Escapism
The PR guff from Design Hotels describes a trip to the new San Giorgio hotel (designhotels.com/san_giorgio, rooms from €120) on the Greek island of Mykonos as "like visiting the summer home of your coolest friend" … we wish! It features white and grey rooms with unusual colourful throws and cushions, rustic wooden furniture. It's down the road from the Paradise Club, one of the island's bohemian party spots, the owners of which are involved in the hotel. The food is modern-Med – think mussels with cider – there's a pool and also a private floating platform for diving into the Aegean.
Travel tech
Create an online travel journal that family and friends can follow on Facebook and Twitter with a new free smartphone app called Mobilytrip, which you update offline then upload to your profile on Mobilytrip's website when you have Wi-Fi access. You can record your itinerary using GPS, make notes and add photos. Your profile also has various privacy settings.
• mobilytrip.com
On the edge
Bradt, the publishers that go where few other travel guides do, has released its first guide to Somaliland, the African country on the Gulf of Aden, bordering Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. Highlights include the Ottoman port of Berbera, prehistoric rock art at Las Geel and the scenery of the Daallo Escarpment.
• Available for £15.99 from bradtguides.com
Cheap date
A 14-night trip to Orlando, Florida, for a group of four adults and four children can be had for just £559pp with Travel City Direct, for departures on 1-3 May. The price includes flights with Virgin Atlantic from Gatwick or Manchester, self-catering accommodation and car hire.
• 0844 557 6965, travelcitydirect.com
What's new?
Walking holiday
Chris Stewart, author of Driving Over Lemons, the book that inspired legions of British retirees to move to Spain (or dream of it anyway) is to guide walking weeks in the Alpujarras (pictured below), the mountainous region he has written about many times. The trips, with Inntravel, take place in June and November and are based at the Hotel Las Chimeneas in Mairena, with a night in Granada and visits to food producers, for £968pp including most meals and three walks.
• 01653 617000, inntravel.co.uk
Website
Covering 35 destinations around the UK, from Dalston/Hackney in London to Bath, Birmingham and Glasgow, new website coolplaces.co.uk lists places to eat, visit and stay for a weekend. It was created by Jonathan Knight, who launched the Cool Camping guides, and Mark Ellingham, founder of Rough Guides. Ten authors regularly update it, and readers can also add their own tips.
Cottages
Looking for a Welsh retreat? Sugar and Loaf has a collection of around 50 cottages and quirky properties from yurts (pictured above) to barn conversions, in or near the Brecon Beacons national park and Welsh Borders. It has a page of last-minute options too.
• sugarandloaf.com
Surfing holiday
Surf Holidays, which has run Fuerteventura trips for three years, is now featuring Lanzarote, for families, groups and couples. Book before 30 April to travel in July, and a family of four gets a seven-night package, including a three-day surf course and accommodation, for £958, excluding flights.
• 020-8144 9950, surfholidays.com
Tweet ur trip
Overrated destinations
• Perth, Australia. All the excitement of Basingstoke but stretched over a really, really wide area@TravelNeville
• Coney Island – litter-strewn beaches and feral cats eating discarded Big Macs@alisapm
• Madame Tussauds anywhere in the world is NEVER worth the money or the hassle @LondonYank
• Has to be Angkor: 5am wake-up call for a pile of mouldy old rocks and a surly tuk-tuk driver @snapgrabber
• I have to go with Buenos Aires. Not that it isn't great but it is spectacularly overrated/not cheap @AlexBerger
Read more great tales from you about overrated destinations here on Storify
Next week: bad menu translations
Tweet us @GuardianTravel #TravelCorkboard
Consumer news
Flight comparison website fly.com has analysed flight searches for people travelling in April to come up with figures on what it reckons are fair flight prices for certain destinations this spring. For example Dubrovnik should cost between £180-245pp return, Barcelona between £50-115. See tinyurl.com/cdol6pl for a full list.
