It just wouldn’t be Glastonbury without a few showers expected during at least some of the weekend. And this year is no different with Thursday and Friday looking like it is to be a damp one. Not that it will affect the 200,000 festival-goers packing out the Worthy Farm site.

With no event next year, the tickets for Glastonbury 2011 were snapped up even more eagerly than ever and the weather didn’t even come into the equation for these music fans.

The line-up is as varied as ever, with Beyonce and Cee Lo Green joining rock giants U2 and Coldplay on the famous Pyramid Stage.

When it came to holidays as a child, I remember being taken on many caravan trips across the UK. We rarely went abroad and when I look back at it now I don’t really feel i’ve missed out.

I may have made up for that in my adult years, with holidays to the US, New Zealand and throughout Europe, but I always remember those camping excursions very fondly. Many times we went to North Wales and places like Llandudno and Pwllheli and had a great time on the beach. I have also been to the Lake District and indulged in a lot of walking.

These were certainly active holidays and a far cry from just lounging around on a beach soaking up the sun. Camping outdoors can be less comfortable when it is raining, but it is all part of the fun. With caravans you obviously have more in the way of amenities, but either way, these holidays can be a really good laugh.

As we suggested in our last blog post, the real winner of the double Bank Holiday weekends is the tourism industry.

If you are one of those looking to get away from these shores and travel abroad over this 11-day period (with just three days annual leave needed to be taken from work), then you are certainly not on your own.

Around 2 million holidaymakers from Britain are expected to embark on trips to the Costa del Sol, New York, Paris and Rome, according to ABTA, The Travel Association.

For those who are left behind (me included) at least we do have some good weather to look forward to, if the forecasters are to be believed. Well, it is certainly nice at the moment so I can’t really complain.

If you are fortunate enough to have a job where your employer pays you for bank holidays then you cannot fail to be excited by the prospect of four days off within the space of two weeks.

Good Friday and Easter Monday are coming up and then there is the Royal Wedding next Friday. After that there is the Early May Bank Holiday the end of the month.

So whether you are going away during this time to take advantage of the public holidays or are at home relaxing and enjoying the predicted good weather, be sure to make the most of it.

I recently read about Manchester being rated quite highly in a global survey to find the best place to live.

The rankings by the Economist Intelligence Unit put Manchester in 42nd place out of 140 of the world’s major cities.

As someone who has lived in the area all my life I am quite proud that it is well thought of as a city, but in some ways I wonder how it got to be placed above the likes of New York City, London and Rome.

It is certainly better than a lot of other cities, but as a place for tourists to come and visit, I’m not sure it has all that to offer.

If you can’t decide where you want to go on your summer holidays this year or maybe don’t have the funds to do anything too extravagant, why not consider a weekend break to a European city as a viable option?

Visits to big cities in the UK and Ireland like Edinburgh, London and Dublin may not be all that cheap generally speaking, but as you are only going away for a shorter period of time your budget only has to stretch across a few days.

What you can do is look for ways to make the holiday as financially sound as possible by staying at off-peak times and searching for online discounts. You can put the money you save on expensive flights towards enjoying yourself for the weekend exploring the city.

I’m thinking about going away over the Christmas holidays, however I’m usure as to where I can go, and how far I’ll have to travel to make sure I get hot sunny weather.

I’ve been thinking about Tenerife, Turkey, Egypt and also as far a field as Thailand, Mexico and Barbados.

I’m wondering if anyone has any good advice on where I can go, and also the average temperature for different places around late December/early January. I’ve Google’d “average temperature in ????? in December” and “average weather in ????? in December” in order to try and help me with my decision and there are some really good sites out there providing useful information to help with my decision.

Ideally I’d rather not travel too far. I went to Las Vegas in September for my 30th birthday and the weather was fantastic (although I’d prefer slightly less than 11 hours on a plane) but even Vegas looks a little bit cooler around Christmas time.

So, if anyone out there is a holiday enthusiast around winter time and can give me an idea of where is good to go to guarantee the sunshine then please feel free to add a comment and provide me with a few destinations. You might even get a postcard!!!

Unless you hadn’t noticed, I am off to New York soon. In two days in fact! I have been checking the weather and in case you are interested on Friday (When we arrive) It will be rainy in the morning and fine in the afternoon. Good stuff as we arrive in the afternoon! It will then be partially cloudy for Saturday and Sunday and will be sunny on Monday apparently. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be rainy in New York City. This is excellent, looks like Mother Nature has scheduled her rain in to make sure we’re not soaked through when we are sightseeing!

As you know from my last couple of blogs i’m going to New York next week!! The tickets have arrived – thanks to the lovely lady at Thomas Cook for ringing to tell us. They will be picked up this evening from the Trafford Centre and then we will start packing. Seriously! Today I have made my online application for my visa to the United Stated of America and it was a lot easier than I thought. You just put all your details in, give them fourteen dollars and declare by ticking loads of boxes that you don’t intend to be involved in terrorism or that you don’t have any communicable diseases and you’re allowed entry. Surely this is too easy? If I was a terrorist with gonorrhoea I would not check the box to admit this?!

It’s time for New York in 2 weeks!! I’m so giddy, this time in 2 weeks I will be in NYC Baby!! Got to get a Visa and apparently as of September the 9th this year we now have to pay £25 for one. Rubbish. This is a lesson for everyone out there including myself and the wife that you shouldn’t put things off!! We also have to pay out for insurance which our travel operator was trying to charge us forty quid for, but the wife has found us some for twenty quid. Excellent work by my lovely wife.