In the run up to the spring / summer 2009 peak season for flights and family holidays, Brittany’s tourist board has just published a list of the top five best gardens to see during your visit to their province.

Probably one of the most notable attractions in this list is the Roscoff Exotic Gardens situated in the perfect costal location for the Gardens plants’ to take advantage of the Gulf Stream current. This current provides the perfect conditions for the 3,000 tropical plant species at Roscoff. Their tropical plants are able to grow much stronger than they would if they were inland and as a result bloom for much longer.

Those visitors who come to the garden will see stunning waterfalls, rock gardens, ornamental lakes and a spectacular view across the entire bay of Morlaix.

Georges Delaselle Gardens are located within Ile de Batz and boast a huge palm grove display containing extremely rare species of palm trees.

The stunning Haute-Bretagne Ille-et-Villaine part of Brittany has two major gardens within it: Broceliande, famous for a variety of iris collections and its’ rather breathe taking maze of dahlia; and Montmarin, the home to a grande chateau with gardens and parks that contain historic and national monuments.

Those people, who are looking to take family holidays in the city of La Gacilly, can now head to Yves Rocher Botanical Gardens to see 1,100 species of plants and may also consider a visit to the mesmerising Museum of Plant Life.

It is soon time for The Six Nations rugby tournament. This will present many more travel opportunities with flights and other travel laid on for those sports fans eager to attend the tournament.

The 2009 annual contest will see England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Italy and France compete in a head-to-head Rugby tournament which will span a full six weeks.

Those fans who are able to take a trip to Rome will be able to see Ireland v Italy’s match at the Stadio Flaminio which is to take place on 15th February 2009. This is prior to Italy taking on Wales on 14th March 2009 before they finally face a match with France on 21st March.

Paris will prove to be a particularly popular place to head for a city break in February 2009, always popular as one of the most romantic destinations to take your partner for a Valentine’s break. Next year the 14th February is also the date for when France face Scotland which will increase flights to Paris even further. Following this game, France are due to face Wales a couple of weeks later on 27th February.

Facing a few interesting fixtures next year, The British Home Nations will also see an ‘interesting’ match between Wales and Scotland taking place in Edinburgh on 8th February.

The England team are due to travel to Cardiff to face the reigning Six Nations champions’ team on 14th February 2009 prior to a game at Twickenham against Scotland on 21st March.

There is talk of additional flights to be available next year for Rugby fans, particularly on routes to Paris during February 2009.

The Gogo In-flight internet service is to be launched by Delta Airlines on board of at least six of its aircraft. It will be one of the first of 300 domestic aircrafts that will provide web access during its flights.

Initially the facility will be available on five of its MD-88 aircraft. This being the aircraft used for the New York shuttle flights scheduled from New York LaGuardia airport flying directly to Boston Logan or Washington Reagan.

Passengers who are flying with devices enabling internet access such as mobile phones, laptops or personal digital assistants will soon be able to access the world-wide web through the Gogo In-flight system.

Delta Airline’s senior vice president, Tim Mapes, said:

“In-flight internet access is one of the most popular requests we receive from our customers. Delta’s launch of Gogo onboard these first Delta aircraft demonstrates our continued commitment to providing our customers with the options they want and value when they travel with us.”

Tim Mapes stated that the facility would also be made available throughout the airline’s full domestic mainline fleet in 2009. This will reportedly create the largest and most extensive Wi-Fi network that is used in the sky.

Gogo has secured additional contracts with Virgin America and American Airlines and the firm are also planning to begin working with Air Canada soon

Just recently its’ the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) that has reason to celebrate as the Asian state has seen an increase in family holidays and travellers seeking flights to its country. Certain key figures from STB recently represented the organisation at the EIBTM business travel awards which was a huge event for the industry held in Barcelona; Singapore Tourism Board picked up a good number of accolades.

Amongst the awards STB received were accolades for ‘top international meeting city’, (voted Asia’s main/most popular country/city for meetings) along with being voted Asia’s top ‘convention city’.

The STB claim that many of these accolades have come from the success of major global events such as the ITB Asia Travel Show which they say has helped to cement their status as the premier destination in Asia for travel, conventions and meetings.

STB’s Director for Europe, Oliver Chong, said:

“The success of ITB Asia has further sealed Singapore’s reputation for excellent infrastructure and its proven track record of service delivery. We are confident that ITB Asia will grow in terms of size and quality after the first year and solidify its position as a leading tourism tradeshow in the region.”

After a number of major developments to boost tourism in Singapore a number of leisure developments have been built including the Singapore Flyer which is the largest observation wheel in the world and based within Marina Centre. All the recent development and awards mean that STB are hopeful in seeing an increase in flights in 2009.

Those seasonal family holidays who are going to Cyprus in the hope of celebrating their New Year’s Eve in the Cypriot city of Paphos, could quite possibly get the chance to view the largest doner kebab that has ever been created, amongst a great deal of other activities.

Paphos has rounded up all its local cooks for the attempt at breaking the world record for the largest doner kebab ever created and will play a huge part in the city’s New Year celebrations.

Paphos is organising the 2009 New Year Celebrations for the first time in 5 years. Most of the festive activity is to take place near the town hall and around its huge Christmas tree which is situated just outside the door.

The celebrations are due to start on the 31st December at 10pm local time and they will be open to everyone. This New Year celebration will include music, entertainment and free drinks!

Authorities for the city have invested heavily in a large number of new Christmas decorations this year; including the fully illuminated Poseidonos Avenue within Kato Paphos. It is the first time ever that Paphos will have invested in decorations of this magnitude in the town’s history.

Ada Maxwell is a seasonal resident and she told a national British tabloid:

“I come to Paphos for the winter and this year the seafront looks fabulous. I walked down here last night and I felt really Christmassy. The new promenade is great and is set off beautifully at night by the twinkling lights.”

Paphos is a popular destination for festive family holidays but this year there are more flights to Cyprus due to the town promising to offer a large festive agenda; from record breaking attempts to a stunning display of lights, entertainment, food and free drinks at the town’s New Year’s Eve party. There are events to pack your New Year holiday calendar within a host of other resorts around Cyprus including the renowned party town of Ayia Napa and the towns of Nicosia and Limassol.

British Airways has prepared itself for carrying 1.6 million passengers on its flights, which are scheduled across the peak festive season, classed by British Airways as being between 17th December and 4th January.

A good number of British Airway’s longer haul destinations have started to prove much more popular for family holidays and Christmas trips. Top of the bill is the Christmas shopping and highly festive hotspot of New York City, next in line of popularity is Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Dubai and then Washington.

British Airway’s most popular short haul flight routes are Paris Charles de Gaulle second is Geneva and third is Nice. Domestic destinations such as Glasgow and Edinburgh are also set for greeting many family holidays and festive revellers taking flights to Scotland this year.

7,500 flights stand to operate via London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 over Christmas and New Year 2008 / 2009. This will bring the total number of passengers through the new building to well over 15 million whilst over 1,500 of their services will be based at London, Gatwick.

British Airway’s festive in-flight menu is set to serve a minimum of 38,000 Christmas dinners and over 60,000 helpings of Christmas pudding and Christmas cake with an estimated 8,500 pieces of chocolate log being devoured on their festive flights.

Airline giants, British Airways have just made an announcement that it intends to drop its surcharges on fuel imminently for the airlines long haul flights as of 18th December 2008.

Due to the airline’s clever fuel hedging policies for 2009/10 coupled with lowering global oil prices, has meant that they are able to make the price reductions which will equate to up to a third of its previous average flight prices.

Surcharges for those British Airway’s passengers who are on their World Traveller flights are going to see cuts of £30 to £66 off flights of over nine hours. British Airway’s flights that are under duration of nine hours will hold surcharges of £53 per flight which is a reduction of £15 per person.

British Airway’s ‘On World Traveller Plus services’ provide longer flights holding a fuel surcharge of £85 per person whilst on short flights this charge will be £63 per person.

The First and Club World connections will cost £98 per person on B.A. flights with a duration of nine hours and over, and £78 for shorter flight durations.

Those passengers who take flights on their domestic and European services will enjoy cuts in flights surcharges from between £4 to £12 per flight; Club Europe passengers who would normally pay £20 will now pay £15.

As we move through the festive season the changes have been rushed through so British Airways can cater for the higher demand for flights during a key family holiday period. The prediction of passengers it expects to carry from between 18th December to 4th January is 1.6 million passengers.

The biggest top ten travel and tourism events of 2008 were recently voted on within the Daily Telegraph. Making the list was Terminal 5’s disastrous launch and then its eventual success.

The airline opened its brand new hub at Heathrow in London in March 2008; however, the launch was unfortunately plagued by all sorts of technology problems. The problems impacted on flights hugely and led to many cancellations of flights with thousands of luggage items being lost.

Now, happily, Terminal 5 has eventually overcome its initial teething problems and the recent flights into and out of the facility has qualified as British Airway’s most punctual services for ten years.

In a 13 million British Airways passenger poll, hosted by The Daily Telegraph more recently it showed that out of all the respondents 80% of them reported a positive experience.

Making another entry into the newspaper’s top ten travel and tourism developments in 2008 was the continual successes of the Middle Eastern destinations of Egypt, Dubai and Oman. All of which have seen the opening of dozens of new resorts, hotels and tourist attractions to cater for the increasing number of visitors. The Daily Telegraph referred to the Middle Eastern tourism boom as the ‘rise and rise of the Middle East.’

Eurostar’s new success story is its high speed connection linking London and the continent made the list of top ten events along with the introduction of the Airbus A380 into the UK offering flights through Singapore Airlines.

The full range of Air Canada’s transatlantic flights which are offered to holiday makers and business travellers is to be extended in 2009, with the launch of a direct service from Montreal to Rome.

Air Canada has increased their flight programme with the new route to meet ’seasonal travel demand’, and the direct flights will launch on 20th June 2009. It will continually run through the 2009 busy summer holiday period.

The Montreal to Rome route will be added to Air Canada’s scheduled direct routes which are already in place from Toronto to Rome. This flight is a re-established service which is due to resume sometime in February 2009.

The airline’s executive vice president and chief officer, Ben Smith commented:

“The reintroduction of our non-stop service between Montreal and Rome strengthens Air Canada’s commitment to offering convenient flights from Montreal to key international destinations. With the addition of three new destinations this year – Geneva, Fort de France, Martinique and now Rome – Air Canada offers non-stop service from Montreal to 50 destinations.”

So by summer 2009 the airline will have increased its capacity for transatlantic flights from Montreal by a further 35% in comparison to last year’s figures.

Air Canada still provides flights to some of the key European gateways including Paris, London and Frankfurt.

From 23rd December 2009 tickets will be available for family holiday and traveller bookings with the high speed rail operator Eurostar on its service leaving from central London to Avignon in Southern France.

Eurostar will be running a direct service weekly from London’s St Pancras International and Ashford International stations to Avignon in Southern between the 11th July 2009 and the 5th September 2009.

The journey duration is set at five and a half hours from Ashford International Station to the historic centre and province walls of Avignon in France. The city is located over the banks of the Rhone River, so it is a great resort to stay at to see the mountain landscape, vineyards and cattle; it is stunningly picturesque area.

Director of communications at Eurostar, Simon Montague claims: “This service is becoming more popular year on year as our travellers greatly appreciate the seamless, comfortable and environmentally friendly journey to Provence. Our fares are unchanged since summer 2008 and there are no hidden costs such as surcharges and taxes.’

As Avignon is now one of the 60 destinations available to regular passengers, tourists and people on family holidays you are able to travel to and from Avignon to Paris and connect quickly to France’s TGV rail network in France’s capital city.