It was only a matter of time before travel companies started to surcharge for currency fluctuations. ABTA has given 15 companies permission to make surcharges providing that they reserved the right to do so in their booking conditions, and absorbed an amount equal to 2% of the holiday cost.

What does this mean to you?

From what I have read so far, the travel company can charge you up to an extra 10% of your holiday cost, so on a holiday costing you £2,000 you would be expected to pay up to £200 more. This surcharge is not fair and as usual families will be the worst hit.

You may have already heard that British Airways have recently increased their fuel surcharge, and I am convinced that as the price of oil increases, other airlines will follow. Surely the government and banks are at fault for the financial slowdown and credit crunch which is putting pressure on the travel companies to recoup their losses.

Tune into BBC Radio 4 tomorrow at 12.45 pm to hear my first radio interview on the surcharges.

The 15 companies who have had their application agreed by ABTA can be found in the comments and I’m convinced others will follow. I’m reliably informed that package holiday operators, Thomas Cook and TUI, have pledged not to have surcharges this summer – but don’t bet your house on that.

If you have been a victim or have your own opinion on the holiday surcharge please leave your comments.

Well, I’ve got an exciting week coming up, with a trip to London, and the Travolution Awards. I’m not sure why but I’m nervous about the awards; I’m not too great around people I don’t know, and what about if I do win, the thought of getting up and collecting my award – nervous.

It’ll be an experience; this short arsed travel blogger who just rants about travel mingling with the likes of British Airways, and Opodo. Yikes. It’s great though that they are awards out there that realise how important a role bloggers play in the travel industry.

Wish me luck – I’ll need it.

As a big fan of clear-across-the-continent travel – I’ve crossed Russia on the Trans-Siberian from Vladivostok and up to St Petersburg, then wandered right across Europe – I’ve been following the story of a tunnel under the Bering Strait with a lot of interest.

If you haven’t heard about it, rumours started about a year ago that Russia was considering building the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Strait to join up Russia with Alaska.

While the driving force behind the idea was to sell oil, natural gas and electricity to the United States, the tunnel would also have a high-speed train and a highway, so we could theoretically take our car from London all the way to New York – the long way!

The idea hit the headlines again recently when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought a huge drill but it turned out he’s planning to use it to clean up the city of Sochi on the Black Sea, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held. So the idea is still out there, but there’s no action yet.

My very first reaction – from a traveller’s point of view, of course - was that it sounded like a great idea. Imagine being able to drive all the way to the US! Since we’ve talked about the idea of cheap flights dying out within the next decade, I started to wonder if we all might return to driving holidays, especially if we can drive all the way to another continent.

My environmental know-how isn’t enough to figure out if the total energy consumption would be less – considering not just the fuel but also the time it would take and accommodation needed along the way – but at least for a bit of an adventure, it might be a good thing. What do you think? Would you be inclined to take more driving holidays if budget airlines stop providing you with cheap flights?

There are definite advantages to having your car with you at your holiday destination, but the time involved could put an end to a lot of the weekend breaks that have become popular. So where’s the future - drive or fly?

I’ve just read a prediction that makes the future sound bleak for owners and staff of European hotels, but possibly great for us travellers. The MD of the large Supranational Hotel group, Niels Pedersen, is talking up a “downward re-adjustment” for the tourism sector across Europe in the next few years.

He seems to think that over the last seven years, growth in the European tourism industry has been excessive and an adjustment is due. Some of Pedersen’s predictions include a 50% cut in hotel tariffs and a 25% drop in the volume of hotel bookings for holiday packages.

He also thinks business travel will be reduced and that companies will want their employees staying at cheaper hotels than the current five-star favourites. While this sounds bad for the travel industry in general, I can’t help selfishly thinking that a hotel room for 50% less would be great.

Pedersen also sees another good side, in that hotels will be forced to improve their service standards and offer more amenities like wireless internet access to be able to remain competitive. I find it hard to believe that the situation is as drastic as Pedersen says, but what do you think.

Any business travellers out there who have already been told to cut back or anybody who agrees that hotel rates could fall by half?

I wrote a post previously about how a number of issues would have to be tackled if consumers are to use the mobile phone for booking holidays. This morning my brand spanking new Nokia N95 arrived, so I connected it up to my WiFi and surfed the t’internet.

I managed to:

• Leave a comment on the Travolution blog
• View last minute deals on First Choice
• Read Travel Rants
• Read travel information about Toronto on WikiTravel
• Subscribe to the Independent Travel RSS Feed
• Watch one of my travel videos on You Tube
• Search for cheap flights with Skyscanner

I was surprised how quick it was, but I suspect that’s because I have a good broadband speed, it’ll be interesting if I can do the same on the mobile phone’s network. I love gadgets, and found that I can save my favourite RSS feeds and read them on the move.

Even more impressive, I have access to GPS and mapping technology built into the phone, which I will be testing out in Berlin next week!

Tomorrow I’ll be holding my first live blogging event where we’ll discuss blogging, and geeky stuff like gadgets. Drop by at 4pm GMT to join in. All you’ll need is a drink, your PC and an internet connection, and I’ll demonstrate the wonderful world of live blogging.

Email received from Cheapflights informing me that they have revamped their .com site with the UK to follow suit soon. I love the new search where you’re able to filter the results – for example I searched for flights from NY to Chicago, and filtered that I only wanted to fly with American Airlines.

The flight guides are great, with tons of content and useful information. You can tell a lot of time and effort has been put into generating content. You can choose from Cheapflights handpicked deals, suggestions for in-flight reading, and flight news.

The hotel search is basic; you choose your dates, city etc, and then have the option of Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, Orbitz, Priceline and Cheaptickets. They have also launched a new campaign to target the 18-34 agegroup in the UK called Enjoy your Flight. Shame I’ll be 35 in 10 days!

Cheapflights want your feedback – please leave a comment.

Sorry, I mistakenly removed a blog post about Leisure Direction Ltd who have apparently gone into administration, despite at the time of writing the website does not mention this. What is strange is that the ABTA number quoted on the website does not exist on ABTA and the ATOL entry does not mention administration.

I received a number of emails from concerned consumers and I will update this later tonight when I have managed to find some more information out. Leisure Direction Ltd also runs the Into France website, so I would tread carefully if trying to book on either of these sites.

Please leave your comments if you have been affected by this.

To read updates on the administration of Leisure Direction Ltd click on the comments link below.

Travolution reported today that Holiday Watchdog has been acquired by Trip Advisor. From a consumer perspective I don’t like the idea that two of the largest travel brands in TUI and Expedia now own a growing portfolio of holiday review sites.

Personally, I think this type of travel site should be independent, and it is this, that stood Holiday Watchdog out from the crowd. I’m pleased for Chris and his team though because I know how hard they have worked on Holiday Watchdog.

Will we see a growing number of review sites being bought out by the big brands, I hope not.