Up, up and away!

Hot air balloons in Egypt, grounded since the accident injuring 16 in Luxor in April, have resumed, with new safety rules. Among the precautions, no company is allowed more than one balloon in the air at a time and all must take off from the same, official launch site, with a maximum of 20 passengers in one basket.

Brief encounter

Women travellers may want to wear trousers when passing through the new Terminal 1 at Barcelona airport. Spanish bloggers on lavanguardia.es say that the mirror effect of the shiny flooring provides some unexpected underwear moments. While some head to the airport for plane-spotting, others’ thoughts, it seems, are on Zara rather than Iberia.

Belgrade on the menu

You know how it is, another busy day in the office and then you remember that Saddam Hussein is nipping round for supper. But what to serve? If you’re heading to Belgrade, you may want to buy Tito’s Cookbook (Anja Drulovic, Laguna Press, £30), which reveals recipes that the former Yugoslav leader dished up for visiting heads of state. Serbia (www. serbia.travel) has signed an open-skies agreement with the EU that should lure budget airlines next year, making a weekend in the nightlife capital of Eastern Europe more affordable. (The answer is mutton casserole, by the way.)

On track for skiing

Planning to take your ski holiday by train? Snowcarbon.co.uk offers resort reviews in Austria, Andorra, France, Italy and Switzerland as well as details on how to get there by rail. Good news if you live in the South East; not so practical if you are north of Milton Keynes. But with BA, easyJet and Ryanair charging to carry ski equipment, it may be time for a rethink.

Turning Tenby blue

Not sure what the Welsh is for “my woman gone left me and run over my dawg in her pick-up truck”, but you might find out at the Tenby Blues Festival in Pembrokeshire, which starts on November 13. Earl Thomas, supported by Paddy Milner and the Big Sounds, will open the show with Nine Below Zero on the Saturday (tenbyblues.co.uk).

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