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Buy This: Time in an Official British Airways Boeing Flight Simulator

Perhaps you have people on your holiday shopping list for whom you completely dread finding gifts...or maybe it's you falling into that category on your loved one's lists. Whatever direction the holiday shopping stress is coming from, British Airways has a solution.

Last week, BA decided to spice up Black Friday and tweeted about gift ideas, like vouchers for the general public to get into their Flight Simulator Experiences.

It all sounds like something right out of the Nieman Marcus Fantasy Gift section in their catalog, with prices to match. Normally reserved for their own flight crews, the simulators are offered to any self-proclaimed aviation geek. Vouchers are available from £399 for a 1-hour flight on a Boeing 737-400, to £1,347 for a 3-hour flight on a 747-400. Sorry Airbus fans, aircraft options are limited to Boeing only and also include 757-200, 767-300 and 777-200.

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Traveling with Children / Travel Safety / Historical Travel / Europe Travel / UK Travel / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Three Tourist Places Where It's Okay to Have Your Kid on a Leash

First things first. Here at Jaunted, we like kids. Heck—some of us even have them! Thus we don't typically advocate the use of kid-leashes because they look stupid, are dehumanizing, and keeping kids in line shouldn't require strapping something around them. On the other hand, we understand their practicality in certain tourism-related settings. Here's the top three places it may be okay to put your kid on a leash:

· At a medieval castle
It was in one of the eight tall turrets at Conwy Castle in Wales that we first noticed the high percentage of little kids on leashes, and for once it all made sense. These turrets have very thin, steep steps. The walkways can be precipitous, not to mention scarily uneven. Parents had prepped for the outing by breaking out the harnesses, and we watched in awe as they easily navigated their way down spiral staircases and around the medieval layout (with a 91' deep well!) knowing their children wouldn't fall into the many abysses at any moment.

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Airline News / Airlines / British Airways / UK Travel / In-Flight Comfort / → All Tags

Smell the BA, Not BO; British Airways to Introduce Signature Scent on Flights

Are you ready for this? British Airways has just announced that they will soon introduce a "signature brand scent" onto their airplanes, to make flyers think of luxury stores or anywhere other than a metal tube full of passengers with questionable hygiene. How do you prefer your airline—powder fresh or mountain spring? Finally we can say this: "We like our airlines like we like our deodorants: unscented."

The scent details haven't yet been released, although we're guessing a top note of bacon roll is off the table. Likely Eau de BA will follow in the fresh trend of the scent already found throughout British Airways' Heathrow lounges, that of cut grass and ocean.

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Manchester Travel / UK Travel / Music / Music Travel / Arts / Arts Travel / Summer Travel / Festivals / Festival Travel / → All Tags

The Manchester International Festival: Where Industry and Art (and Bjork) Collide

Manchester is a city of industry, art, and, if you ask certain diehard ManU fans, football. However, it's the juxtaposition between the first two that most vividly colors its landscape. This is the city that birthed both a significant textile boom and Joy Division, each playing a significant role in the development of its social fabric.

Last weekend marked the final days of the Manchester International Festival, a nearly month-long celebration of performing, visual, and pop culture arts set against the city's hardened urban environs. Jaunted took a train northward from London to take in the last of MIF's programming, the highlight being Icelandic songstress Bjork's much-lauded Biophilia show on Saturday evening.

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TripAdvisor / UK Travel / England Travel / UK / England / Technology / Social Media / Bad Ideas / → All Tags

Flipping Out Over TripAdvisor: Not Very Advisable

From the Department of Not Getting The Concept, here's a really strange story out of the UK. Two thirty-somethings were midway through their stay at the Golden Beach hotel in Blackpool when the manager stormed into their room and demanded that they leave. Police were called and told to evict the couple, though everyone acknowledges that no crime was committed. Instead, the hotel manager was ballistic because he believed that the guests had left a negative TripAdvisor review of the hotel.

How could this story get any worse for the establishment? The guest was apparently a cancer patient getting out of the city for the first time since completing an 18-month course of chemotherapy. So perfect is this clusterfark that we're still not convinced that it isn't some kind of prank or social media publicity stunt.

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Immigration / Borders / Visas / UK Travel / → All Tags

In Britain, It's a Struggle To Prove You're 'Just Visiting'

The guy probably had it all planned out before they searched his bags. A Mexican national, he declared his intent to visit a few friends in the U.K. before returning back home via Los Angeles. But his suitcase told a different story, and after customs found a note from a friend wishing him a "new life," he was forced to confess that he was planning to stay and work illegally -- and subsequently deported.

He's not alone: After years of relative open-door policies, the three leading British political parties are all calling for greater regulation of who gets into Britain, which could mean trouble for long-haul travelers without visas. And, spurred by a report from the Office of National Statistics which showed that some 214,000 foreign nationals had gained jobs in the U.K. while 278,000 Brits had lost theirs, most of the country is behind them.

The new policies include fingerprinting all visa applicants and tacking fees onto the entry visas for various countries, but it may also mean turning up the heat on legitimate vacationers. Perhaps packing a datebook showing you have something to get back to wouldn't be a bad idea.

Related Stories:
· Hasta la vista, baby [Reuters]
· UK slump poses challenge to support for an open economy [The Australian]
· New visa regulations may harm UK tourism [ASAP.co.uk]
· 2008: UK Stepping Up Its Immigration Game [Jaunted]

[Photo: traftery]

Naycations / Travel Rationing / Travel Bans / UK Travel / Travel Czars / Adair Turner / → All Tags

UK's Eco-Czar Wants To Ration Air Travel to Two Trips a Year

We're all adults here. We understand that people of good will can have genuine disagreements about politics. And things can get pretty heated, especially when people argue about things like government power and environmentalism.

Take the UK. It's not for everybody. But the Brits seem pretty pleased with the nanny state they've built for themselves. The British Parliament has already slapped regulations on just about everything that makes life worth living.

Indoor smoking is impossible. Crippling alcoholism is monitored. There are even rumors that the state might start discouraging widespread, irresponsible sex. Fair enough. Vastly different countries for different folks, as our great-grandparents used to say.

But this is some bullshit right here:

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Pub Travel / Beer Travel / UK Travel / → All Tags

Beer For A Penny (But You'll Have To Go North)

If we had a choice of going anywhere in the world, we wouldn’t normally have the (supposedly) grim north of England high up on our list. After all, it was only last year that a government think tank called time on the region, suggesting that its residents should move down south to London.

But we’re getting majorly tempted to schedule a weekend break since the News of the World reported this weekend that six chain pubs up there were knocking out pints for just 1 penny (yup, $0.014).

There is a catch, of course – to get your 1p Tetley’s you have to buy a house shot of gin, whisky or vodka first, but they only cost £1.89. And if you’re not up for the spirits, you can pay a straight £1.39 for the beer – which will cost £3 and up in most pubs.

Of course, health campaigners and the police are up in arms, because some drinkers are binging on more in a day than they should in a week. But the rest of us are hoping – given that it’s being run by the Dukedom chain, which owns 32 pubs across the UK – that it catches on down south. Until then, you need to get to the chain’s venues in Barnsley, Redcar, Stockton and Nelson. Although we’d warn you against Nelson. We probably wouldn’t go there even if you bought us those shots.

Related Stories:
· Pub Travel [Jaunted]
· A PUB chain pulling in customers with beer at a PENNY a pint [News of the World]

Airline Fees / Taxes / UK Travel / → All Tags

UK "Departure Tax" May Help Environment, Definitely Annoys Us

Normally we'd let something as dry as a British budget speech coast under our radar, but this year the pollies said something we didn't like: They're making every flight out of Britain more expensive.

The departure tax that they call "air passenger duty" was already doubled last year, but now it's going up again. Low cost carriers like Ryanair are complaining that the last thing the travel industry needs is even higher charges for cost-sensitive customers.

Rather than applying just two taxes--short and long haul--the British government is now dividing destinations up into four zones depending on distance and applying higher charges for further distances. Australians for one are not happy about being on the D-list, which means an extra £85 ($130) for flights longer than 6,000 miles.

And the worst bit: The UK government is pretending it's all a green tax. Which means when we whine about it, we sound like we don't care about the polar bears. But we do!

Related Stories:
· Green Tax Is the End of Low Cost Flights [UK Times]
· Australia on D-List for New Flight Tax [SMH]
· Britain Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Abraham C]

Celeb Travel / UK Travel / Josh Hartnett / Mischa Barton / → All Tags

Is Josh Hartnett Getting More Discreet About His Hookups?

Not everyone gets to go back to the hotel lobby: Less than a month after actor Josh Hartnett was caught having sex on camera at the Soho London, he publicly rebuffed a flirtatious offer while partying at Bungalow 8.

Like his past escapade, this incident was caught on camera, as "OC" starlet Mischa Barton flirted with the West End performer, who was out drinking with buddy Nathan Followill of the band Kings of Leon. Maybe Hartnett never saw "The OC" or maybe he's getting smarter -- but neither of those could be true, right?!

Hopefully the very public scene boosted the Bungalow out of its reported slump: Nightlife maven Amy Sacco was never quite able to replicate the success of her New York club in the London fog, but this "members only" outlet is allegedly abandoned most nights by its prestigious members like Sienna Miller and Ralph Fiennes.

Related Stories:
· Josh Hartnett Caught in the Act at the Soho London [HC]
· Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett Play James Bond [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Socialite Life]

Diving / Snorkeling / UK Travel / → All Tags

Who Would've Thought: Dive and Snorkel in Britain

When we're thinking of a great place for a diving holiday, we're afraid to say that mighty ol' England doesn't exactly spring to mind. But the UK Times has pointed out that there are actually dozens of great spots to go diving and snorkeling around Britain--as long as you've got a thick wetsuit.

Some of the highlights are wrecks from both wars and from careless ships running aground, like the Lucy, a ship that beached itself off Pembrokeshire and now sees divers as well as dolphins and porpoises that play nearby. Off Cornwall, experts recommend a few good snorkeling spots although we're not quite sure that seeing giant jellyfish is the kind of highlight we're after.

Now it might go without saying, but the tipsters do recommend only snorkeling in summer off Britain, and even then, as they carefully point out, "It'll be colder than snorkeling in the Seychelles". No surprises there.

Related Stories:
· Britain's 10 Best Sites for Diving and Snorkelling [UK Times]
· Snorkeling coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mafic]

Museums / UK Travel / London Travel / Tourist Traps / → All Tags

Tourist Traps: Believe It Or Not, Ripley's Finally Opened in London

A few months back we we speculated about just how unnecessary the London Ripley's Believe It or Not museum was going to be. Last week it officially opened so now we are all invited to spend a whopping £17.95 (over US$33) to see the latest collection of the weird and wonderful.

The stats say that this Ripley's has just 500 artifacts, which doesn't sound like much, but they do spread over four floors and include such local specialties as a replica of the Tower Bridge made out of matchsticks. Gotta see that (not).

We're also not sure we need to see the two-headed cow (apparently not much of a rarity--the Ripley's company has 80 of 'em) or the graphic of singer Ray Charles created out of 8,000 Post-It notes. Yes, there'll be tourists who visit this new museum, but no, we won't be among them. We have enough weird and wonderful stuff on our desk.

Related Stories:
· Ripley's London [Official Site]
· Welcome to a Weird Old World [This is London]
· Ripley's Believe It or Not Coming to London in August [Jaunted]

[Photo of non-matchstick Tower Bridge: wallyg]