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Simon Calder's Helpdesk: How much do I need to worry about the scary advice on Quito in Ecuador?

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:14:39 GMT

Q. We've booked to go to Quito in Ecuador, but the advice from the FCO is scary to say the least. Can you advise?

Mike Pennick, Hindhead, Surrey

Ben Ross: Her Majesty knows that her passports are precious things

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

A new name has been given to the agency which produces all British passports. From now on, the Identity and Passport Service – formed in 2006 in an attempt to combine the UK Passport Service and the Home Office's doomed identity cards programme – will be known as "Her Majesty's Passport Office", a rebadging designed "to make the service more easily recognisable" to Brits both at home and abroad.

B&B and Beyond: The Weavery, Amsterdam

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

It's a big year for Amsterdam: the crowning of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, the 400th anniversary of the Canal Ring and the reopening of the Van Gogh Museum (after seven months) as well as the illustrious Rijksmuseum (after its decade-long renovation). In the thick of it all is The Weavery, set in a beautifully renovated 17th-century house in the Spiegelkwartier, just a stone's throw from Museumplein and those two monumental museums. It was built as a home and workshop for a family of silk weavers, and the current owners have kept the link – you can buy (or design your own) beautiful custom-made Moroccan rugs with all profits going back to the weavers. A sensitive restoration has preserved the building's original features – steile trappen (the traditional steep, skinny staircase), exposed beams, 400-year-old floor tiles – and complemented them with a keen eye for design.

The Azores: Small dots of bright green on the map

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

"Oh my word, just look at this: a native laurel! This is just absolutely magical!" A quivering peak of botanical ecstasy had been noisily attained by one of our party. As so often with such experiences, though, anticlimax soon followed. My companion lost his footing and took an inelegant tumble on the sloping path. No harm was done but had the damage been worse I imagined composing the letter to his wife: "He died with a smile on his face. He'd just seen an indigenous Azorean tree, it's how he would have wanted to go."

Hong Kong: Big vistas and even bigger ambitions

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

When Batman flew by helicopter over Hong Kong harbour five years ago, he made minor movie history. Film aficionados will know that the scene from The Dark Knight was the first in a major feature film to be shot with an IMAX camera. The director, Christopher Nolan, chose it for one reason – the pictures it captures are simply enormous.

Tips and deals of the week: Prince de Galles hotel, Where Chefs Eat app and East Coast Trains offer

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

The hotel

Corsica: Get ready for the two-wheeled circus

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

Corsica's time in the sun has come. The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte was once said to be France's best-kept secret, but it now attracts 2.5 million visitors a year, about five for every resident Corsican. And, if the secret is not already truly blown, then it soon will be: the first three stages of this year's centennial Tour de France will be held there next month.

Travel Agenda

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

A palace reborn

For the second time, the Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover has been comprehensively rebuilt. It reopened with a new museum this week, completing one of Europe's finest gardens (visit-hannover.com/en; for our latest 48 hours in Hanover, see: bit.ly/Han48).

Hotels with grand transfers

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

King Pacific Lodge, Canada

Set in a remote corner of British Columbia, the King Pacific Lodge is accessible by floatplane from the nearby town of Bella Bella, after a two-hour flight from Vancouver on Pacific Coastal Airlines. This floating wilderness lodge is set on the edge of the Great Bear Rainforest – one of the last intact temperate rainforests. Discover the pristine surroundings and wildlife by foot, kayak and boat.

King Pacific Lodge, Princess Royal Island, British Columbia, Canada (001 604 987 5452; kingpacificlodge.com). Doubles from C$9,800 (£6,533) for a four-night itinerary, with full board and transfers from Vancouver.

Open jaw special: Readers write back – about Heathrow

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

When you write about Heathrow, please stop referring to the people disturbed by aircraft noise as "local" residents. I live miles from the airport, in Clapham, south London, and my life has been made a misery by aircraft noise for at least 10 years. Referring only to "local" residents misrepresents the size of the problem and plays into the hands of the industry's spin doctors.

My life in travel: Dawn O'Porter

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Television presenter and journalist Dawn O'Porter has written her first novel, Paper Aeroplanes, which is available now (£7.99; Key Books).

Battle of the bulge on before-breakfast Berlin-bound jet

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Cabin bags at dawn: not a pretty sight. Just about everyone aboard easyJet's Monday morning flight from Gatwick to Berlin has been up since 4am or earlier, in order to be ready for the 6.50am departure. The vast majority are business travellers, with busy days ahead. So still to be stuck at the gate after seven turns the mood in the Airbus distinctly grumpy. The reason the flight is late? The cabin crew are wrestling.

48 Hours In: Malmo

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Why go now?

Sweden's third-largest city is best explored at the start of summer, when golden sunlight stretches through the leafy parks and squares, keeping locals outside until late in the evening.

Travel Challenge

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Each week, we invite three companies to offer their best deal for a specific break. This week: a summer escape to the Mediterranean island of Corsica. Prices are per person, based on two people sharing. Each includes a week's accommodation and flights from London on Sunday 16 June.

Keep it under your hat, but Fès is for real

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

It's Fès, not Fez. The latter is a hat of Turkish production, a dark red truncated cone with a tassel, not much favoured by the locals, despite what some guidebooks tell you. And Fassi is what the citizens of Morocco's fifth city call themselves. The confusion with the name is one of several misunderstandings about this astonishing place. Nineteenth-century orientalists, French expeditionary soldiers, drugged-up Americans of the Beat Generation (who enjoyed a cannabis jam known as majoun, taken internally) all knew Fès, but it has not secured a place in popular imagination in the same way as Marrakech.

Mudflat walking in Germany

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

There is an alluring, unique part of the planet to which we are all granted access twice a day, but which can be lethal to anyone who ventures out into it unprepared. It is a place that can look innocent enough, but is governed by its own rules, and those who haven't done their research could come to a sticky end.

Super stylish seaside revival

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

As matriarch of the Brighton hotel scene, The Grand has garnered more attention than most, the low point of which was the IRA bomb that targeted Margaret Thatcher in 1984 and closed the hotel for two years. After reopening, it initially regained its radiance. But over the years, The Grand went from being a Brighton icon to a faded shadow of its former glory. The final blow to its confidence was in 2008 when the hotel lost its five-star rating after an essential refit was put on hold as a result of the recession.

Going for it in Galway

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Stepping out of the plane into the tiny building that is Knock Airport, I begin to have second thoughts. This airport is too small. How can a hedonist possibly find a good time in the countryside? Will there be cocktails? Two hours and miles of eyeball-tingling green scenery later, we arrive in Galway, a bustling city sitting right along the edge of the big, bad Atlantic Ocean.

Massachusetts' summer playground

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

"I didn't eat any lobster yesterday, I'll have to make up for that." My travelling companion, Rachel, is determined that a day will not pass on our tour of Cape Cod without lobster featuring in one of her meals. It's not a big ask: lobster is as common as chips here. They load it into buns and heap it on to salads with such generosity that it's hard to resist gorging on the sweet pink meat.

Heading for America? Prepare for the longest US immigration queues ever

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:40:46 GMT

Welcome to America: now stand in line for three hours. Millions of British holidaymakers and business travellers heading for the US this summer face longer waits than ever to be processed by immigration.

Heading for the States? Prepare for the longest US immigration queues ever

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:40:46 GMT

Heading for the States? Prepare for longer US immigration queues than ever

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:40:46 GMT

Late-night line-up at US immigration

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:40:00 GMT

Since 9/11, visitors to the US have got accustomed to the idea that getting through the immigration check is hard work: you will have your mugshot and fingerprints taken, and may face tough questions about your travel plans. But this summer, just reaching the head of the queue could be an ordeal in itself. The Independent Traveller has crunched the latest data from Customs and Border Protection and discovered that new arrivals in Florida could stand in line for three hours for US Immigration.

You thought Ryanair's attendants had it bad? Wait 'til you hear about their pilots

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:07:57 GMT

Ryanair pilots have been warned not to sign a letter to airline regulators expressing concern that the airline’s employment practices could jeopardise passenger safety.

You thought the attendants had it bad? Wait ’til you hear about Ryanair’s pilots

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:07:57 GMT

Ryanair pilots have been warned not to sign a letter to airline regulators expressing concern that the airline’s employment practices could jeopardise passenger safety.