The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in the UK is advising against all travel to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Yemen until further notice. Reprisals are also feared against Western travellers in other parts of the world including the Chechen Republic, East Timor, Indonesia, Macedonia, Somalia, the West Bank and parts of Albania.

FCO Website.

According to Alt Wire OmPlace, bad news could come to Machu Picchu. There is a proposal to build a funicular from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu to make the site more accessible and increase the average visitor rate from 2000 to 8000/day. UNESCO and other groups are lobbying to block the construction, which would cut a swath of rainforest down the mountain significantly deteriorating the view. Anyone remember the Celestine Prophecy? Source: omplace.com/

Yes, the Millennium Bridge is open once again! It is the first pedestrian river crossing in London for over 100 years. The 325 metre bridge links St. Paul's Cathedral on the north bank of the River Thames to the Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the south side of the river. Its taken 20 months and £5m ($7.5m) to add industrial strength shock absorbers to make the wobbly bridge walkable. But it is open, and despite the exceedingly inclement weather (hailstones and bone chilling wind), the Beetle and Padmassana made the crossing the day after re-opening in search of fish and chips at the local pub nearby!

Have you got £15 million to spare? There have been two space tourists so far: 61-year-old American businessman Dennis Tito paid to go into space on a Russian space vessel. Mark Shuttleworth the South African business tycoon has just finished his week's training and is set to become the world's second paying space traveller when he visits the International Space Station aboard a Russian ship in April.

Up until now, NASA has opposed private individuals paying to go into space. Until now, that is. NASA has now published a set of rules which all potential space travellers must meet before being allowed into a spacecraft.

NASA's chief astronaut, Charles Precourt, who helped draw up the rules, said: 'We don't want to embarrass our space partners by having [a tourist] who would be so controversial that it would be an insult to the other partners to fly them because of some behavioural background that was considered distasteful.”

Under 24? A member of Globetrotters Club? Interested in a £1,000 travel award?

Know someone who is? We have £1,000 to award each year for five years for the best submitted independent travel plan. Interested?

Then see our legacy page on our Website, where you can apply with your plans for a totally independent travel trip and we'll take a look at it. Get those plans in!!

If you have a travellers tale that your aching to tell. Then why not visit the “Travel Sized Bites” section of the Website and share it with the world. Travel Sized Bites