Smart Traveller

Lucozade is offering you and three friends the opportunity to win a trip to a cattle ranch in Wyoming, where you’ll be able to take part in a number of different activities. The competition is being run as part of the company’s Lucozade Challenge.

The prize includes four return economy flights from London to Wyoming, four nights’ accommodation at a working cattle ranch in the stunning Shell Valley and three nights’ accommodation in a remote mountain cabin. The winner and his or friends will receive intensive riding training as well as learning rope-work, cattle-reading, survival skills and fishing, and will take part in a real cattle drive across country.

The holiday dates are set (18th July 2009 - 25th July 2009), and you and the friends that you choose to accompany you must be aged between 18 and 64 and weigh less than 16 stone, due to the nature of the activities included on the trip.

You can enter the competition via the Lucozade Challenge website - you will need to confirm the details of the friends that you want to travel with, and will need their permission before supplying these details. Entries must be received by midnight on 9 July 2009.

Full terms and conditions, together with an itinerary, can be found on the Lucozade Challenge website.

Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) is situated about 7km to the west of the city of Nice, on the French Riviera. It’s within driving distance of resorts such as Cannes and St. Tropez, and is also the nearest airport to Monaco, so it’s an extremely busy airport. In 2008, more than 10 million people passed through Nice Côte d’Azur Airport.

Both domestic and international flights arrive at and depart from Nice Airport, which has two terminals. You can check which terminal you need by looking at the airlines list on the airport’s website. The terminals open at 4 a.m. each day and close half an hour after the final flight has arrived.

Each terminal has an information desk, as well as shops, a restaurant and a service centre. There are several internet areas within the terminals andthe airport has its own business centre. Terminal 1 also has play areas for children.

There are bus services from the airport to a number of destinations, including Cannes, Monte Carlo and Saint Tropez, and the town’s main train station, Nice St. Augustin,  is about 15 minutes’ walk from Terminal 1. There are also taxi ranks outside of both terminals.

One of the easiest methods of getting to and from Nice Airport, however, is by hire car. If you book your rental car online, you can pick it up when you land, and simply drop it off at the Nice Airport car hire office before returning home.

In our next posts about visiting Los Angeles, we’re taking a look at what you can see and do in the city’s world-famous Hollywood Boulevard.

Hollywood Boulevard is a must-see destination for anyone visiting Los Angeles for the first time. One of its best-known attractions is Grauman’s Chinese Theater (6925 Hollywood Boulevard), and this is a great place to head first. Grauman’s Chinese Theater (also sometimes referred to as Mann’s Chinese Theater) was designed by Sid Grauman and opened in 1927. On its opening night, it hosted the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The King of Kings“, and it hosted many more film premieres in years to come. It now attracts more than 4 million visitors each year.

Look out for the two giant Heaven Dogs at the entrance - these were flown in from China, along with other items such as pagodas and temple bells. There is also a 30ft stone dragon between the theatre’s red columns.

Probably the most famous aspect of Grauman’s Chinese Theater is its forecourt, which is known as “Forecourt of the Stars”, where you can see the footprints and handprints of many of the world’s biggest stars. The first stars to leave their prints in the cement outside of the theatre were Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in a ceremony held on the 30th of April, 1927.

Over the years, celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire. Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere, Johnny Depp and Samuel L. Jackson have added their prints. It’s not just prints of stars’ hands and feet that you’ll see there, either - look out for some more unusual prints, such as the tyre treads of R2D2 from “Star Wars”, the imprint of Groucho Marx’s cigar and the hoofprints of Trigger next to the signature of Roy Rogers.

Grauman’s Chinese Theater is still used for many film premieres. Recent screenings include the premieres of “Drag Me to Hell”, “The Hangover” and “Bruno”. You can also see a movie at the cinema or take a VIP tour if you book in advance.

The forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theater is usually packed with tourists and you’ll notice a number of people dressed up as characters from movies, who will try and persuade you to pay to have your photo taken with them. There are also usually representatives from some of the companies that operate tours of the movie stars’ homes selling tickets for their tours.

In future posts, we’ll take a look at some of the other attractions that you can see on Hollywood Boulevard.

Image: American Eagle of LA