Eurobookings provides a good resource for people booking a hotel within Europe. Their Europe hotels guide provides an inside view into some of the top travel destinations and hotels around the world. The United Kingdom guide has an interesting article on the British pub including information on how to order a round of drinks, which being British myself, I go without thinking. It does also contain a London hotels guide which is very useful when planning a trip to London. I find it is always best to check out the hotels the in an area because it is often nicer to book a room and come home the next day rather than rushing to catch the last tube.

The Amsterdam hotels guide is also useful. The guide allows you to view the hotels on a map and also shows you the price of each hotel. There is also detailed information on what to expect when you get there, even down to which credit cards they accept. A lot of the hotels have reviews from people who have already been there, so you can make an informed decision before booking a hotel, and I always feel better when I can see recommendations from real people.

Airlines have been ordered to display the full price of plane tickets on their websites after it has emerged they were covering up the total cost. The problem is that many airlines advertise a low price to draw the customer in and only show the total price including the taxes and other additional charges later in the booking process. Some airlines add as much as £25 in extra charges on top of the advertised price.

The Cheap Family Vacation Planner is as the name suggests a family orientated blog filled with tips and advice for parents taking their little kids or teens on holiday. As I have experienced when going on holiday with friends who have children, that its a bit akin to mobilising a small army. The blog offers tips on how to keep kids occupied on long car journeys, what to pack, how to be safe and suitable holiday destinations.

The one thing I like about this blog is that it shows that family holidays don't have to just be about amusement parks and sea side resorts but can also be as exotic as ancient Mayan cities.

One of the most amusing articles is Six Unavoidable Items to Pack While We Go, Do You Dare? which lists duct tape of all things as an essential item to pack. However I strongly agree with taking a portable door lock with you especially when staying in a place you have never been before.

PC2Paper.co.uk has been named by The Times as one of the top 100 travel websites. The Times lists us under the Travel Essentials category which includes insurance, money, health and communications. Here at PC2Paper we are always happy when we receive good feedback on the service we provide, we are certainly pleased we made it onto the list.

The latest postal strike has been suspended as Royal Mail agree to meet the Union for talks. The talks will be held at the TUC and both sides are committed to reaching an agreement by the 4th of September. No further strike action will be held whilst the talks are being held, meaning its service as normal, here at PC2Paper.

Postal workers are to stage a further strike as part of the ongoing dispute over pay and conditions. The strike will start tonight with mail centres and airports going on strike from 7pm tonight until 7pm tomorrow. Delivery staff will strike from 7pm on Friday 10th to 7pm on Saturday 11th. During this time any mail sent within the UK will be delayed. US and European mail sent via PC2Paper will remain unaffected.

British Airways has been named the worst airline in Europe. A report compiled by the Association of European Airlines showed that British Airways customers were more likely to encounter delays than people travelling on any other airline. Between April and June 35.7% of medium and short haul British Airways flights did not arrive on time, with the airlines performance on long haul flights even worse.

PC2Paper now allows you to upload your contacts as a spreadsheet file.

1. After you have logged into your PC2Paper account click on My Address Book 
   
    
   you will find a new option here called Add a new address list, click on it.
   
   
2. You will now be asked to give your address list a name.
   
   
   Give your address list a name and then save it.
   
   
3. On the next step select Upload an address list.
   
   
   
   
4. On this step you will be given the option to upload your address book
   
    
   
   You will need to follow the instruction carefully on this page on how to format your spreadsheet a sample spreadsheet is available for you to download in MS Excel format to see how its done. Once you have formatted your data correctly in your favourite spreadsheet program you will need to save it as a TAB delimited file.  When representing different countries in your spreadsheet you will need to use the PC2Paper country code a copy of which is available for download here the default for the UK is 1.
   
   
5. Save an MS Excel spreadsheet as a TAB delimited file from Excel by click File > Save As and then selecting Text (Tab delimited)(*.txt) in the Save as type: dialogue that appears below.
   
   

This week's travel blog is A Month in Venice by Richard Callaby. As the title suggests the blog charts his trip to Venice and aims to provide useful information for people thinking of visiting Italy. Some useful articles include where to get the best slice of pizza in Venice and some tips about which hotels to stay in.

There is also a useful article about getting internet access in Italy which I find is a necessity when I go away. Richard points out that many hotels in Italy do not have wireless access in the rooms. He does, however, provide some useful information on how to find the nearest free wifi connection.

Another useful article talks about how to set up a portable office. Richard talks about how to set up a free email account, setting up a portable fax service and also using a mail forwarding service such as UPS. One thing he might not be aware of here, is that PC2Paper offer an online mailbox where any letters sent are scanned in and made available to read online. This service is often much faster than mail forwarding. Richard also talks about how to set up a VOIP service, although points out that this does rely on having an internet connection so can be subject to problems in Italy.