new year ideas

52 brilliant weekend breaks for 2010

That’s what you’ve got — and, this year, don’t waste a single one. We have your 2010 planned out

• The best things to see and do in 2010

Bargain travel destinations for 2010

You don’t have to break the bank to have a great holiday. If you know where to look, next year has plenty of bargains up for grabs

A well fed fit camp in the Moroccan sun

Will 2010 be the year when you get fit? Give yourself a head start by booking a holiday where you can shape up in the sun

hot topics

The first superscraper

The world’s tallest building, the £1 billion Burj Dubai, opens for business this week — if it can find any

Why are UK airports so child unfriendly?

Heathrow airport and others have purged many of their children’s facilities. They now suggest shops for amusement instead

Google Goggles: will we ever ditch the guidebook?

Now that Google is translating the world through our smart phones, is there still a need for a travel guide? Ginny Light tests the new technology

wintersports  

Wild Girls hit the Klosters slopes

It may be royalty’s resort of choice, but the swish Swiss ski town has opened its heart (and its fat wallets) to this mad annual charity bash

Ice diving in the French Pyrenees

As skiers flash past above, Nicholas Roe discovers a world as beautiful as it is deadly on a lake dive beneath the ice

Where to ski, month-by-month, this season

It looks like being a bumper year for the white stuff. We tell you where to go, and when, to be sure of the snow

fresh air  

Times Walks: Cam Valley, Somerset

The houses of Southstoke, built of the same pale silver and cream oolitic limestone as those in Bath, were dusted in snow

John Betjeman's favourite walks

Family journeys into prehistory inspired the poet, as his daughter recalls

Julia Bradbury: ‘Walking is not just about the cagoule’

The TV presenter will be the new face of the Ramblers — but can she make the organisation fashionable?

good spa guide  

The Bath Priory, Bath

An Aboriginal-based treatment in a spa annex straight out of Jane Austen's time

• The Lido Spa, Bristol

• Thermae Bath Spa, Bath, Somerset

Amala Spa, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Birmingham

Stimulating oxygen facials to protect against winter in a warm, roomy spa

• Hotel Du Vin Spa, Birmingham

Seven spa breaks for January

Travelintelligence.com editor Ben Cooper rounds up the best hotels in England with availability for New Year spa weekends

travel images  

The Times travel photo competition

View this week's finalists, the first weekly winner of 2010 and enter the January competition

Overlanding then and now

Lifelong overlander Charlie Hopkinson introduces an exclusive competition and galleries with an account of the early years

Signs of the times 2009

The votes have been counted and we can now reveal the 20 most popular silly signs of the year

wintersun  

Red Sea: the complete guide

Desperately seeking sunshine? Egypt has a coastline that was built to banish winter blues

Mozambique's lost islands

Head to Quirimba, an exotic escape where delicate ecosystems combine with a fractious history

Dubai: the insider's guide

So much for the doom mongers: hotels are 90 per cent full, the driverless Metro is running smoothly and a Waitrose has opened

business travel  

Profile: Telecoms boss Ian Carr

The MD of Team Simoco explains why he always packs his pyjamas and discusses the company's Beijing sickbed

Stop moaning about travel disruption, it's Christmas

Business travellers have faced trying times in the past two weeks but many of the problems are beyond the control of the airlines and rail companies

How business travellers take their holidays

With Christmas upon us, we look at how frequent business travellers approach leisure travel

and finally...

Camping with BeBop in the Arizona desert

If you’re going camping in the Arizona desert, the first thing you need is a tent. The second thing is a lot of goats

World on a plate: Ossobuco alla milanese

Oss buss, as the Milanese call it, is a stew, made from one of the cheapest cuts of meat - but this is stew as high art

My Hols: Alistair McGowan

The impressionist grew up with the British seaside, but loves everything about France. And don’t get him started on trains