I have just booked to go to New York for the Christmas Holidays and I’m really excited. I’ve never been to New York before and have heard that it’s really good over Christmas. We’re flying with Virgin Atlantic on Boxing Day from Heathrow. It’s a really good deal actually as we get to New York at 1:30pm so have the whole afternoon. The main bonus is that we are flying directly – no changes halfway.

I priced up quite a few flights to New York from London and all the ones where you had to change added nearly a whole days travel which would simply be a waste of a holiday as we are only going for 4 days.

My advice is to go with a slightly more expensive flight (there is only about £100 difference anyway between the none stop and one stop flights) and get an extra day in New York rather than an extra day sat around airports waiting for connecting flights.

I used to work in London about 6 months ago before moving back north with my job and regularly used to travel from Manchester to London and vice versa. It’s really not a bad service – it takes between 1 hour 50 mins to 2 hours 30 mins to get from Manchester Picadilly to London Euston and then it was just a short tube ride to my flat in Marylebone. I then moved to Balham which was south of the river and the tube journey took a while longer.

The main problem with the journey was that I travelled on Friday evenings at about 6:40pm after work and the train was always packed – so much so that people would be standing up and there would always be a mad rush along the platform for people trying to get seats. Even booking in advance, you are not always guaranteed a reserved seat so I used to do my best Usain Bolt impression in order to ensure I wasn’t standing up for 2 hours. Virgin Trains apparently increased the number of services between London and Manchester but I still think that once a train is full they should tell you so that you don’t have the discomfort of standing for a 2 hour journey.

The Sunday journey was a lot more comfortable with a choice of seats and you could just shut your eyes and relax. The journey is not cheap though – the cheapest you can generally get is £60 return but last minute bookings can cost £60-£120 each way so be sure to book in advance.

I know Valentines Day is a while away, but I thought I’d recommend Paris as a destination. I went on for Valentines weekend earlier this year and had a great time. I booked online and travelled down to Paris on the Eurostar from Kings Cross St Pancras Station. In the same time as it takes to get from Manchester to London which is roughly 2 hours you can get from London to Paris. The train is smooth, fast and far more spacious than an aeroplane. You have more room to move and more leg room which is brilliant.

Once you arrive there are loads of hotels nearby the main station Gare du Nord so we just walked from the station to our hotel and then got on with the romantic weekend, taking in all the famous sites.

One word of advice – it’s usually still very cold in February. We had a really nice sunny weekend but you need to wrap up warm in order to enjoy it to the full.

A couple of friends sharing a little cabin on a weeks holiday, and only a 15 minute boat-ride from Venice, the holiday park being right on a sandy beach, a little town full of yummy restaurants… Bliss!!

And Venice itself – wow! An eclectic ramble of curio shops and tacky souvenirs and stunningly painted historical buildings and smartly dressed men pushing a gondolier around the canals… it doesn’t fail to delight and amaze.

But when you look a little closer, you find the 20% charges whacked on top of a food bill, the exact same snow globes, glass figures and masks in every shop and stall, the excessive amount of other tourists… it wears a bit thin.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m now at “that age” (only 25!!!) that I want a holiday to be relaxing – not a hodge-podge of dodging persistent traders and fighting my way through crowds on narrow streets, and worrying my purse won’t be with me once I get through.

I never had this feeling on my weeks camping in Scotland….