Time was you’d spend the October half-term holiday in a caravan in North Wales. Not any longer. Parents are taking their children further afield according to a recent study by Travelex, with Orlando and Hong Kong being popular long haul holiday destinations.

The decision to head further afield is often, paradoxically, a decision based on cost, or rather on value. While a week in Europe makes more sense in terms of travel times and is also likely to be much cheaper, the relative strength of the Euro against the pound means that holidaymakers feel they aren’t getting value for money.

Instead, many people are looking further afield. Orlando and Hong Kong were among the most popular destinations for half-term breaks, along with Cape Town, Bangkok and the Caribbean.

However, there are also closer destinations that are outside the Eurozone. Turkey and Egypt are benefiting tremendously and with many package holidays on offer for both of these countries, they are well placed to cash in.

This snapshot of British holiday habits has been taken through looking at the currency being requested of late. Travelex says it has seen an increase in orders for the South African rand by around 26 per cent and for the Hong Kong dollar by around 16 per cent.

Easyjet has recently announced a number of new flight routes for the winter season, including Manchester to Marrakech in Morocco and Luton to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt.

In total, the budget airline is offering 22 additional routes over autumn and winter. Along with transporting people to airports serving popular ski resorts, they are also offering flights to a host of winter sun destinations.

Other new routes include from Liverpool to two Canary Islands – Fuerteventura and Lanzarote; from Gatwick to Porto as well as to Agadir; and another Luton flight, this time to Tel Aviv.

Swedish holiday website, visitsweden.com, is offering some unusual city breaks to Stockholm and Gothenburg over the winter months.

The unique selling point of these breaks is that they are themed. There are 13 different packages available, themed for music, food or whatever and subsequently divided into different price bands.

There are fully bespoke packages to Stockholm which cost thousands of pounds that see you parachuting into boats among other similarly cinematic acts. Alternatively, you could get a city break in Gothenburg where you visit Michelin starred restaurants and live the high life.

The existing packages on the site only need to be used as guidelines. You can use them as inspiration for your own unique city break to Sweden.

US Airways is to reduce its service to a number of airports, including Las Vegas, following financial troubles that have led to the axing of a thousand jobs.

The airline currently offers 64 flights a day to Las Vegas from all over the US, but as of February, there will be only 36 flights. The cost of fuel and dwindling customer demand were cited as influencing factors.

US Airways’ focus instead moves to its main airports in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Charlotte and Washington.

This will be a substantial blow to Las Vegas‘ McCarran International Airport as only Southwest Airlines brings more passengers.

Ryanair has just inaugurated a new flight route from London Stansted to Agadir and also to Gran Canaria and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The latter two are in addition to Ryanair’s existing flights to Tenerife.

The Agadir flights will run twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Gran Canaria flights will be three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Lanzarote flights will depart on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

While many airlines are reducing the frequence of flights, Ryanair is continuing to expand and these flights reflect British holiday habits during the autumn and winter months, with many people after a spot of sunshine.

Your Courchevel ski holidays are to be captured on film from now on – for ten days, at any rate.

The French ski resort has invested in CCTV this year. Nine cameras will monitor goings-on, but the footage will only be kept for ten days.

The cameras have been tested down to minus 20 and will monitor happenings in the town itself, not on the slopes – so unfortunately you can’t go and ask to see the moment when your friend temporarily lost control and landed on their face.

Courchevel joins Meribel, Les Arcs and several other ski resorts in having CCTV cameras put in place.

In a recent charity auction, film star Charlize Theron successfully increased the bidding for a South Africa World Cup holiday by throwing in a kiss as part of the deal.

Disappointed with the amount being raised, Theron promised a kiss to the highest bidder, which then led to a surge of interest.

To the delight of many in the audience, the eventual winner was a woman and she and Theron shared a 20-second snog. The holiday eventuall went for nearly £86,000, although being as the bidding had previously got stuck at £22,600, it seems the kiss was worth a lot to this particular young lady.

It might not be tropical weather in North Wales exactly, but it’s been warm enough to encourage people to book holiday cottages for half-term, realising that they can still have fun outdoors, despite the season.

Temperatures reached 18 degrees last week and while that isn’t sunbathing weather, it means that families can get out and about without having to brave the cold. This is in sharp contrast to last year when the October half-term break saw icy winter weather and led to few people taking holidays. The first snowfall was on October 28th, but there’s no chance of that this year.

Geneva airline, Baboo, has revealed plans to offer flights to and from London City Airport, which will be great news for thousands of people planning ski holidays.

Air France will also be offering this same route, which means there will be daily flights between the two airports, opening up the possibility of long weekends on the slopes as well as full weeks.

Baboo is a relatively small airline with just five planes at its disposal. As well as flying to London City Airport, they will also be offering a service from Geneva to London Oxford Airport for the peak skiing season.

French ski resort, La Plagne, is having  a bit of a facelift before the ski season gets underway.

The Melezes ski lift has been dismantled and subsequently resituated from Plagne centre to Plagne 1800. A six seater chair which will be known as la Bergerie will appear in its place.

Having moved this, there will now be an open space suitable for beginners and young children and as a result of this, ESF are building a new office at the foot of that slope.

A new block of luxury ski chalets is also being built in this area.