do. Gosh!

via BBC

After being scathed away for intolerable traffic and busy airports, London has got a feather in its cap. It’s been named as the Destination of the Year- 2007 at the World Travel Awards.

There were fifteen finalists which included the likes of New York City, Sydney, Barbados and Maldives among others. A constant flow of events and openings of tourist centered attractions seems to be have done the trick for the UK capital.

World Travel Awards is the most prestigious recognition in the tourism industry. The awards are conferred after a vote out by over 167,000 travel professionals around the world.

Here is the list of openings and events held in the year 2007 which ensured that London got the top prize:

• Wembley Stadium (March)
• London Zoo’s Gorilla Kingdom (March)
• The O2 (June)
• Royal Festival Hall (June)
• The Tour de France Grand Départ (July)
• India Now! (July)
• China’s Terracotta Army at the British Museum (September)
• American National Football League (October)
• St Pancras International (November)
• Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs (November)
• London Transport Museum (November)