Air Update, Hotel Checkout and Cruise News: Our latest travel news round-up

AIR UPDATE

Japan’s biggest carrier is putting more competition on the increasingly popular route between Heathrow and Tokyo’s Haneda airport by adding extra flights from March 30.

All Nippon Airways has made the move in response to the Japan National Tourism Organization predicting a record 10 million visitors for 2013.

More and more travellers are looking to Haneda – which is served by British Airways and Japan Airlines – as it is just 13 minutes to central Tokyo by monorail, rather than at least an hour by taxi or bus from far flung Narita airport.

Plus Haneda offers connections for a range of domestic flights to other popular destinations such as Hiroshima, Matsuyama and Okayama.

Book by January 3 for a £599 Christmas sale fare. ana.co.jp

• BA’s sale has flights, holiday packages and fly-drives on offer. Deals include seven nights in a three-star hotel in Orlando with flights from £479; flights to Buenos Aires from £725, Rio de Janeiro from £649, Sao Paulo from £690 and Johannesburg (on the new A380 superjumbo from February) from £639 and a fly-drive seven-night trip in Malaga including flights and car for £99. ba.com

• The Virgin Atlantic sale for travel dates throughout 2014 includes Dubai for £397, New York £429, Washington DC £469, Los Angeles £509, Barbados £523, Mumbai £499 and Cancun £557. virginatlantic.com

HOTEL CHECKOUT

If you love your food you’ll be even more spoiled for choice at Warner Leisure Hotels with its wine and fine dining packages.

All breaks are half-board – breakfast and evening meal – but from next year you can book to include wine with dinner from £5 each. And you can upgrade to have dinner in the fine dining restaurant one night for £18.

Warner is also introducing £5 lunch vouchers which can be used in the bars or coffee shops in all 13 of its properties.

A spokesman said: “We place a great deal of importance on our food and dining, boasting award-winning chefs across all properties. The dining packages will give guests more choice and even more value for money.”

Three nights half-board at 16th century Littlecote House Hotel, Berkshire, from January 10 costs £219 per person, based on two sharing. warnerleisurehotels.co.uk

• Wake up winter with a discounted break at one of 74 Mercure hotels across the UK. Savings of up to 40% are on offer for stays to March 16 with a range of properties in the countryside – some with spas – and historic or lively city centres. Deals start at £69 per night with booking open to February 28. Mercure hotels have free Wi-Fi throughout. mercure.com 0871 663 0627.
• DoubleTree by Hilton has opened its first property in Barcelona. The 116-room Alexandra Barcelona is in the exclusive Passeig de Gracia area and is the fourth DoubleTree by Hilton in Spain. Rooms start at around £84 per night and guests will, of course, get the famous choc-chip cookie on arrival and free Wi-Fi throughout. doubletree.com

CRUISE NEWS with Captain Greybeard

As you read this I will possibly be shopping for souvenirs in the sprawling Bogyoke market in Yangon, or Rangoon, in Burma.

I have been spending Christmas in the tropics, visiting Sri Lanka and Chennai, with my roast turkey being served on board mv Voyager in the middle of the Bay of Bengal. I’ll be seeing in the New Year a few hours ahead of you, somewhere between Phuket and Penang.

What a great way to cap a spectacular 12 months which have taken me to the warm beaches of the Caribbean and the frozen wastes of Svalbard. I’ve watched Sophia Loren scowl as she christened a ship in Genoa, and I was there to see the delight on Kate Middleton’s face as she named Royal Princess in Southampton.

I visited Dubrovnik with 3,000 fellow passengers on Carnival Sunshine, and I returned a few weeks later to travel with 30 on the charming mv Emanuel.

Most memorable of all, I spent three weeks making what really was the journey of a lifetime to St Helena – a speck of volcanic rock in the middle of the South Atlantic and home to one of the oldest living creatures, Jonathan the tortoise.

Yes, it’s been a pretty good year. In 2014 I’ll be fulfilling a long-held ambition to visit the Sea of Cortez and, in its centenary year, I shall be making my first transit of the Panama Canal.

I’ll be taking a Caribbean Getaway on Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest ship, and I’ll be crossing the Atlantic to celebrate the 10th birthday of Cunard’s Queen Mary 2.

I’m looking forward to telling you all about it in Mirror Travel and on my blog blogs.mirror.co.uk/captain-greybeard