At home with Wordsworth

“Sun glittering on the Caribbean, 84°F, a slight breeze, lying oiled on
a lounger by the shimmering pool sipping a rum punch. Paradise.”

With
near-frostbitten fingers I texted my colleague back: “Dull grey sheen
from the thick snow, 23°F, icy-cold wind from the Arctic, swathed in
clothing in a freezing tomb of a room, cup of lukewarm tea in my hand.
Hell.”

Stupid me. I’d made the mistake of going on business in Britain. In winter. Over a public holiday.

I’ve
excoriated foreign hotels, barbaric restaurants and alien airlines, and
delineated the faults of the big wide world into which business
travellers are forced to venture.

But this time I’m reserving my
special venom for my homeland. To encapsulate, it seems we couldn’t
organise a binge in a brewery or a bawdy romp in a bordello.

I
had business in the English Lake District, the picturesque
Wordsworthian golden daffodils kingdom of our dreams (in reality a
rip-off homeland for incompetent hoteliers, rapacious restaurateurs and
the kind of greedy local council who’d put a ten quid an hour car park
on top of Helvellyn if they could).

First I made the mistake of
driving there. Trains were being cancelled because of the wrong kind of
snow, planes were grounded, but I had a 4×4 so I ventured forth. I got
to Archway in Islington in 20 minutes. Then – traffic jammed solid.

It
took a further one and a half hours to get to the M1, just six miles
away. Then a further seven and a half hours to reach Penrith. The
motorways looked as though the whole of Britain was fleeing a nuclear
disaster.

By the time I finally drove up to my snow-draped
picturesque boutique hotel just a stone’s throw from a lake, it was
almost midnight and I was seeing red rear-lights everywhere and
unsteady on my feet from car motion.

I’d booked a room for
single occupancy with bathroom. Mine host opened the room door. It was
indeed a cute little ante-room with a sloping roof, a skylight and
narrow little… what? It appeared to be a chaise-longue covered in a
bedspread. I waited for him to take me into the main room. He didn’t
move.

This was it! This coffin-sized enclosure was the room! We
wedged ourselves in and the manager said defensively: “It’s cosy, isn’t
it?” I just gasped, open-mouthed like a fish. Words wouldn’t come.
Eventually I croaked: “Where – where’s the bathroom? I can’t see the
bathroom.” He pointed: “Down the hall.”

Whaaat?

“No,
there’s some mistake. I booked a room with a bath.” He was unfazed.
“You’ve got a bath. It’s down the hall.” We checked the internet
reservation. Ah, the treacherous beauty of small print: it didn’t say
‘bathroom en suite,’ but rather ‘single occupancy room with private
bathroom.’ He smiled in triumph. Gotcha! And I was sharing my ‘private’
bathroom with room number Two.

I’d driven for almost ten hours,
I was groggy, cold, I think I had snow-blindness and I was dog tired.
After extracting a promise that the next night I’d move to a double, I
closed the door, shivered and felt the radiator. Cold as a corpse. They
turned the heat off at eleven until seven the next morning.

Soon
any residual heat had faded. Outside it was 23°F… nine below freezing.
I gulped down a quick cup of tea, dragged out a t-shirt, a shirt, jeans
and some woolly socks, changed into them and climbed into the icy
sheets.
Shivering and exhausted, I slowly fell into a restless sleep only to wake at four in the morning needing the bathroom.
I
stumbled through the freezing darkness, stubbed my toe, accidentally
peed on my foot, then staggered back to a feverish sleep, waking too
late for the prompt-at-eight-thirty cooked breakfast. The hotel boasted
Wi-Fi but when I tried to collect my e-mails – failure.

I
enquired. “Well, the hotel walls are very thick. Try another room.” I
took the laptop to first the lounge then the dining room, but like the
Fawlty Tower gourmet night duck, Wi-Fi was ‘off,’ and I was forced to
crunch across icy roads to an internet café eight miles away.

At my first 11am meeting I slumped into the chair looking like Captain Oates before he made his short but fateful walk.

I
doubt I shall ever criticise a foreign country again even if it means
Toad is silenced forever. England oh my England… what a bloody travel
mess you are.

Train or plane?

There’s a long-held belief in the business world that to get anywhere fast you have to take a plane. Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? Jets fly at four times the speed of trains. That’s why the boss says: “Get yourself on a plane. The client wants to see you tomorrow.” It’s also why you paid heavily for the privilege of sub-sonic transport, at least until the last few years or so when low-cost airlines took off with a vengeance. But for businesspeople in a hurry the European transport landscape is changing rapidly, largely because of the increased frequency of fast-train services and business-friendly carriages. Rocketing along at speeds of up to 200mph on dedicated lines, France’s TGV, Germany’s ICE, Spain’s AVE and the cross-border Eurostar and Thalys services provide serious competition for airlines. Indeed on some routes, particularly short-haul ones such as Paris-Brussels or Paris-Amsterdam, airlines have thrown in the towel and no longer compete.

The current deregulation of European rail from January 1 can only accelerate this trend. According to rail-watchers, it’s likely to produce a profusion of services at lower ticket prices right across Europe.

“There’s never been a better time for business travellers to choose train not plane in terms of avoiding the hassle and time-wasting nature of modern flying,” explains Briton Mark Smith, founder of train buff website The Man in Seat 61. “Also, the high speed network is growing and the quality of the trains is improving.”

And in the same way that low-cost airlines set out to undercut their full-service rivals, rail has thrown down the gauntlet to low-cost airlines. Adds Smith: “Airline competition has already produced the rail equivalent of cheap air fares, such as Paris-Geneva for e29 or around e55 in 1st class, London to Cologne or Düsseldorf for e49, or e99 in 1st class, Paris-Frankfurt e39 or around e89 in 1st class. “And you don’t get charged for checking luggage, as some low-cost fliers do.

Simultaneously, rail operators are falling over themselves to offer services such as lounges in stations, WiFi connections, business-class as distinct from first-class, table service for food and drink so you don’t have to lug laptop and/or documents to the restaurant car, and even private meeting rooms. Plus, of course, there’s the considerable bonus that trains are generally extremely punctual, pulling out of the station at the timetabled minute.

Any European firm with a big airline travel bill should be taking a serious look at the rail option. But to get down to brass tacks, let’s compare the relative speeds of plane and train. For most businesspeople, the first requirement is rapid transit whether up in the clouds or on terra firma. Generally, comfort comes second or third when you’re on a mission. With time being of the essence, the old rule of thumb had it that rail travel became a viable alternative only when the flight took less than three hours. However the era of terrorism with its airport delays and other unpredictabilities has changed that assumption, pushing the benchmark out to around five hours.

The important thing for businesspeople however is not so much the time of the journey as its downtime. Here, fliers definitely spend more unemployable hours on the ground than they do in the air. For instance, on a fairly typical two-hour flight on a low-cost operator, the budget traveller will have to allow for at least an hour getting to the airport from the office and sometimes longer, at least one to one and a half hours at the airport for security checks and other procedures, and another hour travelling from the airport to the destination city, generally by bus. Often enough, the bus stops at the outskirts of the city where urban transport takes over.

As low-cost fliers know, the airports of most operators are remote from the destination city. For instance, Ryanair’s Paris flight lands at Beauvais, its Brussels flight at Charleroi and its Frankfurt flight at Hahn. Most of these airports are a good hour from the city and some even further – Hahn is 75 miles distant from Frankfurt. You can’t blame the airlines for this; the lower landing charges of these airports are an important part of their business model. They wouldn’t be low-cost operators without them.

The upshot however is that around three and a half hours of every “flight” will be spent on terra firma, waiting in queues, getting on and off buses, with little opportunity to get some work done. All up, a two-hour flight actually takes around five and a half hours. By comparison, the only downtime in train travel is getting to the central station, which is almost always in the city centre anyway. To all intents and purposes, that part of the journey is like a normal commute.

Now let’s consider price. Under the yield-management system of operators such as AirBerlin, Germanwings, EasyJet, Tuifly, WizzAir and Ryanair, first in gets the cheap fare, of which however there are very few. Incidentally, don’t ignore full-fare carriers. Unless they happen to own the low-cost carrier, some attempt to compete with low-cost airlines by offering a handful of cheaper seats. However there’s a case for arguing that advance booking isn’t very relevant for business travellers because, with the best will in the world, meetings are often re-scheduled or cancelled. In that event an unused ticket becomes invalid, or effectively so when fees for changing dates are included.

This makes it unrealistic to compare cheapest fares with standard or even early bird rail tickets. Also there are too many significant variables with both forms of transport to come up with exact comparisons. Some of those variable arise in terms of time of departure (very early and very late in the day are generally cheaper for both airlines and trains), early booking, frequent-user discounts, the kind of plane or train, popularity of the route, ease of getting to airport or station and other factors.

It is however possible to come up with certain principles plus a few hard and fast rules. First, the principles. It may not be possible to make the earliest and cheapest flights except by taxi because public transport may not be running at that time. The extra expense of a pre-booked, early-morning taxi trip can nullify the bargain-basement price of the flight.

Recent studies by some travel agents show that short-haul rail of two or three hours duration generally works out much more economically than even low-cost flights, particularly when travelling between a variety of cities that are in reasonably close proximity. For instance, a survey by American Rick Steves, a writer of European travel guide books, showed that an ordinary Eurail pass worked out cheaper as well as faster than plane for travel from Rome and back via Florence and Venice.

“Eurail won this round by a landslide, offering both the shortest total travel time (nine hours and 56 minutes) and the lowest price,” he said. “The [air] travel time was almost twice as long the train’s, not because of time in the air but because of lengthy layovers.” Nor did that exercise take into account the likelihood of delays because of airport security.

On routes where they can’t compete, some airlines have seen the light and started selling “intermodal” tickets for plane and train. For instance, Air France no longer flies passengers into Belgium and the Netherlands out of the rather shambolic Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris. Instead it offers seats on the Thalys high-speed trains. Passengers pick one up near the airport – they leave just about every hour during the day – and hurtle in comfort to Brussels or Antwerp, Luxembourg, Rotterdam or Amsterdam.

Frequency – or rather, lack thereof – used to be a problem for rail fans but that’s changing almost by the day on popular, high-speed routes. For instance, Italy’s government-owned Trenitalia is throwing its resources behind new high-speed runs through its heartland areas such as Milan-Florence-Rome-Naples. A private operator, NTV, plans to compete with Trenitalia on the Milan-Florence-Rome routes from next year and is considering invading the territory of France’s state-owned Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) with open-access trains on lucrative routes such as Paris-Brussels frequented by civil servants and businesspeople travelling on fat expense accounts.

The Thalys trains certainly show how the game has changed in the last few years. When I landed at Charles de Gaulle airport six years ago and wanted a train to Strasbourg, I had to hunt around for an SNCF booth. When I finally found it, the functionary could hardly have been less helpful. As far as he was concerned, there was only one destination and it was Paris (at the time there were no TGV trains to Strasbourg, even from Paris).

Similarly, Eurostar has changed the game from Britain to France and Brussels. Leaving roughly every hour, it now takes around two and a quarter hours between London and Paris, and has killed off most of the London-Paris flights of the full-service airlines (I remember taking the Wagon-Lits train between Paris and London Victoria in the seventies and it took the whole night, crossing the Channel by ferry).

Thus while low-cost airlines have proved a boon to business-travellers, the balance of power is shifting. “On major lucrative routes competition may well result in more choice and lower prices,” summarises Smith. That leaves the issue of convenience and comfort. Here too, the rail operators are rediscovering the golden age of rail travel highlighted by novelists such as Agatha Christie in Murder on the Orient Express and Graham Greene in Stamboul Train (Greene also wrote a thriller called simply Orient Express). Eurostar, which was launched as a predominantly tourist train, now provides a work-friendly Business Premium class as well as restful lounges in London, Paris and Brussels. Similarly, certain Thalys routes offer lounges, at-seat meals included in the fare and free WiFi in first class on all trains. On Deutsche Bahn’s ICE trains, there’s all of the above, plus group booking in compartments for strategy-planning sessions. It is of course possible to work on a plane, but not very efficiently. Phone calls are out, for example, and space is too confined to spread out laptop and documents.

By no means least, there’s the effect of pressurised cabins. Although short flights do not significantly affect a flyer’s health, according to doctors, the pressure is a known cause of fatigue.

In the carbon footprint debate, trains trump airlines. Although neither form of transport pollutes to anything like the extent of commuters in cars, studies show that electrically-driven high-speed trains are much easier on the planet.

Often overlooked in the train versus plane debate is the overnight train. Almost surreptitiously, they have made up a lot of ground in the last few years and are now viable alternatives for travellers who have business in different cities on succeeding days. Obviously, the key point of comparison here is the relative cost of a hotel room, which varies greatly from city to city, but you won’t go far wrong if you rate your cabin against a three-star hotel. Modern rail cabins such as those of Trenitalia’s ‘Notte’ overnighters are clean and comfortable, often with their own bathroom and shower. And while the clacking of the rail sleepers keeps some people awake, it sends others to sleep.

If only the booking arrangements matched the quality of the trains. Business travel agencies are practically hard-wired to look first for plane seats because of the legacy booking infrastructure. “It’s almost an institutional problem,” explains Mark Smith. “Only Eurostar is on airline distribution systems.” For practical purposes, this means that you have to go the national railway sites to make a booking.

The problem appears to be a reluctance to work together. The European consortium, RailTeam, has pulled the plug on a project to create a common booking system and website for all its members that would have given rail an infrastructure along the same lines as the airlines’ Galileo/Amadeus system. That’s seen as a big setback for rail-users. The European Commission is a part of the problem, having thrown the baby of convenience out with the bathwater of deregulation.

As Smith explains, the EC should insist that operators get together on common reservation, timetable, enquiry and ticketing systems, as Britain has. Believe it or not, for 150 years – between 1850 and 1990, every national operator could sell tickets for every other national operator on a simple, easily comparable kilometric tariff. However Rail Europe is a popular general site and some national operator sites work well. With full details of pricing, routes, timetables and on-board facilities, Trenitalia’s site is highly user-friendly, a modern Baedeker. Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF are also accessible.

To summarise, low-cost airlines have served their community well but the modern breed of trains are game-breakers because of punctuality, cleanliness, unfussiness as well, increasingly, because their prices are competitive. There’s also a robust argument that low-cost airlines aren’t appropriate for many businesspeople. For instance, if the plane doesn’t turn up because of, say fog, you’re in trouble. When our Ryanair flight out of Charleroi, Brussels, failed to arrive one morning, the low-cost airline abruptly turned into a high-cost one. With competing airlines booked out, there were basically two options for the stranded passengers: return to Brussels and find a hotel for an extra night, or scramble to another airport for an expensive last-minute seat on a full-service, multi-trajectory flight. This is exactly what a group of oil-company executives had to do.

Neither option suiting us, we had to make an executive decision to travel by ferry across the North Sea and ended up on a cross-Belgium safari. This involved two trains – one to Brussels and another to Zeebrugge – albeit on low-cost tickets, an expensive taxi from Zeebrugge station to the port where we scrambled aboard the overnight ferry to Edinburgh. Last aboard, we made it with five minutes to spare. (If we’d missed the boat, the cost of the crossing and cabin was not refundable.)

All up, the cost for this mad dash across half of Belgium plus the sea crossing was more than five times that of the air fares, not counting shredded nerves. And of course the Ryanair tickets were now useless.
 
Many business travellers like the buzz of airports and planes. And when the cost of flying was significantly lower than the iron road, it hardly made sense to go by any other way. But there’s been a quiet revolution of price, comfort, suitability and – for good measure – ecology that’s bringing people back to rail.

A driving force

As the world’s first purpose-built motorsport venue, Brooklands is one of the most famous and distinctive racing circuits in history: so iconic was its loop that during the second world war, trees were planted and canvas houses erected to camouflage it from enemy bombers. The site became one of Britain’s first airfields, and was home to much pioneering aeronautics work during the 20th century: more of Concorde was built at Brooklands than any other site.

Today, über-contemporary conference facilities, super suites with private sweeping terraces and outdoor hot-tubs overlooking the historic track once again put the site into pole position for business and leisure activities. Adjacent to world-class attraction Mercedes Benz World, this 120 bedroom four star design hotel has driving experiences, pop concerts and classical extravaganzas on its doorstep.

Like sister properties Bovey Castle and the Grand Jersey, the new Brooklands Hotel prides itself on personality and individuality. Unique features like its race track spa or the ability to watch the likes of Elton John from a roll-top bath set it a world away from the more cookie-cutter corporate hotels, but still in a prime location: five minutes from the M25, 30 minutes from central London, 17 miles from Heathrow or 33 miles from Gatwick.

This style statement of a property has been designed with a knowing nod to the rich legacy of the race circuit that surrounds and runs through the hotel, but it is its sumptuous, super-sized features and facilities that really set it apart from the competition.

Super suites
Six substantial one-bedroom suites located at each end of the building take advantage of the building’s elegant curvature and offer incredible panoramic views. But it is the nine super suites – each covering 100sq m, including two bedrooms and an exceptional lounge with floor to ceiling windows – that are this hotel’s star attraction. Generously proportioned desks, dining tables and seating provide a spacious place to stay, with the option to transform living space into a meeting room.

Standard rooms are some of the largest in the UK; the smallest room is still 28sq m and many have their own private outside space with panoramic views of the Mercedes Benz track. Each room benefits from a huge amount of natural light, with floor to ceiling windows in all. Interconnecting rooms, as well as a number of rooms with sofa beds, offer flexibility perfect for couples, friends and families alike.

No destination hotel would be complete without a destination spa. Offering seven wet and dry treatment rooms, steam rooms, saunas, outdoor hot tubs, a meditation room with water beds as well as exercise and relaxation areas, the new Brooklands Hotel is no exception. The pièce de résistance is the property’s exclusive signature treatment menu, featuring facials by Lubatti, massages and body treatments by Jane Scrivner and manicures and pedicures by Butter London.

The super suite sharing the spa floor also boasts a cloakroom accessed from the impressive entrance lobby, original artwork and a bespoke round daybed in the lounge. A private terrace generously wraps around the suite’s elevation, while a state of the art bathroom with separate WC, shower room and a huge free-standing bath adds an element of luxurious relaxation.

Substance with style
From the original racetrack that rolls through the foyer, highlighted in riven quartz and honed granite, to the Charlie Whinny wood sculpture in the atrium and the glittering 1930s-inspired pendants behind reception, the hotel’s design is signature and exclusive. Influenced by period detail and contemporary influential designers such as Eileen Gray, Van de Rohe and Le Corbusier, the spirit and history of the site has been carefully woven throughout the hotel’s interior.

Also benefiting from an exclusive air, with an independent identity and private entrance, is the Brasserie at Brooklands, which offers inspiring yet informal dining. Created by critically acclaimed head chef Nick Bell, one of the top English/Italian chefs in the UK, it serves carefully sourced, exceptionally cooked modern British cuisine – albeit with a strong Italian influence. Sharing plates are the order of the day, allowing guests to order according to how hungry they are or how much time they have to spare. While one person may have a full four course meal, another may opt for a simple pasta dish, bowl of spicy clam fragola or a dozen oysters accompanied by a glass of wine from the extensive list.

Featuring one event suite with a theatre style capacity of 175 and seven other meeting suites suitable for a variety of combinations, the Brooklands Hotel is also home to one of the UK’s most impressive and contemporary meeting and event facilities. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel, and meeting room systems include flipcharts, plasma screens and projectors; the Brooklands Hotel’s all inclusive rates ensure organisers won’t be surprised by hidden costs or supplements.

The ultimate combination of contemporary design with classical history, the new Brooklands Hotel represents the best of the new breed of independent, purpose-built hotels for business and leisure visitors alike. Built on the home of the world’s most famous racing heritage, with the style, service and standards to match, this new hotel is guaranteed to be a journey and experience to remember rather than a mere visit or stay. A hotel which is set to drive forward new standards of quality, style and energy for 2010 and beyond.

Tel: 01932 335 700; www.brooklandshotelsurrey.com

The other office

Rupert Murdoch gave a talk recently in which he explained the game-changing effect of the digital age on his industry. For the media baron, the story of website The Drudge Report says it all. As many know, American Matt Drudge built a global readership by aggregating mainly conservative articles and links on his site, the popularity and notoriety of which skyrocketed when he broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

As Murdoch explained, Drudge accomplished all this without renting office space, hiring a large staff, investing a king’s ransom in technology or even bothering to take out an ad – all the things a budding media tycoon would have had to do a few short years ago to get such an enterprise off the ground. He did it all from his apartment and a local café in Miami Beach, Florida, with nothing more than a computer and broadband link, a nose for news and a good idea.

Far from lamenting this revolution, the tycoon sounded quite wistful about it. Imagine how much easier and cheaper it would be to build a global media empire today. Anyway, you have to ask, who wants to work at a desk when you can do it all from a café?

Time travel
It won’t be long before every self-respecting coffee house has free broadband connections, thus freeing up the workers of the world in time and place. As the saying goes, nobody dies wishing they’d spent more time in the office.
And funnily enough, that’s how cafés started: as a place for imbibing this head-banging new beverage from the exotic east, and for the informal discussion of politics, business, books and other burning issues of the day. The noble institution of the café dates from the mid-1500s. It started in the old Levant, spread steadily over the next 100 years into Europe, especially central Europe, then into England and finally across the Atlantic. Hotbeds of activity, cafés were where merchants met to transact business on the sly at a safe distance from eavesdroppers at the exchanges, scholars to debate ideas, politicians to discuss policy, wild-eyed revolutionaries to talk subversion – and secret agents to spy on the whole lot.

And subversives there were. Many of the overthrows of European governments, including some of the most recent, were plotted in the backrooms of outwardly respectable establishments. A step or two ahead of the authorities, Lenin did much of the groundwork for the Russian revolution in cafés between Zurich, Vienna and Paris. Seventy years earlier, none other than Karl Marx sketched the outlines of his turgid tracts in otherwise respectable cafés in Paris. The French revolution was plotted in working-class cafés. And, turning the wheel full circle, the overthrow of the Iron Curtain’s communist regimes was debated behind closed doors in cafés from Prague to Paris.

Strong traditions
One of the irresistible attractions of a European café – alas, nearly all the historic ones in London have been knocked down – is that you could be sitting in exactly the same spot, perhaps even the same chair, as an infamous revolutionary, revered writer or unreformed reprobate of some sort. Some of my favourite cafés are in the Montmartre district of Paris, where many of them date back 150 or more years and have rich stories to tell. For example, Jean Jaures, the great socialist politician and editor of L’Humanite, was shot one evening in July 1914 at the Café au Croissant. Located in Rue Montmartre by Metro Bourse, it’s still going strong.

Events like these, tragic and otherwise, seem to animate the great cafés and make them highly stimulating places in which to work, think, plan and, well, ruminate. Vienna’s Café Central perfectly fits the bill. A cavernous place with towering gothic pillars, it couldn’t be further from a Starbucks. The Central has been the haunt of the usual suspects – politicians, revolutionaries, writers, students, industrialists, all sitting amicably side by side – for 150 years. In that time it’s become an institution. For ‘Centralists,’ an hour or two in the establishment cared for by the attentive staff is an essential part of the daily routine; the lubricant for a day of creativity. As Alfred Polgar, café essayist and faithful habitué of the Central wrote some 90 years ago, “There are poets and other industrialists to whom profitable thoughts come only in the Café Central.”

How do you pick a great café? Biased as I am, history helps (and the quality of the coffee – hot, strong and aromatic – is assumed). It should be clean and well-maintained but a little worn, as befits an establishment with a past. A few dark corners where one can sit and observe are a bonus. Free newspapers in several languages should be available and, naturally, internet access for free. After a couple of visits, the staff should recognise you enough to nod in acknowledgement.

A café should not be ridiculously expensive, trading on its name like those of the great squares of Venice or the grand boulevards of Paris’s Left Bank – you’ll find better and cheaper ones a couple of streets back.

Unpretentiousness is important. In our village of Olvera in Andalucia, there are no fewer than 99 cafés and bars, and none of them put on airs. They’re full of old guys playing dominoes and shouting amiably at each other, and young people reading Marca, the daily sports paper.

Oddly enough, some of the best European-style cafés in the world are to be found in Melbourne, Australia, especially in the city centre. Many of them were opened in the 50s and 60s by immigrant Italians and Greeks who, shocked by the rough pubs of post-war Australia, pined for the cafés of their native countries.

There are a lot of cafés on my must-see list, all of them with turbulent pasts, and top of the list is Café del Tasso on the Piazza Vecchia in the hill town of Bergamo where they’ve been serving coffee, food and drink since 1476. I’m hoping to sit in the favourite place of Garibaldi.

Exquisite style and engineering

Excellence in design flowed in Ettore’s blood. His father, Carlo Bugatti, was a gifted and successful Art Nouveau furniture and jewellery designer, who had emigrated from Milan to Paris in 1904, principally to help further the careers of his two sons. At an early age Ettore began to display a talent for mechanics. When he was 17 he invented a motor-powered tricycle – a remarkable achievement given that at the time the motor industry was still taking its baby steps. This talent, coupled with an eye for elegance inherited from his father, ensured he went on to found one of the most recognisable luxury racing cars brands of the 20th century.

In the first five years of his career Ettore Bugatti had worked on the design of automobiles for a handful of manufacturers, but in 1909 he decided to go it alone. With the aid of a bank loan, Ettore established a factory in Molsheim – in the Alsace region of France – to produce a handful of automobiles and five aircraft engines.

From the outset, Bugatti’s cars were every bit a work of art as they were mechanical inventions. For instance, engine blocks were hand scraped to ensure that the surfaces were so flat that gaskets were not required for sealing, and safety wires threaded through almost every fastener in intricately laced patterns. As opposed to the industry norm of bolting the springs to the axle, Bugatti’s axles were made so that the spring passed though a carefully-crafted opening: a more elegant solution requiring fewer parts.

Commenting on his principal rival, Ettore famously described Bentley’s cars as “the world’s fastest lorries,” for their focus on durability. According to Bugatti, “weight was the enemy.”

A car is born
The first car from the Bugatti factory was launched in 1910, and in the same year Bugatti joined the racing circuit. Over the course of the next decade, Bugatti was to become a serious contender in the motor racing world. In 1924 the Bugatti Type 10 clinched the top four positions at its first race, and the 1924 Type 35 went on to be the most successful racing car of all time, with over 2,000 wins.

Unlike many businesses, Bugatti prospered as a result of the First World War, developing a number of aeroplane engines for both the American and French governments. Revenues from such contracts enabled the firm to expand the Molsheim operations, growing the staff base and increasing production. In racing circles, Bugatti continued to dominate almost every race event, often taking all three places on the podium.

Bugatti remained hugely successful until the depression of 1929. Since 1914, Ettore Bugatti had dreamed of building a truly legendary motor car, and in 1926 his dream was realised with the launch of the Royale model. Priced at $30,000 in 1926, the car’s price tag in modern terms would be approximately $900,000.

Intended exclusively for European royalty, the Royale unfortunately hit the market at the worst possible time, the great depression having taken a real stranglehold. Just six Royales were built between 1929 and 1933, and only three were sold – none of them to royalty.

A change in fortunes
Unfortunately, the 1930s didn’t herald a change of fortunes for Ettore Bugatti. Furthermore, his son, Jean, was killed in 1939 at the age of 30, while testing a Bugatti Type 57 near the Molsheim factory, and World War II ruined the factory in Molsheim, with the company losing control of the property. During the war, Bugatti began planning a new factory in Paris and designed a series of new cars. However, production of the new range was declined due to insufficient capital, and following Ettore Bugatti’s death in 1947 the company’s decline began to spiral.

Under Ettore’s son, Roland, the company attempted a comeback in the mid-1950s with the mid-engine design Type 251 racing car. Designed with help from renowned Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Maserati designer Gioacchino Columbo, the car failed to meet performance expectations, and production was terminated in 1957.

In the 1960s, US car designer Virgil Exner designed a Bugatti as part of his ‘Revival Cars’ project. A show version of the last Bugatti Type 101 chassis car was built by Ghia and unveiled at the 1965 Turin Motor Show. However, funding could not be sourced and the project was abandoned.

Bugatti did, however, continue manufacturing aircraft parts, and in 1963 was sold to Hispano-Suiza – another car and aircraft manufacturer. Snecma took over in 1968, later acquiring Messier; the firms merged into Messier-Bugatti in 1977.

A new dawn
In the latest chapter of the Bugatti story, in 1998 Volkswagen acquired the legal name of Bugatti and began producing cars under the brand name. In 2000 Volkswagen founded Bugatti Automobiles SAS and in 2005 introduced the most powerful road car ever seen, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, a sixteen cylinder vehicle boasting just under 1,000bhp and a top speed of 253mph. Named after Pierre Veyron, the French racing driver who won the Le Mans in 1939 while racing for Bugatti, the car is capable of reaching 62mph in just 2.5 seconds. In today’s market a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 costs around $2.3m, excluding taxes.

Since the launch of the Veyron, Bugatti has worked separately from, but as a subsidiary of, Volkswagen. Its forthcoming project is the Bugatti Lydia, a road car that is planned to produce 1,175bhp and record a top speed of 280 mph. Named after Ettore’s wife, the car is expected to launch in 2012 and cost around $3m.

Confessions of a frequent flyer

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or so we’ve always been told… then again, covers can be very informative. Take the picture on the front for instance – is there a gloomy looking house surrounded by a cemetery and a few ominous clouds? Perhaps a man wielding an axe in the shadows? Just guessing, but chances are the book inside won’t be an all-consuming love story.

The same can be said when you are stumbling off a plane at two in the morning. Tired, dazed and caught in that murky netherworld between time zones, there is one reality that you have to face up to pretty quickly – passport control. The cover to any country’s book, I’ve often thought that a country’s immigration officials can be a useful indicator of what to expect when you step out of the airport. Or can they?

Ten years ago, Britain’s immigration officials were all smiles, displaying that well-known politeness the country is famous for. “If you wouldn’t mind showing me your passport, that would be lovely,” one official cooed over the desk at me as I stumbled back from a nightmare of a trip that had involved three flights, one long layover and what had been jet lag 24 hours previously but had already morphed into a form of good-old delirium.

I can remember thinking just how good it was to be back on home turf and how welcome I felt that day. Fast forward ten years – past 9/11 and 7/7 – and it is a whole different story. Yes there’s that veil of polite courtesy, but wait and see what happens to it when you step over the line before it’s your turn, stand too close to the desk, forget to take your hat off, or – worst of all, talk on your phone. And, if you do commit any of these fatal errors, don’t smile. It’s insolent and rude and unlikely to curry any further favour in the light of your misdeed.

The process of getting into many countries has morphed in recent years to the kind of complicated dance you watch popstars bust out on the television and wonder how on earth they ever get it right. Each time you go through customs you try and pick up one more step of the dance any savvy traveller has had to perform in order to keep their nose out of trouble.

Even more confusing is that the steps change depending on which country you are in. “Why you standing so far away, I cannot see you girl, what, you think I bite?” one Greek official laughed at me when I stood where the stand-behind-this-line-or-there’ll-be-trouble spot would have been in the UK. That would have been the point in the choreographed dance where I tripped over and fell on my face on live TV. As it was, I was pretty much nose to nose with him before he smiled, snapped the passport closed and signalled that our little exchange was over.

Somehow, nothing beats the welcome you receive at an island airport. From one side of the globe to another, there’s the easygoing smile and casual glance at the passport that lets you know you are off the mainland and signals the beginning of a slower, more enjoyable pace of things. From the Shetlands to the South Pacific Islands, it’s the same story again and again.

If you’re lucky enough to get to the Seychelles on a business trip (I’ve tried but somehow the bosses never quite agree that business is best done on a beach with a Long Island Iced Tea and a cool flannel, so I’ve had to settle with spending my holidays on their white sandy beaches), you’re guaranteed a welcome that would put most countries to shame.

There’s no grumpy stamping of passports here. After all, it’s a bit hard to stamp a coconut-shaped imprint with a frown on your face. The real treat, however, comes on the way out of the country when they even have the decency to look sad that you’re leaving; not many officials can pull that one off convincingly. But there is something like a step too far. Like when the officials are so laid back that you’re left watching their every move – willing, praying them to work a few iotas faster so you can make it out of the airport before it’s time to turn around and catch your return flight home in three days time.

I always marvel at the more relaxed cultures on the earth – not getting stressed about the little things in life understandably has a great appeal to someone who stresses out if there aren’t enough chocolate sprinkles on her mochachino. But that relaxed attitude can only be appreciated so far. Not that I’m pointing any fingers but anyone who’s experienced the brain-numbing slowness of Dubai’s airport officials will have at least an inkling of what I’m talking about. It takes a certain kind of strength to stand strong in the face of hundreds of passengers’ death-like stares, and I respect them for it.

One specific incident jumps to mind when the official stamping my document was talking to his co-worker behind him. Turns out four weeks later – when I was leaving the country – that he’d forgotten to scan me into the system. Although it might not sound like much apparently it makes you an illegal immigrant, and they don’t take too kindly to those in any country. Two missed flights and 48 hours later, it was sorted out, but I began to think that maybe it’s not so bad for a little bit of stress and urgency to make things tick over properly.

Luckily, it’s not all one extreme or the other. Somewhere in the middle there’re the officials who are neither super efficient nor relaxed to the point of being comatose. Even then there are the airport traditions that strike one as being a bit odd. People who are afraid of dogs might not have a great time at Aussie airports – being confronted by a huge mastiff sniffing you over can be a bit of a daunting experience the first time round, or maybe that’s just me.

And fashion has to get a look in somewhere. When it comes to the immigration style stakes it’s a toss up between the French and Italians. Male or female, they’re nations that can wear a uniform of even the most disgusting colours with panache. The inevitable sniff from the French officials when they hear my stumbling English accent massacring their beautiful language makes me want to plump for the Italians but then again my French is very sniff-able so I can’t really blame them. The Italians on the other hand, well – it’s flattering if not quite appropriate to receive a marriage proposal when you still have your gel eye pack perched on the top of your forehead and the guy behind the desk looks like he just fell out of a Gucci advert.

Of our other European counterparts, Spanish officials are much more amenable to any stumbling attempts at their language you might make. So much so that my few words, which roughly translated as “Yes, I’m here on business” (or so I hope) were met with a torrent of welcomes and tips about must-dos for my spare time in the city – most of which went over my head and left me thinking wistfully about the silent disdain of the Frenchman, which at least I understood.

I could go on: The Swedish were silent but lethally beautiful, Singapore impressively efficient (though don’t you dare chew any gum), the Thai official smiling, even as he whacked a fine on me for overstaying my visa by a day. America is plain petrifying – by the time I finish the ordeal that’s American immigration, I feel guilty of a crime I’d never even dream of committing, much less know what it is.

But really, it’s just a matter of luck. After all, surely there are only so many officials who can give you the stink eye when the first five pages in your passport they turn to are already full? But where can we find them? Laos came close, maybe the Cook Islands? Good luck trying to justify a business trip there. In the end, what I’ve learnt is that all you can do is be yourself. A handy tip is that ‘yourself’ for this purpose should be attentive, faintly smiling (only a midge mind you), not too complimentary or ingratiating (too suspicious), not too nervous (asking for trouble), arrogant, rushed or grumpy and, whatever you do… don’t answer that phone.

About Michael Lebowitz
Michael Lebowitz is the founder and CEO of Big Spaceship, a digital creative agency in Brooklyn, New York.

About the collection
When Michael’s grandfather passed away, the Lebowitz family gathered to go through his belongings. He had been in the Foreign Service and had filled an entire wall of his study with hotel door hangers from his global travels.

About Big Spaceship
Big Spaceship is a digital creative agency. Driven by insight and led by innovation, their work creates the experiences, products, platforms and content that help brands build meaningful and sustainable relationships with consumers. Their approach transcends technologies and outlasts campaigns as they continually find opportunities for brands to facilitate, engage, empower and evolve.

Gateway to Ghana

Situated only one kilometre from Kotoka International Airport and just seven kilometres from the city centre, Holiday Inn Accra Airport is ideally located for the business traveller or adventurous tourist. Widely acknowledged as the premium hotel in Accra, it recently played host to the US first family during their visit to Ghana – the first by US President Obama to sub-Saharan Africa since he came to office.

Leisure facilities at the hotel are extensive, and include a swimming pool, a fully equipped gym and a health centre. The seven storey hotel has 98 standard rooms, 48 executive rooms, 14 deluxe rooms, six executive suites and two presidential suites. All are luxuriously appointed and equipped with satellite television, mini-bar and Wi-Fi. Coffee and tea making facilities complement the 24-hour room service and in-room safe deposit boxes.

The hotel offers some of the best cuisine to be found in Accra. The main restaurant is the elegant Wiase Restaurant, which has a terrace overlooking the swimming pool, and is open all day offering guests the choice of a delectable buffet or a set menu. A highlight at the Wiase Restaurant is the Ghanian Sunday brunch, where a selection of breakfast and lunch items are freshly prepared using local recipes.

For guests looking for a more laid back experience, the La Cabana Pool Bar and Restaurant provides a varied menu in a relaxed environment – as well as a splendid view. A popular highlight at La Cabana is Friday’s happy hour, as well as the live band music.

As a conference venue, the Holiday Inn Accra Airport is unsurpassed. Its proximity to the airport, state of the art technology and top quality meeting rooms ensure that every client requirement is met. Exceptional conferencing facilities are matched by the skills of the dedicated conferencing and banqueting manager, whose team can cater for a reception for 450 people and banqueting or a seated conference for up to 250 people. The hotel has one boardroom, three meeting rooms and a banquet and conference hall, all of which are designed to allow for a great deal of flexibility in how they are used as well as the number of people they can accommodate.

sales@holidayinnaccraairport.com

Into the white

Japan

You’ve just exited the Bullet Train, grabbed a bouquet of fresh flowers from a nearby vending machine and are solar-powering your mobile phone as you walk. It must be Japan – the country where on any given day, you could be eating a lunch cooked by robots, catching forty winks at a capsule hotel and storing your groceries in a specially designed, refrigerated locker.  

Travellers hungry for technology will be hard-pressed to beat the frenetic pace of Tokyo’s busy, neon-lit streets. A sprawling metropolis of mega billboards and TV screen-bedecked skyscrapers, the city’s humble beginnings as a fishing village have been replaced by the latest and greatest of just about everything; and the newness of it all has become one of the country’s biggest attractions.

Throughout Tokyo’s various districts, technology feels omnipresent. For starters, the transport on offer is some of the sleekest and most reliable in the world. The city’s trains are largely considered to be the best way to get around, as they are clean, safe and reliable – although usually pretty crowded too. Bullet trains are particularly useful because they travel at much faster speeds than trains in most countries, while the futuristic monorail system overhead is both efficient and fun. It is also worth using your commute to catch up on the latest news, weather and financial reports courtesy of the carriage’s LCD screens.

If you do opt to come into the city by car or bike, high-tech parking options include the use of conveyor belts that whip your vehicle off to an underground lot until you are ready to have it carried back up to you, leaving you with more time to explore what other technologies are in store.

The Ginza district, for instance, is a shopper’s haven – where everything from the latest, quirkiest fashions, to the most cutting-edge of electronic equipment is available in the many unique boutiques and sprawling department stores. The renowned, four-storey Sony Building (on Sukiyabashi Crossing) is the place to take a sneak-peek at the gadgets and gizmos that the rest of the world won’t be privy to for years, while the Bic Camera and Sofmap electronics department stores, as well as the Ginza Apple Store, are must-sees for techies. 

Throughout Tokyo, and much of Japan, it is evident that everything has been designed with the utmost convenience in mind. For instance, if you find yourself with some spare time following a cancelled meeting, you could opt to head to a capsule hotel, where individual pod-like spaces can be rented by the hour for a rest or lie-down. Alternatively, a robot could prepare you a sumptuous bowl of ramen noodles, ordered via the handy touch-screen menu embedded within your dining table, or you could simply grab a steaming bowl of soup from a handy nearby vending machine.
 
In fact, the sky’s the limit when it comes to technology and Tokyo’s skyscrapers are certainly testament to that. In Odaiba, one of Tokyo’s other major districts, you’ll find the sky-high Fuji TV Building, the Tokyo Big Sight Convention Centre, the 24-hour Tokyo Leisure Land gaming centre, and the popular Toyota MEGA WEB, where futuristic car technology, eco-friendly options and F1 developments are proudly showcased at the touch of a button. There’s no doubting this district as a technology-lover’s retreat, but Odaiba also offers alternative sight-seeing opportunities if the electronics of it all have become too much for you, including the celebrated (and stunning) Rainbow bridge, two of Tokyo’s unique beaches and the popular Museum of Maritime Science.     

If you are still hankering after more high-tech purchases, then you might as well head straight to Akihabara, on the eastern side of the central Chiyoda – an electronics Mecca that stocks just about everything imaginable. Nicknamed ‘Electric Town’, it’s not hard to understand why, as over 250 electronic stores sit side-by-side vying for business. It is important to bear in mind that many items won’t work outside of Japan and Asia, but just ogling at what is on offer will be enough for most. That said, not all the space-age wizardry is off limits, as retailers are careful to stock a number of items for Europeans – and many of these will still be light years ahead of what is available back home. 

The district’s main street, Chuo Dori Avenue, was originally developed as a retail area for home electronics, but recent trends have centred it on the Internet and Japan’s obsession with Otaku and Anime. In fact, in addition to the standard stores situated here, you will also find a number of animation-related establishments, including cosplay (‘costume play’) cafes, where waitresses are dressed up like anime characters, and manga kissaten (‘comic cafes’), where customers can read comics, watch DVDs and surf the net. While in the district, it might be fun to check out Tokyo’s Animation Centre, which pays homage to animation and gaming through a variety of demonstrations and events every day.

A good gateway, Akihabara can also be your link to other techno-obsessed parts of Japan. Tsukuba, (nicknamed ‘Science City’), a striking modern urban landscape, is about an hour outside of Tokyo on the Tsukuba Express Train. Both at home and abroad, it is largely recognised as Japan’s pre-eminent centre for science and technology.

With a population of around 200,000 it really is a city in its own right, carefully created to combine some of the best technologically-minded people in the world, as well as 33 national research centres, universities and over 250 private research institutes.

Those keen to glance into the future will do well to add this spot to their itinerary, and numerous accommodation options exist within the city itself for those wanting to make this their base. Tsukuba has plenty to offer, including the Tsukuba Information Centre, which details the history of the city as well as various exhibitions, and Cosmic Hall, one of the largest planetariums in the world. A convenient Tsukuba Science Tour Bus visits all eight of the city’s major sights 21 times a day.

Accommodation all over Japan is known to be excellent, with futuristic touches that make your stay all the more exciting. For instance, be sure to keep your eyes peeled as your enter your en-suite, as toilets in this part of the world generally do more than a bog-standard flush. Japan is undeniably the world-leader in toilet technology. In fact, you can expect your loo to wash you, self-clean and heat the seat, though more advanced models may even replace the toilet roll, play music and… blow dry your posterior. It’s early days, but toilet talk in Japan has rumoured that future advancements will allow medical sensors in your bog to measure your blood pressure, body fat content and pulse – before automatically passing this information on to your doctor via built-in internet cables.

And if multi-purpose toilets are all a bit much, then steer clear of another of Japan’s latest innovations – high-tech graveyards. Here, upon entering these new, city space-saving ‘cemeteries’, such as the Kouanji Buddhist temple in Tokyo, mourners are asked to insert a membership card before their loved one’s cremated remains are brought to them via a conveyer belt, for them to be honoured and remembered.

This, like much of what has been detailed here, may seem weird to some, but in Japan it is simply another high-tech solution to a problem posed by the fast-paced, space-strapped elements of modern living. Japan truly is a land of contrasts, where picturesque and historic temples sit beside glitzy skyscrapers, and iconic geishas mingle with modern anime-obsessed teens in high-tech sushi bars. But that is simply all part of Japan’s unfailing allure as a destination for today, and tomorrow.

When will we see an economic recovery?

The easy answer would be: nobody really knows. We are tentatively navigating through uncharted waters. No one knows what we should be comparing our current situation to, or the likely course back to normality.

Should we be comparing it to the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s? Or the situation that has existed in Japan for the last twenty years? Or Norway’s banking crisis of the last decade? Or are we all just being over cautious, and can assume that things will be back to normal soon?

The last scenario is the most unlikely. There have been many discussions about whether we are going to see a V-shaped recovery or a W-shaped recovery. If you’re like me, you’ll think this is economist speak for “we haven’t got a clue.” A V-shaped recovery would see things returning to normal sooner rather than later, while a W-shape maps a recovery where things get better, then worse, then better again. But given the extent of the financial crisis and the amount of money governments have had to invest to keep the financial system afloat, I don’t think the world can return to normal anytime soon. Each government is desperately trying to rebuild its own economy.

I suspect one of the other historical case studies is much more likely.

As we know Japan has not enjoyed the last twenty years. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why this is the case, given their all conquering ability to produce electronic goods that the world wants. However, they suffered the most enormous of bubbles twenty years ago, when property prices shot up to unbelievable levels and their stock market had a greater capitalisation than the US stock market. Since those halcyon days, property prices have crashed to between one and 10 percent of their bubble value, and the stock exchange continues to be in the doldrums. The banking system still has significant problems with bad loans, which seems to be a key factor in the problem dragging on. That is why we have had the talk about setting up bad banks so that the problem loans can be hived off – leaving the rest of the banks to get on with life as normal.

However, just when the Japanese economy finally seemed to be turning around, with inflation about to reappear, the problems in Europe and the US cut the Japanese recovery short. In fact, Japanese industrial production reduced to levels last seen roughly 20 years ago. Witnessing a generation’s growth taken away in a moment is truly frightening.

But the Norwegian scenario gives an interesting contrast. Here, the problem was that firstly, individuals and companies saved money and rebuilt their own balance sheet and secondly, the banks found it very difficult to lend as no one wanted their money. So in essence it took quite a while for a level of confidence to be reached whereby people began to spend rather than save, allowing businesses to grow and banks to increase the amount of their loans. But this wasn’t done in a few hundred days: it took many years to work through the pain and reach normality. Again, there are arguments that the Norwegian banks could have done more – but I do wonder if hindsight is 20/20 in this case.

The argument made regarding the Great Depression is that not enough was done by governments – especially in the US – to help liquidity and fund investment in the early stages. I think it is fair to say that this isn’t the case in the current situation as the liquidity supplied by the US, UK and European governments has been mind-boggling in its size.

So what do as I see as the most likely scenario? My feeling is that it is a very long road to recovery. The governments have hocked the future for the present and most people are saving as if their life depended on it. But it is the spare capacity that is going to be the hardest thing to overcome: production in some countries has been reduced by up to 20 percent, and with the resultant unemployment it is going to take a long time to reach last year’s levels of production. We also have exchange rates causing problems as the US dollar weakens against other currencies – meaning that these other countries’ exports become more expensive relative to the US’s. If we get back to where we were in the summer of 2008 within five years I would surprised. I wouldn’t bet against 10 years. I hope I am wrong.

Charles Purdy is a director at Smart Currency Exchange ­– international payment specialists.

It’s not easy being green

Green travel – or sustainable travel, or ecotourism, or any number of pseudonyms – focuses on holidays that minimise the impact on the local environment and culture. Good green travel companies emphasise sustainable practices over maximising their bottom line. This can include recycling water, offsetting carbon emissions, and positively supporting the local culture.

The argument for ecotourism is that with over a billion people travelling internationally each year, there is an enormous environmental impact, including more than just extra water and fuel. Unregulated tours overpopulate some destinations, leaving wildlife areas trashed, crowded and marred with excessive roads. Neither tourists nor the native people benefit from these spoiled habitats. The essence of sustainable travel is to create an enjoyable vacation that benefits the locals but doesn’t harm the land.

But finding green companies can be a difficult affair: just because a company claims a green standard, doesn’t make it so. Doing a little bit of legwork can confirm that one’s travel dollars really are supporting sustainable travel: here are four essential qualities that a good green travel company will consider.

Environmental impact. Do they use small, less intrusive group sizes? Are they proactive in minimising their carbon footprint? Do they emphasise the ‘Leave No Trace’ principles in their trips? Companies that they partner with, like the local hotels, should also be geared toward conservation.

Cultural impact. It is important that the travel company shows respect for local culture and highlights its traditions. Not only is this beneficial to the native people, but it provides a more authentic trip.

Economic impact. Do they support the local economy? Hotels, tours, and transportation companies owned locally are a few of the businesses they might work with. This gives a more genuine experience, removing the sterile feel of a worldwide chain, and keeps more money in the local economy.

Certificates or memberships. There are a number of organisations that promote sustainable travel. For example, the International Ecotourism Society promotes environmental conservation throughout its worldwide network of members.

There are also a number of established and respected green companies that travellers can fall back on. WWF – the World Wildlife Fund – has expanded its mission to include travel. Specialised trips are available in many exotic locations, highlighting indigenous people and wildlife. As an added bonus, portions of the trips also benefit this amazing organisation.

Adventure Life was identified by National Geographic as one of the best adventure travel companies on earth: offering tours to South and Central American destinations, as well as Antarctica tours, it prides itself on offering excellent expeditions with a high standard of sustainable travel. ResponsibleTravel.com offers one of the largest selections of eco-friendly travel, including luxury tours and safaris. Locations are available worldwide, and there are also a number of special interest trips to choose from.

Being a green traveller means more than finding the right provider. The ‘Leave No Trace’ slogan provides a simple message – take only photographs and leave only footprints – but means much more. Nature should be respected, and wildlife admired at a distance. Respect should be shown for locals, too: be sensitive to other cultures and their differences, and always ask before taking photographs.

Green travellers should remember what they practise at home. Recycle where possible, take short showers to save on hot water, and use alternative transportation like walking and biking. While it is tempting to indulge on holiday, remember that it’s perfectly possible to have a great experience and be responsible at the same time.

These are just a few of the things that travellers can do. Green travel can offer a new way to travel, and the adventure of a lifetime. One can experience new cultures, see amazing wildlife, or just relax on the beach. Whatever one’s reason for travelling, green is the way to go.

Beth Conway is a travel writer and marketing director for Adventure Life. She has travelled all over the world, from the mountains of Alaska’s Denali Park to the jungles of Belize. Her ideal next destination is Antarctica.

The best laid plans of mice and men

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin with the question: how can I get a better airline seat without paying more?

First, a warning for the faint-hearted: the quest for a better seat does not exactly bring out the finest of qualities in people. Take my experience on a recent 13-hour overnight flight. A few days before the flight, I logged onto the airline’s website and chose an economy seat that I knew had a little extra legroom and would not be disturbed by fellow passengers lurching their way to the bathroom during the night. After three days of working around the clock, I considered this nothing less than seat heaven.

You can probably imagine my smugness as I settled down in the seat, looking forward to the luxury of a few hours’ sleep (I did warn you that this subject does not bring out the best in people, but let’s continue).
As I sat there, at peace with my seat, I heard a voice at my shoulder.

“’Allo,” said the middle-aged backpacker looming over my seat. He was French, and looked a little like Bob Dylan, though without Dylan’s, er, suave dress sense.

A little taken aback at this unsolicited greeting, I nodded to him and went back to the inflight video guide. Among the many gems on offer was a documentary on the evergreen Everly Brothers.

“A-llo!” A little nearer this time; enough for me to catch a powerful whiff of his natural eau de bac-pac. “Could I sit ’ere?”

Before I could stop myself, I heard myself saying, “Sorry, but I booked this particular seat last week.”
A pause.

“But I would like to have seat with my girlfriend,” he implored. He gestured to a much younger woman who had the look of a budding Charlotte Rampling. She, apparently, had the seat next to mine. It was clear that Bob expected me to jump straight out of the seat, so he could begin a 13-hour love-in with Charlotte.

I sat there like a character from one of those classic old cartoons – an angel on one shoulder, a devil on the other – listening bemused to their conflicting ethical counsel. At that moment, the little devil was winning.

Then Bob enlisted the help of a flight attendant. 

“This man,” he told her, gesturing at me, “he is not giving up ’is seat!”

Then he delivered the killer line: “My girl and me, we just wanna be togezer.”

By know le tout cabin were lowering their newspapers and staring in my general direction.

With all the grace I could muster (not much, I confess), I made the long, lonely journey across the aisle.

Bye-bye seat, bye-bye happiness. Hello emptiness. I thought I was going to cry.

Clearly, I can’t give you any tips on fending off emotional blackmail by fellow passengers. But I can offer a few tips on bagging a decent seat.

1. Do your research. Tap ‘airline seat advice’ into your favourite search engine. There are several great sites offering advice on exactly which seats to choose, and which to avoid.
2. Be early. That means booking early, checking in online early and getting to the airport early.
3. Choose your words carefully. If you ask for ‘an exit row’, you may get nowhere. Be specific and ask for ‘14A’ or ‘16F’– whichever is the appropriate row. Also, asking for ‘an upgrade’ will usually fail, while asking politely whether ‘a better seat is available’ might sometimes succeed.
4. Avoid the rear of the plane, which is usually crowded, near the galley and washrooms (and, very occasionally, where low-risk prisoners are transported).
5. Finally, be nice. If you treat airline employees as fellow human beings, they might just reciprocate.

Which brings me back to Bob and Charlotte.

After giving up my seat, so they could be together in each other’s company for 13 hours, Bob and Charlotte’s relationship seemed to take a turn for the worse.

From what I could understand from their conversation, a little niggle between the two lovebirds just after take-off had turned into a full-scale disagreement by the time dinner was served.

That was followed by a rancorous argument while everyone else was watching the movie, and yet more bickering while the rest of the cabin was trying to sleep.

Which, I suppose, just goes to show: even a great airline seat isn’t guaranteed to make you happy.

Hywel Jones is a television producer who has travelled the world with the BBC and ITV. He now runs the international broadcast and corporate TV production company hi.tv. His favourite destination is San Francisco.

Pack of cards

Just like the emperor and his new clothes, Dubai has been busted and stripped entirely of its fineries. Naked and shamed, the emirate became subject to much critical scrutiny by the very institutions that fell over themselves to get a slice of the pie before the crisis hit.

Getting stick for going on an extravagant spending spree using stacks of borrowed cash from wealthy investors from the Middle East, Russia and the West, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum transformed Dubai into the most outlandish boomtown of our times, where ostentatious features such as palm shaped islands, seven star hotels and a skyline graced with cloud skimming tower blocks came to signify unparalleled prosperity. Lacking completely in inhibition, both financially and creatively, the speed at which Dubai rose from the sand dunes into a Gulf business hub set to rival the financial centres of London, New York and Hong Kong was staggering. Desperate to get in on the act, western banks and global mega brands elbowed their way in and helped put Dubai on the map.

Since Dubai’s natural resources are somewhat scarce – in stark contrast to the oil rich havens that are Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi – it was predicted for some time that the fantasyland with the awe-inspiring skyline would eventually fall flat on its face. When the recession hit, it came to light that Dubai had drummed up known debt of $80bn at the very least. Although world leaders ranging from Obama to Brown have commented on the crisis, the authorities of the United Arab Emirates remained tight-lipped, accusing foreign media of blowing the crisis out of proportion. This created further tensions between the west and the United Arab Emirates, with Dubai’s lack of transparency causing its own headlines.

The drama is far from over. The harshest blow came in November last year, when Dubai World urged creditors to bring its (approximate) $22bn debts to a standstill. Of this amount, Dubai World owes British banks an estimated $5bn, according to The Times. The news sent shockwaves through the global markets. Not slow to react, the much better-off emirate, Abu Dhabi, came to Dubai’s rescue in December, offering its troubled neighbour a lifesaving $10bn aid package. Following the cash injection, Dubai World retracted its repayment standstill at a crisis meeting held just before Christmas, where 90 creditors gathered to receive the positive news. There’s now a possibility that lenders will be repaid in full, but the damage that’s been done will be difficult to reverse. As Reuters put it, “Dubai’s reputation as a business hub could be tarnished.” Diluting the pulling power of Dubai further, Qatar and Oman are increasingly gathering momentum as viable business spots and may well overshadow Dubai in the near future.

So how did Dubai land itself in such a predicament, and how can it clean up its act? Englishman Anthony Ryman is a local expert and the Managing Director of Grow, a Qatar based advertising and design agency. Having witnessed the development of Dubai and the more refined cultivation of Qatar at close range, Mr Ryman presents his observations: “Part of the malaise is that Dubai wanted results too quickly. As with any boom and bust story, shortcuts were taken and too much money was borrowed, with too many real estate projects being built too quickly. I believe that the problems are temporary – Abu Dhabi won’t let Dubai fall. When it re-emerges, Dubai will continue growing, albeit at a steadier pace. Learning from the lessons of the recent past it is bound to make more astute decisions, exert more financial discipline and perhaps redefine what it really is and where it wants to go.” Offering a balanced viewpoint, Mr Ryman is critical of the way Dubai’s been slaughtered by the west: “It’s easy for the West to point fingers at Dubai now when it’s in trouble, but it can’t be denied that the city has done an extraordinary job transforming itself from a small trading port into a global destination in a matter of a few decades.”

Still a worthy business destination
Leaving Dubai’s financial turmoil and beaten up reputation to one side, the city is still a creditable business destination.

Architecturally there’s much to marvel about, be it in awe, bemusement or even mild disgust; Dubai is not called The Las Vegas of the Middle East for nothing. In its glory days it was said that as much as 15 to 25 percent of the world cranes were being used in Dubai. This piece of trivia shouldn’t come as any surprise to anyone who’s set foot in the city – in its developing heyday, the cranes formed as intrinsic a part of Dubai’s makeup as its sandy beaches and flashy hotel bars.

As for the city silhouette itself, the gleaming skyline peppered with an ever-mushrooming number of cloud skimming architectural curiosities give off more than a detectable whiff of testosterone and internally spurred one-upmanship. Beating the rest to it is the monstrously mighty Burj Khalifa, known until recently as the Burj Dubai and one of the most talked about skyscrapers in the world. Designed by Adrian Smith at Skidmore Owings and Merrill and developed by Emaar Properties, the tower is the world’s tallest free standing structure.

Officially opened in January in an astonishing display of pyrotechnics, it looks as though it’s been fuelled by some otherworldly growth hormone, standing 828m high. Speaking of bean pole-like buildings, another real estate project famed for its statuesque qualities is the Burj Al Arab Hotel. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to a gigantic sail, the building is the tallest hotel ever built on earth (it measures 321m). Significantly, it’s also the world’s only seven star hotel. The Jumeirah Mosque, meanwhile, is the largest of the city’s many mosques. With its twin minarets and majestic dome, Jumeirah is one of Dubai’s most photographed sights.

Another much buzzed-about landmark – although recently it has been attracting attention for all the wrong reasons – is Palm Jumeirah, one of Dubai’s three palm islands. Introduced to the world as a manmade haven set to house residential spaces, tourist attractions, hotel concepts and beaches, there are now concerns that Palm Jumeriah may be sinking into the Persian Gulf. According to a study carried out by the ground survey company, Fugro, Palm Jumeriah is making a slow but steady progress south, sinking roughly five millimetres each year.

Some of Dubai’s real estate projects may have flopped, but there are other architectural concepts in the pipeline with more substance than mere height or novelty value alone. Providing that Dubai will make a steady recovery, an even more convention breaking approach seems to be the ticket. Created by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, the much anticipated Signature Towers (formerly known as the Dancing Towers) will form part of the planned Business Bay Development. Designed to house offices, residential flats and a hotel, the three towers resemble octopus arms as they rise in fluid shapes above The Creek.

The Cloud is another project in the making, designed by Nadim Karam of Beirut based agency Atelier Hapsitus. Conceived to counteract the uniform skyline that is dominated by angular tower blocks and futuristic skyscrapers, The Cloud takes a rather poetic approach, something that is very much a signature of Atelier Hapsitus and that won’t go amiss in Dubai. “We like to think of The Cloud as the new Eiffel tower of the Middle East,” says Mr Karam. “It’s designed in a structurally and environmentally advanced way, and it will serve as a public platform hanging 300m above ground level and can be visited by all citizens and tourists of Dubai. It represents the idea of movement and nomads and includes a public park, a lake, restaurants, pavilions and other functions that can be shared by the public,” explains Mr Karam. On the crisis and Dubai’s particular approach to city planning, he observes: “Dubai hasn’t held back on the extravaganza, and it has certainly pushed the limits in terms of architecture. Although the developments have come to a standstill for the time being, I’m certain that the city will recover and learn from its mistakes, making a slower progress in the future.”

Off to the beach
Dubai’s beach culture is an integral part of the city and a definite tourist magnet; The Creek, the city’s natural harbour, is its crowning glory. Many of the beaches form part of different hotel resorts that line The Creek – most of which can be accessed for a small fee – although there are also a number of public beaches to explore. With its clean water, white sand and extensive range of facilities, Jumeriah Beach Park is among the most popular options. Another good choice is the Al Mamzar Beach Park, which stretches across a 100-hectare peninsula and encompasses a sheltered public beach, swimming pools, picnic areas and lush green spaces.

Whichever beach you end up opting for, bear in mind that Dubai is, despite its western facelift, a conservative Muslim emirate. Having stepped up their policing to closer match that of other emirates, Dubai’s authorities have re-evaluated what should be considered offensive behaviour and as a result more arrests than ever were carried out in 2009 (6,000, to be precise). Unfairly, most reported offenders are workers from developing countries. Despite this, westerners aren’t immune and should avoid frolicking on the beach, drinking alcohol or engaging in any homosexual displays of affection – all examples being criminal offences that can, in the worst-case scenario, result in a prison sentence.

Mall head’s paradise
Apart from being a Tax Free haven, Dubai prides itself on being the world’s ultimate shopping paradise. A dream for shopping centre aficionados, Dubai serves up air-conditioned shopping malls of every denomination and consumer taste. And, in keeping with everything else in the city, most malls are huge. To list a small part of the mall offer, Dubai Mall opened in November 2008 and nestles at the foot of the mighty Burj Dubai. One of the largest indoor shopping centres in the world, the mall houses about 1,200 shopping units that span high-street brands, department stores and designer labels. Marks and Spencer and Debenhams both have a space in the Dubai Mall, and Sonia Rykiel, Patricia Pepe, Missoni, Emilio Pucci and Blumarine are a only handful of the many designer names housed within. Apart from its impressive array of shops, it also houses an aquarium large enough to use as a swimming pool. If you fancy taking a break from the shop hopping, an option is to hit the famous ski slopes, Ski Dubai, at the Mall of the Emirates.

To continue the never-ending count of malls, Wafi City was one of the first high-end luxury malls to open in Dubai. With its Egyptian-themed pyramids and obelisks, it’s hard to miss. Other themed malls include the Venetian style Mercato Mall in Jumeriah, and its Arabian fortress counterpart, Souk Madinat Jumeriah. To finish off the themed mall rundown, the IBN Battuata Mal is divided into six main geographical areas, namely China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia.

Desert’s calling
It’s sometimes easy to forget that Dubai is not an entirely urban landscape; this makes the prospect of hitting the desert even more appealing.

There are a number of different desert tours to choose from, one the most popular options being the evening desert safari organised by Desert Safaris Dubai. Setting off in the afternoon in a 4×4, the tour includes sand dune diving, camel riding, henna painting, belly dancing performances and buffet dinner and barbeque.

Out on the town
Dubai might not offer the eclectic prospect of a European party excursion, but ‘hotel hopping’ can be quite an experience in its own right, and something that will bring the Dubai experience full circle. Offering plenty of hotel based night-time fun, one of the most high-end nocturnal destinations is the Skyview bar at the ultra luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel. Adding to the glitz, fashion designer Roberto ‘King of Bling’ Cavalli recently opened the Cavalli Club at the Fairmont Hotel. Expect opulence galore – Swarovski crystal embedded walls, black quartz floors and plenty of gold signify the interior profile.

Aside from impossibly swanky hotel bars, there’s also an array of clubs that attract respectable, world-renowned DJs such as Groove Armada and Paul van Dyke. Trilogy is one of Dubai’s most fancy clubs with three levels and capacity for 2,000 clubbers, as well as rooftop space for an additional 400 people.

Most clubs are open until 3am, but note that during Ramadan many clubs are closed entirely since music and dancing aren’t allowed during this period.