A new website offers an alternative way to stay in the UK – free! YouStayFree.com offers unlimited free hotel accommodation for members at selected UK hotels.

Members pay a yearly fee (presently £24.95) and must pay a minimum amount for meals at the hotel. There are some restrictions, but average savings for a couple on a 2 night break could easily be over £100. Website: youstayfree.com

Source: britainexpress.com The UK travel and heritage guide

If you were thinking of travelling to northern Congo to see the gorillas – don’t. At least 48 people are believed to have died in a suspected outbreak of Ebola in the north of Congo-Brazzaville, near the border with Gabon. Ebola is reported to have killed 43 people in Congo and 53 others in neighbouring Gabon between October 2001 and February 2002. The WHO says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a nearby region of Congo. There is no cure for Ebola, which causes up to 95% of its victims to bleed to death.

The authorities were first alerted to a possible outbreak of Ebola when a clan of gorillas in the region began to die in December. Tests carried out on the bodies confirmed that the gorillas had died from the Ebola virus, which has now claimed more than 80% of that gorilla clan. According to on the scene World Health Experts, it seems likely that eating bush meat such as gorilla, gazelle and antelope caused the human deaths.

A new booklet from the London Tourist Board gives suggestions on making your holiday budget go further and exploring the capital off the main tourist trail. “Go Further in London” is available free from British Tourist Authority offices overseas (in English, French, German and Italian), or look on the website: www.visitlondon.com

If you find yourself at a loose end in Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, you can now visit a branch of the world renowned Rijskmuseum in the terminal after passport control on Holland Boulevard which connects Piers E and F. There is also a museum shop.

The museum includes works by Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Peter de Hooch and other painters from the Dutch Golden Age.

The joint initiative between the airport and the museum has cost around EUR2.5 million (USD$2.54 million) to establish. The museum is housed in a specially designed suspended area and is open between 7am and 8pm daily.

North Americans will be pleased to learn that the UK's tough animal quarantine regulations are being relaxed. From December 11, 2002 dogs and cats that meet requirements will be able to enter Britain without going into quarantine for six months. These requirements include having the animals microchipped and vaccinated by a veterinarian, together with a blood test, at least six months before travelling.

Details of these conditions can be found on the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (DEFRA) web site: defra.gov.uk.

Source britainexpress.com

Courtney Love was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport earlier this month after accusations of verbally abusing Virgin crewmembers on a flight from Los Angeles. As she left Heathrow's police station Love said: “I cussed at a lady – my daughter always said I had a potty mouth.” She was later released with a caution for “causing harassment, alarm and distress” after nine hours in custody. Love said she had complained that staff did not let her friend sit in first class with her. She later met Richard Branson, Virgin’s owner at a party, who promptly offered her two first class tickets London – LA return.

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Passengers on small US commuter planes may be asked to weigh-in before they are allowed on board after intervention from the country's Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA's new policy asks airlines to weigh both passengers and baggage on planes that seat between 10 and 19 people. The announcement came after 21 people were killed at Charlotte, North Carolina when an Air Midwest plane crashed on take-off. AT the moment, US regional carriers do not carry out weight checks on passengers and cargo but work on estimates.

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Delta Air Lines, the third largest carrier in the US has just promised the two minute airport check-in. Can this be possible? They say they aim to significantly reduce check-in wait times and lines at 81 of the airports in its system through a mixture of more self service technology and better use of its people on the ground.

Changes will include a combination of airport lobby redesign, increased self-service technology and new airport customer service roles for employees. The airline is aiming to add more than 400 self-service kiosks this year as part of the scheme. Rich Cordell, senior vice president, Airport Customer Service. “Our goal is to ensure that no e-ticketed, self-service customer stands in line longer than two minutes for any transaction, even during peak times.”

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Ah…and Delta Air Lines again ……. passengers with tickets purchased on or after February 1 who are travelling on Delta, Delta Express, Delta Shuttle, Atlantic Coast Airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, Comair and SkyWest Airlines will have to pay a USD$25 fee on any bag weighing more than 50 lbs. A new overweight charge applies to bags weighing up to 70 pounds and rises to USD$80 for those weighing between 71 and 100 lbs. Delta does not accept bags weighing more than 100 lbs as checked baggage. But, if you are a member of Delta's Platinum, Gold or Silver Medallion SkyMiles scheme or a passenger confirmed in the forward cabin, you will be exempt from these charges. Additionally, it does not apply to sporting equipment, musical instruments, live animals, cabin baggage, media equipment or wheelchairs and devices which assist disabled passengers, which may be covered by other baggage policies.

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America has taken the first steps to put civil aircraft on stand-by for military duties in the event of war breaking out with Iraq. Several major US airlines including American Airlines, American Trans Air, Atlas Air, Continental, Delta, FedEx, Northwest, Southwest and United are part of the nation's Civil Reserve Fleet which can be called on to supply both passenger and cargo aircraft to move troops and equipment to a conflict zone. Under the first phase only 47 aircraft are to be on stand-by. If the Pentagon activated the second stage of the plan up to 300 planes could be involved. The last time the plan was put into action was during the operation that followed Iraq's invasion of neighbouring Kuwait twelve years ago.

A recent report in Cyber Diver News says that tourists and scuba diver numbers have fallen by almost a third to between 300,000 and 100,000 a month. This is serious stuff for Malaysia as tourism is the country’s second largest earner of foreign exchange. The fall in numbers was triggered by the Bali bombing but a particularly hard line message that sunbathers should cover up (e.g. no bikinis) has not helped.

Sent in by Bretislav in the Czech Republic, spotted on cbc.ca

ST. JOHN'S – A woman who fell asleep on a flight to Newfoundland and wound up in England has been offered 15,000 bonus aeroplan miles by the airline. Air Canada apologized to Catherine Coyle late Monday and offered her the air miles for her troubles. The airline also said she was partly responsible for falling asleep on the 90-minute flight from Halifax to St. John's and not waking up on time. Last Thursday, the Cole Harbour, N.S., woman was on a flight to visit her ill mother. She fell asleep and woke up to hear the pilot announce a 4-hour flight time. The plane was half an hour out of St. John's heading for London. Coyle had apparently slept through the landing at St. John's and a 30-minute stopover before the flight for England. No one had tried to wake her up to check her ticket. The pilot refused to turn the plane around and she had to continue to Heathrow airport, where she waited two hours for a return flight.

Write in and tell us your jokes, anecdotes, mishaps, funny things you’ve seen! Drop a line to the Beetle! E-mail the Beetle.

A recent UK survey for the Department for Education found that of over 1,000 adults, 30% felt unable to compare rates in exchange bureaux. A similar proportion said they were not comfortable converting foreign currency into sterling. Over a fifth of those surveyed admitted they had wrongly calculated how much they spent on holiday, with 12% saying they had run out of money.

The Globetrotters Club has just teamed up with Oanda.com to provide people with information about currency conversions and cheat sheets. To translate currency or make a cheat sheet, visit:

The Globetrotters Currency Converter — get the exchange rates for 164 currencies The Globetrotters Currency Cheat Sheet — create and print a currency converter table for your next trip.

Maggie wrote in to say: “I enjoy reading all the stories of travelling around the world. I am planning on walking the pilgrim route to Santiago De Compostela starting in France at the end of May 2004. Has anybody done this journey? Any advice would be more than appreciated”.

If you can have walked all or part of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela and can help Maggie, please e-mail her on: mechthild@InfoAve.Net

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Gary wrote in to say: “I'm going to be touring England and Scotland on a recumbent bike later part of May and June '03. I'm going to stay in B&Bs' and youth hostels. I'll be flying into Heathrow Airport. What's the best way for me to get to Colchester from London airport? 1) Bike from airport and figure out a way to stash my bike box. Or….

2) Catch a train from the airport and unbox my bike in a B&B in Colchester and hopefully store my bike box their for my return trip. My plan is to bike up through the Shetland Islands and then return back to my bike box in late June. If there is anyone who would like to visit with me or ride part of the way, drop me an email on: garyleffler@hotmail.com

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 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

Cheryl, from Canada wrote in to say: “just wanted to write and say “thanks” for putting me on the globetrotters list – I really enjoy the newsletter.

Hey, write to us – drop us a line, e-mail – we want to hear from you!

Another global warning on terrorism has been given to Americans travelling abroad by the US State Department. This one is dated 7^th February.

The worldwide caution replaces a similar warning made in November and reminds people to be aware of the dangers of a terrorist attack.

It asks travellers to remain vigilant due to a heightened threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians, including the possibility of attacks by non-conventional weapons. It also reminds American citizens travelling or living overseas to avoid demonstrations.

US citizens and interests are vulnerable to attacks, including those by groups with links to Al-Qaeda, says the government. Terrorist actions may include, but are not limited to, suicide operations, assassinations or kidnappings.

The State Department goes on to say that while conventional weapons such as explosive devices pose a more immediate threat in many areas overseas, terrorist use of non-conventional weapons, including chemical or biological agents must be considered a growing threat.

These individuals and groups have proved that they do not distinguish between official and civilian targets. Because security and security awareness have been elevated within the United States, terrorists may target US interests overseas. Private Americans should remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and exercise caution.

Attacks on places of worship and schools, and the murders of private American citizens and other westerners, demonstrate that as security is increased at official US facilities, terrorists and their sympathizers will seek softer targets.

These may include facilities where Americans or possibly other foreigners are generally known to congregate or visit, such as residential areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, hotels, outdoor recreation events or resorts and beaches. Americans should increase their security awareness when they are at such locations, avoid them, or switch to other locations where Americans in large numbers generally do not congregate. There is a possibility that American citizens may be targeted for kidnapping or assassination.

Demonstrations in many parts of the world may have an anti-American character. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn into confrontational situations and possibly escalate into violence. US citizens travelling or residing abroad should avoid demonstrations and take commonsense precautions.

The warning is due to expire on May 4.

Here’s a little Beetle quiz based on airport codes. See how many you get right! Go on, have a guess!

Which cities are served by airports with the following codes:

1. DEN
2. OSL
3. SIN
4. GIG
5. KIN

For the answers, see at the end of the e-newsletter.

A travel warning to American citizens in Zimbabwe urging them to leave the African country has been issued by the US government.

The US State Department says that Zimbabwe's current political, economic and humanitarian crises have serious implications for security and it recommends that people should consider leaving.

The warning says: “All US citizens in Zimbabwe are urged to take those measures they deem appropriate to ensure their well being, including consideration of departure.”

The Zimbabwe government's appropriation of land from farmers and suppression of political opposition has helped to fuel a crisis, raising the possibility of violent protest.