Travel news

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 13:48

Grand designs

WHY leave your free babysitters at home? With Canvas Holidays (0870 192 1159, www.canvasholidays.co.uk), parents can enjoy late nights while granny and granddad play snap with the kids – and it doesn't cost any extra. The family camping specialist is offering a grandparents-go-free offer on holidays booked by 10 December with a first night on site between 2 July and 31 August 2010. A typical example is a week at Camping Parc de Fierbois in the Loire Valley in a mobile home, from 352 per family. The price is based on four adults and two children for arrivals on 27 May 2010 and includes a return midweek Dover to Calais ferry.

Ahoy, there

REAL trees, two-storey loft accommodation, a carousel: these are some of the innovations to feature in the world's biggest cruise ship, due to be launched next month. Oasis of the Seas has an open-air park area, a basketball court, a zip wire stretching over a nine-floor drop and 9,000 works of art. That's if holidaymakers can tear themselves away from suites with verandas and floor-to-ceiling windows.

A nine-night Eastern Caribbean fly/cruise (0844 493 2061, www.royal caribbean.co.uk) starts from 1,364pp based on two people sharing an inside cabin, and includes flights from London to Miami, one night hotel accommodation and a seven-night cruise calling at St Thomas, St Maarten and the Bahamas.

What a wonderful world

A SMILING Cambodian family piled on to a pick-up truck, Moroccan fish-sellers displaying the day's glistening catch on a marble slab. The magenta, turquoise and lime flurry of Mumbai rail passengers at rush hour. These are just three of the 250 vivid images included in Earthbound: A Rough Guide to the World in Pictures (Rough Guide, 20), showcasing the best of 25 years of Rough Guide photography.

The pictures are accompanied by the snappers' tales of their travels.

"One day we realised that of the literally hundreds of thousands of images we had, some were so outstanding they deserved to be in a book of their own," says Martin Dunford, Rough Guide co-founder and publishing director. "All of them reminded us what an amazingly rich and diverse place the world is and, most importantly, why we started travelling in the first place."