The FCO said early November: 'Following the terrorist attacks in Bali… in which Western tourists were deliberately targeted, the threat to British nationals in Thailand, including popular tourist areas, the island of Phuket in particular, has increased significantly.'

This statement has enraged not only the Thai and other South East Asian tourism authorities, but ABTA, that venerable travel industry association who have asked for greater clarity in the travel advice issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Keith Betton, head of corporate affairs at ABTA, said: 'Surely they should tell us if they have had a specific threat about Phuket.' He added: 'The advice they have given has scared people and we have no idea whether it is reasonable. As far as we can tell Thailand is as dangerous for the 6,000 or so Britons there as London was for Americans when the IRA was bombing here.'

In response, an FCO spokesperson said: “We would not mark out Phuket just to be on the safe side. Our advice is drawn from a number of sources, including intelligence officials”.

Tour operators have been calling customers with bookings to Thailand, or travellers in Thailand, apprising them of the FCO advice and allowing them to postpone or alter their holiday plans. Airtours has dropped Thailand, and Thomson Worldwide says bookings have dipped.

Early November, the FCO updated its advice on 12 countries – including Honduras, Seychelles, Gibraltar and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific – advising travellers to be 'aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places' although no one at the FCO could explain what this risk is, and it has promised to discuss the practicality of its warnings with the Travel Advice Unit.

Foreign and Commonwealth Travel Advice is available on 020 7008 0232/3.

A British union that has firemen and airport workers as its members has announced a set of dates it on which it proposes to strike.

These will affect seven airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

Proposed strike dates are: 28 Nov, 2, 10, 15 & 23 Dec and 2nd Jan, and if the fire service does strike, the airports will be left without fire cover and will almost certainly be forced to ground all flights.

Canada and the European Union have joined Australia and indefinitely closed their diplomatic missions in the Philippines after receiving information about an “imminent” terror attack.

The move came after Australia said it had received “credible and specific” warning of the attack by Islamic militants on its embassy in the capital Manila within the next few days.

“It is not only location specific, targeting the Australian embassy itself, but also it's time specific,” Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australian radio without giving any further details.

Passed on by the London Meetings co-ordinator: TravelIntelligence is a new website giving access to good travel writing (mainly British) – Philip Marsden, William Dalrymple, Stanley Stewart, Nick Danziger et al.

Take a look at Travel Intelligence and sign up for their monthly newsletter – mostly links to other sites.

Many of the London hop-on-hop-off buses throw in a free river cruise – often to Greenwich,with the ticket. And even if you are not doing that, a visit to Greenwich can make a good day out.

The Beetle’s favourite way of getting there is to go on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to Island Gardens and to walk through the foot tunnel to Greenwich. There are some fab views, particularly in Winter, looking south, across the river.

Once in Greenwich, there’s quite a bit to do: visit the Royal Observatory, the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum – and it’s free!

The museum building itself is quite interesting: it used to be an asylum building (i.e. what was referred to as a mad house) and then it was a hospital school.

What’s there to see? In the museum, you will find a collection of all things relating to the history of Britain at sea. But this has been updated to include the dangers of sea pollution and ecology, as well as Nelson’s seafaring antics.

The collection dates back to 1823 when a National Gallery of Naval Art was established, featuring some 300 portraits, paintings and artefacts.

The National Maritime Museum opens daily 10:00-17:00 Sun-Mon. Closed 24-26 Dec 2002. Train: Greenwich Train Station. Enquiries: 020 8858 4422 Entrance: FREE.

A new “no-frills” international carrier, Qantas-owned Australian Airlines, launched its schedule with flights from the northern city of Cairns to Nagoya and Osaka in Japan. They plan to start services to other Asian destinations, most likely Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong and aim to bring thousands more tourists to the tropical north of Queensland.

The airline is taking over routes which parent company Qantas found unprofitable and intends to make them viable by cutting its cost base. Although Australian Airlines is looked on as a no-frills operation it will not be offering cheap fares.

Another new low-cost airline has started in Scotland. Flyglobespan is to start flights to Palma, Majorca; Nice, Rome and Malaga from Glasgow Prestwick Airport between April and November 2003. The airline is also to offer services from Edinburgh Airport to Palma, Nice, Rome and Barcelona.

The next time a United Airlines flight attendant throws a bag of peanuts at you, just bear in mind that they have just offered to take a 3.6% pay cut for most of their members to help United in its quest to restructure itself and avoid bankruptcy.

British Airways franchise carrier GB Airways has just launched a new scheduled service between London Gatwick and Almeria – twice a week during the winter months on Thursday and Sunday morning and from March there will be an extra Tuesday flight.

They say: “We will be the first airline to offer direct full-frills scheduled services to Almeria, which, although already popular with British holiday makers and villa owners, remains a relatively untouched area of Southern Spain.” The carrier has introduced year-round return fares from £149, including all taxes and charges. This fare does not require either an advance purchase or a minimum stay, but book early for the best offers.

Remember the Swedish man who tried to board a Ryanair flight from Vasteras Airport, near (note – NEAR!) Stockholm to London last August, with a gun in his luggage? Police have just admitted that they do not have enough evidence to suggest that the gun was intended to be used in hijacking the Boeing 737, nor has the man any links with any terrorist organisations. The man claimed he had brought the gun by mistake and had owned it for some time. Police say that he could still be prosecuted for gun offences.

If you are booked with Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaii's oldest and largest carrier, maybe worth checking you are covered if the airline goes belly up. Hawaiian Airlines, are cutting their workforce by around 150 (4% of total workforce) over the next few months to cut costs and they have also secured voluntary leaves of absence from 60 of its flight attendants.

Three men who arrived on a flight into Vancouver from Japan had their baggage searched and 16 kilos of heroin were discovered disguised as tea. “This seizure is the direct result of CCRA's targeting program,” said Revenue Minister Elinor Caplan. “These arrests clearly demonstrate how data from the advance passenger information systems assist law enforcement agencies in protecting the health and safety of Canadians”.

Ryanair, the Dublin based low cost carrier has just announced record net profits of EUR150.9 million (USD$150.5 million), a rise of 71 percent over the same period last year. Ryanair achieved this by attracting more passengers and, at the same time, lowering its operating costs. During the six months to September 2002, the airline carried 7.84 million passengers – a 37 percent increase. Fares dropped by 2 percent and costs by 11 percent.

Ryanair has bases in Ireland and the UK and has just announced a third in Europe at Milan Bergamo, has also unveiled plans to develop a second terminal at Dublin Airport costing an estimated EUR114 million and is said to be thinking about the idea of opening a Scandinavian base at Stavska Airport, near Stockholm.

Indonesia's national airline, Garuda, is ending its flights to Frankfurt in Germany and Fukuoka, Japan and also reducing the number of flights it makes to London. The number of flights from Bali to both Australia and New Zealand are being cut from November to the end of March 2003 due to security concerns raised by last month's bombing. Garuda says it is also postponing the launch of a new service between Perth and Jakarta and suspending its direct Adelaide to Denpasar service. Garuda emphasized that it hopes to restore some services when the security situation eases.

In the US, bankrupt National Airlines has stopped flying. National had a low cost economy and first class services between Las Vegas, the gambling centre of the US and major US cities in 1999 but filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2000. The abrupt announcement, made mid November left some passengers stranded at its Las Vegas hub. National says it will not be making refunds on tickets and customers must apply through credit cards companies. Some airlines have offered to fly National ticket holders on a standby basis.

BMI (British Midland), the UK airline will cut its transatlantic flights from Manchester to Washington from December 2nd but plans to resume in June 2003. Passengers already booked on winter flights will be offered either a refund or the opportunity to transfer to another carrier.

Terrorism fears have prompted the Japanese Government to issue a travel warning for Japanese subjects about Australia. Government to Government discussions are now underway in Japan and efforts to sell the image of a safe Australia to the Japanese public are also being stepped up due to a multi-billion dollar tourism industry at risk.

Reynold from the US would like to hear from anyone with info and advice on independent travel in Laos and Burma. Please e-mail at ren477@yahoo.com He is also interested in any advice e-newsletter readers could give him on winter stays in Cyprus and grassroots trips to Cuba.

John from the UK is planning to go from Hawaii to Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, South Africa, Europe, the UK, the US, and Hawaii plus any points in between, depending on limitations of the ticket. Because he intends to start from Hawaii, the UK travel agents have been giving him some very high quotes. Can anyone help him by suggesting a good travel agent, not necessarily in the UK to give a quote? He would also welcome any advice on backpacker travel insurance for the over 50's, with sailing included. To contact John, please e-mail at Coehabit@aol.com

Need help? Want a travelling buddy or advice about a place or country – want to share something with us – why not visit our Mutual Aid section of the Website: Mutual Aid

If you were thinking of visiting Spain’s beautiful north western coast, your walks along the beach may be spoilt and it may be an idea not to order locally caught fish. A 35m gash in the side of a Greek owned oil tanker, the Prestige, has caused a major oil spill, about 1,500 tonnes of oil so far.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warns that if all 77,000 tones of the Prestige's cargo were to leak, the spill would be twice the size of the catastrophic Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska.

Floating barriers and pumping systems have been in place to try to contain the spill, but nonetheless, thick patches of oil have been washing up along a 40-kilometre stretch of coastline.

A group of UK airline passengers representing 56 claims relating to passenger DVT-related deaths and injuries are starting a landmark legal case against 28 airlines for failing to warn them about the risk of deep vein thrombosis.

Their lawyers will argue a combination of cramped flying conditions and long hours in the air can give rise to the condition DVT, also known as economy class syndrome.

The airlines have denied liability, arguing that they are protected under the 70-year-old Warsaw Convention from paying compensation for medical problems classed as a passenger reaction to the normal operation of an aircraft.

The group legal action is aimed at persuading the high court in London that DVT should be classed as an 'accident' under the convention. If successful, this could lead to airlines having to pay out significant damages to victims or their families.

Tips to lower the risk of developing DVT include walking around the aircraft during a flight and wearing tight stockings.