Luxury lounging

KLM has opened a luxury lounge at Heathrow which is open to any passengers regardless of the type of ticket they hold or the airline with which they are travelling. Tickets for the Holideck, in Terminal Four, cost £18 per adult and £9 for children under 16. A KLM spokesman said: "Holideck is a unique service for travellers currently excluded from business lounges because of their ticket type or because they are travelling with children." Refreshments are included in the entry price.

Pure shores

A record number of British beaches - 317 - have received Seaside Awards for cleanliness and top notch facilities. To view them all see seasideawards.org.uk.

Eiffel con

Fifteen people working at the Eiffel Tower have been sacked and a criminal investigation is under way into allegations that members of staff deliberately crashed their computers then sold tickets to tourists and kept the money. It is estimated that millions of pounds may been lost over the past 10 years.

Hoverspeed reopening

Hoverspeed (08705 240241, hoverspeed.com) re-opens its Newhaven to Dieppe fast ferry service next Friday. Three-day return fares for a car and up to five passengers start from £129.

Heart of darkness

Explorers Tours (01753 680237, explorers.co.uk) have launched a brochure for a trip to see this year's total solar eclipse, which takes places on December 4. The two destinations featured are Mozambique, from £1,195, and South Australia, from £1,255.

Cape of good value

The strong pound and cuts in hotel prices mean that the costs of holidays in South Africa are falling. Travelbag (0870 8901461,travelbag.co.uk) has cut some prices by up to 25%. A three-night break in Cape Town, if taken before the end of the month, can be had for £494pp.

Virgin Holidays (0870 9908340, virginholidays.com) has just launched a new brochure for South Africa which includes anything from five-night stays in Richard Branson's luxury game lodge in the Sabi Sand reserve from £1,759pp to much cheaper options.

Emptier London

London hotel rooms were occupied 73% of the time last year, a drop of nearly 10% on the previous year, according to PKF's London Trends 2002 survey, out this week. The average daily room rate dropped just over 4% to £108.85. The proportion of North American visitors dropped by 24.8%, Japanese by 11.6% and European by 4.9%.

Paying the price

The US is the country where your luggage is most likely to go missing or be stolen, according to claims made to Columbus Direct (020-7375 0011). Belgium, Cyprus and Germany had the least claims and the company is offering discounts on travel insurance to these countries.