I hope it doesn't become compulsory!

easyJet have announced that they are trialling mobile boarding passes at Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nice, Stansted and Southend airports.

The passes will be downloaded and stored on the traveller's mobile phone, and all the passes for a family travelling together may be on a single phone or distributed.

I can quite see the attraction for the individual passenger, or even a couple.  But how do you cope with entering the security area if you have more than two or three on a single phone?

For those of us who arrange and accompany groups, I cannot see the mobile boarding pass as being in any way a benefit - let's hope the paper option remains.

I certainly cannot see every child in a school group having his / her own pass on individual mobile phones.  Anybody who has been away with a group will know that the number of phones returning does not necessarily equal the number going out.

And for the reason mentioned before, I equally cannot see the party leaders having the students' passes.

New extended Great War tour.

Most school groups who visit the battlefields of the Great War tend to concentrate on Ypres and the Somme.  And this makes good sense - they are redolent with memory for British visitors and are easily reached.

We at Culture Trails continue to make arrangements for schools to visit these areas on short tours.

However, with the centenary of the outbreak of war rapidly approaching, we have designed a tour which takes a little longer (six or seven days), but which tries to convey the totality of the war, at least on what the Germans called the Westfront.

We travel from the point at which the Front ran into the sea in Belgium to that where it reached the Swiss border, more than eight hundred kilometres to the south-east.

On the way, we see many of the places whose names echo down to us over the years, Ypres, Arras, Verdun, as well as many less well known, at least in Britain, such as Le Linge, Pfetterhouse and St Mihiel.

If you'd like to know more, please call us on 01691 88 61 61 or e-mail greatwar@culturetrails.co.uk

Airline baggage charges

I wrote a few weeks ago about the cost of taking checked baggage on flights.

Here's what the Daily Telegraph has to say on the subject today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/10025059/Airline-fees-and-baggage-charges-soar.html

Do remember that the kind of travel jacket manufactured by Rufus Roo enables you to carry an extra 10kg or so at no cost.  There's a link to their site at the bottom of this page.

Need to change a name?

The first thing to say is that if you are travelling by coach / ferry, there is no problem right up to the last minute (but make sure your insurance company is aware).

If you are flying, however, it could be costly.

The no-frills airlines tend to charge a fixed fee (each way) for each change, plus the difference between the fare at the time of booking and the present ticket price.

It could be less expensive just to book a new ticket at the present price - it is certainly worth checking both options.

Passport due for renewal at an awkward time

You are going to visit a country that needs a visa, and you have to apply just at the time you are due to go on holiday with your family.

Or maybe you are visiting a country which requires you to have a passport valid for three or six months beyond your visit dates, while your passport is due to expire just two months after your travels.

While this can be a nuisance, it need not cost you any more than regular passport renewal.

You can renew your UK passport at any time within its last six months of validity and it will be valid for ten years from the date of expiry of your present document, not from its own date of issue.

In fact, as passport fees only ever go up, maybe you should consider renewing six months early as a matter of course.

New destinations from Manchester

easyJet are introducing three new destinations from Manchester - of interest to Geography / Geology, History and Art teachers:

Iceland, Prague and Venice all now feature from this group-friendly airline.

Twentieth Century German History

I have been working on an itinerary recently for a long-time client and I have to say that I am really pleased to see that some can still make the commitment to a long tour.  For those studying the Third Reich, our tour to Nuremberg, Prague, Kraków, Auschwitz and Berlin carries a powerful impact which I am told is reflected in the students' work after such a series of visits.

In ten days, they become familiar with the early years of Nazi power and rapid growth, with the conduct of the War and the Holocaust and with the downfall.

More than that are the contexts - walking in the immense Rally Grounds, travelling from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, standing in the peaceful lakeside villa by the Wannsee where the detail of the administration of the Final Solution was delivered.

The price?  Just over £65 per day per student, including all travel, accommodation in good hotels, three meals a day, visits and guiding.

Call us on 01691 88 61 61 to discuss a similar tour for your students.