With the childrens school summer holidays almost over, many parents will be off to buy new unform and text books. For the rest of us however, the start of September should signal the perfect holiday opportunity.

With the weather still great in many places around Europe and beyond and no pesky kids around, you are assured of a much quieter, relaxing holiday.

Some airports are worse than others; take Charles de Gaulle in Paris for example. It’s a pretty horrible place with cramped corridors and men ready to steal your wallet away. Of course at the other end of the scale is Terminal 5 at Heathrow and sure, its had its fair share of bad press, but who wouldn’t prefer going through this terminal instead of the Paris version.

Travelling already costs a small fortune and its showing no sign of getting cheaper thanks to a new charge made by the USA to enter its borders. This is thanks to the US Government announcing that ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation) applications will become chargeable from next month.

If you are a frequent flyer, you are probably aware of ESTA, but if not, you should be.

Let’s be honest, when it comes to summer holidays, it isnt hard to find a great destination at a great prive, especially with ton special offers and deals available from thousands of tour operators offering the latest and greatest destinations, but putting together the perfect winter holiday presents far great challenges and are just generally much harder to plan and ultimately enjoy.

We’ve all heard about the summer holidays where you turn up to a half finished hotel, rats in your bathroom and the swimming pool consists of an inflatable 4 foot dingy with some water in it, yet few have heard about the misery that faces some people who get unlucky on winter holidays.

At least with a summer holiday, you still have the sun, but usually a skiing holiday will involve something considerably colder and when it all goes wrong, you won’t even have the sunshine and warmth to fall back on.

Let’s be honest, when it comes to summer holidays, it isnt hard to find a great destination at a great prive, especially with ton special offers and deals available from thousands of tour operators offering the latest and greatest destinations, but putting together the perfect winter holiday presents far great challenges and are just generally much harder to plan and ultimately enjoy.

We’ve all heard about the summer holidays where you turn up to a half finished hotel, rats in your bathroom and the swimming pool consists of an inflatable 4 foot dingy with some water in it, yet few have heard about the misery that faces some people who get unlucky on winter holidays.

At least with a summer holiday, you still have the sun, but usually a skiing holiday will involve something considerably colder and when it all goes wrong, you won’t even have the sunshine and warmth to fall back on.

I never thought that looking for travel insurance was just simple. These days, getting a quote for travel insurance is just as easy as getting one for your vehicle. You can use the internet and just simply google, travel insurance, and you’ll get a wealth of information.

One of the best ways to travel around Europe is by train and the many amazing deals which are on offer makes it almost criminal not to avail of them. These days we can travel by train all the way from London to anywhere in Europe without the need to use any other form of transport. Europe has some of the most spectacular railway journeys in the whole world which all add to the relaxation you feel when you travel by train.

France is considered to be among the top holiday destinations in the world and this is all down to the fact that it has so much to offer to the tourist. This is a country that seems to have something to suit everyone. And for a photographer it is a dream location because of the fact that it offers such varied landscapes.

Many sites offer a great way to get onto the continent and free-wheel around Europe. Getting from Folkestone to Calais will only take you thirty five minutes through the channel tunnel and this is the perfect way to head off through Europe; maybe you can spend a week in the French Riviera or you could spend a weekend visiting other countries such as Germany or Italy. Europe has so much to offer and the Channel Tunnel means that we can get where we want to fast and with minimum fuss; we also have less worries about weather interfering with our travel plans as you would with boats.

One of the most relaxing ways to travel is by train. Of course you will hear people go on about the freedom you get by driving everywhere yourself but sometime it is nice to let other people take control. Travelling by train takes away the worries about traffic and finding somewhere to park.