1. Paris by Train - Paris is one of the easiest destinations to reach from the U.K., thanks to the Eurostar rail service. Take the train from St. Pancras Station in central London and you can be in the French capital in about 2 and a quarter hours.  See famous sights such as the Eiffel Tower, visit museums and galleries such as the Louvre, relax in a street cafe in Montmartre, or head out of the city for some magical family fun at the Disneyland Paris resort.

2. Rome by Train – it will take you about 17 and a half hours to get from London to Rome by train, but you’ll be able to enjoy a three course meal, sleep, have breakfast and see some stunning Alpine scenery during your journey. Take the Eurostar from London to Paris Gare du Nord, then travel to the city’s Gare de Bercy and catch the TGV Artesia Night Train, which will take you through Switzerland, into Northern Italy and on to Rome. Visit landmarks such as the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, window-shop at some of the world’s most fashionable stores, or head to the museums in Vatican City to see world-famous works of art.

3. Dublin by Ferry – it’s easy to get to Dublin without flying. Simply take drive or take a train to the port of Holyhead and then catch a ferry to Ireland. Two different companies operate ferries between Holyhead and Dublin: Stena Line and Irish Ferries. Once you’ve arrived in Ireland, you can take a shuttle bus into the centre of Dublin. The city’s attractions include Dublin Zoo, Dublin Writers Museum, Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol,  the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Guiness Storehouse.

4. Copenhagen by Train – you can get from London to Copenhagen by train in about 18 hours. Take the Eurostar from London’s St. Pancras Station to Brussels and then take the high-speed ICE train from Brussels to Cologne. For the final stage of the journey, take the City Night Line sleeper train from Cologne to Copenhagen. Once there, you can take a boat trip on the old canal network, see the world-famous statue of The Little Mermaid, take a tour of the Amalienborg Palace and visit the Tivoli Gardens amuseument park.

5. Geneva by Train – it’s easy to get from London to Geneva without flying. Take the Eurostar from London St. Pancras Station to Paris Gare du Nord and then take the metro to Paris Gare de Lyon. From here, you can catch the TGV Lyria, which will take you directly to Geneva. You can explore the city, see landmarks such as the Jet D’Eau and the Flower Clock, and visit some of the many museums.

Image: Leon Brocard

British Airways estimates that up to 16 million gallons of low-carbon fuel per year could be produced at the site and is planning to be using the fuel in some of its aircraft by 2014.

In a press release issued by British Airways on 15 February 2010, the airline’s Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, stated:

“This unique partnership with Solena will pave the way for realising our ambitious goal of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.  We believe it will lead to the production of a real sustainable alternative to jet kerosene.  We are absolutely determined to reduce our impact on climate change and are proud to lead the way on aviation’s environmental initiatives.”

Ideas include taking a spa holiday in Cornwall, cycling in Holland and taking a trip to the Whitepod, a ski resort in Switzerland which claims to be more environmentally friendly than traditional ski resorts.

The Ridgeway is in southern England and stretches for 87 miles between Overton Hill, near Avebury, to Ivinghoe Beacon. It would take a reasonably fit walker about 7 days to complete the entire trail, but it’s possible to walk shorter sections of it.

You can get to the beginning of the trail using public transport, making it an ideal choice of holiday for anyone concerned about the contribution that carbon emissions from the number of privately owned cars on the road are making to climate change. You can travel from London to Swindon by train and then catch a bus to Avebury. There are also several railway stations near to the end of the trail. If you prefer to travel by car, there are also a number of car parks along the route.

The Ridgeway National Trail website is full of information to help you to plan your trip. It suggests breaking your walk down into the following six stages and provides details of each stage: Overton Hill to Ogbourne St. George; Ogbourne St. George to Sparsholt Firs; Sparsholt Firs to Streatley; Streatley to Watlington; Watlington to Wendover; and Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon.

The website also provides details of nearby accommodation and includes tips for anyone planning to walk The Ridgeway National Trail. You can also download leaflets about the trail from the site, as well as free guides to shorter walks in the area, such as the Liddington Castle Circular Walk, the White Horse Hill Circular Walk and the Ivinghoe Beacon Circular Walk.

Highlights of The Ridgeway National Trail include: Avebury World Heritage Site, the location of Britain’s largest stone circle; the Uffington White Horse; Whiteleaf Hill; and the Grand Union Canal.

The South West Coast Path is the longest of the U.K’s National Trails, stretching for 630 miles and passing through four counties. The path begins at the town of Minehead, in Somerset, and continues along the North Devon coast, the North Cornwall coast, the South Cornwall coast, the South Devon coast, the East Devon coast and the Dorset coast, finishing at Poole Harbour.

Highlights along the trail include Land’s End, Tintagel Castle, the car-free village of Clovelly, the Minack Theatre, the Lizard Peninsula and Lulworth Cove. There are beautiful views from the coastal path and the South West is also the perfect place to visit if you enjoy wildlife. You may be able to spot peregrine falcons or seabirds, such as guillemots and kittiwakes, and if you’re lucky, you may catch a glimpse of dolphins, seals or basking sharks in the sea.

It would take about seven or eight weeks to walk the entire South West Coast Path, but if you want a shorter walking holiday, you can choose to walk a section of it, as its easily accessible from many towns and cities along the way. The South West Coast Path website has detailed guides to the trail and divides it into 53 separate sections that you could walk in a day, so you can design your own itinerary for your walking holiday.

For example, you could simply spend a day walking the first section of the trail, from Minehead to Porlock Weir and then catch a bus back to your starting point. Alternatively, you could spend several days walking from the popular Cornish seaside resort of Newquay to the town of St. Ives, where you’ll find the Tate St. Ives art gallery.

The South West Coast Path website is an essential resource for anyone wanting to explore the trail, as it features information about things to see along the way, accommodation near to the coast path and safety tips. It also provides details of shorter walks in the South West which are perfect for days out with the family.

Image: Herbythyme

The Maldives featured in Smart Traveller’s list of ten tourist destinations that could be destroyed by the effects of climate change, published in May 2009. In this post, we described how the islands could be submerged as a result of rising sea levels.

The Telegraph states that President Nasheed plans to make the Maldives the first carbon-neutral country in the world within the next ten years, but if the effects of climate change can not be counteracted and the islands begin to be submerged, the climate change fund will be used to rehome residents elsewhere and set up a “new” Maldives.

Sir Jonathon, who is due to retire from his post as advisor today, spoke out in an interview with The Independent. He particularly criticised the Prime Minister for backing controversial proposals for a third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport, condeming the decision as “ludicrous”.

He told The Independent that the PM has “some incredibly fixed ideas about some of these things. He genuinely feels that a successful competitive economy of the future has to be growing its aviation business in order to make UK PLC  more productive, and so on. And you can put the evidence about minimal economic benefit of a third runway in front of him – it won’t go through the Brown brain”.

Sir Jonathon told the paper that the Prime Minister has started to see the importance of climate change over the past 18 months, but that “environment has never been Gordon Brown’s strong suit”.

According to The Guardian, Mr Milliband “hinted that airlines would face less testing targets, with other sectors forced to find even more stringent cuts to make up the difference”.  Mr Milliband told The Guardian that he does not “want to have a situation where only rich people can afford to fly”.

Imagine holidaying on an underwater beach, or diving where the corals have lost their vibrant colours. A safari without wildlife would be dismal, and skiing without snow just plain impossible. In March 2009, 2,500 scientists met in Copenhagen to discuss climate change, concluding that the situation is far worse than previously reported.

Top 10 “doomed”  holiday destinations

Here are ten holiday hotspots across the globe that are already suffering the effects of climate change and global warming.

1.  The Arctic Region: Travellers venture to the Arctic to experience a vast icy wilderness and spot hardy wildlife, but the region’s natural attractions could be threatened in the future with ice melting and vanishing species. The waters of Canada’s Hudson Bay, for example, are now ice-free for three weeks longer than they were thirty years ago, affecting the hunting ground of polar bears, which prefer to hunt on sea ice.

2.    Bangkok, Thailand: Bangkok, a major tourism hub for southeast Asia, only rests about 3-5 feet above sea level and its outskirts are already suffering shoreline erosion. With the Gulf rising by about a tenth of an inch a year and poorly constructed buildings sinking, some experts predict the Thai capital could be underwater in the next 15 to 20 years if global warming continues unchecked.

3.    The Alps, Europe: Glaciers are retreating in warm, dry winters and hotter summers caused by global warming, and although snowfall in the 2008-2009 ski season was substantial, overall recent years have seen less snow at low altitudes, and receding glaciers and melting permafrost higher up – with a significant impact on winter tourism activities.

4.    Nepal: Nepal is already watching its vast glaciers melt and glacial lakes expand, and is seeing disturbed weather patterns. Overall the country now gets less rain, more droughts, and warmer temperatures – and some ‘freak’ weather, such as unseasonal Springtime snowstorms that have baffled trekking tourists.

5.    The Maldives: The lowest and flattest country in the world is suffering coastal erosion, and could find itself submerged if sea levels carry on rising. This extreme prediction is a devastating prospect for residents, and bad news for the tourists who descend on its soft white beaches and warm waters each year.

6.    Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: Coral reefs in some of the world’s top diving spots are losing their vibrant appeal as a result of ‘coral reef bleaching’. Stress caused by higher sea temperatures triggers corals to expel the algae that live in their outer tissues – leaving behind just ghostly limestone skeletons. A report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that the Great Barrier Reef could become “functionally extinct” by 2030.

7.    The Amazon Rainforest, Brazil: Massive parts of the Amazon rainforest are already disappearing thanks to logging, but on top of this the region has seen rises in temperature and less rainfall which could cause even more shrinking of the rainforest, and threaten the survival of entire species.

8.    Lake Balaton, Hungary: One of Hungary’s biggest tourists attractions, people flock to Lake Balaton for scenery and watersports. But with an average depth of just 2-3 metres, the lake is vulnerable to hotter, drier summers predicted for the future. With falling water levels, pollution will become more concentrated, algae will spread, and a dip in the lake will be far less appealing.

9.    Malta: This Mediterranean island enjoys a mild climate which attracts many sun-seekers, but it already struggles to source enough drinking water to go around. With more than half produced by desalination plants, shortages will become a bigger problem as temperatures and sea levels continue to rise, with salt water intrusion affecting drinking water and food production.

10.  Kerala, India: Kerala in southern India draws tourists to its yoga retreats, sandy beaches, Ayurvedic massage centres and beautiful Backwater regions. But Kerala is flat, low-lying and very susceptible to even small rises in sea levels. Beach erosion can already be seen in resorts like Kovalam, and scientists predict that by 2030 many beach establishments could be inundated.

Climate change is set to remain the hot topic of 2009 and is already picking up concerned coverage around the blogosphere

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